Visit to Cellular Jail : A pilgrimage for every Indian

Cellular Jail, Port Blair, Andamans  : Copyright by Anil m 2009-10

 

I am back from a pilgrimage. Its a pilgrimage of different kind which is to be felt by heart, without seeing any image or idol of a God or Goddess. I am talking about Cellular jail. Cellular jail of Port Blair in the Andamans is closely associated with the freedom struggle of India. After the first mutiny of in 1857, the British rulers found new usage for these Islands and thereby started the agonizing story of the massive and awesome cellular jail. The patriots who raised their voice against the British rule, were sent to this jail. Thousands of languished for years in solitary confinement in its cells and many perished thus giving Andamans the notorious sobriquet of “Kalapani” or the black water.

To day the cellular jail s the National Memorial, a tribute to those who dared to raise their voices against the British. That’s why the visit to the Cellular jail is a pilgrimage for every Indian.The freedom what we are enjoying today is the result of the sacrifices of those who suffered for years in the solitary confinement in its small cells.

To read more about Andaman Islands, open the page ‘My India’.

1. One of the cells (above), 2. Cellular Jail complex,  3. Cellular Jail at night

VIPER ISLAND :

Viper Island, named after the shipwreck event of a British trading ship named “Viper” in 19th century, is located near Port Blair. The ruins of an olden discarded jail, built by British in 1867, with yellow colored bricks and the gallows are seen in this Island. The Island was considered as the place of penal settlement for the freedom fighters of India. This Island was part of the great Indian independence history and had witnessed the inhuman sufferings and sacrifices of Indian nationals involved in freedom struggle.

Viper Island is accessible by harbor cruise originating from Phoenix Bay Jetty in Port Blair.  This place is visited by number of tourists enroute to Portblair from  North Bay Island to find the ruins of the jail and a Gallows there. The Guide  escorted us addressed the visitors to remind the sacrifices of the freedom fighters. Listen what he said to young generation of today.

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Deepavali or Diwali

In a rare gesture to Indians worldwide as much as to showcase his — and America’s — multicultural affections, US President Barack Obama on Wednesday lit a ceremonial Diwali lamp at the White House to “symbolize victory of light over darkness”. Although it was the Bush administration that began celebrating Diwali in the White House in 2003, Obama became the first President to personally grace the ceremony.

Deepavali is the celebration of the Light over darkness,  goodness over evil, knowledge over ignorance. Lights are lit on the auspicious day of Deepavali not just decorate the homes but also to communicate this profound truth about life. Light the lamp of wisdom and love in every heart and bring a radiant smile on every face.

On this auspicious occassion, Laxmi, the goddess of wealth is also worshiped. In this festival, sweet is distributed which symbolises the dispelling of the bitterness of the past and renewal friendship.

Wish you all a very happy Diwali. May Diwali bring all happiness, prosperity in your life in the year ahead.

Global warming : Rise in sea level unstoppable now

In a recent climate conference, experts said that a rise of at least two meters in the world’s sea levels is now almost unstoppable. The crux of the sea level issue is that it starts very slowly but once it gets going it is practically unstoppable,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, a scientist at Germany’s Potsdam Institute and a widely recognised sea level expert. There is no way I can see to stop this rise, even if we have gone to zero emissions. Most scientists expect at least 2 degrees Celsius warming as a result of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and probably more. The world warmed 0.7-0.8 degrees last century. Rahmstorf estimated that if the world limited warming to 1.5 degrees then it would still see two meters sea level rise over centuries, which would see some island nations disappear. His best guess was a one metre rise this century, assuming three degrees warming, and up to five metres over the next 300 years. “There is nothing we can do to stop this unless we manage to cool the planet. That would require extracting the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. There is no way of doing this on the sufficient scale known today,” he said.

From the above, we can understand what is the fate of this planet and our future generations, if we do not act seriously and that should start now.

This post has been written for the “Blog Action day” campaign. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s is also concerned about the climate change which has been expressed in his Blog.

Nobel Prize, Barack Obama & Mahatma Gandhi

US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world “hope for a better future” and striving for nuclear disarmament. The decision to award one of the world’s top accolades to a president less than nine months into his first term, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success, came as a major surprise.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The first African-American to hold his country’s highest office, Obama has called for disarmament and worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January 2009.

Obama himself put the award in perspective while admitting he was both surprised and humbled by it. He said he did not feel he deserved to be in the company of so many great transformative figures of peace . “I do not view it as recognition of my own accomplishment, rather as an affirmation of American leadership of all nations,” Obama said in a brief media appearance at the White House Rose Garden, seeking to deflect some of the criticism for what many across the world feel is an award he is yet to earn and has come too early. I

t reminds us that Obama’s idol Mahatma Gandhi who was most deserved candidate for this prize ,was denied  by the then imperialist Nobel committee. Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and finally a few days before his assassination in January 1948. The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee, though the committee never came out with the reasons for not awarding the prize to the most deserving candidate of the century. So the criticism /reactions for awarding the peace prize  of 2009 to Barack Obama, who has not done anything towards peace except dreaming ,are well justified. It is like awarding a Olympic medal before stepping into the track.

Nobel Prize for Chemistry-2009

Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Nobel prize for Chemistry 2009 was declared on Wednesday in Stockholm. Indian born, US citizen,  Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the same he shared with  Thomas A Steitz of US and Ada E Yonath from Israel.  Royal Swedish Academy said that Nobel Prize was awarded to them” for studies of the structure and function of the Ribosome”. One of the core processes in life. Ribosomes generated protein, which regulate chemistry in all living organisms. Modern researches for the development of antibiotic are based on their work.