Category: Book Review

The Frozen Evenings

The Frozen Evenings Poetry collection by Authorspress India, written by Ms. Neelam Saxena Chandra

There are evenings which just freeze. You sit on the banks of the river called life and simply observe within. You neither contemplate, nor worry about the weight of memories, nor procrastinate; you are just there in those instants. You undertake a journey within and let the thoughts just surface like a bubble and then vanish with the flow. “The Frozen Evenings” is a collection of fifty poems that written by Limca Book of Records Holder, Neelam Saxena Chandra, in such moments.

Excerpts from the book – The Frozen Evenings

THE POETRY

Either the poetry

Should be so soothing

That you’d wish to spend

One cool evening under its shade,

Or it should be so beautiful

That you’d long

To pick a flower from its bed

And enjoy its fragrance,

Or it should be so romantic

That you’d run to be

In its embrace for long

Or it should suffocate you

Making you yearn

For every drop of life

Or it should arouse anger

Against the dogmas and rigidity

Making you wriggle in pain

Or it should sting you

Making you so blue

That its tint refuses

To leave you for long!

A poem is wonderful

Only when it can evoke

Those razor sharp reactions!

Amazon Link : The Frozen Evenings

Casket of Stories

A short stories collection by Omji Publishing House, written by Ms. Neelam Saxena Chandra

Everyone lives. But life becomes a pleasant journey if you come across something that is called love. Love is not only about romance. It is something more than that. The feeling of love and affection can arise from your child, from your parents, from your colleagues and from your friends. Only if life were easy! Life is the most complicated thing one ever comes across. Life is all about relationships, which never follow a mathematical or geometrical pattern. Sometimes, the one who you felt loved you, turns out to be a traitor. And love may come from the most unexpected corner. It is these twists and turns that make the twenty-one stories in this book.

Excerpts from the book –Casket of Stories

Three days later, Raju and his parents turned up at the clinic. But, my eyes were searching Rajni. I wondered why she had not come. In fact, it was due to her that I had opened an NGO to take care of kids like her. Children who suffered since their parents could not afford the medicines and insulin. Especially, the girls who suffered since the poor would rather let their daughters die than spent so much money on them. My web page had her photo at the top. I had tied-up with many Doctors whom I had met at London for funding. I was eagerly looking forward for my project.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a phone call on my mobile. At London, Dr Julia had shown a lot of interest in getting a project funded for the girl children diagnosed with juvenile diabetes in India. Back to my native place, I had made full project details and mailed her. She had called up to confirm the sponsorship.

Happily, I glanced at Raju. He looked quite energetic. I was jubilant to see his progress. After his examination, his father asked me to give them Rajni’s quota of medicines. He defended himself, “Rajni is studying hard for exams and hence she could not come with us to see you. She has sent lots of love to you. You know, Doctor Sahib, she prays for you daily. May you always prosper. Can you please hand over her medicines? We will surely get her next time.”

I was about to oblige. But tears struggling to come out of Radha’s eyes made me ponder. I said sternly, “No, I will give you only when she comes here.”

Radha’s tears finally scuffled out and she burbled, “Rajni is dead!”

Amazon Link : Casket of Stories

Skylines

A stories collection by Authorspress India, written by Ms. Neelam Saxena Chandra

A woman is like a palette of colours. Just like the colours, she too displays a different tint and shade at different points of time. The colours you perceive are the ones you make her show. If you love her, she will adore you; if you give her wings she will soar but if you hurt her, she may take time but will one day bounce back in retaliation.

‘Skylines’ is a collection of fourteen different stories which revolve around women – the buoyant teens, the chirpy youth or the matured ladies. Different encounters and circumstances in life make them either very tender, fragile or reactionaries and bigots. Do read on to understand these colours of life…

Excerpts from the book –Skylines

THE HIATUS

As Edward Becker raised his hands to bowl the last ball of the innings, different thoughts raced in his mind. It was his first international match. His captain had reposed complete faith upon him and he had been assigned the crucial task of bowling the last over in this critical match. He was feeling a bit insecure and unsteady. Would he be able to deliver? What if he fails? It was a ‘do or die’ situation.

Just then, Diya’s face flashed in his mind. She was bubbling with joy and chirpy as ever.  Her face beamed as she said, “Edward, I know it. You have it in you and you can do it.”

He closed his eyes for a split second. He suddenly felt an inrush of energy. Yes, he could do it. Had he not already taken five wickets since the starting of the match? He spun his ball with renewed enthusiasm and vigour. This ball could make or break the game. The rival team was just three runs short of victory.

The ball went briskly to the batsman and he had no chance. The ball touched the edge of his bat and landed in the hands of Edward once again. He jumped, he danced, he shrieked. He was extremely overjoyed. The captain and all his other teammates hugged him and threw him in the air. He felt that he was at the top.

Edward was getting married to Diya in the evening and he wanted to share this moment with his sweetheart.

While the champagne bottle was opened for him by his teammates, Edward was again taken down the memory lane. He had pursued English Literature earlier, not because it interested him but since he could not think of something better to do. In almost similar way, he had applied for this post of Assistant Editor in the famous social magazine ‘Buzz’ because he could not think of anything better. He did not have any craving to work as an editor. He had reached the venue of the interview without any expectations or goal. After all, one had to do something in life.

When he reached the venue, he was informed that the interview had been postponed by two hours. He was sitting lazily when the scent of a perfume filled his nostrils. A beautiful girl had entered and sat next to him. All eyes were on her. She looked stunning in her red tunic top and denim. But what bemused him the most were her eyes which had a naughty look in them. He felt electric sparks flying. To start the conversation, he asked her her name. With a glimmer in her eyes she replied, “Diya”.

“Your name sounds interesting. What does it mean? Is it an Indian name?” he asked. He had heard the name ‘Diya’ for the first time and it sounded not only different, but also intriguing.

She scrutinized his tall and narrow body frame before replying, “Diya means a candle in Hindi; a candle which lightens the world while it itself burns.”

“Too philosophical for me!” he said.

Amazon Link : Skylines

Layers of flickering lights

A poetry collection by Authorspress India, written by Ms. Neelam Saxena Chandra

Poetry collection of 101 wonderful poems which try to describe the voyage to the ultimate equilibrium between the mind and heart through poetry.

Excerpts from the book –Layers of flickering lights

THE WIND AND THE LEAF

Puff! Puff! Puff!

Blew the wind.

It was not only

harsh,

but ruthless too…

destroying everything

that came its way.

A little leaf

had just sprouted

and it was also

full of hope…

it made everything optimistic

that came its way.

The vindictive wind

learnt about

the buoyant leaf

and began

gusting and raging

around it,

surrounding it with

fury and frenzy.

It intimidated it,

It unsettled it,

It threatened it.

And yet,

the leaf

kept smiling,

undeterred.

Seeing the audacity

of the leaf,

the wind

finally blustered

so raucously

that the leaf

could no longer survive

and it gave up,

ah! so bravely.

Optimism and hope

does lose at times,

but then the fact

that it

persisted and flourished

brings a smile

on the lips

of all positive seekers.

Amazon Link : Layers of flickering lights

Detail Geography of Space

(It is difficult to comment about young author Mr Ashish Kumar and his mythological/spiritual/scientific  writing.  I am really mesmerized.  I am sure you will be also amazed – an entire chapter as an excerpts will change your thinking.) 

Blurb : Scientists doesn’t have answers to some all time mysteries of science like; why quantum particles shows dual nature and uncertainty? How black hole created in space? Why we can only feel presence of dark matter and dark energy but unable to locate them in universe? Why amount of matter and anti matter differs in our universe? Is time travel possible?  What is Higg Boson, their composition and how they give masses to other particles?  Can teleportation is possible? Can life at other planets possible? And many more unsolved problems of physics are solved only by a simple old Hindu philosophy called ‘Sankhya Philosophy’ or ‘Philosophy of evaluation of elements’. Yes a Philosophy which is based on three properties of nature called Sattwa (goodness), Rajas (Activity) and Tamas (Inertia) are reason behind all unexplained scenarios of science. s quest of unify theory of anything finally solved?

Excerpts from the book:  A Chapter from ‘Detail Geography of Space’

Uncertainty

Quantum mechanics does not assign definite values. Instead, it makes a prediction using a probability distribution.

In science world, we want everything perfect and accurate like accurate position, accurate momentum, definite energy, definite time of occurrence etc., but in quantum mechanics, we do not pinpoint the exact values of a particle’s position and momentum or its energy and time, rather it provides only a range of probabilities in which the particles might be given its momentum and momentum probability.

This uncertainty is called rules of uncertainty for quantum particles or particles which we can’t observe directly.

As we have discussed in details that according to Sankhya philosophy, we can’t tell the exact composition of three modes of nature in any matter or particle. We can only guess or make a probability of outcomes.

We can make more accurate guess on the species with large existence or objects which can perceive accuracy, but we can’t make exact prediction about atomic or quantum particles.

Now try to solve this uncertainty principle from Sankhya’s point of view.

Uncertainty principle: The position and momentum of a particle cannot be simultaneously measured with arbitrarily high precision.

Important steps to understand the uncertainty principle are wave–particle duality. As we proceed downward in size to atomic dimensions, it is no longer valid to consider a particle like a hard sphere, because the smaller the dimension, the more wave-like it becomes.

It is clear from Sankhya’s philosophy that composition of modes of nature in every element is continuously in the process to convert from one mode to other. In large species like human being, composition is large and complex but keeps changing every time in our body and mind. We can’t perceive changes in a short time span in large species because it contains huge amount of modes components, and it will take time to completely change resultant of modes as explained in part Sankhya’s philosophy: abstract to generalised.

But as we go to atomic dimensions, there the total composition of three modes of nature is actually in very less amount. So a small change of one mode results into change in total composition of modes so that we can perceive changes. This rapid change shows wave-like pattern.

For example, if a particle is in the stage of Sattwa, it will change to Tamas and Rajas very fast because in these cases, Rajas has very less amount of mode in matter to change from Sattwa to Tamas, which Rajas can change very fast.

Now again we try to understand uncertainty principle from above explanation:

According to uncertainty principle, the position and momentum of a particle cannot be simultaneously measured with arbitrarily high precision.

Or ∆X∆P ≥Ћ/2

Where ∆ indicates standard deviation, a measure of spread or uncertainty; X and P are particle’s position and liner momentum, respectively.

We know that Sattwa is responsible for existence or position of anything in space, so we can say that in the above equation

Sattwa = f (X) – position of particle in space.

Similarly, Rajas is responsible for motion so we can say that

Rajas = f (v) – velocity of particle and

Tamas signifies heaviness or stability,

So, Tamas = f (m) – mass of particle.

We know that linear momentum of any particle is

P = m × v = mass × velocity.

So, we can write in Sankhya

P = Tamas × Rajas.

Or, uncertainty equation like

∆ Sattwa ∆ (Tamas × Rajas) ≥Ћ/2.

It is clear from the above equation that in atomic particles, one mode of nature changes into other so fast that we cannot tell the exact composition of three modes accurately.

More clearly, suppose a quantum particle is in Sattwa dominating mode at any given time. As we try to measure its position (Sattwa show existence in space), it converted into Tamas mode by Rajas (Rajas play as a role of convertor). Now, if we try to measure the momentum of this particle or we can say that it’s Tamas and Rajas mode (Consider now particle is in Tamas dominating mode), it will converted again to Sattwa. And again if we try to measure the position, it will again convert into Tamas or whole Rajas because we know in quantum particles, change of mode is so fast that we can’t predict them.

In more Sankhya terms, we can’t tell composition of modes of nature in any quantum particle with accuracy at any given time.

Till now, we have discussed uncertainty for quantum particles or particles which we can’t see directly. However, does it work on all level? As we told above, we can’t tell about compositions of three modes exactly but can make closer guess in big object with more accuracy than quantum particles. But then, what about our stars and galaxies?

To think about the prospective of macro level, we have to understand the relativity in general. Space and time are relative quantity.

Example 9.1: Suppose, we have one box of 1×1×1 feet three dimensions. In this box, I have placed an ant so the space inside the box is very large for the ant, but very less for us. So with the case with other large objects, means space is relative (Figure 9:1).

Figure 9:1

Again, we know that time looks long when we have to wait for someone and very small when we spend with someone we love. Therefore, time is also relative. Means space and time both are relative and depends upon the form of reference through which we are observing.

Now back to the uncertainty problem, we have proved that uncertainty works very well for the quantum particles but not for us when we are observing from the reference of us. However, when we saw our life from large reference, is it possible to tell about what might happen with our life in future accurately?

Or more correctly, will we be able to tell with accuracy that we will be doing at what time in future?

No! we can’t answer it with accuracy because in any species small or large, from small reference to large, we can’t tell exact composition of three modes of nature. We can go as close as possible as science progresses.

© Ashish Kumar