Visit the Red Fort for a glimpse of Medieval Architecture and Moghul Grandeur!

The other  day we suddenly decided to visit the Red Fort in Delhi but didn’t realise how hot it would be. After a rather long walk from the car park we finally arrived at the ramparts of the Red Fort. The Majestic buildings and monuments within the Fort stand testimony to the glories of a by gone era when Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, and later Bahdur Shah Zafar ruled as Emperors. The Red Fort was incidentally built by Shah Jahan. The carefully preserved  objects in the museums also speak of the finery of the dresses and clothes worn by the Aristocracy. We were also able to take a look at some of the weapons used in the past like daggers, scimitars, flintlock pistols and so on!

               

The long walk from the parking to the main entrance was no doubt tiring and with all that heat pouring down from the sky, it was really a task, especially for the little kids!

                                    
The building in the first photograph is where the emperor used to hold court, while the second photograph is of the interior of the same building.

                  
                  

The first photograph is of the Diwane Khas, the private quarters. There was a stream of water flowing through these chambers.The second photograph is of the fountain through which the water spouted. The third photograph, (bottom right) is of a flower motif design adorning the roof of the Diwane Khas, while the fourth photograph( bottom left) is the point from which the water flowed out into the lawns.

The Meena Bazar at the entrance to the inner courtyard from the main entrance used to be a bazaar meant especially for the ladies of the Royal Court. All kinds of cloth were sold in the past. Today, the Meena Bazar continues to do brisk business although the clients are the tourists who come to visit the Red Fort!

                                 

Visitors to the Red Fort during the summer season should carry enough water in canteens and a pram for the little one will help. Also sunscreen lotion should be applied to avoid a sun tan. It would be a good idea to wear hats and goggles!

Some other attractions at the Red Fort are the different museums that have displayed some well preserved artefacts the section displaying philatelic exhibits is worth visiting. The Sound and Light show or the Son et Lumiere show is another popular tourist attraction as it describes and re-enacts some of the important historical events associated with the Red Fort and the Independence movement After visiting the Red Fort, the visitor could visit Chandni Chowk for authentic Mughlai gourmet food like Paranthas, and Halwa Sohan, and Rogan Josh!

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Can Brain Boosting methods and programmes really turn children into geniuses?

During the early nineteen sixties, Operation Head Start was launched in the United States to improve the performance of low achieving students particularly from low income families.In principle, Head Start would improve the long-term outcomes of its participants. That the development of cognitive and non-cognitive (for example, motivation) skills during the preschool years could impact later success or failure in school  was an important assumption of Operation Head Start . Success in school  would then impact success in the labour market. Unfortunately all students who had enrolled in this program were economically disadvantaged. At the Pre-School level, programs included the Perry Preschool Project, the Early Training Project, and the Abecedarian Project. Later studies about the outcome of the Head Start programme however didn’t find any major improvement in the performance of those who had been inducted into the Head Start programme. This  could have been because most of the inductees into the programme came from economically weaker sections of the society. What Operation Head Start did achieve was the active integration of the family into the teaching-learning process and to result in a significantly reduced probability of criminal convictions among those who had attended Operation Head Start. All this shows that the programme was based on the concept of tweaking the environmental variables in order to bring a change in the behavioural characteristics of the learners.

Later, in the late seventies I remember as a student of class eight that there used to be a scheme in the Ethiopian schools where by meritorious students in the top tenth percentile were allowed to do two grades in the same year. Under this scheme, a student of class eight would be given double promotion, he would do grade eight and nine in the same year! This would, at a later stage, lead to some amount of stress psychological anxiety. However, this rather accelerated rate of study, and the burden of  the syllabi of two different levels or grades did lead to emotional problems in the students! Imagine the situation where you had a rather immature looking student studying in a senior class, sitting among those who were elder to him in age,  mentally and physically more mature! I remember that the students who were given a double promotion and entered a senior class were often more likely to be bullied by other students who were elder to them. Often the psychological disadvantages seemed to far outweigh the benefits of the double promotion! In some cases this would lead to these rather young learners to feel rather shy, and hesitant in mixing with the rest of the students, and indication surely, that their should be a correlation between the mental age, actual age and the grade or class in which a student is studying.

Today, I come across so many advertisements that claim that their products will help boost the mental abilities of the child. Some are programmes that last three or four years, and they include reading material, puzzles, games, modules on Compact disks and software that can be loaded on computers. I often wonder whether these programmes could after all turn an average learner into an Einstein! This further reminds me of the debate between the two schools of thought, Heredity and Nurture. We remember Watson the controversial American Psychologist who through classical conditioning tried to prove that environment was more important in determining the abilities of a child. B.F.Skinner, also did experiments to prove that human behaviour could be “Conditioned”. However whether Watson could make a thief out a child or a doctor out of the child of criminal parents is highly debatable and considerably influenced by what the child might have inherited in terms of genes. And this inheritance does play an important role in determining how intelligent the child will be, how good he will be in studies and whether he will be a doctor or an engineer! Francis Galton observed in his book in 1869 that gifted individuals tended to come from families which had other gifted individuals. In more recent times, the Bell Curve controversy has as its main argument the statement that an individual’s intelligence-no less than 40% and no more than 80% is inherited genetically from his or her parents!- Hernstein and Murray, 1994, “The Bell Curve”. Their premise is that Intelligence (I.Q.) is largely genetically inherited!

Based on the findings of so much research, it becomes doubtful how such Brain Booster Programmes might benefit the child in the long run. The market is also flooded with such a large number of medical products and preparations which claim to be able to boost the brain power of the child. It is clear, however, that any programme or or project which claims to be able to boost the I.Q. of a child should be taken with a pinch of salt and should be able to satisfy the parents’ queries based on the Heredity versus Environment controversy! Imposing an unnatural environment on the child, forcing him or her to do repetitive puzzles, forcing the child to solve endless number of problems, subjecting the child to an endless number of tuitions and coaching might not make the child a genius as claimed by the manufacturers of the  product or the owner of the programme! Such programmes or products might even lead to stress and anxiety when they are forced on to the child! Perhaps the only way of ensuring that your child is a genius is through Eugenics, selective breeding, or Genetic engineering, which is unethical and goes against the tenets of fair play and humanity! While no doubt playing Chess or Sudoku or Scrabbles or other  mental games might help keep the mind active and such games might help bring out hidden or latent talent in the child. Ultimately it is a rather dynamic correlation between Heredity and Environment which will determine what your child will be! A person who is suffering from Haemophilia might not benefit from the Environment in terms of getting cured, but might be able to stop himself from getting cut! Such programmes as Head Start, or the policy of awarding double promotions or Brain Games or Brain Booster courses come within the category of Environment, and they can at the most bring out the latent talents that are genetically determined! To conclude therefore, all Brain Booster programmes should take into consideration  the Genetic predisposition of each individual. Thus, the same achievements and promises cannot be claimed for all individuals enrolling in the programme and will vary from individual to individual!

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Photographing objects under difficult lighting conditions without flash

Squiggles can be an embarrassment sometimes, and they are caused by camera shake, slow shutter speeds, and slow lenses opened at a larger f-stop value!

When the newspapers and the news channels announced that we would be witnessing the planet Venus transiting across the Sun and that it was an event that would be a once in a lifetime event, my brother and I decided that we should take a photograph of the celestial event. My fear was that taking a direct photograph of the Sun would surely damage our eyes, and of course the sensor of the camera. We therefore decided to take some precautions to protect both our eyes and the sensor of the camera. Fortunately we came across a discarded X-ray negative and then holding it in front of the lens went on to take snaps of the Sun.While my brother held on to the negative, I positioned the lens as close to the darker area of the X-ray sheet and the results we got were really good as you can see for yourselves. Our prior attempts to photograph the same on smaller compact cameras failed. For the photographs I used a Nikon L-100 Coolpix camera. For the first snap the aperture (f-stop value) was 5.4, the shutter speed was 1/324, and the ISO was set at 80 the focal length of 150 mm was selected. For the second snap, all the values were retained except that the focal length was changed to 195 mm, and the shutter speed was reduced to 1/256.

                

While it is true that an understanding of lighting conditions determine the quality of the photograph, as for example too much of light will wash away the colours, while too less will make the photograph come out dark. Many a times, in low light conditions you may be prompted to use an external flash, but then often this leads to disappointment as in the case of out door photography, the flash might  reflect back from dust particles and in any case the flash might not be powerful enough to reach distant objects. In such conditions, you would be forced to increase the ISO sensitivity to the highest value, 6400 or so although this makes the snap rather grainy, and then you would be compelled to  open the aperture of the lens to the smallest f-stop number 2.8. Also, you would be compelled to use a slower shutter speed, 1/125, 1/80 and so on. The resulting settings would result in rather frustrating exaggeration of camera shake. One alternative is to use a tripod and a remote shutter release to prevent even the slightest vibration resulting from pressing the shutter release manually!

                

Both photographs were taken at night without a flash! In the first photograph some ambient light was provided by the lamp on the stall which throws the right amount of light on the face of the buyer or fruits. Somehow I selected this photograph since it seems to have captured a rather warm ambience and has captured the right mood! The second photograph, one of many failed attempts has a rather surreal effect partly caused by the moon hidden behind the clouds giving out just the right amount of light, while the light on top of the building creates the illusion of a moon. Both photographs were taken without a flash and without a tripod! It is a matter of holding your breath prior to taking the snap itself, and yes, press the shutter button without thinking about it , be spontaneous!

The above photograph was taken using a flash at close quarters, and it can be noticed that there is some bleaching of colour as a result! Bouncing the light and using a diffuser might have worked indoors, but then this was a photograph taken out doors!

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A defence of the printed newspaper by a self-confessed Newspaper addict

 

Just sometime back, I came across a story about how the publishers of a daily newspaper in the U.S. had decided to print the newspaper only thrice a week as this would help reduce the cost of printing, cost of paper, and the cost of logistics. The story in leading English daily went on to state that immediately after this newspaper announced this decision, other newspapers across the country jumped the bandwagon and followed suit! For a chronic news paper addict this would be a rather a very big setback and disappointment! 

 

When I am at home, there is always a rush to get hold of the newspaper as soon as it lands at the door step! Often it becomes a matter of first come first served, and at times there might even be arguments about who got to read the newspaper first. At times a compromise is arrived and while one gets to read the main newspaper, the other gets to read the magazine! The day the newspaper is not delivered a feeling of déjà vu pervades while we all look for the missing newspaper behind flower pots, nooks and crannies! Very much the same happens when I stay back at my In Laws’ home, where another newspaper is subscribed to! Often in homes which assiduously subscribe to daily newspapers, a specific pecking order is followed, with lesser ones on the ladder of hierarchy hanging on for their turn to get their hands on the newspaper. Breakfast is often an occasion when the lead articles in the newspaper are often discussed, often leading to a dissection of core issues and much taking of sides, and at times this discussion would lead to arguments! 

 

In most homes across the country especially in joint families it is the newspaper that binds everyone together, and this would get affected if newspapers were to be printed only thrice a week! Nothing apparently can beat the unique experience of holding the crinkling newspaper sheet in your hands, the feel of the texture of the paper, and sometimes the scent of the ink in the print becomes a unique unifying experience that few would like to fore go! I am told that soon all newspapers will be available on the Kindle, but then the kindle would be an individual gadget, something private and personal while the printed newspaper is something to be shared, and something which provides for a common experience!

 

 I have often observed how daily commuters who travel by train or buses and who carry their newspapers with them have more friends from among the daily commuters, and they are more popular, and more likely to get a seat albeit shared! Often in such conditions, the newspaper is shared page wise, so while one friend gets the front page, another gets the third page, while yet another, the sports enthusiast would get the sports section of the newspaper! Imagine how dull and boring it would be if you had to travel for three days without that magical printed newspaper which brought you smiles, friends, and that shared seat, and made the trip more interesting, what with having to collect all those pages before the destination!

The versatility of the printed newspaper far outweighs the effectiveness of the online version! In a country which has banned the use of polythene bags, effective recycling has offset the need for polythene carry bags with paper bags. Imagine recycling a Kindle or I-Pad or even a tablet-P.C. to make paper bags! Moreover on long drives, it makes good sense to carry a newspaper with you. You could use it to block sunlight streaming in through the car window, it can be used to wrap fruits in, it can be used to wipe your hands on, and well of course, you could always return to that article you were reading, well that depends on whether the road is smooth or not!

 

Serenade

I gave thee my all but thou gavest me ashes,

That filled my mouth with dust. Scarce could I

Swallow as badly choked was I, a bitter taste

Lingers, a sacrifice of a prosperous joyful life!

What you gave to me, you took away all with

Interest thrown in!  Would you punish one so

Close, who'd give  you his all, just to please?

Alas!  That I   should   please  you  no more.

Fain   would  I sacrifice my all to gain a place

At thy  table, to  sit  in  communion with thee,

But in my place sit  thieves, liars and cheats,

Who   charm thee with  their fawning smiles!

Why  should  I retire in a dudgeon?  I know well

The weather  might  change, and  lift the veil of

Impenetrable haze that blinds you so! For one

So devoted to you, you favour a deceitful one!

So I serenade before your window knowing well

That I might win  your  favour, a smile from you

All I wish! The  ashes might yet turn into reward

Fair, a communion  of joy  and glory so grand!