Living in a Digital World

Pythagoras, the famous Greek philosopher and mathematician, once said, “Everything is a number.” For a long time, people thought the idea is overstretched and metaphoric in his interpretation of creation. How could you convert everything a number, or how numbers could justify the existence of this material world? However, in today’s world of internet and digital computer the maestro’s metaphor is thriving with resounding resonance at every corner of this planet.  We can have everything now in numbers – music, art, dance, movies, images of every animate and inanimate object, the three-dimensional flora and fauna – they could be described by numbers – their colors, texture, seamless interactions with the environment – it is the Pythagorean world mirroring our existence as well as aiding its sustenance. This virtual world maintains a symbiotic relationship with our real world. We create it by digitizing the objects and concept, and it recreates our experiences; thus guiding us to face and overcome new challenges and stresses of life. The synthesis of our life with this virtual world is so strong that we have also become numbers in various ways. We now have digital codes for almost everything be it’s a subatomic particle or a large galactic body in the Universe – sometimes using a global standard, sometimes a local number limited to a specific system of operations. Thus our personal identities are numbered in the form of different IDs including in the recent Aadhaar scheme of the Govt. of India intending to provide every citizen of this country a unique identifier (UID). 

Digital Characteristics

How digital being differs from our common notion of this material world, in particular in space and time?  What we see, feel, touch or listen, appears to us as a continuous stream of experiences over space and time. An object in a space could be of finite size and discrete. But, object occupancy in that space, however infinitesimal it may be, is considered to be continuous. The same is true over time. A period of time interval could be also finite and very precise. But, it has infinite number of time instances (or moments) within it. In digital form a finite space and a finite time interval has a finite number of cells and time instances, respectively. So an object in digital form is described as a collection of cells, occupied by it. Similarly, over a time interval, only discrete events are recorded or observed at a finite number of time instances.  Since the cells or time slots are countable and could be specified using numbers (integers) only, the digital representation becomes an ordered set of numbers. Not only the object occupancy, but also various properties or attributes of objects at those locations, e.g. surface texture, volume transparency, color, etc., can be represented in the digital form.  The values of these attributes over the digital space or time are encoded by numbers.

Mathematically, we denote the variation of values as functions over space or time or both. Consider an example in one dimension. Let x be a variable, which takes any value within the interval [a,b] in the real axis. We denote f(x) as a function of x. In this case f(x) is a function in continuous space. Its domain is x. We may refer it also as an analog function. An example of a digital function g(i) following f(x)  could be in the form of a finite sequence say, g(i)=round(f(a+ik)), i=0,1,…,n, i.e. g(0)=round(f(a)), g(1)=round(f(a+k)), g(2)=round(f(a+2k)), …., g(n)=round(f(a+nk)), such that (a+nk) ≤ b.  In this case, rounding of real numbers into an integer value is expressed by the operation round(.). Hence, the values in the sequence are integers. The process, by which a sequence is generated selecting functional values at regular intervals, is known as sampling. The length of the regular interval is known as sampling period.  In our example, the sampling period for generating g(i) from f(x) is k. We find that the digital function in some way approximates the analog function f(x). It gives almost the same values at points of x from where the functional values are sampled. Even the intermediate values between two points could be computed by using interpolation techniques, say by imagining a straight-line passing through these two points, and determining the functional value at any intermediate point lying on the straight line. More we take the number of samples within the interval of a and b, better is the approximation. This implies that we need to take smaller sampling period. Suppose these points are plotted on a paper. With decreasing sampling period, the gaps between these points become smaller, and the curve would appear to be closer to that of the analog function. So one may naturally ask a question, how small this sampling period should be so that f(x) could be obtained faithfully from g(i)?

Science of digitization

The answer to the above query comes in the form of a theorem, the Nyquist sampling theorem, named after the American Scientist Harry Nyquist, who discussed it in 1928. Let us understand this theorem intuitively. Consider a sinusoidal function in the form of A.sin(2πmx+ɸ). From its mathematical form, we attribute A to be its amplitude, so that in every cycle the functional value varies from A to –A, and -A to A. The length of the period is 1/m. m is also called the frequency of the function, and ɸ is the phase term.  Given a sampled sequence, both the positive to negative and negative to positive transitions of the function could be captured, only when there are at least two samples per cycle. This implies that for sampling a sinusoidal signal, the sampling period should be at most half of its period, or in another form, the sampling frequency (number of samples per unit scale of x) should be at least twice of its frequency. Now by performing Fourier series analysis (introduced by  Joseph Fourier, the French mathematician and physicist, in 1830), we express almost any function f(x) as a superposition of a number of sinusoid functions. Each component sinusoid is called a frequency component of the function. In most cases, the number of components is infinite. However, for functions related to a physical system (for example a time varying signal of an electrical circuit), the contributions of high frequency sinusoids become negligible. In that case, beyond a frequency m_h we need not bother to sample any component. This requirement guides us to select a sampling frequency no less than 2m_h, twice the highest frequency component of the function. Nyquist sampling theorem says that the minimum sampling rate should be twice the bandwidth (the length of the frequency interval of the components) of the function.

The other factor, which is also associated with the approximation of the analog function in digital form, is the conversion of a functional value to an integer. In the example given previously we have used rounding function to get this conversion, which keeps the difference between an actual and the corresponding approximate value within 0.5. Not necessarily rounding is the only method of conversion. For example, truncation could also be another form, in which only whole number part of the real value is retained, by throwing away the fractional part. Even in a more general situation, one may divide the values by a scale factor and keeps only the integral quotient to represent the digital functional value. In the reverse process of computing analog values from their digital counter parts, the same scale factor is used in multiplying with the quantized values. The scale factor is also referred as quantization threshold, and the process of converting real values to integers in this way is called quantization. The reverse of quantization is termed de-quantization. Smaller we take the quantization threshold; less becomes the error of conversion.

Reconstruction Process

Let us consider the other side of the story. Given a digital sequence, how one could get back the analog function? As intuitively we have seen earlier, one may carry out linear interpolation between successive samples to get the values at every point in the domain. However, it is far from a close approximation of the original analog function. This can be understood from the digital representation of the sinusoidal function. As we have discussed, it is sufficient to recover a sinusoid function with two sample values per cycle of it. However, the linear interpolation of successive sample points would provide us a triangular periodic function. So, is there any better way to recover this sinusoidal variation?

The answer to the above question is provided by the linear system theory. In fact the Nyquist sampling theorem is based on the assumption of reconstruction of a function through a linear shift invariant (LSI) system. A system is something, which accepts input in certain form, and provides an output in the same or a different form. It is characterized by its input-output relationship. In a simpler form, a system may be considered as a function, which takes an input (say, x) and provides an output (say, y). However, in general, a system is more than a function. Rather a function could also be its input (say, f(x)). In that case, its output would be another function (say, g(x)). For example, in a radio set the electromagnetic wave (or radio wave) transmitted in free space is its input and the sound played by its speaker is the output. A linear system follows the superposition principle of input-output relationship. It implies, given an input x₁ if the output is y₁, and for x₂ if the output is y_2, a linear combination of the inputs (say, ax₁ + bx₂) produces the same linear combination of their respective outputs (i.e. ay₁ + by₂). A system is shift invariant, if a shifted input produces the same shift in its respective output. For example, if f(x) produces g(x) in a system, in a shift invariant system f(x-x₀) produces g(x-x₀). An interesting property of an LSI system is that given an input in the form of a sinusoid function it also produces a sinusoid function of the same frequency as the output. However, the amplitude and phase of the output sinusoid go through changes. Due to linearity, output amplitude changes with the same proportion of the amplitude of the input. This proportion is called gain. Similarly, due to shift invariant property shift in phase of the output sinusoid function from the input at the same frequency remains constant.  Hence, an LSI system could be characterized by the variation of gain and phase shift over varying frequencies of input sinusoids. This is known as the transfer function or frequency response of the system. If the frequency response is known, it is possible to determine whether a sinusoid of a specific frequency would provide a significant output response or not. If the gain at that frequency is very low (nearing zero), the output response would be negligible and in all practical purposes it is ignored. As we have already seen that almost any function f(x) can be expressed as an additive combination of sinusoid functions, applying the principle of superposition of a linear system, it is possible to determine the output from its frequency response.  In the output, depending upon the gains at varying frequency, some of the sinusoidal components would be present and some of them would be filtered out. As an LSI system is capable of selectively passing and modulating the frequency components by the respective gain factors and phase shifts of its frequency response, the system is also referred as a filter. A filter which suppresses the high frequency components and passes low frequency components till a cut-off frequency m_l is called low-pass filter (LPF), whereas a high-pass filter (HPF) passes only high frequency components beyond a cut-off frequency. There is also another class of filter known as band-pass filter (BPF), which allows frequency components within an interval to pass through. The reverse of the BPF is a band-stop filter. A physical LSI system has characteristics similar to those of an LPF or a BPF. This means that there exists a high-frequency cut-off beyond which the sinusoid functions do not respond. For example, the human auditory system responds to sound waves between 20 Hz and 20 KHz.  Our color perception is restricted within a band of wavelengths (roughly 390 nm to 710 nm) of electro-magnetic radiation, which we term as the visible spectrum. This property of physical systems enables us to process the input with an LPF or a BPF, and then apply sampling with a sampling frequency at least twice of the frequency band of the processed input.

Now, let us consider the response of an LSI to a sampled digital signal as its input. As an example, we may consider how our auditory channels would respond to chopped off sound waves at regular intervals. As expected such a discrete sequence would be a nuisance to our hearing. This is due to the fact that in this digital form the function has a lot many high frequencies, additionally introduced due to sampling operations. Those frequencies within the allowable range of the LSI would make a chaos in the output. However, the sampled function still has the frequency components of the original function in the same proportions. If the Nyquist sampling rate is used, the original frequency band would be well separated from those additional high-frequencies. Hence to recover the original analog signal, we need to design an appropriate LPF, which allows only the desired frequency components of the sampled function. This is how we get back the function again in the analog domain from its digitized version, i.e. by processing it through successive stages of de-quantization and low pass filtering.

Discrete sensing and perception

It is not that our perception of continuity of any event itself is continuous. Apparently we are immersed into a continuous flow of events and sensation. However, if we consider the anatomy and physiology involved in this process, we find that there is discreteness both in sensation and perception. Our sensory organs receive the stimulation from the environment through different nerve cells. As these cells are discrete, there is an inherent sampling in the process of receiving the stimulation. For example, in our retina of eye, there are about 120 million rod cells and 6 million cone cells. Hence the images formed by the retina are sampled by them. Moreover, the sensation is processed by these cells and transmitted through the visual path to our brain, where the final visual perception takes place for understanding the scene before us. The whole process roughly takes 100 ms, out of which around 3 ms are spent for the transmission of the excitation through the optical nerves. The rest are almost equally shared by processing at the source of reception (retina), and at the final destination (brain). However, due to this latency, our brain is not capable of processing any visual sensation within this period of 100ms, which implies that it works at the rate of 10 scenes per second. This fact is used in cinematography, television sets, etc. Similar discreteness is also observed in other sensory mechanisms. Our auditory nerve takes around 0.4 ms for conducting auditory sensation. Hence, though our ears are sensitive to sound wave with a frequency as high as 20 KHz, our audio perception, for which we have a very little understanding till today, should be limited by a rate of 2.5 KHz. In fact, the speed of cognition is much less as there are processing in the receptors as well as in brain. This is the reason, why we cannot understand any fast playing audio recordings, sometimes used in advertisements broadcast in television channels, where the law dictates a compulsory announcement on financial risks (say, of new investment bonds issued by a company), health hazards, etc.  In general, any sensation needs to be carried to brain or muscles through nerves. There is a finite time by which this could be accomplished. Besides, there is a refractory period in our nerve cells, within which it does not accept any new stimulation. In addition, it requires also processing in the source as well as in the destination. All these put a limit in the cognition rate and sometimes, even at the rate of sensation. Hence, not only the creation of digital content of the real world analog entities, such as sound, images, 3-D objects, etc., is guided by the principles of sampling and quantization, but also their realistic rendering takes place by exploiting the discreteness in our sensory and perceptual mechanism. Next we would examine, how through identification of the factors responsible for sensation of depth, direction and color, we can stimulate such illusive sensation from the virtual world.

Creation of illusion in virtual digital world

It is not clear what processing precisely goes in our brain, which empowers us to perceive the depth variations in an object in the 3D world. But we could identify the factors responsible for this sensation. These are from the two images of the same scene formed in the retinas of our left and right eyes, respectively. The corresponding image of a 3D point goes through a lateral shift in the right image, with respect to its position in the left image. This we would be able to sense, if we look at the same scene with one eye (closing the other eye) at a time, first by the left, and the next one by the right eye. It is observed that the amount of shift is inversely proportional to the distance of the point from us. Technically, these shifts are called parallaxes. Our depth sensation has causal relationship with these parallaxes. Hence to provide an illusion of depth in images, in 3D movies, we project two images of the same scene simultaneously on a screen. One image is meant for viewing by the left eye and the other one is for the right eye only. In addition, necessary care is taken so that a viewer does not see them by both eyes at the same time. This is achieved by various means of technological advancements. One is to use polarization of light in the projection of superimposed images, and watching them through polarized glasses.

A processing somewhat similar to visual stimuli goes in our hearing system also. We hear the same sound by our two ears. However, sound wave received by one of them reaches faster than the other. This difference of phase between these two simultaneously received sound waves gives us a sense of direction of the sound source. This principle is used in the recording and playing of stereophonic sound.  While recording, two channels are recorded by two separate microphones with a phase shift in their sound tracks, and during production of stereo sound, they are played simultaneously in two different sound speakers. This provides a relative depth variation in the source of sound in our surroundings. However, the sensation becomes more realistic, if we use a stereo headphone attached to our ear, as it reduces the effect of interference of surrounding sources during hearing. Moreover, with this gadget the emulation of phase differed sound tracks in our ear-drums, becomes more flawless.

Compared to depth and direction, our color sensing is better understood. In our retina, we have three types of cone cells. Each of these types acts like a filter, allowing only a certain band of optical wavelengths in the process of stimulation. One category of cones operates around the wavelengths near red colors. The other two allow those around green and blue colors, respectively. Though physically color is the property of the wavelength of light, in our sensation it is perceived by the superimposed stimulation of these three filters. This implies that even an appropriate mixing of these three primary colors, i.e. red, green and blue, respectively, can produce the same color sensation. It is not necessary to have an external simulation of the light energy of the precise wavelength representing the color in the optical spectrum. This enables us to design a system which produces all different colors using just three colored light sources, as opposed to use of infinite number of light sources of pure wavelengths. This principle is used in production of colors in a television set. Even in capturing color information also, we use the same principle. In this case, we use optical filters corresponding to the frequency (or wavelength) response of our cones, and then use optical sensors for capturing colors of an object. This is what is done in color cameras, both in analog and digital forms.

The above are only a few examples by which we realize how information related to the objects and various sensations of this real world could be put in the form of numbers, stored into computer memory, and used in their rendering as and when required. Day by day with the technological advancement we are increasing our power of recording our existence for the posterity in the digital form, so that at any point of time our 3D surroundings including us, are captured digitally with colors, sound, smell, touch, taste, emotion, etc., extending an invitation to others to share our experiences and emotion in this virtual world.

The Real Digital World

So far we talked about a virtual world, which may act as a mirror of our real world, and is capable of recreating itself with reliability and authenticity. In reality in sensing this illusive world, the discreteness in our sensation and perception plays a major role. Naturally one may ask the question, what about our real world? Does it exist with discreteness too? Or, is it inherently continuous? Let us see how modern science explains our existence in its very fundamental forms of matter, force, energy, and life.

The thing which should form the core of our understanding is our objective observation of this world in terms of measurements and quantifications of physical entities. From our school physics we know that basis of all such observations lies in measurements of three fundamental concepts, namely, mass, distance or length, and time. Whereas the last two are related to measurements in space and time, respectively, the first one is a measure related to matter. For a long time as our common intuition dictates, we considered the invariance of these measures in every state of an object anywhere in this universe. In particular for a moving object with uniform velocity, though its velocity is measured with respect to the inertial state of the observer, the measurements related to mass, length and duration are considered to be the same for identical objects or periods in any inertial frame. However, a simple physical fact posed a paradox to this apparently sensible assumption. The speed of light in vacuum for any observer in any state of motion is always measured the same. As the measurement of speed is associated with measurements of distance and time, the foundation of their invariance in any inertial state becomes fragile. Albert Einstein by proposing his famous theory of special relativity resolved this riddle. According to this theory, none of these measurements has any absolute frame of reference. They are all relative with respect to the inertial frame of an observer. The only quantity which is invariant in these frames is the speed of light in vacuum. Hence the length of a speeding vehicle would appear differently to its rider and to an observer standing on the road. The road side watcher would find it shorter than the rider. Even the duration or period between two events occurred within a vehicle would deem to be longer in the frame of reference of the observer at rest (with respect to the road). The measurement of mass of the object also becomes relative. Its value increases for an observer with a relative motion compared to that obtained by an observer who is at rest with respect to the object. We practically do not observe this variation in our common day experiences, as speeds of common objects in our inertial frame (stationary with respect to Earth) are much below the speed of light, and the variations are negligible. But for subatomic particles which move with a very high velocity, the measurements of their masses are shown to follow the laws of special relativity with high accuracy. Their observation for a longer period (their life-times in free space) is also possible due to time dilation in the static reference frame of the observer. Even though these measurements are different in different inertial frames, the laws of nature are the same and uniform in each of them. Hence, though the measurements are relative for a given inertial frame, they are dictated by uniform scales set by their standards. For example, a stationary rod of length of 1cm will always be read the same in every inertial frame.  However, there is no apparent discreteness in time and space even in relativistic world. Let us consider whether the same is true for the objects and events, which occupy a certain amount of space for a certain period of time.

Discreteness in material existence

Since the birth of modern civilization, ancient philosophers thought about matters composing of tiny indivisible particles. The Greek philosopher Democritus and his teacher Leucippus named them atoms. In the modern scientific era, the English scientist John Dalton proposed that atoms of elements combine to form compounds and hence they combine in a definite proportion of their masses. Till the end of the nineteenth century this was the single most discovery showing the discreteness in the behavior of material world. However, the scientific world started to wonder on the rule of numbers in nature by observing the periodicity in the molecular weights of elements with similar chemical and physical properties. The famous Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev catalogued these elements in a periodic table paving the prediction of existence of many other elements, which had remained undiscovered till his time. It is only at the end of the nineteenth century, subatomic particles were discovered by observing the phenomena of radioactivity (discovered by the French scientist Henry Becquerel in the year 1896) and cathode ray discharge in a vacuum tube. The English scientist J.J. Thomson in 1897 explained the cathode ray as a stream of negatively charged small particles confirming the hypothesis of existence of such a particle by the Anglo-Irish scientist G. Johnstone Stoney, who named it electron in the year 1891. Using radioactive emission Ernest Rutherford in the year 1907 showed the existence of a heavy concentration of positively charged mass within an atom, which he named nucleus, and proposed a model of atom where electrons are revolving around the nucleus. Later in 1918, Rutherford confirmed the positive charge particle in the Hydrogen atom and named it proton. In 1932, another subatomic particle in the nucleus, named neutron, was discovered by the English scientist James Chadwick.  The mystery of periodic table became unfolded with these discoveries, as we understand now that the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom does uniquely identify an element with its distinct physical and chemical properties. On the other hand arrangement of electrons (the same number as of protons in a neutral atom) around the nucleus, specifically the number of electrons in the outmost shell, provides explanation to its various chemical properties. As the number of electrons in the outmost shell varies periodically with the increasing number of protons (or the atomic number of an element), we observe similar properties in elements separated by a length of a period, which could be 2, 8, 18, or 32.  Even the arrangement of electrons also follows a rule of numbers (called quantum numbers) as they exist at discrete energy levels while revolving around the nucleus.

Within a few decades the simple picture of atoms containing only the above three elementary subatomic particles got shattered by the series of discoveries of many more elementary particles. Of course, electron itself is found to be elementary, and falls under a group of subatomic particles called lepton, which gets affected by electroweak force. In the group there are five more particles (besides electron), they are mu-meson (or muon), the tau-meson, and three types of neutrino. The second group of particles is known as hadron. This group contains more than 100 subatomic particles, which includes proton and neutron also. However, hadrons are formed by more fundamental particles, called quarks. There are six types of quarks, up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm. For example, a proton is made up of two up-quarks and one down quark, whereas a neutron is composed of one up and two down quarks.  The combined family of hadrons and leptons are called fermions. It is not only in their material existence, but also in their interactions, these sub-atomic particles exhibit discreteness. They interact among themselves by exchanging another type of particles, force particles, called bosons. There are four fundamental forces observed in nature, namely strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force, and gravitation. Out of these four, the first two are observed within nucleus, and the third one (electro magnetic force) is observed in the microscopic world of atoms and molecules, and also in the macroscopic world. However, gravitational force is so far observed only with the bodies in our macroscopic world. We are yet to explain its presence in the subatomic level. The strong nuclear force is responsible for holding the quarks together in hadrons by exchanging a type of particles known as gluons. There are eight types of gluons. The weak nuclear force is responsible for the decay of large nucleus, and there are three force particles associated with it namely, W⁺, W^-, and Z-bosons, respectively. The electromagnetic force acts through exchange of photons. In 1905, Einstein proposed that the light, which is also a type of electromagnetic radiation, contains stream of photons, each carrying a finite amount of energy (in quanta). In atoms, energy transfer takes place discretely through the exchange of a number of photons. It is similarly hypothesized that gravitational force is also carried out by a force particle, named graviton. However, the existence of graviton is yet to be confirmed experimentally. There is also another particle which is much smaller than any of the above particles predicted theoretically, called Higgs boson.  It is hypothesized that the mass of a matter is determined by its interaction with Higgs bosons. Its existence is also yet to be confirmed, as for its generation and observation for a longer duration, one has to collide two hadrons using a very high energy particle accelerator. The recent experimentation in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN) is an attempt towards this. The analysis of the experimental data is yet to be confirmed. However, there is an initial report of success, which requires much more careful investigation by the scientific community.

Life in discrete form

It is not easy to define life. In comparison the definition of a matter is simpler, as we may term it as a substance with a mass. According to this definition, a living being is also a matter. But then, what is the essence of life in it, is a mystery, a very little of which is understood today. However our modern understanding of life started with the observation that it functions in discrete form within the cells of an organism. That the smallest unit of life is a cell, was discovered in the middle of the seventeenth century. In 1665, the English scientist Robert Hooke observed the cellular structure in a cork using a microscope, invented by a Dutch tradesman Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. Inspired by Hooke’s work, Leeuwenhoek on his own extended the microscopic study in other substances, and reported existence of bacteria and protozoa in 1678. Finally the proposition that all living being are grown from pre-existing cells came from the German biologist, Rudolf Virchow in 1858. The most fascinating discovery of discrete nature of transmission of inheritance in the reproduction of organisms came from the work of an Austrian Augustinian friar, Gregor Johann Mendel, considered to be the father of modern Genetics. However, Mendel’s work remained unnoticed for a long time, and rediscovered again in the beginning of the last century with its revolutionary impact in developing the theory of genetic transmission of inheritance, and understanding the fundamental role of genes in cellular metabolism. During the same period of Mendel’s work, Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution as the origin of species and variations among them. Evolution and inheritance play an important role in sustenance of life. That is why in a modern perspective life is defined by NASA in their program of astrobiology as “a self-sustainable chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution.”  In view of this, the discrete form of genetic components and their pivotal roles in orchestrating a chain of events in the form of synthesis and interactions of proteins, RNAs, etc., are truly fascinating, as these are essentials in the sustenance of life.

In the second half of the nineteenth century it was understood that the hereditary factors are residing in chromosomes. There are always a fixed number of chromosomes in a cell for a specific organism. For example, a human non-reproductive cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes. Today we know more about its structure, which is a thread of double helical structure consisting of two DNA strands. A DNA is a sequence of four types of nucleotides, namely, adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.  In this long chain of nucleotides, there exist segments, which are responsible for synthesis of proteins, and RNAs.  Each such segment has a specific sequence, determining the amino acid chain of a protein, or a chain of ribo-nucleotides of an RNA. In fact a triplet of nucleotide in that segment is mapped to a unique amino acid in this process of synthesis. These triplets are termed codons, as they carry the protein translation code. There are twenty possible amino acids, and four types of nucleotides. Hence, we have 64 different codons, which are to be mapped to one of these twenties. This shows that there are multiple codons meant for a single amino acid. Moreover, there are a few codons which control the process of synthesis (called transcription followed by translation). They take part in initiation and termination of synthesis. It is amazing that this codon table is almost universal for every living, and extinct species of this earth. As more and more the secret of nature is unfolding, and the technology is moving fast with digital precision and robustness on synthesizing biochemical molecules in our laboratory, the scientists hope today what was unimaginable even a few decades ago, synthesis of life from lifeless inorganic chemical substances.  In June 2010, an attempt in a very nascent form was reported to the amazement (and also with some concerns!) to the scientific community. Dr. Craig Venter and his team of twenty scientists of the John Craig Venter Institute, USA, were able to create artificial life by implanting synthetic DNA containing around 850 genes into the cytoplasm of a bacterial cell.

The dual world

We live in a dual world. Nature works with both continuity and discreteness in our real world. We could find this discreteness in existence and interactions among living and non-living substances. On the other hand, they exist with the continuity of space and time. Who knows one day with new findings and new realization of laws of nature assumption on their continuity would not be at stake? In material existence also, the discreteness has a vague boundary. We know that a particle too, has a dual existence of a wave. Hence, it is not possible for us to determine exactly both the position and momentum of a particle. Nature has put limits in the precision of these measurements.  At the same time it offers us new challenges to uncover its mystery.

In our social life also we have to face another duality. We have to interact with both the real and virtual world. Day by day, it is becoming difficult to ignore the digital world in our social interactions. This digital world is created by us. It has many facets. It could be bothering your privacy, and monitoring you at every sphere of your activities. Again, it could be refreshing and entertaining. We could fly our imagination in its exploration. It can act as a tool for better understanding our nature, and thus controlling its resources and energy to our advantages. It is true that with the help of digital technology, we are presently going through a very exciting phase of social interaction and information sharing. But it has become possible only through our continued pursuit of knowledge to refine our understanding of this real world in its dual form.

12/02/2012

Pentis Ortega

“Are you from the south?” the old lady asked me. I was waiting for the bus to the University. The lady too was there for the same reason.  I had seen her previously during my daily commuting in morning hours. During that period there used to ply only one bus towards the University from our locality. So it was quite common to see every day those same faces, who would commute to their places of work using the city bus. Other days, I used to board from a different stand, a little ahead of the place, where I was waiting then.  Every morning I used to be in the bus earlier than the old lady, and would see her getting inside with the help of a young man. In that morning also, the same person came with her. He appeared to be in his late twenties - a little short and bulky, wearing a baseball cap, a loose tee-shirt and knee long shorts. He had been pulling a bag with wheels over the cemented surface of the side walk, and after reaching the spot kept it on a side. Though we were co-passengers of the same bus in every morning, we had not talked previously. The old lady used to take a seat just behind the driver’s place. I preferred to keep myself aloof at some corner of the bus. But that morning, the moment she saw me, she came forward, and dragged me into the conversation.

She could be in her seventies. Like the young man, who came with her, she was also short and bulky.  However, unlike him her complexion was brown. She had a hat on her head, and dressed herself by putting on something similar to an apron which almost touched the ground covering her feet, and on top of it she wore a sweater. She had been walking slowly with the help of a stick, and drawing heavy breath at every step. In fact after reaching the spot, she took some time to regain her strength and breathe normally.  Then she turned her attention to me.

“No. I am from India,” I replied curtly.

“Oh! Indian! Oh yes! You also look like an Indian. My son-in-law is also an Indian.” Though she was speaking English fluently, from her accent I could sense that it was not her native language.

“Are you an American?”

“No! No! Mexican,” was her immediate reaction. After a while she explained, “But you can take me also an American. After all I am living here for so long.” She paused a little and then continued, “My grand son and grand daughter are Indian. Well, they are American too!” Once again she stumbled at her own narrative riddles of nationalities, but kept on talking, “My grand son’s name is ‘Satya’, and grand daughter is ‘Aruna’ -  Aruna Ortega. I am Pentis Ortega. We are Mexican. When my daughter was only nineteen, she met my son-in-law. She was going then to the University. There my son-in-law was teaching  Maths. You Indians are very good at Maths! And also with Computer! Like a ticking clock, you are fond of fingering ‘tick’ ‘tick’!” She laughed while making those sounds, “My grand son – a kid of fourteen – the same he is! All the time ticking with a computer! My son-in-law fell for my daughter the moment he saw her. He asked her so many questions. Where did she live, what her parents did? A lot many, hundreds of questions! One day, he came straight to our house and proposed to marry her.  Now he has grown a long beard. Everyone calls him Guru. Says ‘Namaste’ (a gesture for showing respect to a stranger)  by raising and folding palms.”

“Where does his family live in India?” I asked her.

Instead of uttering a name of a place or a state of India, she took me in a short mental trip over a hypothetical map of India. She pointed her stick in the direction of the bag kept on the side walk and said, “Suppose that is Madras. You arrive at Madras, and then..” she drew the stick towards North (It appeared to me so!), and brought it to rest at some point on the cemented floor with a firm conviction, “here – this is the place, where my son-in-law’s family stays.”

“In which language do they speak?”

“Telugu. Their children can  also  speak that language.”

“Where does your son-in-law live now?”

She told a name of a near by place. There her son-in-law was teaching Mathematics in a college. Previously they had spent four years in India. After a brief stay, they came back to America, and settled there for ever. While this conversation was going on, the city bus arrived at the stand, and its door was flung open for our entry.  So far, the young man, the companion of the old lady, was standing there without uttering a single word. I was also not sure whether he was listening to our conversation. The moment he saw the bus, he became active. He kept the bag on the foot-stand of its front door. The bus-driver on his own came forward, took the bag inside, and kept it on a platform just behind his seat. The old lady also followed him carefully with her sticks and heavy steps. She put two quarters in the vending machine, and took the ticket from it. Then she occupied the seat just behind the driver. I had to take the next seat beside her, as it was empty. The driver then closed the door, and the bus started moving forward. The young man, who helped the old lady boarding, waved his hands, and remained standing there looking at us through the window screen.

The driver’s name was written in the front of his seat – “Yerni”. He was an old acquaintance of the lady. No sooner she took the seat, she started conversing with him. After exhausting all the details to be known, since they last met, she again turned her attention towards me and asked.

“What are you doing here?  Did you come here to study? A PhD student?”

“No. I am a visitor. Not much of a work. I came here for two months.”

“Only for two months!” she appeared to be disappointed.

“But, to me it sounds pretty long!”

“Oh! Are you home sick? Where do you live in India?”

“In its eastern part. Near Calcutta.”

“Oh, Kalkutta! The famous Kalkutta! I heard its name. It must be a big city.” She exclaimed. After a while, she again asked me, “What do you do there?”

“Teach.”

“Mathematics? Computer?”

What an intelligent guess! I had to nod my head in agreement. She gave a smile of victory, and said, “I knew it! You Indians do all the time Maths and Computers. Always ticking before the dumb screen. Satya Raju, my grand son, he does not want to leave his Maths book. You know Yerni, my grand son and grand daughter also went to junior schools in India.  They spent four years there. Everyone in India took them as foreigners.”

The driver commented, “As Mexicans are treated here.”

I asker her, “Did you ever travel to India?”

She replied, “No. I never went there. But, my mother went once for attending my daughter’s marriage.”

“Was the ceremony held here?”

“No! No! It was in India. In my son-in-law’s village.” She continued, “The members of his family took great care of her. But they were strange. They would not allow my mother to touch anything. If she wanted to carry her luggage, they would say, “No! No! No!” If she wanted to get a spoon on her own, the women in their house would run towards her and cry out nervously, “No! No! No!” They would not let her touch their utensils. Nor permit her to enter the kitchen. My mother got very upset and angry too. My daughter consoled her, “GrandMa! You are their guest. That’s why they do not want to give you any trouble.”  It was both a shock and a surprise to her!”

She took a pause and then told Yerni, “You know, Yerni! In India they do not use tables and chairs for dining. They would sit on a floor to take their food.”

He asked, “How did you know?”

“I saw the photographs. My mother was quite fatty and heavy. It was hard for her to sit. It was funny for them too to see her trying to put herself on the floor! Then, everything for us was kept separately, from utensils to bed sheets. Even if you ask for water, they would serve it with a small spoon, and pour it into your glass a number of times, as long as it gets filled up, or you asked them to stop. It was so strange!”

Yerni replied, “In India, they have caste systems. They will not allow you to touch anything, if you are an outsider.”

“Oh God!” The old woman could not suppress her disappointment.

Yerni told her, “Pentis! You could have visited India.  There are so many sages and hermits in India. They know many tricks and magic. They could have treated your diabetes and arthritis.”

“Is it?” she asked me.

I said, “Not at all! In India there are also many patients like you. I have not seen anyone getting cured out of those exercises.”

“Look at my legs.” She showed me her legs which were covered under her apron. They were badly swollen, and wound up with clothes and cottons. “It is so painful. Wuh..Wuh..Wuh!” She made a groaning sound to make us feel for her sorrows and sufferings, “I have arthritis from my childhood. It’s so painful. Especially if it rains, it almost kills me!”

I asked her, “Were you born here?”

“No. No. I was in Mexico. I studied also there. Of course my father and uncle lived here. It is quite easy to go to Mexico. From here Texas is about three hours’ drive. From there you can easily cross the border.” Then she pointed her finger to Yerni and said, “Take this boy, Yerni! He is also a Mexican boy. But he would never marry an American girl? What do you say Yerni?”

Yerni answered, “Don’t listen to her.”

She objected, “No, No I am speaking the truth. These Mexican boys would go to Mexico for searching their wives. My brother once went there for a week. From there one day she rang my grandmother saying, “Grandma! I am married now! I am bringing my wife to your place.”  See, how professional he was! It took only one week to finish his business.”

“How do their wives come here so quickly? Do they get Visas so soon?”

“Visa? Are you crazy? They just come and stay here with their husbands. It would take around four to five years to get a legal paper. But if you have a child born here, you may accelerate the process. By birth the child becomes an American citizen. So the mother also gets a preference.”

In the mean time, our bus reached the University stop. So we got down. She was helped by Yerni, who dropped his bag on the pavement. I asked her, “What do you do here?”

She told me, “I work in the Library. Professors here put forward their requests to me to get different books and journals. I make a list of them and buy those books in the Library. Sometimes, I help them to search a book from the catalog.” She gave a little pause, and then said in a melancholy tone, “My son also came to this university to study. But he could not withstand the pressure.  He lost his mental balance, and could not recover from the depression. You have seen him; the man who came to see me off in the bus stand, he is my boy. He has also crossed forty now. For him only, I have to work, even at this old age. Otherwise who would look after him?” Then she suddenly changed her topic not giving me any chance to say any word of sympathy to her, “Anyway! It’s nice to meet you. You must be taking the road by the side of the administrative building. I watched you other days walking in that direction.  I will walk diagonally across the field. Come and visit me, when you are free. Have a good day!”  I also wished her good day. She took leave from me, and moved forward dragging her feet with the help of the stick.  She was also pulling her wheeled bag. She had to carry it on her own in this part of her lonely journey.

18/01/2012

At a concert

Dave asked me, “How do you find me, a bad guy or a good fellow?”

He looked at me diagonally with a mysterious smile in his face. I instantly replied, “Good! Definitely good! Why shouldn’t you be?”

Had I any other option? I was at the mercy of his goodness. His hand was on the steering of his car, and a part of his mind was negotiating the busy evening traffic in a highway of Los Angeles. I reasserted, “Undoubtedly, a good person you are!”

He agreed readily, “I also think so!” Then after a while, he told with a hushed voice, “But some people do not think so. They consider me an evil devil.”

I could not make out from his voice, whether he was making any jest, or feeling sorry for the injustice he received from those unscrupulous minds. We were going to attend a concert, where Dave’s brother would play guitar. His brother was a lawyer, and Dave told me that he might not be the most sought after in his profession. But he was an accomplished singer, and a good lyricist. He had his own band, and brought out a CD recently with a collection of his songs. The concert was meant for celebrating the twentieth birthday of one of his musician friends, who was a promising drummer. Dave’s brother was invited to play guitar to accompany a song, when his friend’s group would perform on stage.   

Dave reemphasized, “Some do consider me a bad person.”

I asked, “Why?”

“There is a fine line between being good and bad. You understand, what I mean? I may be good to someone for my role on certain matters. For the same reason, others may consider me bad. So why should you bother? At the end of the day, it is more important to know, whether you survived or not. I learnt it from my long experiences in the real estate business. I have been in this business for almost thirty years. The rules are grey in this sector. You can twist them, and surprise your adversaries.”

He took a pause. I was still staring at him, expecting something more to hear. He backed up, “The area where you live now is the downtown LA. Fifteen years before it was infamous for robbery and mugging. Even in daylight, people were afraid of roaming in the street alone. But, now you see, do you feel any disturbance or tension there? Things have become so quiet and peaceful. Do you know who brought this change?”

“Who?”

“It was by none other than me, Sir. It was me, who was instrumental in changing the demography of this region.”

“How come?” I wondered, but knowing him so far, I had no doubt on his honest and sincere claim on this unique feat.

“Well. You see. Who used to live there previously? Poor people, harboring thugs and criminals among them. I bought their land, built houses, and either sold them to the rich, or rented to University students and visitors. The poor were driven out from this locality.” He wanted to impress me further, “Do not think, it had been a cakewalk? I had to be very nasty in some cases. But, in any case, with my action the peace and prosperity followed in this part. You can call me bad or good, whatever, who bothers?”

He remained silent for a while, and then again carried on, “I hope you’ve understood how I could get hold of these properties.”

“How?”

“I had to be rough and tough in many cases, not a perfect example of a law-abiding citizen, and naturally I had to face many adversaries. Local police were after me during this whole period. My record was not so clean.”  He narrowed his eyes, and rested them on me.  He asked, “Had you ever spent a night in a jail?”

“Jail? – No,” I was honest in my declaration.

“Oh! Then, you are not yet grown up, Sir! It seems you are afraid of jailhouses? Why? You should spend a few nights there, just for fun. At least once in your lifetime you must have this experience.”

“You might have a different opinion, if you stayed for a night in a jail of our country.”  

Dave nodded his head, “I see, what you mean. In Afghanistan, I had escaped it narrowly. Otherwise, I would have been hanged readily.”

“For smuggling?” I tried to hit upon an intelligent guess from our previous conversations on his business in Afghanistan.

“Yes. For smuggling drugs,” He elaborated, “I could avoid imprisonment there. But, after returning from that country, I did spend a number of nights in prisons here.”

“Why?”

“For keeping a gun with me.”

“Yours?”

“No. Someone else’s.”

“Did you shoot ever?”

“Oh! I had to, but never killed a man. But who knows, one day I may require doing so?” By saying this he turned towards me and asked, “Perhaps, you do not have much interaction with the under-world.”

“Not so. But I could guess a bit.”

“I see. You all live into your secured little comfortable shell. I wish I could break that, and show you the other world.”

He appeared to be serious, as he went into an unusual silence for a while, quite unbecoming of his character. I too was seriously contemplating whether to revise my previous certification on the ‘goodness’ of his character!

The evening traffic in the road became quite thick, and cars were moving very slowly shoulder to shoulder. It made Dave very jittery.  In the mean time his brother made a few calls. They were waiting in an Ethiopian restaurant for us. Dave asked me, “Do you have such a heavy traffic in your town.”

“My town is very small. We do not have so many cars there.”

“Oh! You are living in heaven then. The traffic in LA sometimes kills me. That is why I hate driving car in these evening hours. But I love this city. A comfortable temperate weather round the year.  It rains occasionally. That too mostly at night! Almost every day is sunny here.  Roads in your cities must be very congested gasping with traffic-jams in busy hours.”

“Yes. It is quite common.”

“When I started my business, I had an Indian partner. He was from Bombay.  He told me so. We became quite intimate. Even he was pushing me to marry his sister. But his father was a shrewd businessman. An ideal feudal lord of a third world country! I learnt from him how to recover the rent from an unwilling tenant.”

“Did they go back to India?” I asked.

“No. They are still here. But we are no longer partners. The relationship broke on account of an incident of tax sale. Do you know what a tax sale is?”

“No,” I frankly admitted my poor knowledge on the matter of real estate business.

“It is the sale of a property by the Municipal Corporation to recover unpaid taxes of its owner. The sale is made through an auction. I took advantage of its loopholes, and forced the corporation to change its rules.”

“Is it? How come?”

“Whenever there is an auction on account of a tax sale, I used to be present there, and get to know the price of the sale. The municipality would pay the owner the balance amount of the sale by deducting the tax dues. Then I approached the actual owner of the property and told them, “Look! You have lost the property. Why don’t you give it to me? I would take care of your dues. In addition, I am also giving you reasonable ready cash.”  As the poor owner had no idea of the proceedings, and had almost nothing to bargain at that point, he would be more than happy to sell it to me. So I became the owner instead, and readily encashed the amount from the corporation, which it received out of the sale of the property. Of course, the corporation deducted the tax-dues from the selling price. Yet I could keep a significant margin from what I paid to its actual owner.”

“But, why didn’t the original owner of the property collect the money from the corporation?”

“Well! They are usually ignorant about such deeds.”

I felt sorry for the deprived ones, but kept mum on this matter. But Dave could sense my disapproval of his action. He cast a sharp eye on me, and asked, “Do you think, I have a moral obligation to inform them?”

I hesitated, “Well! Should you not?”

“Why should I? What is my interest in doing such a social service, when they could themselves get the thing by knowing the procedures? But, I must admit, I overdid it. I made millions out of those sales. At certain point, I had profited from four such consecutive tax-sales. It cautioned the authority, and they brought a change in the rule to stop me. They now allow the handing over the proceedings of the sale to an owner, who possesses the property at least for last one year. So that was the end of my making easy bucks from such a golden goose.”

After a pause, he told me, “There is another kind of sale. Probate sale. In this sale, the property of a deceased person is sold. It’s a real fun to make a deal out of this sale. Specially, if you find the lawyers responsible for the sale are corrupt. You could cut a deal with them. But you need to be thorough about the laws and regulations. You must be extra careful”.

When we reached the restaurant, where Dave’s brother and his niece were waiting for us, it had already become dark outside. It was an Ethiopian restaurant. After exchanging our greetings over introduction, Dave told me, “You got a vegetarian company now! My niece is a vegetarian like you. Let us order two dishes of non-veg and two for veg.”

Dave’s niece must have been in her early twenties. She was a teacher of a school of mentally retarded kids. She was not only a vegetarian, but also carrying on additional restrictions on her diet. She would not take anything produced from animals, neither egg, nor milk, butter, etc.  She was a vegan. Dave commented, “If you meet any young American girl, most likely you would find them willful, crazy, and vegan.”

I found Dave’s niece was smiling at her uncle’s observation. I remarked, “She let you off, just because you are his uncle. Otherwise, you would have got a nasty lesson for having such a reactionary male-chauvinist view.”

Dave told, “Well! That’s what I am. But, I am also proud to be uncle of such a beauty!”

I asked his niece, “How do you maintain the balance of your diet? In our country milk is the major source of protein and vitamins for vegetarians. But you do not take it.”

She told, “I take beans, milk of saya.  Also I take vitamin tablets.”

The Ethiopian food was served in a big bamboo plate.  At its four corners different vegetarian, and non-vegetarian items were placed.  There was also a separate dish containing thin and soft pieces of breads prepared from rice and flour. All of us, both vegs and non-vegs,  ate on the same plate at its four different corners.

After our dinner we moved to the place of the concert. I expected it to be a decent auditorium. Instead I found it a small night pub, named ‘The mint’. There would be usual entertainment from different bands in that evening. As I mentioned previously, Dave’s brother would play guitar in one of them. On my entry a young girl welcomed me by rubber stamping on my wrist. It was the ticket to the world inside. She said jokingly, “Did you cross eighteen?” Dave replied, “Just a few weeks ago, my dear!”

Not many persons were there in the semi dark interior of the pub, which was immersed in a reddish glow all around. In stark contrast, an empty stage as white as in midday sun was waiting for us. There were drums and sound systems in the stage. In front of it, a few tables were placed, mostly unoccupied.  A bar was running at one corner of the wall. Dave said, “We are lucky enough to get a table. Very soon the place would be crowded, and you would taste the real rock ‘n’ roll in a mad house. We are not going to stay here long. As soon as my brother’s program gets over, we will push off.”

Four of us took a table, and a young waitress greeted us for taking the order.  It was written on a piece of paper on the table that to occupy a chair one must order for two drinks, or a dinner. Dave promptly asked for two pegs of black jack, and looked at me expectantly. I went for white wine – to justify my occupying a seat. Dave’s brother and niece also joined us.

Soon the music started. I was never close to such a high volume trauma previously. It reminded me of my night mares of early hostel days, when the sound system in our common room would blast my ears with high metallic sound of instruments and bombardment of western drums. Yet, I could take shelter then in my room by closing its door and window. It was also at a tolerable distance from the source of audible anarchy and chaos. Sometimes victims like me, could make a united foray against those crazy music lovers and put a social pressure on them for sparing us from their passion and fashion. But, in that evening I had no means to shut myself out of the living merriment going all around. Dave clarified, “It’s pure rock ‘n’ roll! Soon the dancing will start.” However, that evening there was not much of dancing. There was hardly any space in the floor for dancers. The stage was very near to the tables. The audience was mostly standing behind us resting against the railings of the bar counter. The barmaids were regularly keeping vigils on our glasses, and attending tables whenever they became empty. Dave went on filling his glasses at periodic intervals. His brother was also following him. I had to be extra careful not to finish my drink before we leave the place.  I was hoping for his brother to perform on stage at any moment. But it was getting deferred at every new song and appearance of a new band other than his friend’s. In the mean time, Dave could discover two budding talents from one such band. They were in their teens, and must be out of their schools recently. Both of them played guitars for a band. Dave invited them to his table, offered drinks, and ordered dinners for them. He appreciated their performances in short phrases, “You guys are really good! You have a great future! Please carry on.” I could  see the happiness and joy in their faces by getting appreciation from a senior person like him.

Finally, the band, with whom Dave’s brother would play the guitar, took the stage. Dave was very fond of the young drummer, whose birthday was celebrated that evening.  He told me, “He is a very talented young drummer. I love to listen his playing.”

In this band the main singer was a tall young man, with curly hairs. He appeared to be in a trance, most likely under the influence of some drugs. He never looked at the audience face to face. Rather, he directed both the pupils of his eyes toward his nose, and took the microphone stand as his dancing partner, or an enemy soldier, whatever you might consider. Even a bad critic of rock ‘n’ roll like me, could not help appreciating his wild jumps, and high pitched terrifying vocal delivery on stage. He also got an able partner, a giant electric guitarist, who was shaking his body with the vigor and rapidity of a fighting bull. Their movements were aptly reciprocated by beatings of drums and cymbals, and high decibel emotion of the singer. Amidst this hulla bolla (hue and cry), Dave’s brother’s name was announced for accompanying the singer in a number. He was ready by then. At that moment, Dave was tabling a fresh order for another two pegs of black jack. His brother told him, “Who would drive the car? Jay or You? My daughter will drive me back.” Dave casually remarked, “Him!” His brother became assured, and went to the stage. I got alarmed and looked at Dave whether he was serious. It was not that I had not driven before. But, my confidence was restricted within the boundaries of my residential campus in India, and I had never crossed its border driving a car. Dave knew it. He winked at me and said, “Don’t worry. I can drink poison, but be steady on the wheel. But, there might be one problem. If I get caught by the police, you have two options. Either spend the night with me in a jailhouse, or walk straight to the safety of your shell.” I was not so fortunate.  Though we flew back home in the dead of night, no police car stopped us.

29/12/2011

Telemedicine: A Retrospective

Around March 1997, we got an invitation from the Department of Electronics (DOE), which is now called the Department of Information Technology (DIT) under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), Govt. of India, for writing a proposal on a low cost telemedicine system. During that time the concept of telemedicine was just beginning to catch the imagination of the medical world. However, there were quite a bit of confusion and myth around it not only among laypersons, but also among many doctors and health administrators. Some of them considered it as the replacement of medical professionals, and had a negative and sarcastic attitude towards its adoption. Some thought it was a utopian sci-fi solution for the future generation. The net effect was that none took it seriously and there was a lack of enthusiasm in using this technology for improving the health care delivery to the people.  In fact, when we approached the then Health Minister of the Govt. of West Bengal, we got a lukewarm response. The proposal though got a push due to the enthusiasm and energy of a doctor, Dr. V.K. Gupta. At that time he was the Head of the Dept. of Leprology of the School of Tropical Medicine (STM), Kolkata.  Previously he had been collaborating with us in developing an expert system for treating leprosy. So exactly a year after we proposed to make a telemedicine system using low bandwidth channels like POTS, for treating the patients of chronic tropical diseases, such as leprosy, Malaria, Kala-azar, etc.  It took almost one more year to get the sanction from the DOE and the project started in the January of 1999. We got an able partner with us, Webel Electronics System Ltd. (WECS), Kolkata in the execution of this project, and since then the partnership has been growing strong in executing different other telemedicine and related projects.

First Telemedicine System

Within a year and a half (August 2000), we developed a prototype system on a Windows-NT platform. We named the system TelemediK. As the system was meant for low-bandwidth data communication we took care of the following for reducing the requirement of bandwidth.

(i)                 Adoption of  store-and-forward methodology for data transfer supported by organized capturing of patients’ data in a back-end RDBMS, and

(ii)               Design of an online graphics communicator for data conferencing between two doctors against medical images with annotations, file transfer and text chatting.

The system went through several test runs using ordinary telephone lines between distant places, such as Kolkata and Bhubaneswar, with Kharagpur. As our Institute has centers at these two places, we could perform these experiments conveniently as and when required. Finally the system was installed in the STM, Kolkata in November, 2000. The first beta test between STM, Kolkata and IIT, Kharagpur took place in February, 2001.  We found that our system can work with a data rate as low as 5 Kbps. In our design, we kept a separate telephone line for audio conversation and there was no scope for video conferencing. We made some attempts on supplementing the consultation with online video frame transfer at a very slow rate of 1 frame per second.  However, it failed to clear the acceptability test from the conversing participants. In our early days, we went to several places, such as Christian Medical College, Vellore; Westbank hospital, Howrah; Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha; Sikkim Manipal Instititute of Medical Sciences, Sikkim, Elitex exhibitions held at Delhi, etc.,  to demonstrate the system and got appreciations from different corners. At that time, a few commercially available telemedicine systems used impromptu data transfer for tele-consultation and were not bothered about their organization and archival for subsequent uses. Our system was a departure from that trend, as it used a back-end RDBMS. Gradually, other systems also started using data bases for archival and retrieval of patients’ data during telemedicine sessions.

In 2002, the first telemedicine network in West Bengal was set up with the referral center at STM, Kolkata, and two other nodal centers at the State general hospital of Habra, North 24 Parganas, and at the district hospital of Coochbehar, a place at a distance of  about 500 Km. from Kolkata.  The doctors at referral centers were supposed to provide their expert opinions to their peers at nodal centers. In the later versions of the software, however, we removed this distinction and two doctors at two ends are able to participate with equal roles and rights for consulting over patient’s data.  WECS did excellent work in setting up the network and building the local infrastructure at those centers. They also provided necessary man power support for its daily operation. A good number of referral cases were discussed using telemedicine services during the project-period. Around 1400 patients of these two nodal centers were treated in next two years. Interestingly, by observing a large number of referral cases in dermatology from Habra, the Health department posted a dermatologist there. Naturally, this reduced the requirement of referrals. This also shows the evanescent nature of telemedicine. Through planning aided by its history of referrals, or training to a non-specialist by tele-consultation, the intensity of its use for the same purpose diminishes with time. However, as medical knowledge is dynamic and expansive, it is expected that there will be always a need for such consultation, with an improvisation on the quality of knowledge sharing.

Expansion of Network

In the year 2003 the network was expanded to include a few more hospitals, including referral centers at NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital, Kolkata,  Bardhaman Medical College and Hospital, Burdwan, and North Bengal Medical College and Hospital at Siliguri. The nodal centers were set up at district hospitals in Darjeeling, Purulia, Suri, Medinipur and Baharampur. This time we made several changes in our system as it used relatively higher data rates of 512 Kbps from the West Bengal State Wide Area Network (WEBSWAN) of the Govt. of West Bengal, which run on fiber optic links owned by BSNL. Some centers were also connected through ISDN links. The system was also supplemented by video conferencing functioning independently over the same link. The formal inauguration of the services took place on the 26^th January, 2004, by the then chief minister of West Bengal, Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya.

Another stage of expansion followed soon with a new version of TelemediK (TelemediK-2005) installed in 16 hospitals (including the previous hospitals) across the state. In TelemediK-2005 we removed the distinction of referral and nodal centers, and made provisions of multi-referencing of a patient. During the project period a number of patients (about 3000 patients in six years) were treated from remote ends using this infrastructure. In particular, there were regular referral cases from Purulia, Baharampur and Raiganj. However, the usage was largely dependent on individual doctor’s enthusiasm and dedication. Many of the centers remained practically defunct since their inception. In spite of our repeated urge and suggestions on increasing the awareness of patients and doctors about the infrastructure, we failed to enthuse the officials of health department and local administrators for integrating the systems in their environment.  We visited some of the centers and met the doctors to discuss their problems on using the system. We conducted a few workshops and conferences with demonstration of the system. A few meetings were also held in the Department of Health and Family Welfare in Kolkata for planning and coordination.  However, they were not enough to overcome the inertia of the physicians for using the system. At one point, WECS wanted to make awareness campaign locally with hoardings and posters for drawing attention of people. Even the content of the advertisements were also provided for the approval of the Health secretary. For reasons unknown to us, the approval never came. Naturally as soon as project periods were over and systems were handed over to the State Government for their maintenance and sustenance, the telemedicine services were stopped. Even the active centers like Baharampur and Purulia stopped functioning due to lack of proper maintenance, planning and coordination from the Department. Presently, those infrastructures still exist in some of those hospitals, but they remain largely unutilized. Ironically, due to its operation during the project period, Govt. of West Bengal bagged the “National award for exemplary implementation of E-Governance initiative – 2004 on Telemedicine Project in West Bengal”.

Telemedicine in Tripura: A different experience

Our work in the hospitals of West Bengal drew attention of other state governments.  In particular, the Government of Tripura showed interests in its deployment throughout the state. They were encouraged by the then undersecretary of DIT for putting forward a proposal in this regard. So in the summer of 2004 we went to Agartala and discussed a proposal with Mr. S.K. Ray, at that time the Secretary of the Govt. of Tripura for Health and Family Welfare. He was also the secretary for the Department of IT of the state. He had given us the options of connecting either district hospitals (DH) or sub-divisional hospitals (SDH) to two tertiary hospitals in Agartala, namely GB Pant Hospital (presently it is also a medical college) and the Indira Gandhi hospital, which handles child birth and gynecological diseases. In Tripura SDHs are not so equipped and they fall in the category of Primary Health Centers (PHC). From our experiences of West Bengal, we opted for connecting PHCs, as we felt they have more needs for availing telemedicine services. The district headquarters have better infrastructural support with digital connectivity through Tripura’s SWAN.  For initiating a pilot program, DHs would have been convenient for us for a speedy implementation. On the other hand, many subdivisions were situated at places, where physical transportation itself through hilly terrains and bad road conditions was a nightmare. The problem got aggravated due to insurgency problem in the state reigning at that time.  No one was ready to move without the security cover provided by the state. At places, even a distance of 50 Km. would take about 4 hours to pass through in those days. Apart from poor communication infrastructure, they also lacked several civic amenities. However, we took the challenge of setting up the centers in subdivisions instead of district headquarters, as we needed no new proof of concepts of our technology. We were eager to see its usage in health care services. The decision proved to be crucial for the success of the telemedicine in this state, a very different experience from what we had in the state of West Bengal.

In Tripura, four of the five proposed centers (at Amarpur, Gandachhara, Kanchanpur and Chailengta subdivisions) started functioning within a year of the sanctioning of the project. The network was inaugurated by the Health and Family Welfare Minister of the state on 9^th June, 2005. We must mention about two persons, who played vital role in the speedy deployment of this network.   Mr. Rajat Bhattacharya, the then Asst. Executive Engineer of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Tripura, took all the trouble and care for providing logistic support from the Govt. of Tripura in identifying the centers, allocating space, arranging escorts and transportation to remote interior places of the state, etc.   The other person is Dr. J.N. Maiti, the Director of WECS. He with his dedicated team of young engineers, who braved all odds in installation and training of the system, supervised and monitored the execution with passion and diligence. From the very beginning the doctors at the SDHs and PHCs  took the telemedicine services for consulting with specialists of  two hospitals at Agartala. The local populace also enthusiastically welcomed the facility and put pressure on hospital administration, if the system remained non-operational due to failure of links or machines. With the increasing use of tele-consultation the Govt. of Tripura requested for more deployment and the DIT supported expansion of the network in three stages connecting 11 SDHs  / PHCs with their two resource centers. About 14400 patients were treated in five years (from June, 2005 to October, 2010) using this network. It is heartening to see that every year the number of patients treated through telemedicine is increasing. Presently from these centers over 4000 patients per year are getting the benefit of this technology. The State Government is also proactive in the sustenance of the services. After the completion of the project period, the state government took special initiative for arranging funds for maintenance of the systems and supporting trained manpower to the telemedicine centers.

iMediK: Telemedicine over internet

TelemediK was developed as a peer to peer application. Though it was designed as an internet server, individual hospitals would require hosting this server for communicating with their peers. From this model, we moved to a more cost effective centralized server based system, which would be able to cater services to its clients over the internet (or intranet following standard application layer protocols).  We named the telemedicine server iMediK, which processes clients’ requests in a four layered architecture providing much needed security to patient data from their unauthorized access. The centralized server based system reduces the cost of installation to a great extent.  The client end does not require any special application software other than an internet browser. Similarly, the cost of communication link was also brought down, as it does away with the need for a dedicated link for data transfer.  In the four layered architecture, a request is handled through a proxy server, which initiates a succession of internal sessions for accessing the data from data base, processing it and presenting it to the user in the form of a HTTP response. This methodology of data access prohibits their direct access and allows only controlled access through query processing at the business logic layer, which sits atop the database layer. The presentation layer on the other hand isolates the process of data formatting and has the flexibility of supporting client specific modules for presenting the result of a query.  For example, we made separate modules of presentation for processing requests from clients of desktops, PDAs and mobile phones, while all of them use the same set of functions of business logic layer, which is immediately below the presentation layer in our architecture.

iMediK was installed in Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata in the year 2008. It has special modules for treating pediatric patients of HIV and drug resistant tuberculosis. iMediK also has an improved user interface, where a doctor could get the summary of patients’ record relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of a disease. The summary page is customizable and different for different diseases. It has also features of tracking patients’ visits, and presenting temporal trend of any measurable attribute through graphs and tables. HIV pediatric module also has a decision support system for drug administration and patient follow-up. Around 530 patients were treated from April 2008 to October 2009 using iMediK. During this period mostly patients were referred from the Raiganj SDH.

m-Medicine

The term m-Medicine is coined against telemedicine over mobile devices. Our research group is one of the few, who explored the development of this technology in mobile platforms at a very early stage.  The TelemediK system was integrated with applications developed on WinCE based Pocket-PCs. Through these applications a user could enter patients’ data from a hand held device and also browse them, which may be available in the form of graphics, images, audio-clips, text and structured text. In our design we took care of constraints imposed by the limited memory space and small display screen of the device. For displaying medical forms, an intelligent text fragmentation algorithm was developed. The technique adapts the number of fields to be displayed in a single view by accessing the data related to screen size and resolution of the client device from HTTP request header. Further, fields are also displayed in order of their relevance, determined a priori. The relevance map is generated through a statistical analysis of number of occurrences of key-words of related documents fetched from internet using a crawler. Moreover, we have also used abbreviations for text compression and assigned color codes to highlight the normal or abnormal ranges of values. A large image is displayed using an adaptive partitioning scheme and by showing the position of a partition with reference to its thumbnail. We have also developed an interactive downloading scheme for browsing images through selection of the region of interest with varying level of compression.

While integrating with iMediK, we changed the design paradigm. Previously our approach was to develop client applications in mobile devices, which directly interact with patient databases. However, due to the security measures imposed through four layer architecture of iMediK, this direct interaction is prohibited. Moreover the advancement in mobile computing and technology makes it possible to work with the new generation of devices, which support internet browsing on LAN and WAN. In iMediK we moved all the related computation of data formatting and image partitioning to the server, in its presentation layer. This also increases the portability of the system.  Like desktop computing, in this case also, we do not require any specific client installation. This is the technology we used in integrating decision support system and other modules for treating HIV pediatric patients with mobile devices. It got recognition from the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the innovative technologies in their report entitled “Compendium of new and emerging technologies that address global health concerns 2011”.

New directions

It has been more than a decade that we are involved in the research and development of telemedicine systems. We are grateful to the DIT, Govt. of India, for their patronage and constant encouragements in our endeavor. We started with the design of telemedicine system in peer to peer network architecture and moved to a centralized server based system. We also considered other architectures of distributed systems, where a combination of nodal and centralized servers share the task of handling local and referral patients, respectively. Another interesting variation of peer to peer model is a hierarchical-referencing model, which is usually practiced in Government hospitals for patient referrals. For example, a patient from a block primary health center (BPHC) is referred to an SDH or a DH, whereas from a DH doctors refer to tertiary hospitals only. We carried out testing and performance analysis of such systems in a simulated environment. Their large scale deployment, however, requires planning at the central or state level.  We hope to see such planning and deployment of this technology in the public health care system. Our experiences from the state of Tripura show that rural population of our country could immensely be benefitted from telemedicine, as it brings the quality health care at their door steps.

08/09/11

The Head Teacher

We addressed him ‘Master-mashai’, sometimes qualifying it by adding the word ‘Head’ before. ‘Mashai’ is a colloquial abbreviation of the Bengali word ‘Mahashay’, used for addressing a person respectfully, closer to the use of ‘Sir’ in English. Usually in village areas we used to address our male teachers as ‘Master-mashai’ and a woman teacher as ‘Didimani’.  I think in many of our villages, still some people use these addresses, though it is common now-a-days to address our teachers as ‘Sir’ or ‘Mam’ (Madam).  Our Master-mashai was also the head teacher of a primary school. My mother newly joined as a ‘Didimani’ of that school then. It was in the year 1971. I was a kid of eight years old, and was about to repeat a year in my third grade for failing in Mathematics twice, both in my half-yearly and annual examinations.  I was reading then in another school of our town. As a kid, I had little idea how serious the matter was. But it must have been very tormenting for me even at that stage, as I still have the visual memory of those red-inked letters on my mark-sheets, in one of which the number 19 was written, and in the other a little improvement with 25. The qualifying mark was 30.  From my school, my parents were advised to make a prayer to the school administration for my promotion. In stead, they decided to keep me in the third grade itself. It must have been a very painful decision for them too. Just a year before, they were proud parents of their son, who stood first in the final examination of his second grade. One day in the last week of December of that year, my father announced it to me with a happy smile. I naively asked him, “What does the first boy mean?” He laughed and presented me two badminton rackets with a plastic cork, “Play with your brother.” Both my brother and I were so excited with those bats, that without bothering for any further explanation we rushed to our playground. Incidentally, that was also my first year in a school, where I was given a direct admission to the second grade.  Initially, my parents thought about putting me to the first grade. However, after going through my performance in the admission test the teachers there advised my father to get me admitted into the second grade.  So when I failed to clear Mathematics in my third grade, they might have thought that the early advancement of a year of study was taking a toll on me, and decided to keep me in the third grade for one more year.  

Before her marriage, my mother was a teacher in a nursery school. She had gone through the Basic training, a year-long education program of Government for nurturing primary school teachers. After her marriage too, she was teaching for a few months. Then my father got a transfer, and they came to the town of our present dwelling.  Mother had to leave her job, and she could not get any, until she received an appointment as a primary teacher in the village school, I was talking about. On the very first day of her service, she took me with her to the school. The village was at a distance of about five kilometers from our residence. There was no public communication for going there. Its nearest railway station then, was the railway station of my town. That was also about three kilometers from it. We needed to cross the railway station on our way to the village. The path from the railway station to the village was non-metal. A considerable portion of it ran through paddy fields.  During rainy season it would become so treacherously muddy and slippery, that even the cycling and walking were difficult. So in a good weather, the comfortable option was to travel by a rickshaw, and in any season the other feasible option was the long tire-some walking.  My mother mostly preferred the latter, as the first one, even if available, was not sustainable by her paltry salary.  Today I cannot remember, whether we enjoyed a rickshaw ride on our very first journey to her school.

The Head Teacher of the school was waiting for us. He was then in his fifties, of medium height, with a head-full of curly hairs, lean and stout, wearing a Dhuti (a typical dress for a Bengali gentleman consisting of a piece of robe, worn in a specific style covering the lower part of the body), and a Fatua (a long and loose shirt without any collar and with a full covering of both hands), and having spectacles on his face.  He welcomed us and introduced to his only colleague there – a very old person, who must have crossed seventies by then, but was still in the service. My mother became the third teacher of the school. The Head Master-mashai called me, “Babu (The little master)! Come here. What is your name?”

 On my mother’s prodding I touched his feet for his blessings (a common gesture for showing respect to elders) and told my name. Then he asked, “In which school do you read?”

I told my school’s name. The next question was too embarrassing for me. He asked, “Which class (grade)?”

 I remained silent and was hesitating how to explain him about my state of academic misfortune. My mother replied, “He was supposed to be in the class four. But he failed in Maths. That’s why we decided to keep him in three (third grade) again.”

 He stared at me. I could see from his expression that I did not satisfy his expectation, and was repenting on the fact that I came with my mother to this place. The Head Master-mashai commented, “But he looks so bright! What is his problem?”

“Oh! He could not do a single sum correctly,” mother replied dejectedly.

“They were big numbers, and too many of them!” I tried to defend my inability by asking for a little more humane consideration on the difficulties of handling large numbers.

Master-mashai told me, “Is it so? I always thought there is a fun in adding numbers. Let me see how you perform.” 

He gave me to add a few four digit numbers on a slate. I like an obedient student, engaged myself on that fearsome job, and was careful enough to run my fingers several times on my palm to keep track of serial accumulation of numbers in my computational steps. Master-mashai snatched the slate from my hand, “What are you doing?”

I was surprised and also apprehensive whether I made any heinous crime of committing an error in between.

“Why are you counting your fingers? That is the stupidest thing to do in adding or subtracting numbers,” he exclaimed.

I kept mum, as it was what I learnt for doing a summation. He continued, “Do it mentally. There won’t be any error.”

Then he started asking me the sum of a pair of numbers, the last one being a single digit, and I had to respond fast to each of his queries. I felt at ease, as there was not a single mistake in my instant responses. Finally, he told my mother, “Let him study in my school. Why should he lose a year? I can guarantee you that he would get a scholarship in the class four board examination.”  

In our time we used to have a board examination in grade four for each district. From each district, a few top rankers of this examination were used to be awarded with a scholarship (or Britti in Bengali) from the Government. That is why this examination was called the Britti Pariksha.  It was a matter of pride for the teachers of a primary school, if any of its students gets this scholarship. During the rule of the left front, in early eighties this school board examination was abolished, and the tradition of a competing atmosphere among the schools for showing good performances in the board examination was also lost. 

My parents were initially hesitant and a bit reluctant to accept Master-mashai’s suggestion. First, my age was relatively young compared to the grade I was studying. They were considering whether it was prudent to allow me to continue further. Next, the village school had a very poor infrastructure compared to the town school, I was studying then. My mother’s new school had only one large hall under a tiled roof, with a few partitions to segregate classes for students. Its foundation was of brick, but a part of it was still built with mud and bamboo sticks. There were no separate entries from the outside for each partition, where classes were held.  For attending any class, one had to get inside using one of the two doors of the hall-room and move to a specific class.  As a result, the humming and uttering of students and the teacher of a class were clearly audible by all others present in the school. There were effectively two teachers, including my mother, for all the students in the school starting from grade one to grade four. The old Master-mashai was about to retire, and he had been given partial responsibility to teach only students of grade one, who used to sit on the floor to take lessons from their teachers.  Other than grade one, each class was equipped with a few benches, a table for the teacher, and a black board. The school in my town was run by a Hindu religious organization with strict adherence to discipline and punctuality. We used to get a number of teachers according to subjects even in the lower grades. We had separate class rooms and, the school building was being newly renovated and expanded that time. But, the most worrying factor for my parents was the distance of the village from my home. They were concerned whether I would be able to walk such a long distance regularly to attend the school. Still I do not know how they were persuaded by the Head Master-mashai.  Our new session in my town school was yet to start. So I was still going with my mother to her school, and used to attend classes with others. For a few days, I did maintain a state of fuzziness of my belongingness to the school, saying to my friends that I would stop coming once the session at my town school begins. After a few days, to my delight my mother informed me that they had decided to shift me from the town school to her own, and I would be studying in the fourth grade in stead of repeating a year.

Suddenly everything around me changed. I was feeling myself at the center stage of an exciting experiment, where our Head Master-mashai electrified me by his guidance and encouragement. He told me, “Do you know the story of Arjun from the Mahabharata?  While aiming his arrow at a wooden bird kept on a tree with his bow, Arjun was asked by his teacher Dronacharya, what he was able to see then. Before him, all his brothers replied to the same question differently. Some said the tree, some said branches, or some pointed the bird. Arjun replied that he was seeing the eye of the bird only and by saying he sent the arrow straight into the bird’s eye. You should also prepare in the same way for the scholarship.  I know you will be able to get it and make us proud.”  

Those were not his mere words of encouragements. He believed in my ability so much, that he proudly declared to the villagers and teachers of other schools that, that year his school was going to produce a boy with a scholarship. So I was enjoying the attention of the villagers also. I was quite naïve in my attitude towards any success or failure at that stage.  My Head Master-mashai instilled his belief in me so strongly that I never doubted that I was going to achieve what my teacher was saying.  However, my mother must have felt the pressure of meeting the expectation from her son. She often advised me, “Try your best. That is what finally matters.” She used to teach me every day, and helped me solve old question papers of the final examinations of different school boards of districts of my state.

That was the year when I started enjoying my schooling. Even walking such a long distance was a fun for me. My mother was always with me, and I used to keep her busy with all sorts of queries on the subjects and objects, which would appear on our ways. I learnt to recognize many plants, trees, flowers and birds in those sessions.  More so, I was amazed by the unfolding of beauty of nature before me, as if my text book poems were throwing their rhymes on the three dimensional canvas surrounding me. In the last part of our journey to the school, we used to cross a large field. The path curved through it mostly uncovered and unshaded. There were only a few land marks in this part in the form of a lonely thorny Babla tree (gum tree) or a fence of a single farm house.  On winter days, it was lovely to enjoy the mist and coolness of the air across the open field. During that period, in stead of treading through the non-metal road, we could use a trail winding through the empty paddy fields (called aal in Bengali), which would shorten our journey to some extent. In fact, our school building was visible, from a place very near to my home, throwing an illusion of its proximity. But it used to take more than an hour to cover that distance. The rainy season was the hardest season, and we had to follow the longest path, along the railway track, to avoid the mud. Even so, we needed to negotiate some stretches of muddy segments. Sometimes my mother tried to keep me home during this period. However, unless I was sick, I always wanted to go with her.  The most enjoyable season was the autumn. During that period, the paddy fields were at their prime, filled with different shades of green. The sun and clouds used to play their usual hide and seek game on top of them. The village life also made some impression on me, though my interaction with the villagers was brief, as I had little time to spend there.  There was a large banyan tree in front of my school. It was the signature of my school.  Even from a running train, by identifying the banyan tree, we could easily locate the building of our school. During the recess, many students used to enjoy their rides on the hanging trunks of the banyan tree. One day, some of my friends took me to a field where peas were grown. They also plucked a few of them. When we returned, some villagers complained to my mother about my presence with them. I was not sure what the nature of complaint was. But on my denial of any wrong doing, my mother got very angry with me, and she started scolding and beating me very harsh. It went on for sometimes, until the Head Master-mashai intervened. I was still in the mood of defiance without understanding what grave crime had been committed by me.

After a few weeks from the beginning of our session, preparations for participation in the annual sports event started.  All the schools in a block (an administrative area covering a number of villages and the town) were used to compete in this event. Head Master-mashai took a great interest in identifying the suitable competitors for each event. A school was entitled to send only a limited number of participants for each event. There was an in-house competition for selecting the students for representing a school in those events. I was never good at sports. Moreover I was relatively taller, and that put me in the category of seniors (among the students of primary schools) in the sports. I failed miserably in all such events, running, long jump, high jump, etc. Master-mashai told me, “Still there is one event for you. I think you can win a medal for us.” I was not sure. He suggested, “Compete in the Maths race.”  It is a funny race. In this competition, one has to run for fifty meters, add a series of four digit numbers, and then run another fifty meters to finish the race. The winner of the race is the person, who reaches earliest with the correct result of the addition. In my whole life I won medals thrice in any sporting event. All were in those years. All were from Maths races, the first one was from the sporting event, I was talking about. The next was from the event organized for a circle. A circle consists of a few blocks, and the sports meet for a circle was the next higher level, where winners from blocks could participate. The last one was from a sporting competition organized in the village of my school.

My mother used to teach me all the subjects in our home. She would have preferred to keep me away from walking to the school, unless she felt my need of having lessons in Science and Maths from the Head Master-mashai. My parents grew a great respect for him as a teacher. He was indeed great. It is not that he had dumped us with fundas, and clear explanation of everything around. He was simple in his approach. He was friendly with his students, and could point out mistakes with a smile. Hardly had he scolded anyone in the class for not doing an assignment, or not able to comprehend a topic. He tried to raise curiosity among our young minds by telling different stories.  One day while teaching us planets and stars, he told us such a story. He would start, “Let me tell you a story of creation of these planets.” Then he went on narrating, “Do you think these planets were there from the beginning of creation? That is not true. There was a time when our Sun was a lonely star. He was big, but had no planets revolving around.  One day a foreign star came near it. It had lost its direction, and ways.  It became quite close to the Sun. Now these large bodies are able to pull each other. So they raised a fight. Each one tried to draw the other towards it.  The Sun is very hot, and its matter is made of gases. So the pull from the foreign star could tear many of its portions. Those portions went toward the star, but could not overcome the pull of the Sun. So these gaseous pieces started revolving around it. In the mean time, the foreign star also went far away. Those smaller pieces after cooling became planets. Our Earth is also one of them.” I understand this is far from our modern scientific explanation of creation. But it was good enough to confront us against our beliefs on stories of creation from mythology.

The year was also marked by the year of Bangladesh’s war of liberation. That time the country was called ‘East Pakistan’. After the event of March 26, we were closely following what was going on in that country. That evening my father came grim faced from his office, and told my mother about the brutality of the Government of Pakistan against the Bengalis. Then came the stories of sufferings and sorrows of refugees from the other side of Bengal, who took shelter in this part. Soon the guerilla fight started, and even as a kid, I was keenly following the news broadcast from radios, and also the reports of newspapers. The talk of liberation of East Pakistan was every where. Every night we used to listen to a special radio channel, which broadcast Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman’s famous speech. We had almost memorized it. A part of it even plays in my mind with his distinct thunderous melody, “ ….Our fight is the fight for liberation!  Our struggle is the struggle for independence. None of you can crush us! …”  Some of my friends could recite the full speech mimicking his voice.  Around that time the slogan, “Jai Bangla! (Victory to Bengal!)”, became so popular that people attributed it to every holy or unholy thing, which made a guest appearance in that year. We had “Jai Bangla” Saris (Dresses for Indian Women), “Jai Bangla” shirts, caps, rings – even that year the common eye disease conjunctivitis widely spread in different parts of our state. People named it “Jai Bangla”. I was also not left out from its blessings. For two or three days, I was kept inside with my swollen red eyes.  I also had personal experiences of watching refugee camps in a border town, where my grand parents (from my mother’s side) lived. We had no doubt about the victory of the liberation war. For us kids, then the adult world was painted with black and white only. There were either good fellows or bad demons, and who doesn’t know that the evil will be finally defeated? So we strongly believed that the liberation war would be won, as we also knew that America would be defeated in Vietnam. In our play time, we transformed the hide and seek game into a new form. We made it as a mock-fight between two warring parties, where one had to kill an enemy by shouting against the opponent soldier, as soon as he or she was visible. The shouting slogan was ‘Jai Bangla!’, and the name given to the game? – Naturally, ‘Jai Bangla!’

The formal war between India and Pakistan started after my final examination was over. But by that time, as far as I remember, Pakistani army was almost defeated. The local liberation army had already dealt a vital blow to them. It took only a few days to finish the war. It was a moment of glory and happiness for all of us. I have no particular memory of my examination days. I could remember that my mother used to wait to receive me after the examination. Head Master-mashai also used to visit the center and encourage us to perform well. After my examination, our days were full of excitement with the news from the war front, sensing a possible victory and the birth of a new country, which speaks a language of our own, and where my parents had their roots.   During this exciting period, Master-mashai came to our house in one afternoon, and with a radiant face he congratulated me, “You did it! I knew you would get the scholarship. You proved it. I was waiting for this day.” He was quite emotional. While returning his blessings on my respectful bow to him, he told, “Grow up and make us proud!”  I did not realize then what a tough assignment he was setting for me. The scholarship was much easier!

22.11.11