Yantras of Jantar Mantar

 

 Jantar Mantar is one of the iconic monuments of Delhi. It figures in almost every representational image of the city skyline alongside the Lal Qila, Qutub Minar, and Lotus Temple. It is supposed to mean "instruments for measuring the harmony of the heavens", and yet there is hardly anybody who is able to explain how these astronomical instruments were used.

 The Jantar Mantar is Delhi is one of the five built by Raja Sawai Jai Singh about 300 years ago. For a city that dates back a few thousand years, this site is relatively new, so it is all the more surprising that there are no oral or written records of the Raja's purpose or intent of building many such sites in North India.

Recently the Hindustan Times seems to have taken some interest in drawing public interest to these monuments. Earlier this year, Aheli Das informed us - "Delhi’s Jantar Mantar observatory on the road to former glory". More recently, Kabir Firaque wrote a more detailed, engaging piece titled, "Delhi Heritage - The Science of the Observatory - How Jantar Mantar Read the Cosmos" 

Alongside the descriptions of the Samrat Yantra, Misra Yantra, Rama Yantra, Jai Prakash Yantra, it was interesting to know that there are instruments here about which we have absolutely no clue - the Niyat Yantra (the four semi-circles), and the "wall of mystery". The task of deciphering these puzzles has become all the more difficult after earlier attempts at 'restoration' plastered and painted over the graduation markings on many of these instruments.

Despite these constraints, some good people labour on - Dr. Aalok Pandya of IGNTU-Amarkantak, Sheh Kesari, a Ghaziabad based amateur astronomer, and a leading expert, Prof. Virendra Pratap Sharma who is now with the University of Wisconsin. Then there is architect Rachana Sankhalker who has written a graphic novel titled, "The Astronomical Observatories of Sawai Jai Singh" (PDF download available for free!).

Lets hope all these efforts will help us add some meaning what seems to most of us like abstract pieces of art spread out in the middle of a park in New Delhi!

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References & Links

Delhi’s Jantar Mantar observatory on the road to former glory - https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/delhis-jantar-mantar-observatory-on-the-road-to-former-glory-101736533001106.html 

Snooping on YouTube

 

If you are curious about something but nobody is willing to tell you, what do you do?

Recently, BBC reported on an interesting method of gathering market intelligence. The question researchers at the University of Massachussetts were trying answer was - how big is YouTube?

This may sound like a simple question but for various reasons - commercial, or otherwise - this is not the kind of information YouTube, or its parent company, Google, would like to place in the public domain. As the article puts it - 

In its 20 years of operation, YouTube has shaped entire generations' sensibilities and redefined global culture. Surveys show YouTube is the most popular social media site in the US by far, with 83% of adults and 93% of teenagers among its patrons. It's the second-most-visited website on Earth by most estimates, topped only by Google.com itself. But as the platform enters its third decade, the most basic facts about YouTube are still a closely guarded secret.

So how did the researchers at UoM get this information?

They started with the URLs that appear for almost all YT videos. They all start with  "youtube.com/watch?v=", and a unique 11-character identifier. Eg - Gangnam Style's identifier is 9bZkp7q19f0. 

This is where the raw computing power comes in. 11 random alpha-numeric characters can be arranged in more than 18.6 quintillion ways! So the researchers then wrote a program that would trawl the internet with random addresses and download the videos that scored a hit. It seems to collect the first 10,016 videos, the scraper tried more than 18 trillion potential URLs!

The conclusion?

When Google first acquired the platform in 2006, around 65,000 videos were uploaded every day. By 2022, they calculated that YouTube housed more than nine billion videos. By mid 2024, that number had grown to 14.8 billion videos, a 60% jump!!

In the cat and mouse game of corporates and snoops, perhaps it is just a matter of time before YT/Google comes up with ways to foil this kind data-collection and verification. 

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REFERENCES & LINKS

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250213-youtube-at-20-a-computer-that-drunk-dials-online-videos-reveals-statistics-that-google-doesnt-want-you-to-know

Non Volatile Memories

 

Last Sunday I got a big scare - one of my newest external hard disk drives (HDD) let out a few scratchy noises and suddenly stopped working. Its LED light went out and the icon just disappeared from my desktop screen. Disbelief, panic!

I checked the plugs and ports, tried changing the USB port, tried restarting the system but the HDD just would not turn on. I had purchased this Seagate 2TB model just before Covid lockdowns! For a while, I just stared at the screen, shocked, confused, bewildered, wondering if I had just lost my collection of thousands of photographs, music, movies and other important documents.

Not sure of what to do next, iI checked for possible solutions online, hoping for some tips on how to resuscitate a cold metal box that held some of my prized collections and memories.

A YT video, "How Safe Is Your Data?" seemed like a good place to start. I was hoping to learn something reassuring from Christopher Barnatt, the acclaimed guru of Explaining Computers - on the lifespan of hard-drives, solid-state drives (SSDs), and other magnetic, solid-state and optical media. Far from being reassured, this video raised the panic levels!

Consider these facts presented by Barnatt -

• Magnetic tapes can last up to 30 years
• Most hard disk drives will last 3-7 years (!)
• SSDs depend on type of cells and number of re-writes, but should last 5-10 years. However if left un-powered for 1-2 years, data may be lost!

  In other works, as with everything else in life, nothing is permanent. More so in the world of charged electrons - a hard disk drive just wears out of spinning in circles; there is nothing solid about solid-state memory; Non Volatile Memory (NVMe) may be the latest thing when it comes to packing in superlative amounts of memory into tiny spaces but it is still volatile!

I have three HDDs - one each from Transcend, Western Digital, and Seagate. The oldest one is from Transcend and I had purchased it online in Japan in 2010 (15 years old!), and it stopped working last year. I tried accessing it from older laptops and Macs but it just refuses to show up on the desktop even after powering on.

So what is the solution? According to Barnatt, the most durable option (30+ years) is to burn all your important files into optical laser disks (high quality DVRs - read only). This however demands access to specialized equipment. Optical drives have all but disappeared from the new laptops. So the next best option could be to have multiple backups.

 As a first step I urgently needed a full backup of all my photos. Since the total size across HDDs came to around 750GB, I decided to try out the new kid on the block - NVMe SSDs. One thing I liked in particular about this option was that unlike traditional HDDs, you could order these à la carte. You could get the memory chips from the company you wanted (Samsung /WesternDigital / Crucial / Seagate), choose the capacity that I could afford (higher the better + you need to leave some space free for maintenance) and fit it into a a box enclosure of your choice.

So, after doing a bit of research and checking some options, this was my final configuration - 

• M.2 NVMe SSD enclosure from PI India (INR899) - comes with a GPT drive (GUID partition table), connecting cables (USB-C to C / USB 3.0), heat-sink sticker, pouch
• Gum-stick card - 2280 Western Digital/Sandisk Blue 580 M.2 NVMe 4gen (INR5399) -- a YT video from PI was useful for making sure it was fitted in properly
• Formatted on MacBook Air - exFAT (for MacOS+Win access) + GUID partition table (GPT seems more robust than MBR - master boot record) 

 So far the set up has been working beautifully. NVMe cards are so much more compact and seem sturdier than the clunky old HDDs! Now I hope the NVMe card will live up to its claim of being non-volatile.

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REFERENCES & LINKS

 
SSDs

• Explaining Computers (EC) - https://youtu.be/xA9Xq7hb6Q0
  
• M.2 SSD, PCIe adapters and USB enclosures - https://youtu.be/Ktqa11VT1xI (EC)
• SSD Life Expectancy - https://youtu.be/bv-IGhkcbP8
• M.2 NVMe Enclosures (desi gyan - BabaTech) - https://youtu.be/_huh7wb6Res - 
• How to Choose M.2 NVMe SSD - https://youtu.be/eGT-EIJNb_0 
• SD cards 2025 - EC - https://youtu.be/HtgIHfqQiC8
• SSDs - EC - https://youtu.be/F8k_XIEhKWo
• M.2 NVMe SSD explained (animated) - https://youtu.be/HvfIeTieXOI
• Wiki on M.2 SSD cards - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2
  

• Partitions - GUID/GPT vs MasterBootRecord/MBR - https://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive

 

 

Boston 11 - A Biting Problem

 

Adidas Adizero Boston11 Refuel. Quite a mouthful for a brand-name but it certainly counts as the most unusual pair of marathon shoes I have used so far.

Long ago when I stepped into the world of distance running, shoe-salesmen used to emphasise on flexibility. They would hold up a pair and twist and roll the running shoes, making the heels touch the toes, to show you how easily they would adapt to your feet. Over the years the sales-pitch has changed completely - now they make a big show of how inflexible the soles are. They now sing praises of shoes with rigid soles and claim that flexible, soft soles trigger injuries to your ankle and feet.

I have been using an Asics Amplifoam for a few years now and it has stood me in good stead. Its semi-rigid sole shows little signs of wear but the fabric upper had got torn in a couple places, so it was time to buy a new pair. I checked out a few new models in all the major brand-stores - Asics (old loyalties!), Nike, Puma, New Balance, and finally, Adidas. It is at the last store that the Boston11 caught my attention. 

It was different. Even though it was relatively lightweight, the shoes felt quite sturdy. Being an older model it was also going for an attractive discount. Still,  the compulsive skeptic in me had to  step out of the shop to check the reviews, and confirm that it was not available cheaper online before deciding to make a purchase decision.

A few days later when I took out the Boston11 for my usual Sunday 10k run, I found my feet would not get in easily. Unlike any other pair of running shoes i had used so far, this one had a full fabric sleeve under the tongue which was meant to grip your ankles, but the broader part of the feet would not get in easily unless a shoe-horn was used. Once you managed to get the feet in, the shoes fit snugly on your arch, instep, heel and ankle.

The second problem came up after the 5k stage. The upper part of the sleeve would bite into the bridge - the part of your feet just under the shoelaces - every time the ankle flexed while running. At first I thought the laces were too tight but no amount of adjusting would ease that biting pain in the upper ligament. I looked it up on the web and found that the pain point was exactly at the junction of the superior and inferior extensor retinaculum. Ultimately, I figured that if the extra-long shoe-tongue on the Boston11 was folded inwards the bite would be eased to a large extent.

Was this a common problem for runners using Boston11? 

So far I have not come across any review specifically highlighting this problem. Many of them do indicate that this particular model has a longer break-in period. 

Apart from this glitch the new Adidas  Boston11 has been absolutely solid for road-running. Rigid soles have their uses i guess :)

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REFERENCES & LINKS

Boston 11 - https://www.adidas.co.in/adizero-boston-11-refuel-shoes/HQ3701.html

Review - https://runrepeat.com/adidas-adizero-boston-11

https://sportsmedalabama.com/contents/patient-education/foot-and-ankle/

Shooting with Pancakes

 

Last year when I switched from my old Nikon D90 + 18-105mm kit lens combo to a full-frame Sony A7C I had agonised over right lens to go with it. Ultimately I had opted for a Tamron 28-200 E-Mount. 

It has been a pleasure learning the new syntax of shooting with mirrorless cameras, and the I have been amazed by the versatility of this Tamron lens which can go from macro to a fairly good zoom with sharp images. The lens however weighs over 600g and this sort of cancels out one of the main advantages of the light-weight A7C camera body.

Recently I came across a review of the new Viltrox AF 28mm F4.5 Full-Frame Lens for Sony E-Mount. Weighing just 60g, with dimensions close to a camera lens-cap, this is the lightest and thinnest lenses for e-mounts. It is also attractively priced at $99 (INR 13,000 on Amazon India).

Is it worthwhile picking up this F4.5 28mm "body-cap" lens? 

So far the reviews have been giving a mixed verdict. While the size and portability are attractive pros, the cons seem to be a serious dampener -  body-cap lenses generally suffer from numerous image quality issues such as heavy vignetting and poor image sharpness.

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REFERENCES & LINKS

https://viltrox.com/products/28mm-f4-5-fe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake_lens

https://www.creative-photographer.com/pancake-lens/

https://www.videolinks.com/viltrox-af-28mm-f-4-5-lens-for-sony-fe-full-frame

Dholavira

An endless white expanse of saltpans, blue skies, and Dholavira.

If you are a history buff nothing quite prepares you for the ancient Harappan site of Dholavira. Perhaps you recall hearing about the place in school classrooms, or visits to museum galleries or books. Bits and pieces in our collective memory about the ancient civilisation that covered an area larger than known sites in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or China; cities with carefully designed streets, water supply and drainage systems, and of a script that is yet to be deciphered. And yet the scale of it all does not quite sink in until you see the place for yourself.

Kutch, the district in Gujarat where Dholavira is located, happens to the largest in India - 45, 674 sqkm! There are about a dozen Indian states that are smaller than this one district, including Kerala and Haryana.  Most of Kutch district barren scrubland or saltpans dotted with solar and wind farms. 

We reached the site after a long drive from Bhuj, with stopover at Hodka village, and a drive along the so-called "Road through Heaven" - a 50km road that cuts straight through an area that was once covered by the sea.

The open sea is today about 300km away from Dholavira. All available evidence suggests that maritime trade was the mainstay of this city with its seals and jewellery being found in the Nile Valley, Egypt.

Unlike most Harappan cities excavated so far, Dholavira is the only one which is built from stone. Most of this stone was quarried out of areas that became the large tanks for storing water. Canals, sluices and wells ensured that water was available throughout the city with special arrangements for those staying in the 'upper city', an area where the elites resided.

There is a nice ASI museum at the site but not much information seems to be available on the web, except for some websites aimed at attracting tourists to the luxury tent-cities that are built every year. YouTube does have some good talks on the Harappan sites in general but IO am yet to come across anything that does justice to the the oldest known port city in ancient India.

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REFERENCES and LINKS

YT - Michel Danino on Harappan Civilisation - https://youtu.be/_s5EDxuL0Vs

Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dholavira

https://www.evokedholavira.com/blog/dholavira-a-harappan-city-with-intricate-architecture-and-rich-history/

Singular Music

 

This is a collection of short-stories Murakami published in 2020. The title comes from the last story in the collection but the one I liked best is the one depicted on the cover - "Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey"  / Ichininshō Tansū (一人称単数).

It is a story that brings together a number of elements I love about Japan - the inclination to experience nature, the everyday courtesy, openness to absorbing and improving upon foreign music, literature, food and technology. With some effort it seems even monkeys can improve themselves in Japan :)

As with most of his books, quite a few of stories in this collection revolve around music, mostly jazz or western classical. Many of these pieces are completely unfamiliar to me, so my way of indulging in immersive reading is to settle down with the book on my favourite chair with a drink, a bowl of snacks (if KakiPi is nor available, murukku or banana chips will do), and to play as background music one one of the pieces that appears in the storyline.

In this collection, no less than three stories have their titles that indicate which type of music is going to dominate the narrative - "Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova", "With the Beatles" and "Carnaval". The last one comes with a specific recommendations - Schumann's Carnaval by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Angel Records) or the one by Arthur Rubenstein (RCA  Records)!

An enjoyable, uplifting read.

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Music from 'First Person Singular' / Ichininshō Tansū (一人称単数):

• Jazz - Charlie Parker - Ornithology - the best of Bird
• Charlie Byrd - Corcovado (also a hill in Rio, Brazil - home to the statue of ‘Jesus the Redeemer’)
• Pharoah Sanders
• Miles David
• Art Pepper 
• Thelonious Monk
• Beethoven Piano Concerto 1 - 3rd movement 
• Middle-class music: Mantovani Orchestra -- Percy Faith -- Roger Williams -- Andy Williams -- Not Cole King
• Max Steiner - Theme from A Summer Place (Percy Faith Orchestra)
• Rolling Stones - “(I can't get no) Satisfaction"
• Byrd - “Mr.Trambourine Man”
• Temptations - “My Girl”
• Righteous Brothers - “You've lost that lovin’ feelin’
• Beach Boys - “Helping Rhonda”
• Diana Ross
• Supremes
• Classical - Bruckner - 7th symphony, 3rd movement / 9th symphony 
• Richard Strauss
• Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet 
• Schumann - Carnaval -- by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Angel records) or Arthur Rubenstein (RCA)
• Bach - Goldberg variations + well tempered clavier
• Beethoven - late piano sonatas + third Concerto 
• Folks Crusaders - “I only live twice”

Glimpses of Bangkok

 

It was good to return to the Brahma temple in downtown Bangkok after a few years. I missed a few shrubs and trees that once stood in the area now thronging with people - worshippers, onlookers, curious tourists - all watching the dancers swaying to the rhythms of cymbals and prayer songs. 

Not too far from Erawan Brahma shrine on Rama-I road, Lumpini district is the "Sri Maha Mariamman Temple" on Silom road. A plaque outside this colourful temple informs you that, "It is a temple of Goddess Uma, consort of Shiva, built around 1879...It was in custody of Tamil Indian who brought Indian civilisation to other areas of Asia". Am I missing something here? ;)

People

Street Art

Cityscapes

Surprises

There are no stray dogs in Lumpini Park but it does have a number of 'community' cats that the park regulars like to pet. The big surprise here however are these lizards. When I first saw one slowly sauntering across the road, the first thought that crossed my mind was - 'what are Komodo Dragons doing here??' After crossing the road, it slipped into one of the canals and lazily swam past fishes, herons and humans practicing Tai-Chi in the park.

Turns out that these are the Asian Water Monitors. Though quite closely related (second heaviest lizards in the world), to the Komodo Dragons these are comparatively less venomous and aggressive. Wonder if they ate up all the stray dogs in Lumpini... ;)

I love "Conbinis",  Japanese style convenience stores that seem to have a fairly wide network in Thailand. I like to try and spot the similarities and differences between the 7-Elevens in different localities, the types of merchandise they stock, the shop layouts, and the efficiency with which these businesses are managed.

At this particular 7-Eleven on Wireless Road I caught a glimpse of the amazing logistics networks at work. This particular Conbini was going through a stock-check. Two staffers were quickly scanning the shelves with QR code readers that were no bigger than finger-rings, and simultaneously sending out an audio report on their observations. By the time we checked-out of the shop a carton of onigiris would certainly have been added to the next van or scooter replenishing the shelves we had emptied a few minutes earlier!

And the final surprise - the city metro network. Bangkok has three metro systems - BTS, SRT and MRT - but strangely they don't talk to each other! You can buy transit "Rabbit Cards" from any BRT station (THB 100 for the card, minimum refill THB 100) but for commuters and tourists the card cannot be used across most other metro lines. The Rabbit is valid only for BRT network and only two of the six MRT lines (Blue and Pink). Quite surprising for an urban mass transport system that was started as early as the 1970s..

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Difference - Komodo Dragons and Water Monitors - https://www.rekoforest.org/field-stories/komodo-dragons-vs-monitor-lizards-can-you-spot-the-differences/#:~:text=Asian%20Water%20Monitor%2C%20the%20world's,tropical%20islands%20with%20warm%20weather.

For the Love of Railways

 

Smooth, flowing prose is so difficult to find!

The last book I read was the 2022 winner of the Booker prize, and I did not like it. Even before i reached half way through I had got tired of the ghosts and ghouls, the violence, and most of all, by the cumbersome writing style. So I was quite relieved to find a recent book by Haruki Murakami.

"Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" (2013) has its share of the usual Murakami elements - a protagonist (TT) trying to come to terms with a troubled past, a tangle of human relationships, and a piece of music that ties up the threads. In this book it is Franz Liszt's 'Le mal du pays' (Fr. homesickness, melancholy) from his Years of Pilgrimage, suite 'Year I: Switzerland', preferably played by the Russian pianist Lazar Berman. For a change, this book has few references to food, and none on cats :)

One thing I liked in particular about this book is the descriptions of Japan's amazing railway network, and its stations. It gives you a glimpse of the kind of passion that goes into building machines in Japan. TT is a an engineer who specialises in designing and building railway stations - Tsukuru visited railroad stations like other people enjoy attending concerts, watching movies, dancing in clubs, watching sports, and window shopping. When he was at loose ends, with nothing to do, he headed to a station.

This brings us to lovely descriptions like this one - 

Shinjuku Station is enormous. Every day nearly 3.5 million people pass through it, so many that the Guinness Book of World Records officially lists JR Shinjuku Station as the station with the "Most passengers in the World". A number of railroad lines cross there, the main ones being the Chuo line, Sobu line, Yamanote line, Saikyo line, Shonan-Shinjuku line, and the Narita Express. The rails intersect and combine in convoluted ways. There are sixteen platforms in total. In addition, there are two private rail lines, the Odakyu and the Keio line, and three subway lines plugged in, as it were, from the side. It is a total maze. During rush hour, that maze transforms into a sea of humanity, a sea that foams up, rages, and roars as it surges towards the entrances and exits. Streams of people changing trains become entangled, giving rise to dangerous, swirling whirlpools. No prophet how righteous, could part that fierce, turbulent sea...The long trains, their arrivals and departures times down to the second, are like long-suffering, well-trained farm animals, systematically exhaling and inhaling people, impatiently closing their doors as they rush off towards the next station.

The engineer loves his work, but it is music - mostly classical - that binds his life together. So apart from Lizst, he has for company,  Thelonius Monk ('Round Midnight, 1943), Antonio Carlos Jobim, and even Elvis Presley ("Viva Las Vegas", "Don't be Cruel").

As with other novels by Murakami, this one too is best savoured with his selection of music playing in the background :)

 

Trek to Kedartal

It has been about two weeks since we returned from our annual Himalayan trek. After having done most of our earlier treks in the Dhauladhar mountains, this was our first foray into Uttarakhand (UK). How different was it compared to the treks in Himachal Pradesh (HP)? 

On a map the trail to Kedartal looks quite straightforward, and benign. It is a glacial lake located about 17km west of Gangotri glacier from which the Ganges river originates. Here the holy river is called the Bhairathi and it rages past Gangotri town, squeezing through rocky cliffs and misty cataracts, towards Uttarkashi.

It is only when you look at the near vertical mountains around Gangotri that you realise that the neat lines marking the path to Kedartal is anything but that. Running eastwards from the town, the trails takes you along steep forested slopes past Kedar Ganga to the first camping site at Bhoj Kharak (8km, 12436ft/3790m). 

The trail goes through a complete transformation the next day when you climb past the pine and birch forests, past the tree-line into grassy slopes of Kedar Kharak (5km, 14050ft/4282m) where the second camp-site is located. From here on it is all moraines - moonscape of broken rocks and boulders  - that leads you the lovely lake at base of three snow-peaks - Bhrigupanth, Thalay Sagar and Jogin I. 

Given the height of the surrounding peaks not much sunlight reaches these deep valleys. Even on the clearest of days the sunset happens around 2:30 pm. For the rest of the afternoon the campsites are enveloped first by the racing shadows, and then by pitch darkness and cold winds.

In the Dhauladhar mountains of HP, each trail has a character of its own. On some treks (eg., Kugti / Indrahar Pass) you need to carry water until you reach the glaciers, while other valleys (eg., Baleni, Minkiani Pass) there is no shortage of springs and streams to fill your bottles but snow-cover can be very unpredictable. One thing common in most Himachal treks is that you are almost always on routes taken by the shepherds. 

The treks in Uttarakhand, especially on the char-dham routes (Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath), there are no meadows or pastures across the mountain passes all the way to Tibet plateau. So there are no shepherds to be seen on these routes. What you do see are herds of Bharals or Blue Sheep with their magnificent, curved horns. These animals keep their distance from trekking groups but watching them without precautions can turn out to be dangerous. In a group that we met on our way back, a porter got badly injured from a rock-fall triggered by Bharals.

The trekking scene in UK seemed better structured and regulated compared to HP.  You are not permitted to venture into protected forest areas without a permit or trained guides. These guides, in turn, ensure that those venturing into the mountains are carrying suitable protective-wear and camping gear. These guides can be exacting too - many of our personal sleeping bags were rejected because they were deemed unsuitable for temperatures below -20C. 

All these checks clearly shows on quality of the trails - the pathways are clean and litter-free. No chips packers blowing in the wind or alcohol bottles littering the streams. Camping groups are expected to have toilet tents and pits for safely disposing food waste.

Thanks to the Char-Dham initiative of the central government the road infrastructure in this area is seeing rapid improvement. This also means that the newly widened roads are more prone to landslides and rock-falls. 

So, if you're planning a trek in Uttaranchal, around the char-dham area better be prepared long traffic jams!

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REFERENCES & LINKS

Char Dham - https://www.namasteindiatrip.com/history-of-chardham.html

https://trekthehimalayas.com/kedar-tal-trek

Kalidasa - Flights of Imagination

How does one express gratitude to an algorithm? :)

Social media in general, and YouTube particular, can lead you to some of amazing young talent. During the Covid years, there was this lady, Anuja K (Out of the Shruti Box), who demystified Indian classical music by relating it not only to popular Bollywood songs but also linked it to other systems of music in the world. There is also a new generation of historians like Anirudh Kanisetti (Thinking Medeival), who brings fresh perspectives to the way we examine our 'messy, bloody, colourful' past.

One aspect common to all these new content creators is that they understand not only the importance pitching to the right audience with appropriate tags and key-words, but also the need to keep their clips of just the right size - not too long, not too short.

This week the algorithm spirits led me to Navaneet Galagali who has a channel named "Rasaganga" for appreciating literature, poetry and music.  Perhaps it is my interest in Sanskrit that led YT to suggest Galagali's introduction to "Meghadootam", or the 'Cloud Messenger'. Written by Kalidasa, one of ancient India's greatest poets (5th century CE), Meghadoota, describes the plight of an exiled, lovelorn celestial (a Yaksha) who asks a passing cloud to carry a message to his beloved wife.

Sanskrit poetry can be dense and forbidding but Galagali introduces the Meghadoota beautifully in two short clips. Initially I was a bit skeptical when he started off with his Yankee accent but got hooked the moment he switched to reciting stanzas from "Purva Megha" (Eastern Cloud).

On the first day of Ashadha month,

he sees a cloud clinging to a mountain;

It appears as though an elephant

is head-butting the peak!

He welcomes the cloud with love and affection, imagines it be a sentient being, and requests the cloud to carry his message while remembering to take breaks along the way:

As you proceed, use the mountaintops,

as your resting spots;

And quench your thirst,

From the water in the streams;

For its a long way ti Alaka Nagari!

It is a long way for sure! - from hills and plains of central India, all the way across a specific Himalayan pass to the base of Mt. Kailasha where Alaka Nagari is situated.

Navaneet Galagali presents the poem so well that I found myself looking for specific stanzas in the original text. He has only skimmed over the first part of the 120 stanza poem and I look forward to the rest of his series on this, as well as his melodious recitations!

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The Cloud's Itinerary :)

• Ramtek (Maharashtra)
• Amrakuta (Amarakantak
• Alaka (atop Mt. Kailasha)
• Vidisha (capital of Dasharana Desha)
• Neechairna Giri (Udayagiri caves)
• Avanti
• Ujjain 
• Shipra River
• Devagiri - temple of Skanda
• Charmanvari River (Chambal)
• Dashapura (Mandsaur)
• Brahmavarta (between Saraswati and Drishadvati rivers)
• Kurukshetra
• Kanakhala (near Haridwar)
• Gangotri
• Krauncha Pass / Hamsadwara (Niti Pass bordering Tibet - north of Nanda Devi National Park)
• Manasarovar Lake
• Alaka Nagari on 'the lap of Mt. Kailasa)

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Meghadoota by Kalidasa (5th Century CE) - https://avg-sanskrit.org/avgclasses/Books&PDFs/kavya/Meghaduta/Kalidasas%20Meghaduta%20Skt%20Eng%20-%20KB%20Pathak%201916.pdf

* Meghaduta by Kalidasa - Ashadha maasa (part 1) | Navaneet Galagali - https://youtu.be/ilgqmfO6Sy4?si=ndbQS-DJjidY6A9G

* The cloud's journey - Meghaduta by Kalidasa (part 2) - https://youtu.be/O9JxBm4C1CQ?si=Qh7unO8WeASz5M0P

* Exploring the Geographical Data of Meghadoota - https://ggw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/168/1/1112-GW%20%20WESTRA%20M.%20%20Ma-thesis.pdf

* Blogpost - Jaladhara - https://karpuramanjari.blogspot.com/2015/06/

A Russian Realist in Ellora

 

What did Vasily Vereshchagin see in Ellora?

Vasily was a Russian realist painter who travelled across India during the 1800s and left us scores of amazing paintings that bring back to life a begone era. From the glaciers of Ladakh, grand palaces and warriors of North India, sculptures of the Deccan, as well as iconic images from the revolt of 1857.

A recent thread on this amazing painter appeared on X and it clearly seemed to depict a sculpture that I had seen and photographed in 2023 from one of the Jain temples of Ellora. It depicted a brightly coloured celestial perched on an elephant, and the caption read - "Statue of Vishnu in the temple of Indra in Ellora". Strangely, the same caption on Reddit and WikiArt as well.

I say 'strangely' because anyone who has travelled to Ellora would know that this particular sculpture is from the entrance hall of a Jain temple and that it does not depict Vishnu but Yaksha Matanga, the god of prosperity, sitting on an elephant. It is a stunningly beautiful, large piece of work dating back to the 9th century CE that sits at the entrance of of the rock-cut cave number 32 (Indra Sabha), opposite an equally impressive figure of Siddhaika Yakshini.

Vasily's painting also brings up intriguing questions - was this 1000+year-old sculpture in such good condition when he visited Ellora in the 1870s? The bright paints on the sculpture indicates that it was being worshiped even in the 1800s...if so who gouged out Matanga's eyes and broke his nose? Did Vasily leave any notes from his amazing travels to Central Asia and India?

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Vereshchagin 

* WikiArt - https://www.wikiart.org/en/vasily-vereshchagin/statue-of-vishnu-in-the-temple-of-indra-in-ellora-1876

* Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/IndiaSpeaks/comments/1eaxh0p/left_statue_of_vishnu_at_ellora_caves_right/?rdt=52981

* WikiMedia - view of the entrance Cave-32 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellora_Caves,_India,_Rock-cut_carvings_in_ancient_Jain_temple.jpg 

* https://www.indiathatwas.com/2014/07/ellora-cave-32-the-indra-sabha/ 

Solar Intensity Meter

This is one of the most fascinating analogue instruments I have seen.

Simple, elegant, rugged and functional, this instrument is called the Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder. It was invented in the mid 1800s, and the design remains more or less the same today. At a time when just about everything works on electronic sensors and wireless transmission, this equipment contains just three components - a metal base, a glass ball and a piece of paper. 

Once properly aligned to the correct latitude-longitude, the instrument simply catches the suns rays throughout the day and burns a line through the blue-paper (the "sunshine-card"), placed at its base. The stronger the sunlight, the broader and deeper the burn!

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REFERENCES 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%E2%80%93Stokes_recorder

Ladakh Surprises

 

The first thing that hits you about Ladakh is the distances - everything is so far away!

What seems like a short drive through the valley turns out to be a long, winding, day long trip. You drive for one whole day and look a map in the evening to discover that 10 hours of driving has only revealed to you a small corner of Ladakh. The forbidding remoteness of the mountain ranges is only revealed in areas where the pukka roads end. 

You may have heard that Leh district is the second largest (after Kutch) in India, covering an area of 45,110 sqkm, with a population density of just 6 people/sqkm. The number may not mean much until you spend hours on the roads without seeing another human being, or consider, for perspective, that the whole of Kerala state is smaller at 38,863 sqkm!

One whole day to drive to Alchi Monastery, Nimoo Dam and back, another whole day to take you from Leh, across the Khardungla Pass, past Khalsar on the Shyok river valley, and then, past Thoise, to Turtuk.  Another full day through the Nubra river valley to its headwaters below the Siachen glacier. On both these routes, parts of the road is submerged under swift streams, and you see suspension bridges buffeted in the raging waters of the Shyok and Indus..

As you move from one valley to another, you see a distinct variation in the colour and hue of the mountains. Bald slopes that look light brown and beige colour in the Nubra Valley seem to shift to shares of purple and pink in the Zanskar ranges. 

Ancient Routes

On the road to Alchi, next to the Indus river, is a fenced enclosure with hundreds of petroglyphs. Some of these drawings on the boulders are said to date back to the Neolithic or Bronze age, showing ibex, snow leopards, hunting scenes. The more recent - and numerous - ones date back to the Buddhist era. Stylised chortens with human figurines dancing on top.

These drawings actually take advantage of the fact that the stone surface has a distinctly different colour. So whatever material they used for these drawings etched away the surface colour, leaving the lighter sub-surface colour exposed. Similar petrogyphs were also seen in the Nubra river valley. On our way back from Taksha village towards Pamanik hot-springs, a boulder stood by the roadside with the very same ibex drawings!

Around Diskit and Hunder, on the broad valley where the Shyok and Nubra rivers meet, you see a paradox. An area where there is plenty of fresh water, you see barely any vegetation. The whole area is covered with sand dunes. Double-humped bactrian camels forage among the bushes.  It is not difficult to imagine the times when long caravans of these camels carried goods, ideas and people across these mountain valleys, to Tibet, Yarkand and beyond, to Central Asia.

Rivers Running Backwards

Ladakh is flanked by two mountain ranges - Zanskar to the south and Karakoram to the north. Rivers flow very differently between these ranges - the Nubra flows south-east from the Siachen Glaciers, and then after going about 70km in this direction, abruptly changes to flow almost backwards to the north-west direction after joining the Shyok river at the Hunder-Diskit junction.

River Shyok, on the other hand, starts off from the same set of glaciers north of Siachen, flows in the same SE direction for more than double the distance, and near Dubruk, does a V-turn and flows westwards for about 200km and becomes the Indus before deciding that it must go southwards after all!