ASTROLOGY THE GATEWAY TO FUTURE PHYSICS

Our Astrologer, who had prepared our Horoscopes was a lanky man who could afford only two pieces of cloth to wear. A white rough long-cloth (Dhoti) covered him from his waist to the knees and the other an ocre coloured cloth with slokas from Vedas printed thereon, covering his shoulders. He walked bare feet through muddy village roads. He accepted without looking at the sum being offered by the families he visited occasionally, in token o his services. The thought of being poverty-struck never occurred to him, for he valued his knowledge of Astrology, which he acquired in traditional learning centers of Varanasi; the city that has preserved the old vedic ways and its Sanskrit language.

I remember my father a school teacher with barely enough to maintain his family, laughing together with the Astrologer over a glass of tea, when he predicted that I would soon go to a foreign place for some years. It was nothing but a joke for someone who could hardly afford a bus ride to the nearest big-town 60kms away. Yet after the tea, he told my parents to be ready as it must come true. As it happened about a month later a young college professor who knew us brought a form, filed it up and asked my father to sign. In a few months time, after two consecutive exams six students out of thousand applicants won scholarship from Govt of India, to study in costly Prestigious schools. My school was thousands of miles away, where the language, culture and people were all foreign to us, even though it lay within the geographic limits of India. I was indeed in a foreign land for the next seven years. Neither my father nor the Astrologer had ever heard about such scholarships. Yet this person, just by calculating from the position of certain heavenly bodies at the moment of my birth, could predict correctly or in other words, could look ahead into time. Ask a Physicist, and to him this is such an impossibility that he will look down upon you and consider you superstitious.

This is just one instance I am telling as an example. There has been many predictions from him. What will the basic mental makeup of each of our brothers, which direction will be the house and what profession would be of the person to whom our elder sister would get married, when should my father be ready for his likely last hour, when I would fall sick while staying 2000 miles away from home etc etc. Most if not all have come true. Not only for us, but this is true for thousands of families, who have qualified and experienced Astrologers to consult. Later in my life, I have had prediction from other Astrologers regarding nature of my sons, my difficulties in my career etc.

I have been a student of physics and got my Masters Degree from a respectable university. Prior to my college education with Physics, I considered Astrologer's predictions just as something that was available if you wanted, without thinking much about what and how about it. But after studying Physics, I was astounded by this ability to calculate out events in future, even though in an imprecise general manner, from the position of certain celestial bodies.

Should we discard Astrology as superstitious humbug or is the secret of "Time" hidden in the folds of this little understood subject, whose antiquity is equally unknown.

DANGER TO INDIA FROM OVER THE HIMALAYAS

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.".. Those are the famous words of Jawaharlal Nehru at midnight 14th August'1947.
Alas today when the world is wide awake even at midnight, India sleeps even in the harsh sunlight of midday.

Today when the whole world is awake and alert to the amassed power and ever expansionist designs of China; India, the country most vulnerable to the fire-spewing Dragon, is in a deep uncaring sleep. If one looks at their long term preparations, Arunachal Pradesh and probably whole of north-east, will be in their occupation within 5 years. This time around USA will neither have the influence nor capability to push back China from Assam, as it did last time in 1962.

Our central government in Delhi, and their brokers do-not care to see beyond kick-back money. The bureaucrats will not lift their stranglehold over defense purchases. They are not blind. They can very well see the muzzle thrust over the Himalayas at India. But they do not loose their sleep. The sane people within and outside the Indian military establishment, are in a state of utter helplessness, aware of the imminent dangers.

Whatever little steps we are taking in armouring our defense forces are too little too late. There is no sense of national urgency to build defense production capability and developing indigenous technology. While Indian companies languish, precious money flows into the coffers of foreign companies on purchases of second-hand-second grade equipment, often outdated by the time it is introduced. A pathetic show of developing a mere Battle Tank is an example of what our capabilities are. Thanks to one supportive defense minister and a free hand to Prof. Abdul Kalam, that we have at least a few missiles to show off. But their numbers are also totally inadequate, against a vastly superior Chinese invading forces.

We all know that the greatest wealth of any nation is the spin-off technologies derived from defense-research and Space-research and therefore every penny invested in research will pay back the nation ten times; besides saving it from the enemies, who rightly perceive us as a weak target.

INDIA TOO MUST BE BOLD AND IMAGINATIVE

India is frittering away an opportunity that has come its way after an eternity. This is the time to think big, like China is doing. It has to move away from perpetual dependency on others for defense technology. Along with space industry this is where lies the advantage of developing cutting edge technology of our own. India desperately needs the strength to keep at bay the duel menace of Pakistan and China. This time round if China occupies Arunachal and Assam, USA will not have enough power to Make it go back, as it did the last time in 1962. India has to first stand on its own legs, like Isriel has done. 

This is also the moment when India should choose to increase the share of Renewable energy in a big way. Not only for environmental concerns alone, but for its clear advantages within the next decades and for a sustainable strong future. Humans must stop Harakiri of Life on earth by embarking on Nuclear fuel. It should be the last resort, in absence of any other options and only as a stop gap, before  it is able to harness the power of fusion. 

Manmohan Singh is a great economist and a statesman, but appears to lack the strength of conviction born out of  Scientific temperament. Time is running out.