My dear Uncle pai!!

Today India has lost one of its greatest educationalists and creator of Indian comics. Many youngsters of my generation have grown on the staple humor he has provided over last 30 years. He had an uncanny knack of teaching basic ethics and science in a humorous way. And luckily I share something with him. A bachelors degree in chemical engineering!!!

Uncle pai will always be an inspiration in my life and a person who lead me into a world of fantasy and mythology. He more than chirstopher nolan "incepted" the idea of thinking and reasoning in me. As a young boy from a small town in Tamil Nadu he opened the doors of imagination and creativity and pushed me into enjoying literature and history. I can never forget the lasting impression all his characters have had on me. I was not exposed to the magic of "The Tinkle" till my 5th standard. One of cousins was gracious enough to pass me on her collection of large volumes of tinkle. And that summer vacation was the most memorable one for me. I read each and every story.

Kapish, shambu, suppandi, ramu and shamu the character list is endless. I derived the greatest joy in reading his editor columns. Lots of youngsters sharing their real life experiences and Uncle pai giving us scientific fundes was seriously a pleasure to read. His english was so simple and precise. He made reading a pleasure for simple 10 year olds.

Coming to his greatest contribution - THE AMAR CHITRA KATHAS. I would say he has done more to the cause of preserving the indian tradition and culture than any of the RSS or Sangh Parivar groups can even aspire of. The first ACK stories I studied was the hanuman followed by the Jataka tales. The pleasure I experienced in reading the indian fantasies cannot be described in words. For me and most of the indians ACK is always a notch above the DC comics. Children can learn more about India by reading these comics than any of their history texts.

I really dont know more about Anant pai - the individual. But Uncle pai has always been there in my childhood as an invisible friend accompanying me in adventure after adventure. He always knew what I wanted and provided me that through his words. The influence of people like uncle pai, enid blyton can never be measured. For me atleast education started with "The tinkle" and is still going on!!!

Uncle pai I will miss you!!

He who must not be named???

Ever wonder why in solitude I dont talk to anybody?
In the wilderness, I seek, I pray, I hope,
Asking straight from heart to the poignant self,
When I wake each day, before work or play
I talk to you,I solicit you,
Lot of questions that linger in my heart,
What is happiness? Such simple yet complicated word ,
No word can exactly match it,
Hoping that through the chilled breeze is your muted response,
Answering my senile queries,
Sometimes I sit and wonder,
Why do I always have to bother,
To question myself and you,
Its bcas I want to be you,
Yearning for creating, taking responsibility,
For the pettiness around,
Engulfed in the mundaneness I rarely understand,
The care that I get from you,
The hope I could seed the future I could create,
The dreams I could dash the lives I could ruin,
Simply make everyone smile, make a sundry of emotions vanish,
Why dont you destroy the seeds of despair,
I know its muddled,
To know you I should first know me,
If you are so complicated why make me the same???
is perhaps the only question I wanna ask!!!!

Dream on!!!

It was not the hanging gardens,
nor was it the most beautiful place I have been to,
I heard lots of noises,
but discernible were only a few voices,
I let it flow like a river,
There is room to be stupid,
Boundaries are defined without any boundary,
Day in day out i am there for ever,
I can be rhetoric,
The genesis can never be interpreted or incepted,
Fueled by a moonly power,
to make mirages a reality,
The fear of being Mundane and archaic is futile,
Focusing through my human lens,
The concentrated power around giving sense
I am glad to have dreamt and tried than not to have dreamt at all!!!!

Maths

Numbers Numbers Numbers,
we live for numbers, We live in numbers,
Life is nothing but numbers,
No of days we live, no of ppl we meet,
we eat pray and love only to count,
Be it the trophies that mount,
Or the remuneration for the work we do,
Its a region where being odd is equally probable,
Zero is the hero where space originates,
Mathematics is worth its weight in gold
Studying numbers here and there
Solving problems everywhere,
First, we study the problem
To get a clue
Just what’s the problem asking us to do?
Calculus giving us the direction,
Geometry the shape,
approximation making engineering a reality,
Transformation taking us to domains unknown,
Making life simple where reality stings,
ah mathematics if only life was as simple as you are!!!!