Is it a colourless world?

The theories of reflection suggest that the colours we see depend on the amount of white light it absorbs and the amount it reflects. White light is colourless light like ordinary daylight, ie, it is the light humans see when all the colours (VIBGYOR) make up visible light. The different colours which comprise white light have different wavelenghts. Light always travels in waves and wavelength is nothing but the distance between the crests of two waves. Scientists say that when white light falls on any object or surface, some of the wavelenghts get absorbed while others get reflected. We see the portion of the light which is reflected and that is how we perceive the colour of a thing. When all the colours are absorbed a thing appears black and if none of it is absorbed, an object appears white. For example, when white light falls on an apple, all the colours of VIBGYOR gets absorbed excepting red. The red light is thus reflected and that is why when we look at an apple it appears to be red. Similarly, a sunflower is yellow because it absorbs all colours other than yellow, a rose is red, a chocolate is brown and parrots are green.
So if every colour we see is a result of refection of white light falling on it, what is the actual colour of a thing, rather, does colour even exist? If white light was not there, would roses be blue, or green, or would they be colourless? The colours make everything looks beautiful, be it a garden or a temple or a bride. But, do all these things even have a colour of their own? What if white light is no longer available one day: would the world be colourless? Even if it were colourless, what does colourless actually look like? I wonder....

Bad news for the "purely non-vegetarians"!

Recently, a lot of news has been coming up regarding polar bears feeding on dolphins. Dolphins do not generally form a part of the diet of a polar bear but scientists have found out recently that there have been more than a few incidents where polar bears have been found to be feeding on dolphins. Research says that even though dolphins are found in the Arctics in the summer months, they have never been observed there during any other time of the year when the sea is covered with ice. However, with increasing global warming, there has been a strong retreat of ice which is why the dolphins might have wandered that far off during winters and fallen prey to hungry polar bears. Sad isn't it? Wait. It does not end there.
This is where the twist is. I found in an article that us non vegetarians are substantial contributors to global warming by virtue of our immense appetite for lip smacking steaks, Tandooris, kebabs and all the other hundreds and thousands of non-vegetarian delights. Surprised? So was I. Apparently, animal agriculture is responsible for 14.5% of the global greenhouse gases. Over the years, large areas of forests have been cleared for animal grazing.  Also, it consumes a major portion of the freshwater resources while contributing to air and water pollution. How many of us would have imagined while enjoying a big piece of mutton or a delicious pork chop that the contents of our plates would, somewhere far away, be changing the menu for a polar bear's dinner. Well. unfortunate as it is, it is true. Now the important question is how many of us are strong enough to do something about this. We have all in some occasion talked about global warming and how it should be reduced. How many of us are actually ready to take up this challenge of giving up our beloved non-vegetarian diets for the planet? It is a small step but yet for some of us a very difficult one. I do not know if I am strong enough to be able to do it immediately but I earnestly hope some of you reading this are.

The wealthy snatchers!

After many days of procrastination I have finally sat myself down to finally put into words the post that I has been pending for over a month. A few days back while I was reading the newspaper, I read an article which especially drew my attention. It said that studies and reports have revealed that the majority of the cases of snatching by bikers are committed by youths of extremely wealthy families. The wealthy youths to keep up with their wealthy lifestyles have taken to robbery and chain snatching which provide them with easy cash for expensive parties, malls, alcohol and drugs. This information got me thinking how most of us develop this wrong notion that the financially needy for the underprivileged are the ones who are responsible in any case of theft, pick pocketing or robbery. I do not mean to make any generalizations here but what I mean to say is most of you will understand or will be acquainted with the idea that all of us have at some point come across the idea that the poor are the ones behind most of the crimes like theft, snatch and run, drug dealing etc., driven by poverty or otherwise. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, people tend to blame the poor for anything that goes wrong be it global warming or the cleanliness of the city. I will not lie. In the Indian society it is very common for people to immediately blame the servants, drivers and caretakers for anything that goes missing even before giving it a proper search. They may be right in certain cases but is it not wrong to assume it by default? It is true that some of us are in financially weak positions while others are comparatively financially sound. Does that mean that the needy are always looting the rich to satisfy their necessities? The Article clearly suggested a different idea, not based on conceptions but based on reality.
It is time we change our notions and open our minds. What is important is that each one of us should first take responsibility of our own actions. Like just a few days back a friend of mine could not find her scissor. The first thing that came to her mind was the cleaning lady stole it. It is surprising how naturally it comes to us to blame someone for something just because they are weaker than we are. The scissor, however, was found just a minute later buried under a few books that had been carelessly kept on the table. Unfortunately I know that this is not isolated incident but is a very common mistake that one often makes. What is important is that everyone takes some time to think and to ponder before they form an idea, before they hurt someone, before they blame someone, before every small action that they take, before they shift the responsibility to someone else.  

One for laughter, two for joy.

A robin feathering his nest

Has very little time to rest

While he is gathering

Bits of twig and twine

While most of us visualize a perfect Mary Poppins scene when we hear these lines, I have had a perfect opportunity to experience it first hand. Being an ardent lover of bright sunny days, it has always been my habit to open all the windows and draw the curtains immediately after waking up. So, just a few days back as I woke up and rolled up the net off my hostel window I was disgusted to see my window sill littered with white feathery things. A closer look revealed that there were a sort of feathery flowers, something like what we call "kash phool" in Bengali. Almost immediately, almost to answer my questions, two tiny birds came and sat on the grill each holding a dried piece of grass with its beak. 

I have never been very fond of small delicate soft animals. They sort of give me the creeps down my spine. So as you would guess, the idea of tiny baby birds on my window sill was not a very welcome idea. Irritated with all the mess, I got all the feather and twigs removed and my window cleaned by the maid who was kind enough to do it for me even though she grumbled and cursed the birds all along. But alas, the next morning I woke up again to the exact same sight, When I told my mother about it, it was she who told me that birds only build nests in places they find safe and that I should not disturb them and let them be, By this time I had gotten used to the chirps of the two tiny birds on my window and started enjoying their company. So i decided to let them be and click photos of them instead. 

After a few days, they had collected so much that we thought they were trying to make a multi-storied nest for themselves. Half of the window was curtained with grass hanging from the grills. After a point of time we started criticizing the architectural skills of they birds because they were taking too much time and making no progress. They used to assemble the grass everyday and everyday it would come loose and get deposited at the bottom of the window. We started saying that the birds were stupid and that it was not possible to build a nest balanced on a single grill. Our window was a mess and the nest was not even close to complete. Just one morning later, however, I woke up to find this.

It was miraculous. The window was a complete mess when we went to bed and just the next morning there was a perfect nest in place and literally the entire window looked as if it had been carefully cleaned up. I sat on my bed awestruck for a long time amazed at how two tiny birds could possibly do all this is just a few hours, Anyhow, the nest is still there and the birds barely come out of it. I guess the nest is as cosy inside as it looks from outside. (It looks amazing but the pictures have not come well because of the lighting. The nest is completely rested on the net so it cannot be adjusted in any way.)

Other than the fact that I am not being able to roll up the net to enjoy an unobstructed open window, I am sure that this is something which one does not experience very often and unlike all my other posts, this is one thing that I would definitely not like to change. :)

Dadabhai..

Just today while I was browsing Facebook I came across my elder brother's (Dadabhai) blog. To tell you what he is like will not be very difficult. I am sure most of you have had one of those in your family. The sheer genius kind who always knows everything about everything and generally makes you feel like you know nothing at all in a very "It's all cool, I just know a little more than you do" sort of a way. :P
So I opened his blog and I read. He has this amazing way of noticing so many strange things and then writing about them in such perfect humor and terminology. He can make a small simple post sound so interesting and yet intellectual while I write long serious posts which even I am too lazy to read for the second time. Well, I took almost a month deciding what my blog will be on and what it will be called. In times like these, I wish his I had a little of his brilliance, just a little bit..:)

P.S. No self loathing or jealousy involved, Well, maybe just a little bit. But that's okay I suppose.

Books and Beyond..

Some of my fondest memories of childhood was spending hours with my mother and my father at a place called Lankmark, which you may now recognize as Starmark. It is primarily a bookstore but things like CDs, stationary, chocolates and other tit-bits of various types are also available there. When I was a child, my parents used to often take me there in the evenings and we used to spend hours flipping through this book and that. At the end before leaving I always used to cajole my father into buying me one or two Enid Blytons or bedtime stories or something like that and having spent a nice time all three of us used to return home content. It is thus very saddening for a person like me when places like Landmark, Music World and other stores like that are closing down owing to lack of sale.
The reason is very simple and yet very deep rooted. Say for example, a common sight today in both adults and children is having them keep their heads buried in their cell phones almost throughout the day. They are on their phones when they wake up, when they eat, when they talk to people, before they go to sleep. Now instead of calling up people use Whatsapp. There will be a room full of people yet no one will be talking to each other. I was once travelling in a train and there was a little girl travelling with her mother and her brother. She was so little she couldn't even speak and yet what she could do was operate a huge android phone, play videos in it, pause it and play it and increase the volume. It was very helpful for her mother to keep her baby distracted and not get cranky in the train. But it made me wonder.. will a kid like her ever grow up to like reading books or playing childish games that we used to when we were here age? I am sure most of you have come across children of like that. If cell phones occupy so much of most people's daily lives, who will go to bookstores and buy books and read them?
The modern day technology is another great advancement. We get the newest movies, songs, videos online for free. We can download ebooks and practically get everything online..I wont be a hypocrite here and accept that I am one such people who take the benefit of the wonders available online. Maybe at one point it is a good thing that these things are available online to everyone online. Video CDs and movie halls are often so expensive that they remained out of reach of many in the country until technology stepped in, Unfortunately the other side of the problem is because of this the sale of CDs and DVDs have deteriorated to a point where almost nobody buys them anymore at all. The result of all this is huge shops like starmark and music world are closing down. While it may seem like a small thing with just two shops closing it might be the end of an era, an era that existed for a hundred years.. Maybe it is for the good, a step towards something new, something better.. but maybe I am not ready for such a change yet, maybe I am not ready for people to stop reading books, maybe a lot of people are not ready yet.. Should we do something about or should we just let it be.. More importantly, can we do anything about it?

Not every cloud has a silver lining..

I was reading Marquez this afternoon after a late lunch. The monsoons have marked their arrival with the cloudy mornings and regular downpours now and then. It had been gloomy all day and around noon the black clouds finally decided to shed their sorrows washing the city with heavy rain. With the book in my hand and drowsy eyes, I suddenly noticed a bright yellow reflection on my window. When I got up to find out the source this is the sight that was waiting for me outside the window of my room.
If only I could capture the vastness of the magnificent sky and the beauty of the entire scene all at once with the birds returning to their nests all in a hurry and and brightness of the thousand shades of yellow and the brilliant glow of the setting sun. If only every cloudy day cleared to a sunset like this. If only..