REMEMBERING PITAJI
Maj Balwant Singh ji (1911-2004) whom we called Pitaji, passed away on 7 May 2004. One way of remembering him to insert a few pictures to recall how he brought up his four sons. And that is what we have done. The earliest picture we have is a portrait of Pitaji taken in Peshawar. It is undated, but it appears to have been …
LEARNING ENGINEERING IN THE ‘BC’ ERA
Note: The word ‘engineer’ has its roots in the Latin word ingeniare, which means ‘to devise in the sense of construct, or craftsmanship’. Several other words are related to ingeniare, including ingenuity. Thus an engineer is a person who invents a smarter technique of doing a job. The word “engine”, derives from the Latin ingenium (c. 1250), meaning “innate quality, …
SALVATION FROM ‘Dukkha’ and ‘Gham’
Meanings of words: ‘Dukkha’ This Pali / Sanskrit word means ‘suffering, anxiety, dissatisfaction, and discontentment’ and it forms the basis of Buddha’s four noble truths. ‘Gham’ is an Urdu word which means ‘sorrow’ especially when it is caused by the loss of a loved person or failure in life. Ghalib has used it in many of his poems. Part I: …
FRIENDS AND FOES
When, at last, the War ended, “Peace broke out”! I was born in June 1941. The Great War had been raging for nearly two years, but since the bloodshed was confined to Europe, it did not affect us. Then, on 7 December ’41, the Japanese attacked the Pearl Harbor, and two odd months later they stormed and captured Singapore. Their …
A TRIBUTE TO PROF PV INDIRESAN
I joined IIT Delhi as a Post Graduate student in 1975, and that is where I first met Prof Indiresan. But even before he entered the class to address us, I had heard a lot about him. My younger brother, Brig Surinder Singh had been his student twice: first when he joined the first batch of IIT Delhi in …
NAIN SINGH; AN INTREPID EXPLORER
NAIN SINGH RAWAT (1830-95) By Joseph Thomas Only those who have marched through the Himalayas know how difficult it is to march from one place to another. It was even more difficult when people did not have proper maps and other navigation aids. During my service in Bhutan and Sikkim I got a taste of the hazards of this challenge. …
LIFE AFTER THE DREAM COMES TRUE
Harshvardhan Navathe We were talking about eminent Indians who have made a mark in life. It had started with Sachin Tendulkar’s stupendous achievements and then we drifted to other fields. Suddenly, someone asked, “Who is or was Harshvardhan Navathe?” Nearly everyone had heard the name, but we could not readily recall the field in which he had achieved glory. To …
The ‘spirit’ of Mirza Ghalib
In praise of Mirza Ghalib The words of Ghalib have been recited in many gatherings. His ghazals have been sung by every singer from KL Saighal to Surayia, Lata Mangeshkar and Jagjit Singh. Movies and TV serials have been made on his life and work. But till date, no one has been able to capture his spirit in a single ’computer generated image’ (CGI). …
The Silence of the Lambs by Jaggi Oberoi
Prologue What happened in a bus in Delhi shook the conscious of the peoples of India. It also moved every sensitive soul on the Earth. Barbaric is the closest English word to describe the act, but it is nowhere near what actually happened. My friend Jaggi Oberoi was moved beyond tears. He was reminded of horror Movie, “The silence of …
Maanjhi jo naav duboye, use kaun bachaaye?
Public Memory is Notoriously Short All hell broke loose on 17 Dec 2012. It was, as if someone had pulled the plug out! Thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the bestial gang rape of a 23 year old medical student. To the lay public it seemed that such a thing had never happened before. Nobody mentioned the …
