Rabindranath Tagore was a bengali poet,novelist,social reformer who was born in 7th May,1841 at Jorashanko,Kolkata. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his publication of poem collectible – “GITANJALI”. As a bengali kid,its a very obvious thing that a child must listen ,learn bits and pieces of Rabindra sangeet/Rabindra Nritya. It is a tradition quite running out since generations that in every bengali family,the ideals of Rabindranath Tagore,Subhash Chandra Bose is imbibed in a member’s values. Although,I learnt professionally Hindustani Classical Music,but I learnt some Rabindrasangeet of different genres. Now,If I am asked about my favourites in listening music,it will obviously be Rabindrasangeet along with bollywood melody or folk. Today, I am mentioning about remembering the great poet through my philatelic collections.

Hope our upcoming generations have an inclination towards learning art and culture while continuing studies and get inspired from the values of Kabiguru Tagore.

A very Happy New Year first of all.

As the year approaches, we all fill and thrill with our new resolutions. Past decade has been amazing, enthralling,but at the same time learning to fight new challenges has been the biggest achievement I guess. A decade of so much transitions, from teen to adult , school to university, real communication media to social media and the list goes on. I just want to say a big THANK YOU to those around me ,who stood by me, beared my craziness as well and making me correct to improve over time. I am thankful enough to God that every time I had interacted with positive people some or the other way and their sayings and moments have been captured somewhere in my memories. I wish that my next decade will be filled with equal amount of joy as well as challenges. I pray for health and happiness for every near and dear ones. I pray that , I will be important enough for someone’s life and vice versa. I too had many friends,but only some are there who really understand me ,and always found in “ready to sort mode. ” Last ten years had been a period of consistent change in geography , society as well as ideology from my point of view. When someone crosses 20’s ,one feels that I am the leader of this world,I want to live life higher , but as the time approaches , there is an internal feeling ,if you want to live life on your own terms, you need to work hard and be perseverant enough. But living life on one own terms is not the real happiness, caring for the dear ones make you sensitive as well as patient , we understand what values are , what it means to raise a human being – the earth’s most civilised species (According to science) but also being sensitive ,caring and sharing is the truth to justify human beings are the most civilised species on earth. I wish in this decade I learn toadd values in my life , so that my own values help me to see a brighter and wider version of this world.

Thank you all the special one for the support and gesture you have bestowed upon me , I wish you a new year with new excitements , as well as telling add value in your own life ,so that someday you can be the reason for someone’s smile. Be open to positive criticism , shower kindness to the right people , mingle with the right person , be non-violent with the person you don’t like, respect other’s ideologies, you can’t force someone to see your views , but yes you can be the reason to change someone’s views. Try to add knowledge to what you do. And my Last message Read a lot , because reading kills someone’s ignorance , breaks someone’s negativity.

BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN OTHERS – Mahatma Gandhi

I have always observed science as a knowledge of multilateral dimensions. Infact religious values and traditions do have some hidden science which is hard to be believed in terms of complex scientific terms , preferably for Indians. It is said that every practical problem has a solution which involves science. THEN WHY IS IT SO ,WE HAVE SO MANY PROBLEMS , BUT NO SCIENCE IS PROVEN TO RESOLVE IT? Because in an urge  to find complex solution,we miss out simple tricks too.When the whole country , world is in dire need to combat climate change,emissions, rising sea levels ,global warming etc etc. (we all are regular to these words nowadays). I am giving a brief overview , how simple science has the solution to overthrow most complex problems surrounding our environment.Can the above mentioned words have its solution hidden in simple science or in our mentality.

I was watching a TED talk by Professor Manu Sharma  of Stanford University. He has developed a FOLDOSCOPE- a 50-cent microscope made from paper with a magnification of 140X(shocking!!!!!) and adopted as a pilot project in many  african countries,and the simple science is truly amazing – the science of origami – an extra class subject ,we used to have in our schools to make birds and flowers from papers,which I never focussed to understand the basic science behind it.Don’t you think,it is a true game-changer for climate change(directly or indirectly). We all study sustainable development in school,universities , but how many of us know when and where we practically implemented in our life till now?? If as a single person , we try once to solve a simple nearby problem , we can  have a better bunch of solutions for complex problems. Infact , planting a tree is also a solution for this complex climate change.

Like that , scientific development comes with an effective cost. India , as a country which doesn’t spend much on research as compared to developed countries or else the whole of european countries , we all expect that something will be discovered on a slow pace , but there is no time limit. We have no doubt that , India has a huge pool of talented ,hard working youth but this jugaad nation sometimes get deprived of its opportunities. Thanks to the British rule in India, which has given us spoon feeding education system in free-of-cost , a concept specifically derived from the days of Industrial Revolution of 1800s . This system has specifically designed a halt in the track of innovation . Problem led to another problem , bureaucratic hurdles , politics, corruption deepened the roots of problems , and so then a break comes in the innovation , we ceased to discover something new over a time. But thanks to an organisation in India, which made us to rethink all is not over. The success of Mangalyaan in 2014, suddenly made a drastic change in the science , technology and innovation of India. Suddenly , jugaad was looked as an innovation as well as a solution. the biggest frugal innovation successful so far –The Mangalyaan Mission.  And the whole world got shocked , what science has been used with just 450  crores for a successful space mission. Thanks to ISRO, which made us rethink about frugal science importance to us. I hope all the indian scientists , innovators over the world as well as in India, may have done something in their  life where jugaad has been applied. 

I always believe that , someday those bookish classrooms of schools,colleges,universities  will glow again with  massive innovations for overcoming problems to proof that this land of APJ Abdul Kalam , Homi Bhabha, CV Raman, Aryabhatta, Charaka etc will not ever loose its lustre for hard work, dedication and invention. And the discovery will come at a cost of frugal innovation . More frugal it is, more sustainable the life is . 

And climate change is not just a subject we studied as an add on course in our school or college days , but a serious issue interlinked with every subject , be it science, history , economics , etc , and it’s high time to adopt a frugal path to save this planet. It’s very important to mention about it, or else we would not forget that our target to go frugal can only help our coming generation to live more if this green planet is revived. 

Here I enlist about some frugal innovations of our India, which doesn’t get patented but still it exists in the bushy areas of urban as well as rural India. And highly shared as a meme in the  digital media.

                

Links – 

I couldn’t mention what is social media,a media that has captured mass media inside it,a media that has changed the dynamics of generation ,a media which has made the memories of a 90’s kids a history because we are not going to relive these moments with the next generation.

We all have multiple social media account rather than a bank account ,the time is close when no contact address is needed to open bank account ,it can only be done with your Facebook id (my just clueless thought).My point to say like this is because ,nowadays two world exists,one is virtual another is real.One continues a normal human life on geographical mass of earth,another lives a life in social media. I have met many persons,who speak so much on messenger but when they come before you in reality as a human being,they don’t speak,I really have a curiosity to understand the science behind this,is that the reason that “Fingers are mightier than Mouth”?? that when you type you develop words on your own,but when it comes to talking you don’t have words to express.My curiosity is why such that? does our brain have different processing units for different expressions of words??

Social media has different avenues some are addicting,some are interesting,some boost up your confidence ,others degrade your sense ,and sorry to mention the word “Meme” got famous because of the social media,what would have happened if there was no meme in the world of status and posts. I personally feel that social media needs to be used but every phenomenon in science or life has a particular threshold, we should maintain that threshold or control to make us stable ,our activities stable. There are many applications which I see a platform to momentum of expression such as Instagram,Twitter, Quora.

Facebook is the most common platform which have made a reconnection to the world which was earlier detached or less communicable because of slow media be it telephone or letters. In today’s world it’s very easy to find someone on social media than on local streets .But I find a difference in that reconnection,why it is like that you have plenty of friends on Facebook but when it comes to your own to share thoughts you all are alone. What is the need of such media then????My take on Facebook is like that while using it we all are obsessed with likes ,emojis and comments but we don’t go for the depth.

Instagram has become one of the most sought media after Facebook ,where expressions are thorough images ,some are exquisite,amazing , beyond boundaries ,some I don’t understand why it is required to post🤔🤔🤔🤔

I have restrained myself from Facebook and Instagram to understand myself and look into my own behaviour ,I was an active user of such media and will be ,but I need to be connected socially and really,before making myself to jump again in the virtual media .I found Quora as an interesting platform to know people ,write for something,a social platform where connections are made through ideas and expressive writings.And it will be unfair if I don’t mention the world bigger than the Facebook,i.e. WhatsApp,I don’t think we can’t live without it ,24hrs active platform,the technology that ended the trend of SMS packs,the media which has confined SMS upto service messages only,and all personal thoughts are shared through this ,where real status actually exists rather then the dictionary meaning of status 😉😉😉.

There are many more types of social media to discuss about ,it will become a book if I discuss more,social media is not that bad ,it is interesting field of any kind of expression,but use it as a boon to boost up your confidence not to degrade it , control its use in a way so that you connect socially both in a virtual and real way.I named this post “The twigs of Social media” because some twigs in a plants are soft when it is a sapling ,when it grows slowly those soft ones become hard and sometimes converts into pricks which injures ourselves only.This social media is like that when we use it at start we enjoy it ,when the habit gets old with time,it sometimes injures our habits too.

So now having learnt how to put social media into use,the writer will appreciate your gesture of putting it into use by clicking any of the icons below 👇👇👇

Goodbye

Who else doesn’t love to travel????Every person’s one of the common ambition is “leave everything and just travel”,some truly follow it,some has constraints that they are not getting time,others have a friend group who keep planning that someday they will experience the “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” moment,infact me and my friends are still awaiting for it.My whole family loves to travel,and I have visited multiple times those regions which are more of religious importance.When it comes of religious importance,I must not forget to mention “Ganga” ,the river which is not only associated with Hinduism point of view,but which has a civilization attached with it , whether how much polluted it can be found through research and science,in Indian point of view,”Ganga me dubki lagao ge toh paap dhul jaayenge”.

My first visit to the banks of Ganga was in 2001,when I was 9 years old in the city of Haridwar at Uttarakhand,when the Ganga was more clean and clear than now,and the river with dangerous currents, after that I visited Haridwar 4 times probably ,one during “Mahakumbh” in 2010,where I witnessed the saga of whole India coming for just one “dubki” ,where unofficial count of people was probably 2 crore ,and I decided I will never come to Haridwar again because I thought all people are insane,how crazy they can be ,later on I realised ,why kumbh Mela is not a Mela of shops,but instead it is the Mela of humans , where people from all over India and the world visit at that time to rejuvenate the historical presence of evergoing Human civilization.

Then another city through the banks of Ganga I visited was Varanasi,oh what a place!!!!!,in 2013 and at that time I just watched the Bollywood movie “Ranjhnaa” and when I was crossing through the lanes of Banaras ,the dialogues of ranjhnaa where actor Dhanush explains the “Banaras ki galiyan” were cooing in my ears ,the Varanasi is little bit different than Haridwar ,here the Ganga is silent and would allow you to have a boat ride ,and you would be able to witness the ancient city through its ghats ,and It would make you to fall in love with this city,temples,foods,banarasi sarees,sarnath, banarasi pan and list goes on.

The next city through Ganga is Allahabad , transformed its name to Prayagraj,but the people are still इलाहबादी ,the “sangam” nagri which means confluence of three rivers – Ganga,Yamuna,and the Saraswati .The city is bigger and interesting too,why the people there so proudly say that yeh humare amitabh bachhan ji ka sheher hai .

Another place I forgot to mention earlier is about the small place Rishikesh ,some distance far from Haridwar ,where the Ganga is actually clean,clear and blue ,and the best rafting location.the view of Ganga through the Ram-Lakhsman jhula is just amazing.

The last one,I am mentioning is Kolkata the city of joy ,and my childhood summer vacation point so I was quite frequent there,but the best experience of Ganga is when we have to cross the banks of Belur Math to Dakshineshwar Kali temple.The feeling is awesome ,and Ganga here is called Hooghly and it is bit polluted too ,when you are travelling on train from Guwahati to Kolkata,you will also cross the longest dam of Farakka which is near Malda.

My travel through Ganges,has made me rethink the ancient, medieval and modern history of India,why the history was more concentrated in perennial river Ganga,why Pataliputra was longest serving capital of different kingdoms ,why Mughals were concentrated in North India and the Northern plains,why British made its first capital of India in Kolkata .And not only history, geography and economics are also related to this river ,why most ancient inhabitated city is still in the banks of Ganga, it made me rethink the point Ganga is a confluence of History, geography, Religion and Mythology.

I haven’t visited South India and the civilization of the south and I am deeply interested to know ,I would like to write for it once I travel.

Here are some of the pictures from my Ganga travel diaries.

I am a 90s kid,so a generation where physical and real things existed rather than smart phones, laptops,smart TVs, applications ,social media etc. At that time,we had a proper period of playing in the locality, exchanging pokemon cards ,WWE cards etc .We all had some certain hobbies that time,which used to make us passionate about learning new things other than books and homeworks.Some loved to listen songs,dance,collect comic books ,writing on slam books ,and uncountable things. Like every child of that generation,I too had a hobby it was quite different from others,many doesn’t do it or practice it ,some of my friends really found it boring too,but it was special for me,and that was COLLECTING STAMPS ,and there was only one friend of mine with whom I shared the same hobby interest ,he was my school friend- Ruhit. He was a collector of not only stamps,but also coins. Later when I was doing engineering,I found another friend who collected coins but shared the interest of collecting stamps too and that is Kunal.So I must say till now ,I met only 2 people who had an interest of coins and stamps.

Think of the whole population of stamps collectors then,there are people who collect coins,but there are very less people who collect stamps. And in the 21st century where Electronics media ruled the stage,it’s obvious that stamps had limited itself to be pasted in Bookpost Letters. But I was lucky enough that I got the chance to collect such antiques of the previous century ,stamps are still published , nowadays we get hold of these easily in online sites or online post-office.

My hobby of collecting stamps would not have been possible if the people associated with me wouldn’t have provided me with sources,first it was Ruhit,where we had a barter system of exchanging stamps,we had a negotiation of he would supply me foreign stamps and instead of that I will supply him uncommon Indian stamps.Next came on board my brother and his friends ,who would provide me in stamp albums and aslo some uncommon Indian stamps.And slowly the people who would provide me with stamps ,one of my paternal grandfather ,who was a distinguished professor at an Indian University in Kolkata ,he used to collect stamps for me ,from his collections of foreign letters from other countries,this amount of love I used to get in the form of stamp gifts.

The journey didn’t stop here ,my collections increased day by day,and I learnt more about countries ,their history , geography just by reading stamps ,and also reading Atlas through that.Remember at that time nor we had Google or nor we had Instagram.It was quite a surprise for me after my start of my hobby when I heard that my mother also used to collect stamps,and it was mere coincidence for me when I found my mother’s stamp album and it was that moment,when I realised, generation change but sometimes the interest for a particular passion doesn’t change.May be we are a generation of transition where we observed the transition of analog to digital, communication of real to virtual,and also stamps to no stamps. But I must say ,I had this antique collection which is really priceless for me,where I had a collection of over 70 years of stamp prints ,some before independent India also.From now I will be talking about a country,place,date it’s facts by sharing one stamp a week(Folks I have 420 plus) writing about it ,hope I would bring back the history through its pictures only.

Right now I have also started collecting coins too,they are real gems too,along with history and geography you get to know the economics of the country. The collection is at quite preliminary stage.Here I share some pictures from stamps and coin collections

These are my some coins and currencies I received as gifts or collected from cousins and friends

And this is my real treasure for me MY FLOW OF LEARNING

India is a very diverse nation,which have 22 plus official Indian languages and uncountable regional festivals varying from one part of nation to another.But amidst of all that,there comes a festival which is welcomed every five years and with five years the participants of this festival are added accordingly .I am talking about the general elections which is underway i.e. GENERAL ELECTIONS-2019.This festival is something different because in this one ,we don’t celebrate inside our home or premises but instead we come out and vote ,to select our own representative and to assess the power of democracy.This festival comes thrice in five years one as general,another as regional and local,i hope you got it what i am trying to say.

For the first time ,India’s general elections will be conducted in 7 phases(may be unknowingly thanks to india’s ever increasing population) .So already 4 phases are over 3 more to go,I urge every voter to come out and cast their valuable vote because there is actually a truth not a ‘THOUGHT’ that one vote can make a change .Our country “India ” is regarded as the world largest democracy,and it is said so not because of the leaders or ministers but actually because of the general public like us who choose them.India conducted its first general elections or the LOK SABHA elections in 1952,that time there were no EVMs ,but there were ballot papers where maintaining the secrecy of the papers were very tough,with the change in century,te way of conducting elections also changed we changed from Ballot Boxes to EVMs to VVPATs too.The countless efforts of manpower behind this were and is not noticed..Let’s dedicate this voting and India’s democracy election not only to choose leaders but also the manpower and the people who make it possible for us so that everyone can vote peacefully.

Someday i will be writing about the facts associated with the general elections in INDIA

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton