Traveller & Tourist

What’s the difference between these two? To many of us, these two are synonymous, but are they really? These two folks don’t seem to think so. And surprisingly, for once, they seem to agree.

A tourist, according to these guys, is someone who goes visiting places with the purpose of “doing” those places. You can’t miss those types. These are folks who are posing in front of monuments or landmarks, and rushing from one destination to the next. They are on a right schedule, and would like to see or “do” as many of the important places to see in the shortest possible time. In other words, they have destinations in mind, and the idea is to cover as many of those as they can. Among your friends, you will find these as the folks who post selfies of pictures with family at famous places, and nowhere else. And if you have friends who only post pictures from foreign vacations and nowhere else, you have one of the tourists as your friend.

But these are things practically every everyone does. So what are travelers and how are they different from tourists? According to these folks, there are very few travelers today. So who are travelers? Travelers are those who don’t necessarily have a destination when they travel. Someone for whome the journey is as important as getting there. People who aren’t just “doing” places but are living them. These are people who like to experience the places they travel to, would like to feel the essence of the city they travel to, and believe every place has a charm and ethos uniquely it’s own, and while landmarks are a part of this charm, this ethos comes from the culture, which is manifested in the people. So travelers are to be found among the non-descript, not-so-famous places, places where they can meet people, listen to and tell stories, learn about the ethos of the place.

These are people who are to be seen traveling by bus or rickshaw, not by taxi. These are folks seen drinking tea or eating at roadside stalls, not at posh restaurants. Among your friends these are people who post pictures of “unknown” places, but pictures which are poignant, maybe touching, or humorous, basically those which touch you somewhere deep. These are people who will tell you stories.

In short, according to Laurel, if life were akin to a flowing river, then tourists are those walking along the banks, at times getting wet from the splashes of the river, while travelers are to be seen swimming in the river.

1965

1965 was the year when India and Pakistan fought the second war in the nations’ history. This war, like the one previous, was fought over the territory of Kashmir. This war was fought in August-September of 1965, though the Pakistani version is that the war started on 6th September, 1965, with the Indian invasion on Lahore. The truth is somewhat different.

So what was the truth? To find out the truth, we have to go a few months before the month of September to find out the events that led to the war.

The fighting began in the month of January, with Pakistan launching Operation Desert Hawk. The stated reason for the operation was the dispute over Rann of Kutch, but many speculate that the actual objective was to divert India to the west, away from the main theatre of the coming war, in Kashmir, given that India had just had a military defeat in the 1962 war. With this operation, Pakistan tried to take control over the Rann, and this ended shortly with a British-brokered cease-fire.

Moving to Kashmir, the hostilities began with what Pakistan refers to as Operation Grand Slam. The idea behind Operation Gibraltar (who thinks up these names anyway) was to infiltrate Pakistani regular soldiers into Kashmir in the guise of Muhajideen, based on the assumption that the people of Kashmir would welcome them, and together, they could foment a rebellion in Kashmir. This didnt happen, and the people of Kashmir informed the Indian Army, and this operation was a failure. India counter-attacked across the LoC, capturing important important features like the Haji Pir pass. This was followed by the Pakistani counter-attack, nick-named Operation Grand Slam. The idea behind Operation Grand Slam was to capture Akhnoor, cutting communications and supplies to Indian troops further north. The Pakistan Army met major success at this point, given numerical and technical superiority, and the element of surprise.

To relieve the pressure in Kashmir, India decided to take the battle to Pakistan in Punjab, at Lahore. Given that Pakistan had concertrated forces at the Sialkot sector for the offensive on Akhnoor, the area leading to Lahore was defenseless. Seeing the lack of any defensive positions, the Indian Army stopped their offensive for a few hours, fearing a trap, which gave the Pakistani Army the time to move forces from Sialkot to the defense of Lahore. At this point, India had taken the village of Barkee, and was within firing range of Lahore International Airport. However, lack of intelligence, and tactical mistakes let to the Indian Army having to withdraw, most importantly the lack of information of the 3 Jat having taken Jallo Mur to the west of Icchogil canal. Further south, while Pakistan took the strategic town of Munabao in Rajasthan, India took the town of Gadra.

A large role was played by the Pakistan Air Force, and the fact that Indian Air Force was largely concentrated in the eastern region, for defending against a possible Chinese attack. According to estimates, Pakistan depleted 17% of their fleet, while India suffered around 10% losses. All in all, none of the two countries were able to achieve air superiority.

Some of the fiercest fighting, though, happened in Punjab. The Indian offensive on Sialkot, with the elite 1st Armoured Division, the “pride of the India Army”, was crushed by a much smaller Pakistani force at the Battle of Chawinda. On the other hand, the 1st Armoured Division, Pakistan’s Pride, invaded and captured the town of Khem Karan, with the objective of taking Amritsar. However, this division was decimated at the Battle of Asal Uttar (which incidentally means Fitting Reply) by a much smaller Indian force. The area came to be known as Patton Nagar, after the large number of Patton tanks destroyed.

The sea battle, on the other hand, was an unequal battle, and Pakistan controlled the sea-lanes, and bombed Dwarka, with most Indian ships in dock for repair or refitting, and unable to take part in battle. This was a contributor to the expansion and modernisation of the Indian naval fleet.

All in all, the war reached a stalemate when the cease-fire, brokered by the Soviet Union came into effect, and the Tashkent Declaration was signed. Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent, hours after the signing of the declaration, and in Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto started criticizing Gen. Ayub Khan for having lost the military victories on the negotiating table. Over time, this led to Gen. Ayub’s ouster, and the coming to power of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and Gen. Yahya Khan.

Here are the two sides of the story, as told in programs from India and from Pakistan.

These stories diverge at times, based on the viewpoint you look at history from.

Cricketing History

The stuff legends are made of … and this is definitely one of the defining moments of cricket. Sir Garfield sobers up the bowling, you think?

Thoughts about the World, Business, Knowledge, Spirituality ...

Now this video should be a mandatory part of any cricketer’s education … and if you either have dreams of having been a batsman, or aspirations to be one, then this is a must-watch.

All six of them effortless. Sheer poetry.

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The Ethos Of Lahore

These guys were talking about this video which is about Lahore. In this video, noted journalist Mubasher Lucman talks about Lahore.

Lahore is one of the oldest cities in South Asia, with a history which spans more than 4000 years, starting from its founding by Lord Rama’s elder son, Lav. Lord Rama’s younger son, Kush, founded the nearby city of Kasur.

Interestingly, one of the oldest dramas in the world, Abhijnan Shakuntalam, written by the great Kalidas, was first performed in this city of culture.

Lahore indeed has a venerable history, a city which has been the heart of culture and tradition, a city which represented the pinnacle of culture, music, poetry, literature. The city where the arts flowered and flourished, a city which names among her sons and daughters, some of the leading cultural and musical luminaries across history. And this culture, tradition, isnt about India or Pakistan, this is the tradition, the culture which is the shared heritage of two nations.

Today, however, this ethos of Lahore seems to be getting destroyed. Lahoriyas today dont look at Lahore as they used to. Lahore is no longer the heart of culture in the Indian subcontinent that it used to be, and Mubasher Lucman is asking where this ethos has gone, where those Lahoriyas have gone who brought Lahore to the heights it once had.

Not for nothing is it said that …

Jiney Lahore nahin vekkheya, o jammeya hi nahin!

Or, as the Lahoriyas say …

Lahore Lahore aey!

History Of English

Here’s a nice video summarizing the history of the English language. This starts from the beginning, and explores how folks from outside England, like the Anglo-Saxons, the Latin-speaking Christians, the Vikings, and the Normans brought a plethora of words which make up the English language today. It also explores the impact Shakespeare had on the language, with the plethora of words and phrases he invented, and how the Empire took the language and made it global, while at the same time absorbing influences from a host of languages. It goes on to also tell us about the impact of technology on the language.

And it also tells us how the proponents of the fine art of speaking Hinglish, Chinglish, or Singlish, who practise this art form every day are furthering a language very uniquely their own.

Black Holes & Quantum Gravity

An eminently quotable quote, the principle for which I have applied here is …

“Always get rid of the difficult bit in the title – it does less harm there than in the text” – Sir Humphrey Appleby

Now that we have gotten past that one, let me tell you what these guys were talking about the other day. Made little sense to me, and maybe even less to them. But the topic was about black holes and quantum gravity. Now quantum gravity means all things to all people, but these guys were talking about Loop Quantum Gravity.

So what is Loop Quantum Gravity and what were these guys talking about? This is the principle of quantum gravity in which space-time is seen as being quantized. In other words, space-time isn’t a smooth continuum, rather, it’s a series of looped quanta of space-time. This has implications for black holes, according to some researchers. The reference was to this article.

The idea is quite simple. As the black hole shrinks, at some point it reaches the dimension of the space-time quantum. From here, the black hole doesn’t have anywhere to go, and the singularity of Einsteinian general relativity is avoided by this quantum. This is because this quantum being the lowest possible unit of space-time, nothing can be smaller. At this stage, the black hole converts into a white hole, according to researchers.

The next question is how long this conversion takes. According to researchers, this conversion could take only a fraction of a second. But this should mean observers should be seeing black holes popping into white holes all the time. Why this doesn’t happen is because of time dilation. What is a fraction of a second to a black hole seems to the outside observer to be billions of years because of time dilation. In fact, at a point of infinite density, this fraction of a second would actually be infinite time to the external observer.

Consciousness …

Following from the earlier post, heres a nice video, with Professor Russell Stannard, discussing the idea of consciousness, and the limits of scientific knowledge. There are some important questions here.

While the theory of evolution describes the evolutionary requirement of the brain as the prime mechanism for hunting, gathering, agriculture, and all human activity, Laurel does believe, along with Professor Stannard that there is much more to it. For instance, what is the evolutionary need for appreciating music? Or art, a beautiful sunrise, or any other aesthetic picture. Or capable of understanding, as Professor Stannard says, things of the world. Or do some of these capacities of the human brain, or mind, as Laurel would emphasize, come from a source, and a purpose much greater than the evolutionary purpose?

Things Fall Apart: Masculinity and Violence in Congo

Seems like the image of what a successful man is defines some of the things people do. This sort of society-imposed image leaves deep marks on men as they are growing up, leaving them with a particular notion of success which then drives their behaviour. This is a more fundamental thing … like the notion we have heard gfrowing up that real men dont cry. Well, men do cry. And why not?

Of Consciousness

The other day, these guys were discussing the topic of consciousness. Out of the jumble of sounds (that’s usually what their discussion sounds like … unintelligible sounds), emerged a discussion about the nature of consciousness and the relationship between consciousness and the brain.

Any such discussion needs to begin with finding out what brain is. Now, naturally, that’s a tough one for them, as between these two guys, they don’t share one full brain, one can be certain. Well, cutting a long story short, the discussion has to begin with what these things are that these guys are talking about. At an essential level, the brain is a combination of atoms and molecules, chemical flows, electrical currents. These chemical flows through these atoms and molecules, along with these electrical currents which flow in different ways through different parts of the brain, create different forms of sensations, feelings, or emotions in the brain. However, there’s a difference between any such configuration, and a specific configuration called the brain. For instance, a configuration called a chair wouldn’t exhibit the same tendencies as a brain (unless you have a chair which let’s you know that you don’t look good in a red tie). The basic difference would be self-awareness. The brain is aware of itself, and this concept of awareness of oneself is what’s called consciousness. So we can say that the brain is conscious. Or is it?

Hmmm … Fact is, consciousness is a function of life, and the fact that someone is alive. At death, consciousness ceases to exist, or so we believe. But does it really? If the brain is the creator of consciousness, then one would have to conclude that this configuration of atoms, molecules, chemical flows and electrical currents is capable of somehow generating consciousness. But this should mean that it should be possible to generate consciousness artificially in a brain that’s dead. That’s not been done till now, but that’s no reason to believe it cannot be done ever. All we can say as of now is that there seems to be another component which seems to be in-charge of consciousness. And this is beyond the material configuration of the brain. Why? It seems logically difficult to have a conscious brain creating itself. This is a sort of a circular reference where, a brain creates consciousness, but then, the brain itself has to be consciousness to create consciousness. Otherwise, an unconscious brain cannot create consciousness for itself, being unaware of its own existence. Hence, by this reasoning of logic, a brain has to be conscious to become conscious. That’s like needing the curd culture (for the uninitiated, that’s called jaaman) require to make curd.

This could only lead us to one conclusion … There is something else which creates consciousness. The mind that would be?

Spiritual Unity

At first I thought the name of this post could be “Spiritual Parallel” but the thing with parallel lines, so I figured out recently, is that they never meet. Here, on the other hand, the idea is to unite. So probably parallel is not the right word.

Mawlana Rumi said:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.

Saint Kabir said:

Awwal Allah noor upaya, kudrat ke sab bande;
Ek noor se sab jag upjeya, kaun bhale ko mande.

Translated, this means … In he beginning, Allah, God, the Creator, created Light, and created all beings as children of His Nature. From that One Light emerged the entire world, so who is good, and who is bad?

The message is that God, Allah, our Creator, is beyond the right and wrong, the good and bad that we, His creation, are subject to. This is analogous to the idea of God as being Nirgun which is defined in Hinduism. The Hindu philosophy says that God is become this creation, but is beyond the attributes of this creation. Nirgun, without any attributes, yet containing all attributes we find in His creation.

Maybe an analogy could describe this in terms more familiar. Suppose there’s an artist (why suppose, there are many artists in the world, but never mind that!) and she makes a painting. Now it is correct to say that the painting emerged from her, and is a physical manifestation of an idea she had. However, while she has put her effort into making the painting it would be folly to say that she is in the painting.