Ananda Sangbad - Q1 - 2015

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Ananda Mandir 269 Cedar Grove Lane Somerset, NJ 08873 Return Service Requested

Ananda Sangbad

NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ PERMIT NO. 1215

January 2015 A Quarterly Publication of Ananda Mandir, New Jersey

Ananda Mandir Expansion–An update Reported By Ashok Rakhit, Chair, Construction Project

If you visited the site recently, you have seen the structures of both the community center and the temple extension with external frames. The roofing of community building is completed while extended temple roofing will be completed this week. We are trying to close both buildings in about two weeks, before the winter arrives, so that work can continue inside the structures during the winter

months. Rough electric wiring and plumbing have been mostly completed in the community center in addition to duct work. A large amount of work is still left to be completed. Work will be focused more on temple extension during the next two months, completing rough electrical, plumbing, and other items. In February 2015, we plan to connect the current temple with the extension by demolishing the

current wall between the two and rebuilding a wall. While that work is going on, only one-thirdof the current altar will be available for regular puja events during March to June. It will be a difficult period with limited active temple space, but it is critical to the project of temple expansion.

Our hope is that around Sept 2015, our altar will move to the new extension area in time for 2015 Durga and Kali Pujas. Com-

munity center is expected to be ready during 2015 Puja season.

The remaining front area of the current temple will then be demolished and a new one will be rebuilt for the extended new temple.

Extension of the temple without interruption of puja activities is our most important goal and challenge during next six to nine months. We would need your support, cooperation, and understanding during this difficult time.

We hope to see, by the spring of 2016, completion of the entire project including new architectural design of the extended temple, community center, and large parking area along with green landscape surrounding our property. We will be about six months behind our original target date for the project completion.

We still have lot of challenges ahead! While we are working hard every day to complete such an enormous task, we are also excited and anxiously waiting to see our long awaited dream come true. It would be a beautiful heritage center for Bengalis in North America that will be able to serve our community through generations. It will be our gift to our children and grand children who may find this center become their connection to their ancestors’ land and culture.

May Ma Kali bless you and your family!

Foundation Day at Ananda Mandir Reported By Guru Chakravarty Ananda Mandir hosted its tenth annual Foundation Day on the 14th November.

There was a gathering of about one hundred people for the event. It was a nostalgic day for many seniors who came to celebrate this special occasion to talk about the olden days. Ashok Rakhit gave an account of the conception among a core group of people of a temple-cum-cultural center during the nineties. It was a dream that would require much financial support and willingness to take risk. It was a slow process which gathered momentum with tireless efforts by the leaders. It resulted in buying this 7.5 acre property with a small ranch house and a couple of detached farm properties. Eventually, the two farm properties were demolished to make room for the current temple, which was inaugurated in 2004. And now we are all eagerly awaiting the completion of

our enlarged temple and a new community center.

Arun Bhowmik, our musical maestro, had arranged a musical performance with two very talented young singers. Reeni Rostad, a second generation Indian born in the USA, delivered a mixture of Rabindrasangeet, Atulprasad songs and modern songs - in per-

fect Bengali gayaki and style. Subarna Mazumder, a superb singer of “Lalon Geeti,” captivated the audience with her melodious rendering of the Baul songs. Gokul Panda, a well known tabla player in Ananda Sandhya circles, complimented the singers with great skill in tabla and dhol.

SARASWATI PUJA SUNDAY, 25 JANUARY, 2015

Ananda Mandir Calendar of Events (Dates are subject to Change) Please check our website frequently

www.anandamandir.org Tel: 732-873-9821 NOTE: If a particular Puja time is not listed, please contact temple or visit our website:anandamandir.org JANUARY New Year’s Day Thursday, 01, 8:00am -1:00pm 4:00pm -9:00pm Satyanarayan Puja Sunday, 04, 5.00pm - 6:30pm Pous Sankranti Thursday, 15, call for time Ratanti Kali Puja Monday, 19, 5:30pm – 8:00pm Shyama Puja Tuesday, 20, 5:00pm – 7:00pm Ganesh Chaturthi Saturday, 24, 9:00am – 10:00am Saraswati Puja Sunday, 25, 6:30am – 8:00am Anjali, Hatekhori, & Bani Bandana Sunday, 25, 8:00am – 11:30am Children’s Cultural Program Sunday, 25, 1:30pm – 3:30pm Sahitya O Alochana Friday, 16, 8:00pm Ananda Sandhya To be announced FEBRUARY Satyanarayan Puja Sunday, 01, 5:30pm – 7:30pm Maha Shiv Ratri Tuesday, 17, call for time Shyama Puja Friday, 21, call for time Sahitya O Alochana Friday, 20, 8:00pm Ananda Sandhya To be announced MARCH Puja Events Call for event and time Sahitya O Alochana Friday, 20, 8:00 pm Ananda Sandhya To be announced APRIL Puja Events Call for event and time Sahitya O Alochana Friday, 17, 8:00 pm Ananda Sandhya To be announced

Special Religious Services: Upon request, the priest of Ananda Mandir offers services such as inhouse Sraddhas, Rituals associated with Cremations (Antyesti Kriya), Death Anniversaries, Pre-wedding rituals (Naandimukh, Ashirwad, etc), Upanayan (Paitey), Annaprasan, Wedding Ceremonies & Wedding Anniversaries, Griha Prabesh (Bhumi Puja), Consecrations of new cars (New Car Pujas) and others.

If you have needs for any of the above or more, please feel free to contact Biswabhai @ 732-873-9821

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Ananda Sangbad

January 2015

EDITORIAL

ANANDA SANGBAD A Periodical Newsletter Published By

ANANDA MANDIR (A Tax-Exempt, Non-Profit Organization)

269 Cedar Grove Lane Somerset, NJ 08873 Ph: 732-873-9821 Website: www.anandamandir.org

PUBLICATION COMMITTEE OF ANANDA MANDIR

Chairperson: Pronoy Chatterjee, pkc_usa@yahoo.com Assistant Chairperson: Subrata Bhaumik, Bhaumik.subrata@gmail.com Editor-in-Chief: Debajyoti Chatterji, Debsmee572@gmail.com Managing Editor, Ananda Sangbad: Guru Chakravarty, guruchakravarty@yahoo.com

Managing Editor, Anandalipi: Amitabha Bagchi, amitabhanj@gmail.com Editors: Subrata Bhaumik, bhaumik.subrata@gmail.com Subhodev Das, subhodev.das@gmail.com Sushmita Dutta, sushmitadutt2@gmail.com Nupur Lahiri, nupurlahiri@aol.com Members-at-large: Bhaswati Bhadra Santosh Mukherjee Ashok Rakhit All queries, articles, news reports and letters should be directed to the Managing Editor: Phone: 908-752-3065 E-mail: guruchakravarty@yahoo.com For general information, please contact the following executives of Ananda Mandir: Dipak Sarkar, President Jaiprakash Biswas, Vice President Suprasad Baidyaroy, Vice President Chanu Das, Treasurer Arun Bhowmik, General Secretary

We are at yet another beginning of a New Year, continuing our journey that started over a decade ago. It all started with a modest beginning as an electronic newsletter distributed by e-mail, basically giving out news about Ananda Mandir. Then the Ananda Mandir Board of Trustees decided to change it into a full-fledged hard copy news magazine, and called upon a veteran magazine editor, Pronoy Chatterjee, to take control. Pronoy has had a long experience on publishing literary magazines, having been at the helm of NABC magazine publication as well as the Kallol magazine. He had already published several books, some on his professional expertise of Polymer Chemistry and a couple of fictional novels. Pronoy took charge of the Ananda Sangbad in 2005, and since then it flourished into a respectable news magazine, not only in the tristate area, but throughout USA among the Bengalis. In parallel with Ananda Sangbad, published four times a year, our annual magazine, Anandalipi, has carved out its place in the literary circles of USA and India under Pronoy’s leadership. His contacts and influence have been a primary force in attracting great writers from all over. He also extended the sphere of Ananda Mandir publication by introducing items like Gay-

atri Memorial Award for Literary Excellence, Ananda Mandir’s Distinguished Service Award, and Community Service Awards.

And now, the News! Pronoy Chatterjee, the Editor-In-Chief of all Ananda Mandir publications, is stepping down. Effective January 01, 2015, Pronoy will leave the editorial duties to others. He will stay on as the Chairperson of the Publication Committee of Ananda Mandir, and will oversee the continuance of the publications through liaison with the Board of Ananda Mandir.

Debajyoti Chatterjee, a well-known leader of the Ananda Mandir community, the original starter of the electronic newsletter, and until recently the Assistant Chairperson of the Publication Committee, will be the new Editor-In-Chief. Subrata Bhaumik will assume the position of Assistant Chairperson, in addition to his duties as an editor of Ananda Sangbad and Anandalipi. Please look at the left column of page 2 of this issue of Sangbad for all members of the Publication Committee. Wishing a prosperous, healthy and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

Guru Chakravarty Managing Editor, Ananda Sangbad

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE On behalf of the Board of Trustees of Ananda Mandir, I wish you and your family Happy New Year . I also want to thank our community for participating in our last year’s religious, cultural, fundraising and other events and continuing to support Ananda Mandir’s mission and growth.

Two thousand fourteen was a good year for Ananda Mandir. We have increased our Life Member number to 400 and total membership to more than 1500. We have also continued to maintain various activities, such as, religious programs, cultural programs, literary activities, seniors’ forum and youth programs, donation to food bank, literary awards, financial grant award for community services, etc. During the annual Durga Puja and Kali Puja festivals, thousands of devotees visited Ananda Mandir temple. Our annual fundraising event was also successful.

We had over 100 supporters attending and donating funds during this event. We were also able to raise over 250 thousand dollars from both fundraising and annual puja events. This fund will greatly help covering our expenses, which are constantly increas-

ing due to the temple expansion and community center construction projects.

As you know, Ananda Mandir is undergoing construction and renovation for the expansion of the temple and building a new community center. We are expecting our construction project to be finished by the end of 2015. The expanded temple after completion will have three times more space than the current temple, which would provide for more devotees to watch puja together inside the temple.

The new community center will be able to host small and large parties for wedding, birthday, retirement, graduation, anniversary and Shraddha, just to name a few. We will also be able to hold in our community center small or large size cultural programs, movie shows, plays and many other events. Additionally, we will have several rooms for renting for art, dance, language and religious classes.

As I wrote before, I am requesting that our Life Members should take more active part in running the organization after the completion of our community center and expanded temple. This is necessary because

Didn't Receive Your Copy of Ananda Sangbad?

If you are a Life Member or an Associate Member, but didn't receive your copy of Ananda Sangbad, it may be because we do not have the correct address on file for you.

Please send an email to Guru Chakravarty (guruchakravarty@yahoo.com) with your correct address, and we will send you another copy.

we have to run a larger facility with more activities and more car traffic. We will also need more income to cover additional expenses. For this, our members need to use Ananda Mandir facilities more frequently for a minimum charge. They also need to encourage their friends to use our religious facility and community center more frequently.

We will also need financial support to furnish expanded temple, community center hall, stage, audiovisual system, offices, vegetarian and non-vegetarian kitchens. Please become a Life Member, Patron Member or a Grand Patron Member and donate generously for our cause. Please also join Ananda Mandir team as a volunteer to help in temple work, office work, training youth in Indian art, literature and religion.

Please join us to make Ananda Mandir strong so that this organization continues to provide religious and cultural services to hundreds of Bengalis and friends of Bengalis in the tri-states area.

Dipak K. Sarkar President, Ananda Mandir

Acknowledgement The Board of Trustees expresses its deep appreciation to Jhumki Sen for her financial support to the publication of the January issue of Ananda Sangbad

Acknowledgement The Board of Trustees expresses its deep appreciation to Suprasad and Rita Baidyaroy for their continued financial support to the publication of Ananadalipi

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Ananda Sangbad

January 2015

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR To The Editor of Ananda Sangbad: Referring to Ananda Mandir’s honoring me with a “Distinguished Leadership Recognition” plaque in April 2014, which was later published in the October issue of Ananda Sangbad, I regret that I could not read my acceptance speech at the ceremony because of my medical condition.

Subsequently, I sent the following e-mail addressed to “President Dipak Babu, Pronoy Da, Biswabhai, and friends,” hoping that my message will get across the members of Ananda mandir: “I am flattered and honored to be recognized by the Board of Ananda Mandir.

Ananda Mandir has been a core part of mine and my family’s life and I am excited to see the temple and community center expansion well under way. Accomplishing our organization’s mission is crucial for our generation and for the many generations to come.

Thank you very much for recognizing my efforts in establishing the initial phase of Ananda Mandir, which was completed with a strong support from a large group of dedicated volunteers.

Ananda Mandir, as a family organization, has grown only because of the dedicated trustees, various committee members and many other volunteers. As an example, during this fundraising meeting, two large business owners, two senior executives, and one retired senior executive took the lead in cooking lunch for the attendees, whereas Puja Committee volunteers and other members worked hard to serve lunch after it is prepared. Later in the day, many volunteers led by Surya Da and Biswabhai worked together to clean up place. This practice goes on and on every year, with outside workers helping on occasion only during the large puja events.

Now, I would like to share some brief thoughts as I fondly reflect my time with Ananda Mandir for the last eighteen years.

As many of you would recall, Ananda Mandir premises was initially a simple corn farm with three buildings. One day in the late 1990s I decided that it was time to name each of the buildings: I named the residence building Sutanuti; the farm’s workhouse Kalighat, which ultimately became our temple and the farm’s open storage building Gobindapur.

To the young people in our community, ask your parents to explain to you the meaning of Sutanuti, Kalighat, and Gobindapur in the context of the British establishment of Calcutta.

Recently, under the current BOT’s effort, the main entrance of Ananda Mandir has been named as “Rabindranath Tagore Way”. I suggest that the name be officially changed to “Rabindranath Thakur Path” so that we would have our temple located on Thakur Path! Ananda Mandir would then be the first group in the world that can claim changing Tagore to Thakur! This would be similar to the changing of the name of our great city Calcutta to Kolkata.

I was planning to join Ananda Mandir as a full-time volunteer after retirement. I am unfortunately no longer able to perform in this capacity due to my health situation. However, I still wanted to share what I had hoped to accomplish as a fulltime volunteer: • We established Ananda Mandir to be a Bengali “family” organization within Central New Jersey and we have succeeded under the leadership BOT with

Editor’s Note: In June 29, 2014, Sukanta Sengupta was recognized as a Distinguished Leader of Ananda Mandir. In accepting the honor, Sukanta sent this letter for publication to Ananda Sangbad

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the help of various committees and Biswabhai. Still, I want us to continue pushing further to expand our “family” to include the families across the United States and Canada. One idea I have for the Puja Committee is to accept mail and online requests for puja (with family names, gotras, etc.) from families across North America who cannot come in person to our mandir to worship. We would respond by mail with puja items.

I suggest that we install an electronic sign in front of our entrance on Cedar Grove Lane. The sign would include dates for major events, as well as the daily times showing Archana of Ma

•

Kali, Sri Ganesh, and Sri Radha Krishna. This may help us to attract new Indian members from outside of the Bengali community. We could also supplement our fundraising efforts by implementing a “coupon” system similar to the Venkateswara Temple in Bridgewater and in many other South Indian temples.

Under the leadership of the Puja Committee, we should consider establishing a Vedanta/Gita group that would be focused on simplifying major Hindu concepts and items for our next generation. This is crucial as we orient Ananda Mandir towards the next generation.

•

We could introduce a yoga group at Ananda Mandir to attract participation from Bengalis, the broader Indian community, as well as non-Indian neighbors within Central New Jersey who are interested in yoga. This would help us significantly with community outreach as well as fundraising to a limited degree.

We could draw on the successes of our children who have gone to leading undergraduate universities and graduate/professional schools to mentor the next generation of children who come to Ananda Mandir. This could take the form of one-to-one mentorship or extra-help sessions and could be another way of fostering community service.

We should take advantage of our lush green, expansive property for athletics after we complete this round of construction. Previously many of our members and friends would play badminton, cricket, and table tennis on our grounds, and we should resume these activities by ensuring that we maintain sufficient space. Athletics could be another way to connect the older and younger generations.

Biswabhai has been volunteering to maintain numerous needs of Ananda Mandir, besides his regular priesthood services, for over three thousand, seven hundred consecutive days without any time off – this must be some sort of Guinness World Record! We should support Biswabhai and his great efforts for Ananda Mandir by identifying a list of back-up volunteers who would be able to provide relief on occasion and only when needed.”

Sincerely, Sukanta Sengupta New Jersey

In Loving Memory of Sukanta was a founding member and a key benefactor of Ananda Mandir who worked tirelessly for the growth and success of the organization. He was a dedicated volunteer who did not shy away from taking significant leadership responsibilities while working full time in a management position in a large multinational company. He was a member of the Board of Trustees for more than ten years, and as the President of the organization for four years, he was instrumental in planning and building our current temple building.

Sukanta was not only a friend and supporter of Ananda Mandir but also of many other local Bengali organizations, ranging from music, dance and language schools to religious and spiritual centers and charitable organizations serving the community. He was a dedicated family man who inspired his children to successful professional careers. He was a stickler for quality and safety, as all his colleagues at work would vouch.

Sukanta was born in Kolapur, Maharashtra in a military family, which later settled down in Kolkata. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Durgapur. He moved to USA in 1970 and obtained his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania.

Sukanta is survived by his beloved wife, Shyamashree, his daughter, Trina, and his son, Devjoy.

We mourn Sukanta’s untimely passage and pray for eternal peace for his soul.

Sukanta Sengupta (December 14, 1945 - November 20, 2014)

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Ananda Sangbad

January 2015

I have always been fascinated by the existence of a mirror plane of symmetry in the exterior physical appearances of all living beings when they are standing upright without moving; I am excluding plants, sponges, one-cell amebas etc. from my definition of “living beings”. For example, if a human being is standing on his/her feet this plane of symmetry is a vertical plane which runs through the middle of the body and one half of the body is almost a mirror reflection of the other half.

Interestingly enough, it is also true that a) this symmetry is never perfect (for example, left part of our body looks similar to, but not exactly identical to the reflection of the right part; b) the symmetry applies only to the exterior of the body and not to the internal organs (for example, hearts of most human beings lie on their left side) and c) the body does not have any other symmetry (such as rotational and translational, for example).

For a long time I thought that perhaps this feature can be used to form a strictly physical measurement-based definition of a “living” object. To determine if a given item has life one has to put it in various configurations, imagine various planes intersecting the object and then develop a parameter which is a measure of asymmetry about that plane. For example, one could scan the external surface of each half of the object with some radiation and measure the surface area, assuming that the object can be imagined to be divided into two similar halves. The percentage difference in the surface areas of the two halves could be a measure of this asymmetry. One could conclude that the object is a living object if this parameter is slightly larger than zero but not very large i.e. lies between zero and a small positive number, which is to be determined empirically for each species. It cannot be zero because the symmetry is not exact. In order to make sure that we have explored all possible configurations of the object and all possible planes of symmetry we need to repeat this measurement for a multitude of orientations and planes and select the lowest value for the above parameter.

Eventually, I gave up on this idea because I could not imagine how to exclude a non-living replica (a statue, for example) of the living being or a dead body preserved at a very low temperature from my measurement-based definition of a living being. The topic was on my “back burner” until I came to USA in 1971.

I originally came to USA for graduate study in physics at the Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge. Why I came to LSU, when most of my friends came to universities in the north east and a few to California, could be the subject of

SYMMETRY

By Basab Dasgupta a story for another day, but that was how it happened. LSU was known more for its football team than academic excellence, but I was happy with my studies in the physics department. I was at LSU for three semesters and received a MS degree before moving onto Wisconsin for my PhD. Joseph Callaway was the chairman of the department. He had a PhD in Solid State Physics from Princeton University where his thesis adviser was Professor Eugene Wigner – the very famous Nobel Laureate whose contributions to physics, chemistry and mathematics are well-known to the scientific community.

Wigner was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his “contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles through the description and application of the fundamental symmetry principles”. He was considered a pioneer in developing the “group theory” – the mathematical tool for dealing with various symmetries.

During my third semester at LSU, Callaway successfully persuaded Professor Wigner to come to LSU as a visiting professor and offer a course on group theory.

Although I did not have a whole lot of interest in group theory I was not ready to pass up this opportunity to take a course from a Nobel Laureate. I enrolled in the course and attended almost all classes. Unfortunately for my academic endeavors, I had been newly married to my college sweetheart and I must confess now that, during those classes, my mind was always preoccupied with the thoughts of my new wife - what she was doing and when I would be able to see her between classes or during lunch-break. I did not pay much attention to Professor Wigner’s teaching style nor his course materials.

The only thing I remember was his sense of humor. He threw a cocktail party near the end of the semester for all the students in the class and mentioned “You can also bring your wife or girlfriend, but not both”.

Fortunately for me, Professor Wigner never gave any test or homework throughout the semester and declared that he would not even give a Final exam or ask to write a term-paper. He was going to base the grade in the course entirely on an hour-long one on one discussion session with each of the students in his class. Since I had no idea about what he might ask nor a good command of group theory because of my complete neglect of his course material I faced the

challenge of coming up with a strategy regarding how not to flunk the course!

That was when my idea of using leftright symmetry to define a living being came handy. After a few preliminary questions and exchange of pleasantries I did not even give Professor Wigner a chance to ask anything to test my knowledge. I brought up my idea and explained the concept in great details and with a great deal of enthusiasm. He listened very carefully and seemed to be intrigued by it. He felt that, from a pure physical point of view, symmetry of DNA molecules should perhaps play a role in any definition of life. One hour passed by very quickly and I received an “A” for the course! This is one of my little-known achievements that I tricked (and perhaps also impressed) a Nobel Laureate to give me an A grade. I have mixed emotions about whether I should be proud about it.

Many years later, in 2011, a good friend of mine, who was aware of my interest in the left-right (L/R) symmetry of living beings, brought a news item from Science Daily, dated October 1, 2011 to my attention. The news item read, in part, as follows: “A research team at the Hubrecht Institute, Utrecht, demonstrates a mechanism by which left-right asymmetry in the body is established and maintained. The study, published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics on September 29, offers a new model of how families of genes interact to promote and direct body asymmetry”. This got me excited again and led me to investigate what had been happening in this area in recent years. Thanks to Google search and Wikipedia, I gathered a lot of very interesting information. I did not understand most of the medical jargon, but would try to summarize what I learned. Here is what I gathered: 1. Early embryos are bilaterally symmetrical along the mediolateral axis (i.e. they have what I have been calling a L/R symmetry) and remain so for the first six weeks of development for a human embryo. For a mouse embryo, this period is about 8 days.

2. Experiments have revealed that the early embryo produces different proteins on each side while it still looks symmetrical.

3. Biologists have pinpointed a single spot where this symmetry breaking starts; a tiny pit called the “node” on the embryo’s midline. The interior of the node is

lined with hundreds of tiny hair called “cilia” which whirl around at a rate of about 10 times per second.

4. A clockwise rotation of “cilia” in the developing mammalian embryo, drive a leftward flow of liquid; this genetically regulated biophysical force specifies L/R asymmetry of the mammalian body.

5. Internal organs of almost all human bodies show a clear L/R asymmetry in the placement and pattern of internal organs and associated vasculature; the heart apex, stomach and spleen lie to the left and liver to the right. This normal pattern of sidedness (situs) is called “situs solitus”.

However, a very few humans exhibit a mirror symmetric inversion of the sidedness and it is called ‘situs invertus’.

6. While this complete organ reversal (situs inversus) rarely gives rise to medical complications, severe medical problems occur in infants with partial organ reversal (situs ambigious or heterotaxia), including improper connections of the major vessels to the heart. These (congenial) heart defects are often lethal if not immediately corrected after birth by cardiac surgery, meaning that the establishment of correct left-right asymmetry is a critical process.

7. Until the late nineties nothing was known about the molecular or genetic underpinnings of L/R asymmetric morphogenesis and no genes with L/R asymmetric expression had been identified.

8. It is an ongoing research field whereby a picture is emerging of how L/R asymmetry is initiated, stabilized, propagated and translated into asymmetric organogenesis during development of vertebrae embryos.

In conclusion, contrary to my hypothesis, it is not the lack of perfect symmetry of the external appearance of a living being that indicates presence of life, but rather the existence of a prescribed L/R internal asymmetry. Apparently, no one knows why the cilia in the nodal area cause a fluid flow from right to left, eventually giving rise to this L/R asymmetry. I also thought about Professor Wigner; he was correct in guessing that symmetry of the genes must come into play in some way.

I also wondered about the correlation of the asymmetry in the brain structure with the functional preferences of a person, i.e. the so-called left-brained and right-brained activities. Structurally the brain is reasonably symmetric (in a L/R sense) for all human beings although some asymmetric features exist, but all experiments have failed to show any correlation between these physical asymmetries and personal characteristics (emotional or intellectual) of a person.

Experiments in Rabindra Sangeet

By Mandira Chattopadhyay Rabindra Sangeet forms an integral part of the Bengali culture. It is sometimes said that these songs are the outcome of five centuries of literary and cultural churning that the Bengali community went through. Rabindra Sangeet intelligently blends the different elements of Indian classical music to produce a unique genre of music. It has now evolved into a distinct stream of music with talented patrons to uphold its golden legacy. Like any other classical art form, Rabindra Sangeet requires an intellectual and contemplative mind in order to appreciate its lyrical beauty. This music has now found a unique position within the mainstream Hindustani classical music.

The themes of the songs in Rabindra Sangeet are so broad and varied that they embrace human emotions from the mundane to the absolutely aesthetic and express all ranges and categories of human emotion. As a result, a layman and a well-educated and affluent person could both equally enjoy this music and theme. The beauty of the Rabindra Sangeet is in the essence of this form of music which is so different from any other form of music and still retains the appeal as ever before. The essence of the beauty lies in the fact the songs do not lose their charm even after listening to it over and over again.

I have been extremely fortunate to be introduced to Rabindra Sangeet through my tutelage at Dakshinee Music School and my association with Rabindra Bharati University and also private music lessons with the late Arabinda Biswas, and in this country with Banani Ghosh.

These have enriched my appreciation for Tagore music in its pure form.

People have been experimenting with Tagore music much before the copyright of his expired in 2001. As early as 1964 in the movie Charulata directed by Satyajit Ray, the song “Ami Chini go Chini” sung by Kishore Kumar Continued to page 15

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Ananda Sangbad

January 2015

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TIME – Is it Real or Illusion?

By Pronoy Chatterjee [Presented at a “Sahitya-O-Alochina” session held in Ananda Mandir on Nov 21, 2014] Gone are the days when I slept the whole night, undisturbed and unperturbed, till the sun rose. I would wake up in the morning with the chirping of birds as the light pierced through a corner of my bedroom window.

When I woke up, I realized that my time in the real world had moved forward, but I didn’t perceive it; I felt its much faster flow in my dream world.

These days, I wake up quite frequently at night, roll back to a side and try to catch up on the broken sleep.

Every time I wake up, I look at the clock to see the time.

Then I close my eyes and go back to sleep, but check the time again as my sleep interrupts. When the morning breaks, I look at the clock and get up from bed to finish my morning chores in time. If my clock stops I get lost in following my schedule. I am driven by time throughout the day. Time controls my life.

What is time and how does it control my life? I asked myself.

Since Newton vaguely defined time, just to articulate his own discovery on the structure of the universe, no other scientists dealt with it, until Einstein redefined time to shape his own relativity theory. Since then no one touched the subject; they left it to philosophers. One of the great philosophers, St. Augustine said, “I have a feel of what time is, but if you ask me what it is, I have no answer.” Time is never defined properly.

Time is a riddle, a mystifying phenomenon of nature.

The cosmic world performs its functions following a precise time schedule. It is used in specifying past, present and future. Time seems to be ever flowing, moving constantly, never stagnant. We cannot stop it, we cannot slow it down or we cannot make it faster. It goes by its own pace and the entire world, the living and non-living, the sun, the planets, the stars -- all are trying to catch up with the time. Time, independent of any events in this universe, is majestically flowing in one direction with its own speed. Its flow does not get disturbed by the eruption of volcanoes, by the creation of galaxies and supernova or by the collapse of stars. We cannot burn time, we cannot tear it, we cannot blow it and we cannot create it. Time seems to be the master of the universe. It carries the universe from point to point, as scheduled, without failing. It takes us to our destiny as we journey through our life. We follow the flow of time but we don’t know it.

What is it? What is its real significance?

Time is the most mysterious thing that the human being has ever conceived. It is just too difficult to define in today’s scientific terms.

Isaac Newton thought, time is ever flowing and its flow is an absolute. Albert Einstein refuted that notion, saying that time is just a dimension coupled with space.

It does not have its independent identity. Einstein, in his relativity theory, said, “Time shrinks faster, the faster the speed of the observer of time is.” If any one attains the speed of light, time stops for him, it does not exist any more. “The motion of the observer,” he declared, “affects the very measure of time intervals. Time cannot be an ultimate category in the description of nature. ‘Before’ and ‘after’ don’t rule everywhere.”

“Time was originated at the starting point of nature’s evolution, which was fifteen billion years ago”, said Physicist Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University. He said, “Time, as we measure, simply did not exist before, an unfathomable darkness, without matter or motion, energy or time, before the beginning of the universe”. The other side of the beginning of universe is an arbitrary mystery.

Thus, time started at the creation of our universe, that is when the big explosion, known as “Big Bang,” happened and matters began to form from a single point that evolved from nothing. Those matters at a lightning speed began to fill up the space with the evolution of time. The initial matters, which were only fundamental particles, subsequently evolved as atoms, molecules and then gas, liquid and solid. The stars and planets finally took shape with the passing of time. The universe is still expanding and allowing the time to flow in one direction, past to future.

One day the process may reverse, when the universe will start contracting instead of expanding. Will the direc-

tion of time be reversed too, moving from future to past?

Science has no definite answer; it says yes, but it’s all speculation at this point.

While interpreting the complexity of quantum mechanical acts of observation, John Wheeler of Texas University wrote “The past is a theory. It has no existence except in the records of the present. We are participators, at the microscopic level, in making the past, as well as the present and the future.” In effect, he said that we are creating the time and the universe ourselves. Carlo Rovelli, a quantum gravity theorist at the University of Pittsburgh, pointed out that space and time might turn out to be artifacts of something deeper. He said, “If we take general relativity seriously, we have to learn to do physics without time, without space, in the fundamental theory”.

Physicist David Allan said that the past did not exist, except in our memory, nor the future, except in our expectations of it. The most a clock gives is the time an instant ago, not even now.

Saint Augustine, a philosopher and writer in the fourth century, posed the question, “What was God doing before he created the world?” Then he came up with a conclusion that before God created the world there was no time and thus no “before” or “after”. His thought was strikingly similar to that of modern scientists.

Buddhists and Taoists believe that time is a cycle, not a linear dimension, turning back on itself, all things being possible at all times. This view of time remains a central theme of their philosophy in which linear history is a fiction, since all things return to a former state. In ancient days there was no concept of time. They considered that all times run together, something like an ever-continuing present.

Time, as described in science, flows at a linear speed.

But, when we think about the past we feel that our time is compressed as compared to the present. Future, on the other hand, is expanded. The mind perceives the time as nonlinear whereas science defines it as a linear and that is an enigma.

The measurement of time, as perceived by mind, is also dependent on the time that is passed through our life or, in other words, age. When I was five years old my time scale of the future was far more expanded or elongated than when I was fifty years old. At five, my perception of five years from that point was much further away than when I was fifty. The time scale of future gradually shrinks as we pass through the time or as we age.

This is reality, but this reality is also in conflict with the scientific notion that time is linear.

Our consciousness that created our own world indicates that time is not linear. The scale of time for the past is compressed and the scale of future is expanded.

Also the extent of compression and expansion of time scale is dependent on our reference point of time, that is where in the time scale we are currently situated in or, in other words, what is our current age. This reality of time scale is not in concurrence with the scientific definition of time; rather it contradicts the scientific definition that time is linear. It is a classic example of conflict between our consciousness, the absolute, and our conceptual knowledge that evolved to lead the material world.

Julian Barbour, a physicist and the author of a book, “The End of Time”, argues that the universe consists of a stack of moments, like the cards in a deck, that can be shuffled and reshuffled arbitrarily to give the illusion of time and history.

Thus, time rests in human mind as a conceptual parameter to define any event in space. When there was no event in the space, that is, prior to the “Big-Bang”, there was no need for time and therefore time did not exist. In reality, time did not exist until the very first thought process evolved in any living being. A concept of a dimension of ‘time’ took shape in mind and evolved with our evolutionary process. Now we use this dimension to delineate the occurrences of nature in the so called past, present and future.

In a conference a couple of years ago in Stillwater, Minnesota, which drew together many physicists, historian and philosophers of science, John Earman of the University of Pittsburgh said “The structure of relativity

theory suggested that time could merely be a psychological illusion that was important to humans but not a fundamental element of any unified theory”.

Is time a mentally fabricated ruler to separate the events, the life from death, the childhood from youth, the events of the so-called past, present and future? Is time a fictitious element, which obscures the understanding of nature, acting as nature’s camouflage? Or, is it just a nature’s tool that keeps out everything from happening at once?

The Vedantic philosophy that “We never born, we never die” evolved from the concept that all four dimensions are just the perception in our limited world.

Everything that we see or conceive, that we imagine or dream of, every sound, smell or thought, all are “One”.

Every event, in past, present or future, belongs to “One”; not separate from one another. We made them separate by conceiving the space and time that rest in our mind only.

The perception of space and time has clouded our vision of the real truth of what we are, where we belong and what our destiny is. The whole universe including all the physical objects in it as well as our mind, thoughts, senses, past, present and future all are the same; they only differ in our perception. All the events in all our lives, all exist together.

We conceived time and space in our mind at some stage of our evolutionary process to understand nature and to resolve the objects and events clustered together since the beginning of creation. As such, they are camouflaging the truth and clouding the vision of truth. By creating such illusions, the ignorance is being perpetuated. In order to conceive the truth this illusionary concept has to be eliminated from the mind.

Life and death are not different events of nature, they happened at an instant and froze, until time-space evolved in our mind and separated them. We are also living and dying at all times, at every instant and at every location. We are existing and non-existing simultaneously, as is the case of fundamental particles in quantum state.

Although the space and time are illusions, their existence must be sensed in order to perceive the reality of the apparent universe; otherwise the universe will vanish before our eyes. This certainly creates a paradox. On one hand, space-time is considered as an illusion, on the other, its existence must be perceived by our senses. Our mental perception cannot be entirely based on absolute “Oneness” as long as we continue to exist in this world because the perception of space-time is essential to conceive the universe. In reality, we do exist in two worlds the world, which is unified, non-dualism, and the world that is based on duality.

Non-dualism or the concept of singularity propounds two things: first, time is non-existent and space is also a fictitious imaginary parameter. Because both are imaginary concepts only, our entire past, present and future become one single present moment. Past and future only exist in our mind and therefore to us present is the only reality. We must conclude that our entire life cycles are in existence all the time; they did not and will not appear sequentially as we commonly perceive.

This whole universe, all its attributes and qualities, its different forms and compositions, infancy to maturity, all are present all the time and at every grain of the space, unchanged and unaltered; only the fictitious time and space separated them in an imaginary scale. All the materialistic things and all the spiritual concepts that developed since the beginning of time are one big singularity and it is everything. That singularity was never created and it will never be destroyed and that is nothing but consciousness.

And the consciousness manifested itself, creating the illusion of time, space and the entire material universe.

The enigma of time and space was best expressed by the Chinese sage Lao Tsu in the following lines (as quoted in an article in New York Times, June 19, 2001, p. F3): “These two [time and space] spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears in darkness.

Darkness within darkness.

The gate to all mystery.”

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Ananda Sangbad

January 2015

The Geopolitics of the World Cup of Soccer

BEING IRRATIONAL

By Subhodev Das

By: Tathagata Ghosh Soccer is arguably the most popular game in the world, and the World Cup has an astonishing amount of viewership and attendance. The participants in the main draw seem to be part of soccer royalty who are regulars, but it is sometimes not very clear as to how these selections came to pass.

It is worthwhile going back in history to review the evolution of the sport and opine on its progress. It is worth noting that football or soccer has its origins dating back thousands of years.

The success of the soccer as a game in the Olympics was the motivation for a competition outside of the Olympic format. The Olympics were also restricted to amateurs, and there was a market and interest for having the best of the best countries play against each other. The World Cup, for all its current popularity, is still a hard format to manage for the individual countries. The players come from varied backgrounds; many from different clubs around the world and trained in different styles. Although very little time is devoted in the preparation of these disparate players as a team, there is still an expectation of them to function as a cohesive unit. Club teams take a long while to come together, and, in contrast, World Cup teams almost always have to learn to play as a team in the crucible of intense matches. When a large majority of players are sourced from a small number of club teams, there is a greater chance of cohesion but no guarantee of results.

The first World Cup in 1930 was confined to participants from the Americas and Europe. The USA was not only one of the participants, but was placed third in the competition after Uruguay and Argentina. These top two countries have retained their preeminence as soccer top-shelf teams for almost 100 years while Germany and Brazil have clawed their way to the very top with the most number of titles even as the competition has become fiercer and hungrier.

In the ensuing years, the competition has widened and broadened its doors as more countries have become soccer playing nations and members of FIFA, the official body controlling soccer. The worldwide following of soccer has expanded so much that it became the only game that is probably played, watched, and followed in a majority of countries around the globe. The advent of television allowed the fans to actually watch their heroes in action and live and fail with their idols.

The world map of soccer is broken up into regions that are roughly based on continents.

1. UEFA – Predominantly European teams and a few transcontinental teams, 2. CONMEBOL – The South American powerhouses including Argentina, Brazil, Columbia etc., 3. CONCACAF – North and Central American teams, Caribbean countries, and a handful of South American entities, 4. CAF – Africa, 5. AFC – Asia and Australia, and 6. OFC – Oceania including New Zealand.

See chart below.

T h e UEFA and the CONMEBOL regions have reigned for the last 100 years in terms of World Cup vic t or ie s, and it is interesting to note that UEFA and the CONMEBOL are interleaved at the very top in top of FIFA rankings.

Amongst the participants that made it to World Cup 2014, UEFA had 13 teams, CONMEBOL and CONCACAF combined for 10 teams, CAF and AFC combined for 9 teams, hence this was a fairly representative group from all the continents. The Asian teams have lagged all other regions in terms of results for close to 100 years, and so this leads us to ponder as to how this inequality came to be and if it will ever change.

Following are some theories that can be proposed for this disparity: 1. The local competition is not good enough, 2. Lack of funding in the sport and limited soccer sports facilities, 3. Physically the players in this region do not match up with the other regions, 4. The early development of soccer is missing, 5. Other sports take up take up the limelight and the focus, and 6. Limited economic resources of a country.

Putting emotion and political rectitude aside, there is an element of truth in all of the above.

Most of Asia including India could be subject to all or some of the criteria. An interesting case study is the USA. Some of the drag factors are true in some form, but USA has been able to exceed their limitations and do quite reasonably on the World stage.

The ascent of the African nations is also intriguing. They have developed their skills in the natural isolation of the Dark Continent, maybe through charismatic coaches. Their natural physicality blended with their soccer acumen has propelled them to be genuine contenders, but they still do not have the success that has been predicted.

The teams in South America may not have the most salubrious conditions for soccer eminence, but the brilliance of the individual players is unquestionable. To have a country like Columbia be a soccer force would be hard to predict by just hard data points. The club teams in South America are not as strong as the European clubs, but the individual brilliance of players mean that there is a talent drain to European clubs where they play with the strongest international players.

The soccer leagues of any country apart from the European ones are unable to afford the top players. These other leagues including the brand new soccer league in India and the USA can only afford the older players who have retired from the frenetic pace of European soccer.

It could be argued that the UEFA Champions League has better teams than any national team, and hence the World Cup is not necessarily a showcase of the finest soccer but more a chance for the club stars to prove themselves as national icons.

The burden of carrying a nation has normally proven to be too onerous for even the biggest stars. Compounded with this yoke are also the historical failures or slights of soccer nations that cry for redemption.

It is hard to imagine that the world order of soccer will change anytime soon. It is possible that countries like India will improve their standard in their local region by the new Indian Super League, which allows the local players to play against international talents. Whether it will propel grassroots participation amongst the youth to play soccer remains to be seen. Another possibility is that FIFA may create new regions, and hence there is going to be a possibility of other countries getting an entry into the main competition. The number of teams allowed to play has also increased over the years and may continue to increase, which may allow for more opportunities. What we can hope is that the World Cup will continue to enthrall soccer players around the globe, and remain fair and competitive.

How often have you (or someone else) blamed your irrational behavior for life’s malaise?

We live in a society where rationality is highly valued. Many people will probably want to avoid being irrational, lest they lose the respect of others. They want to signal rationality. However, if one never admits one’s irrationality to oneself, he/she will have a hard time to get over it. If, on the other hand, the society makes it clear that it’s okay to be irrational, as long as one is trying to overcome it, then the person can become more rational.

Let’s examine a few different cases where irrationality has been helpful.

The recent “Ebola freakout” to grip the U.S. is a testament of mass irrationality that is more than just anecdotal. The stresses accompanying this epidemic of fear – the anxiety, the stigmatization, and the economic impacts – are more damaging than Ebola itself.

Yet, a sizeable portion of the U.S. population chose to react with gut feelings rather than by reasoned analysis. This form of rapid thinking enabled humans to survive the long course of evolution before scientific methods and quantitative risk assessment were available. At a macroscopic time scale, a moment of irrationality could become an enduring rationality.

Organisms, including humans, are often assumed to be hardwired by evolution to make optimal decisions vis-à-vis available knowledge.

Behavioral sciences have formulated the theory of rational choice based on axiomatic principles such as transitivity (if A is preferred to B and B preferred to C, then A is preferred to C) and independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA; if A is the preferred option when A, B and C are all available, then A will be preferred to B when C is not available).

However, a recent study published in Biology Letters 2 has demonstrated that violations in transitivity or IIA can result in irrational behaviors that are optimal, i.e., can be favored by natural selection.

According to the study, such violations can occur because a current option may disappear in the near future or a better option may reappear soon. For example, a certain degree of irrationality can guide the selection of investment strategies from savings schemes that may not be available in the future.

In the book The Upside of Irrationality 1, behavioral economist Dan Ariely suggests that the upside of irrationality to society is that it keeps us together more than what sheer hyper-rationality alone would. He argues, for example, that we irrationally mispredict the true trauma of divorce: “[A] divorce is often less devastating to a married couple than either member might anticipate.” If we were more rational, more people would split up. Since happiness in humans quickly adapts to new situations (like divorce), the book describes experiments on how the interruptions of unpleasant or pleasant tasks disrupt the adaptation process. “You may think that taking a break during an irritating and boring experience will be good for you, but a break actually decreases your ability to adapt, making the experience seem worse when you return to it. When cleaning your house or doing your taxes, the trick is to stick with it until you’re done.” A penchant for irrationality may save you the day!

Continued to page 7

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Ananda Sangbad

January 2015

MUMBAI MERI JAAN

By Amrita Kangle 'Saare Jehan se achcha, Hindostan hamara' .......

These were the words reverberating inside my head as my aircraft touched down on Indian soil and my heart and my head were awash with a golden glow that enveloped all around me in its fuzzy warmth. I was home at last. Everything was in its proper place.

God was in His heaven and all was right with the world.

As you must have guessed by now, I love my country. And I will let you into a secret! I am actually two human beings. One lives in New Jersey and the other one, who has the heart portion lives in Mumbai. I tried to explain this to my son as soon as I saw him.

First and foremost he pretended not to know me as I bent down to do a Namaskar to my country. So what if people were watching? It is my Motherland after all!

Apart from being born here, I have lived in Mumbai all my life. It is my city and it has made me what I am today.

In the good old days Mumbai was a city where if you looked to the right, you had the purple mountains of the Western Ghats enfolding you in its arms and if you looked to the left, the blue waters of the Arabian Sea came wave upon wave to seduce your senses into a hypnotic trance. In the even older days, in a previous incarnation when you were probably King Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty and I was a lowly courtier in your court, Bombay was a collection of seven islands and was ruled mainly by the Kolis or the fisher folk. It was only in 1784 that the seven islands were joined together under the leadership of William Hornby, who assumed office as the Governor of Bombay and thus was born the city which is embedded in every fiber of my being.

I pride myself in knowing this city like I do the back of my hand. So then, where were we? I did not like to ask, because but curiosity got the better of me and I was told in very condescending tones that this was the new airport approach road to match with the new airport terminal that had been built.

How could I not know? I decided to ignore that and looked all about me like a villager gaping at the bright lights of a city for the first time. That terminal is awesome and can give any airport in the world a run for its money! And so was this approach!! For a minute, I almost thought that I was in Dubai!

One of our high flying politicians had once said in his grandiose speech that he would make Mumbai into a Shanghai. To that statement, one of our more down to earth, our son-ofthe-soil variety kind of politicians had replied that 'Let Mumbai remain Mumbai. There is no need to turn it into Shanghai.' I am so glad that Mumbai was not turned into a Shanghai. It has retained its soul! But one can no longer see the mountains and the waterfalls that I could see sitting on my bed, when I woke up in the morning during monsoons, have been covered up by multi storied towers. The roads where one could not walk after dusk, without

a shiver going up one's spine, because of the dreaded dacoit Raman Raghav's presence in the nearby jungle, the same roads have turned into four lane highways. In fact, Powai was the area where wildlife was abundant. During an evening stroll around Vihar Lake, one was more than likely to come across a crocodile or two taking their evening strolls very seriously, as if ordered by the doctor. The occasional Leopard too would come out to socialize with the humans and scare them out of their wits! In fact, Leopards were so much in the news at one time that I had dreamt that I was being marinated to be fed to them. Now, the only wildlife that has remained is my pet crow, Bhimashankar and his brother Kripashankar who come regularly at seven in the morning to ask for their breakfast, a piece of roti which I place on the kitchen grill. And if I forget, they caw in very strident tones, to remind me! Mumbai has paid a price to retain its soul.

I got into my vacation mode with gusto. And it felt as if I had never been away. I had landed right on Diwali day and the city was twinkling like fairy tale land. Every abode, however humble, had its own colored lights and its own 'kandeel' (colored lantern) and a Rangoli. The result was a city which glowed with the colors of the rainbow and for a few precious days one felt that Diwali was living out its true meaning.... The victory of light over the darkness of life. Yes, I knew that there was darkness here too. I had lived far too long to not know what kind of deprivations the people in my city had to go through. Well, where were they today?

The next morning dawned bright and early. Very early actually.... since it began with the ceremonial bath at the crack of dawn. The male members of the household have their bodies anointed with a perfumed scrub and perfumed oil and then they go for the ceremonial bath. They kill a demon before doing so. In this case the demon, Narakasur, being represented by a harmless looking, round cucumber kind of fruit. My son, when he was a baby called it a 'monster.' A more unlikely monster I have yet to see. Though it does have some wispy whiskers! I really enjoy squishing this fellow into pulp! I can imagine the unholy pleasures that Lord Rama must have had when he decapitated so many Asuras.

The bath is followed by wearing new clothes and then the men have an 'Arti' done for them. This is followed by a scrumptious breakfast.

I have two ladies who look after my house in my absence and they have been with me for twenty nine years.

They dust and clean and scrub the place and keep it looking as if I have never been away. One of them arrived with a box full of Laddoos to celebrate.

She had just been handed possession of her new flat in Powai. Let me add that this is her second house. Apart from the place which she lives in.

That's the third one. She had benefited hugely from the Government's Slum

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BEING IRRATIONAL Continued from page 6

Rehabilitation plan and the rest was the result of her toils. The other lady came in a little late that day because her son was taking possession of their new car. And both these ladies had enough gold on their persons to make a person very rich if he had decided to rob them. I felt like a positive frump in my comfortable clothes, like I was their poor cousin. In fact they chided me for not being 'dressed up' on Diwali day.

Were we talking about 'deprived?' Really??

Everyone in Mumbai seems to be on a roll. The only free time that they have is after eleven pm. You see the traffic is so bad that they get back home only around that time. The three hours they spend to reach home from their workplace is utilized to complete their work. Everyone, but everyone in Mumbai has a swanky car and everyone and their cousin brother has a chauffeur. So while the chauffeur drives, the owner is working away at his laptop. Of course sometimes they indulge in more pleasurable pastimes.

Like being on FaceTime with their girlfriends. And how do I know it is the girlfriend? Well you tell me, which twenty odd year old girl would smilingly be married to a fat, balding gent?

Well then after eleven at night is when they decide to socialize after a long day's work. All of us friends decided to meet up. We were to meet sharp at midnight at the Westin. Of course, the Westin being too staid and straight we all piled onto two cars and went looking for 'Street Food.' We found our Nirvana at two am and the place was filled to the brim. And every kind of food that your heart desired was available. The place was lit up like as if a hundred suns were shining. We began with Pani-puris, continued with Pavbhaaji, Bhel, Sev-batata puri, Ragdapatties, Kulfi, and Gola and ended with Paan.

Yes certainly Mumbai has changed.

Gone are the days of State Bandhs called by the Opposition, comprising of the local ethnic people. Gone are the days when the roads of Mumbai were turned into cricket pitches to celebrate the Bandhs. Gone are the days when bread used to cost a few rupees only.

Today the Big Brands have their outlets all over Mumbai. No one eats bread anymore. They have Burgers and they have fun. They live life to the fullest.

And at least in Mumbai one does not see the ugly face of deprivation very easily. Even Dharavi which has the reputation of being the largest slum in the world is a master hub of small industries. You have to read Rohinton Mistry's masterpiece to know it fully.

Such is Mumbai! It infuses you with its spirit and carries you along on its wings of energy. It has retained its soul and donned the shell of a hustling, bustling, developing metro which never sleeps. Even Bhimashankar is at his job early in the morning. In the meantime, I am looking to inaugurating my all-night eatery here next month. Very much in New Jersey! Do drop by if the hunger pangs overtake you past midnight!

What about irrationality in a group?

“Irrational exuberance” was the catchphrase of the stock market boom of the 1990’s, made famous by the then Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan as a warning about the overvaluation of the stock market. The stock market did climb to record heights a couple of years after Mr. Greenspan delivered his famous speech. In the process, it created wealth bonanza for many, particularly those who cashed out at the peak.

The catchphrase has an implication beyond the financial marketplace. As a society, human beings tend to display collective behavior when it comes to matter of euphoria. We see it in the “hooliganism” of soccer fans as well as in the “stampede” of pilgrims in overcrowded pilgrimages that rational minds may find irrational in the first place. In the surging optimism, individual rationality gives away to unfounded belief (or overvaluation of assets) not anchored in reality (or fundamentals). Perhaps, irrational exuberance is the only psychological stimulus that helps to connect an individual with its fellow human beings. Consequently, it remains a cornerstone of human behavior.

In 1841, the noted Scottish journalist Charles Mackay chronicled the history of popular follies in his book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Mackay’s debunking is perhaps best described in the following quote: "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

A recent study3 points to the biological underpinnings of irrational exuberance. The work, done by researchers at the California Institute of Technology and Virginia Tech, sheds light on what goes on in the brains of traders in periods of irrational exuberance in financial marketplace. The study was conducted in an experimental setting with the participants engaged in trading activities, while they underwent magnetic resonance imaging. The researchers found that as prices rose, so did the activity in an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, an evolutionarily ancient area associated with reward. The neural activity constituted a biomarker for irrational exuberance.

A second finding of the research is in a relatively newer area of the brain called the anterior insular cortex, which is "active during bodily discomfort and unpleasant emotional states, such as pain, anxiety and disgust," the researchers wrote in the paper.

Study participants who were more successful traders turned out to have higher activity in that area and more frequently sold their positions before the market peaks. In other words, these individuals were irrationally exuberant, but for a limited period, before responding rationally to gut feelings or signals from the body.

“I want to be irrationally exuberant again” bumper stickers were on display in Silicon Valley during the economic downturn of the new millennium. It turns out that the legendary investor Warren Buffett shares that view. "A simple rule dictates my buying," he wrote in a 2008 New York Times op-ed. "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." His irrational exuberance is based on his “market insight” that can now be explained by neuroscience.

It’s okay to be irrational… sometimes.

References 1. Ariely, D. The Upside of Irrationality, New York: HarperCollins Publishers (2010).

2. McNamara, J. M., Trimmer, P. C. and Houston, A. I. “Natural selection can favour ‘irrational’ behavior,” Biol. Lett. 20130935 (2014).

3. Smith, A., Lohrenz, T., King, T. J., Montague, P. R.and Camerer, C. F. “Irrational exuberance and neural crash warning signals during endogenous experimental market bubbles,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sciences, 111(21): 10503-10508 (2014).

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Ananda Sangbad

January 2015

Sapta Tirtha: Haridwar

By Sushmita Dutta

Author’s note: For Ananda Sangbad readers, Sapta Tirthas (the seven coveted pilgrimage centers in India for Hindus) have been a special series for the past six issues delivering our readers with spiritual, mythological information including travel, lodging and boarding tips on Mathura, Varanasi, Dwarka, Ayodhya, Ujjain and Kanchipuram.

Haridwar is the concluding article of the series. Please contact Ananda Sangbad Editor for copies of this series that you may have missed.

Situated in the foothills of the Shivalik range of the Himalayas in Northern India, with lush green forests in the backdrop, crystal clear water of river Ganges entering the plains from its origin in bubbling, rippling sounds, innumerable temples embracing the unpolluted cerulean blue sky contrasting saffron clothes of hundreds of monks in the land, form the breathtakingly beautiful, picturesque milieu of India’s one of the most ancient holy cities, Haridwar – “Hari ka Dwar”, as they say in Hindi which means gateway to the God. Derived from two Sanskrit terms Hari and Dwar, the name Haridwar literally means gateway (dwar) to “Hari” God. Literally, this is the gateway to the so-called “Char Dhams” of the Himalayas, consisting of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.

Haridwar is also called Hardwar where Har refers to Lord Shiva and Hari denotes Lord Vishnu. Hindus believe that both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu live here, and, hence, both Vaishnavites and Shaivites throng this holy place believing strongly in the spiritual strength of this ancient pilgrimage. This land holds a Shiva jyotirlinga - Kedarnath, one of the 108 Vishnu Dhams –Badrinath, the vibrating chants of Kumbh Mela, the origins of holy rivers like Ganga and Yamuna, innumerable temples dedicated to different Gods, the rising flames of sacrificial fires performed by sages years after years after years filling the air with vedic chants, the waters of Himalayan springs and “Kundas” that have purifying and cleansing effects… all of these have made Haridwar a unique place to be. Along with brief notes on highlights of Haridwar, we have also covered travel tips here. So, read on, do plan a visit to Haridwar, and, stay blessed.

Haridwar Temples, traditions and other religious significance: Haridwar is one of the oldest living cities in India and hence, has always been the place of interest for religious, scholarly and re-

search activities. Numerous temples of Haridwar tell interesting legacies to share. Legend has it that Mother Ganga (river Ganges) after carrying the purity of heaven from the pot of Lord Brahma, and then washing the feet of Lord Vishnu and flowing through the jata (pleated hair) of Lord Shiva came on this earth and made Haridwar a divine place.

Divinity lives at this place and miraculous cures happen. There are Kunds (stored water) and springs that are used for purification of body and soul.. In Kedar Khand chapter of Shiva Puran a water reservoir named Udar Kund is mentioned as having mixture of five oceans.

This water always remains fresh and pure and used for purification of ritualistic tasks. There are water tanks in the famous Gaurikund near Kedarnath. Of the two water tanks - one is hot with traces of sulphur and the other is a cold water spring which changes color in keeping with the changing time of the day.

Traditional practices: A place for learning and practicing ancient Hindu traditions, Haridwar is well known source of Ayurvedic medicines & herbal remedies derived from the Himalayan range. The place has been a center for learning that follows the Gurukula teaching system. Here, Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalay is provides unique teaching in Gurukul system since 1902.

Kumbh Mela: Since ancient times, Kumbh mela is performed here attracting millions of peo-

ple. It is believed that drops of amrit (elixir) fell here in to the Brahmkund of Har-Ki-Pauri. Hence, Haridwar is also one of the four places where Kumbh Mela occurs after rotation of every twelve years and Ardh Kumbh Mela after every six years.

Hari Ki Pauri: God’s footprints visible at this place makes it one of the most sacred bathing ghats in India. Har Ki Pauri is 02 kms far from the Haridwar Railway Station. Har means God & Pauri means footprints.

Legend has it that Lord Vishnu came here and there is a stone where his footprints are visible. Har Ki Pauri is also main place for holy bath during the Kumbh Mela.

Ganga Aarti Every evening a ceremony called Ganga Aarti is organized in Haridwar. The ceremony is dedicated to River Ganga which is constantly providing life in the form of her water to people. Ganga Aarti is widely visited by thousands of people every evening.

Temples in the region Haridwar is the gateway to many temples in the Himalayas, including the highly popular “tirthas” called Char Dhams. Here is a brief narrative of some of these holy places.

Kedarnath Dedicated to Lord Shiva, Kedarnath temple is also one of the 12 jyotirlingas.

For devotees, the temple opens from April end or May first week on the day of Akshaya Tritiya and closes on the day of Bhai Duj around October end or 1st week of November. It gets cold after October as the temple is located about 11,755 feet above the sea level, surrounded by snow-capped peaks.

The temple is very ancient and gets renovated. Legend has it that the temple gets its name from a king named Kedarnath who ruled in the Satya Yuga. Also, legend from the era of Mahabharata has it that Lord Shiva eluded the Pandavas and appeared in the form of a bull at the Kedarnath temple. When the Pandavas followed him, he dived into the ground and only the hump of the bull was made visible at the Kedarnath temple which is

worshipped today in conical Shiva pinda form. The parts of the body appeared at four other places and together with Kedarnath this cluster of five temples is called “Panch Kedar”. The temples are as follows – l Tunganath temple where the arms are worshipped l Rudranath temple where the face is worshipped l Madmaheshwar temple where the naval is worshipped l Kalpeshwar temple where his hair is worshipped.

Gaurikhund: A natural wonder

Connected with Kedarnath and dedicated to Lord Shiva’s wife Parvati, Gaurikhund is another place of religious significance. It is a natural wonder that still remains un-touched by pollution of the industrial era. Legend has it that Gauri performed penance to get Shiva’s love and affection. Shiva accepted her love and devotion and they were married at Triyugi Narayan near Gauri Kund. Local folklores say that Gauri lived here. Her son Ganesha was created here from soap suds of her body.

Rudraprayag: Rudraprayag lies at the point of convergence of rivers Alaknanda and Mandakini. It is another holy place that holds a tremendous sense of belief that a dip in

the rivers cleanses one’s sins of present and past lives.

Badrinath Temple: Dedicated to Lord Vishnu, one of the 108 Divya Dhams, Badrinath Temple is also one of the Char Dhams – four coveted pilgrimage centers for Hindus. It is one of the most visited pilgrim-

age centers of India, having recorded 1,060,000 visits. From end of April through November, the temple remains open for six months. Located along the banks of Alaknanda river, the temple is in the Garhwal hills at an elevation of 10,279 ft. above the sea level.

Lord Vishnu is worshipped at this temple in the form of a black stone statue named Badrinarayan. Hindus believe that this deity is one of the eight “swayam vyakta kshetras”, or self-manifested statues of Vishnu. The temple is mentioned in Hindu scriptures like Vishnu Purana and Skanda Purana. Legend has it that Vishnu has been meditating at this place for a long time when Lakshmi protected him from the sunlight until she turned to Badri-tree. Since then Lakshmi’s lord has been known as BadriNath. Another legend says, in the Mahabharata era, the Pandavas had spent many years in austerity at this place. Emphasizing the importance of pilgrimage to Badrinarayan Temple, Hindu scripture Scanda Purana says, “There are a lot of sacred places on earth, in heaven and hell, but nothing compares to Badrinath”. Other than festivities dedicated to Lord Vishnu, “Mata Murti Ka Mela” is the most important festival celebrated at the temple to commemorate the descent of river Ganges on Continued to page 9

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Ananda Sangbad

Sapta Tirtha: Haridwar Continued from page 8 earth. There is a warm spring Tapta Kund near the temple. The ablution in it is necessary to get darshan from the Badrinath Saligram.

Gangotri Temple: Situated on the origin of Ganges river, this beautiful temple reflects the serene and pure looks of river Ganga. Hindus believe it to be the home of Ganga – the giver of life, the goddess of wisdom and purity. Legend has it that king Bhagirath meditated at this place to seek Goddess Ganga’s blessing to be able to release the sins of his predecessors. After austere penances Ganga took the form of a river to free their souls and grant them salvation. Each year during April, Goddess Ganga returns to Gangotri from her winter shel-

January 2015

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Highlights of Recent Puja Activities Reported By Krishna Dutta Roy, Chair, Puja Committee September In my last report, I mentioned about upcoming Durga Puja. "Sharadiya Durgotsav", the biggest event at Ananda Mandir, started with Mahalaya (live Mahishsurmardini) on 21st September. As usual it started at 5:00am, attracting about two hundred people at that early hour in the morning.

On 23rd September we had "Pitri Tarpan". This is a popular event,

because many people like to avail this opportunity to pay respect to all departed "pitri" and "matri" ancestors in the family. This being on Amabasya day, the usual Shyama Puja was also performed on that evening.

October This year Durga Puja was a little different than other years in some ways. Durga Puja tithis fell on week days very early in the

mornings, for four days, not the usual five, from 30th September to 3rd October. Puja started with "Adhibas" and "Bodhan" on Tuesday, 30th September on Sosthi in the late afternoon. From Saptomi to Nabami, many devotees came in the early mornings at around 6:00am to attend the puja. Ashtomi and Nabami fell on the same day. Ashtomi puja started around 6:00 am, followed by Continued to page 13 "Advertisement"

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ter, the day is celebrated carrying the Goddess’s murti dressed in red and green cloths.

Yamunotri Temple The Yamunotri temple is located on the left bank of the river Yamuna named after river Goddess Yamuna. The temple usually opens from April through mid-October – November. There are two hot springs near the temple - Surya Kund with boiling water, where the pilgrims poach the rice for the Goddess, and Gauri Kund with warm water for ablution. Legend has it that sage Asit Muni bathed all his life in Ganges and Yamuna. When he was too old to go to Gangotri, a stream of Ganges appeared before him in Yamunotri.

Haridwar Travel Tips Delhi should be the destination to visit Haridwar. Take international or domestic flight to Delhi. Or, take a train to Delhi from any

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Do you buy from Amazon.com or Dell.com? location in India. Haridwar is 230 km from Delhi, 25 km from Rishikesh, 110 km from Mussourie, 55 Km from Dehradun, 110 km from Devprayag. Non vegetarian food & alcohol is strictly not allowed in Haridwar. Auto rickshaw and three wheelers are best option for visits within the city. Hindi, Garhwali & English are the major languages spoken in Haridwar. And, one may ask if we really need a spoken language to communicate when the heart is filled with love and devotion to feel the spirituality of Haridwar. So, with heart full of devotion, plan a trip to experience the divinity of Hari Ka Dwar - Haridwar. Bon Voyage ! Stay safe and stay blessed.

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Ananda Sangbad

January 2015

MODERN PHYSICS AND VEDANTA

By Prasanta Ray Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of an article which is being serialized in Ananda Sangbad One day, four centuries ago, a strange man did a strange thing: he dropped one heavy and one light ball from atop the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Just to see when they would hit the ground.

It was Galileo Galilei pioneering modern science.

Before him, much of science was conjecture, often specious. He insisted on close observation via controlled experimentation. When he showed that the balls fell together, it upset the applecart of Aristotelian wisdom. From experimentation again, he formulated the rudiments of ‘Newton’s Laws of Motion’ that is in wide application today. Through a telescope, he discovered mountains on the moon.

Today, schoolchildren follow him when they record laboratory work under the headings ‘Experiment’, ‘Observation’ and ‘Conclusion’. This spectacularly potent procedure has revolutionized man’s quest for knowledge.

The lesson suggests itself: One cannot gain knowledge of Nature without controlled experimentation and methodical observation.

Flipping through the chronicles of physics, we meet another strange man: Tycho Brahe. Spending a good part of his life mapping the shifting positions of the planets, he bequeaths to posterity a maze of precise astronomical data in which Johannes Kepler later discerns three ‘Laws of Planetary Motion'. Isaac Newton turns those into the epoch-making ‘Law of Universal Gravitation’.

The combined endeavour spans a century and tellingly brings home the inestimable value of close observations in scientific quests.

The nature of light had long intrigued scientists. Initially, light was considered to be particles, from the way it cast shadows and reflected off shiny surfaces. But two streams of research led to a different conclusion. One, scientists split light rays in two and saw them recombine to produce alternating light and dark bands that were mathematically explainable only if light was waves. Two, it had long been observed that a moving magnet induces an electric current and an electric current moves a magnetic needle. The basic mathematics of such 'electromagnetic' relations was also known. James ClerkMaxwell’s brilliant treatment of those mathematical relations showed that threedimensional ‘electromagnetic waves’ could propagate through space, and at exactly the speed of light―so, light is waves. Soon after, Hertz experimentally proved the existence of the waves.

But waves have to be waves of something. That 'something'—the medium— was surmised to be an all-pervading ‘ether’. Michelson and Morley set out to find the speed of the earth through such ether by measuring the difference in light's speed in and against the direction of the earth’s movement. The result of their experiment was startling: light’s speed was the same in both directions. It was as if the earth was stationary, which it was known not to be; else, there was no medium for the waves—waves of nothing!

So, physics was in the throes of a crisis as never before. Deliverance came in the guise of the redoubtable Albert Einstein.

His postulates, the renowned ‘special relativity’, boggle the mind: (a) the speed of light is an absolute, universal constant, c; it has no relative speed, that is to say, observers moving at different speeds alongside will all find its speed to be the same, namely, c; (b) space shrinks and time slows with increasing speed—which makes for the constancy of c—and mass increases: space, time and mass are relative things, not absolute; (c) nothing save electromagnetic waves can reach the speed c, which implies that no information can travel at a ‘superluminal’ speed, and so, a cause can produce an effect at a distance no sooner than the time taken by light to travel that distance; (d) space and time are two aspects of one entity, 'spacetime'; and (e) mass, m, and energy, E, are interchangeable as per the celebrated equation E = mc2. Later, Einstein’s ‘general relativity’ explained that a heavy mass, like the sun, warps space around it, causing straight lines to seem curved like straight latitudes on the earth’s curved surface, and that is how planets are seen―or seem―to orbit the sun; there is really no 'gravitational attraction'. Experiments have vindicated Einstein (and negated Newton’s legendary ‘gravitation’).

Of immense significance is the fact that some measurements on the ‘observed’―the object―like its length and mass, depend on the speed of the ‘observer’―the subject, relative to the object.

This―thus, and for the first time in human history―challenged the intuitively-accepted notion of a totally stand-alone objective world! At one stroke, this (a) introduced ‘subject-participation’ in the (so-called) ‘objective reality’, and (b) hinted that there is more to it than meets the eye! The philosophical significance of this can hardly be overemphasized!

Clearly, the foundations of relativity were laid by close observations: (i) the bands formed by split light rays, (ii) the electricity-magnetism mutuality, and (iii) the constancy of the speed of light.

The lesson? The closer the observation, the more incisive the quest for truth.

The history of physics is punctuated by high drama that reads stranger than fiction. Here is one more. Max Planck mathematically showed that electromagnetic radiation in an enclosure is made up of ‘quanta’—particle-like 'wave packets' (whatever that is); Einstein showed the same in photo-electric emission of electron by light striking matter. So―amazingly, light was showing up as waves in one situation and particles in another: ‘travelling as waves and arriving as particles’, as a physicist put it. Two restive decades of collective brain-racking later, a new mathematics was used to explain this ‘wave-particle duality’: ‘quantum mechanics (QM)’, a mystifying cornerstone of today’s physics. Quantum mechanics posits that (a) in the ‘quantum world’, conventional mathematics like 2 + 3 = 5 breaks down; (b) a ‘quantum’ of radiation is both wave-like but not waves, and particle-like but not particles, and likewise, high-speed particles are 'matter waves'; (c) generally, there is an absolute limit to the combined precision of measurements

achievable on two attributes of a given particle, because of uncertainty due, not to any subjective factor like an incurable instrumental deficiency, but to the objective factor of uncertainty being in the very nature of observation―or, in the nature of Nature; (d) no observation is possible without disturbing the system observed― because an observation is an interaction with the system―and so it is impossible to know a system as it may have obtained prior to the observation, and also, via the interaction, the act of observation irreversibly alters the future course that the system may have followed if not observed; (e) a set of outcomes is 'potentially possible' pre-observation, and an observation actualizes a particular―not previously predictable―outcome from that set, with only the probability of a particular outcome being predictable in science and not the outcome per se; (f) yet, via a spooky, 'local-global', system-wide awareness, the probability of the outcome actualizing is decided by factoring in alternatives that might have actualized but have not; and (h) 'fundamental particles' are born in a nonmaterial 'field' and also die in it―in individually-unpredictable appearances and disappearances. Quantum physics deals, as it were, only with the registration of 'heads' or 'tails' when a tossed spinning coin is stopped; it does not belong where the coin is in (unarrested) free flight. Unutterably weird, say quantum physicists themselves. And ‘uncertainty’? Nature is ‘ghatana aghatana patiyasi’―things happening and not happening inexplicably ―so says Vedanta!

It is absolutely essential that we pause here to catch our breath, and then proceed to ponder the remarkable issues― breathlessly! First: the inability to predict the outcome of any particular experiment.

Sending the scientific community into a tizzy, this demolished the certitude of science so far unquestioningly held to be axiomatic, a given―the very raison d’etre of science! (Luckily of course, till date, the probability remains predictable; else all would be lost)! Second: the fact that, in the quantum world, the act of observation actualizes a result from many possible ones (with silence being golden before that). This brought to the fore the otherwise fairytale―but now most meaningful―question: What would the world be like if there were no observers―would there be any world at all? Third: the uncertainty of measurement being in the very nature of things―in the objective world. This―by locating the source of uncertainty not in technology but in Nature itself―drove the nail in the coffin of scientific certitude! Fourth: the ‘chanciness’ in observation prompting scientists to ask ‘Why?’, some (debatably) conjecturing that quantum mechanics itself went wrong by missing some ‘hidden factors’, and some going on to propose―not all that fantastically―that if any hidden factor exists at all, the observer’s mind is that hidden factor! This led stupefied scientists to ask: Does the subject and the object together create the world? Are we too a part of the world we see ‘out there’? Science reacts by advising a cautious wait-andwatch for further development; Vedanta says, yes, you―the ‘in here’―are a part of what you perceive―the ‘out there’! (So

far, no experiment has either falsified QM or detected any hidden factor).

To go a wee bit more technical ― sometimes a composite particle-pair has a constant measure of an attribute, and that same measure materializes as the sum of the measures on individual particles even when separated by long distances (conceivably, even by a billion kilometres)! And this happens even though the ‘measure’ on each actualizes on observation, not before. Perplexed physicists call this ‘entanglement’. Is there, then, instant communication between the individual particles (violating the speed-ceiling of c of special relativity)―an invisible bond?

The lesson? Close observation may well raze old ideas comprehensively. Accept the arcane, for it is we who learn from Nature, not Nature from us.

Let us now observe 'observation'. We imagine that Tycho Brahe observes a given star. He says to himself: The star is so many degrees below the zenith and so many degrees east from due north. Thus, there is a role of the mind too. Sit your pet pup before the TV showing a canine episode, and it does not recognize a thing, for its mind cannot marshal the optical data into cognition. Significantly, Vedanta recognizes the mind (manas) too as a (pre-eminent, sixth) sense of knowledge (jnanendriya). (And incidentally, from the Sanskrit ‘manas’ have come the Sanskrit words ‘manush’, ‘muni’, ‘manishi’, and also the English words ‘man’ and ‘mind’). Mindcontrol is the very essence of Vedantic practices: the mind is the obscurer of knowledge and the mind is the revealer of knowledge, the mind binds and the mind liberates, the mind is the disease and the cure as well. Can you build a credible science ignoring the mind? Never, says Vedanta.

In Brahe’s data, Kepler discerns elliptic planetary orbits. Is Kepler’s ‘discernment’ ‘observation’ or ‘conclusion’? Answers will differ, giving rise to the next question: Are we assigning two names to the same process? Are we in a naming game? Let the question ride for now…

Observation is followed by conclusion or 'understanding'; let us turn to it. We take gravitation first: Every particle attracts every other particle. We 'understand' this statement, via our prior knowledge of ‘particle’ and ‘attraction’. (At least we think we understand this strange invisible ‘gravitational’ rope stretching without end in all directions to exert an instantaneous ‘force’ at remote distances).

The next question: How did we get our prior knowledge? The answer: From knowledge still prior. The sequence goes back… to where? A stage should be reached thus where there is nothing prior.

How is knowledge produced at that inaugural stage? (Is it always within us? Witness how amazingly fast a human child learns; it can hardly be said to be learning from first principles). Let us take relativity now. Do we ‘understand’ spacetime or curved space? Our (prior) understanding of 'space' and 'time' is murky; trying to 'understand' composite spacetime is an exercise in futility. Also, our knowledge of 'curvature' is of one- or two-dimensional things like a (bent) wire or a (curved) surface of a football. We do not understand Continued to page 11

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Wearables

By Chayan Roychowdhury The 2014 event of Consumer Electronic Show (CES), the global industry forum for consumer technologies held in Las Vegas every year, was dubbed the “The Wearables, Appliances, Cars, and Bendable TVs Show”… showcasing many new wearable products and their applications.

Today, we have been prefixing ‘smart’ to refer to our phones, however, it’s not very far that the smart technology will be embedded in everything that we wear and use. To the point, we may stop referring to anything as smart. Retro-fitting smartness into everyday objects is one of the most fascinating trends we will be living through.

However, “Wearables” is not a new trend, in fact, we have had calculators on our watches back in the 80s.

However, with the evolution of sensors, miniaturization of components, and dropping costs of processing power of continuously advancing technologies, wearable has become a phenomenon. For those of us, who have watched the Jetsons back in the 60s and 70s, “wearables” was very predictable. It was never a question of “if,” but a matter of “when.”

The Internet of things and wearables are closely interconnected. As an example, the Disney Magic Band provides interactions during park visits that allow not only messaging, but also payment, and entertainment.

Another device the “Nymi” by Bionym provides biometric authentication with Electrocardiogram (ECG) that can be very useful in securing access codes and passwords and also in industry specific situations, for example, in casinos to improve customer experience by anticipating their needs through reading of heart beats.

According to Forbes, 71% of 16-to-24 year olds want wearable technology. The wearable technologies market will spike to 485 million annual device shipments by 2018 according to ABR Research.

Google Glass, introduced in 2012, can be probably conceived as the social transformer that launched us into this age of wearables. It received recognition by Time Magazine as one of the “Best Inventions of the Year 2012”. Technically, this is an optical head-mounted display (OHMD), which is internet-connected, and has the capability of projecting digital images as well as allowing the user to see through it, or see better with it (e.g. Augmented Reality). Google Glass falls in the category of devices, simply known as smart glasses, and have huge potential in health care, manufacturing, and even Military.

Apple and Samsung are joining the band wagon along with 25-30 companies to build these glasses with a variety of applications.

Today, we cannot ignore the large market of smart-

bands and smart watches. This will definitely be a “Black Friday” item for this year.

Smartwatch, as the name suggests, is a computerized watch that performs much more functions than just time keeping and/or calculations . Such devices may include features such as a camera, accelerometer, thermometer, altimeter, barometer, compass, chronograph, cell phone, touch screen, GPS navigation, Map display, graphical display, speaker, scheduler, watch. It can run mobile apps, and connects with your smartphone or other “smart” devices. A smartwatch may collect information from internal or external sensors. It may control, or retrieve data from, other instruments or computers. It may support wireless technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS. However, it is possible that a “wristwatch computer” may just serve as a front end for a remote system, as in the case of watches utilizing cellular technology or Wi-Fi. With phones getting larger in size today, this provides enormous benefits to users who would like to perform simple “smart” tasks without the need to pull out the phone.

There has been a deluge of smartbands (Fitbit, jawbone, Basis) that are activity trackers, and primarily measure fitness-related metrics such as distance walked or run, calorie consumption, and in some cases heartbeat and quality of sleep. Much of the appeal of activity trackers that makes them effective tools in increasing personal fitness comes from their making it into a game, and adding the social dimension to it through sharing via social media thereby resulting in rivalry. However, there are privacy concerns around this category of wearables.

Where do we go from here ? Miniaturization of wearables is going to make it invisible as it is built into accessories like earbuds and/or clothing. There are running shoes that are being designed with smart technologies, which have built in GPS and direct you during running/walking. In other words, wearables will be our future computers. Just as it is inconceivable to think of a phone as not being a smartphone, it will be difficult to think of shoes, accessories and/or clothing as not having a built in computer.

Mixed reality is an evolving field, refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. These have enormous applications such as moving from static product catalogs to 3d smart digital replicas. This implies that you could probably go to amazon and try out an accessory before you actual buy it, just like a retail store. Various kinds of simulations will also be possible including Military training where virtual training could be provided in a real combat zone.

E-textiles, smart textiles, or smart fabrics, are fabrics that enable digital components to be embedded in them. The basic materials needed to construct e-textiles, conductive threads and fabrics have been around for over 1000 years. In particular, artisans have been wrapping fine metal foils, most often gold and silver, around fabric threads for centuries. A new class of organic electronics materials is available now as inks and plastics that can be conducting, semiconducting, and the same time, be washable. Once an electronic device is embedded into textile it can work with just about any smart device to perform various functions. Just like any other wearable technology these have enormous applications in health monitoring, sports training, combat tracking, and personnel monitoring.

The stigma with wearables is that it’s simply UGLY.

Google glass was not adopted quickly enough, because of many reasons. Not only due to the whopping price tag of $2000 aimed at consumers, but also because it simply did not seem fashionable. There needs to be more focus on device aesthetics, by manufacturers in addition to functionality. Apple’s smartwatch on the other hand

seems to have the right balance of fashion and functionality. Beecham Research forecasts that the wearable technology industry will be worth $3 billion by 2018, but has the potential to be worth up to $9.3 billion if collaboration between market sectors is taken more seriously. As an example iphone was not the most feature rich smart phone when it arrived but it reached its current market potential based on a right combination of aesthetics and functionality. Fashion designers are incorporating fibretronics into their design. An example of a light up dress shown in Fashionweek, London this year proved that these dresses are no longer exclusive for the likes of Kate Perry or Lady Gaga, but have an appeal and use for all.

There is a skepticism, that wearable technology is nothing but an expensive joke. However, Forrester predictions on wearables focus on a 10 year paradigm shift as follows: • From 2012 to 2016: Pilots and early adoption • 2017 to 2019: Mainstreaming with backend and service systems • 2020 to 2024: Move to business centrality The stakes are getting increasingly high in the battle for the weirdest piece of wearable tech. After wifi-detecting hats and smartphone-charging wellies, it had to turn to sex – with the arrival of vibrating knickers, dresses that turn transparent. A Japanese lingerie maker has upped the ante with a bra that pops open when you discover true love. Like a chastity belt for the social network age, the bra remains firmly locked shut most of the time. But as soon as Prince Charming arrives, it dutifully bursts open with a gleeful spring !! On that note, I bid adieu…

Modern Physics and Vedanta Continued from page 10 curvature of three-dimensional space. (A telling question here: Do we, for that matter, 'understand' anything at all?) Had we possessed microscope-like keen senses, we would have 'known' relativity long ago; had we been super-small, we might have easily 'understood' the quantum. Evidently, our knowledge, based as it is on insufficient sensory apprehension of events, may be flawed.

Evidently, also, the last word is yet to be spoken in the world of modern science: newer instruments of observation and data manipulation, including mathematical ‘modelling’, will continue to give newer knowledge.

‘Understanding’―we realize―is nothing more than ‘model-making’.

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January 2015

Recent Sahitya O Alochana Sessions at Ananda Mandir Reported by Subrata Bhaumik Sahitya O Alochana is a monthly literary and topical discussion forum under the aegis of Ananda Mandir. In February of 2015, it will complete its 7th anniversary, and will reach the milestone of organizing seventy seven (77) sessions on wide ranging topics including literature, theater and movie, history, philosophy and religion, science and mathematics, economics and business, social issues, sports, and current affairs. These monthly sessions feature exciting and illuminating discussions on diverse subjects within the above-mentioned domains. The September - November period featured eclectic topics including contemporary Bengali literature, psychiatry – a primer on mental disorders, and a topic that crosses the frontiers of Physics and Philosophy.

September The New Jersey literati relished a taste of contemporary Bengali Literature in our September session, which featured a presentation by Binayak Bandopadhaya, a leading light of the new wave of Bengali literature.

A Kolkata college professor of English language, Binayak is widely regarded as one of the stars amongst recent Bengali writers. His meteoric rise in the last fifteen years to secure a unique and coveted niche in Bengali literature for himself as a top multiform writer is one of its kind, and is one of serious “Kolkata Literary Talks” of the time. He is equally proficient in the major forms of literature including poem, novel, and nonfiction prose. A recipient of various prestigious awards including Krttibas, Bhasanagar, and Bengali Sahitya Academy, Banerjee has authored, among others, eleven collections of poems and ten novels. Some of his most notable works include 'Sohaginir Songe Ek Bochor' , 'Sikandar' and 'Bhou' - novels; poetry collections 'Tumi Pran, Tumi Par', 'Riskhaw Noye To Rupkatha', 'Eksho Premer Kobita'; and a play titled 'Rabindranath Public Limited.’

Binayak took time off from his present engagement as a 2014 Fall resident of the prestigious International Writing Program (IWP) at University of Iowa, and traveled to NJ for the event. Addressing a robust crowd, he read and discussed some of his famous short stories, proses, and poems including “Kono Ekdin, 29th May, and one famous one that narrated his version of Lord Krishna’s “Viswarup Darshan” as depicted in Bhagavat Gita. He also led a post event question/answer session. It was a wonderful session indeed!

October Our October session was entitled “Myth of Mental Illness." As we know a mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, attention, ability to relate to others, and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical (neuro-biological) conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life. This session featured a high level discussion on the

specifics of Mental Illness: the history and the social stigma surrounding it, the symptoms, and the care necessary.

It was a wonderful session led by Dr. Nupur Lahiri who is a medical doctor, and has been a reputable psychiatrist cum neurologist - practicing and teaching in south and central Jersey area for 30 years. Dr. Lahiri is also well known in the local Bengali/Indian circles as well for her multitalented cultural roles in the community. She deftly and commandingly presented a very informative, authoritative discussion in a non-technical and easy to understand way. The crowd in attendance was robust and overflowing, engaging, and vigorously appreciative of the knowledge disseminated.

November And there was of course, the November session! This session dealt with a topic that is intriguing and vexed at the same time, and has for centuries eluded any complete understanding in the minds of great thinkers of our world including scientist and philosophers. This session was entitled “Time – real or illusion.”

Is time real, or just an illusion? The conventional scientific wisdom tells us it is linear and absolute. However, according to Einstein, time is not linear; it's relative to the motion of the observer. In the judgments of some modern eminent scientists, including Julian Barbour, David Allen, John Wheeler, etc., time is a fictitious element; the past and future do not represent the way (chronologically) we conceive them in our minds. In some Eastern philosophies including Vedanta,Taoism, and other, it’s an illusion and is circular. Again, in the words of Einstein, “The separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.” Our birth, life, and death all are stacked into one instant in much the same way cards stacked in a deck of cards. When we slide the cards, or in life, slide the events using an illusionary meter- labeled time, we see all the cards separately - or the life’s events appear distinctive.

Dr. Pronoy Chatterjee, a cultural veteran of local Indian/Bengali community of Central Jersey led the session, which was simple but thought provoking, highly interactive, and lovingly boisterous.

Future sessions Quite a few interesting sessions are in the pipeline for the winter season that is already upon us – prematurely. They include a presentation by “Manavi,” the famous NJ based Women’s rights organization focused in the South Asian communities in the Northeast US; an Urdu Shayari session combining poetry reading and vocal recital; and the missed session on Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison.

The friends of Sahitya O Alochana would like to thank Ananda Mandir for its continued support for the forum’s contribution to the cultural enrichment of the local Bengali and Indian communities.

SeniorS Forum

Seniors Forum Activities Gain Momentum

By Debajyoti Chatterji Seniors Forum organized two highly successful sessions during the fourth quarter of 2014. The first session, billed as an “end of summer get together”, was held on Tuesday, September 23, and the second took place on Friday, November 14, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the Ananda Mandir temple complex. Both sessions attracted over 25 active participants and were lively events.

The main feature for the “end of summer get-together” was a slide and video presentation by Debajyoti and Sikha Chatterji on their recent wildlife safari in Tanzania. They had gone to this exotic East African destination not just to get an “up close and personal” experience with a huge number (and variety) of animals but also to get an understanding of the country’s history, demographics and culture. In this process they encountered not just hordes and hordes of wildebeests and zebras getting ready for their annual migration across the Serengeti Plains to Kenya but also came in close proximity to prides of lions, herds of elephants, flocks of flamingoes and storks – and solitary couples of rhinos and giraffes. They also visited villages of the Masai tribe and gained an appreciation of the lives and customs of these famously brave and tough people.

A brief visit to Zanzibar brought them face to face with the vestiges of the island’s notorious spice-and-slave-trading

past – and with the breathtaking beauty of its beaches. The Q&A session was animated, with many questions coming from the audience along the lines of “weren’t you scared of lions so close to you” and “did you see Secretary birds”.

– The discussions got a lift from the great dishes that had been brought to the event by an army of volunteers.

The meeting on November 14 followed an open agenda where the participants were welcome to share their talents, ideas and questions with others.

The two hour session covered a wide waterfront, ranging from discussions on lack of Medicare reimbursements to patients staying overnight in hospitals “for observation” to lively one-person rendition of one act plays to interesting experiences with good Samaritans here in the US and in India. The sruti natak by Banani Mukherjee was an especially entertaining agenda item for the audience.

The participants also took time to share their recollections of the founding of Ananda Mandir. – Following the Seniors Forum meeting. The attendees enjoyed a delicious dinner, prepared by volunteers, to celebrate Ananda Mandir’s Foundation Day. In the evening an even larger audience gathered in the temple to enjoy a special session of Ananda Sandhya, featuring Reeni Rostad and Subarna Mazumder, two highly talented vocal artistes with wide repertoires.

ANANDA MANDIR SENIORS FORUM ("Seniors Helping Seniors") Invites retirees and near-retirees to participate actively in Forum meetings and activities.

Seniors Forum usually meets on the third Sunday of every month at 1:00 PM. However, the date may change because of conflict with other Ananda Mandir events.

Please contact Debajyoti Chatterji (Cell: 908-507-9640) for latest updates on the meeting dates.

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Ananda Sangbad

Recent Puja Activities Continued from page 9 Sondhi puja, and then Nabami, all completed around noon time. In between each puja, anjali was offered by the devotees. On Nabami evening, "Kumari Puja" was performed. Dashomi was observed on Friday, 3rd October. Durga Puja celebration ended with the Bisarjan in the afternoon.

In the evening, the traditional Sindur Khela was played by the ladies. It is nice to see that more and more young ladies are joining this playful and enjoyable event. All these days, the performance of Vedic rituals and readings of slokas from "Chandi" by our beloved priest Biswabhai in his usual magnificent tone filled the atmosphere with godliness.

Buying new clothes and jewelry for Durga Puja is a tradition back home. In keeping with that tradition, we did set up a few stalls for Sarees and jewelry, which complimented the puja atmosphere and added to the enjoyment of the people.

In addition, volunteers worked hard to provide delicious prasad and food throughout the puja days.

One week later, Kojagori Lakskmi Puja was celebrated on 7th October in a moonlit night of Purnima. Follwing the ritualistic puja of the Goddess of wealth and prosperity, and the reading of the panchali, Arati was offered followed by Anjali.

The celebration was completed with prasad and dinner.

On Thursday, 23rd October we celebrated Maha Kali Puja. Ma Kali is the main deity of Ananda Mandir, and as such this puja is a big attraction for the devotees around the area.

Hundreds of devotees showed up on a weekday night to see Kalipuja, that ended around 1030 PM. That is a clear indication of the growth of popularity of Ananda Mandir. A cultural program of devotional songs was arranged in the community building.

Prasad and dinner were provided for all.

These celebrations needed a massive amount of planning and hard work like pitching tents, putting up extra lights, cooking, prasad preparation and distribution, and manage temple activities.

Nothing could be possible without the help of a great many volunteers, who responded to our call to work long hours very willingly and selflessly. October and November are two very busy months at Ananda Mandir, and our heartfelt thanks go to all the volunteers.

November Jagaddhatri puja was celebrated from 29th October through 2nd November. This is like another Durga Puja, except in a lot smaller scale.

We celebrated the Nabomi, popularly known as Ram Nabomi to Bengalees and non Bengalees alike.

We observed Raas Yatra and Satyanarayan puja on 6th Nov, the evening of Raas Purnima.

14th of November was the 10th anniversary of Foundation Day of Ananda Mandir. Though it was a cold day, many people showed up to attend the puja, Aarati, Yagna(Havan) Anjali, and to enjoy the monthly musical program, Ananda Sandhya. All chairs in the temple were filled and some were standing for the musical program.

Reeni Dutta Rostad began the program with Rabindra Sangeet, Atulprasad songs, and a few modern Bengali songs. Her melodious voice and style enchanted the listeners. The next performer, Subarna Mozumder, captivated the attendees with several Lalan Fakir's songs that clearly showed her excellence in Baul Geeti. Celebration of the tenth Foundation Day anniversary was really enjoyable.

December Satyanarayan puja was held on 6th December.

The monthly Shyama Puja is scheduled on 21st December. This is the last puja event of 2014. We will ring in the year 2015 on Thursday, the 1st January.

Wish you all a very Happy and prosperous New year. Please don't forget to check our website at www.ananamandir.org for puja dates and events.

January 2015

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menTAL HeALTH SeCTion (Editor’s Note: We are pleased to debut this important column in Ananda Sangbad. The author can be reached at her email address, lahirimd@aol.com)

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

By Nupur Lahiri, M.D.

"I'm sick of this," a patient of mine remarked the other morning. "I can't stand myself anymore. When am I going to be happy?" It's not an uncommon question in therapy. Didn't Freud say that the best that one could expect of therapy was a return to “common unhappiness?”

Americans have a peculiar relationship with happiness. On the one hand, we consider happiness a right, and we are eager for it—as the advertising world knows. We do everything in our power to try to possess it, most particularly in materialistic form.

It is of such fundamental importance to the human condition that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" were deemed to be unalienable rights by the United States Declaration of Independence.

On the other hand, we tend to disparage the pursuit of happiness as something shallow or superficial as consuming organic food or joining Yoga class. But, as the Dalai Lama always emphasizes, happiness is not a hobby, nor is it a trivial pursuit. It is a fundamental drive as basic as sex or aggression, but not often as legitimized in our cynical, postmodern culture.

The United Nations declared 20 March the International Day of Happiness to recognize the relevance of happiness and wellbeing as universal goals.

Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources.

Biologists believe that happiness is nothing more than a biological state brought about by the release and blocked reabsorption of certain neurotransmitters (primarily norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin) triggered by physical and cognitive activities.

Hope is thought to be a primarily learned condition. It is usually learned at an early age through the socialization process.

Optimism, in comparison, is thought to be a primarily cognitive activity and unlike hope, is based on logical, rational facts that are processed cognitively.

People prior to the late 17th century thought happiness was a matter of luck, or virtue, or divine favor. Today we think of happiness as a right and a skill that can be developed. This has been liberating, in some respects, because it asks us to strive to improve our lots in life, individually and collectively. But there have been downsides as well. It seems that when we want to be happy all of the time, we tend to forget that the pursuit of happiness can require struggle, sacrifice, and even pain.

Happiness has increasingly been

thought to be more about getting infusions of pleasure, about feeling good rather than being good, less about living the well-lived life than about experiencing the well-felt moment.

The trouble is that the subject itself is fuzzy. The term happiness is often equated to utility, well-being, life satisfaction, and welfare. The US psychologist Martin Seligman, who had written the book Authentic Happiness, in his newest book concedes: “I actually detest the word happiness, which is so overused that it has become almost meaningless. He has proposed the alternative terms flourishing, well-being, meaning, love and growth. He conceives of happiness as a total and lasting satisfaction with one's own life.

Happiness is more than the absence of unhappiness. Happiness is experienced both as fleeting sensations and emotions, and consciously appreciated as a permanent disposition of the mind.

It encompasses two inseparable aspects: hedonia (pleasure of the senses) and eudaimonia (pleasure of reason: living well and doing well).

Totally eliminating suffering and blindly chasing pleasure are not paths to happiness. A programmer of ‘mass happiness' is actually a delusion. Happiness cannot be a set goal sold as a consumer good. It can only spring up as a by-product of pursuing long-term goals, intermittent with negative and positive emotions. “Sustainable happiness results from what we do, not from what we have.” Chasing happiness as a summation of wealth and pleasure is a vicious spiral. A huge number of empirical studies show that vast amounts of material wealth do not make people happier once they have reached a certain level of financial security. The data from public polls and surveys of researchers on happiness, which show that most people in welfare societies describe their lives as ‘generally happy', might be misleading, because it only recognizes the existence of lower needs or material needs.

“Is happiness elusive?” psychologist Daniel Gilbert asks. “Well, of course we don’t get as much of it as we want. But we’re not supposed to be happy all the time. We want that, but nature designed us to have emotions for a reason. Emotions are a primitive signaling system. They’re how your brain tells you if you’re doing things that enhance—or diminish—your survival chances. What good is a compass if it’s always stuck on north? It must be able to fluctuate. You’re supposed to be moving through these emotional states. If someone offers you a pill that makes you happy 100 percent of the time, you should run fast in the other direction. Happiness is a noun, so we think it’s something we can own. But happiness is a place to visit, not a place to live. It’s like the child’s idea that if you drive far and fast enough you can get to the horizon—no, the horizon’s not a place you get to.”

Hedonic treadmill.

Positive emotions serve as a lure to engage in certain behaviors, but they cease once the need or want driving them has been satisfied. However, the memory of the pleasant moment remains and we want to experience it again. In this sense, pain and pleasure are not symmetrical, nor is the absence of both pain and pleasure a normal state. The normal state is to be sensitive to pain and to yearn for pleasure. We have been molded by evolution not to be happy, but to act on the illusion of happiness. Indeed, the debate about the motivating strengths of positive and negative emotions has gone on for as long as humankind has been able to express itself.

Our knowledge of the concept of evolution and of the human brain can hardly be dispersed to the majority of the human population. Such insight would be counterbalanced by the enormous inertia of the pleasure-oriented economy and its wealthy masters.

Is humanity doomed to follow its evolutionary destiny? Can this be changed?

All this does not exclude the possibility that enlightened individuals can achieve happiness. Long before modern science, several thinkers anticipated the pitfall of the hedonic treadmill even if they had no means to cope with physical pain. The Greek philosopher Epicurus (342–270 BC) advised people to accept pain with composure and counteract it by concentrating the mind on past pleasures; but he placed his main emphasis on the positive side, and his full recipe for happiness was to moderate our desires to the point where we can enjoy their genuine and lasting satisfaction.

So, here are seven ways to achieve Happiness, the illusion 1. Turn that frown upside down.

The actual act of smiling emits serotonin (the happy hormone) and creates a, stimulating, positive environment.

2. Happy people are Inspired not jealous.

Choose to look at a friend’s success as a source of inspiration, not envy 3. Don’t play the blame game.

Take control of your own doings and stop blaming others.

4. Forgive and forget Move on, forget the negative, and make way for the new, positive chapters.

Forget about the past.

Take life’s challenges as lessons, and the strength gathered overcoming the negatives.

6. Give thanks.

Be grateful of the positives as well as the challenges that came along the way.

7. See the Silver Lining.

Focus the attention on the bright side of life and future will take on the happy glow.

Joy freed from the bond of earth’s slumber rushes into numberless leaves, and dances in the air for a day. Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies.

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CommuniTY neWS SeCTion

NJPA Corner

ICC Corner

Reported By Manideepa Ghose

Reported By Soumyendra Seal

NJPA celebrated Kali Puja on Saturday, November 18th. There was an initial road block; we lost our venue due to a last minute change in the school schedule. But Manalapan Middle School was deemed a much better and preferable venue for NJPA’s Kali puja and possibly many of our future events. Its newer building, friendly staff and an excellent auditorium made the event even more special.

And special it was, after several years, we saw a much larger crowd, totally engaged in the overall event, starting from the authentic Puja, conducted by Guru Chakravarty to home cooked goat curry for dinner to sizzling performance by local talents as well as the musical sensation from India, Kinjal.

After the super success of our Diwali Kalipuja event, NJPA is gearing up for a sizzling sendoff party for 2014. We will usher in 2015 with friends and family at the Mera Gaon in Royal Albert Palace, NJ. We invite all of our friends to join us in the celebrations.

We would like once again to say a huge 'Thank you' to our supporters and champions, whose loyalty made possible the wonderful Kalipuja celebrations. Shout outs also go to our newer friends who have made NJPA their destination for all things fun.

NJPA continues to thrive on all of their support.

For details on the New Year's Eve celebrations please visit njpa.net. We look forward to seeing everyone there.

Dipak K. Sarkar Named Board of Governors Professor At Rutgers Editor’s Note: We are proud to publicize a news release by Rutgers University on December 09, 2014, about Dipak Sarkar, President of Ananda Mandir.

The Rutgers University Board of Governors named Dipak K. Sarkar, a distinguished professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS), a Board of Governors Professor. The professorship was established in 1989 to recognize exceptional scholarship and accomplishment by a faculty member at the full professorial rank.

Sarkar is also director of the endocrine program at SEBS and director of the biomedical division of Rutgers’ Center of Alcohol Studies.

His research focuses on understanding how stress promotes infection, cancers and alcohol-related diseases. He and his team also evaluate the feasibility of cell therapy, gene therapy and tissue-specific gene targeting procedures to understand and prevent stress-related problems and cancers in normal and alcoholic patients.

Dr. Sarkar has published more than 200 research articles, 10 reviews, 13 book chapters, 200 conference proceedings and one book. He has been an editorial board member of several high impact factor journals, including NeuBoard of Governors Professor Dipak K. Sarkar roendocrinology, Endocrinology, and Alcohol Research and Health.

ICC Garden State celebrated its biggest event of the year, the 2014 Durga Puja, on the weekend of September 27th at the conveniently located Parsippany High School, the same venue as in the previous year. I, on behalf of the rest of the ICC Executive Committee, take this opportunity to thank all members and patrons who helped in making this a grand success.

ICC maintained its tradition of holding the Durga Pujas in a homely and cordial environment, with active participation of all its members, all coming together and making it one huge extended family event. For many, the event actually started on Friday evening, when they gathered to setup the Protima, stage and the adjoining areas. The local performers also took this opportunity to do a final stage rehearsal.

The event was well attended, all dressed in their best attire, and making the best of the festive mood. They were treated to two days of solemn pujas, sumptuous food and entertainment. A large number of vendors also attended offering everything from dresses, jewelry, books, periodicals and CD/DVDs, which provided the attendees with ample choices to complete their puja shopping. There were also a couple of snack bars selling authentic Bengali cuisine and refreshments.

The Maha Saptami and Maha Ashtami Pujas were observed on the 27th, with devotees offering their Pushpanjali and then treated to Prasad at its conclusion. A delicious Bengali dinner which included traditional vegetarian dishes, goat curry and mishti - was served prior to the commencement of the cultural programs.

Rumeli Dutta Majumdar, an ICC member and an upcoming Dancer and Choreographer from Kolkata, accompanied by other ICC Members opened the cultural program with a tantalizing per-

formance directed and choreographed by herself.

This was followed by a very high quality ICC presentation of a musical program ‘A Tribute to Suchitra Sen’, based on the famous artist’s long and illustrious career in Bengali and Hindi films.

It was directed by Sangrami Lahiri and performed by other ICC members and guests.

This was followed by a Shruti Natok performed by the renowned local couple – Jaya and Keshab Chatterjee and then by a Saxophone ensemble by budding NJ star Birsa Chatterjee.

The main attraction for the day was a musical program by Ms. Iman Chakraborty and her band from Kolkata.

Maha Nabami and Dashami were observed the following day, which was followed by ‘Sindur Khela’ and dinner. The second day’s cultural program was completely dedicated to the local artists from ICC and the adjoining tri-state. The program opened with a musical recital

performed by a local troupe ‘Art n Beat’. This was followed by Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Juta Abishkar’ performed by the ICC Kids. ICC little kids presented ‘O Sona Bang’ based on the Salil and Antara Chowdhury. The Jhumur Shilpi Gosthi presented Dance recitals while Mr Amiatava Sengupta recited poems from ‘Abol Tabol’ by Sukumar Ray. The concluding program was tantalizing performance of a fusion of Indian and Western dance and music, presented by the Kalamandir Dance Company of NJ. ICC also observed Lakshmi Puja on October 12th. It was attended by a number of members, who also used this occasion as ‘Bijoya Sammelani’. A light dinner was served at the conclusion.

Other events scheduled for the near future are ICC AGM and General Elections in December.

ICC wishes all readers Season’s Greetings and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Ananda Mandir is pleased to announce the program to award financial grants to support Community Service Projects aimed at helping the South Asian community in the Greater New Jersey area ----------Project Proposals Are Welcome From Organizations and Individuals Please visit www.anandamandir.org for program details and application requirements or Contact: Pronoy Chatterjee (pkc_usa@yahoo.com) or Debajyoti Chatterji (debsmee572@gmail.com)

The Stories of Mahabharata:

An Ancient Story Retold Using the Latest Technology Sudipta Bhawmik of Bridgewater NJ, an acclaimed playwright, actor and director and Avi Ziv of Hopewell NJ, a life-long musician playing traditional acoustic music, used the Internet Podcasting technology to tell the story of Mahabharata. The stories, presented in English using a dramatic storytelling form with accompanying soundtrack, are serially broadcasted on EBC Radio (1170 AM) on the first, third and fifth Saturdays of the month The Podcast is available for free on iTunes under the title “The Stories of Mahabharata” and on Stitcher Radio. The stories can also be streamed from http://nynjbengali.com/

mahabharata-2.

“The new generation, the millennials, need to know the stories of the Mahabharata.” says Sudipta Bhawmik, the writer, director and story teller. “Most Gen Xers of Indian origin have grown up with these stories. They have read the books or watched the televised versions. But the millennials don’t have the time to read the books or watch television serials. They prefer a medium that is portable, mobile can be accessed anywhere, anytime. And Podcasting is the technology that meets their needs. They can fast download the episodes on their smartphones or

iPods using Wifi or 4G wireless, and listen at their convenience - during their commute, or during a jog, or during a workout.”

"The characters of the Mahabharata reach for the best technology of their time and so do we." adds Avi Ziv. "High quality audio hardware and software are more and more affordable, which leaves your imagination and dedication as the only limits to what is possible.

For further information contact Sudipta Bhawmik at (732)241 7060 or email at bhawmik@gmail.com

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CommuniTY neWS SeCTion “Rhythms of Dance & Music” Wins Award in Kolkata Mitra Purkayastha, Founder of “Rhythms of Dance & Music” took her team to perform at Gyan Manch in Kolkata, upon invitation from Utkal Nritya Mandir, Kolkata. The occasion was the first memorial ceremony of Nrityacharya Guru Muralidhar Majhi, the first Orissi dance Guru of Kolkata, who brought Orissi dance to Kolkata from Orissa.

Mitra with two of her students from New Jersey, Ria Mukhopadhyaya and Nilanjana Banerjee, presented a gala Odissi dance performance on 20th November at the Gyan Manch. Ria performed Ganesh Vandana Mangalacharan, Nilanjana performed Nataraj Stuti and Mitra performed Dasvatar with meticulous technical and artistic skills. Ria’s performance was judged the best as a student artist The event was televised in Doordarshan, and publicized in newspapers.

“Rhythms of Dance and Music” operates dance classes at Ananda Mandir since the Mandir first opened.

Double (or Triple) Your Donation To Ananda Mandir Through Your Company’s “Matching Gift Program”!

Many companies in the US match their employee’s (even their retirees’) contributions to non-profit organizations on a 1-to-1 basis, effectively doubling the amount of the donation. Some companies even give two dollars for every dollar given by an employee to a non-profit organization, thus tripling the size of the donation. Some of these companies are: BASF, Chubb Insurance, Doris Duke Foundation, Naples Marketing, Merck, Pfizer, Microsoft, Ericsson, Exxon Mobil, United Way of New York, Unity Bank, Merck, Rockville Bank, etc.

Please ask your HR department if your company has a “matching gift” program, and if it does, what procedure you need to follow to double (or triple) your donation to ANANDA MANDIR. Or you may want to visit the website http://www.matchinggifts.com/search/planusa_iframe to get information on your company’s program.

PLEASE increase the value of your donation though your company’s “matching gift” program if your employer offers one.

If you have any question, please call Surya Dutta (908-227-7298) or Debajyoti Chatterji (909-507-9640)

Summer Internship Program for College Students And High School Seniors Ananda Mandir has launched Summer Internship for college students and high school seniors. This year it recruited three interns in biological science area . It will continue recruiting for the internship program for the next year again. The program will include learning and helping research works in the areas of biological science, physical science and engineering at various laboratories in New Jersey.

Additional internship opening will be in the area of pharmacy in New York City.

Some internships are paid, others are voluntary. Paid interns have to be minimum 18 years old and US citizens or permanent residents. For the next year’s internship, application with resume indicating the area of internship interest should be sent to Dr. Pronoy Chatterjee, e-mail: pkc_usa@yahoo.com by March 31, 2015.

Membership catagory changes During the third period of this year (7/1/14 to 9/30/14), we had had the following changes in membership status: Life Members: Anadi and Alpana Dutta Patrons: Timir and Purabi Hore

Experiments in Rabindra Sangeet Continued from page 4 drew criticism by Tagore scholars that it did not follow the approved notation. Coincidentally the same year the Visva Bharati board objected to Debabrata Biswas (affectionately known as George Biswas) for drifting away from the conventional notations and denied him the permission to record his music. I like to mention here that the late George Biswas was a frequent visitor to our maternal uncle’s residence in Kolkata, and we were all big fans of him. His rendition of “Akash Bhara Surjo Tara” is simply outstanding and still murmurs in my ears. Sometimes I wonder why he was not respected so well by Visva Bharati.

But during the post copyright years (after 2001), there has been what I feel serious violations of Tagore’s music. Not too long ago I watched “Bong Connection,” a movie directed by Anjan Dutta.

Here the somg “Pagla Hawar Badal Dine” was sung with the phrase “Ooh La La” interspersed. I understand this song was immensely popular with the younger generation. I heard it being performed that way in a number of performances in the US. In this context I could also mention Amitabh Bacchhan’s rendering (called a Tribute to Tagore) of “Ekla Cholo Re”,in the movie “Kahaani” with somewhat of distorted notes, still becoming a hit. Nobody could do anything about the violations, since the copyright on Tagore music had

expired already.

Lately there have been experiments with Rabindra Sangeet where the songs are interspersed with the ragas in which they are based. Sounak Chattopadhyay, and one of the leading artists of the younger generation is a pioneer in that area. He integrates traditional Tagore songs with Hindustani classical “bandishes.” I also heard Srabani Sen singing “Eki Labanye Purna Pran” after Kaushiki Chakrabarti flawlessly rendered the raga in which it was based. I found it quite interesting although not sure how these experiments fare with the Tagore purists.

Recently I heard the young musician Kinjal Chatterjee singing Tagore songs with a plethora of his electronic accompaniments. Everything was fine, the audience liked it, but somehow the emotion or the Bhava was lacking. When asked why he performs this way, Kinjal said that this was the only way he can reach the heart of the young generation. I had a very similar experience watching the Bengali band Dohaar just a few weeks ago. They were singing “Purano Sei Diner Kotha” beating drums and strumming guitars just to capture the tune and melody but missing the Bhava altogether. The aspect of emotion is something that was emphasized greatly in Dakshinee Music School in Kolkata where I took lessons as a young girl. The students were always asked to feel the meaning and the depth of the words of Tagore.

There are two issues that need to be addressed here. First how much of the approved notation (swaralipi) is violated, and second, what musical accompaniments are appropriate in the eyes of Tagore, if he were alive today. It is agreeable from a Tagore purist’s standpoint that the bol (words), taal (beat), sur (melody), and swaralipi (notations) of Tagore songs should remain untouched in any experimentation. Interestingly Tagore referred to two technological innovations of his time. The first was the gramophone, considered by him to have contributed to the deterioration of his music, through largely distorted reproduction. In addition, during the initial phases of the recordings of Tagore songs, the professional singers of his time usually did not take the notations seriously. Tagore wanted to curb this practice through a wide dissemination of his swaralipi through the second technological innovation, namely the printing press. Tagore was quite sensitive and possessive about his musical composition and wanted to protect it from being lost and leaving the mark of his aura. He truly believed that his music was not an author/composer centric art but a singer/performer centric one and as such had enriched itself through accompaniment of musicians and instrument artists.

The early students of Tagore sang with very little accompaniment: usually a tanpura drone or by duplicating the voice melody with esraj (the Bengali cousin of

sarangi) or a harmonium. However, in the area of accompaniment Tagore has not said anything anywhere. He sang simply with voice alone (Khali Galay). Some of the eminent Tagore singers, Mohan Singh and his son Vikram Singh (now deceased) sing with no accompaniment and the resonances of their voices touch our soul. I remember as a Rabindra Sangeet student in Dakshinee, we were not allowed to use harmonium as accompaniment.

The leading exponent of Tagore music was the late Suchitra Mitra. She sang strictly to Tagore’s composition with the accompaniment of tanpura or esraj. That was later changed to harmonium and tabla a tradition that would continue for quite some time. In recent years the modern jazz ensemble has replaced them all. In a number of NABC performances that I have attended, I talked to the artists to get their opinion. They all mentioned that the keyboard, guitar and other instruments enriched their rendition of Tagore music. In cultural functions today the use of karaoke or tracks has become quite widespread, and people with mediocre musical talents can get away performing Tagore music pleasing the audience.

Several well-known Rabindra Sangeet singers have commented that if Tagore could experiment with Scottish and Irish music, why wouldn’t others experiment with his music? But I maintain it is better to leave the music of Rabindranath Tagore untouched.

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Ananda Sangbad

January 2015

Ananda Mandir Announces Winners of 2014 Gayatri GaMarsh Memorial Awards for Literary Excellence For publications in Bengali language:

For publications in English language:

Indrani Mondal (From Illinois)

Dipika Mukherjee (From Illinois)

Indrani Mondal is a prolific writer in both Bengali and English. Over the last decade she has written fiction, non-fiction and poetry, mainly on social and cultural issues facing immigrants in our community. Her poems, short stories and essays have been and still are regularly published in Bengali magazines like Antorik, Sanbadik, Atalantik,Amra, Anandalipi, Samaj Sanbad, Unmesh, Ektara, Trun and in souvenir publications of North American Bengali Conferences.. She is a core member of ‘Unmesh’, a creative literary circle in the Chicago area.

A collection of her English poems “Fugitive Wings” has been published by Writers’ Workshop. A collection of her Bengali poems, “Pratidin Sati Hoi” has been published by Academy Publishers. Recently she has coauthored a much reviewed scientific fiction book ”Bugging Cancer--Daring to Dream” with Dr. Ananda Chakrabarty and Chicago Onco Group (published by Biotech and available on Amazon). Indrani holds a PhD in Philosophy and Social Studies.

Dipika Mukherjee's debut novel, Thunder Demons (Gyaana 2011), was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. She won the Platform Flash Fiction competition in April 2009. She has edited two anthologies of Southeast Asian short stories: Silverfish New Writing 6 (2006) and The Merlion and Hibiscus (2002) and her first poetry chapbook, The Palimpsest of Exile, was published by Rubicon Press in 2009. Her short stories and poems have appeared in publications around the world and have been widely anthologized. She is a Contributing Editor to Jaggery (A Southasian Diasporic Arts and Literature Journal) and Curates, an Asian/American Reading Series for the Literary Guild, Chicago. She has a doctorate in Sociolinguistics and teaches at Northwestern University

Please note that you can become an Associate Member of Ananda Mandir by donating a minimum of $50. Your subsequent donations of $50 or more are credited to your account. When your total cumulative donation reaches $1000, you become a Life Member. Your support, small or large, is most welcome and sincerely appreciated.

OUTSTANDING VOLUNTEER OF ANANDA MANDIR Based on the deliberations of the Awards and Recognition Committee, Ananda Mandir Board of Trustees has announced Ujjal Sanyal as an outstanding volunteer of the organization Ujjal Sanyal has been a dedicated volunteer at Ananda Mandir for over a decade. In the early years of Ananda Mandir, he was part of a committed group of young enthusiasts who organized regular Friday evening get-togethers at the Community Hall with table tennis in the basement and snacks upstairs. He helped organize ping-pong tournaments, theater in the basement, and the first Dol Purnima celebration. He is now a permanent fixture of our Kitchen on every occasion, whenever Ananda Mandir needs to prepare and distribute food for its devotees. He takes off from his job and comes forward to volunteer his services without any reservation or expecting any gratitude from the membership or board of trustees. Besides cooking the food, he is there to buy groceries, chop the vegetables and clean the pots and pans. He does not mind sweeping the floor and taking the garbage out as well. His help in distributing food has been a tremendous help to our puja and food committees. Ujjal takes no job as too small or too big, as long as it serves the community’s need. He performs every task graciously, with a smile and utmost dedication. It’s our collective opinion that no one works harder than Ujjal in the kitchen. Ujjal has also become a good chef. He can easily cook for one hundred guests in a short time, with minimal additional help, and that’s an asset for Ananda Mandir!

The Food Committee is most grateful to him for his invaluable service.

The Board of Trustees of Ananda Mandir recognizes “Outstanding Volunteers,” selected from the nominations received from the Life Members of Ananda Mandir. The application form for nomination is available at www.anandamandir.org.

If you are a Life Member and believe that someone deserves this recognition, please feel free to e-mail nomination toPronoy Chatterjee(pkc_usa@yahoo.com)