the inner voice

This has been one of my favorite nos. I have been humming this for years now. It has been a hot favorite with all singers, notably qawwals and these days the reality show contestants. Some of the known names who have lent their voice to this - Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Abida Parveen, Madam Noor Jehan, Wadali Brothers, Reshma, Sabri Brothers, Jagjit Singh, Runa Laila, Lata Mangeshkar, bands like Junoon and this list endlessly goes on. Many college bands have attempted this giving a rock flavour. That, one song could be so popular amongst so many, I wondered, what this song is all about, what's its true meaning. This and last week I spent looking for all the versions and answers to my questions. What a fascinating and satisfying journey it has been. This song is in the honor of Sufi mystic 'Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar'. Every word of his name has a meaning - he was known as Hazrat ( prophet of GOD ), Lal ( he wore red robes or mothers fondly call their kids as Lal ), Shahb...

A lot depends on what kind of facilities are available where you are. As a kid and upto class 12, I had both. Sainik School Balachadi had a huge campus. We had many football, hockey, basketball, volleyball and cricket grounds. I used to play all of them except for Cricket. I enjoyed watching it but never could ball or bat well. Invariably ended up fielding and started losing interest. The outdoor sports, mostly being team sports, were solid fun. Other activities included a morning routine of 3km and 7km runs around two famous temples. Overall,I think Sainik Schools do a good job of creating a culture of physical fitness. From a sports/physical fitness perspective, probably my engineering years were the worst. Did nothing. First one and a half years into my job, I stayed at Tata townships. Good part of living at Townships is extremely affordable sports facilities. At Jamshedpur, I learned to play billiards and snooker. I had a choice between this and golf and don't know why I went f...

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

I finished reading Simon Singh's 'Fermat's Enigma' and had earlier read his 'Fermats Last Theorem ( FLT )'. I am yet to come across a problem which a ten year old can understand, appears deceptively simple and yet has been one of the toughest problems in mathematics and and took over 300 years to prove. Simon obviously makes it an interesting read, a racy thriller so to say. This is going to be a long one. I want to talk about certain things in detail, which I liked, though I will keep it simple. Let me start with, what is FLT and why its called so ? We all know whats Pythagoras Theorem. One of the most fundamental theorems which everyone has to learn irrespective of which stream they study. Its says for a right angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse equals sum of the square of the two other sides. Mathematically presented x^2 + y^2 = z^2 where The above equation in a general form would look like x^n + y^n = z^n [ has no whole no. solutions for n>2 ] F...

This week while Anu and kids were away in Surat, I got some time to visit my old love. Obviously I am talking about Classical and Sufi renditions and other Urdu and Punjabi ( more Sufiyana ) poetry which is sublime and sensuous to your soul. Its like Spa to destress the soul and soothe it. This led me to various new blogs which have cropped up. Couple of them very neatly presented and arranged. One feels happy that the new generation is still interested and in some way connected. How long will it continue who knows ? Anyway for this post, I want to concentrate on one person who has left an indelible imprint on me - Amrita Pritam ( and her connection with Waris Shah). Amrita Pritam - What a towering name in Punjabi Literature on both sides ( India and Pakistan ). This beautiful face changed the face of Punjabi literature with her revolutionary thinking and writings. She defied the traditional image of women. The fertile soil of the land of five rivers provided the richness to her geniou...

Einstein once commented philosophically on relativity - "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours that's relativity." The essence of the quote is that time is different for different people, its not constant, as we generally think. I experienced this, in a sad ( for me ) way, while I went to interview students fom Delhi School of Economics for Summer Internship at our company. This was my first at the Campus. As I entered the Campus, a distinct feeling hit me and blew my mind apart into pieces. Young boys and girls, casual atmosphere, casual togs, not bothered about the interview, joking, loud music, who cares attitude..... the whole ecosystem is different. And we were like two overdressed dolts wanting to interview them. You never feel this way in the office or in the condominium one stays, wherein there is some kinda formal approach to everything you and your peers do. I ...

I hadn't heard about Simon Singh earlier. Was just going through the science section of Crossword Store and chanced upon 'The Code Book - The Secret History of Codes and Code Breaking'. Its an absolutely enthrawlling book - full of intrigue and thrill, toil and determination, passion and hard work with lots of science and lots of luck. It has been a while that I read someone who puts across mathematics with such amazing simplicity and clarity, coupled with stories around those events with pace of a racy thriller. That lead me to his next book - 'Big Bang - The most important scientific discovery of all time and why you need to know about it'. You think of Big Bang and you think of Stephen Hawking but honestly, how many of us can actually claim to understand and appreciate its nuances. One should start with this one. Right from Earth centred view, to Sun Centred View, to Einstein's revolutionary theories to the creation of Universe, with a BANG, the BIG BANG. If ...