Travelogue of an Itinerant Mind

It stood near the pond at the end of the village, just at the intersection between two roads going towards the farms. It has been there for as long as my grandfather remembers. It is the same as it was in his childhood, he says. May be it has lost a branch here and grown another at other end, but it is as permanent as the stars and the moon in the villagers mind. With its branches spreading very wide, it looked like an old lady sitting and guarding the village or may be guiding the wandering travellers which road to take. Often many villagers mid noon or afternoons were spent there. On the way to the pond for taking bath in the summers, it would serve as a temporary shed for many. Some would rest a little to get respite from the sultry heat, others pause here a minute to have a chat with fellow beings. Village folks coming back from the farms would untie their cattle from the cart and feed them. Women after taking a bath would stop to put a little water and flowers near the base as ...

Last week was mostly spent outside of the base. Even if you do nothing, being outstation, is itself relaxing. No need to check with colleagues about the health and happiness (plant’s health and boss’s happiness😋 which are interdependent). The atmosphere in Bhubaneswar was cloudy and humid. I had to hop between two hospitals to get the opinion of specialist doctors. In recent times, frequent hospital visits have forced me to remember the basics of Zoology (The last time I was closest to a Zoology book was when Mr. Vajpayee was Indian Prime Minister, twin towers of World Trade Center were rising proudly above the New York Skyline and 11 th September was just any other normal date).  After studying chemical engineering (especially fluid dynamics / mass transfer / transport phenomena), I am able to connect the basic fundamentals of engineering in the workings of the human body. I remember, in 7 th or 8 th Semester during the mid-term exam, the transport phenomena professor h...

Monsoon is here again. Although it’s raining sporadically here and the rain is not as incessant as it used to be in our childhood, but still it’s a happy respite from the heat and humidity. With the arrivals of the rain, the farmers will get busy tilling and cultivating their land. The whole process of preparing the field, sowing seeds / planting crops, weeding out, applying fertilizers, harvesting, post harvest processing will take around 4-5 months for paddy. When you see the whole process and realize the amount of hard work and dedication it requires growing and harvesting a crop, then only you will appreciate the food we eat and will hesitate to waste it. Having spent my childhood in a rural surrounding, I always loved the whole process of paddy cultivation. A paddy field was in front of my house. Before planting the crop the field is just a patch of mud. Few days after the plantation it will turn light green and within a month the hue will change to dark green. In early Autumn,...