Away from the immediacy of Kolkata, of Mr Frank, of abject poverty and more, visit an even stranger world, the world we all live in.
That's the amazing thing about physics - no matter how weird we think the immediate world is, we are in the halfpenny place compared to the real world according to physics.
No, don't stop reading - you really need to take a few moments to bend your mind around these four facts from physics:
(1) the universe is made up of a little over 4% is what we consider 'ordinary matter', stuff we can see (most of which is made up of empty space), 25% 'dark matter' (made up of what, we do not know), and around 75% so-called 'dark energy' (equally mysterious). So much for what we 'know'.
(2) the 13.7 billion year old universe, comprising hundreds of billions of stars, originated in a 'singularity'
(think of it as a point so small that it virtually doesn't exist. Consider one hundred millionth of a billionth the size of a proton which itself is one thousand billionth the size of a grain of sand. Actually forget that, because that's the size an infinitesimal time after we emerged from nothing at all).
(3) immediately after the 'Big Bang', our universe underwent 'inflation', expanding unbelievably fast, faster even than the speed of light - but in an exquisitely balanced way: physicists have calculated that if the rate of inflation was faster or slower by as little as one part in ten to the 50, then our universe would have collapsed again into a singularity or exploded out of control.
(To get a rough idea of how big 10 to the 50 is, take the distance from the earth to the sun, break it up into inches and squeeze the entire population of the earth into each and every inch; then consider each person is the distance from the earth to the sun and repeat the process).
(4) the latest thinking is that the fundamental forces of the universe - electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear forces and gravity - are simply different manifestations of a single primary force, most likely existing in no fewer than ten dimensions (three spatial dimensions, time, and six as yet poorly understood other dimensions, best explained as vibrating strings so small we cannot see them)
And we haven't even started to contemplate the weirdness of quantum entanglement, the fact the the total energy of the universe is believed to be zero, superposition or non-locality.
Speculation about consciousness, God and the like we shall leave to another day. . . .
What a wonderful weird world!
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Monday, 7 November 2011
More Secret Codes
I listened carefully today and decrypted further codes from the Horn Blowers:
(It helps if you physically press the table or some other solid object in front of you as if blowing the horn yourself to validate the meanings ascribed)
One short, one very long, two short (F) - Oh for Fec*'s sake - would you get out of the way! (driver leaning forward, in fury)
One short, two very long (W) - W*n@!r - I'm not even going to waste my breath telling you to get out of the way! (driver leaning back, with disdain)
One very short, two polite long, one very short (P) - Pooooooleeeeeeaaase! Sir! I am begging you! I have such an urgent appointment - would you pooooleeeeeease get out of the way? Oh, thank you Sir! (this from the new, shining, air-conditioned, smoked glass, imported SUV)
I shall never drive my car again without such a profound appreciation for the hidden psyche of my fellow drivers!
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(It helps if you physically press the table or some other solid object in front of you as if blowing the horn yourself to validate the meanings ascribed)
One short, one very long, two short (F) - Oh for Fec*'s sake - would you get out of the way! (driver leaning forward, in fury)
One short, two very long (W) - W*n@!r - I'm not even going to waste my breath telling you to get out of the way! (driver leaning back, with disdain)
One very short, two polite long, one very short (P) - Pooooooleeeeeeaaase! Sir! I am begging you! I have such an urgent appointment - would you pooooleeeeeease get out of the way? Oh, thank you Sir! (this from the new, shining, air-conditioned, smoked glass, imported SUV)
I shall never drive my car again without such a profound appreciation for the hidden psyche of my fellow drivers!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Could someone please tell me? . . .
Why, oh why, is it in Kolkata that:
- there are practically no street signs?
- there are no rubbish bins, only endless rubbish?
- not a single policeman I asked had the remotest idea where anything was?
- men urinate on the side of busy roads, in full view, without a second thought?
- every shock absorber in every taxi is completely shot?
- today, a 1l bottle of mineral water cost me 15 Rupees (25cent) on the side of the street and a Gin and Tonic in the Kenilworth cost over 1,000 (over €14)?
- notwithstanding all of the above, this teeming city of 15million still works?
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- there are practically no street signs?
- there are no rubbish bins, only endless rubbish?
- not a single policeman I asked had the remotest idea where anything was?
- men urinate on the side of busy roads, in full view, without a second thought?
- every shock absorber in every taxi is completely shot?
- today, a 1l bottle of mineral water cost me 15 Rupees (25cent) on the side of the street and a Gin and Tonic in the Kenilworth cost over 1,000 (over €14)?
- notwithstanding all of the above, this teeming city of 15million still works?
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One serious lady
I started my Saturday morning searching for Mother Teresa's Hospice for the Sick and Dying.
Sister Cyril is 75, not that you'd think it (I reckoned late 50s). She is a bundle of energy. Her surname is Mooney, she comes from Bray, and her sister, it turns out, lives less than a mile away from me in Dublin. She joined Sealdah in 1979. And, boy! Is she in charge.
I literally wandered in off the street (something the Sisters encourage, as will become apparent) and marched into the Office. I announced myself and the secretary said that Sister was tied up but if I waited a few minute she'd tell her I was waiting. Given it was Saturday, there were no classes and yet the place was buzzing.
"In the meantime, you'll have a cup of tea".
It was a statement. Who was I to object?
When Sister Cyril Entered the Office, you could feel the collective pulse quicken - not at all aggressive, rather a quiet, certain strength presented. The accents and the connections came tumbling out. Her sister in Foxrock, my working with Sabuj Sangha, Loreto training the Sabuj Sangha teachers, my kindergarden in Rathfarnham, Robbie and Aisling's volunteer trips teaching. We were best buddies in no time.
She told me about some of the comings and goings of the day and then suggested I might like to see a short video. I was ushered into a staff room (a nice fan to counter the humid Kolkata heat) and the video started.
What an amazing lady. On the basis that actions speak louder than words, prepare yourself for some staggering statistics:
- when Sr C arrived there were 700 students, all fee paying except for about 20 who were too poor; now there are 1400, half of whom pay (handsomely) and half who pay nothing.
- no fewer than 1,400 teachers have been trained and now each over 26,000 children in 470 centres in various slum areas
- 247 street children in the heart of the city have been taken In to the school, clothed, fed and housed in a special programme called the Rainbow Kids
- and there's more: micro credit, an abandoned older people programme, teaching by the students themselves in rural areas(!), a childline, human rings education, a "school in a box" programme - the list goes on and on.
I failed. I found the old building. And I had been to the Mother House where I had seen Mother Teresa's tomb. But the new Hospice was nowhere to be found. I must have asked a dozen Taxi drivers - no joy. I tried four policemen - clueless. Innumerable locals - they kept directing me to the old building, now derelict.
I gave up and opted for my second objective: Loreto Sealdah, founded in 1857 - by sisters from Loreto in Rathfarnham (where I went to kindergarden). It was Aisling's suggestion to visit: she insisted that the lady in charge there was quite a character and (rather incredulously) drove a motorbike. Thank you Aisling - what an amazing day I had.
Sister Cyril is 75, not that you'd think it (I reckoned late 50s). She is a bundle of energy. Her surname is Mooney, she comes from Bray, and her sister, it turns out, lives less than a mile away from me in Dublin. She joined Sealdah in 1979. And, boy! Is she in charge."In the meantime, you'll have a cup of tea".
It was a statement. Who was I to object?
When Sister Cyril Entered the Office, you could feel the collective pulse quicken - not at all aggressive, rather a quiet, certain strength presented. The accents and the connections came tumbling out. Her sister in Foxrock, my working with Sabuj Sangha, Loreto training the Sabuj Sangha teachers, my kindergarden in Rathfarnham, Robbie and Aisling's volunteer trips teaching. We were best buddies in no time.
She told me about some of the comings and goings of the day and then suggested I might like to see a short video. I was ushered into a staff room (a nice fan to counter the humid Kolkata heat) and the video started.
What an amazing lady. On the basis that actions speak louder than words, prepare yourself for some staggering statistics:
- when Sr C arrived there were 700 students, all fee paying except for about 20 who were too poor; now there are 1400, half of whom pay (handsomely) and half who pay nothing.
- no fewer than 1,400 teachers have been trained and now each over 26,000 children in 470 centres in various slum areas
- 20 higher secondary schools have been built
- on the Eastern Bypass, a slum area beside the high speed electric train (nice contrast?), 75 teachers have been trained, 11 schools started and 1,200 children taken on
- on the brick fields, which operate using migrant workers, 26 hedge schools have been started and over 1,300 children catered for
- 247 street children in the heart of the city have been taken In to the school, clothed, fed and housed in a special programme called the Rainbow Kids
In total, it is estimated that Loreto Sealdah - just one little underfunded school - has impacted the lives of over 450,000 children.
All under the direction of Sr Cyril.
(and the only reason she has stopped riding the motorbike is that they can't get any more parts for it. Apparently it was the last Lambretta to be imported to India in 1979).
Now that's what I call One Serious Lady.
Another brick in the wall. . .
Three years ago, Loreto Sealdah reached out to another group of children who, through no fault of their own, have no access to schooling - migrant works in the so-called 'Brickfields'.
Brickfields operate for about seven months of the year, outside the monsoon season. Migrant families are paid by the number of bricks they produce: retrieving mud from a local river, they use a wooden cast to make large bricks that are dried in the sun and later fired in a kiln. Young girls carry up to 10 large bricks at a time on their heads (weighing up to 40kilos). No schooling Is available.
Loreto decided not to criticise the owners of the brick fields for not providing access to schooling - that would simply have cut off access. So, if the children could not be brought to a Loreto school, the school would have to be brought to them. Simple.
Oh, one further complication: because these are migrant workers, the likelihood is that the same group will not work in the same brick field two years in a row. That means you get only one 'term' to deliver a life's worth of education. In practical terms, decide what you're going to cover three hours a day for six months - roughly 360 hours of contact time over six months.
No problem.
Students of Irish history will remember the Hedge Schools? In the 17th and 18th centuries, after Britain banned catholic schools, a system of teaching (typically the 3 Rs - Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic - but often covering Latin, Greek and more) emerged where teachers met local children at a hedge and taught 'al fresco'. Roll the clock forward and welcome the 'School in a Box' - all the teaching and learning materials a teacher needs to deliver a lifetime's education.
Now there are 26 schools in different brick fields catering to the needs of 1,305 children.
Another brick in the wall of eradicating poverty - through education.
Inspiring.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Brickfields operate for about seven months of the year, outside the monsoon season. Migrant families are paid by the number of bricks they produce: retrieving mud from a local river, they use a wooden cast to make large bricks that are dried in the sun and later fired in a kiln. Young girls carry up to 10 large bricks at a time on their heads (weighing up to 40kilos). No schooling Is available.
Loreto decided not to criticise the owners of the brick fields for not providing access to schooling - that would simply have cut off access. So, if the children could not be brought to a Loreto school, the school would have to be brought to them. Simple.
Oh, one further complication: because these are migrant workers, the likelihood is that the same group will not work in the same brick field two years in a row. That means you get only one 'term' to deliver a life's worth of education. In practical terms, decide what you're going to cover three hours a day for six months - roughly 360 hours of contact time over six months.
No problem.
Students of Irish history will remember the Hedge Schools? In the 17th and 18th centuries, after Britain banned catholic schools, a system of teaching (typically the 3 Rs - Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic - but often covering Latin, Greek and more) emerged where teachers met local children at a hedge and taught 'al fresco'. Roll the clock forward and welcome the 'School in a Box' - all the teaching and learning materials a teacher needs to deliver a lifetime's education.
Now there are 26 schools in different brick fields catering to the needs of 1,305 children.
Another brick in the wall of eradicating poverty - through education.
Inspiring.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Anyone got 500 Rupees? (around €7 or $10)
All I caught of her name was Rina - an inadequate, anglicised simplification of a poetic Bengali name, probably a Goddess. She was from Loreto Sealdah, a remarkable school right in the heart of Kolkata, and she had been deputed to show me the Rainbow Room.
16 or 24 - who knows? Innocent but worldly, she wore two rings on the toes of her right foot. Barefoot, in traditional Churidar dress over long Kurta pants, she danced like a nymph up four flights of stairs, smiling as she chatted.
Loreto initiated this special programme for children who live on the street. It calls them Rainbows because 'they come and go as they please: you never know when to expect a rainbow but it gives great joy when it appears'. The programme provides housing and meals seven days a week and schooling, whenever the children aren't eking out a living on the street.
The programme is only for girls, so I was surprised when the first of the children I saw on the fourth floor was a little boy He could not have been more than four years old. When I asked Rina why he was there she smiled:
"Oh, he's a special one - he was rescued from Howrah Train Station"
"Rescued from what?"
"His father"
I looked quizzically.
"He wanted 500 Rupees for him" she said, face deadpan.
What value, one little life?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
16 or 24 - who knows? Innocent but worldly, she wore two rings on the toes of her right foot. Barefoot, in traditional Churidar dress over long Kurta pants, she danced like a nymph up four flights of stairs, smiling as she chatted.
Loreto initiated this special programme for children who live on the street. It calls them Rainbows because 'they come and go as they please: you never know when to expect a rainbow but it gives great joy when it appears'. The programme provides housing and meals seven days a week and schooling, whenever the children aren't eking out a living on the street.
The programme is only for girls, so I was surprised when the first of the children I saw on the fourth floor was a little boy He could not have been more than four years old. When I asked Rina why he was there she smiled:
"Oh, he's a special one - he was rescued from Howrah Train Station"
"Rescued from what?"
"His father"
I looked quizzically.
"He wanted 500 Rupees for him" she said, face deadpan.
What value, one little life?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, 4 November 2011
Secret Messages?
Another Taxi ride. Another trip down a reverberating tunnel of unspeakable cacophony. Horn blowing. If a Californian lawyer were in my place he'd launch a class action the size of Greece's foreign debt against Indian drivers.
On previous trips I observed, I listened, I tried to make sense of this endless sonic pollution. I failed.
Time to try again.
And I may just have figured the whole thing out! Morse code!
Now this may tax the uninitiated (I studied Morse for my Radio Experimenter's licence ("Ham Radio" to you) when I was 13. And I have never forgotten it (some would call that a curse)).
Granted, I am taking a leap of interpretation but bear with me. See, the horn blowing corresponds to a letter - and all you need is the inspiration to link that letter to the associated sentiment. At least for this exercise, I have inspiration in abundance. Here goes.
(For the doubters, remember that a short toot on the horn corresponds to a 'dot' and a long one a 'dash')
A short toot (E) - Eh, hello! Get out of my way!
A long toot (T) - Tool! Get out of my way!
Two long toots (M) - Mother of God! Get out of my way!
(feel free to substitute God with Kali, Shiva, Vishnu etc)
Three long toots (O) - Oh for the love of Kali! Get out of my way!
(are you getting the hang of this yet?)
One short, one (very) long, one short (R) - Really? you cannot be serious?
Maybe just one more:
Five long toots (0 - a tougher one) - 0 - you are SOOOOO off my Christmas Card list!
I feel a new understanding for Mr Swarthy and Mr Frank!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
On previous trips I observed, I listened, I tried to make sense of this endless sonic pollution. I failed.
Time to try again.
And I may just have figured the whole thing out! Morse code!
Now this may tax the uninitiated (I studied Morse for my Radio Experimenter's licence ("Ham Radio" to you) when I was 13. And I have never forgotten it (some would call that a curse)).
Granted, I am taking a leap of interpretation but bear with me. See, the horn blowing corresponds to a letter - and all you need is the inspiration to link that letter to the associated sentiment. At least for this exercise, I have inspiration in abundance. Here goes.
(For the doubters, remember that a short toot on the horn corresponds to a 'dot' and a long one a 'dash')
A short toot (E) - Eh, hello! Get out of my way!
A long toot (T) - Tool! Get out of my way!
Two long toots (M) - Mother of God! Get out of my way!
(feel free to substitute God with Kali, Shiva, Vishnu etc)
Three long toots (O) - Oh for the love of Kali! Get out of my way!
(are you getting the hang of this yet?)
One short, one (very) long, one short (R) - Really? you cannot be serious?
Maybe just one more:
Five long toots (0 - a tougher one) - 0 - you are SOOOOO off my Christmas Card list!
I feel a new understanding for Mr Swarthy and Mr Frank!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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