Varuna Japam

What the disbelievers said on 20-July-2012 ---

What happened on 27-July-2012 ---

Surprising but true!

The elusive emerald lingam of Kalady

March 27 marked the third year after the half-foot Sivalinga, made of green stone believed to be emerald, went missing from the Adi Sankara Janmabhoomi Temple at Kalady in the rural Ernakulam district.

The State Police had responded by creating a Temple Theft Investigation Special Team (TTIST) soon after this burglary and this special team could crack many other cases. But the idol from Kalady continues to elude the force.

The idol was brought from the Sringeri Math in 1910 and is believed to be more than 500 years old. But investigators could not find any authentic document to date it. Some silver utensils used in the temple and the collection box at the tomb of Saradamba, mother of Adi Sankara, were also stolen along with the idol.

The TTIST officials traced the links to Sanjivi Asokan, a Chennai-based antique dealer, and questioned him while he was in the custody of Tamil Nadu Police, but the investigation did not progress. A senior member of the TTIST recalls that during interrogation, Sanjivi Asokan referred to his regular interactions with Subhash Kapoor, the US-based antique dealer, who has been extradited to India.

“There is only a suspicion that the idol might have reached Subhash Kapoor, and we do not have any specific information. Evidences at the scene of crime pointed to the involvement of a professional hand. That is why we wanted to question Kapoor, while he is in Tamil Nadu police custody,” K. Padmakumar, Inspector-General of Police, Kochi Range, told The Hindu.

The TTIST team has cracked more than 45 temple theft cases and 335 other property cases and arrested 45 people in connection with different temple theft cases. Among the idols recovered were Navapashanaganapathy, another emerald Sivalingam and a Panchaloha Ganapathy in cases registered at Angamaly; an idol of Sreebhadrakali in a case at Vaikom; another of Sree Hanuman in Bekal; a 60-kg Narasimhamoorthi and a 20-kg PanchalohaBalibimbam in Hosdurg; and an idol in a case registered at Perinthalmanna.

However, the TTIST was restructured as a Special Investigation Support Team in 2012 to assist local police in property crime investigation. “After the restructuring, only a couple of major temple thefts were reported, one at Bhagavathy Temple, Kalloorppara and Sree Krishna Swami Temple at Mavelikkara. While the case at Mavelikkara has been cracked and suspects arrested, we have made significant progress in the first case too,” said P.N. Unniraja, Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch, who heads the team now.

kAle varShatu parjanyaH ! (May the clouds rain at the right time!)

achchaa toh hum chalte hain !

 

Covey is no more!

The Harvard experience

NAMRATA NARAIN -  http://www.thehindu.com/education/college-and-university/article3645481.ece 

GOAL POST A melting pot of diverse cultures, Harvard University provides an opportunity to bring out the globizen in you.

It was on a visit to MIT, Boston, for my brother’s graduation ceremony that my family and I visited Harvard. I was then in the ninth grade. The university, having impressed upon us its grandeur through magnificent red-brick buildings, hardly ever figured in our discussions until it was time for me to decide where I wanted to attend college. Just having entered the eleventh grade, I had already plunged into preparing for IIT when I thought of taking the SAT exam as well. Attending a college in the United States was, to me, a viable second option. After two years of SAT and IIT going hand-in-hand, I got admitted to Harvard, that too with a full scholarship. It seemed like my decision had been made for me.

Widening my horizon

A complicated application process and a 14-hour-long journey are not the only obstacles for an Indian student who wants to study in the United States. My first cultural shock came when Juan, a friend of mine, introduced me to his boyfriend Andio. Having never been confronted with homosexuality before, I could barely manage to suppress an embarrassed giggle as I wished Andio and fled the conversation. My transition to a society which expected unconditional equality for all races, nationalities, and sexualities was a troubled process to say the least.

Now, looking back on my first days at Harvard, I find it difficult to recall the number of times we discussed the concept of equality during the opening days at Harvard. The first of the many discussions to come was called “Community Conversations.” Members of each hostel, among which were Asian, Indian, white American, black American, Hawaiian, latino, and bi-racial students, sat together and talked about the discrimination they had faced in their lives. Eddy, a friend of mine who is Asian, talked about his classmates mocking him for his small eyes. D’Joy talked about being lonely as the only black girl in an honors class. Juan confessed to having been ostracized by family and friends for “coming out of the closet,” for being gay. These confessions were important. They made each student sitting there aware of the possibility of being judged and being discriminated against. Such conversations were happening in each of the 17 hostels on campus and, simultaneously, were knitting together a community which would stand for equality come what may.

Freedom of choice

Being politically correct is only one of the several changes that a desi student is confronted with on a firang campus. Since Harvard is a liberal arts college, the students are given freedom to choose four or five courses each semester out of the hundreds that are offered. This trend is in confirmation with the American schooling system in which high school students don’t have to pursue a single ‘stream’ like we do in India, but can concentrate only on those subjects that interest them. It took me a year to catch up with this unfamiliar freedom of choice and, when I did, I found it rewarding and fulfilling.

In the first semester itself, I was studying Mathematics, English, Indian History, and Economics. A similar sense of freedom exists inside the classroom as well in which professors and students learn in an open and interactive setting. It is a must to respect the opinion of the other and care is taken to ensure that no discussion turns ugly. Even though attendance is not mandatory, all students attend class without fail. All courses are administered independently and with each having its own weakly assignments, they ensure semester-long hard work for the students.

Cultural activities

All the studying is punctuated by several parties that Harvard hosts on its grounds. On Halloween, Annenberg, the dining hall, was turned into a giant horror house and had a dance a party. In the spring, there was a spring carnival full of barbecues, concerts, and swings attached to large trees. The breadth and depth of the involvement of the university in building the student experience is exemplary. If fun and frolic is not enough to de-stress a student, she can visit any of the three advisers that the university assigns to each student. A senior student, a dean, and a warden work closely with each other to ensure that each student finds them easily accessible and has all the resources she might want to make her college experience fruitful and happy.

However, despite all the support, I often felt lonely on the campus. The Americans have a strict concept of “privacy” and do not appreciate constant company. My brother’s Indian college experience was vastly different; he would tell me about the several hours that his friends would spend in each other’s rooms. When I reached college, I would find it disheartening to be rejected when I would ask a friend to go with me to buy something. Most, if not all, students there are financially independent from their parents and have learnt to lead an individual’s life. It takes time and heart to get used to this abject independence.

A salad bowl

Having finished a year at a university in a foreign country, I realise what helped me the most was my realisation that I was now a part of a heterogeneous society. American campuses are beautiful melting pots of diversity but this beauty is maintained only when every student is willing to contribute to it. Being welcoming and appreciating of differences in the people can go a long way in establishing long lasting friendships. You should be ready to stead the fine line between maintaining your identity as an Indian and also as a global citizen. When this receptivity to differences develops, you’ll find the American student experience to be a fantastic one.

Lastly, what is the best remedy for loneliness, you ask? Well, as they say, when in Rome, use Skype.

Higgs-Boson God Particle !

A personal rediscovery at CERN

Rajivalochan Subramaniam at CERN (bottom right).


Rajivalochan Subramaniam found that his real goal actually lay in high energy physics. Here's how he found it.

Born and brought up at West Mambalam in Chennai, Rajivalochan Subramaniam considered himself a failure at a U.S. university before rediscovering himself in the field of high energy physics. A Ph.D was once a distant dream for Rajiv. It is the support of his father A. Subramanian, a retired government officer, and mother Latha and his grandparents, that has enabled him to pursue his dream at CERN, Geneva.

After schooling at Sri Sitaram Vidyalaya (2001) and Shri Ahobila Mutt Oriental School (2003) in West Mambalam, where he grew up on mathematics, he studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the Bannari Amman Institute of Technology at Sathyamangalam. His final-year project was funded by the Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology in 2007.

In August 2008, Rajiv joined the Electrical Engineering Master’s programme at Louisiana Tech University, USA, where he got partial scholarship.

In the U.S., there is an option to design one’s master’s curriculum, and Rajiv chose a combination of research and academics. “A majority of Indian students at the university chose the academics option as most of them are interested in a job. Having made a tough decision, I struggled during my first year of MS,” he says. The open book tests were more difficult than the closed book ones and the research work in electrodynamics made no sense to him. After nine months he quit that research, realising he was not cut out for electrodynamics. This statement of Einstein came to his mind then: Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. “One year on American soil ended in the Fall of 2009. All of my educational loan was spent and I was depleted financially and morally. My self-confidence was very low during this time as I considered myself a failure,” recalls Rajiv.

It was during this hard period that he met his current adviser/professor Dr. Markus Wobisch who is involved in high energy physics. At that time he did not know that his life was going to change. Prof. Wobisch was working with the U.S. Fermi National Lab located in Chicago and Rajiv’s electrical background was good for high energy physics research. “Even for the very minor results that I showed him, he encouraged me to such an extent that I really gained confidence in life.”

This moral support pushed him to become a successful Ph.D student. Seeing his progress, the department chair, Dr. Lee Sawyer decided to involve him in mankind’s biggest collaborative experiment, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). And that is how he started working at the ATLAS detector at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, exactly two years before the discovery of the Higgs boson-like particle.

In July 2010, he arrived at CERN. CERN is an underground lab which spans the Franco-Swiss border with a circumference of 27 km and is 100 metres under the ground.

At CERN, students, academicians and scientists do collaborative work for common goals. CERN tries to answer fundamental questions about the universe. The Standard Model is a basic model in modern physics. It lists and classifies all fundamental particles and forces, many of which were discovered at CERN. There were many parallel experiments at CERN and one of the main goals was to search for the Higgs boson.

The universe is filled with a field called the Higgs Field and the particles of the field are called Higgs bosons. Assume that a swimming pool is the universe and a HO molecule is equivalent to a Higgs Boson. As you cannot see water molecule in a swimming pool you cannot see the Higgs boson in the Higgs Field.

About 48 years ago, Peter Higgs and a few other scientists postulated this theory. The mathematics behind the theory was so wonderful that people started liking it .When most scientists agreed on the idea and were able to convince governments, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment came to life in 1990.

The Indian government has spent USD 40 million for the experiment and about 100 Indians have played a substantial role in the experiment. The total budget of the project is $10 billion. It took 20 years of hard work by over 10,000 scientists around the world to build these pyramids of the 21st Century. Along with students from India, other Indians studying in the U.S. and universities around the world also contribute to a great extent.

“After years of hard work we started taking data in 2010 March. By the end of 2011, there was no success but we got a few hints about the mass of the particle. In 2012 March-June, we started seeing positive results,” says Rajiv who personally contributed by selecting the interesting data to be recorded for detailed study, called “trigger system” in scientific terms.

Dara Singh passes away!

Dara Singh

Cinema halls in the city regularly screened King Kong-Dara Singh contests

Chief Sitting Bull, Russian Rocket, Superman — wrestlers with exotic nick names sparred in Chennai in the 1960s. Crowds thronged to watch — what the advertisements promised — ‘full blooded, action packed fights.’

But they came in even larger numbers to watch their undoubted favourite — ‘Killer’ Dara Singh. They wanted to watch his signature move — the ‘Indian Deathlock’ — that immobilised the opponent. And Dara Singh did not disappoint them.

In one of the early wrestling matches held in August 1960 at the Salt Cotaurs grounds near Basin Bridge, he knocked down Lionel Edwards of England in the fifth round with this famous move. The fans were immensely entertained.

Madras audiences were not new to wrestling. Movie halls often showed short films of international wrestling matches. Those who went to watch the filmHercules at Sayani cinema hall in the early 1960s enjoyed a 30-minute wrestling film.

Even those who choose to watch the adult film Mysterians at Brighton theatre did not miss out on a short film on world-wrestling tournament, which was shown along with the Pope’s coronation. Dara Singh himself was well-known to the wider Tamil audience. He appeared in the Tamil Movie Engal Selvi,whichwas released in July 1960.

The match between Dara Singh and King Kong, his famed opponent from Hungary, was the star attraction. Whenever the two fought, the fans wanted more of it. In January 1962, Dara Singh and King Kong wrestled at the Rajendra Singhji Stadium opposite Island Grounds.

During the second round, King Kong, for reasons unknown, aimed a blow at the referee Harnam Singh, who was the father of Ajit Singh, another well-known wrestler.

The organisers promptly disqualified King Kong and declared Dara Singh the winner. It is not clear whether there was any allegation of match fixing, and nobody knows what followed, but the 30,000 Madras fans were agitated. The reasonable among them, when disappointed, probably chose to watch the fights on celluloid. Cinema halls such as Select and Ashok regularly screened a more satisfying King Kong-versus-Dara Singh contest.

Madras fans, it appears from newspaper reports, were not entirely among the well-behaved back then. In August 1960, three sustained minor injuries after police used lathis to disperse the crowd. The police version blamed “the lower class ticket-holders” who allegedly rushed to the central platform after the wrestling match, causing a melee. They were lathicharged, and three men, aged 35, 29 and 17, were injured.

By 1965, Dara Singh and King Kong matches almost stopped. The disappointed fans had to be satisfied with their appearance in the Hindi film Aaya Toofan(starring Helen). For the more nostalgic, cinema theatres such as Select continued to show the entertaining Dara Singh fights at least until 1970.

Life is a mirage!

நம்மாழ்வார் சொல்லும் நான்கு ரகசியங்கள்!

நம்மாழ்வார் சொல்லும் நான்கு ரகசியங்கள்!

இருளும் ஒளியும் சந்திக்கும் அதிகாலையில் விழிப்பு, தாவரங்களோடு உரையாடிக்கொண்டே பண்ணைத் தோட்டத்தில் ஒரு நடைப்பயிற்சி, கொஞ்சம் யோகாசனம், கொஞ்சம் மூச்சுப்பயிற்சி என்று தன் நாளை ரம்மியமாய் ஆரம்பிக்கிறார் நம்மாழ்வார். 75 வயதிலும் 25 வயது இளைஞர்போல் உற்சாகமாக உழைத்துவரும் நம்மாழ்வாரிடம் ஃபிட்னெஸ் ரகசியம் பேசலாமா... 

''எனது ஆரோக்கியத்துக்கான அடிப்படைக் காரணம் என்னுடைய வாழ்க்கைமுறை. இது கிராமத்து வாழ்க்கை கொடுத்த பரிசு. தோட்டத்தில், பண்ணையில், மேடையில் என்று எங்காவது ஓரிடத்தில் உழைத்துக்கொண்டே இருப்பேன். உடல் நாம் சொல்வதைக் கேட்க வேண்டுமானால், நான்கு விஷயங்களில் முக்கியமாக கவனம் செலுத்த வேண்டும்.

ஒன்று... பசி வந்து சாப்பிட வேண்டும், இரண்டு... தாகம் வந்து தண்ணீர் அருந்த வேண்டும், மூன்று... சோர்வு வந்து ஓய்வு எடுக்க வேண்டும், நான்கு... தூக்கம் வந்து தூங்க வேண்டும்.

இந்த நான்கு விஷயங்களும் ஆரோக்கியத்துக்கு அத்தியாவசியமான விஷயங்கள். ஆனால், பட்டண வாழ்க்கையில் வேலைப் பளு காரணமாக இந்த விஷயங்கள் எதுவுமே சாத்தியம் இல்லாமல் இருக்கிறது.

தினமும் காலையில் கம்பு, தினை மாவு, கொஞ்சம் கருப்பட்டி சேர்த்து கஞ்சிவைத்துக் குடிக்கிறேன். இந்தக் கஞ்சி விஷம் இல்லாதது. அதாவது, ரசாயனம் இல்லாதது. கரும்புக்கு ரசாயனம் இடுவதால் வெல்லத்தில் ரசாயனம் இருக்கிறது. பனை மரத்தில் ஏறி நம் ஆட்கள் இன்னும் பூச்சி மருந்து அடிக்கவில்லை. அதனால்தான் பனை வெல்லம் சுத்தமான இயற்கை உணவாக இருக்கிறது.

பகல் வேளையில் ரசம் அல்லது மோர் மட்டுமே சேர்த்துக் கொஞ்சமாக சாதம் சாப்பிடுகிறேன். இடையில் காய்கறி ரசம். இரவில் இரண்டு அல்லது மூன்று இட்லி மட்டுமே ஆகாரம். பசிக்காவிட்டால் சாப்பிடுவது இல்லை. இதுதான் என்னுடைய சாப்பாட்டு அட்டவணை.

வெளியிடங்களுக்குச் செல்லும்போது உணவு விடுதிகளில் சாப்பிடுவது இல்லை. அதிகபட்சமாக நண்பர்களின் வீடுகளில் சாப்பிடுவேன். இல்லாவிட்டால் பழங்கள், கடலை மிட்டாய், பேரீச்சம்பழம் மட்டுமே என் உணவு. காபி, டீ சாப்பிடுவதைவிட்டுப் பல வருடங்கள் ஆகிவிட்டன.

ஆண்டு ஒன்றுக்கு  ஒரு லட்சம் டன் அளவு பூச்சிக்கொல்லி நஞ்சுகள் பயன்படுத்தி விளைவிக்கப்பட்ட உணவுப் பொருட்களையே இன்றைக்கு மக்கள் சாப்பிடுகிறார்கள். நோயோடு பலரும் வாழ்வதற்கு  பூச்சிக்கொல்லி நஞ்சுகள் ஒரு முக்கியமான காரணம்.

உடல் ஆரோக்கியமாக இருந்தால், மனமும் நன்றாக இருக்கும். உடல், மன ஆரோக்கியத்துக்கு இயற்கை ஒரு பெரிய வரப்பிரசாதம். செடி ஒன்றை நட்டுவைத்து, அது வளர்வதையும் மொட்டுவிடுவதையும் காய்ப்பதையும் கவனித்துவந்தால், மனதுக்குள் குதூகலம் பிறக்கும். இதை ஒரு சிகிச்சைமுறையாகக்கூட மருத்துவர்கள் சொல்வார்கள். தாவரங்களிடமும் செல்லப் பிராணிகளிடமும் அன்பு செலுத்திப் பாருங்கள். அதன் மகத்துவம் புரியும்'' என்றவரின் பேச்சு மெள்ள இன்றைய இளைஞர்களின் புகை, மதுப் பழக்கம் நோக்கிச் சென்றது.

''மது, புகை வியாபாரிகள் தங்களது லாபத்துக்காக இளைஞர்கள் மீது இந்தப் பழக்கத்தைத் திணிக்கிறார்கள். வருங்காலத் தூண்களாக விளங்க வேண்டிய இளைஞர்கள், மது - புகைப் பழக்கத்துக்கு அடிமையாகி நுரையீரலையும் குடலையும் கெடுத்துச் சீரழிகிறார்கள். இதன் தொடர்ச்சியாகச் சமூகச் சிக்கல், பொருளாதாரச் சிக்கல், குடும்ப உறவில் சிக்கல் என்று எல்லாத் தரப்பிலும் பிரச்னைகள் குவிகின்றன. இதை அனைவரும் சேர்ந்து ஒருமித்துக் கண்டிக்க வேண்டும். 'உடலுக்குத் தீங்கு விளைவிக்கும் எந்தச் செயலையும் நாம் செய்யக் கூடாது’ என்ற உறுதியான சுயக் கட்டுப்பாடு ஒன்றே இதுபோன்ற தீய பழக்கங்களின் பிடியில் சிக்காமல் நம் சமூகத்தை காக்கும்.

'இழிவறிந்து உண்பான்கண் இன்பம்போல்

நிற்கும்

கழிபேர் இரையான்கண் நோய்’

- என்கிறார் வள்ளுவர்.

அளவறிந்து அமைதியாய் சாப்பிட்டால் ஆரோக்கியம் நம் பக்கம் நிற்கும். இல்லாவிட்டால் வள்ளுவர் சொல்வதுபோல் நோய்தான் நம் பக்கம் நிற்கும். இன்றைய இளைய தலைமுறையினருக்குச் சாப்பிடக்கூட நேரம் இல்லை. அவசரம் அவசரமாக அள்ளி விழுங்கிவிட்டு ஓடுவது நிறைய வியாதிகள் வருவதற்குக் காரணமாகிவிடுகிறது.

பதப்படுத்தப்பட்ட உணவுகளைத் தவிர்க்க வேண்டும். கெட்டுப்போய்விடக் கூடாது என்பதற்காக அதில் கலக்கும் ரசாயனங்கள் நம் வயிற்றுக்குள் சென்றும் அதே வீரியத்தோடுதான் இருக்கும் என்பதைப் புரிந்துகொள்ள வேண்டும். பசித்தால் மட்டுமே உணவு, அதுவும் இயற்கை உணவு; அதையும் கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சமாக உமிழ்நீரோடு சேர்த்து ரசித்து மென்று சாப்பிட்டால் எப்படி வரும் வியாதி? எல்லாமே கலைதான்!

நோய் வந்த பிறகுதான் உடலைப் பற்றிய ஞாபகமே மக்களுக்கு வருகிறது; மருத்துவமனைகளைத் தேடிப் போய்ப் பணத்தைக் கொட்டுகிறார்கள். ஆனால், நோய் வருவதற்கு முன் தங்களது உடலைக் காப்பதற்காக நேரம் செலவழிப்பது இல்லை.

உணவு, நீர், காற்று... இந்த மூன்றில் இருந்துதான் நம் உடலுக்குச் சக்தி கிடைக்கிறது. இந்த மூன்றில் இருந்து தவறான விஷயங்கள் ஏதேனும் உடலுக்குள் சென்றுவிட்டால்தான் நோய் வருகிறது.

நம்மை ஆரோக்கியமாக வைத்திருக்கும் நாளமில்லாச் சுரப்பிகளை தியானம், யோகாசனம் போன்றவைதான் ஊக்குவிக்கின்றன. அதனால், ஒவ்வொருவரும் தங்கள் உடலைப் பராமரிப்பதற்காக ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட நேரத்தை ஒதுக்க வேண்டும். உடலுக்குள் தேங்கிவிடும் கழிவுகளை வெளியேற்றுவதற்கும், உணவின் கலோரிகள் எரிக்கப்படுவதற்கும் காரணம் இந்த மூச்சுக்காற்றுதான். நாம் சுவாசிக்கும் இந்த பிராண வாயுதான் ரத்தத்தை சுத்தப்படுத்துகிறது. மூச்சை இழுக்கும்போது, காற்று நுரையீரலுக்குள் முழுமையாகச் சென்று சேர வேண்டும். ஆனால், நாம் பெரும்பாலும் மேலோட்டமாகவே சுவாசிக்கிறோம். இதனால், நுரையீரல் முழுமையாகச் சுருங்கி விரிவது இல்லை. நுரையீரல் நன்றாகச் சுருங்கி விரிய மூச்சுப் பயிற்சி அவசியம்.

எந்த ஒரு வலியும் இல்லாமல் நம்மைக் குணப்படுத்தும் வல்லமை மூச்சுப் பயிற்சி மற்றும் யோகாசனங்களுக்கு உண்டு. நான் நாள் தவறாமல் யோகாசனம், மூச்சுப்பயிற்சி ஆகியவற்றைச் செய்கிறேன். முதுகெலும்பை நேராக வைத்திருக்கும் வஜ்ராசனமும் செய்வேன். இவைதான் என் ஆரோக்கிய ரகசியம்'' என்று தனது வெண்தாடியை நீவியபடி பளிச்செனச் சிரிக்கிறார் பசுமை நாயகன்!