An Evening’s Untold Love

                                                                                                         Salt Lake, Kolkata

                                                                                                           27^th August, 2012

An Evening’s Untold Love

Maidul, a boy of sixteen hails from a lower middle class family resides at a slum area in Calcutta with parents and seven siblings. He is lanky, thin, dark, curly haired with rustic look but daring and soft spoken. He loves music, fanatic about cricket and Sourav Ganguly in particular. His father, an account in a private company could hardly manage full family meals in a day. His elderly look mother, a sick lady, is suffering from so many diseases for years long.

Maidul has a hidden dream to be an effluent engineer and feed the family sumptuously. He is appearing for school leaving final examination. As the examination is knocking, there are no regular classes in the school except few practical classes at least once in a week.

In a cold and windy late noon, he finished final practical class and left school on his way to home. As usual, he walked almost a mile and reaches the canal ferry ghat. It was too crowded then with only one ferry running. The moment ferry landed, the thick crowd waiting in the bank started jumping just not to miss it again. Maidul in a cracking voice tried them to hold just to allow passengers on board to get down first. But, who listens to whom. It was a total mess. Shockingly, one lady with a baby in her lap fell down in knee deep water. She was somehow escorted by the young ferryman on duty. It was a rustic state of affair the way people got down and get in almost in a hostile manner. A few even got injured. Maidul was helpless to control the situation. Some local fellow sitting near the ghat casually came out saying, it is a daily affair. 

The ferry got filled up within a minute. The situation was horrifying as the ferry started tilting due to overcrowd on board. The ferryman requested some passengers to get down. But, there was none to listen. Ferry got stranded. The ferryman became ruthless and forced few elderly passengers out within his hand shake distance. Then, he blew whistle…..the commuter boat started moving.

While Maidul was trying to push himself inside he could spot on a very slim cute teenage girl student at the last step of ferry ghat with hapless eyes as she was about to miss the trip. Maidul immediately extended his hand to pull her in the ferry. She appears to be in a fix and took a little time to reciprocate. At last, she was down to the earth and finally stretches to hold his hand when it was late. In a do or die situation in the just moving ferry, Maidul could pull her on the board and both escaped narrowly to fall down in canal bank in tilting condition of the ferry. But, all books came out of her bag and found limping over boat’s top plank; a few found to be floating in water after a hit and bounce back from the edge of the ferry. Her eyes were tearful as the floating ones found to be moving away of anyone’s reach in the fading twilight. Maidul has failed to reverse such a shocking lost situation. However, he instantly collected all other books then rolling over the plank. While putting back the top cover of one such scattered book, a sweet name “Richa Roy” with beautiful inscription of handwriting was, at a glimpse, found glittering in the front page. Maidul tried his best to clean those books with both hands using his shabby hankie. Richa was looking wishy-washy and down in the mouth may be for loss of few books. When Maidul approached to push those books inside the bag, she became edgy and speechless. She responded Maidul timidly to push those books inside her school bag with a bit emotion of myriad gratitude. She was utterly depressed within herself, perhaps, due to the mishap. What impediment may come on her way, she did not forget to pay her sincere gratitude to Maidul in a soft, gentle low voice saying, “thanks…..”. Such a gesture of Richa touched Maidul. He also reciprocated with a curtsy nod when the ferry was in the midway canal. He felt extremely delighted as if floating in the paradise dream land in search of platonic love. Sweet eye swap memories with Richa for last two years on his way to school were gently sloping in his mind as a slow motion action replay. Those are mind blowing astounded memories with passion and untold romance; a very much personal warm feeling that cannot be shared with anyone except….. 

Maidul was wondering why today’s incident did not happen at least a year back. His untold unilateral love could not be vented out to Richa for last two years though both attended the local ferry regularly on their way to school. It was a one way affair. Maidul used to have a hush-hush look everyday with main focus on the activity of Richa. She never responded. It did shake Maidul much more and he was desperate to shoot the breeze with her. His approach was relentless with a ray of hope for an ambitious result may be today…..tomorrow…..day after or some day. With such a sweet dream he never absented from school though Richa maintained her own school time schedule including leaves as and when necessary. In such repulsive occasions of leave, Maidul felt very gloomy spending the day without any covert look to Richa. He could not even concentrate his classes in the school as if there is a zilch absorbing his so called mind-boggling memory. That particular painful day was found to be almost void in his progress of study in school.

               

Love is a way with words that has been on paper and spelt out by so many since time immemorial when, there have been endless fairy-tales about this particular passion and yet my hero Maidul is so keen on this untold unilateral platonic love with Richa that even a tremor got defeated to make him tired of this for last two years. We could portray Maidul’s untold platonic love only as reverence because it was almost for last two years Richa had not even smiled with her attractive impressive lusty eyes or caringly spoke a few words with him during all that time.

A gusty surface wind started blowing out of the blue twisting the ferry mouth from the handshake distance of other bank of the canal. Young ferryman somehow managed to anchor the ferry around a grouted log in the ghat. The nearby area has covered with dust thick and fast. The twilight faded further to frozen darkness. It was difficult for on board passengers to approach near the bank of the ferry ghat. The young ferryman extended his hand to help elderly, women, and kids down to the step of the ghat. As usual, few tried to jump from the edge. Richa was waiting in the far corner like Maidul. At last, she got down with lot of panic in her eyes holding gently the extended left hand of Maidul then standing on the flat step of the ghat. Then, her bright eyes showed some sort of comfort as if the passing threat of insecurity is over. She leaned a little bit and graciously expressed her gratefulness to Maidul in a soft gentle voice. Hurriedly she moved forward towards the main road. Maidul replied with poise, it’s o.k. and followed Richa along the main road at the same pace. His last million dollar ambition to have a chat with Richa did not find to be on the same wavelength as Richa was almost running down the road in the dark evening hour on her way home. Soon, at the junction point of the nearby island crossing Richa disappeared in the left track while Maidul slowed down to have an eye swap of Richa’s fading shadow so long it was visible along the road from the left corner. There was expression of grief in his unmoving eyes as if the sun has set for ever from his dictionary of love.   

Foot Note: It’s a Simple Love Story written by Debabrata Dey between 14 - 27 August, 2012 for participating in a contest arranged by Penguin India who are hosting a contest under Title "Love Stories That Touched My Heart" . 

Three Gorges Dam

Gargantuan Three Gorges Dam- Another Wonder of our Globe

Three Gorges Dam
The Dam in September 2009
Location in Hubei
Country	China
Location	Sandouping, Yiling, Hubei
Coordinates	30°49′23″N 111°00′12″ECoordinates: 30°49′23″N 111°00′12″E
Purpose	Power, Flood Control, Navigation
Status	Operational
Start Construction	December 14, 1994
Opening Date	2008
Construction Cost	US$26 billion
Owner(s)	China Yangtze Power (subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation)
Dam and spillways
Type of Dam	Gravity Dam
Height	181 Meters (594 Feet)
Length	2,335 Meters (7,661 Feet)
Crest width	40 Meters (131 Feet)
Base width	115 Meters (377 Feet)
Impounds	Yangtze River
Spillway capacity	116,000 m3/s (4,100,000 cu ft/s)
Reservoir
Creates	Three Gorges Reservoir
Capacity	39.3 km3 (31,900,000 acre·ft)
Catchment Area	1,000,000 km2 (390,000 sq mi)
Surface Area	1,045 km2 (403 sq mi)
Normal Elevation	175 Meters (574 Feet)
Reservoir Length	600 KM (370 Mile)
Reservoir Width	1.1 KM (0.68 Mile) average
Power station
Commission date	2003–2012
Type	Conventional
Hydraulic Head	Rated: 80.6 Meters (264 Feet) Maximum: 113 Meters (371 Feet)[1]
Turbines	32 × 700 MW 2 × 50 MW Francis Type
Installed Capacity	22.5 GW
Capacity Factor	0.45
Annual Generation	80 TWh (290 PJ)
Net Generation	556 TWh (2,000 PJ) (2012)

Three Gorges Dam
In his poem "Swimming" (1956), engraved on the 1954 Flood Memorial in Wuhan, Mao Zedong envisions "walls of stone" to be erected upstream.[2]

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, China. The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity (22,500 MW) but is second to Itaipu Dam with regard to the generation of electricity annually.^[3]

Except for a ship lift, the dam project was completed and fully functional as of July 4, 2012^[4][5], when the last of the 32 main turbines in the underground plant began production. Each main turbine has a capacity of 700 MW.^[3][6] The dam body was completed in 2006. Coupling the dam's 32 main turbines with two smaller generators (50 MW each) to power the plant itself, the total electric generating capacity of the dam is 22,500 MW.^[3][7][8]

As well as producing electricity, the dam is intended to increase the Yangtze River's shipping capacity and reduce the potential for floods downstream by providing flood storage space. The Chinese government regards the project as a historic engineering, social and economic success,^[9] with the design of state-of-the-art large turbines,^[10] and a move toward limiting greenhouse gas emissions.^[11] However, the dam flooded archaeological and cultural sites and displaced some 1.3 million people, and is causing significant ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides.^[12] The dam has been a controversial topic both domestically and abroad.^[13]

"What are the Ten Commandments?"

"What are the Ten Commandments?"

Answer: The Ten Commandments are ten laws in the Bible that God gave to the nation of Israel shortly after the exodus from Egypt. The Ten Commandments are essentially a summary of the 613 commandments contained in the Old Testament Law. The first four commandments deal with our relationship with God. The last six commandments deal with our relationships with one another. The Ten Commandments are recorded in the Bible in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 and are as follows:

1) “You shall have no other gods before me.” This command is against worshipping any god other than the one true God. All other gods are false gods.

2) “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” This command is against making an idol, a visible representation of God. There is no image we can create that can accurately portray God. To make an idol to represent God is to worship a false god.

3) “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.” This is a command against taking the name of the Lord in vain. We are not to treat God’s name lightly. We are to show reverence to God by only mentioning Him in respectful and honoring ways.

4) “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” This is a command to set aside the Sabbath (Saturday, the last day of the week) as a day of rest dedicated to the Lord.

5) “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” This is a command to always treat one’s parents with honor and respect.

6) “You shall not murder.” This is a command against the premeditated murder of another human being.

7) “You shall not commit adultery.” This is a command against have sexual relations with anyone other than one’s spouse.

8) “You shall not steal.” This is a command against taking anything that is not one’s own, without the permission of the person to whom it belongs.

9) “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” This is a command prohibiting testifying against another person falsely. It is essentially a command against lying.

10) “You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” This is a command against desiring anything that is not one’s own. Coveting can lead to breaking one of the commandments listed above: murder, adultery, and theft. If it is wrong to do something, it is wrong to desire to do that same something.

Many people mistakenly look at the Ten Commandments as a set of rules that, if followed, will guarantee entrance into heaven after death. In contrast, the purpose of the Ten Commandments is to force people to realize that they cannot perfectly obey the Law (Romans 7:7-11), and are therefore in need of God’s mercy and grace. Despite the claims of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16, no one can perfectly obey the Ten Commandments (Ecclesiastes 7:20). The Ten Commandments demonstrate that we have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and are therefore in need of God’s mercy and grace, available only through faith in Jesus Christ.

Recommended Resource: The Ten Commandments: Ethics for the Twenty-first Century by Mark F. Rooker.

I would like to advise my good friends to follow religiously at least 7 Commandments (Sl. Nos. 4 - 10) as mentioned above with true spirit for the well being of the society and the nation as a whole. 

Earth’s Robot Curiosity in Red Planet Mars

Earth’s Robot Curiosity of NASA in Red Planet Mars

NASA space craft Curiosity engraved its foot prints on the red planet Mars on Monday, August 6, 2012. It has started sending signals to the mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Los Angeles. The 2 year mission of NASA for search of life in red planet may give us some navigation shortly once images are received from Curiosity. Some $2.5 billion (INR 12,500 Crore) is the huge project cost appears to be a major victory for the U.S. space agency. It has been proved once again that the achievement of science is sky high at such a huge cost. Critics may attack once again that such huge money should have been spent for millions & millions of needy and poor people of the globe who are well below poverty level and do not have a single food for a full day in so many under developed countries of the continents. We have to arrange food, shelter and health care for them.

Posted by Debabrata Dey on 6 August, 2012

GRID FAILURE - WHY? REMEDY…..

GRID FAILURE - WHY? REMEDY…..

India experienced 2 consecutive massive grid failures on 30 & 31 July, 2012 due to unlikely indiscipline amongst northern DISCOMs while importing power through western & eastern regional grids. It happened possibly due to total power transmission failure in Agra-Gwalior junction grid corridor as a consequential effect of sharp reduction in grid frequency while receivers, perhaps, were illegally drawing excess power than declared scheduled from DISCOMS of western & eastern region. 1^st grid failure on 30^th July caused huge suffering to as good as 400 million people of 9 States including Union Territories of North & North-West regions who were without power for almost 15 hours from 2.30 AM. Similarly, 2^nd grid failure on 31^st July caused huge suffering to half of our population i.e. 600 million people of 22 States including Union Territories of North, North-East & East regions who were without power for almost 12 hours from 1.00 PM. Such massive collapse of northern grid last happened in 2002 due to some technical snag without any suffering to other state grids.           

Mr. M Veerappa Moily has just taken charge of Union Power Ministry on 31 July, 2012 from Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde who was holding this portfolio for a pretty long time since 2006.

As advised through twitter on 31 July, 2012, I would request the new Power Minister to enforce/take care of following provisos / suggestions for stabilization of national grid:

1. All DISCOM shall strictly adhere to grid discipline.

2. An automatic islanding mechanism should be in place to isolate the utility from the grid who draws more power than declared schedule or there should be a load flow control/export of power beyond which excess drawal is not possible by any utility.

3. The coal based thermal units of power stations shall have effective "60/100 % HP/LP Bypass" facility for the BTG Set along with coordinated facility of switching over (with minimum time lag prior to actuation of over speed trip) to instantaneous "HOUSE LOAD" operation of the unit to take care of 100% load throw off condition due to grid failure.

4. When there is huge load throw off due to grid failure (during export of power to other regions/sectors/DISCOMs) instantaneous dumping of load/tripping of designated thermal units from the system to arrest sharp rising trend of grid frequency to the extent possible within limit to avert total collapse of the then connected grids.

5. Necessary facility for safe islanding of the normal grid (then exporting power) from the affected grid (where failure occurred) as a safety measure from total collapse.

6. Formation of a suitable Committee consisting of legendary experts/experienced engineers in this field to investigate the root cause of failure and recommendation thereof for necessary corrective measure; however, implementation of the recommendations shall be given top priority with a definite time bound target.

7. To take up the issue with other foreign DISCOMs of international repute for getting best possible feedback from them to resolve our crisis once for all.

Hope, the Hon'ble Power Minister will examine the above mentioned provisos / suggestions or other proposals already submitted by selected experts to stabilize our national grid.