We appreciate the TN Govt stand to go in for 3-Language formula as suggested in National Education Policy 2020. However, it is not yet very clear how the 3-rd language option will be implemented.
Most of the other states are implementing this 3-Language Formula, albeit, some of them doing it unwillingly. Even in Tamil Nadu, all the CBSE schools and many of the private schools are offering a choice of a third language, which always include HINDI. This unequal language learning at school level causes some concern among the students of State Board and Govt. schools. Even their parents feel that their wards receive less education, than their counterparts in other private and better schools. They end-up supporting the people in the opposition parties who blindly want Hindi as the 3rd Language, mainly for political purposes. Again, to help us to be a part of national mainstream, it may not be practicable to follow strictly the 2-Language Formula for State board schools in Tamil Nadu.
Hence, sir, I suggest a slight change, which may appear as a compromise on Puratchi Thalaivi Amma’s policy. But you will realise it is not. The policy may be stated and evolved in the following way:
1. We should take steps to convince the general public in TN and the rest of India, that there is no hatred, per-se, on any language, including Hindi or Sanskrit.
2. We should also convince the students, that there is no need to learn Hindi to be able to travel north, and that, definitely learning Hindi in schools does not give any advantage over those who learn spoken Hindi later on in life, (should the need arise).
3. TN Govt. SHOULD organize short term courses in conversational Hindi (like Hindi in 30 days), in association with Tamil Nadu Hindi Prachar Sabha, (Very much like NEET coaching centres), for those who may need.
4. We should inform the people about our concern for Tamil, since –“If Hindi is fluently spoken by more than 50% of Indians, there is a very high chance that it will become the sole Union official language.”
5. For this reason DMK govt should insist more on all 14 languages to become Union official languages. India’s First PM, Jawahar Lal Nehru proposed this in the AICC session in1950. (He actually said it ‘may be inconvenient but definitely possible’. Now we know with present day technology, it is ‘more possible and less inconvenient.’)
6. At least till, all these languages are developed and accepted as Union official languages., English should continue as associate official language, with a constitutional guarantee. (TN Govt should insist on this constitutional guarantee as a compromise deal for accepting the 3-language formula.
7. Proficiency in a 3rd language should be made compulsory for appearing in 12th std school final exams. This 3rd language will not necessarily be taught in schools, since all the schools may not be able offer all language options, as listed in 8th Schedule of the constitution. Instead, students in Tamil Nadu should be encouraged to study privately any Indian language of their choice as 3rd language, apart from Tamil and English, which they will learn in the school. For non–Tamils, It could be their mother tongue and for Tamils it could be any of the 22 recognised Indian languages including Sanskrit and Hindi.
8) The TN govt should encourage private language learning schools for all 22 languages of India (like the Hindi Prachar Sabha) in all major towns and Taluk headquarters. They may also encourage setting up of digital language labs all over TN.
8. TN Govt. should convene an all-party convention, to take everyone on board and to pass resolutions as below:
This seem to be the only way for we the Indians, to retain our cultural link thru’ our native languages, to prevent them from being subsumed by the use of Hindi, all over India and to save the use of English as a universal link language within and outside india.
In any democratic institution, decisions taken by majority will be meaningless & usually will turnout to be wrong, unless adequate forums & opportunities are given for the expression of minority views. In this respect, we know very well that, a two-party system is not as great a solution, and at the same time any multi party system is not as bad, as both of them are made out to be. The fault is in the electoral system. While it will be too drastic a change for any large country like India to adopt any of the existing PR (Proportional Representation) systems, some kind of proportional representation will have to be adopted early to avoid such problems as non-representation, misrepresentation and under-representation of political minorities, racial minorities, and women. As an Indian voter I suggest, the following simple changes in the electoral system initially for Legislative Councils at the state level and for Council of States (Rajya Sabha) at the centre.
Extensive debate took place in the Constituent Assembly regarding the utility or otherwise of a Second Chamber of Rajya Sabha, in Independent India and ultimately, it was decided to have a bicameral legislature for independent India mainly because many felt it was important to stress on a federal system of Government for such a vast country with immense diversities. A second chamber known as the ‘Council of States’, therefore, was created with altogether different composition and method of elections. An element of dignity and prestige was added to the Council of State House by making the Vice-President of India ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha who presides over its sittings.
The representatives of each State and two Union territories are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies, in accordance with the system of ‘proportional representation‘ by means of the single transferable vote. However the body of elected representatives of legislatures themselves are elected by a miss-represented majority vote of the citizens. The Rajya Sabha consists of 233 elected members. The quota of members for each state is determined based on population of each state. This in itself is again a misrepresentation.
The elected members of the respective state legislative assemblies elect their quotas of Rajya Sabha members on the basis of first transferable vote. Most of the time the political parties know exactly how many of their own nominees can be elected by them and they nominate as many and get them elected by issuing a whip to their legislators. Occasionally they nominate one or two extra persons, to garner the possibility of obtaining the splinter votes of smaller parties who have no sufficient strength to get there own quota of men elected. Hence it will be fair to say that even these 233 elected members of Rajya Sabha, (RS), are mostly nominated by political parties and their election process is a mere formality.
In the present system where a third of the members of RS retire every two years, the RS elections could happen twice or thrice during the tenure of a state assembly. Some times it may occur at a point when a state assembly tenure is about to be completed before a new general elections. It is possible that after the new elections the composition of parties in the new assembly could be vastly different, though the comparative percentage votes polled by them may not be as vastly different. This situation is particularly true in a multi party democracy.
Here is where my suggestion comes in. As per an earlier paragraph, the idea of consembly was to get some kind of a porportional representataion for the Rajyasabha, to get even minority opinion shared in the national forum. It was working very well as intended for about 40 years till 1990. But once the coalition politics strated taking root, since then, Rajyasabha rarely represents any minority opinions of either far-left, or any new emrging political forum. This could be one of the reasons for political violence in India
As I was about to publish this post the assembly election results of two major states were out. they were as below:
West Bengal is eligible to haveu UT 16 Rajya Sabha Members. As of now there are 2 seats are vacant and the remaining 14 seats are disributed as: TMC -11, INC -2, CPM -1. As of now after the elections, there are only two parties actually their share of Rajya sabha memebership should really be – TMC -12, BJP – 4, Others = 0. If the elections were held today both seats can be won by TMC. Since already TMC has 11 seats, they may share as TMC-1 and BJP- 1. It is a pity that INC will lose both their members by Apr 2024, CPM, their only seat by 2026, even though jointly they have polled 7.6% of the votes.
Condition in Tamil Nadu is also not very different. As of now there are 5 seats are vacant and the remaining 13 seats are disributed as: DMK+ – 8, ADMK+ – 5. DMK+ consists DMK 4 + MDMK 1. And ADMK+ consists (ADMK 3 + PMK 1 + TMC 1). As of now after the elections, there are only two coalitons actually, and their share of Rajya sabha memebership should really be – DMK+ -12, ADMK+ – 6, Others = 0. For the vacant 5 seats, If the elections were held today 3 seats can be won by DMK+ and 2 by ADMK+. SInce the two seats became vacant because of reiganation of ADMK memebers, the 5 seats could be shared as 2 for DMK+ and 3 for ADMK+. It is a pity that Nam Tamizhar Katchi, contesting in all constituency became the third biggest political party in TN after DMK and ADMk will not get a single seat in Rajaysabha. neither in the Assembly having polled 6.7% of the votes.
To get a fair proportional representationof all recognised political parties, at least in the Rajya Sabha, we may decide on the quota of members for each political party based on amount of popular votes polled by them in the most recent assembly elections. When we do it the Rajya Sabha representation could be as below:
West Bengal
Party
TMC
BJP
CPM
INC
%age Votes
47.9
38.1
4.7
2.9
93.6
8.1880342
6.512821
0.803419
0.495726
16
RS quota
8
6
1
1
16
Tamil Nadu
Party
DMK
ADMK
NTK
INC
PMK
MNM
BJP
AMMK
VCK
%age Votes
37.7
33.3
6.7
4.28
3.82
2.84
2.61
2.35
0.99
94.59
7.17412
6.336822
1.2749762
0.814462
0.726927
0.540438
0.49667
0.447193
0.188392
18
RS quota
7
6
1
1
1
1
1
18
To find a similar way of proportional representation at the state level, we should make it a constitutionally obligation for all the states to have legislative councils. As of now only six states have legislative councils (J&K, UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh). The upper house or the legislative council has limited legislative powers, and was primarily intended for consultations and can not hold up legislation passed by the legislative assembly for more than a few months.
The Legislative Assembly is composed of members directly elected from individual constituencies through adult franchise. Whereas the Legislative Council consists of members indirectly elected: by members of the Lower House, by nomination of the State government, and by elections from specially designated teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies. Alternately, for obtaining representation for even minority political outfits, member-ship to the legislative council may be based on the percentage of popular votes polled by the parties in the most recent assembly elections. Exact mechanism of allocating these seats and the process of election/selection can be decided upon after obtaining some experience with the similar process for the Rajya Sabha as suggested earlier.
Apart from obtaining an equitable representation for all political parties and minorities, this system will have many long term advantages, such as:
All parties will try to have a broad based support instead of a localised support, because even in regions where they lose the elections, the votes obtained by them has still some value in boosting their percentage of popular votes.
Voters also will be encouraged to vote for a party, even when they are aware that their candidate is likely to lose in a particular constituency.
Here is a nice way to get exprienced professional (like Metro Sridhar, Mafoi Pandiarajan and Sridhar Vembu for having a stint at political party in a lateral system of democracy. This a win-win situation for our politics and for the individual.
To be considered for proportional representation, we may stipulate, a party should contest a minimum number of seats and in them it should obtain a minimum percentage of votes. Those who do not qualify for proportional representation could be dercognized as a political party in any subsequent elections.
Maharashtra’s ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), an alliance of the Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress, has won four of the six Maharashtra Legislative Council seats for which voting took place on December 1.
Elections were held for three graduate seats of Nagpur, Pune, and Aurangabad; two teachers’ seats of Pune and Amravati; and one local body seat from Dhule-Nandurbar.
This was the first state-level election after the MVA formed the government, keeping the BJP, the single largest party in the Legislative Assembly, out of power. The MVA’s victories are important also because each of these Council seats represents electors in a large geographical area of the state.
The Upper House of Maharashtra legislature has 78 members, 66 of whom are elected, and the rest nominated. Members are elected for a six-year term.
Of the 66 elected members in the Council, 30 are elected by members of the Legislative Assembly; 22 are elected by local bodies from 21 divisions; and seven members each are elected from among graduates and teachers of the seven revenue divisions of the state – Mumbai, Amravati, Nashik, Aurangabad, Konkan, Nagpur, and Pune.
Graduate constituencies
Only those who have a Bachelor’s degree from a recognised university are eligible to participate in the elections for the graduate seats.
Voters are enrolled afresh before each election, and applicants have to submit proof of education with a Bachelor’s degree for enrolment as an elector.
The elected member is expected to raise the issues of the educated class in the Upper House.
Of the seven graduate constituencies in the Council, the BJP, NCP, and Congress now have two members each, and the Shiv Sena has one.
Teachers constituencies
For teachers constituencies, professional teachers, employed either in the government or the private sector, are eligible to register themselves as voters. The teacher electors choose one among themselves to raise their issues in the Legislative Council.
The Sena, NCP, Congress, BJP, Lok Bharati (LB), Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP) of India and an Independent candidate now have a seat each in the teachers constituencies in the Council.
BJP 32, Cong 29, JDU 12, Others- 1
Bjp 101 /36.2% : Cong 78/38% : JDU 37/18.4% : BSP 1 : KPJP 1 : IND :1 Total 224
MAHARASHTRA[288 / 288]
PARTY
WON
BJP
105
SHS
56
INC
44
NCP
54
OTH
29
Let us take an example of Maharashtra. The legislative assembly is eligible to elect 19 members to the Rajaya Sabha in total, but 6 or 7 members at a time every two years, for a 6 year term.
There are 18 seats for TN on Rajyasabha. As of now DMK – 8, ADMK – 7, Vacant-3. as per the recent elections %age votes polled by diff parties, DMK -37.7, ADMK – 33.3, NTK – 6.7, INC – 4.28, PMK – 3.82, MNM – 2.84, BJP – 2.61, AMMK – 2.35.
Talking about ‘National’ English News channels, at least 30 % of the time, the anchor and the participants, have their discussions only in Hindi. As one of the majorities of TV viewers from Non Hindi states, we do not follow Hindi, not because any extra love for English or any special hatred of Hindi. Though it is difficult for Northerners to understand this; we are not fluent and comfortable with Hindi, as some of the Northerners are not comfortable with Telugu or English. But these English channels do not care, in as much as, even those who can talk English prefer Hindi. This attitude of National Channels, not caring for a majority of people (60%) who do not know Hindi well enough, has driven the Non Hindi people to go for Regional News channels, which give importance to the local populace. Their biased and…
HVDC Link was introduced in India about 30 years ago with the Vindhyachal project in 1989. The first UHVDC (Ultra High Voltage DC) multi-terminal North-East Agra link has already been completed in 2015. The second UHVDC Rajgarh-Pugalur Link is ABB’s sixth HVDC project in India. The above DC Link Pole 2 and Pole -1 were commissioned on 18th May 2020. Many of my friends, colleagues and my readers have requested me to write a blog on the HVDC link, giving details of basic technology and application, in popular language. Here is an attempt to do the same. Since I cannot satisfy the normal technocrats and tech enthusiasts and the Electrical Power Engineers with the single write-up, I propose to do it in two parts. The present Part-1 will deal with the basic principle of realising a high power DC link in a totally AC domain. In Part-2 I will deal with more technical issues.
Any power supply from devices like batteries is called DC (Direct Current), since its voltage is constant and the current is uni-directional. However, the normal domestic supply is always AC or Alternating Current where Voltage and Current in a circuit will always be changing from one direction to the other in a cyclic manner at a frequency of 50 Cycles per Sec. But in US historically they adopted the frequency of 60 Cycles per second. For more on AC and DC you may refer to my FAQ as below.
There are several levels of power supply. For domestic use it will be at 440V(3-Ph) and 230V(1-Ph) AC. For normal industrial use, it will be at 11kV(3-Ph). For heavy industries, it will be at 33kV(3 Ph). The bulk transfer of power from generating stations to Sub-stations (load centres) will be always at high voltage of 110kV, 220kV, 400kV AC(3-Ph). Generally, any power transfers between major power systems will generally be at extra high voltage of 400 kV or more.
When such AC grid systems are interconnected there are a few problems that get enhanced. Any fault to ground will draw many times heavier current, because all the generators will sense and feed the fault. Hence A problem in one system will affect the others also. A lot of coordinated and disciplined set of operations will be required to keep the health of overall interconnected grid system. The health of any power system depends mainly on the Frequency, Voltage level and Regulating Margins at the generating stations. For more on this, please see my blog on Grid:
To reduce this inter-dependency on system healthiness, the system interconnections have always been thought of making use of HIGH VOLTAGE DC link (HVDC). However because of the high cost of equipements at either end, it will be economical only at a higher levels power and voltage and also for longer distances. Before going any further on the HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) interconnections, it will be good to revise our concepts on Semi-Conductors, Diodes and SCRs (Silicon Controlled Rectifiers), 1-Ph and 3-Ph Rectifiers and Inverters which are the basic elements of any HVDC system.
Semi-conductors, as the name suggests, conduct electricity in one direction and block the current in the reverse direction. Diodes are electronic devices developed by using this feature in electronic circuit designs. Before the invention of Silicon based semi-conducting diodes, the diodes were made by using vacuum tubes with heating elements (knowns as Valves). Now the semi-conductor based diodes are much smaller in size with better efficiency. A Diode is represented by the symbol:
DIODE
If anode has a positive voltage with reference to Cathode, it is known as forward biased. When forward biased, the diode is turned ON and it acts like a short circuit. When Anode is negative with reference to Cathode, it is known as reverse biased. Here the diode will be turned OFF and it acts like an open circuit.
One of the early uses of Diode was as Rectifiers to convert AC voltage to DC, as shown below. The anode is connected Ph terminal of the AC source. and the cathode is connected to neutral terminal through a resistive load. The AC voltage wave form is also shown as alternating from Zero to +ve to Zero to –ve.
1-Ph Half Wave Rectifier
When Anode is supplied with positive voltage during the first half-cycle of the AC voltage, the diode gets forward biased and hence turned ON and the voltage is passed on to the +ve terminal of the DC load drawing a DC current. However in the –ve half-cycle, the diode will berverse baised and hence, turned off. There will be no voltage at the +ve terminal for some time. Again in the next +ve half cycle, the diode will again be turned on and the voltage will appear on the output. For a AC frequency of 50 Hz, a cycle will mean 20 milli-seconds (ms) and a half-cycle will be 10 ms. Since every 10 ms we have a voltage/current on the DC side there will be an average DC voltage, deemed to be present. Thus AC is ‘rectified’ into DC but only half way. Hence it is called half wave Rectifier.
Let us see how a full wave rectifier is realised. As you can see below the live terminal of the AC source is connected to the common point of one pair of diodes, D1 and D2, connected in series. And the neutral or earth of the source is connected to another similar pair of diodes, D3 and D4.
1-Ph Full Wave Rectifier
In first half cycle of AC voltage, D1 and D4 will be forward biased through the DC load and they will be turned ON. The output DC will be (+V). D2 and D3 will be reverse biased in first half cycle and hence will remain OFF. As th voltage becomes in the second half cycle, they will get forward biased and diodes D1/D4 will get reverse biased and will go OFF. However both diode D2 and D3 will be turned ON, with again voltage -V on the -ve terminal of the DC load and Zero volt on +ve terminal thus supplying the load current in the same direction as before, thus achieving the full wave rectification.
As can be seen, alternately D1/D4 pair is turned ON and the D2/D3 pair is OFF and in the next half cycle D1/D4 is turned OFF and D2/D3 is turned ON. The rule is: among the top diodes with common cathode, the one which gets a higher voltage than the other, in their anodes, get turned ON; among the bottom diodes with common anode, the one which gets lower voltage than the other, in their cathodes, gets turned ON. When one pair is turned ON the other pair goes OFF.
Thyristor is a device like a diode but with a third terminal. Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) has the Thyristor as the basic element.
Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) functioning is similar to Diode. In addition to Anode and Cathode, a third terminal Gate is used to control the functioning of the diode. For the diode to conduct not only it requires being forward biased, it also requires a small +ve voltage on Gate terminal also. Once the diode is turned on, the gate signal is no more required. Gate signal needs to be just a pulse, and hence, it is called trigger signal. Once triggered, the conduction will continue till the diode gets reverse biased. By using the SCR, instead of normal diodes, we are able to control the power output of the rectifier, by controlling the instance of diode conduction, as shown below. The Triggers are shown by arrows on the Diodes and the instances of riggers is shown in the input AC voltage wave form. Accordingly the output DC voltage is clipped.
1-Ph Converter
This idea is used in some Washing-machines and Air-conditioners by employing direct driven DC motors for the drum and Compressor. Depending on the load the AC input power is controlled, thus saving power consumption, leading to higher efficiency.
It is far easier to understand the DC link in an AC grid system by initially considering 1-Ph AC systems. As you can really see, Converter at one end of the link will rectify the AC to DC. The output power of the Rectifier will be transmitted to the other end of the DC link, either by over-head lines or by under-ground cables. At the other end a similar Converter device will be used, to invert the DC to AC, to supply the power to the AC system. In the actual power grid, in place of of 1-Ph Convertes, 3-Phase Converters will be used
We are still to see, how using the same Converter Circuit, 1-Ph inverter can be implemented by using SCRs as above .
Let us look at the above SCR based Rectifier again. As the trigger signals for the SCR is gradually delayed further and further, after the zero crossing point of AC wave form, Diodes D1/D4 will get reverse biased and now, even with trigger present they will not conduct. At this point D2/D3 will be forward biased but since the trigger is delayed so much that they will also not conduct. It means, by delaying the trigger pulse, we have gradually reduced the input AC power to zero.
Converter on Inverter Mode
Hence we can as well open the AC side by operating the Circuit Breaker (CB) shown. We may also keep the trigger signals also ‘OFF’. Now when a DC source, with reversed polarity as shown, is connected on the DC side, all the SCRs will get forward biased. However since we made the triggers OFF, none of the SCRs will conduct. Now let us make the trigger signals on D1/D4 and D2/D3 on again alternately, every 20ms. You may very well see that D1/D4 and D2/D3 pairs will start conducting alternately, to give you, +ve/- ve pulses on the AC side. Actually the SCR bridge is now acting as an inverter. But before we could close the CB, We should realise we are about to sychronise two AC supplies. Hence we should take care of some important things like Frequency, Voltage level, Phase sequence and Phase Angles.
The advantage using an SCR is very obvious here, as we are able to use same Converter as a Rectifier at one end and as an Inverter at the other end. This feature will be used even when we want to reverse the direciton of power flow. Using this feature the basic design of a HVDC link is as shown below;
Typical HVDC Link
In the case of actual HVDC link used in the Electric Utilities these converters will be of three phase type. We can easily configure a 3-Ph converter by putting together 3 numbers of 1-Ph converters as below. The R-Y-B Phases of 3 Ph AC input is shown connected to pairs of SCRs. The neutral point is also shown connected to a common pair of SCRs.
As seen earlier, among the SCRs on the top (1, 3 & 5), the one which has the max positive voltage on their anodes will be ready to conduct when triggered, thus automatically reverse-biasing the others.
Similarly, among the SCRs at the bottom (2, 4 & 6) the one which has the max negative voltage on their cathodes will be ready to conduct when triggered thus automatically reverse-biasing the others.
Thus the pair of SCRs connected to Neutral will never get forward biased, as can be seen from the wave forms of 3- Ph voltages shown below. The Neutral voltage of near zero will never be maximum or minimum at any time. Hence this pair of SCRs can even be removed from the rectifier bridge.
Now we are operating the converters as a Rectifier at the sending end and as an Inverter at the receiving end of the HVDC Transmission Line.
Some of you may like the following representation of 3-Ph converters.
But after all these manipulations, what do we have here? We do not have a typical sine wave so characteristic of any AC system. Of course we surely have a 3 Phase alternating voltage with a frequency of 50 Hz and with proper phase shifts of 120⁰ among phases. There is after all a hope for wave shaping them. Any periodically oscillating system can be thought of as a combination of many sinusoidal waves of several multiples of basic fundamental frequency. By using electronic filter circuits, all these higher frequencies (>50Hz) are filtered-out to obtain a reasonable close Sine-Wave form. (These different component wave forms are known as harmonics of 50Hz wave form, e.g., 150 Hz is called 3rd Harmonic, and 7th harmonic will have a frequency of 350 Hz. If we can remove these harmonics from the original square wave form, the wave form will become acceptably close to the sine wave of any AC system, as demonstrated below.)
Conclusion: This note describes the basic principle of realising HVDC ink. The latest HVDC link commissioned between Rajghad and Pugalur in May 2020 is actually the 11th such link commissioned in India. The other HVDC links are given in chronological order as below:
for Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business
Launch day is less than a week away for India’s Chandrayaan-2 Moon orbiter, lander and rover. This is the second mission to the Moon for ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization. Liftoff is scheduled for 14 July 2019 at 21:21 UTC (15 July 2019 at 02:51 IST local time), atop a GSLV-MK3 launcher from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the east coast of India.
ISRO typically hosts a live video stream of the launch that can be accessed from their webpage. You can also look for launch coverage on the YouTube page of India’s national broadcaster, Doordarshan.
Chandrayaan-2 is an Indian mission to send an orbiter, lander, and rover to the Moon, targeting the Moon’s south pole.
If everything goes according to plan, the launcher will inject the spacecraft into an elliptical earth parking orbit with a perigee, or low point, of 170 kilometers and an apogee, or high point, of 40,400 kilometers. A series of orbit raising maneuvers will progressively raise the apogee of the spacecraft until it can be captured by the Moon’s gravity with an engine burn. Chandrayaan-2 will then perform a series of orbital maneuvers to reach a circular, 100-kilometer orbit around the Moon. The next phase of the mission involves separating the Vikram lander unit from the orbital unit of the spacecraft, and landing Vikram near the Moon’s south pole on 6 September 2019. The third phase of the mission involves the roll out of the Pragyan rover from the Vikram lander, and a subsequent 14-day mission for the rover involving various experiments.
The GSLV-MK3 launcher has already been integrated in the Vehicle Assembly building at the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota on the eastern coast of India.
Chandrayaan-1
Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second mission to the Moon. The first, Chandrayaan-1, was launched on 22 October 2008, and included an orbiter and a Moon impact probe—a small module that separated from the orbiter and impacted the Moon near Shackleton crater. The orbiter included several scientific instruments for creating a three-dimensional map of the Moon and analyzing its mineral composition. The spacecraft went into orbit around the Moon on 8 November 2008, and the Moon impact probe crash-landed on 14 November 2008. The instruments in the orbiter were subsequently activated, and operated normally for the next 10 months.
While it did not complete its mission life of 2 years, the Chandrayaan-1 mission had several achievements. It was the first interplanetary mission for ISRO, and heralded the way for other missions to follow, including one to Mars, and the upcoming Chandrayaan-2 mission. Its most significant scientific achievement was the discovery of water on the Moon. First, a mass spectrometer on the Moon Impact Probe detected water in the thin lunar atmosphere. Then, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument, developed by NASA and carried on the orbiter, detected water ice on the surface near the lunar poles. Additionally, the mini-SAR synthetic aperture radar developed by NASA and carried on the orbiter also found evidence consistent with the presence of water ice at the lunar north pole. Other achievements of the mission include the creation of detailed three-dimensional maps using over 70,000 images taken by its cameras, a study of the process by which water may form on the Moon, and a study of past tectonic activity on the Moon.
The Moon Mineralogy Mapper is a spectrometer, which returns hundreds of measurements of the brightness of the surface at each pixel in its images. The spectral data can be processed to yield maps of the abundance of minerals on the Moon. In this RGB image, the red channel is the brightness of the surface at a wavelength of 1580 nanometers; bright areas contain more plagioclase feldspar and less mafic minerals, indicating the lunar highlands material. The green channel represents the depth of an absorption feature at 1000 nanometers, while the blue channel represents the depth of an absorption feature at 2000 nanometers. These two channels map the presence of iron-bearing “mafic” minerals common in the maria basalts. Different-age lava flows contain different abundances of these mafic minerals, resulting in different colors in this map.
Chandrayaan-2
The Chandrayaan-2 mission is ISRO’s second mission to the Moon, and the agency’s third interplanetary mission after Chandrayaan-1 and the Mars Orbiter Mission, which launched in November 2013 and entered Mars orbit in September 2014.
Chandrayaan-2 consists of three main components. The first, also with the same name as the overall mission, is the orbiter. This will carry the other two components and will be placed in a circular lunar orbit, at an altitude of 100 km above the lunar surface. The second is the Vikram lander, which will be soft-landed on the surface, and will carry a set of instruments to conduct scientific experiments. The third will be the Pragyan rover carried aboard Vikram, which will be deployed onto the surface. This autonomous vehicle will carry its own set of instruments to conduct experiments over a planned 14-day life span.
The landing site for Vikram and Pragyan is near the lunar south pole, at about 70° south latitude, though other reports have indicated landing sites even closer to the south pole.
Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter
ISRO
CHANDRAYAAN-2 CRUISE CONFIGURATION
This screenshot from an ISRO video shows Chandrayaan-2 cruising above the Moon. The Vikram lander (top section) is still connected to the orbiter at this point in the mission.
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which will weigh 2,379 kilograms at launch, will carry a propulsion module including a liquid propulsion engine and onboard fuel for raising its orbit from the initial elliptical earth parking orbit in which it will be placed after launch. A series of orbit raising burns of its liquid engine will raise its orbit until it reaches a lunar transfer trajectory, where its orbit will bring it close enough to the Moon to be captured by lunar gravity. A series of burns will then lower its orbit to a 100-kilometer circular lunar orbit. The engine onboard the orbiter will also be used for maintaining this orbit during the course of the mission.
The second function of the orbiter will be to carry the lander-rover module and release it for its soft landing. A high-resolution camera aboard Chandrayaan-2 will image the planned landing site to help fine-tune the landing phase of the mission. It will also carry communication equipment to facilitate communications between the lander and rover, and the mission control center on earth. The orbiter’s primary mission will last 1 year.
In addition to carrying the lander and rover, and supporting the landing part of the mission, the orbiter will carry a set of eight scientific payloads. You can read more about these on The Planetary Society’s Chandrayaan-2 mission page.
Vikram Lander
ISRO
CHANDRAYAAN-2 VIKRAM LANDER DEPLOYING ROVER
This screenshot from an ISRO video shows the Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander deploying the Pragyan rover on the lunar surface.
The Vikram lander is named after the founder of ISRO and the Indian space program, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. It will weigh 1,471 kilograms at launch, and will carry the Pragyan rover. After separation from the orbiter, Vikram will conduct a set of burns to de-boost from lunar orbit, and conduct a soft-landing on the surface. The lander has two roles in the rover part of the mission: to carry the rover to the Moon’s surface, and to serve as a communication relay between the rover, orbiter, and Earth. Additionally, the lander carries instruments to conduct three scientific experiments and take measurements for 14 Earth days ater landing.
Pragyan Rover
ISRO
CHANDRAYAAN-2 PRAGYAN ROVER
Chandrayaan-2’s Pragyan rover explores the Moon in this screenshot from an ISRO video.
The Pragyan (Sanskrit for wisdom) rover is a 27 kilogram, 6-wheeled robotic vehicle with the ability to move autonomously within a 500m radius of the landing site. It has a 50-watt solar panel for powering its propulsion system, scientific instruments and communication equipment. Its mission life is one lunar day, or 14 earth days, during which it will explore the area around the landing site with its instruments. An attempt will be made to revive the rover after the lunar night.
GSLV-MK3 launcher
ISRO
GSLV-MK3 ON SECOND LAUNCH PAD
GSLV-MK3 on second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Center prior to launch
The GSLV-MK3 launcher will insert the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into its initial earth parking orbit. This is the most powerful launcher developed by ISRO, and has conducted two successful launches to date. Its first successful orbital launch was conducted on 5 June 2017, when it launched an experimental geostationary communication satellite named GSAT-19. Originally designed to launch ISRO’s heavier satellites into earth orbit, it is also the designated launcher for India’s planned Gaganyaan human spaceflight missions. Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was originally planned to be launched on the less-powerful GSLV launcher, but a change in the mission parameters and the weights of the orbiter, lander and rover led to a change in the launcher as well.
The GSLV-MK3 is a 3-stage rocket, consisting of a pair of S-200 solid boosters that are lit at the time of liftoff, a core liquid L-110 stage that burns hypergolic liquid fuel, and a CE-20 cryogenic upper stage that uses liquid hydrogen as fuel. Chandrayaan-2 will be the first interplanetary mission for the powerful launcher.
In my earlier write-up under “Innovative Ideas”, I have proposed how Electric cars can be made affordable by making Batteries as replaceable like Gas cylinders for domestic use. Then in the 2nd write-up I have proposed an Elevator System with helical rails, a Number Lock with increased security, a Room Air Conditioner with a cool box and lastly, a Gym Charger. You may see these ideas elsewhere in my Blogs. In the present write-up, the third in the series, I am giving my innovative ideas for the improvement of passenger convenience in our vast Railways network in India. I hope to send this to our efficient Railway Minister Mr. Piyush Goel.
6.0 Railway Reservation
In India, Railways is one of the most preferred and popular mode of travel between cities and towns. Since it is the most energy efficient mode of mass transport, the Indian Government is rightly giving high importance to this and offering a lot of incentives to promote its use. For the last few years I am observing a very disturbing trend which results in considerable inconvenience to genuine travelers and a loss of revenue for Railways. The amount of last-day-cancellations is on the increase. For example, last December I was travelling from Bengaluru to Chennai by morning Shatabdi express. I was wait-listed and my reservation was confirmed only late on the previous day of my travel. When I came to the train, I found our carriage was almost 2/3rd empty. I thought it may get filled up at the next Bengaluru Cantonment Station. But it still remained half-empty. When I inquired with a co-passenger, he said this is the normal occupancy or slightly less on the particular day. It is apparently due to multiple bookings or safety bookings, mainly by software engineers travelling very frequently between Chennai and Bengaluru. They book multiple tickets 3 months in advance by default, and as the travel day approaches they review their need to travel and cancel the trip with minimum loss. Since the seats become vacant in the last moments, there are no takers, for traveling at such a short notice. This happens almost in all express trains between cities causing, as told earlier, considerable inconvenience to genuine travelers and a loss of revenue for Railways. There is a very simple solution, by having several windows for booking and canceling, as suggested below:
Booking Windows:
Open only 30% of seats for reservation 3 months or 90 days, in advance of travel date
Open the next 30% of seats (+ unsold tickets of earlier quota) for reservation 60 days in advance of travel date
Open the next 30% of seats (+ unsold tickets of earlier quotas) for reservation 30 days in advance of travel date
Last 10% will be the Tatkal quota to be opened only 3 days in advance of travel date
You may compare this with the present practice of opening all the 90% at one stroke 90 days in advance. On very popular and crowded routes the 90% quota will be exhausted in the first 2 or 3 days. Any genuine traveler, who plans his journey, even 80 days in advance, will have to wait for next 77 days before going for Tatkal booking. This will naturally force him to think of other modes of transport.
Cancelling Windows:
Anyone who cancels his reservation within 30 days of his booking, or 30 days in advance of his travel date, whichever is earlier, will get 100% refund including reservation charges. Only a nominal service charge of Rs 10 or so could be billed to him.
Anyone who cancels his reservation, between 29 days and 15 days in advance of his travel date will get 100% refund excluding reservation charges plus a nominal service charge.
Anyone who cancels his reservation, between 14 days and 5 days in advance of his travel date will get 75% refund excluding reservation charges plus a nominal service charge.
Anyone who cancels his reservation, between 4 days and 3 hours in advance of his travel date/time will get 50% refund excluding reservation charges plus a nominal service charge.
Anyone who cancels his reservation, between 3 hours in advance of his travel date or a few minutes after departure of train, will get only 25% refund excluding reservation charges plus a nominal service charge.
Any cancellation later than the above windows will get refunds at the discretion of Railway Superintendent of the respective stations.
After such cancellations as above, the vacated bookings should be allotted to the next passengers in the waiting list immediately at every stage, so that the travelers have adequate time to prepare for their travel.
You may again compare this with present practice. Now even if somebody knows well enough that he will not be travelling on the booked date, he waits up to 72 hours before departure of the train before cancelling the tickets. Resale of this ticket in such a short notice will not happen and eventually Railway loses a customer. With computerized booking, such intelligent choices are very easy and efficient to implement.
Hope Indian Railways considers my suggestion as above.
7.0 Bridging Platforms:
In Indian Railways, recently they have realized the tremendous advantages of double discharge platforms on either side of the train. Such double discharge platforms are being implemented in all major railway stations and terminuses. The idea of double discharge platforms relieves the passengers with the stress of deciding which side, to be ready with the luggage, to disembark from the train. Another stress for the travelling public is to crossover to the exit of the stations, or to another platform for catching a connecting train, using over bridges or under passes. With several luggages and along with family and kids it is always stressful. Here is my idea to improve this situation:
Provide retractable bridges between the platforms over the railway lines at three places across the length of the platform – at both ends and in the middle.
The bridges can be retracted as the train arrives at (or runs through) the particular track with required safety features like interlocked signaling, bells, lamps and whistles.
This may not be practicable in very busy stations with frequent arrival of trains. In such stations escalators and elevators are a must.
This will greatly avoid the risk of fatalities occurring during illegal line-crossing which happens too frequently in India.
8.0 Train Toilet – 1
There are many problems with toilets in train: Cleanliness, Wetness, convenience, washing facilities, safety grips etc. In addition when the trains are halted in a station, yard or on a loop-line, use of toilets makes the station more dirty, unhealthy and unsightly. Of course there is a notice of request to the passengers not to use the toilets when the train is halted at stations. But the rule is rarely adhered to. Here is a solution at least for the last mentioned problem.
Toilets should be prevented from usage when the train is not moving,
To do this we may use an intelligent movement sensor to be interlocked with the toilet latch
When the train slows down to a very low speed, preparatory to halting, the movement sensor will lock the latch to prevent opening from outside. Anyone using the toilet will be able to open the latch from inside to let himself out. But as he closes the door, the latch will again get interlocked with the movement sensor.
As the train picks up speed, the latch will get decoupled from the interlock and get released for opening from outside.
The maintenance staff can be provided with a special key to open the toilet even when interlocked, for cleaning and maintenance.
9.0 Train Toilet – 2
All 2-Tier, 3–Tier and Chair-car carriages have totally 4 toilets, 2 each at the respective two ends. It may be better to convert 2 of them (one each from either end, into one male and one female urinal). Urinals are more frequently used, easier to clean and require less space, by accommodating both urinals in the space of one toilet. It will make it easier to keep the toilets clean.
However one major problem is with the solid refuse of the toilets. In most of the trains these toilets discharge waste through an opening, onto the track area itself. This corrodes the track fittings and risks the hygiene of track workers and inspectors. Here is my solution to this problem:
It could be better to compact the solid refuse in the under carriage of the train itself.
These compacted solid refuse stored in exchangeable drums can be replaced as a part of train cleaning and maintenance process at the terminal stations, or even in a designated cleaning stopovers en-route.
These drums of solid refuse can be used as bio-fuel and fertilizer for various applications
For safety of conservancy workers, we may automate the process suitably, (eg) auto-sealing of the waste drums as they remove them, integrated cleaning sprays for the toilet discharge area etc.
I Hope these ideas get considered seriously enough. They may be suitably engineered to increase the passenger convenience and safety many fold.
The vowels we learnt in Class-1 are actually known as Life-Letters in Tamil (i.e) உயிர் எழுத்துக்கள். The bare consonants are known as Body-Letters (i.e) மெய் எழுத்துக்கள். When these consonants get life when combining with vowels, they are called Life&Body-Letters, (i.e.) உயிர்மெய் எழுத்துக்கள். This is really a unique and apt description of alphabets of a language.
In Class-1, we learnt most of these Tamil Alphabets. Now let us learn a few words using them. Let us see a few words using the letters Ma and Ra, (i.e), ம and ர.
மா – Maa – Big or Mango
மாமா – MaaMaa – Uncle
மாமி – MaaMi – Aunty
மை – Mye – Ink or Dye
மரம் – MaRaM – Tree
மரு – MaRu – Mark (on the skin) or Name of a plant
மார் – MaaR – Chest
மோர் – MoR(e) – Buttermilk
மரை – MaRrai – Thread (as in bolt and nut)
மாமரம் – MaaMaRam – Mango Tree
மாரி – MaRi – Rain, A Village Goddess
மரி – MaRi – To Die
மேரி – Mery – Mary, a name
மும்முரம் – MuMMuRaM – Deeply involved
ரமா – RaMaa – Name of a girl
ராம் – Raam – Name of a Hindu God
It is a language of universal knowledge. It has assimilated the great literary and social features of all Indian classical languages such as Pali, Prakrit and Tamil. It has also contributed in evolution and development of all the languages in India, including Tamil. Sanskrit (or Samskrit) is an important language of India.Sanskrit (or Samskrit) is an important language of India. From very early days of Indian history, may be even from 4-th century BC, Tamil and Sanskrit have been studied with equal interest by all intellectuals of South India. Sanskrit is also the language of science and religion for all the ancient religions such as Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism.
Now let us learn a few special characters inducted into Tamil to enable us writing words from other languages like Sanskrit, English etc. They are known as Northern letters or Grantha letters.
ஸ
ஜ
ஷ
ஹ
ஸ்ரீ
S as in ‘Sulk’
J as in ‘Just’
Sh as in ‘Rush’
H as in ‘Hut’
Sri as in ‘Sridhar’
The first four of the above can combine with all vowels by taking same symbols we learnt in class-1
Let us learn a few words using the above letters along with ம (Ma) and ர (Ra)
மாஸம் – MaaSaM – Month
ரஸம் – RaSaM – Juice, Extract, a spicy sauce eaten with rice
ஸமம் – SaMam – Equal
மேஜை – MayJai – Table
ரோஜா – ROJaa – Rose
ராஜா – RaaJaa – King
ரிஷி – RiShi – Saint
ஹரி – HaRi – Another name for Hindu God Vishnu
மஹா – MaHaa – Great, Big
ஸ்ரீராம் – SriRaaM – God Ram with respectful title ‘Sri’
ஹாரம் – HaaRaM – Necklace, Garland
All the above words have explicitly derived from Sanskrit, though there are many other words also derived from Sanskrit which have been, may I say, fully Tamilized.
You may again revise all the alphabets learnt in Class 1 and 2.
We were visiting our son and daughter in the US during July/Nov 2016. Many visiting Indian parents find such visits as boring, since they are confined to home most of the time with nothing much to do. But in our case we look forward to such visits, as we can spend a lot of time in walks, Yoga and most importantly in books. The libraries in the US are too good and have excellent collection of all kinds of books. All the books I have listed below are borrowed from a single library in Cupertino, Ca, US. I am not sure whether we can access such books in India unless we search and purchase them. The library system in the US allows us to search the digital catalogues with lot of ease, looking for titles, authors, topics, fiction, non-fiction, etc. Herein I have given a brief review of some of the books I have read during my stay in the US in 2016.
Shikandi – Devdatt Pattanaik – 16/07/16
It is a book about sexual queerness, as narrated in the epics of India. Story of Shikandi is only a sample. There are other characters which are also as narrated by the respective stories. He includes Shiva’s episode, where he takes the form of a midwife for a devotee, (and delivered her child, in the absence of her mother) though there is no sexual interaction with anyone. He even considers the story of fast friendship between a poet (Pisir Aandayar) and a Tamil (Chola) king as ‘queer’. Story of Vishnu taking the form of Mohini, the enchantress, also finds a place in the narration. It is a readable collection of ‘queer’ stories from ancient India.
Inferno – Dan Brown – 01.08.16
This book is typically a Dan Brown adventure mystery. This new novel ‘Inferno’ by Dan Brown is based on a biological ‘terrorism’ of scientific age placed in the surroundings of medieval mysteries of Ottoman Empire covering present day Florence of Italy and Istanbul of Turkey. This novel is heavily based on Italian poet Dante Alighieri master piece ‘The Devine Comedy’ consisting of three cantos – Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise, describing the path of the dead/soul towards Hell, Punishment and finally perhaps the Heaven. There are many articles available in the net comparing this piece of ancient literature with similar ideas represented in ancient Hindu scriptures by Saint Veda Vyasa in his Garuda Purana. Some of them even suggest that Dante was inspired by this description of Hell (and the travel of soul with its pseudo-body through the hell to the Paradise). In Maha Bharata epic, King Yuthishtra is supposed to have passaged through hell as a punishment for abetting the unfair killing of Ashvattama.
In this novel there are some unexplained ambiguities as below
How can a single type of vector virus would do equal harm to the fertility of both men and women? Evidently, their reproductive systems are quite different.
Though a lot of anxiety is expressed by all the characters in the novel about this biological ‘terror’, it appears to be a very humane way of controlling the population. It is same as vasectomy and tubectomy, which are of course, voluntary. This type of population control is normally adopted in animals and pests.
The characters in the novel, opposed to this type of ‘terrorism’ initially, come around and accept the same and think of making it reversible.
However the novel is quite interesting and highly readable. It has also come as a movie with Indian actor Irfan Khan in the role of Provost, the off-shore expediter and the secondary antagonist in the novel.
An Incurable Romantic (The Musical Journey of Lalgudi Jayaraman), by Lakshmi Devnath, Harper Collins Publishers India (2013) – 11.08.16
The book itself was published in May 2013, just after the sudden demise of Sri Lalgudi on 22nd April 2013.
The episode concerning Lady Lokasundari and Sir C V Raman is quite funny. Smt Lokasundari was trained in Music by Valadi Radhakrishna Iyer, grandfather of Lalgudi. She sang ‘Rama nee Samaanam evaru’, apt for the occasion, when the groom Dr. C V Raman came for bride introduction function at Madurai, in early 1900s.
In the CD attached with the book, track-8, ‘Meenakshi Memudham’ was simply superb. The violin sings. When Lalgudi plays on two strings we can hear the words. Initially I thought he sings along. He creates this effect repeatedly in his rendering. The CD itself was too good and deserves to enter into all musical archives.
On 9th March 2008, The Music Academy, Madras awarded Sri Lalgudi, the Special Life Time Achievement Award, a one-off award for the first time ever in the ninety years history of the Academy. During the occasion the president of the Academy Sri N Murali said that non-award of Sangita Kalanidhi title to Lalgudi, can be compared to Mahatma Gandhi not getting a Nobel Peace Prize. Sri Murali was proud that they did better than Nobel foundation, by seeking ‘to erase the mistake and the aberration’ and ‘in conferring the Special Life Time Achievement Award’ for Sri Lalgudi. But all said and done, I am still feeling sad to see that Lalgudi’s portrait is not seen anywhere in the lobbies of the Academy, not even among the portraits of Sangita Kalanidhis. Will the Academy take steps to erase this aberration too?
The book is a very interesting read for a biography. It has been a very well researched material with all interesting references. Some of the intrigues, conflicts and challenges in the world of Carnatic music have been brought out along with Lalgudi’s mature responses for the same. I felt the book could have included a few more comments from the rasikas including a few Lalgudi fans.
This is a Tamil Novel. It revolves around the mystical experiences of a couple, whose father becomes a ‘siddha purusha’. They go in search of a mystery to the forests of south Indian mountains and encounter several mystical experiences. It is a good attempt at mystical spiritualism in Tamil.
Story of Numbers – John Mcleish – Fawcett Columbine 1992 – 20.09.16
This is a biography of Numbers and evolution of mathematical sciences. Like all authors of the western world, Prof. McLeish also appears reluctant to give due credit to the ancient civilization of India for the evolution of the number system and other mathematical concepts. Surely he has allotted one chapter (10 pages) for India, as compared to 20-page chapters for Arabia and China.
For example: Yajnavalkya (c. 9th– 8th century BC) recognized that the Earth is spherical and believed that the Sun was “the centre of the spheres” as described in the Vedas at the time. In his astronomical text Shatapatha Brahmana (8.7.3.10) he states: “The sun strings these worlds – the earth, the planets, the atmosphere – to himself on a thread.” He recognized that the Sun was much larger than the Earth, which would have influenced this early heliocentric concept. He also accurately measured the relative distances of the Sun and the Moon from the Earth as 108 times the diameters of these heavenly bodies, close to the modern measurements of 107.6 for the Sun and 110.6 for the Moon. He also described a solar calendar in the Shatapatha Brahmana”. Several Solar, Lunar and Luni-solar calendars are still in regular use in India. In the author’s discussions on calendars, he totally ignores this ancient Indian contribution.
P-144: Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi (c.780-850 CE)- (Ref: Wikipedia): The author mentions this Arab mathematician profusely in his text. Perhaps his most important contribution to mathematics was his strong advocacy of the Hindu numerical system, which Al-Khwarizmi recognized as having the power and efficiency needed to revolutionize Islamic and Western mathematics. The Hindu numerals 1 – 9 and 0 – which have since become known as Hindu-Arabic numerals – were soon adopted by the entire Islamic world. He oversaw the translation of the major Greek and Indian mathematical and astronomy works (including those of Brahmagupta) into Arabic. Though the Arabic scholar is willing to acknowledge the pioneering work done in ancient India, Western scholars and leftist intellectuals (even in India) are still not willing to accept the same, and call them as tall claims by Hindu nationalists.
Artifact – Gigi Pandian – 28.09.16
Pirate Vishnu – Gigi Pandian – 10.10.16
The author’s father is from India and she seems to have spent good amount of time in India to appreciate the ancient and recent culture of India. The first novel is about a lost and hidden treasure of ancient jewels of Jaipur royalty pilfered by an East India Company executive, centuries ago. Their descendants have hidden the same in a site near Irish border. An archeological explorer in the area hires some diggers, who seem to have their own agenda of finding and snatching the treasure and selling them to international art mafia. The story is well narrated as an adventure mystery. When I was reading the books of Dan Brown, I always thought there is a lot of scope for writing such treasure hunt mysteries with ancient treasures at many ancient locations of India. In fact, I have given my ideas of such a theme in my blog “Ancient Mystery thriller” – (https://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/ancient-mystery-thriller/
The second novel by Gigi Pandian, Pirate Vishnu, is also about an art piece, lost from Indian Port town of Tutucorin during the early struggle for Indian independence. The mystery revolves around Kochin and Sanfrancisco during the period of Gold rush. Mingling the stories of the past and present really enhances the narration. Especially, care has been taken to see the treasure being lost (or hidden) at the end of the ‘past’ story and it being found at the end of the ‘present’ story. Being only her second novel, her narrative style has shown lot of improvement. Quite an interesting read.
Lost Kingdom (Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia) – By John Guy – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York – Yale University Press – 10.16
This is a very good photo journal describing the influence of Hindu-Buddhist rulers in South East Asia. Excellent photographs of sculptures of almost all Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina religious icons are listed and catalogued. We know about Angkor Wat, Cambodia. There are hundreds of such temples throughout South East Asia. It is really amazing to see the photographs along with their historical perspective, with a sense of pride.
A Southern Music – The Karnatik Story – T M Krishna – Harper-Collins Publishers India (2013)
The above book consists of 27 essays on music written by Sri T M Krishna, a musician of great repute. These essays are put into three parts, namely, The Experience, The Context and The History. TMK has been doing a lot in taking this art music to all communities, especially to the community to whom it belonged a few centuries ago. He has received Magsaysay award for his work in breaking the community divide that is perceived to exist in the field of karnatik music. This award has been seen in a totally different context by the media and purists of the art form. But those reading this book will understand his views better in a social context than political. TMK suggests a lot of ‘mid-term corrections’ to the course taken by Karnatik Art Music at present times. I totally agree with many of his views on this aspect. We rasikas (and in fact, even musicians) should thank Sri T M Krishna for telling the story of karnatik music from the perspective of a concert artist. I feel parts of this book should be prescribed for study for all the serious students of karnatik music. Those who want to get a summary of the first part of this book can visit my blog as below:
OPEN MIND 