From the dark to the dawn

आया था शहर ये सोचकर,  दे सकूंगा अपने बच्चो को दो वक़्त की रोटी मेहनत कर। रूखी सूखी जुगाड कर चला रहा था काम अपना, अब भटक रहा हूं दर बदर। बहुत दूर है गांव मेरा, पहुंचूं अब वहां क्या कर। चल तो पड़ा हूं परिवार लेकर, खाता हूं ठोकर पर मै दिन भर। छोटे छोटे पांव मेरे बच्चो के, दिन भर चल के थक जाते है। कंधे पर लेने लगु, हम ठीक है कह कर ना जाने इतनी हिम्मत कहां से लाते है। सुना है विदेश से एक वायरस आया, जिसने है हमारा भविष्य खाया। काम ख़त्म हो गया,  इससे पहले कुछ समझ आया। शहर का रहा , ना गांव का रहा, मालिक का रहा , ना सरकार का रहा। बच्चो को मेरे अब रोटी कैसे खिलाऊं, मैं अब घर कैसे जाऊं? वायरस का पता नहीं, पर भूखमरी मार देगी, अपने ही देश में ये बेकद्री मार देगी। दिया है वोट उम्मीदों से, सुन लो ए सरकार। मैं वही मजदूर हूं, जिसके घर कल तुम वादे ले कर आए थे, भूला दूंगा सब गिले शिकवे, आज बस दे दो रोटी, जाने दो घर।

Whenever in my hometown, I usually spend my evenings on terrace.  I am qualified to say that I live in a pretty busy area. Because it is near to one  of the premier coaching institutes of Kota. There are countless P.Gs. and hostels, several marts and hotels , many grocery stores and stationary shops, numerous eateries and restaurants and what not. Students, teachers, businessmen, busy and running, all thriving for more. Today was a different evening because of pertaining lock down in the country in lieu of the spread of COVID-19. Many people were on their terrace spending their evenings , the roads and parks were empty, life seemed slow paced around my locality.The sky was clearer(can't ignore the role of rain two days ago though!). I could see a little more stars(AW!). I was kind of relaxed and thrilled to see that. Relaxed because people are following home quarantine religiously in my neighborhood and I am proud of it. Thrilled because I suddenly realized ...

Yesterday, we went for dusshera celebrations in a ground-profoundly called dusshera maidan. The decorations were beautiful. There were about 20 stalls spreading the glimpse of our wide culture. Art and craft, sarees , suits, games and food stalls were standing shoulder by shoulder to entertain and satisfy the customers. Standing in the full glory were the megnath, kumbhkaran and Ravana statue. As we went before the gathering started,my lil one also enjoyed running here and there. I was also delighted to purchase and eat and see my son playing. After some time, started a play showcasing the Ramayana-Story of Shri Ram and Sita. People started to gather in more numbers. And then started the event for which we all had gathered. An arrow left Shri Ram's bow and started towards Ravana to incise his stomach. Ravana was killed and the speaker announced "adharm pe dharm ki jeet ho k rehti h.Jai Shri Ram." And fireworks were started and filled the sky with lighting and colo...

- I NO is a multi-institutional collaboration( nearly 26 institutions and about 100 scientists are involved) which aims to build an underground laboratory for pure Science research, especially in Neutrino Physics to understand nature and interactions of Neutrinos - The project includes construction of an iron calorimeter detector, called ICAL , that will be the world's most massive detector when completed. ICAL consists of 50000 tons of magnetized iron plates arranged in stacks with gaps in between where Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) would be inserted as active detectors, the total number of 2m X 2m RPCs being around 29000 - It is a mega-science project under the XII five-year plan of Government of India with an investment of about 1350 crores, jointly funded by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) - Host Institution - Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - Location -  Bodi West Hills in Theni dist...