A MESSIAH OF THE MASSES

Ram Manohar Lohia 

On March 23, 1910, a boy was born in Akbarpur, a remote village in Uttar Pradesh. He was later to become famous as the great socialist thinker, humanitarian and politician - Ram Manohar Lohia (1910 - 1967).

Ram Manohar, who lost his mother at a very young age, was brought up by his father, Hira Lal, a Congress party worker. When he was ten years old, the family moved to Bombay. Thus, in 1920, Ram Manohar was enrolled at Marwari High School in Bombay. His political career effectively started the same year. When Lokmanya Tilak passed away on August 1, the boy organized his fellow-students and led them in a hartal. 

In 1925, Lohia completed his matriculation, standing first in his school. By now, he was deeply involved in the Swadeshi movement. He joined the Banaras Hindu university to do his Intermediate. Here, his leadership qualities blossomed and he developed into a fiery orator. He went on to graduate from Calcutta University. 

In 1929, Lohia went to Berlin for higher studies. Here too, he was actively involved in the cause of Indian nationalism. In 1932, he got a doctorate for his brilliant thesis on the topic of the Salt Satyagraha in India. He then returned to India and joined the Indian National Congress, where he soon made his mark as an intellectual and an expert on foreign affairs. 

When World War II broke out, Lohia opposed the British government's move to forcibly involve India in the war. For his anti-British propaganda, he was arrested in 1940 and sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment. He was locked up in Bareilly Central Jail, where he was subjected to torture. He bore everything with fortitude. 

After his release, Lohia wrote many articles calling for nationwide agitation against the British. In 1942, the Quit India Movement started. In a bid to suppress the rebellion, the government imprisoned all the national leaders, including Lohia, went underground and took charge of the movement. Lohia took up the job of getting posters and pamphlets printed at a secret press. He also set up an underground radio station, broadcasting patriotic messages. His voice became familiar to many in the country. In 1944, the British finally captured Lohia. He was taken to a prison in Lahore, where he was tortured day and night. Finally, he managed to smuggle out a letter to a leader of the British Labour Party. This letter made the headlines of all the British and Indian newspapers. Yielding to public pressure, the British government was forced to transfer Lohia to Agra Central Jail, where the treatment was much more humane.  While here, he lost his father - his only surviving relative. Although he was offered parole, he declined the favour. His father's last rites were performed by his friends and followers. 

At last, under pressure from Mahatma Gandhi, the government was forced to release Lohia on April 11, 1946. He came out to a hero's welcome. But the tortures in prison had wrecked his health. On his friend's insistence, he went to Goa for a vacation. But there too, instead of resting, he got involved in the local liberation movement (Goa,  in those days, was a Portuguese colony). After India attained independence, the socialists in the Congress, unhappy with the way it was functioning, left to form their own party. One of the leaders was Lohia. He soon proved that he was no power-seeker, but a man of people. He was a great visionary and a principled man, who would never compromise on certain basic issues.

In 1963, Lohia was elected to the Lok Sabha. He was so engrossed in public service that he remained a lifelong bachelor. He never owned any property. His house in Delhi was always open to party workers. 

On October 12, 1967, Dr. Lohia passed away after a prolonged illness. He left behind no bank balance, but only a legacy of lofty ideas and unselfish service. The nation mourned his loss deeply. The Wellington Hospital, where he died, was later named Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital - in tribute to him.

REMEMBERING THE SUPERHERO OF OUR LIFE

Celebrating Father’s Day

Father’s day is celebrated on every third Sunday in the month of June to signify the special bond between the father and his children. Although a father's love is not dependent on a single day celebration, but this day is celebrated across the world to honour all those super dads who keep their children’s happiness above everything. 

Dads are always the unsung heroes, with steady hands for you, having strongest hearts and at times emotional too. Father’s day reminds us of the significant role fathers play in shaping our lives. It also symbolises the influence fathers have on their children and families, embodying qualities of strength, compassion and dedication.

Father plays several roles, from protector and provider to mentor and friend. He serves as pillar of strength during challenging times, offering guidance and wisdom to navigate life's complexities. His unconditional love and support creates a sense of security and stability that lay the foundation for emotional well-being and personal growth.

Father inspires us to dream, to learn perseverance and to strive for greatness. His encouragement fuels our aspirations, instilling confidence and resilience to overcome obstacles. Whether teaching us to ride a bike, imparting valuable lessons or simply being a listening ear, father leaves an indelible mark on our lives, shaping our values, beliefs and aspirations. He is a superhero who supports us to rise and face the world. 

Father’s day is an opportunity to reflect on cherished memories and lessons learned from father. From childhood adventures to heartfelt conversations, these moments serve as reminders of the life-long impact he has in shaping our identities and perspectives. Whether imparting practical skills or invaluable life lessons, father leaves a legacy that transcends generations. 

Father is neither an anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way. A father's love is as pervasive and essential as the divine love of God. It is a love that knows no conditions, no limits - a love that is as boundless as the sky and as deep as the ocean. Let us, therefore, not reserve our admiration for fathers for a single day; let us embrace the spirit of gratitude and tenderness in every moment, cherishing the subtle miracles they weave into our lives with every breath. 

INSTRUMENT THAT FACILITATES COMMUNICATION

Telephone 

A telephone is defined as an instrument that facilitates the simultaneous transmission and reception of human voice. Telephones are not very expensive and are easy to operate, offering immediate and personal communication. The word telephone is derived from two Greek words, 'tele' which means 'far', and 'phone', which means 'sound'. Since its invention, the telephone has also helped send documents by fax and it is the basic infrastructure on which the internet is built. 

History of telephone: Before the invention of the telephone, the telegraph was used for communication. It was a simple electrical circuit that stretched many miles, usually along a railway line. Messages were sent down the telegraph line in the form of electrical bursts. However, telegraphs were slow, tedious to use and required people to learn Morse Code. Telephone changed all of this. 

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell sent me first words by telephone. Later in the year, he also made the first long-distance call to his assistant who was 2 miles away. He was the first person to be granted a United States patent for the telephone. Within seven years of the invention of the telephone, telephone exchanges were established in Bombay (now Mumbai), Madras (now Chennai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata). By 1896, the telephone instrument was improved upon by Thomas Watson, Emil Berliner and Thomas Edison among others. By 1915, people could make transcontinental calls - the first call was made by Dr Bell in New York to Mr Watson in San Francisco, USA. By 1927, people could make International calls - the first was made across the Atlantic Ocean. In the late 1970s the first cell phones appeared. Around the same time, fax machines became common too. They used telephone wires to send words and images. 

How telephone works: The traditional telephone relies on telephone wires to transmit sound. It consists of a handset and a base that are joined by a cord. The user holds the handset while talking - one end of it has a microphone to speak into and the other end has a loudspeaker to hear the user on the other end. The wire in the base connects the telephone to an electric current. 

When a user talks into the handset, the microphone converts the sound of the user's voice to an electric signal. The signal is sent out by the base through its wire. The signal's path from there depends on where the call is going. It either remains as an electric current, passing through wires and cables, or travels through thin glass fibres in the form of light. Sending information in this manner is called fibre optics. The signal can also be converted to radio waves and sent through the air via antennas and satellites. When the signal reaches the telephone of the other user, the loudspeaker converts it back to the sound of a voice. 

Different types of telephones:

● Cordless telephone: A cordless telephone does not have a cord connecting the handset and the base, which allows the user to walk or move while talking. It uses electric signals and radio waves to operate. The base receives the call in the form of an electric signal and turns it into radio waves. The base then sends the waves through the air to the handset using the antenna. The handset's antenna picks up the waves and then the handset converts the waves into sound.

 

● cell phone: Cell phones, also known as cellular phones or mobile phones, operate over a wider area and are more convenient than cordless phones. They make and receive calls through radio waves. This works with the help of cell phone companies. They divide an area into sections called cells. Each cell has a tower that can receive and send radio waves. If the person on call moves from one cell phone to another, the call also switches from one tower to another. So essentially, the cell phone can work anywhere the cell company has a network. The phone transmits a special signal when it is turned on. This signal tells the network where to direct the calls that the phone receives. Today, cell phones can do many things other than calling, like sending text messages, taking photographs, playing music, getting information from the internet and emailing. Smartphones can also run applications or apps that allow people to play games, shop, read, view maps, manage calendars and perform many other tasks. 

JOURNEY INTO LIGHT

Raman Effect

Sir C. V. Raman, the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in Science, was foremost among the Indian scientists who contributed to the understanding of light. His discovery known as the Raman effect gave humankind a technique to use light to look into the smallest building block of matter, the molecule.

Early Life: Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman was born on 7 November, 1888 at Tiruchirappally in the Madras Presidency (Tamil Nadu). He was the second child of Parvati Amma and Chandrasekhar Iyer, a lecturer in Physics and Mathematics. Raman was a brilliant student. He completed his BA from Presidency College, Madras at the age of 15. He graduated with honours, winning a gold medal in Physics. He completed his MA with distinction from the same college when he was hardly 18. 

Raman topped the Civil Service competitive examination and in 1907, he was posted as Assistant Accountant General in Calcutta. 

One day, while travelling to his office by tram, he noticed a signboard on a building that said, ‘Indian Association for Cultivation of Science’ (IACS). It was a private science institute established by Mahendralal Sircar. He got down from the tram and obtained permission to work there. The institute later became the springboard for his groundbreaking research.

The institute had many unused scientific apparatus. Using these instruments, Raman started working on various problems in sound and light without any guidance. He followed a gruelling schedule; he would reach the institute everyday by 5.30 am, work till 9.30 am, go home for a quick meal and then go to his office. He would be back at the institute by 5 pm and return home only by 10. He would spend the entire Sunday at the laboratory. Soon Raman started to publish high-quality research papers in international journals and became famous in the scientific world.

In 1917, Raman resigned from his well paying government job to become the first Palit Professor of Physics (a highly respected teaching post) at the Calcutta University. At the same time, he continued working at IACS. Students flocked to work under him, drawn by his fame and brilliance.

The Blue Sea: In 1921, he sailed to London to represent his university at the Assembly of Universities. While returning by steamer, Raman was fascinated by the deep blue colour of the Mediterranean Sea. Lord Raleigh (a Physics Nobel laureate) had already established that the blue colour of the sky was due to the scattering of light by air and dust molecules in the atmosphere. The blue component of light gets scattered the most, giving the sky its characteristic blue colour. Scientists explained that the blue colour of the sea was simply the reflection of the blue sky in the water. 

Raman refused to accept the explanation. He conducted some simple experiments on board using a nicol prism and showed that the blue colour of the sea was caused by the scattering of sunlight by the water molecules. 

Effect-ive discovery: Raman continued his light-scattering studies with different liquids using his homemade equipment in the IACS labs. Using optical filters, Raman passed a strong light beam of a single colour through a liquid and observed the light scattered by the liquid through a spectrograph. His studies yielded an unexpected result. A very small portion of the deflected light actually changed colour from the original light. This phenomenon was later named Raman effect. The change in colour of the scattered light was indicative of the molecule which scattered the light and thus became a tool to understand that molecule. 

Raman made his discovery on 28 February, 1928. Two years later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, making him the first Indian and non-white to receive a Nobel Prize in science.

India observes National Science Day on 28 February to honour Raman’s discovery. Dr. G. Venkataraman’s biography of Sir C. V.Raman is aptly titled Journey into Light.

Raman also studied X-Ray scattering and published papers in the field of musical instruments. Many awards and recognition came his way. He was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society in 1924, knighted in 1929 and was awarded the Franklin medal in 1942. 

Raman joined the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 1934 as its first Indian director. In 1949, he established the Raman Research Institute. He continued to teach and mentor students till he passed away in 1970.

When Raman was invited to Rashtrapati Bhavan to receive the Bharat Ratna on 27January, 1955, he wrote to the then Indian President Dr. Rajendra Prasad, expressing his inability to attend the function. He said he was busy supervising the thesis of his student and he thought that the job of mentoring his student was far more important than being present for the award function!

DO YOU KNOW

Why can some people wiggle their ears while many can't?

We have nine muscles in our ears that could help them move but most of these muscles are inoperative. Some people, however, about 15 percent of the population, can use some of these muscles to move their external ears to a greater or lesser extent without using their hands. Ear movements are common among mammals especially cats, dogs and horses. These animals have retained the use of their ear muscles as sound and the direction from which it is coming is extremely important to them and they have to be able to move their ears around for this purpose. 

FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN OF INDIA

Great Indian Peninsula Railway

 

Great excitement prevailed in Bombay (now Mumbai) on Saturday, the 16th of April, 1853. Crowds surged towards Bori Bunder where a railway station had been built and from where the Great Indian Peninsula Railway was scheduled to launch its first ever passenger train service. 

By 3:30 in the afternoon all the lucky people - both ladies and gentlemen, Indian and Europeans - who had been invited to travel in the train were comfortably ensconced in their seats and were raring to go. Then a royal salute was fired from the ramparts of Fort St. George and the 14-coach train, pulled by three steam engines gave a shrill whistle and surged forward much to the awe and amazement of those left behind on the platform. 

All along the way, people watched and cheered from windows and rooftops and tops of trees as the iron wonder puffed and chugged and whistled its way out of the city and snaked through the countryside to its final destination, Tanna (now Thane), 34 kilometers away. The journey took about an hour. Bombayites talked of nothing else but their train over the next few weeks. 

That first train which carried about 500 passengers set in motion, literally, the wheels of the Indian Railways which today carries 24 million passengers daily and is one of the world's largest railway networks. 

THE KING OF SILENT COMEDY

Charlie Chaplin

 

Sir Charles Chaplin, popularly called Charlie Chaplin, was a prolific British actor, director and writer and one of the greatest comic artists of all time. He was born in 1889 in London to an alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother. He began performing on stage from the age of five (his parents were singers), which helped him overcome the hardships he faced as a child. While touring in the US in 1913, he got film offers and he began his celebrated career in Hollywood.

Chaplin is best loved for his character ‘The Tramp’. He wore a battered bowler hat, ill-fitting clothes and a toothbrush moustache and carried a walking stick. The character first appeared in short films in 1914 and then in the 1915 feature film 'The Tramp'. People loved it—a downtrodden character with odd mannerisms and unlucky in love, but nevertheless a survivor.

Most of Chaplin’s films are richly comic yet poignant. They entertain and also raise deeper social and philosophical questions. A wonderful example of this is 'The Kid' (1921), Chaplin’s directorial debut. It depicts the relationship between the Tramp and his adopted son John (played by five-year old Jackie Coogan). The most autobiographical of Chaplin’s movies, it shows elements of his unhappy childhood. He began filming it just weeks after losing his three-day old son. His attempts to coach Coogan and bond with him, taking him out for picnics and pony rides, helped him to overcome his loss.

Another noteworthy silent film was "The Gold Rush'. Its most iconic scene depicts the Tramp as being so hungry that he boils and eats his own shoe!

When silent films gave way to the talkies in the 1930s, Chaplin initially bucked the trend—he produced 'City Lights' and 'Modern Times' without dialogue. His first sound film was 'The Great Dictator' (1940), a spoof on German dictator Hitler. For the film, Chaplin received his only Oscar nomination as best actor. 

Chaplin moved to Switzerland in 1953 as he had political differences with the US government. He returned only in 1972 to receive an honorary Oscar.

Chaplin’s Last Words: Chaplin died on Christmas in 1977 after getting a stroke. As he lay on his deathbed, the priest read him his last rites and ended with “May God have mercy on your soul.” Chaplin responded, “Why not? After all, it belongs to Him.”