Byomkesh Phire Elo

My first movie in the theaters in 2015: Bomkesh Phire Elo. As it always had been, the Byomkesh is an all time favorite, given that the plot is revealed in a very succulent manner and the culprit is exposed right at the end. With the other favorite been on the go, Felu Da, both incidentally played by Abir Chatterjee, feluda plots are very vibrant and dynamic where you somehow get to know the culprit midway the story. It rests as to how the culprit managed to do the crime. But Byomkesh goes with the crime and the timeline sets in perfectly. In this movie, many more things could have been the interesting way. But, a good entertainer.

The Ancient Code, Part 1: The Turtle God

Across cultures and traditions, turtle and/or tortoise appears in various forms with great powers and miraculous stories. But being a relentless thinker in the concept of ancient aliens, do they have a different story to be foretold and interpreted? Today I start a new series in my blog, "The Ancient Code", where I shall try to put forward my interpretation of the ancient culture and myths. Myths that might have some other interpretation, awaiting to be unraveled through the veil of time immemorial.

Part 1: The Turtle God.

Since childhood, I have been listening to the Indian mythological stories of which the "Samudra Manthan" was one of the classical example of and me the first ever tug of war known to have taken place in the immortal platform placed between heaven and hell; the Earth. In this story, the good and the evil tried their best to get the amrit after churning the ocean using the Mandara resting on the back of Kurma, the mythological turtle, avatar of Lord Vishnu. More over, the mention of the celestial turtle, the Akupara comes upfront where it is said that he carries the burden of the universe on his back. Akupara, a tortoise!

Later, with the span of learning I came to know that comparative mythology bears instances and mentions of various turtle/tortoises that have been acknowledged to play vital role in genesis of life on this planet. For example, the folk lore of Japan mentions of Urashima Taro, the turtle who invited his saviour fisherman to the underwater palace of the Dragon God, Ryujin. When the fisherman returned after 3 days of hospitality, he has had been 300 years into the future. 

Deciphering the Code:

Undoubtedly, the stories are good to hear but unbelievable. But is it?

Humans have the tendency to reflect upon and personify the events that they cannot explain using commonly available examples. Think of the proposition: "The turtles were not turtles but space crafts or flying saucers" Startled? Then let me explain my thoughts and may be you can come around.

Urashima Taro was a flying saucer that might have been encountered by the mortal man. The Dragon god, said to have spit fire might be the personification of the ignition that had abducted the fisherman/mortal human and with the concept of space travel viable, may be, following the laws of relativity, the speed of travel equates to three centuries in this planet. In reality, your time might be static, given the frame of reference, but the other places moves faster than felt. Sort of time-wrap, recently depicted in Interstellar.

Indian mythology bears a similar context where King Muchukunda was in the heavens trying to save the Devas from the onslaught of Asuras. The texts recites that after Kartikeyan took over as the able leader of the Devas army, King Indra mentione dto Muchukunda that its was eons over on Earth, since a year in heaven equates to 360 years on earth. Muchukunda had been there for 3 years, leading to a lapse of 1000 years on Earth, when he returned with the boon of sleep.

Co-incidence? Time travel and space equates modern physics. Looking like the turtle/tortoise shells, our ancestors personified the space crafts that looked like flying saucers. Artefacts all over the world bears testament to this fact. The kudurru, a limestone relic from the early Sumerian eon found in Babylon and now in the the British Museum also depicts the Enki, the turtle god in the celestial space. It could fly? And what more can it involve than a flying saucer in prominence at the onset of human civilization the world over. The snapshot in the following figure shows the interpretation.

The start of the civilization was depicted by the advent of ENKI. Similarly, the Samudra Manthan on Kurma followed by the tales of Akupara, invites imagination to settle on the fact that the turtles mentioned by our ancestors were no better than flying saucers; cusped like turtle/tortoise shell.

The search of ancient aliens is gaining momentum. Hope you liked it. There are many more to come. Who knows we may see the truth in the other side of the series.

The Plasmodium Injunction

A relapse or not, this is the second time in two years I have been kissed by the dreaded female (read anopheles) to fall back and follow the injunction to refrain all my activities for some "good" motif... get well!

And in these dreaded hours I became more health conscious (to relief of many) and craved for the 26th element of the Moseley's platter. Even Steve Jobs would loved to make me the brand ambassador for the bites I made, resembling his logo; so what you have to sell your kidney to buy the iPhone 6! Well.. I will buy iPhone 6...when iPhone 7 comes out! With another hope against hope... I will be doing my foreign Post Doc by then!

This injunction was too much of a burden on the hepatic system and the medicines are still on to kill the last remnant of the parasite, from their latest visit for a picnic within me. But at the same time, some of the great events took place; a movement got heed and that reminds me to share one of my posts a gew months back, regarding fellowship hike. The Government of India heard to our pleas and it was done with handsome rewards, but there are still some demands to be considered and met, to which they have had mentioned that they would do the needful in due course. The plead post regarding the need for the hike can be found here.

A week over with house arrest, is about to be broken today; but there are many more things that needs to be taken care off when I walk into IICB. But, I missed some precious moments like Bhaifota and Diwali parties. Anyways, happy Diwali to all of you...

#HokKolorob

Silence prevails before the storm,

The rainbow curls up at the bottom of every fall,

A place, where there is full of turbulence, splatter and patter.

The water drops chills your cheek, your eye lid and your lips.

Come thou the wind,

The spine becomes stiff,

It breaks, but never bends!

The recent events at Jadavpur have been several such turbulence that I have seen and gone through in my student life. It pained to see the whacks that were delivered upon the torso of the silent protesters, bring up the bitter visions of #Nandigram, back in 2007. There was a wind of protest, a chilling breeze of death that dropped the establishment of Red Bastion into the dust! Dirt Bite!

Today, the colour have changed (#Poribortan), a change that  majority wanted... but the colour is not the only change desired! Colours can have bring no harm. They make the life beautiful. The change we wanted was in administration, but unfortunately that went unheeded.

#HokKoloRob is the tensed hash tag, that warrants for a new revolution brewing up. After all, in the words of McGannon : "Leadership is action, not position"; I believe the voice of Jadavpur and the student fraternity as a whole shall be towards true leadership in all practical sense.

Till then, the storm will brew in the cup of coffee of the "leaders" from all clans. #HokKoloRob.

Photo Credit: Ronny Sen.

Hike Research Fellowship

With the nation building up the voice of the scholars all over India, the ardent need to increase the research fellowship is nothing less than a national emergency; in it's true sense. I have been pursing the same issue and pleading to the Government of India to consider the scenario since it has been more than four years since the last hike. It was in 2010, the last hike was made trying to attract more and more into research. It did work materialistically, but people who have the passion is needed more into this field. But, with time things needed changes. 4 years ago, the Kolkata Metro ride cost Rs. 6 from Esplanade to Tollugunge (Maha Nayak Uttam Kumar). Now it's Rs. 10. So a to and fro means Rs. 20 compared to Rs. 12 back in 4 years. From Tollygunge to Jadavpur, an auto would charge you between Rs. 6-7. Now it's hiked to Rs. 10. So a to and fro would mean Rs. 20 again. The commuter charge per day would have been Rs. 11/day; now its Rs. 20/day for the past one and half years. Fellowship hike NIL.

The cost of food from a simple batten rice to even a sliced cake. Increase have been the word of the day. If calculated by a keen economist, which all middle class individual is, the daily cost now, in Kolkata is around Rs.110/day which would have been Rs. 75/day in 2010. Mind it, I am talking this about a research scholar who commutes by Metro to his work place, drink tea thrice, a half filled lunch and may be an evening snack. He works from 10:30AM to..... well it's not worth mentioning as he doesnot know till what time of the wee hours he stays back.

With daily commuter charge of Rs. 110/day; 30 days a month comes to Rs. 3300/- Then comes his house hold expenses that includes family medicines (nearly Rs. 2000/month); electricity bill (nearly Rs. 1500/month); food (incl. cooking gas/kerosine) for 3-5 family members (Rs. 10,000-12,000/month), telephone bill (Rs. 1000/month), house maintenance cost like cable TV bill, Internet payment, etc (Rs. 2500/month) and all from his fellowship. So whats the expense? Rs. 22,300 (approx). This considering a minimal fooding and clothing. Leave aside the family reunions or any celebrations. The meagre fellowship of Rs. 16000 +  30%HRA meets only 80% of the cost and the rest 20%, an individual goes through the grueling restless phase of asking help or begging money from friends and relatives thinking and promising to repay next month. But then too... the scholarship donot come in regularly.

The elite society of a country Begs! That's not a good image. Or is it like this....? 

Hence, on behalf of all the scholars, I request the Government of India to heed our reasons and increase our fellowships. I like all of the others are hopeful though that the Government of India, under the guidance of PM Shri Narendra Modiji will help us out of our misery.