Thursday, March 18, 2021

FIVE QUOTES OF FRITJOF CAPRA

                                           

FIVE  QUOTES  OF  FRITJOF  CAPRA..( born 1939)..

Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., physicist and systems theorist, is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California.  Vienna-born , Capra first became popularly known for his book, The Tao of Physics, which explored the ways in which modern physics was changing our worldview from a mechanistic to a holistic and ecological one.In particular in The Tao of Physics he makes the assertion that physics and metaphysics are both inexorably leading to the same knowledge.
Capra has been the focus of more than 60 television interviews, documentaries, and talk shows in Europe, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Japan, and has been featured in major newspapers and magazines internationally. He was the first subject of the BBC’s documentary series, Beautiful Minds..

Capra  quotes........

(1)

"Mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not its branches; scientists understand its branches but not its roots. Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science; but man needs both." 

(2)

"The mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world. The harmony between their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom that Brahman, the ultimate reality without, is identical to Atman, the reality within."

(3)

"In the end, the aggressors always destroy themselves, making way for others who know how to cooperate and get along. Life is much less a competitive struggle for survival than a triumph of cooperation and creativity."
(4)

'Quantum theory thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated "building blocks," but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The human observer constitute the final link in the chain of observational processes, and the properties of any atomic object can be understood only in terms of the object's interaction with the observer."
(5)

"What is Life? because one of the first insights and still one of the most important insights of the systemic understanding of life is that living systems are networks. Again, I think it is important to point out that we're not talking about network structure, although that's also there. For example, the nervous system is a network structure. It is anatomical. But what we're talking about in an organism is a functional network. So its a network of relationships, a network that interconnects the processes. Then you can ask what are these processes? It depends on the level of life you are looking at. If you look at a cell then the process is a chemical process. If you look at an ecosystem the basic network process is feeding relationships. The animals feed on certain plants, the plants feed on sunlight, the plants die, the insects and the fungi feed on them and we have the whole recycling process. When you come to the human realm--human society or community-- the process is communication. You have language and conversation. I think this is why conversations, such as dialogue, is so important now. When we talk about networking in the human realm we don't talk about exchanging chemicals or eating each other, we talk about communication networks."

To  his fifth quote I will add   that a smile is the most impressive communication amongst humans the world over. It shortens the distance between  individuals. It doesn't require any language.

(Avtar Mota)





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CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

THE DOWNCAST GAZE IN HINDI FILM ARTH

                                           
                                  

THE  DOWNCAST  GAZE....

Kaifi Azmi wrote this beautiful Gazal for 1982 movie ARTH that had Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Rohini Hathangadi, Kulbushan Kharbanda and Raj Kiran in the  lead roles. Jagjit Singh and his wife Chitra Singh scored music for this film and sang some beautiful songs penned by Kaifi Azmi. 

"Tu apne dil ki jawaan dhadkanon ko gin ke bata
meri tarah tera dil beqaraar hai ke nahin ?

Teri umeed pe thukraa raha hoon duniya ko
tujhe bhee apne pe ye aitbaar hai ke nahin?

Jhuki jhuki si nazar beqaraar hai ke nahin?
Daba daba sa sahee dil mein pyaar hai ke nahin? "

In English ,I would say like this..

(Just count the youthful throbs of your heart and let me know,
Is it also  restless like my heart   or not ?
This world ,I am rejecting in  your  hope  ,
Do you also have a faith like this or not?

Does this doleful gaze convey longing within your heart?
Does it convey love even if concealed within  or held back ?)

(Avtar Mota)
    



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CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

Monday, March 8, 2021

EVERY SOUL TRIES TO MEET ITS CHERISHED ULTIMATE.

                                            
Every soul tries to meet the cherished  ultimate.

The philosophy of Life..

"Oh re taal mile nadi ke jal mein
Nadi mile saagar mein
saagar mile kaun se jal mein
Koyi jaane na...

Suraj ko dharti tarsay
Dharti ko chandrama
Paani me seep Jaisay
Pyaasi har aatma
O mitwa re 
Boondh chhupi kis baadal mein
Koyi jaane na..

Anjaane hothon par kyon
Pehchaane geet hain,
Kal tak Jo begaanay thay
Janamon ke meet hain
O mitwa re
Kya hoga kaun se pal mein
Koyi jaane na.."

This is my English rendering of the song written by poet Indivar for the movie Anokhi Raat. I  understand the song this way...

(The water from the  pond
flows towards the river.
The river flows to join the ocean;
Where does the ocean water flow ?
None has answer to this question.

The earth desires to meet the sun,
the moon desires to meet the earth .
Hidden in its  shell lies the pearl,
like water drops in the cloud,
the unseen creates a craving, 
a thirst,
Who knows which cloud carries  our share of the rain ? 

Sometimes, familiar songs appear 
on the lips of strangers ,
Quite often, strangers till yesterday 
become companions of this life and hereafter,
O dear friend,
Who knows,What   fate shall bring forth the very next  moment ?)

(Avtar Mota)




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CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

Thursday, March 4, 2021

D.P.DHAR (1918-1975)

                                           

D P DHAR  (1918-1975)

(In This Photo : Dr. P  N. Chutani  And Durga Prasad Dhar, Advisor to Prime Minister at  PGIMR Chandigarh ,1972..)

Not many People know that late D. P. Dhar was also writing Urdu poetry and his pen name was "Raunaq". His Guru was a   Darvesh type of a person known as Aamil Darvesh. A couplet written by D.P. Dhar " Raunaq " goes as under ...

Bazm e Khoobaan se mujhe soo e biyabaan le chali
Kis qadhar vehshat talab taseer iss ki  dekhnaa

Quite often , Aamil Darvesh stayed at  D. P. Dhar's residence  .

                                             

D.P. Dhar was credited with the entire diplomatic strategy against Pakistan  resulting in the creation of Bangladesh. He was also the man picked to play the central role in the reconciliation talks between India and Pakistan after the conflict.

DP to his friends, he was born in Srinagar on April 24, 1918, ths son of an affluent family that had long been close to the rulers of Kashmir . However, he was a rebel  who believed in  communist  ideology. When he was 17 ,he joined the student movement, and became its president.

D.P. Dhar, who passed away in 1975 at the age of 57, was India’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union and subsequently became a top policy aide of the then Indian Prime Minister ,Indira Gandhi.

                                                                              


                                                 ( With Saddam Hussain in New Delhi , March 1974)

( D.P.Dhar,Y S Parmar, Bansi Lal, Chandrasekhar and Brahmananda Reddy )

( Indira Gandhi with Brezhnev )
( T.N.Kaul,,D.P.Dhar,PN Haksar and P.N .Dhar )

This is what T P Sreenivasan (former ambassador to the United Nations, Vienna, and former governor for India, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna ) writes about D.P. Dhar:-

." Dhar was my first political ambassador, though alas, only for a brief while.

It was his second stint in Moscow and he was obviously not happy to go there again, after having been a hero of the Bangladesh war and the Simla Agreement. He had grown in stature beyond being an ambassador to Moscow.

But when he found that Indira Gandhi's political calculations had landed him in Moscow, he put his heart and soul into his job. His assignment was cut short when, while on a visit to Delhi, he succumbed to his heart ailment. But he had convinced us during a short period that he had a grand design for Indo-Soviet relations and that each of us in his team in Moscow had a role to play.

In my own case, he had made up his mind even before he met me that he would shift me from my administrative job to a political one.

It came as a surprise to me as I was enjoying the power of the head of chancery, a post equivalent to a district collector in the administrative Service. At a fairly junior level, the post gives the incumbent a special position in the embassy. Even senior colleagues were deferential to the head of chancery as he had the power to help or harm in administrative and financial matters.

In fact, I was involved in the whole process of settling in of the new ambassador because of my appointment. But Dhar broached the subject of a change within days of his arrival, saying that in Moscow, I should not waste my time on curtains and carpets.

I was not convinced initially and my immediate boss, Peter Sinai, was not keen that there should be a change. But when I realised that he had a specific plan for me to work with him directly, I decided to take the plunge. But he was gone even before I completed my first assignment, a study of the Soviet policy in South-East Asia.

Dhar took no time to settle in his new job, as he had become an expert on the Soviet Union not only during his first assignment as ambassador, but also during his days as the Chairman of the Policy Planning Committee, a cover for Bangladesh troubleshooting.

He visited the Soviet Union several times during that period in the company of General (later Field Marshal S H F J) Manekshaw and Joint Secretary for East Europe, A P Venkateswaran, who later became foreign secretary.

In fact, Venkateswaran tells the story of a Soviet general, who was curious about the composition of the Indian delegation to the crucial talks on Bangladesh. The general could not figure out what Venkateswaran's role was in the whole affair. Venkateswaran, in his inimitable style, told the general that his role could be described only in Hindi or Tamil and not in any other language.

In Hindi, he said he was Dhar's 'spoon' and in Tamil, he was his 'water jug.' How would the general know that the words chamcha and kooja both meant constant companion to do odd jobs? He remained as confused as ever.

Dhar and Rani bhabhi (the only ambassadorial wife, who insisted that she should not be called 'madam') were legendary for their hospitality. They entertained extremely well, even more than some career ambassadors. Fotedar, his private secretary, took care of the guests, sparing no effort or expense to make them happy.

Even friends of friends of the ambassador stayed at the residence and some of them did not even recognise him. The guests, who arrived in the night, would be put up in their rooms and Dhar and his wife would meet them only at the breakfast table next morning. One of the guests once asked them when they had arrived, thinking that they were also guests at the residence.

Dr Shelvankar, the journalist turned diplomat, Dhar's successor after his first term and his predecessor before his second term, and his wife, Mary, an Irish lady, were not particularly popular in Moscow.

Mary Shelvankar had quite a reputation for bossing over Shelvankar. She had occupied the ambassador's office room in the residence and sent the ambassador to a security guard's room in the basement. Mary took decisions on all administrative matters in the embassy and the ambassador would send me to her whenever I raised administrative matters with him.

Dhar was obviously aware of the situation when he visited Moscow on one occasion as the planning minister. Shelvankar and Mary hosted a reception for him at the residence and they were at the receiving line when Dhar arrived. Mary was in a splendid Kanjeepuram sari and looked very proud of herself as she greeted Dhar. "Mary, you look gorgeous!" said Dhar. Mary put on some modesty and said: "Oh am I alright DP? Do I really look like the ambassador's wife?"

"What do you mean Mary? You look like the ambassador's husband!" said Dhar, much to the delight of some of us who overheard him.

Once Dhar called me to his residence on a Sunday and when I arrived, he was lying flat on the terrace with just a towel around him and someone was giving him a massage. Even though the masseur asked me to go and talk to Dhar, I made a quick retreat, thinking that I would wait till he finished his massage and bath.

I went over to the embassy garage and started washing my car. After a little while, someone tapped me on my shoulder and I turned around. It was Dhar, immaculately dressed in a pinstriped suit. "Am I now properly dressed for you to talk to me? I believe you ran away since I was not dressed," he said.

Dhar told us a story about his experience in Pakistan. He was engaged in some serious discussions with the Pakistanis after the Simla Agreement. In the middle of the talks, Dhar developed laryngitis and the Pakistanis summoned a doctor to examine him. He happened to be a Bengali gentleman, who did not know much Urdu. But Dhar spoke to him in chaste Urdu and the doctor was also tempted to speak in the same language.

After examining him, the doctor told Dhar that the only way was for him to stop the bakwas. What he meant was that Dhar should give some rest to his larynx, but the word he used meant nonsense. Dhar's comment was that this doctor was not at the talks; then how did he know that he was talking bakwas all the time?

Dhar always operated through confidants, but his confidants did not belong to one community or state.

He had the gift of spotting talent and making use of it. Apart from Fotedar, he brought Gopi Arora as minister (economic), even though Peter Sinai, as the deputy chief of mission, was already entrusted with economic work. He trusted both of them and made them work as a team. He brought my batchmate P K Singh along, but put me with him to work as a team of political assistants to him. Outside the embassy, his confidant was Parayil Unnikrishnan, the PTI chief in Moscow.

To me, somehow, Dhar matched Chanakya of my imagination, tall, handsome, intelligent and stylish.

But there was nothing Machiavellian about him. He appeared transparent, honest and upright. I wish I had worked with him longer."


(Avtar Mota)


PS

Dr Pran Nath Chutani  (1915-1996) was an eminent personality who built PGIIMR , Chandigarh and remained its director from 1969-1978.He was a bachelor who donated most of his property to social welfare causes.His lasting legacy is also the physicians who he trained . These doctors continue their work inspired by a man who attained the status of a legend in his lifetime. Even his elder sister got inspired by his philanthropic work  and she and her husband also donated considerable property to some trusts engaged in philanthropy. Dr Chutani  put in long hours at work. He was  a strict disciplinarian who preferred to eat at home. He played the role of a friend,philosopher and guide when the SKIMS was set up at Soura in Kashmir.




Creative Commons License
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.