Heart to Heart

  From Palampur to cyber city                                                                                      My reading delight                        Leaving home is never easy. It is in fact a mixed bag. There is a wrench of sadness at having to part with your little world of books, desk, bath and the bed (especially the co-conspirator of your secret dreams the pillow, you rest your head on!) that have inadvertently become integral to your daily routine. You also have a heart-tugging feeling about going away from your near and dear ones as also your bosom friends with whom you share jokes and hearty laughs, occasional beer and some naughty gossip. Also, a shadow of nostalgia darkens your brow on imagining how you will miss your morning walks under the avuncular, reassuring, benign eye of the Himalaya (nursing a frown of anger this prolonged monsoon), wafts of gentle breeze of serene deodars and ‘broomy’, bristly pines, the soothing green carpet-spread of the tea-gardens, long m

                       Ode to Chandrayaan and Pragyan So our Chandrayaan has landed on the moon, become history, and an ever-shining badge of honour on the 56 inch – and still expanding – chest of ISRO. Undoubtedly, it is ISRO’s another glorious leap into space that makes India proud. This is ‘Science India’ at its finest best. How magical were those moments when Chandrayaan-3 descended on the pock-marked lunar face with the surgeon’s precision and nimble-footed feminine softness! ... Never mind the sudden juxtaposition of unsavoury political overreach – both by sight and sound – just when we were devouring those final moments with breathless anticipation, awe and wonder! With this epoch-making Chandrayaan event India proudly rubs shoulders with the world’s high and mighty- the haughty world-chowkidar, the US; Russia – a great country of Pushkins, Tolstoys and Yuri Gagarins but sadly going through unhappy times at present; and of course our bad, wily neighbour- the hegemonic, borde

                                  Himalaya Parvat breaks silence There is in the northern direction, the supreme Lord (Adhirajah) of mountains, possessed of a divine nature (devatatma) by name Himalaya…                            (opening verse of Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhavam)                                                                         *   Maati kahe kumhaar se tu kya ronde mohe/ Ik din aisa aayega men rodungi tohe                                                                                                                               (Kabir)                                                                          * Hi, I am Himalaya Parvat- “Adhirajah of mountains” and “divine”. Long and wide is my reach and sweep extending from the northeast to the northwest. High and tall I stand like a formidable sentinel keeping watch. And I am a sight to behold when grandma Nature weaves a tapestry of silvery mane with generous showers of snow over me. Doesn’t Mother I