Broken Bangles: Travel, Stories, Thoughts

(Image source: pixabay.com) My car was stuck in traffic on a long bridge over the river. I could do nothing except wait for the traffic to clear.  The panoramic sky over the river was blue with white clouds. I switched on the radio inside the car. Country music flowed like a gust on a hilltop.  People inside neighbouring cars turned their heads and began to listen to the music. Many of us involuntarily tapped our feet on the car’s floor.  I saw a stray dog walking on the sidewalk of the bridge. He sniffed around my car’s door and wagged his tail. Then he walked away with a dignified air.  The water was silver grey. The sun, mellowed under the shroud of a white cloud, was looking into the mirror of water and smiling. He seemed satisfied with his own image. What a narcissist! I thought.  This music, and this Sun, and this sky, and these clouds, and the dog will be gone the next moment. I shall remember them when I cross the bridge again, or I would be too preoccup...

(Image source: flickr.com) A traveller in a passing train waved at a child. The child stood in the courtyard of a house close to the rail line. The child waved back and smiled. It is a light-hearted moment of a chance encounter. How many chance encounters do we have with other people, and how many planned ones? If we count them, what will be the percentage of each? The odds are that ‘planned’ stands little chance.  Obviously, ‘chance’ weighs much more than ‘planned’. Yet, we all go about our lives assuming everything is planned and neatly in place. We plan everything years and decades ahead.  The mind is a slave to this perceived reality. We have no rational or independent mind as we believe. We see everything through this perceived reality and imagine it is the real view.    Accepting the role of chance could lead to positive or negative existentialism. You might feel that you have no control, but you could see 'chance' as an opportunity for innovation, improvi...

You are a farmer with a tract of land where you cultivate your crops. You spend a lot of money buying fertilisers. The farm is full of weeds, but the labour required to remove them is above your means. Here is an alternate path for you to enrich your soil with nutrients and have the weeds removed free of cost.  Invite a poultry, goat, or dairy farmer to graze his animals inside your farm after you harvest your crop. These animals spend their lives on your farm f or a month or two . The animals eat the weeds, solving a problem you will have in the next cultivation. Their excreta falls upon your farmland and provides it with free fertiliser. Once they leave, you can start ploughing your land. The manure is mixed with the soil homogeneously. And now, you can plant a new crop.  One simple plan like the above represents the term circular economy or circularity in an eye-opening way. Circularity is not limited to this modest example. Its implications are huge. It is a virtuous circ...

“There is no grand narrative. There is no pattern. Randomness defines it all. Or why do children die? Buds could be eaten in bloom. Evolution’s hands are always full. Hence, it does not mind wastage. Only a few need to survive for species survival. The rest is just fodder,” inside the bar, around a table, four of us sat and listened to the rambling of the only friend who was drunk.  Others were in a happy mood. They glanced at the drunken one who had turned a philosopher, as often happens with such substances. Then they glanced at each other and winked and smiled kindly.   “Why is a beautiful woman, as gorgeous as a pheasant, consumed by cancer? How do we embrace this impermanence and stay sane?” His eyes sparkled with suppressed tears.  We all felt sorry for him because he was a loner, never fully liked by his friends, but tolerated because he had a sharp wit when he was not drinking, and he meant well, we all knew that.   Deep inside, everyone knew his wo...

  (St Basil Church, Moscow; Image source: flickr.com) Hi Traveller,  Magnificent, breathtaking, incredible, fabulous- no adjective can fully do justice to the marvel of the Orthodox churches of Russia. If you are a traveller searching for sublimated sights of history frozen in time, you must stand in front of Saint Basil’s Basilica in Moscow at least once. You will see the evening sky acquiring an added glow from the church's colourful spires and domes. No other experience can give you the authentic taste of ancient Rus than visiting the orthodox churches.  As Winston Churchill once defined, Russia is "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Welcome to the marvellous enigma of Russia and its magnificent churches, of which many became communist party offices and administrative offices during the Soviet regime and were handed back to the folks of faith when that era passed. These buildings thus represent, above all, the passing of time.  The gorgeous Saint Bas...

(image source: Pixabay) A cancer vaccine has always remained elusive for medicine and science. Is this situation changing? Is hope rising over the horizon? The Ovarian Cancer Vaccine According to the latest news , Oxford University scientists have developed a vaccine for ovarian cancer . This vaccine, OvarianVax, when available for use, will be able to teach the immune cells in our body to detect and attack ovarian cancer cells in the early stages of this disease. Prof. Ahmed Ahmed is the leading scientist behind this research.  The trial for this vaccine has started. The importance of this development is that when it is ready, this vaccine might wipe out ovarian cancer. Yet, this vaccine is still years away.  Why Is a Cancer Vaccine Still a Mirage? What is Happening on the Research Front? Catherine J Wu, a cancer scientist, was awarded the prestigious Sjöberg Prize for her contribution to cancer research  in February 2024 . She is a professor of medicine at Harvard...