The Reward for True Love

Ananya couldn't have expected what happened that fateful day. Aviral had always been an abusive husband yet she saw something in him that didn't let her stop loving him. That Wednesday she planned a road trip to help Aviral unwind. The car got a flat tyre on a deserted stretch of the highway and Aviral asked her to fetch the wheel wrench and the jack from the trunk. The wrench was under the front seat.
The cold bars of his prison cell were indeed no thicker than the bloodied wrench the police found near Ananya's corpse.

Criminals Who Introspect

The distraught delinquent walked to the end of the deserted wharf. His gaze met the horizon, searching for another place. A place where he would be free. Free to be himself. Why should he stay here where he is upbraided for everything he does? Maybe there’s an island out there where he could live all alone, happily. As the sun set into the grey sea and turned the sky purple, he realised, his happiness was as ephemeral as the sun’s position in the sky. Will taking another step forward and letting the sea consume him make his happiness permanent?

Visit to DRDO Chandipur

My day started at 5 am in the morning. I don't usually wake up so early in the morning but this was a special day. I was included in an exclusive group of 30 students, who had been invited by the college, to go on a trip to the Defence Research and Development Organization in Chandipur, Balasore, Odisha, also known as Chandipur-on-Sea.

I was ready by 6 am and left the hostel to proceed to the rendezvous. I was baffled when I learnt that a good number of our college's higher authorities and faculty would also be going with us, by another bus. We had our breakfast at a nearby food stall which had cooked the first assortment of the day. With our tummies full, we boarded the bus and our journey began. It was a sunny but breezy day so we were quite comfortable. Everyone was extremely excited and in very high spirits. An inevitable round of "Antakshari" left me embarrassed (because I don't listen to many popular songs ...haha!) but everyone else sang in chorus.

 A long ride of about 5 hours brought us to the massive gateway of DRDO. Before we could grab the opportunity to click "selfies" in front of it, we were inside the gargantuan complex. Our buses came to a halt for getting passes to enter into the ITR (Integrated Test Range) Complex. Previously it was called Interim Test Range. A large statue of a man bearing a missile on his shoulder decorated the entrance. We were taken to a building where we were ushered into a small seminar hall. A scientist lectured us on test facility, its various organisational constituents, departments and sections. We were briefed on the equipment used to track a missile during testing and the various procedures involved during a test. Plessey surveillance radar, electro-optical tracking system (mobile and fixed), S-band tracking radar (KAMA-N) (mobile), C-band tracking radar (PCMC) (fixed), telemetry band (fixed and mobile), range computer, close-circuit television system, photo processing system, meteorological system, and range safety system, etc., are a few of the equipment that we were briefed about. Then an official video of an arsenal of Indian defence missiles like Agni (I-V), BrahMos, Dhanush, Lakshya, Prithvi (I-III, Akash, Trishul, Nag, Shaurya, Astra, Nirbhay, Prahaar, Helina etc. that were tested here, was shown. Excitement was overt in the audience.

After that, we had our lunch at the DRDO guest house which stands just next to the Balasore beach under DRDO territory. Everyone quickly finished their lunch and moved to the beach to find out about the rumours they heard about it. It is such a beach that one could walk a kilometre into the water and yet the water level would only be ankle deep. Lots of photos were taken and selfies overflowed in the mobile galleries. Once we were done with it, we boarded the bus to scout the territory.

All of a sudden, a series of loud bangs made everyone jump in their seats. We were asked to relax as the sound was emanating from the Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE), a test range for non-missile munitions, where no outsiders are allowed. The massive expanse of the campus took us a solid 45 minutes to roam. Then we went to the launch complex from where the first BrahMos was fired. It was home of two launchers. One for vertical firing and another for mobile launching. It was enthralling to behold the magnificent equipment. We were told how the shed of the vertical launcher moves out to allow the launcher to orient itself for the launch. There were Electro-Optical Trackers and RADARs positioned nearby. There was a camouflaged bunker in the launch complex from where the missile launch can be directly controlled. The Indian UAV Lakshya is also sent for test flights from the same complex. Soon after, we were back on the bus and as the sun edged west, it was time for us to return.

The journey back to our college was uneventful except for a stop at a hotel where we had refreshments. Throughout the journey we discussed how amazing our visit was and we looked forward to tell our experience to friends who couldn't visit the facility. All in all, the trip was a memorable one which gave us much to think about and consider a career in research and development.

My First Job Interview

Cognizant is the first company to come to our college this placement season, for mass recruitment. The news of it's arrival created a wave of joy and tumult in the mass of final year students. It was expected to recruit a large number of students from our college. Everyone was looking forward to get recruited by it because the company has an excellent reputation and it cares about its employees. An the cherry on the cake was the promise that Cognizant made. They were going to break their last record of recruiting the largest number of graduates from a single institution.

The day started at 6 in the morning for us. We were asked to reach the auditorium by 7 am. The recruitment team of the company had set up camp there. The auditorium was occupied by our students, all dressed in formal attire and looking suave and professional. The ambiance was rather unique. Instead of the normal ruckus that such a mass makes, there was a buzz in the air. People were discussing strategies, technical concepts and revising their topics of choice. Soon, the procedure for profiling of the students were initiated. One after another, we went and submitted our resumes for the procedure. Once this was done, we were asked to proceed to another hall where we were to wait for being called to the interviews. It was a long wait for me, of about two hours. In the meantime, I located a few of my friends and engaged myself in conversation to distract my mind from conjuring up hypothetical situations that were laced with the worst case scenarios. Otherwise, I was quite calm and expected myself to deftly take control of the impending events.

After a long wait of two hours,I was finally up for the technical interview. I told myself

"You got this. Interviews have never been a hurdle for you."

*Artistic Imitation.
Not to be confused with me!

I proceeded to the hall, quite calm and confident, though it would be wrong to deny that my heart was beating faster than it normally does. I walked up to the panel where a man of about 40 years of age was sitting. He greeted me, as did I, and asked me to sit down. Then started my interview.


Interviewer:- Mr. Das, tell me about yourself.

I immediately maneuvered to tactfully manipulate him and captivate his interest. I knew that going at length about my personality at a technical interview isn't going to be any good so I was brief about my traits and virtues. Consecutively, I elaborated precisely on my experience and works. I was observing his body language so I could tell he was a bit impressed. The questions that followed were easy to answer because I already knew my works like the back of my hand.


Interviewer:- How can an electrical engineer contribute to an IT industry?

Me:- Electrical engineering and computer science is meshed in today's world. In fact, foreign institutions even have departments that are called "EECS" (Electrical engineering and Computer Sciences). IT doesn't stand too far from computer science. An electrical engineer is thus as capable in handling software as he is in handling hardware.

Interviewer:- Can you base that on any personal experience?

Me:- I have enjoyed fabricating electronic circuits and watch them work their magic. However, the more complex a task a circuit has to execute, the more difficult it is to fabricate. I therefore decided to use a micro-controller to perform the same tasks. It was hassle free, with less wires, less electronic components and smaller size. I programmed the logic and uploaded them into the chip and my works turned out to be successes.

Then he asked me a bunch of questions from electrical engineering and programming in C language. It was convenient that I knew programming, strictly speaking, on the grounds that I had experience in writing sketches for my Arduino UNO. It allowed me to be elusive yet send him the message that I am good at programming, which he couldn't verify all that well because he didn't know about Arduino sketches. I hence excused myself from elaborating on C programming.

2nd Sept 2014

Solar Tracker

A solar tracker is a device that is used to orient a solar panel towards the sun as it changes it's position in the sky over the period of daytime. A solar panel with a single axis is 30 percent more efficient than a  static panel and a dual axis tracker increases the efficiency by a further 4-8 percent.
The idea is simple. We have used two light sensors to determine the intensity of light in at two different points on the panel ( for a single axis tracker). To our convenience, we set these sensor LDRs, which are one amongst many others) at the extreme edges, i.e., the top and the bottom edges.
Now, as the sun moves in the sky, there is an increasing difference in the light flux on the two sensors. This difference can be detected directly by an analog window comparator or digitally by feeding the voltage levels across the sensors to a microcontroller (eg. Atmega 32). At this point, two cases arise:-
1) Positive difference (Sensor-1 has greater voltage than sensor-2)
2) Negative difference (Sensor-2 has greater difference than sensor-1)
If case-1 applicable, then the voltage comparator or the microcontroller will send a signal to forward drive switches of the motor direction control circuit. Similarly, if case-2 is applicable, a signal is sent to the reverse drive switches.
The control circuit is a H- bridge configuration motor supply. It consists of semiconductor switches like BJTs or MOSFETs. These switches are automatically operated when they receive a signal from the voltage comparator or microcontroller.
A slewing motor is preferred because of its slow speed and high torque. However, geared motors can be equally helpful.

More updates coming soon!

Oh it has been so long!!

A lot of time has passed since I last posted on my blog. Life has been very colourful so far. I am now in my final year of study at college and am looking for employment. I have enjoyed reading many technical books and articles, did reasonably well in my exams and undertook projects to have a wholesome experience, all in all. Oh I didn't mention my field of study. I am pursuing a degree in B.Tech Electrical Engineering. I intend to delve deeper into the sphere of Electrical engineering and unravel it's mysteries.

I have decided to transform my blog from only a literary and narrative one into an informative one. I will be posting about new discoveries, innovations, articles and projects from around the world. I will also occasionally make posts on my works.

I hope you have fun going through my blog. 

I like to call this one "Lemon Grass". Could grass possibly look so pretty???

After a hard day's work

Exhaustion, the mask a man wears after a hard day's work and yet that faint smile on his face... life is not too cruel after all....

Why J.C. Bose Matters

 

10 November 2011
asoke basu
On 20 November, 1917, the widely recognised physicist, mystic, and civic reformer Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose (1858–1937) founded India’s first major science research institution, in Kolkata. Bose remains as relevant today as he was at the turn of the twentieth century. 
Lately, however, faith and science have been at odds in India. Both the postcolonial artifice and the hurried admirers of postmodernists pay short shrift to the foundational reality of India’s sociology of knowledge ~ that individuals are perfectly suited to experiencing the grand ethics of humanity by direct reason. Over the millennia, India’s sages and philosophers have systematised principles and methods of verifying truth. In the Humanities and the Sciences alike, critical inquiry begins with a basic question: what is the essential reality that is capable of explaining manifold behaviours and manifestations? Correspondingly, how does one find that reality, which compels this exuberant play of infinite possibilities?
Eastern philosophers maintain that moral intelligence is independent of mind and body. They believe that when truth is real, it will always have ragged edges. Nevertheless, irrespective of our social origin, each of us can independently verify truth through steady reasoning. Bose set out to unlock eternal truth by self- analysis. His scientific methodology of living, learning, and teaching is a case study in the ethics of a life lived in the pursuit of truth. Theory and practice met in Bose, whose critical realism avoided dogmas that arose from classical romanticism or modern materialism. In dedicating the Institution in 1917, he thought that “the Institute (is) not merely a laboratory but a temple.”
Bose’s life story tells us how an individual can train the gross habits of mind to locate nuanced meanings in the subtlest of places. To human journeymen of truth, the absolute can be a working stage in the theatre of daily life experience. From Bose’s childhood days in Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh), reason and faith were his happy companions. Beginning with the watchful guidance of his father, the young Jagadis learned to focus on subtle rays of perception. His family introduced him to the eternal library of intelligence, memorialised in the sacred texts—the Dhammapada (Buddhism), the Upanishads (Hinduism), and the Ittihad al-Kawn (Sufism).
Curiosity was the fabric that threaded Bose’s intuitive logic of self-inquiry. Illustrative of his approach to critical thinking is a gem of an observation he made in his “Notebook” in 1902: “The apple falls. Newton asks ‘why’? But the average man pockets the apple and says no more about it.” In 1925, while reminiscing on his 40 years of teaching at Presidency College, Bose remembered his childhood classmates, “who were sons of…fisher-folk, (from whom) I heard stories of the strange creatures that frequented the unknown depths of mighty rivers and stagnant pools.” Bose often referred to his source of cultural realism, “which…was supplied (to me) by the daily reading of and recital of Mahabharata, the epic of heroic India.” Even before philosophy came into being, India’s folk theatres were staging the perennial problems of self and the universe in myths. By watching the “wisdom” literature, the youthful Bose learned the norms of human behaviour.
Bose was a quintessentially Indian civic reformer. As an ecumenicist, scientist, teacher, and humanist, he was not an intellectual pugilist who was eager to commit his fate to blind scholastic pedantry. He was also not interested in finding grand doctrines, motives, or beliefs, but instead brought about as much moral good as possible. Hence, for Bose the goal of freeing India from the British occupation was a virtuous social premise that needed to become operational. Accordingly, he strongly believed that for virtue to have any practical meaning, everyone must have access to attain it. His inclusive view was guided by ethical principles of fairness, justice, and means.
Bose’s public plans for educational reform emphasised reasoning, observation, and hands-on laboratory practice. He worked closely with the interested parties ~ both British and Indian ~ to refashion the curricula at every educational level, from kindergarten through university. Soon after his return to India from England, where he had just completed his B.Sc., he accepted an invitation from Dr Mahendralal Sircar, MD, the founder of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, to present public lectures in science and physics.
Throughout his career, Bose demonstrated the viability of the freedom of inquiry by combining faith and reason with experimentation and instrumentation. To him, aesthetic, ethical, and scientific principles were one, united in a single consciousness. From a speech that he gave in 1901, we can reasonably infer that he would agree with two of his closest associates, Sister Nivedita and Rabindranath Tagore, that there is a common structure of consciousness. However, he would extend the domain of commonness of the external scaffolding to all entities, both living and non-living. Nonetheless, he would not divide the conscious mind and its methods of critical inquiry in a bicameral way, appealing internally to the Humanities and externally to the Sciences. The current philosophical and scientific evidence is moving toward supporting Bose’s proposition of mind, reality, and matter as a single unit, an operational reality.
In my forthcoming book, An Appraisal of J.C. Bose in the Context of the Sociology of Science, I have described his creative inquiry and realism as avant-garde. In Bose, both religion and science opened windows to the world, where the fresh breath of truth ~ to paraphrase Tagore ~ cooled the thirsty soul. For him, scientific realism was a truth-seeking exercise. Following Lev Tolstoy, one can hear Bose say, “I can never see life in the way I saw it before I witnessed the Reality.” 
On 20 November, 1917, with a sharp nip in the air, Bose had no desire to erect a monument as such. Instead, he committed the Institute’s curriculum to the hard work of creative inquiry. His mission, which some of his students described as that of a punctilious pundit, was to train students who would commit to discovering the hidden truths in man and nature in a methodical way. Over the next ninety-four years, the Institute has moored its anchor in the safe harbour of reason.

The writer is a California-based emeritus professor of sociology.

My other blog

My First Story

THE ADVENTURE OF THE ANCIENT TEMPLE

 

It was a July day. The clouds had entombed the small village with their dull, dark glow. Parantap was wondering whether it will, at all, be any benefit to go to school. Besides, it was a saturday. Yes a "shanivaar". As always, most of his classmates would choose to stay back and enjoy the cool day. He decided to call upon his best friend Anisudan and ask what his plans for the day was. As he had foreseen, Anisudan too, wasn't going to school. They decided to meet up and speculate on what they should do that day.
Parantap always had an inclination for adventures. His physical build and mental alertness assisted him to persue his interests.
After a brief discussion, Anisudan hit upon an idea. There was the ruins of an ancient "Kaali" temple about a mile and a half from there. Never had they heard of anybody going there. That's because it was a quarter mile from the main road, into the jungle. Also, all that could be looted from the temple, had been looted.
So it was decided that the temple would be home to their new adventure.
Parantap and Anisudan started out in the afternoon after having their day meal. Anisudan had brought along some snacks. Parantap put them in his satchel. The duo mounted their bicycles and they made for the temple. As they got off the main road, after reaching the bifurcation, they started on a "paved" path that lead to the temple. It had about disappeared into the thick undergrowth. The path was difficult to travel on a bicycle, so the decided to go on foot, walking their bicycles beside them. After an hour short of fifteen minutes, they were at the collapsed gates of the temple.
It was built in a large enclosure. There was thick undergrowth every few feet, in the vicinity. The moss was thick on the stones. The wall carvings were windows to the temple's long lost grandeur. They ascended the slippery stairs with much caution. As their eyes adjusted to the damp darkness inside, they were met with a eerie scene. The light beams pouring in through the caved in dome fell right where the statue of the Goddess of Darknes should have been. A chalk white human skull, as it seemed, was on the podium. A rather strange skull it was, to be human. The rear of the skull was oblong instead of being spherical. A long, thick, bright red strip was drawn across it's forehead. On minute observation by Parantap, it turned out to be blood. This was awe-inspiring! A skull in such a place is still acceptable, but fresh blood? Nobody came here! How could this come here?
Parantap's bold-heartedness helped him stay in his wits. Anisudan, on the other hand, had started to panic. Parantap reassured him, managed to calm him down. He said they would stay just a little longer so that he could figure out what was going on. So as decided, they started searching for clues. They came upon a rather strange object. A large wooden "Y" driven into the floor. It was waist high. The wood was rotten. A pungent smell accompanied it. Parantap, on moving closer, saw that it was moist around it. The moss was soaked in a brown liquid. It was blood, fresh blood. A sacrifice had been made recently. Someone had been there then. . .
Meanwhle, as they were looking for clues, the clouds had moved in and it started to drizzle. They noticed it was raining only when a thunderalas shook the walls of the temple. Parantap felt that the drizzle would stop in some time. They could have the snacks by then. They took shelter in an alcove, a little further from the caved-in dome through which now rain was pouring in. Contrary to what Parantap had figured, the rain started coming down in torrents. It was not dusk yet but the clouds made it dark enough outside. By the time the rain slowed back to intermittent drizzle, it was dark. Parantap, being a skilled adventurer, was always equipped with essential equipment. He whipped out his torch from his satchel, the one his father had gifted him on his birthday. Holding the cold metal of the torch in his left hand, he swung the brilliant yellow beam around the temple, looking for the doorway they came in. As the light fell upon the arch of the doorway, Parantap could swear, for an instant, he saw a head whip around the edge of the doorway. It was pale white. A chill ran down his spine. He froze at his place. Anisudan did not notice this. Parantap quietly took out his double-edged knife. Standing still, he strained his ears for the slightest of unusual sound, like breaking of twigs under feet, ruffle of shrubbery, any sound that would indicate a third presence. None came. They proceeded to the doorway. Parantap scanned the outside with his torch. Nothing unusual caught his eye. Second thoughts started occuring to him. Maybe it wasn't what he thought it was, that he saw. It could have been an illusion. With some relief, he made their way through the wet undergrowth to where they kept there bicycles. Anisudan was close behind him.
A sudden, blood curdling shriek made his heart skip a beat. He swung around, torch in his left hand and knife in the other. Where was Anisudan? Next moment he saw Anisudan lying in the mud, a few feet away, paralysed in fear. What made Parantap blood flow cold was the figure of a creature. It was on all fours, bearing upon Anisudan. It's hide was mangled, with large raw pink patches. Just it's head was dabbed with white paint. It's skeletal figure was slighly less than a man's in height. With a flash, it tore at Anisudan's chest. With its inch long nails, it opened a gash, and started drinking the oozing blood. Parantap's alert mind made him act the next instant. He ran at it, and kicked it with his strengt and inertia. The creature was thrown away. It regained it's balance and lunged for Parantap. Parantap slashed his knife, and the figure fell to the ground, withering in pain. He had sliced it's thigh. He took the opportunity to knock it out with a stone slab from the paved path and tied it up with the jute rope he carried in his satchel. Then, he tended to Anisudan's wounds with some iodine solution and bandaged him with his shirt.
He then turned towards the figure to have a closer look at it. It was, to Parantap's surprise, a man! What turned a man into such a horrendous creature, he could not imagine. Nevertheless, it was a human. So, he decided to carry the man back to the village. At a slow pace, with Anisudan groaning, and the man slung across his bicycle, the two made for the village.
The village was at a state of unrest. Search parties had been sent out to look for the two of them. People, on seeing them, were relieved, their parents overjoyed. As things settled down, Parantap narrated all that had happened during their adventure. The village head called "Mukhiaji" a wise, old man, succeed in assessing the happenings- About 9 years ago, a man by the name of Kishen had contracted a hideous disease, leprosy. He was banished from the village. Kishen took refuge in the forest. Nobody heard of him since. This man could be Kishen.
The next day dawned with a bright sun. Matters too cleared up. The captive had regained consciousness last night. On interrogation, he gave his explanation in his broken lingo.
After being banished, he took shelter at the temple. Living on raw meat and fruits, he spent his days. Eventually, he became a "Kapalik" a worshipper of the Goddess of Darkness. He made sacrifices to the Goddess in hopes of getting cured. He became a savage. With time, his disease cured, miraculously! However, he did not wish to return to the village that spurned him out and continued to live in the temple until the day the two boys barged into his life.
Thus was the story of the Ancient Temple.
*AMAR KOTHA TI PHUROLO, NOTEY GACH TI MUROLO!*
Arka