THE BYSTANDER

Thursday last, 22nd May 2008 I went to attended a post marriage bride reception party call “ Bohubaht ” in Bengali, at Katwa a small sub-divisional town in the province of West Bengal, India. This is the first time ever I happen to visit this part of India or better say Bengal. Traveling by local train to cover the distance of little more than 100 kilometers in 4 hours is exhaustive. There is no provision of toilet in the railway coaches designed to ferry the local passenger. What transpired they never expected one to travel from the train`s starting to destination point! However, when you get out of your city, what has transformed itself in a concrete jungle, the greenery is bound to absorb your mind to forget the rest. In the month of May, the climate offered bit cool, since the sky was cloudy. So the journey was pleasant. More so , when I met my hosts there. The people in this big mega city, Kolkata, have become long ago , mechanical. They force laugh or greet mechanically and we a...

Those of us live in any part of Asia or Europe, one time or other , most of us have met Gypsies. Here in this part of globe, India, we are likely to find them on road sides, in busy cities. Camping and littering all around, kids are tottering, women cooking and the male members of the group smoking tobacco or busy in some odd jobs. This nomadic tribe practically left no clear cut history behind them to find their family tree or their origin. However, the evidence suggests, they migrated from Asia to Europe through land routs thousands of years ago. Geographical boundaries carry no meaning to them until recent decades. Where the borders are not porous and strict vigil maintained, there they get stagnated. Off late it is found at some places in Europe they have settled in the outskirts of few cities, as they did in Mitrovica, a town in northern Kosovo. This town is on the bank of Ibar river which separates physically Serbians and Albanians as border. Askhkali, Roma and Egyptian are thre...

Some time, in idle hours, it crosses my mind, had Mr. Md Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, been a Hindu, then the post independence history of India must have been quite different. Such thought crossing my mind is not totally baseless. It was Jinnah’s grandfather who embraced Islam. Ironically, Gandhi and Jinnah both originally belonged to the same caste; Guajarati Baniah! It was truly tryst with destiny, as Pt. Nehru use to say while referring Indian freedom. Had Jinnah continued to be a Hindu, the very Pakistan would have been with in India. Off course till this 20 ::20 matches take off, we would have missed all these cricketers on the same field for quite some time. However, lots of other misery, like partisan, then couple of wars, between two cousins ( or brothers !) could be avoided. And to the envy of the developed world , India would have excelled long ago economically. All these I write, because as I use to think such change in the course of history, and happenings thereaft...

Fingerprints and physical appearance in general are part of an individual’s phenotype, which arises from the interaction of the individual’s genes and the developmental environment in the uterus. In the case of fingerprints, the genes determine the general characteristics of the patterns that are used for fingerprint classification. As the skin on the fingertip differentiates, it expresses these general characteristics. However, as a surface tissue, it is also in contact with the amniotic fluid in the uterus. The fingertips are also in contact with other parts of the fetus and the uterus, and their position in relation to uterus and the fetal body changes as the fetus moves on its own and in response to positional changes of the mother. Thus the microenvironment of the growing cells on the fingertip is in flux, and is always slightly different from hand to hand and finger to finger. It is this microenvironment that determines the fine detail of the fingerprint structure. While the diff...

Indian meals , rather delicacies when served in western style , specially buffet they can mess up the whole thing. Imagine after board room meeting when the buffet lunch is served how sometime one feels. You may hold a plate over a paper napkin, served on them chapattis with “ dal makani ”. The spoon, fork and knife lay by the side, you have to help yourself with your fingers. The big question comes, what use the spoons, forks and the knife have? You never know. More humiliating when you are served with chicken breast roast or “ tondur ” dishes. I feel so embarrassing when I can`t hold the stuff with my both the hands and help myself ! In such buffet, you have to eat while people are milling around you, there is the tension, that a lump of gravy may jump off your plate and spoil your coat or shirts , god forbid it may spoil others apparel as well. Think , it that personality happens to belong to fairer sex! Our dishes are best suitable to be ate on floor and off course with the freed...

With the cyber revolution, in came the crime, that is cyber crime. The blessing of internet has it`s curse within itself. The web world has brought the world in one`s finger tips in seconds. There are numerous merits of it, no more delay in mail delivery, no more standing in long queue for paying utility bills or purchasing railway or airline tickets. Sitting right in your drawing room, with home comfort you can book hotels all over the world! One could not imagine this even just a decade ago, in many parts of the globe. Let us see the other side of it. The fraudsters are also out there. Recently in Kolkata, India at least 14 ladies were cheated or black mailed by cyber criminals. The trap was laid in chat site. In fact the in these chat sites most of the people use pseudonym, hide there actual identity. This prevents police to initiate any action against criminals. Let me narrate a single episode. A guy with a false name managed to developed intimacy on chat site with an elderly lady...

Mathematics has always been my out of favour. I could never love it for its insipid taste. Any subjects like history, geography , literature or other science subjects had a picturesque approach to me. But arithmetics with all its jumbles posed something hard to digest. Off late, I found some beautiful formulas in simple arithmetical calculations. Repent, in our days they were missing, lest I too could find some interest in the subject. Here I let you have some beautiful formation of mathematical jumbles , hope it will be liked by all and encourage few to proceed further for newer formulas. 1 x 8 + 1 = 9 12 x 8 + 2 = 98 123 x 8 + 3 = 987 1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876 12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765 123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654 1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543 12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432 123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321 1 x 9 + 2 = 11 12 x 9 + 3 = 111 123 x 9 + 4 = 1111 1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111 12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111 123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111 1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111 12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111 123456789 x 9 +10= 11111111...