Rahul Basu 04/03/1956 -05/03/2011

 When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanish'd sight;
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
 But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor'd, and sorrows end.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30

(This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao)

The IPA Rahul Basu Award for best thesis in HEP (2024)

The award ceremony for the Indian Physics Association administered Rahul Basu Award for the best thesis in HEP was held at Banaras Hindu University on   23rd December 2024. Theses which were submitted in the period 2022 to 2024 were considered for the award. The award committee consisted of:

Award Committee: Sunanda Banerjee, Ghanashyam Date, Amol Dighe, Diptimoy Ghosh. Debashis Ghoshal, Rohini Godbole, Sourendu Gupta, Neelima Gupte, Lokesh Kumar, James Libby, Bedanga Mohanty, Subhendra Mohanty, Sunil Mukhi, and Seema Sharma

The following theses were selected for the 2022-2024 award by the award committee. These were:

Winners:

========

Dr. Ahmadullah Zahed, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Thesis Title: New tools to constrain EFTs and CFTs.

Dr. Ashish Pandav, National Institute of Science Education and

Research, Bhubaneswar and Homi Bhabha National Institute,

Mumbai

Thesis title: Probing the QCD Phase Diagram via Net-proton Number Fluctuation at RHIC.

Runners up / Honourable Mention:

==========================

Dr. Sunil Jaiswal, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,

Mumbai

Thesis title: Exploring New Regimes of Relativistic

Hydrodynamics.

Dr. Fahim Varsi, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Thesis title: Measurement of the energy spectrum and composition of cosmic rays by the GRAPES-3 experiment.

All four awardees presented short talks on their work. The session was co-ordinated by Dr Lokesh Kumar, one of the first two winners of this award, in person.  Prof, Bedangadas Mohanty presented a short online introduction on the  award, the selection procedure and the past winners. We had a memorial session on Prof. Rohini Godbole, who was crucial in setting up this award, and was one of the most knowledgeable and hardworking members of the award committee. 

The award committee put in long hours to pare down the nominations down to the winning four, despite their super busy schedules. Many thanks are due to their efforts and expertise, which has always ensured the quality of this award. The chairs, Prof. Bedangadas Mohanty and Prof. Debashis Ghoshal carried out superb co-ordination and kept every one on schedule. Special thanks to them, and also to the Indian Physics Association for their support of this award. The awardees are presenting short summaries of their theses, which will be published in the IPA journal, Physics News. We will be putting up the link here. We hope this will inspire future generations of students to work of this quality.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.




 

 

 

Rahul Basu (04/03/1956-05/03/2011)

You have no idea how hard I have looked for a gift to bring you,

Nothing seemed right.

What's the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the ocean.

Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.

So I have brought you a mirror,

Look at yourself and remember me.

-Rumi

 

 

By the Volga

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early September saw a wonderful trip, a river boat trip on the Volga. Our beautiful river boat, the Lunnaya Sonata, started off by the Northern river station (Rechnoy Vokzhal) in Moscow, and made its majestic way down the Moskva river, a tributary of the Volga, to join the main river stopping by the ancient towns of the golden ring,  Kostroma, Uglich, Yaroslavl, Tutaev and  Dubna, peppered with ancient churches and monasteries,  kremlins,  relics of saints and tsarevichs, watch and cheese factories, super devout tour guides steeped in  Russian Orthodox church practices, singing  baritones,  and onion shaped domes. The cities of Russia are incredibly old (973 AD, e.g.), with legends of Ivan the terrible, and his ill fated son, later canonized as a saint,  relics of St.  John the Baptist and those of the Soviet regime, now consigned to museums as memories of a dream, albeit a collective dream that lasted 70 years, and chalked up impressive achievements. The boat drifted by gardens and cottages and riverside boulevards while we sat in plush salons with tasseled curtains, discussing geophysical flows and plasmas, punctuated by incredible meals (seven courses and champagne for breakfast), and conversations with the nicest and kindest set of students and scientists  ever seen. 

The final stop was Moscow, with a fortuitous booking in a hotel which was a 15 minute walk from the Red Square and the Kremlin across a flower strewn bridge on the Moskva. What could be nicer than the attic room with the skylight? The stairs were a pain, though. The walk along the river had incredible views, river boats with tourist tours and the Kremlin wall and towers beyond. The short walk ended in the Red Square, with the multicoloured onions of St. Basil's cathedral dominating the skyline, and the huge square choc a bloc with tourists, now mostly domestic and Japanese, due to the recent sanctions. The weather was a blessing, the sunlight was bright enough to give sunburn. The onions were Russian enough, but the beautiful buildings round the square are reminiscent of Paris, a reminder of Tsarina Catherine, and the French spoken in Russian courts. Here, of course, the reminders of the Soviet regime abound, from the tomb of the unknown soldier, and the daily salute of the goose stepping soldiers, to the graves of heroes of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin included. The highlight was the embalmed  body of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, seen thanks to the kindness of lady guards who held my hand and whisked me through the pitch dark mausoleum two minutes after it shut! After this adventure, everything was an anticlimax, despite the statue of Marshal Zhukov on his horse, and the Kremlin Cathedrals and armoury and it's gold and silver treasures. 

 

 

 

 

 

\

 So finally it was dasvidaniya Russia, a country which loomed large on the childhood of our generation, from the Sputnik, and Laika and  Gagarin and Tereshkova, to Mir Publishers and Russian fairy tales. Spasibo to kind hosts and hostesses, until we meet again. 

 

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

 

Tailpiece:  People said Muscovites don't speak English, although Russian friends had said that many young people do.  As it turned out, all communication was very easy. If you asked someone something in the street, they just pulled out their phone so that you could speak in it. Then they gave the answer to the phone, so that you could read it in English. AI saves the day, here and everywhere!

 

 

 

 

     

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

A tale of two cities

Today is the day to tell the tale of two cities, here, two major metros in our own country, viz. Chennai and Kolkata.

Good news first, plus our own city, so Chennai. The city is in a celebratory mood for its 385th birthday,  viz. August 22, 1639. as per East India Company records. The city is pulling out all stops with Heritage walks, exhibitions of vintage photos, food festivals and what have you. Every newspaper is pulling out its archival material. Needless to say, the flagship newspaper of Chennai, the Hindu,  has the best, given its premier position in the city and its long history. This is one week when we look forward to the new story on every page.  We can't do better than them, so here are some links. Meanwhile, happy birthday, our city by the Bay of Bengal.

This brings us to the second city, viz. the premier city by the eponymously named Bay, viz. Kolkata. Here, the mood is somber and furious, due to the horrific rape and murder of a young Kolkata doctor at her work place at a government hospital. The events that led to the crime highlight the lack of safety at the workplace for women, the rackets that occur in large public hospitals, the nexus between the goons, the politicians, the police, and sadly, the custodians of the hospital. All are presently blaming the others, and the city is virtually under siege. Meanwhile, a young and promising life has been lost, in the most tragic way. It is to be hoped that the turmoil will finally lead to long lasting improvement in working conditions and environment, and not to be forgotten once the candles blow out at the candle light vigils. There have been too many such cases, and nothing changes after the hue and cry is over. Here, the fact that the city is under a virtual shutdown, may finally lead to some serious measures. There are lessons here for everyone everywhere, and no room for complacency on anyone's part.

So here we have the best of times and the worst of times, both together. We look forward to less turbulent times and more equanimity.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

 

The Paris Olympics 2024

The 2024 Olympics kicked off in Paris yesterday. Since the greatest show on earth was opening in the greatest, or the most beautiful city on earth, we all expected a great opening. The very idea of an open air ceremony, all over the City of Light sounded wonderful, and justified plonking in front of the TV in the middle of the night. Alas, it was all a letdown. 

To begin with, the weather gods did not cooperate. This was good for the staff at the site. Sundry umbrella holders got their moment in the sun, (well, rain!) in front of an audience of billions world wide. The lighting and mechanics were superb, as might be expected of the French, the same could not be said of the entertainment, perhaps a matter of individual taste. Lady Gaga was reliable, if predictable. The Paris by the Seine had its moments, although our heart goes out to the teams shivering on the bateaux. They couldn't have liked it much. All the same, the boats gliding by the bridges, and the aerial view were pretty and theatrical. The theater, however, was startling, to say the least. We know times have changed, but so much camp is distasteful, most likely to most of the worldwide audience. The lady on the bridge and the new version of the French national anthem made up for it. Sorority? Merci, La belle France! We will remember. Celine Dion is supposed to have closed. Unfortunately, the eyes closed before this, will catch up today. 

Finally, it is all about, faster, higher, stronger! The athletes have spent years training for these two weeks. The triumphs and heartbreaks will hold us all spellbound. Everyone can't win but we can wish everyone their career best. Looking forward to your exploits, hang the medals tally. All the best. 

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao. 

Here is the heartbreak. Vinesh Phogat. 100 gms between her and the Olympic gold. This gutsy girl deserved better luck. The IOA should really do a special case for her silver medal. She's earned it. 

They didn't,  it was sad , although as per rules.  The conspiracy theories are not relevant, but there definitely was unsympathetic consideration of the case. Don't retire Vinesh. There will be another Olympics!

Congratulations to the medal winners. The Indian contingent now reaches Bronze quite reliably. However, the Padukone advice to push harder is well taken. As we heard someone say, the teams now need more sports psychologists. Bindra was right when he said, there is only so much money can do.

Rahul Basu 04/03/1956-05/03/2011

Farewell My Friends 

 Farewell My Friends 

It was beautiful 

As long as it lasted 

The journey of my life. 

I have no regrets 

Whatsoever said

 The pain I’ll leave behind.

 Those dear hearts 

Who love and care... 

And the strings pulling 

At the heart and soul... 

The strong arms 

That held me up 

When my own strength 

Let me down. 

At the turning of my life 

I came across Good friends, 

Friends who stood by me 

Even when time raced me by. 

Farewell, farewell My friends

 I smile and Bid you goodbye.

 No, shed no tears 

For I need them not 

All I need is your smile.

 If you feel sad 

Do think of me 

For that’s what I’ll like 

When you live in the hearts 

Of those you love 

Remember then You never die. 

 Rabindranath Tagore

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao

Ram Mandir post

No, this post is not about the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. This post is about a Ram Mandir in the 60s in Vivekanand Colony in Raipur M.P (now Chattisgarh). The children of the colony played all over the colony till 6.30 in the evening and finally landed up at the temple for the evening arti and even better, the evening prasad. The temple was brand new, and the idols were beautiful white marble. The pujari was enthusiastic, and decked out the idols in new clothes every day, with special clothes and ornaments for festival days. Parents sometimes landed up at arti time, to pick up their wandering children and also to see the latest decorations, and participate in the evening arti. Ram Navmi was big, with a cradle for the infant Ram, and a major pooja in the afternoon. It was great fun, and taught Hindu customs in a simple way to impressionable children. No politician ever landed up there, unless they lived nearby and also came to worship. Many temples in the country still function on the same basis, viz. as places of worship and community centres for the neighbourhood. Why then the hue and cry about one temple in a remote and contentious place with a national holiday to watch a ceremony on TV, and matching processions all over the place? Ram, the protector, is appealed to in times of distress via the Ram Raksha, the prayer we learnt after going home after the evening arti. The time has come to appeal to him to protect us from grandiose and dubious forms of worship, and to take us back to the simpler forms of our childhood days! This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

IPA Rahul Basu Memorial Award 2022

Here is a short summary of the work for which the IPA Rahul Basu Memorial award for 2022 was given.

The awardees:

Dr. Anupam Ray, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai Thesis Title: Unravelling the Mystery of Dark Matter with Stars & Black Holes.


Dr. Anuparam Ray won the award for his important contributions to astroparticle physics. Anupam improved the formalism of dark matter capture in stars using multiple scattering techniques.  He also studied the possibility that neutron stars could transmute into light black holes. One of the remarkable results he found was that asymmetric dark matter could accumulate inside neutron stars and transmute them into a low-mass black hole. These transmuted black holes could be lighter than allowed by the naive Chandrasekhar limit, and could find  relevance  for the unusual mass-gap objects being seen by LIGO. Another interesting direction in his work was the calculation of neutrino based constraints on the abundance of light primordial black holes.

Dr. Shubham Pandey, Indian Institute of Science Education and research Pune
Thesis title: Performance of High Granularity Calorimeter prototypes for the CMS HL-LHC upgrade in beam test experiments at CERN.

Dr Shubham Pandey was a part of  the efforts towards preparations for beam test experiments and data taking at CERN for high luminosity LHC operations.
He provided the first set of calibrations of calorimeters using muons in the beam test experiments, which led to alignment corrections and signal to noise studies. His analysis of pion data led to an algorithm which performed well across the full energy scale used in the experiment. His work superceded previous results and led to the identification of lacuna in calibration and resolved discrepancies in the scale, leading to improved final results. His thesis constitutes an important reference document for new analysers.

 The runners up:

Dr. Biswajit Sahoo, Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Prayagraj. Thesis title: Classical and Quantum Subleading Soft Theorem in Four Spacetime Dimensions.

Dr Biswajit and collaborators gave a proof of the a multiple soft graviton theorem in a general theory of matter coupled to graviton fields. He also verified this for a special case. They further extended this to the quantum version of the soft graviton theorem, and found logarithmic corrections similar to those found earlier for the classical case. He also added the case of electromagnetic radiation. Here, these logarithmic corrections determine the late time tail of the gravitational radiation emitted during any scattering or explosion, and could be observed in future gravitational wave experiments. Further analysis of these corrections was carried out via classical analysis.
To summarise, Dr Biswajit's thesis contained very sophisticated technical analysis with consequences which can in principle be tested in the classical limits and in experiments.

Dr. Samir Banik, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar
Thesis title: Search for Lightly Ionizing Particles in SuperCDMS and simulation of neutron
backgrounds.
 

Dr Samir Banik's work is a very important contribution towards detectors of very low energies where lightly ionising particles can exhibit fractional charge. The thesis developed suitable modules in GEANT4 which is a universal simulation tool for nuclear and particle physics.
The simulation work done here is to be integrated in the official GEANT4 toolkit in future.
This was a highly commendable contribution. In addition, the thesis set very strong limits for fractional charges. These results provide an important step towards search of light charged particles and design of dark matter detectors in India.
 

It was a great pleasure to listen to the awardees present their work, exactly one year ago at IISER Mohali.

The depth and breadth of the thesis nominated and awarded speaks for the high level at which research is carried out in Particle Physics in the country.

Grateful thanks to the award committee and others who did the gruelling work of reading the 20+ nominations and narrowing them to 4, and also to the Indian Physics Association for administering this award. 

This (much delayed) blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

 

 

Chandrayaan 3 lands on the moon

Chandrayaan 3 made a successful soft landing on the moon. India now joins the elite group of four countries which has managed to do this, the earlier three being the United States, Russia and China. 

 Image from lander Vikram

 The first pictures

Also happy Madras week.  Now that we have landed on the moon, maybe Chennai corporation can acquire from Isro the technology required to fix the lunar surface on the roads of  Velachery (our local suburb).

This post by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao

https://twitter.com/isro/status/1694376945340080398?s=20 https://twitter.com/isro/status/1694376945340080398?s=20https://twithttps://twihttps://twitter.com/isro/status/1694376945340080398?s=20The first few picturestter.com/isro/statushttps://twitter.com/isro/status/1https://twitter.com/isro/status/1694376945340080398/photo/1694376945340080398/photo/1/1694376945340080398?s=20ter.com/isro/status/1694376945340080398?s=20

Rahul Basu 04/03/1956-05/03/2011

 The Good

The good are vulnerable
As any bird in flight,
They do not think of safety,
Are blind to possible extinction
And when most vulnerable
Are most themselves.
The good are real as the sun,
Are best perceived through clouds
Of casual corruption
That cannot kill the luminous sufficiency
That shines on city, sea and wilderness,
Fastidiously revealing
One man to another,
Who yet will not accept
Responsibilities of light.
The good incline to praise,
To have the knack of seeing that
The best is not destroyed
Although forever threatened.

Robert Burns.

This post is by Sumathi Rao and Neelima Gupte.

The IPA Rahul Basu Memorial Award 2022

 

It is our great pleasure to declare that the winners of the IPA Rahul Basu Memorial Award have been selected for the period 2020- 2022. These are:

Winners:

Dr. Anupam Ray, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai Thesis Title: Unravelling the Mystery of Dark Matter with Stars & Black Holes.

Dr. Shubham Pandey, Indian Institute of Science Education and research Pune
Thesis title: Performance of High Granularity Calorimeter prototypes for the CMS HL-LHC upgrade in beam test experiments at CERN. 

Runners up:

Dr. Biswajit Sahoo, Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Prayagraj Thesis title: Classical and Quantum Subleading Soft Theorem in Four Spacetime Dimensions
.

Dr. Samir Banik, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar
Thesis title: Search for Lightly Ionizing Particles in SuperCDMS and simulation of neutron backgrounds.

The award ceremony will be held as a part of the DAE symposium on High Energy Physics, 12th – 16th December 2022 at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali. The winners will be given a cash prize of Rs.25,000/- each and a citation. The runners up will be presented a citation.

 

 

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022

The Nobel Prize in Physics has gone this time to Klauser, Aspect and Zeligman, for their pioneering experiments which proved the existence of the quantum phenomenon that has come to be called entanglement, by which the wave function of a system can carry simultaneous information about two particles which could be widely separated in space. This notion, which is the signature notion of quantum mechanics is at variance with the notion of locality, which lies at the heart of classical physics. Hidden variable theories were proposed by David Bohm, by which the wave function could incorporate a 'hidden variable' which could encode the additional information, and thus make the wavefunction compatible with locality. However, Bell showed, in a series of papers that quantum mechanical wave functions, and wave functions which incorporate hidden variables, had differing levels for correlations for which bounds could be quantified. This led the way to experiments where the predictions of the theories could be verified. 

Klauser, a really young man those days, put his career on line and devised ingenious experiments from bits and pieces he found lying around in the lab and set up an experiment which measured the polarisations of two photon states where the photons travelled in opposite directions. Unlike what he hoped, the measurements supported the predictions of quantum mechanics. Aspect and Zeligman in later years added further refinements via very sophisticated experiments which incorporated random elements and very large separations into the experiments. Alas, the photons remained stubbornly correlated, i.e. entangled at levels predicted by quantum mechanics, and notions of locality could not be rescued via hidden variable theories. 

 

It is not quite correct to say that these experiments opened the way to current applications ranging from quantum algorithms to quantum computers which rest on entanglement. Entanglement is anyway central to quantum mechanics. However they are extremely important from the point of view of the foundations of quantum mechanics, and notions of locality, measurement and simultaneity which are crucial ingredients of the theory. It is wonderful that theories and experiments which were considered career breakers for physicists have been honoured with the Nobel prize. Salutations to the stubborn physicists! 

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao. 

 

More technical references here.

India at 75 : The state of the nation

 The whole world is going to write their version of this, so why not us? India is going to be 75 today, the flags are flying, the newspapers are pontificating, the news channels are screaming, the PM is giving measured sound bytes, the public is bemoaning  the state of the nation; in short, everything is the way it always  is, leave out war and pandemic years. So what new thing can possibly be said? Our take is to compare India now, with its earlier editions.

India at 25 was a really young country. The country was coming out of an era of perpetual shortages and unfortunately, also out of the hope and idealism of the initial years. However,  the angst of the Indo- China debacle, had been wiped out by the successes of the Indo-Pak years.  The economy was turning a corner, even though no one knew really what it was doing.  So were public health and life expectancy, despite the fact that they were rarely mentioned in the public discourse. Indira Gandhi delivered a good IG-ish homily on the challenges yet to come, from the ramparts of the Red Fort. However, neither she, nor anyone else had any notion of the quicksands ahead.  There was no foreshadowing of the internal turmoil, Khalistan, Kashmir  and Northeast, which were to haunt the coming two  decades. The celebrations were muted, though beautiful. Despite the progress, the country lacked confidence, both in itself and its future, despite its significant contribution to the leadership of developing countries.

India at 50 was a different cup of tea altogether.  The Congress Party was a rump in parliament, as it is now. However, unlike now there was a rag, tag and bobtail coalition in power (our apologies to their admirers, if any).  Inder Gujral was the unlikely PM, who presided over the lacklustre  Golden Jubilee celebrations, despite midnight parliament and Lata Mangeshkar invocations. Socialist discourse still prevailed, and there was no questioning of public welfare programs.  Punjab was back to being the backbone of India, Kashmir was an ever festering sore, and the ill advised and ill fated Sri Lankan misadventure was behind us. Religious  divisiveness had reared its head via the Ram Mandir agenda,  and the  Babri Masjid had come down,  to say nothing of the terrorist horrors of the coming years. However, the most important  event of the 25 years  was behind us. A terrible fiscal crisis had occurred, leading the way to forcing economic reforms, paradoxically getting the country out of the Hindu rate of growth,  and leading to serious economic development.The plus part of this was a serious improvement of all indicators, the minus was the sense of hubris that always accompanies uneven economic development. As ever, no one really knew what lay ahead, but overall a better days ahead mentality pervaded the country.

So now we are back to 2022, and India is 75, no great age in the life of a nation. How are things now? The BJP is firmly entrenched in power. The Congress is as rumpish as it was 25 years ago. Public discourse is muted, religious divisions are stronger than they ever were before. The economy is recovering from natural and self  made disasters. The recent epidemic has not taught us that to a virus, all humans are the same.  The inequitable distribution of wealth has got worse,  but the impoverished have opportunities to improve their lot which did not exist before. Unfortunately, this has led to pressure to minimise all welfare programs which could improve the lot of the majority of people.  Here, we have to be thankful to the electoral pressures which will prevent the removal of such programs altogether.  Judicial freedoms lack this natural protection and are steadily eroding, with the tacit and explicit consent of the bulk of the population. Who knows what lies ahead? No one, if past experience is any predictor of future events. However, there are two things that makes us optimistic. Federalism has made its come back, quietly, through the back door. The plurality of the nation will be its saving grace, no matter what challenges monolithic structures throw at it. Secondly, India is a young country, but Mother India is an old soul. We will get by, come what may.

Happy Independence day to all from us.

Jai Hind.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

 

 

World Chess Olympiad 2022

 The 22 nd World Chess Olympiad kicked off in Mahabalipuram on 28th July. The tournament consists of open and women's teams,  and has attracted enthusiastic participation from the country, to say nothing from across the globe. Tamil Nadu leads the charge, as befits the host state. After all, 24 of the country's 75 Grand Masters are from Tamil Nadu. The sport (if sport you call it) has benefited from both the inspiration and efforts of Vishwanathan Anand,  who has been a role model, right since he was 19, and lived in Chennai in Besant Nagar. 

Meanwhile,  the state has gone to town over the Olympiad, with the advent of everything from Chess Kolams to Chess Saris. A particularly beautiful combination has been the marriage of dance moves and chess moves in a video  

commissioned by the Collector of Pudukottai, who is a classical dancer herself. See and enjoy.

This blog post is by Sumathi Rao and Neelima Gupte.

Smile or Snarl

The latest controversy in circulation is about the appearance of the four lions in the Ashoka Pillar, i.e. the ones in parliament, as opposed to the ones in Sarnath. Having seen the ones in Sarnath, we vouch they were smiley. Look at the back of any Indian coin for confirmation. The mint does a pretty good job of reproducing the Ashoka Pillar. 

Now as for the parliamentarian lions. Only a privileged few have seen those up to now. However, definitely a snarl, or to be exact, 4 snarls, from the pictures. So what gives? 

 Explanations range from aggressive nationalism to a naturalistic representation of an intrinsically ferocious species. The sculptor's family swears he spent long hours in a zoo near the lion enclosures. In lieu of this fancy stuff, we offer a simple explanation encoded not in an acrostic but in a limerick. 

 There was a young lady of Riga, 

 Who went for a ride on a tiger, 

 They came back from the ride, 

 With the lady inside, 

 And a smile on the face of the tiger! 

 In short, the parliamentary lions are before the ride, and the Sarnath ones are after. 

 Caveats:

 1. These are lions not tigers. 2. 4 ladies might be needed. One might not suffice. 

 3. Kalinga ladies would have to be as foolish as the Riga ladies. 

 We hope our explanation finds some public support.

 This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

Rabindranath Tagore 7th May 1861

We  missed celebrating Rabindranath Tagore's birthday by several days. Well, better late than never, so here goes. Here are three of  Tagore's celebrated works, two short stories and a novel.

A  clip from Charulata, the well known  movie based on Tagore's short story, Nashta Need.  The first is the well known song, O bideshini. Tagore, Ray,   Saumitro Chatterjee and Ray's muse, Madhabi Mukherjee. The singer is Kishore Kumar. He wrote  a very sweet letter to Satyajit Ray (Manek Mama) which essentially left the choice of fees  to him!

 Video link

The first scene from this movie is equally famous.  Charu moving from room to room in her house, following the hawker's cries. It is clear she is bored out of her skull.  The rest of the movie follows from her family's attempts to keep her amused and occupied.

The second is a celebrated novel, Sesher Kobita, sometimes translated as `The last letter' and sometimes as `Farewell my Friend', the eternal love story of Amit and Labanya, who went and married someone else, so that they could remain eternal lovers. The logic of this was always lost to conventional minds (a.k.a yours truly), but certainly makes for a sweet story.  A recent take on this one starred Rahul Bose and Konkona Sen Sharma.  See here  the official trailer.

The last is a short story `The Castaway', the tale of Nilkanta, a castaway who finds refuge with Kiran and her husband Sharat, and who is made a great pet of by Kiran. Unfortunately, Kiran's brother in law  Satish, arrives on the scene, and occupies all her time, leading to great jealousy on the part of Nilkanta, and also to stealing Satish's prized possession, a swan shaped inkstand, out of spite. Nilkanta leaves, Kiran finds out, and covers up for him.

Tagore's portrayals of women have always been sensitive and nuanced. He also portrays a society where they occupied privileged positions.  It is surprising to think these stories were written a hundred years ago. Contemporary comments make it clear this was a small segment of society (perhaps people like the Tagore family)  and was far from being the norm. Nevertheless the charm of the stories lies in  their emotional veracity, which is sometimes lost in translation. This is where the power of the movies lies, they  speak  to audiences which cannot access the originals.  Charulata's largest audience is in France, and Konkona's movie reaches out to a panIndia audience.  While some of Tagore's work has been filmed by Ray and other great directors, a huge body remains unfilmed. We wish some guild of  film makers would take up this challenge.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao. 

Tamil Nouvelle

 

After years and years, a food post. And what could be more appropriate than a new take on Tamil cuisine, viz. Tamil Nouvelle.   Last week saw a trip to the aptly named Swaha restaurant in Besant Nagar. Right on the beach, next to Chandralekha's famous bungalow, this typical Besant  Nagar bungalow has nice outdoor space as well as indoor space, and in this sweltering weather, air conditioning which works. Astonishingly, this is Chennai's first take on Tamil Nouvelle, and perhaps the first anywhere.

 Meals start with an amuse bouche, a pastry shell with  tiny onions, yes precisely, vengai onions, and a dash of tamarind, with a sliver of rava dosa on top. Works well.  Drum stick soup is anyway a tried and trusted  staple.   Since this is a vegetarian restaurant, mock meat prevails. Hence kola urundai ends up being jackfruit urundai.   Now who would know that stuffed katrikai, koshambari and sambar rice and appalam could look so fancy and fashionable! Deserts depart from the Tamil theme, and hence do not live up to  the hype, despite generous sprinklings of jaggery. Maybe they should try ada pradhanam with vanilla ice cream. Italian and Pan Asian food is on the menu, for them as want it. Svasa is the outdoor area for  those spirited types who like innovative bar plates. In short, very well worth a try. Upcoming guests, interested? Come soon.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

P.S.  Yes, Sumathi, I know you didn't go. Will take you. Ashoke can stick to the spirits supplemented by a steel dabba from home!

Rahul Basu (04/03/1956-05/03/2011)

There are a hundred places where I fear 

To go, -so with his memory they brim 

And entering with relief some quiet place 

Where never fell his foot or shone his face

 I say `There is no memory of him here!'

 And so stand stricken, so remembering him. 

 Edna St. Vincent Millay. 

 

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

Gharwapasi 2 (and also Civil Society and its Concerns 4)

 This week saw yet another ghar wapasi, this time of another kind. The return of Aryan Khan to his home, after 23 days of incarceration, with no bail granted. There was a media circus about his return home, there was a media circus about his incarceration, there was a media circus about his arrest, to say nothing of 1million whats app forwards baying for his blood. What there has not been much in the press about, is what was the case against him. The case against Khan junior who wasn't under the influence of drugs, who wasn't in the possession of drugs, is that some one he knew had some  drugs on him. Even under the present narcotics act, which suspends several human rights principles, (a  fact which doesn't seem to worry anyone), this doesn't look like an offence which requires 23 days to get bail. However, thanks to a rich and famous father (who, paradoxically, might have been the reason why he was arrested), Aryan had a legal team fighting for him, which has ensured his gharwapasi for the time being at least.

On the other hand, there was not even a media squeak about a ghar nonwapasi, the human rights lawyer and activist, Sudha Bharadwaj, languishing in gaol without bail, or a trial, since August 2018, together with four others, equally well known. Ms Bharadwaj, like the others, was arrested in connection with the Koregaon Bhima case for `her involvement in inciting violence' at the Elgar Parishad. She was neither mentioned  in the FIR, nor present during the Elgar parishad in 2017, when the violence occured. A visiting professor of the National Law University, she has been continuously denied bail requested on health grounds and other grounds, for three years, for a case which has not come to trial, probably because, as various people have said, that there is not a shred of evidence against her which can actually stand up in court.

In both cases, the basic principle of law, viz. habeas corpus has been suspended, in one case by raising the bogey man of narcotics, in the other by raising the bogey man of `Maoist Violence'. Neither case has come to court or been proven. Meanwhile, civil society watches on, content with trial by media, and feeds on vicious what's app forwards. Perhaps the case can be resolved, if Aryan's lawyers take up Sudha's case. Could you look into this Mr. Khan? If you could ensure gharwapasi for her, on this festival of Diwali, that would be an act of charity indeed!


This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

Tailpiece: This might also be of interest  Civil Society (Take 3)

Update: Ms Bharadwaj and others were finally granted bail yesterday. They were granted bail on a technicality, rather than on any case of Satyamev Jayate. However, given everything, let us just be thankful they are home. Or are they?  Watch this space.

2/12/2021