4th Post

Review of “The Theory of Everything”

“Theory of Everything” is a book consisting of seven lectures about the universe and all the cool stuffs that any space, time and astronomy lover would want to know. Sir Stephens William Hawking, one of the leading scientists of the 21^st century, a professor and well known author of one of the International best sellers, “A Brief History of Time” presents his and other great scientists’ ideas about the universe, space, time, and black holes via “Theory of Everything”. Sir Hawking has used very simple language to explain how things went and are going in the field of space technology. By reading his book, I have got an impression that he is a person with a very good sense of humour for he presents his ideas in a very ebullient manner.

The book gives insight knowledge about various theories that govern the universe and everything within it. The book can make its reader ponder about what was it like at the beginning of time and space. It also presents its reader with the thoughts and findings of various scientists about the universe. The book suggests that despite tremendous efforts of the scientists, it is yet unknown about who or what created the universe, why, how and when was it created.

Also, what are black holes, and what are they made of is also discussed in the book. Sir Hawking presents his idea about black holes not being completely black as thought previously. He thinks that black holes evaporate and hence black hole is not only end of everything but also a beginning.

A grand unified theory that would unlock answers to all the unsolved questions regarding anything is what the leading scientists of the era seek for. Sir Hawking has clearly presented the need of a grand unified theory of everything that would incorporate the classical, and quantum physics along with it. His desire for this particular theory shall be successful. That is what I hope for.

Even if you know nothing or less about science, you can definitely enjoy Sir Hawking’s sense of humour and may be you might want to help him in finding the theory of everything he is seeking for. I got an opportunity to read the subject that I always wanted to read.   

Prabal Dahal

3rd Post

Review of Ruskin Bond’s “A Season of Ghosts” by Prabal Dahal.

Ruskin Bond, an Indian writer, is one of the winners of Sahitya Akademi and Padma Shree, renowned literary awards in India. Out of his many creations which include “A flight of Pigeons” and “The Sensualist”; I got an opportunity to read the book “A Season of Ghosts” that was published in 1999, all thanks to my father. Having read the book, one can easily tell that Mr. Bond is a satirist. He mentions that he does not believe in ghosts but sees them time and again. He says that he has created the book with the stories he had heard and read, and the stories that are made out of his imaginations during the times; the times he calls himself- his “dark” and “supernatural” times.

A season of Ghosts is made into an almost perfect shape filled with ten stories, out of which the first nine are directly related with ghosts, witches, phantoms, spirits and other creatures that are scary to the human beings. Mr. Bond has tried to explain that all of these creatures are not evil and mean but rather friendly. The tenth story is slightly not related with ghosts but a linkage could be created with the ghosts within oneself, or that is what I think.

The first story, “Whistling in the Dark” is about a friendly ghost boy who saves Mr. Bond from danger. What kind of danger? You might want to find out yourself/yourselves. The second story “Wilson’s Bridge” suggests that one’s imagination can cause severe loss. It is not wise to always remain in the world of imaginations and thoughts. Sometimes, we are required to be real and take proper civil actions. “On Fairy Hill”, the third story reflects the writer’s hunger for peace. Nirvana, a state of complete satisfaction and peace, as termed in Buddhism is what I think the writer seeks for. Of course, the writer seems to be little shy to put his wish up straight and hence uses a slightly different approach towards presenting the wish of his. Witch, broomstick and witches’ favourite pet- cats are what the fourth article “The Black Cat” is about. The writer sure misses his broomstick that cost his 5 whole rupees.

 Through “Reunion at the Regal”, Mr. Bond presents the idea that we all have our duplicates, and suggests that if you see your long lost friend or relative out of nowhere, you might want to reconsider approaching him or her for he or she might just be some other person, a duplicate that only looks just like your friend or relative. “Something in the water” talks about a water ghost and via this story, Mr. Bond suggests the readers to be well aware about any water resources before diving into it. What a greed for something a person longs for can do to him even after death is well presented in the story titled “The Prize”. 

The eighth story, “Night of the Millennium” clarifies the statement, ‘What goes well, ends well’. Okay, I might have tried to act satirical about this article. So you better read the story yourself to find out what the real thing is. However, I can tell you that things are not exactly what they seem to be. “The Rakshassas”, the ninth story is about Rakshassas, mythical and generally evil creatures. It presents the reader with the idea that no one in the world should be trusted just because he seems trustworthy. Trust can be very hazardous to health. By health I literally meant life.

Last but not the least, the tenth story “Who killed the Rani?” is about the murder a women called Nita. It is more precisely about a police Inspector trying to solve a mystery but later lets the mystery remain a mystery all by himself. Why a police Inspector would let the mystery be a mystery and why is the word “Rani”, Hindi for “Queen” used in the title? Well, it would be better if you read the story yourself. And yes, out of the ten stories in the book, this is the longest and covers more than half of the book’s total pages.

When I had got the book on my hand, and read the title, I thought it was some serious, deadly and scary ghost book. It took me great guts to actually start the book but having read the first story, I was relieved that I could spend the night without having haunted nightmares. Of course, I do not mean the book is boring. You can enjoy each and every nooks and cronies of the book.

2nd Post (Wrote this for a competition)

"Asia's Challenge 2020"
Enlightened by the knowledge of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, taught to walk a glorious path with pride by the teachings of Mohandas Gandhi, filled with the war-craft qualities of the great Genghis Khan and the Samurai warriors, erudite with the leading and ruling ability of the great rulers, kings and emperors; a large mass of earth filled with varieties of floras and faunas, cultures and traditions, languages and literatures, energies and environments; the largest of the seven continents of the planet Earth- Asia can be said to be one of the marvellous creations of the mighty one. Composed of over 45 countries of the world, Asia is a common abode of billions of people. Having entered the modern scientific era with highly developed brains and technologies, we, the educated and literate humans- the supreme creatures of nature, have already developed different theories on how the Earth might have evolved, how the continents have formed, how the lives have been made possible on the Earth; We have made assumption on the different things that may happen in the future; We are also working on ways to tackle upcoming unwanted situations- All to make life of the future better. I, as a high school student would also like my life to be better in the future and hence I would like to put forth my views regarding the future of my continent- Asia. I would like to put forth the opportunities and challenges the continent might have to face in the upcoming decade and would like to suggest some simple methodologies to minimize the problems.    

Environmental Challenges:
The Asia is very likely to face various Environmental challenges in the upcoming decade. Human beings desire development; but while undertaking developmental works, they are not keeping in mind that they have an environment to preserve and promote. So the importance of the environment is ignored and hence environment is degraded. The increased unmanaged urbanization and industrialization will definitely lead to the Environmental Degradation. Global Warming is going to intensely affect the overall temperature of the continent. The Himalayas and other mountain ranges will melt continuously causing the snow line to gradually rise; the glaciers will burst, the rivers will fast flow causing flood, erosion and landslides. However, after all the snow melts and glaciers completely burst, a day will come when the rivers and other water sources dry up. Drought and then famine will intimidate the presently happy part of the continent. The temperatures of the Thar Desert and other tropical deserts will extremely rise. The temperature of the temperate deserts like the Gobi will also rise. As a whole, the tropical regions will extend minimizing the temperate and cold regions. Climate changes, changes in weather pattern, untimely seasonal changes are likely to occur in such conditions. The animals and plants in lower altitudes will try to move towards the higher altitude to attempt survival. The ones who succeed will maintain their generations; the others are liable to extinct. To sum up the points, there will be adverse effects on the continent's Ecosystem. So what if the continent's ecosystem gets affected? I am sure everyone knows the answer. The continent becomes unfit for living. Therefore, we all must put forward our active efforts to control environmental degradation. We should not limit our clear plans and ideas on lectures and pieces of papers. We should be whole heartedly ready to conserve and promote the Environment. While performing developmental activities, we should take good care of environment. We should develop more and more technologies that are eco-friendly. Doing this we can live and let others live.

Education:
Education is the light that destroys the darkness of illiteracy and ignorance. In the present context, the developed countries have started the modern methodology of teaching and learning. They use multimedia systems and the act of teaching and knowledge gaining is indeed very interesting and interactive. However, modern teaching methodologies are still a dream for third world countries. The third world countries have not yet been able to provide proper teaching and learning materials to the educators, instructors and the students. The literacy rate is very low. In the next decade, we should put our efforts to increase the literacy rate. In the upcoming decade, we can hope for modern teaching methods to develop in the third world countries and in the developed nations, far more advanced methods will definitely develop. Students will not require attending boring lectures at an educational institution. They would rather learn more things themselves through the use of World Wide Web. The students will be taught to be independent. Distant learning will also be far more developed than today. Now the question arises: Will there be necessity of teachers, if not what other job opportunities will be there to replace teaching? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Teachers and their valuable guidelines will always be required no matter what era we are in. But teachers will be available for students in the virtual world. So instead of regurgitating in front of a classroom, teachers will be distributing knowledge over internet or other similar means. Again, the extreme use of computers may create health problems for both knowledge distributors and gainers. For instance: eye related diseases, obesity may be observed. Eye related diseases may be reduced by the use of improved eye- friendly visual technologies and obesity can be minimized by indulging oneself in timely physical activities and also by limiting proper time for the use of computers.

Urbanization:

Urbanization is process of conversion of rural areas into urban areas. The urban areas are far more advanced and developed than the rural areas. The humans are always searching for ways of development and most of the humans think that urbanization means development. But we can also find many people who do not like this ideology. Urban areas have well facilities of education, health, entertainment; Job opportunities are good, and industrial areas are also well developed. In the next decade, urbanization shall increase. The rural today will be called the urban then, or will it? Let's analyze. The pace of development at the urban areas is accelerating at faster rate today compared to the rural areas and if this pace continues, the urban today are obviously going to be far more advanced and more developed than the rural areas. So if today someone asks: "What will the rural areas-today be called in the next decade?" what would your answer be? You may leave the question behind for now and look at the positive and negative aspects of urbanization. The positive aspects would be of course the availability of better facilities, improvement in technologies and so on. The negative aspects would be environmental degradation, pollution, and depletion of natural beauty; consequently making continent unfit for living. Therefore while the process of urbanization is being undertaken, the humans should adopt the best nature friendly procedures; 3 R methods of waste management should be followed; the environmental degradation should be minimized.

Health:
It is said that when wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when education is lost, something is lost; and when health is lost, everything is lost. This statement defines the importance of health. Health condition of the continent in the next decade is quite hard to imagine. Saying that improvement in medicine will stop the outspread of many diseases is quite vague because every day, every hour new and improved immunized germs evolve and health condition hence is likely to remain almost the same as it is today. People today say that genetic engineering, the study of genes, heredity and so on will aid in improving health of people in future but I doubt it. By then along with technology, the disease causing germs are likely to be advanced. However we can hope for many epidemics threatening people today to be truncated. The miserable health conditions of the third world countries may be brought to good. Basic health facilities required for the life may be provided to the people of third world countries that are lacking today. So all in all, the health conditions of the continent are likely to be better than today. Of course the increasing population needs to be managed and knowledge of importance of health facilities requires to be imparted amongst the people. This can be done though awareness campaign, literacy campaign or any other programmes that can be conducted from local to national to international levels.      

 Science and technology:
World's leading nations in technological development- Japan, China and India are located in the Asia. So it is very likely that the Asia will make massive improvement in the field of science and technology. The third world countries are also likely to develop in the field of science and technology as a result of influence of the developed nations. Asian nations will carry out more scientific researches. Study of objects with the size of a sub atomic particle to the size of a universe may be made. Advancement in technology will definitely make life better. We can perform our works at a high speed with minimized effort. We may have an android at our house that makes our life very easy. We may be able to develop artificial intelligence. Improved breeds of seeds will be used to feed the ever increasing population. New means of transportation will be developed. Even the dreams of teleportation may come to reality. New ways of communication will definitely develop. However, this will make us lazy and health of ours will deteriorate. Also the chance of invasion of the continent by the androids may rise. Anything unpredictable may happen in the field of science and technology. Similarly carrying on researches will create pollution hence deteriorating the environment. Therefore, science and technology must be developed in such a way that everyone in the continent is happy. To do that every people in scientific and technological sectors should be very much conscious and realize that with the knowledge they possess they should do something for the goodness of mankind so that the human race may continue for ages.

International relations:

Within the continent, we can really see a challenging competition among the various countries in the various fields. Mostly the rivalry is seen between the developed countries. This may lead to cold war at many moments. Competition in building of nuclear weapons may lead to seriously bad consequences. On the other hand, without having a sound relation with the developed countries, underdeveloped countries cannot survive. The gap between the powerful countries and weak countries may lead to traumatic situations at times. In such cases, wars may also terrorize the people of continent. So the countries will most probably try to negotiate and develop international relations to prevent any future war. They are sure to keep in mind- the continent today holds weapons to destroy more than five masses equivalent to that of Earth's.


There are many other headings under which the Challenges the continent- Asia might face in the next decade can be discussed. But all these are just possibilities, that is, may or may not happen. Who knows- the earth may be destroyed by a severe earthquake; or may be aliens will invade the Earth; the predicted 2012 phenomenon may have devastating results or what so ever. We can just imagine since we have not built a time machine yet. Saying this, I do not mean to be highly pessimistic but still we can just make ourselves alert by considering the things that might happen in the future.  As said, past is experience, present is experiment and future is expectation; we can only expect the things to happen in the time to come if we analyze our past activities clearly, and make necessary improvements in the current time. Only then, we the supreme creatures will be able to achieve what we aim. We will be able to outperform our potential and lead the society, the nation, the continent and the world as a whole towards the glorious path of development. We should all unite; put our hands in hands to do something good for the continent, for the sake of the goodness of mankind.  My views on the topic "Asia's Challenge 2020" ends here.

Prabal Dahal

 

1st Post

What is this life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare!  

We call ourselves- the superior beings of the planet. We have used our best blessing: highly developed brain, to achieve control over creatures as huge as blue whales and creatures as minute as Viruses. Humans, homo sapiens, people or whatever name we offer to ourselves, we have gained control over the nature of the planet whilst our humanly-nature remains uncontrolled and untamed. At times, our nature becomes so ruthless and makes us very self-seeking and non-altruistic that ours deeds lead us to live our lives under the threats like food crisis, global warming and terrorism.

Our nature makes us self-centred losing self-control which eventually leads the development of human race towards unsustainable and disproportionate future. Some of us live in the luxury of modern world, whilst some of us live under the open sky. Those living comfortably say living a deluxe life is full of hardships, for there are tension, hostility and competition; whilst those who live under the open sky always underestimate their own capabilities and live under the shades of the comfy-livers, time and often swearing their misfortune and yet have a menial mentality which ultimately leads them to darker futures.

Let us ask ourselves a simple yet intriguing question, shall we? What have we, from our personal levels, done to overcome the global food crisis, global warming and terrorism? Well, most of us might have done something to exacerbate the effects of these threats; some of us might have done some good deeds to tackle at least one of the threats; and a very few of us might have put our efforts to tackle all of the threats. Yet, the threats remain unaffected! Why? Because, the "few" of us are suppressed by the "many" of us.

 We know problems exist and we know very well how to present the problems. We also know how to minimize them, but we have not been able to promulgate and bring into effects the methods of minimization for some reason. The best, easy- to-say-hard-to-achieve method is: bringing about changes in one's attitude and ways of life. A massive revolution can only occur if a miniature revolution occurs within us. If we fail to change ourselves and yet desire for a change in the world, we become hypocrites and we can accomplish nothing.

We must change ourselves if we want to see our future generations leading better lives. We should not always be captivated by the lustre of materialistic avant-garde world, but think for some time about the future of mankind, feel sorry for our bad deeds and learn from the mistakes in life.                      

Prabal Dahal