Month: October 2018

SEEKING SOLACE AMID POVERTY AND HUNGER

Convert us,
We’re adaptable
But we’re poor. We’re hungry too.

Passing by a temple, a man of god advised
“come on in, become Hindu, and be happy and wise.”
So, we put on the Hindu hats.
“Now close eyes to forget the hunger.”
“Meditate for transcendental wonder.”

Then a voice was delivered from a nearby mosque
“Become Muslims for glory to god,”
We emerged as Muslims from the sacred spot.
More cordial invites “come on in, become…”
Christians, Buddhists, and other religious faiths.

And we collected more badges in our divine sails.
We’re now multi-religious with multi-god beliefs.
Without any shelter or any relief.

A buzz was heard loud and clear “There is no god, my friends,”
“Come on in, in our progressive den.”
We followed another message, another thought
In the maze of many isms and multi-paths.

A few intelligent folks gave us the direction: “stay on the Left,”
Assuring food and shelter as well as vodka and rum,
But “seal your mouth and keep mum.”
Others pulled us to the Right, to be “great again”.
Affirming food, shelter, and wealth in the promising lane.

We’ve put on all the tags, walked all the treks.
We’re victims of conflicts, riots, and terror.
Risking lives in chopping waters and dingy boats,
Eyeing to land on safe and secure shores.
We knock on the doors for some welcome abodes.
In our run to seek safe spots,
There are hunts and chases of the security guards.

We are the victims of hunger and malnutrition.
We carry loads of bricks on our heads,
We raise the buildings but live in the sheds.
For some, the hapless one
The roof is the sky, the sidewalk is the bed.
To earn few coins, we’re pickers of rags, bottles, and cans.

We don’t have class, but inferior in our caste,
Working down the drain with suffering and pain.
Underpaid and underage, bonded helpless and muted slaves.

We’re the statistics for discussion and debate,
Agenda for conferences and data for references.
We’re the stories and challenge for poets, writers, and authors.

We are an assignment for researchers and experts
Who maneuver our grades to analyze our fate
From national poverty-line to international poverty-line,
From below-poverty-line to above-poverty-line.

But at the end of the line
We’re still poor
And we’re still hungry.

-by Promod Puri

 

Honours For LINK Newspaper Founder Promod Puri!

“Promod Puri has stood tall like a lighthouse shedding light, guiding and linking communities within a community without passing personal judgement, prejudice or taking sides. Without fear he has promoted what is just and what is right. He founded The Link Newspaper and served as its Editor for almost three decades. He is a beacon of hope of impartiality for all of us. He was awarded a Journalism Award at the annual Dr. Ambedkar Chetna Award Night 2018 in Vancouver last Saturday. Ashok Bhargava president of Writers International Network introduced Puri by paying a rich tribute to the contribution he has made to the Canadian society at large and South Asia community in particular. His book on Hinduism questions Hindu belief in Manu Samriti. He has a full chapter on relevance of Dr Ambedkar in promoting and protecting human rights of all Indians”.
The Link Newspaper

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BARBARIAN RULERS CREATE BAD IMAGE OF MUSLIMS WORLDWIDE 

“Muslims are savage.” And that is the unrealistic image many non-Muslims have worldwide. Muslims rulers in the Arab countries led by Saudi rogue autocrats are the ones who are mainly responsible for creating this misleading impression. In this age of social media, when news spreads very fast, the brutalities and killings in their kingdoms and arranged murders elsewhere, as has happened with Jamal Khashoggi recently, the savage impression of Muslims is established and widely generalized. Brutal Muslims rulers must be contained. Their behavior tarnishes the image of Muslims being humane and peaceful people. It is for that reason human rights must take precedence over tempting arms sales to these cruel and barbarian regimes.
Promod Puri

PUMPKIN’S KARMA

As Halloween is approaching October 31, I would say that the most abused and wasted vegetable of the season is the most gigantic and nutritive pumpkin.

As these are left out in the chill of autumn nights, pumpkins rot and finally dumped.

Is that his or her karma carved by custom and tradition!

-Promod Puri

TIME FLIES

LIFE GOES BY FAST
WHEN LOOKING BACK AT PAST EVENTS AS IF THEY
“HAPPENED ONLY YESTERDAY”
AND FUTURE EVENTS OFTEN SEEM FAR
——–BUT TIME FLIES.

Understanding Physics of 2018 Nobel Winners

by Promod Puri

We are quite familiar with tweezers, the small nippers for plucking out unwanted hairs or extracting splinters.

But when these little tools are made of light beams to hold very tiny objects in scientific and medical fields, the optical tweezers play quite a significant role as technical aids in the studies of motions and behavior of molecular or cellular particles.

That precisely the reason the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to Arthur Ashkin for his works on optical tweezers.

Other co-winners of the Nobel Prize in physics are Gerard Mourou and Canadian scientist Donna Strickland for creating the technology which generates high-intensity, ultra-short laser pulses, which are used for eye surgeries and for studies of the extremely fast phenomenon in the atomic domain.

Light is more than making things visible. It is also a force. When applied to a physical object it is called radiation pressure. In this application, a coherent beam of light known as the laser is focussed on the object. An optical tweezer is created by two laser beams coming from the opposite direction and falling on the matter.

“In 1969, Arthur Ashkin used lasers to trap and accelerate micron-sized objects such as tiny spheres and water droplets. This led to the invention of optical tweezers that use two or more focused laser beams aimed in opposite directions to attract a target particle or cell toward the center of the beams and hold it in place. Each time the particle moves away from the center, it encounters a force pushing it back toward the center”, explains Todd Adams, Professor of Physics, Florida State University, in his article in The Conversation.

While the Nobel recognized the works of optical tweezers by Ashkin, the development of other optical tools from light beams also has an essential contribution for generating high-intensity and ultra-short laser pulses. These intensified bursts of light are now the tools for eye surgeries. The pioneer works of Mourou and Strickland in developing these tools have earned them the Nobel Prize.

The two physicists invented the way to create intense light but for the extremely short duration. These are bursts or pulses of light of ultrashort-term in an attosecond, which is trillionth of a second.

“As an analogy, consider a thick rubber band. When the band is stretched, the rubber becomes thinner. When it is released, it returns to its original thickness. Now imagine that there is a way to make the stretched rubber band thicker. When the band is released, it will end up thicker than the original band. This is essentially what happens with the laser pulse”, writes Professor Adams.

The thicker or high-intensity laser bursts are used in eye surgeries and for studying ultra-fast activities at the atomic levels.

“The 2018 Nobel Prize in physics shines a light on the pioneering work of these three scientists. Over the past three decades, their inventions have created avenues of science and medical treatments that were previously unattainable”, Professor Adams concludes in his article.