Adieu Tipsy!

Captain(IN) Tejinder Pal Singh Gill, also known as TPS Gill, had passed into the mist of time in the wee hours of the morning, consequent to a cardiac arrest. He was in the hospital, earlier, on contracting Covid-19. The medical complications that he had, made his survival a bit difficult.

He had joined the NDA at the same time that I had, during Jan 1973. While I was slotted into the Hunter Squadron, he was in the neighbouring Echo Squadron. A genial sardar, our paths criss-crossed quite often on the PT fields, the Drill Square, the Equitation Lines and wherever a cadet wandered within the Academy. We, both, joined the IN and it was while in service that we got closer to each other. I used to call him 'Tipsy' because his initials could be best amalgamated into that word and he was as good as the famous dessert - the 'Tipsy' pudding - that's been and continues to be a favourite, for every NDA cadet! His juniors vouch him to be a thorough gentleman!!

My last one-on-one contact with him was on the FB, sometime last year, when he was curious to know all about me and it was then we'd really caught up with each other, with a promise to remain in touch - and our course mates' group facilitated this quite abundantly. He was a loving son, a caring brother, a loving husband and a role-model-father! His mother and a sister - a paraplegic - stay with him, under his loving care.

RIP Tipsy! My salute, tears and prayers. May God give your near and dear ones the strength to tied over these stressful times. You will be missed! 

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What the hell is happening?

(a) The Hathras Conspiracy.

I like Arnab Goswami of the Republic Television channel as he's a spirited Bengali who is meticulous in the presentation of the news ( I must hasten to add that I don't indulge in the debates, simply because I ain't keen and the loud war of words is not my cup of tea). I was waiting to hear his coverage of the Hathras incident while listening to all the other channels - to filter the truth! 

This evening, he'd conceded that he had got delayed as he and his team were in the process of a sting operation on Priyanka Vadra's assistant who was ready with a plan to initiate riots - where many people would be killed on either side - to protest about the incident. 

That the level of politics, in this country, has hit such abysmal levels is a sad situation. I can't understand as to why politicians have shed whatever modicum of decency that existed between them in the past. Politics must be played but never at the expense of national unity.

It will be interesting to know everyone's view on the fall out of 'Operation Danga' - the sting operation!

(b) The Sushant Singh Rajput's case flip flops.

The unethical professional continues to take the system for a ride. Dr Sudhir Gupta, the head of the Forensic Department of the AIIMS, New Delhi had first hit the headlines in Jun '15 in connection with the Sunanda Pushkar case with his controversial findings and utterances. That case is yet to reach its logical conclusion. He still adorns the chair - how and why is he continuing to be there when his credentials are suspect?

He's continuing with his shenanigans and nobody seems to bother. Is this case also going nowhere? Who's the powerful Maharashtra politician who's being shielded in this case? It's disgusting, to say the least. Hope the media is able to get at the truth so that the investigating agencies have no reasons to go slack in their rightful duties!

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a half past 9. Have initiated two things that I want to finish within this week itself. The clearing of the thick growth of weeds and wild grass, around Raj Nivas, is being taken up next week - the caretaker has already been told about it.  

         

The Air Defence command.

In view of the growing tensions between India and China along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, the government is expected to announce the formation of a new Air Defence Command. A study is being done on the structure of the Command which will be under the IAF and the final decision is expected before the end of the year. 

At the annual press conference ahead of the Air Force Day later this week, responding to a question to the formation of the new Command, the Air Chief had said, "The study for setting up the Command is in the advanced stage".

Expected to be located near the IAF's Central Command, which controls some of the most important bases in the country, this is part of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA)'s process of restructuring of the Indian Armed Forces. Earlier this year, the DMA under the Chief of Defence Staff was given the directive to create joint military commands along with theatre commands.

Its aim is to protect the air space of the country and the plan is to get the air assets of the three services under one command, including the S-400 'SA-21 Growler' air defence systems which will start arriving from 2021 for the IAF. And, the structure is based on the study which was carried as per the guidelines set by the DMA.

The AD Threat Perception

The evaluation of its 'susceptibility and vulnerability' against the enemy's offensive capabilities. India is surrounded by two nuclear-armed countries - Pakistan and China and they perpetually maintain a 'minimum credible deterrence' against India. They have also strategically deployed various ballistic and cruise missiles (Both conventional and nuclear capable) against India.

The three services - the Indian Army, the Navy and the AF - maintain their own AD resources which are meant to counter specific threats perceived by each service. The AD assets will now get integrated. Accordingly, the IAF is all set to get the surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW) and AD Radars. This will also help in integrating all sensors, command control structures and weapon systems for an Integrated Air Defence command for carrying out its operations.

Source. Adapted.

     *              *               *

Knowledge decides what to Say, Skill decides how to Say, Attitude decides how much to Say and Wisdom decides whether to Say or not.

Tailpiece.

Got up at our usual time, the chores and was ready by a half past 9. It was a comparatively quiet day.

Dedicated to all my friends!

I never sat on a sofa with my father and after my marriage, I had already left him.......

Many years ago, after I got married I was sitting on a couch on a hot, humid day, sipping frozen juice during a visit to my father. As I talked about adult life, marriage, responsibilities and obligations, my father thoughtfully stirred the ice cubes in his glass and cast a clear, sober look at me.

"Never forget your friends", he advised, "they will become more important as you get older". 

"Regardless of how much you love your family and the children you happen to have, you will always need friends. Remember to go out with them occasionally, do activities with them, call them....."

"What strange advice!" I thought. I had just entered the married world, I am an adult and surely my wife and the family that we will start will be everything I need to make sense of my life. 

Yet I obeyed him; kept in touch with my friends and annually increased their number. Over the years, I became aware that my father knew what he was talking about! 

In as much as time and nature carry out their designs and mysteries on a man, friends are the bulwarks of his life.

After 64 years years of life, here is  what I learned :

 * Time passes * Life goes on * The distances increase * Children grow up and become independent and although it breaks the parents' heart, they are often separated from them.

Jobs come and go.

Illusions, desires, attractions, sex.......weaken.

People do what they should not do.

Parents die.

Colleagues forget the favours.

But true friends are always there, no matter how long or how many miles away they are.

A friend is never more distant than the reach of a need, reaching out to you intervening in your favour, waiting for you with open arms or with blessings for your life.

When we started this adventure called LIFE, we did not know of the incredible joys or sorrows that were ahead.

We did not know how much we would need from one another. Love your parents, take care of your children but keep a group of good friends.

Source. Adapted.

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a half past 9. A power cut spoiled the day - it had begun by about a quarter past 9, without prior intimation and ended only by a half past 6, in the evening. Must admit that we did face some difficulties despite the inverter that's buttoned up to the system! 

The after effects of self medication against Covid-19.

With the scare of Covid-19 spreading at an alarming rate, people have been administering themselves antidotes - on suggestions from well meaning friends - like HCQS, Vit B Complex, Vit C, multi-vitamins, zinc, homeo medicines, drinking kwatha, haldi milk etc to enhance their immunity. Everyone seems to have become a doctor!

Just listen to a well known doctor in Madras........

              A Toxic Medical Experience

I have been attending to patients non-stop and everyday during this pandemic; but with good self-protection for myself.

May. President Trump proclaimed HCQS and the public kept swallowing it even without medical supervision, till we saw sudden Cardiac Deaths.

June. Then started Haldi, Kashayams and Kudineer. We saw ulcer and gastritis with burnt out stomachs in those who overdid it.

July. New Viral Meds were announced. The media and public jumped like it was a miracle for all cases. But now its use is narrowly defined for specific cases.

August.  Consumption of Zinc tablets went up without knowing about Zinc toxicity. We saw unexplained stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhoea. Most of the B-complex just came out as highly yellow coloured urine.

September. Consumption of Vitamin D peaked and we saw Vit-D toxicity like prolonged weakness, nausea and frequent urination. We quietly told the patients to stop it.

October. Dr Hegde's patient who underwent surgery kept on bleeding in an unexplained manner. Patient had been taking Ginger, Garlic, Turmeric and Asafoetida for Covid protection. The surgeon could have been sued in lakhs for his negligence. How do we explain to the people that every single life-style action, hidden background detail and altered diets, too, affects medical treatment? How does one explain that things can suddenly go wrong? 

Finally for 90% of Covid infections, just self quarantine at home was enough. The immune system and normal healthy food did the rest. Slowly people are realising that all they need is a healthy body with sunlight, exercises, a varied natural healthy diet, a de-stressed life style and basic common sense hygiene. Meds and doctors come in last. Is this not what doctors have been telling every single flu season for decades and decades - but without the hysteria?

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 10. Wished my brother-in-law, Sanil and nephew, Achu many happy returns. My course mate and friend, Parrat called me up, after years and it was nice catching up with him (He'd sent a photograph of mine from the Academy days, the day before and I tried ringing him up, but to no avail). The sad news was that his mom had passed away on 03 Dec '19 due to a cardiac arrest. She was 90. she was very fond of me. 

Had the usual video interaction with my sisters and their families too.

Took part in a webinar from 1200-1300 hrs which had the cardiologist, Dr Pankaj Srivastava talking about, "Challenges in the Health Sector during Covid-19". It was interesting.

   

Hathras.

Hathras town in western UP is in the news for all the wrong seasons. 

It's unfortunate that a young, 19-year old lady was brutally gang raped by four beasts and she'd succumbed to her injuries, subsequently. Police had hastily carried out her cremation in the middle of the night and there was outrage among the people, regarding the incident and a cry to bring the culprits to book was on. The UP government had ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case but the opposition, mainly the Congress, tried to make political capital out of the issue with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi descending on the victim's house and making a tamasha out there. The details of their shenanigans are coming out in bits and pieces. Meanwhile, at long last, Yogi Adityanath seems to have corrected the situation by handing over the investigations from his SIT to the CBI. 

It is also a town that has four railway stations, with the word Hathras in it - City, Jn, Kila, Road!

But Hathras is remembered for another reason. And it is linked to the Railways of which we are still ardent fans. More than 130 years back, a wandering penniless monk was sitting on a bench of Hathras Jn station. He was travelling partly on foot, partly by train, partly by bullock cart, as Providence would provide. Suddenly, the ASM of the station spotted the sanyasi with striking features, a sharp nose and wide eyes sitting on the bench. He went up to him and struck up a conversation.

Impressed by his knowledge and disposition, the ASM requested the monk to be his guest that night and took him to his quarters behind the station. After spending a day or two the monk wished to bid goodbye but the ASM told him to wait; he would rush to the station, submit his resignation and leave with the monk as his disciple which he did and became the monk's first disciple. The monk was none other than Narendranath Dutta who later became Swami Vivekananda and the ASM of Hathras Jn was Sharat Chandra Gupta, a Bengali gentleman, who, after getting his sanyas vows, was called Swami Sadananda of the Ramakrishna Mission.

Yes, it's a fascinating story of a monk and his disciple. You can read more about them in the book, "The Life of Swami Vivekananda, by his Eastern and Western disciples, Advaita Ashrama (1989 edition), pages 220-224. Before accepting him as his disciple, Vivekananda gave his begging bowl to Sharat and asked him to beg for food from the porters and khalasis of the station. This was his way of testing his disciple's earnestness. Without waiting for a moment, Sharat went to the station and begged for food from those very people who were his subordinates till just the previous day. He came back to Swamiji with the alms collected and partook of them, along with his Guru. That proved the culmination of his ego after his renunciation.

Incidentally, he was a good friend of Dr Boshi Sen who later became a world renowned plant/agricultural scientist and lived in Almora. Sharat Chandra Gupta or Swami Sadananda, the erstwhile Assistant Station Master of Hathras Jn, though a Bengali, belonged to Jaunpur. He passed away in 1911. 

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a half past 9. Took part in the 485th edition of the 'Aazhchakkoottam' organised by the Foundation and the topic was, "Covid and the heart", by Dr Jeyapal. It was an interesting interaction! 

Calcutta Police's contribution.

Perhaps the biggest contribution of Calcutta Police, to the world, is in the field of high-end sound systems and advanced auto suspension technology the BOSE!

The story begins in 1920.

Mahatma Gandhi had declared the non cooperation movement. There was excitement and fervour in the air. A lot of young Indians took part in peaceful demonstrations across India.

One of those young Indians was a boy studying Physics in Calcutta University. His name was Noni Gopal. Young Noni took part in a small but loud demonstration against the British rule, near Elgin Road in Calcutta. He was also the person who wrote the pamphlet, against the British Rule, distributed by the protesters that day.

Young Noni had his final exams in two weeks. After the peaceful protest, he returned to his home and was studying in his room when the Calcutta Police decided to change the history of Audio Industry for the rest of the humanity. They came to Noni's house and arrested him. He was duly presented to a Magistrate the next morning and sent to prison.

He missed his exams. A few days later, while being taken to the court for a subsequent hearing, along with a few other under-trial revolutionaries, Noni managed to escape and run away. With the help of a few friends, relatives and well-wishers, Noni reached Madras and managed to board a ship sailing to America.

Young Noni Gopal reached Ellis Island near New York with an equivalent of $5 in his pockets and no identity papers. Those were different days - he was welcomed in. There was an active community of Indians including the likes of Haridas Gayadeen, Sailendra Nath Ghose, Sarat Mukherjee and the famous Taraknath Das of the Ghadar Party in North America who helped young Noni settle down in Philadelphia.

Noni started a small radio repair shop and fell in love with a local school teacher by the name of Charlotte. She was an American of French-German descent and was interested in the Vedanta philosophy. They got married. Life went well - Noni continued to support the activities of the Indian revolutionaries back home in India. Nine years after Noni had escaped from the Calcutta Police, in 1929, Noni and Charlotte had a son and they named him, Amar.

Amar grew up in a household that valued education - as a kid, he loved tinkering in his father's radio repair workshop. Amar went on to study at MIT and became an assistant professor, thereafter completing his PhD. As a professor, Amar was granted a few patents in areas including loudspeaker design, which eventually became the basis of his new start-up.

This small start-up founded by the son of an Indian fugitive and revolutionary with virtually no money, went on to become a global brand, directly employing over 11,000 people, making Amar the 271st richest man in the world. His brand was loved by the likes of Steve Jobs and his products are used around the world in Concert Halls, Music Studios and even public institutions like NASA, The Vatican, the American House of Representatives and the Parliament of India.

This is the story of the Indian Revolutionary, the late Shri Noni Gopal Bose and his son, the late Dr Amar Gopal Bose of the Bose Corporation.

Had the British-controlled Calcutta Police not jailed a young student of the Calcutta University in 1920, perhaps, the world would have never got this! Thank you, Calcutta Police!!

- Leslie Pereira.

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 10. Took part in a webinar in which a "PN Panicker National Eco Intelligence Mission" was proposed by Dr Pamposh Kumar of the DST, Government of India. It sounded interesting but needs fine tuning. 

Saline water in Mars?

In mid September, researchers found evidence of phosphine - a life harbouring gas - on Venus. Now, a new research published in Nature Astronomy suggests the existence of not just one super salty lake but three such water bodies near the Red Planet's south pole.

Milestones

Mars Express * Launch date 02 Jun, 2003 * Arrival at Mars Dec 2003 

Major goals * Image the entire surface at high resolution (10 metres/pixel) * Produce a map of the mineral composition of the surface at 100 metre resolution * Map the composition of the atmosphere and determine its global circulation.

Mars Express Data - Researchers made the new discovery using radar data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars-orbiting spacecraft, Mars Express.

MARSIS help * Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), a radar instrument on Mars Express helped researchers to probe the planet's southern polar region * The instrument can send radio waves that bounce off layers of material in the planet's surface and subsurface * The reflected signal suggests the kind of material that is present at a particular location.

Confirms lake identified in 2018 - Italian scientists reported their findings on 28 Sep, two years after identifying what they believed to be a large buried lake. In the latest study, scientists provide further evidence of this salty underground lake and also identified three smaller bodies of water surrounding the lake. "We identified the same body of water but we also found three other bodies of water around the main one" - Elena Pettinelli, Planetary Scientist, University of Rome.

Strong evidence

The 2018 find needs further evidence for confirmation of the existence of any water body. But the current study comprises 134 observations made between 2012 and 2019. Scientists estimate the lake to 20 km to 30 km across and buried 1.5 km beneath the icy surface.

The new discovery increases the possibility of finding microbial alien life on the Red Planet.

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a half past 9. Washing machinex of bed linen completed well before the power interruption from 0925 - 1725 hrs, for maintenance. This was the second in this electrical circle. 

Spoke to my cousins Kala, Sindhu, Kannan and Leela chittamma and caught up with all of them; they were interesting interactions!