Mayank Chhaya Daily

Riding on light on interstellar journeys

An artist’s rendering of light sails. (Image: The Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

The choice this morning is between interstellar light sails powered by radio beams or Narendra Modi’s victory in India’s state assembly powered by self-belief. I naturally choose the former.

Fast radio bursts or FRBs originating from very distant sources have been a subject of great interest in astrophysics in recent years. FRBs are milliseconds-long flashes of radio emissions which were first discovered in 2007. Their source have remained a mystery considering how bright, albeit short-lived, they are. Scientists believe that FRBs would require 500 million times the power of our sun to be detected by us.

Now a paper being published by Dr. Manasvi Lingam and Dr. Abraham Loeb in the Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests that the FRBs might conceivably of artificial origin or in other words created by a super advanced alien civilization.

According to an excerpt, “We examine the possibility that Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) originate from the activity of extragalactic civilizations. Our analysis shows that beams used for powering large light sails could yield parameters that are consistent with FRBs. The characteristic diameter of the beam emitter is estimated through a combination of energetic and engineering constraints, and both approaches intriguingly yield a similar result which is on the scale of a large rocky planet. Moreover, the optimal frequency for powering the light sail is shown to be similar to the detected FRB frequencies. These `coincidences' lend some credence to the possibility that FRBs might be artificial in origin. Other relevant quantities, such as the characteristic mass of the light sail, and the angular velocity of the beam, are also derived. By using the FRB occurrence rate, we infer upper bounds on the rate of FRBs from extragalactic civilizations in a typical galaxy. The possibility of detecting fainter signals is briefly discussed, and the wait time for an exceptionally bright FRB event in the Milky Way is estimated.”

This requires you to exercise some imagination. Imagine a rocky planet perhaps twice the size of Earth from where energy from its own sun is captured and fired as concentrated beam of light at giant sails that make a space probe.

A release by the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics says the two scientists “examined the feasibility of creating a radio transmitter strong enough for it to be detectable across such immense distances.”

“They found that, if the transmitter were solar powered, the sunlight falling on an area of a planet twice the size of the Earth would be enough to generate the needed energy. Such a vast construction project is well beyond our technology, but within the realm of possibility according to the laws of physics.,” it says.

“Lingam and Loeb also considered whether such a transmitter would be viable from an engineering perspective, or whether the tremendous energies involved would melt any underlying structure. Again, they found that a water-cooled device twice the size of Earth could withstand the heat.

They then asked, why build such an instrument in the first place? They argue that the most plausible use of such power is driving interstellar light sails. The amount of power involved would be sufficient to push a payload of a million tons, or about 20 times the largest cruise ships on Earth.

"That's big enough to carry living passengers across interstellar or even intergalactic distances," added Lingam.”

Light sails are a fantastic idea where a giant space probe rides a beam of light constantly fired at it from a planet. FRBs are in a sense leaks from such beam that we detect here as the light sails move across space at extraordinary speeds. “To power a light sail, the transmitter would need to focus a beam on it continuously. Observers on Earth would see a brief flash because the sail and its host planet, star and galaxy are all moving relative to us. As a result, the beam sweeps across the sky and only points in our direction for a moment. Repeated appearances of the beam, which were observed but cannot be explained by cataclysmic astrophysical events, might provide important clues about its artificial origin,” explains the release.

Of Aghoris and Reza Aslan

An Aghori featured in Reza Aslan’s ‘Believer’ on CNN

Growing up, I remember my mother use the word Aghori to describe a slovenly, unclean, uncombed and unwashed person, especially a man. Aghori to me was invariably male. There are no female Aghoris as far as I know.

So when CNN announced its new series ‘Believer’ helmed by Reza Aslan, the scholar and television presenter, opening with a segment about the Aghoris I was intrigued. Of course, in the intervening passage of decades since my childhood when the Aghoris were filthy but harmless had ensured that I knew much more about this rather miniscule sect of Hinduism.

Scholar, author and TV presenter Reza Aslan (Image: CNN)

Although at its heart the Aghori philosophy erases the notions of religious and cultural purity by various means, including sometimes eating the remnants of human flesh in the aftermath of cremation, there are those who push the envelop to distasteful limits. In his quest to hang his story on an unusual peg Aslan, generally a thoughtful scholar, chose a group of three Aghori men in Varanasi. Of the three, only one on whom the CNN segment focused, was a bit of a lunatic. Apart from leading a life of elemental vagrancy—which in and of itself is not a problem at all—one could see that he was not a pleasant man. His general conduct, which I am sure many CNN watchers found strange, took a turn when he started both eating and throwing his own excrement. Things then became bizarre. I suppose It was fine till such time as he was purportedly eating pieces of deeply roasted human brain and drinking alcohol from a human skull. The Aghori boasted that if Aslan wanted he would eat even his own flesh.

Aslan was chased away by the Aghori man who started flinging his feces at the him. My mother was right. Some of them are unwashed. After watching the promo of the show earlier, I was certain that this would prompt objections. And it has now that the segment has been aired. The segment is being described as “Hinduphobic” by some Indian Americans. Their basic point is that Aslan picked up an extremely small piece of a great ancient civilization and accentuated it in a way that it became its representative. Aslan makes a point to clarify that the Aghoris of the kind that three men are are the fringe since the sect itself has been building on its core value of erasing societal distinctions based on the notions of human purity. He ended it in a way where it seemed he was absorbed by its reformist underpinnings.

The concerns over the segment’s focus have been heightened by the current climate in America of terrible otherising which has actually led to death and injuries. At a time when the notions of who are real Americans have become narrower among certain groups of the country,Aslan’s Aghori introduction could further constrict horizons. This is especially because of the deeply disturbing tendencies to extrapolate on the basis of something peripheral, something marginal and make it the core of any large faith or culture. Every society has people who are terribly credulous about anything smartly packaged. It is not my case that the Aghoris do not exist. They do. It is also not my case that some of them don’t do what we saw. They do. My point is that perhaps the timing is inopportune when a large number of Americans is willing to swallow anything that is served to them when it comes to otherness.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is a Hindu,tweeted, “I am very disturbed that CNN is using its power and influence to increase people’s misunderstanding and fear of Hinduism.” She said Aslan found “sensationalist and absurd ways to portray Hinduism” and pointed out how that can lead to terrible consequences. CNN did indeed use the expression “Cannibals” as part of their promo.

I found that although Aslan did indeed approach the theme of the segment from a sensationalist standpoint, he went on to take a slightly broader and in somewhat positive approach. The problem with up close television is that it creates visuals and narratives that can be highly misleading of the larger reality within which these extremes reside. Aslan may have expressly focused on Aghoris particularly and not Hinduism generally but that contextualizing is always rather tricky even during normal times. At a time such as now, when a significant portion of America is primed to be believe the worst about the “other”, a segment like this could be problematic. I say this because the leap from a barely clad, bearded Aghori on the banks of the Ganga to a fully clothed, bearded Indian or South Asian in Manhattan is a rather short one these days and fraught with violence.

The Aghori segment had all the cleverly packaged stereotypes about Varanasi’s burning ghats and philosophies that rise along with the soot and smoke. If it is any consolation, the segment was quite well shot but that may, in fact, have added to its offense quotient. Personally, I am naturally immune to offense but I can see why some might feel otherwise.

The observation that the segment was “Hinduphobic” is a stretch because a civilization of Hinduism’s depth and profundity, not to mention its creative, literary, philosophical and scientific brilliance can hardly be affected by a television segment.

Of Stephen Leacock and I

I am not sure who dislikes whom more—I, money or money, me? If the past decade is any indication, it has to be the latter. As a consequence, I dislike all things money and finance such as banks, tellers, credit cards, debit cards, tax returns and bills. My dislike of the world of finance is somewhat reminiscent of a now forgotten Canadian writer and humorist Stephen Leacock as reflected in a short piece titled ‘My Financial Career’. There was a time between 1915 and 1925 when Leacock was the best-known humorist in the English speaking world. He had to be because I knew of him in Ahmedabad at a time when English as a language was introduced in schools in the 8th standard. 

For some strange reason I read this particular piece in my early teens and it has stayed with me ever since. My memory was somewhat fuzzy until this morning about how Leacock had a fear of banks. “When I go into a bank I get rattled. The clerks rattle me; the wickets rattle me; the sight of the money rattles me; everything rattles me. The moment I cross the threshold of a bank I am a hesitating jay. If I attempt to transact business there I become an irresponsible idiot.”

In this particular story, written in 1906, Leacock deposits 56 dollars in a newly opened account with great nervousness and mistakenly withdraws all of it immediately after opening it. He wanted to withdraw only six dollars but accidentally wrote 56 on a check and, as he describes it, he “was too far gone to reason now.” He felt the need to open an account because his salary had been raised to $56. In short, he opened and closed his account at the same time.

Unlike Leacock, I do not dread the world of finance. I merely dislike it. The dislike is, as I said, mutual. Currently it is skewed towards money rather than me. Money avoids me like the plague. It wants to leave as soon as it arrives. I am not hospitable enough for it. Now, it is not as if I want money. It is just that the world expects me to pay for everything, including the bank which keeps my money and charges me for keeping it. Mercifully, there is hardly anything to keep.

I rarely go inside a bank because I get the sense that the entire staff is fully aware of how much money there is in my account. They seem to be struggling to stifle laughter at my impecuniosity. It would appear that I wear my poverty on my sleeve. Or perhaps it is my face which is beginning to have those clear signs of impoverishment. The other day a bank teller, after completing my transaction, said solicitously, “Let me know if you need any help with your account.” The implication was clear. He was saying that my account is generally rock bottom in defiance of the bank’s policy of maintaining a minimum balance. Sometimes I suspect that they charge overdraft even on their monthly service charge of $11.

I read Leacock’s piece again after perhaps 40 years and was immediately empathetic to his plight. He concludes his piece as he leaves the bank with all his money withdrawn leaving the staff amused and befuddled:  “As the big doors swung behind me I caught the echo of a roar of laughter that went up to the ceiling of the bank. Since then I bank no more. I keep my money in cash in my trousers pocket, and my savings in silver dollars in a sock.”

In my case, there is really no need to keep cash on me because there isn’t any to keep.

P.S.: As an aside, sample these quotes from Leacock.

Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.

We come into being by standing in the way of light

Dalai Lama, John Oliver and zing

The Dalai Lama and John Oliver in a particular moment of levity. (Image: A frame from ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ on HBO)

This year marks the 20th anniversary of my direct engagement with the Dalai Lama and Tibet. It was in 1997 that I was authorized by him to do a definitive book on his life and times. That became ‘Dalai Lam: Man, Monk, Mystic’ published in some 25 languages worldwide so far to a reasonable critical acclaim. The point of mentioning this self-servingly is to illustrate the seriousness of my endeavor when it comes to the two themes. As a journalist, it began in 1996 when I did a series of stories on the themes for the New York-based India Abroad and its wire IANS.

In those 20 years I have been struck by the relentless manner in which China has been in a way trolling the Dalai Lama. Beijing has been trolling the Dalai Lama before trolling was an actual thing online. Watching his interview with John Oliver this Sunday I knew at which precise point the Chinese establishment would bristle and rage specifically apart from just generally castigating him from doing the interview. Beijing, the way I understand it after long years of engagement with the subject, essentially objects to the very existence of the Dalai lama, a Dalai Lama. Period. It is, of course, its right to hold that view.

When the Dalai Lama said "Our brain usually, you see, has the ability to create common sense. The Chinese hardliners, in their brain, that part of the brain, is missing” I knew he had given Beijing the perfect reason to troll. It is common sense to recognize what would trigger Beijing’s ire. It does not require you to spend long years on the Tibetan issue. Oliver in fact said “zing” when he heard that. As burns go, this one from the Dalai Lama was delivered with such effortlessness. To be told that you have a part of your brain missing is not a happy feeling.

As if to prove what the Dalai Lama had said, China’s Foreign Ministry called him a “deceptive actor.” 

"The Dalai Lama's comments in the interview perhaps appeared humorous and funny, but these words are all lies that do not accord with the facts," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang has been quoted as saying by Reuters.

In a riposte mildly reminiscent of what we see here in America on Twitter these days from the White House, Geng said, "We often say that the 14th Dalai Lama is a political exile who wears religious clothing to engage in anti-China separatist activities. Now it seems he is an actor, who is very good at performing, and very deceptively."

I have written extensively about how for a stateless monk with no appurtenances of any formal power, China seems to be frequently upended by the Dalai Lama. Beijing tracks every single move by him and makes it a point to counsel, chide, caution, admonish and scold those countries and leaders who might choose to have any truck with him at all.

One of the underlying themes of my biography has been that a single monk has taken on the might of a powerful state for over five decades. Reason might suggest that the powerful state should have long worn out the monk but in reality he has become more consequential. The fact that Beijing feels compelled to put down even his appearance on a political satire show is an amusing illustration of that.

As political theater goes, this one is greatly entertaining on both sides.

In the Aranya state of mind

It is perhaps for the first time since I started this blog over 10 years ago that I began not one but two posts and stopped writing because I felt utterly bored. Here are the two:

The first thought that came to my mind when President Donald Trump accused his predecessor Barack Obama of having wiretapped him was that true or false the accusation has only a downside. If the accusation turns out to be false, then it is a staggering miscalculation as well as a manifestation of a dangerously reckless presidency. On the other hand, if the accusation is true, it would be even more damaging because wiretapping a US citizen requires an extraordinary probable cause under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 that a FISA court has to be convinced about before allowing it. If there was indeed a FISA action, which only the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is authorized to carry out, then the idea that a FISA court felt compelled to grant the go ahead is even more damaging to the president and his associates.

***

Things Dalai Lama and Tibet interest me because you know…. The other day I saw a news story where China has warned India that it would cause “serious damage” to bilateral ties if the Dalai Lama was allowed visit the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Tibet. China calls that region “disputed” and has always bristled at any development that suggests that India treats it otherwise. The presence of the Dalai Lama in Arunachal Pradesh is taken by Beijing to be a direct affront. New Delhi has chosen to disregard the Chinese concerns and cleared the Dalai Lama’s visit this year.

Instead of completing one of the two I have decided to offer my latest painting titled ‘Aranya’(Forest). I have been in the Aranya state of mind lately because nothing else seems to be working out for me. Retreating to a forest, albeit a painted one, seems like the only wise thing to do. I have been a longstanding tree-hugger, not in the ecological activism sense but in a literal sense. I hug trees mainly because they seem to absorb my restiveness but also because they do not hug back. It would be weird if they did hug back in real life.

‘Aranya’--MC

Looking at the finished painting, these lines formed themselves in Hindi:

अरण्य में विहारते विहारते

अरण्य सा हो गया हूँ

मानव सभ्यता से दूर

अपनी ही खोज में

एक महाकाय वृक्ष सा

एक ही स्थान पर स्थिर

जब तक कोई मुझे

काट नहीं गिराता

Wandering the forest

I have become a forest myself

Away from human civilization

In quest of self

Like a giant tree

Firmly planted

But waiting to be felled

--Mayank Chhaya

May we build a unique bungalow one day, Where the whole extended family can stay

Kundan Lal Saigal in ‘The President’ (1937)

An 80-year-old song started playing in my mind yesterday for no recognizable reason. It is almost as if it had escaped from a subterranean level of my memory where it resided along with a countless number of other memories. The song was ‘Ek Bangla Bane Nyara’, one of the most enduring compositions from the nascent days of Hindi cinema. It was composed by Rai Chand Boral better known as to R.C. Boral. Some links also attribute Pankaj Mullick as the other composer. I have not been able to find the song writer’s name.

2017 marks the 80th anniversary of the movie that was made in the shadow of a great political tumult building up over India’s campaign for freedom, which was still a decade away. I mention this for a couple of reasons—one is the theme of the film and the other the aspiration of the song. At a time like that, the film’s female protagonist Prabhavati (Kamlesh Kumari) was cast as the owner of a proprietor of a textile mill which she inherits after her parents’ death. The idea of a young woman inheriting and running any business, let alone a cotton textile mill, was quite remarkable for the time.

The other more intimate aspect was the song’s aspirations. Saigal, playing Prakash, is a machinist in the mill who recognizes many defaults in its equipment. He gets fired by Prabhavati for pointing out the defective machinery  but is reinstated by her after it indeed begins to fail. What struck me was the conversation about his job description before he breaks into this iconic song. On reinstatement his salary goes up to 400 rupees a month. He then points out singing that even though he did not work the previous month he got paid. His family is thrilled to hear the news and begins to entertain visions of owning the mill some day. That’s when Saigal, one of India’s greatest singing stars, breaks into the famous song:

एक बंगला बने न्यारा

रहे कुनबा इस में सारा

सोने का बंगला

चंदन का जंगला

विश्वकर्मा के द्वारा

अती सुन्दर और प्यारा

एक बंगला बने न्यारा

रहे कुनबा इस में सारा

(Ek bangla bane nyara
Rahe kunba jis mein sara

Sone kaa bangla,
Chadan ka jangla
Vishvakarma ke dwara
Aati sundar pyara pyara

Ek bangla bane nyara
Rahe kunba jis mein sara)

May we build a unique bungalow one day

Where the whole extended family can stay

A bungalow made of gold

In a jungle of sandalwood

Built by Vishwakarma himself (Vishwakarma is the divine craftsman)

Exceptionally beautiful and lovely

May we build a unique bungalow one day

Where the whole extended family can stay

The song goes on to talk about the bungalow being so high in the sky that it becomes like a star perched on whose top of you can watch the moon swing on a glorious rainbow.

It is an uplifting song with lofty personal aspirations. Being one myself, I normally avoid second-guessing the poet’s intentions. Perhaps the aspirations are both for the individuals and the country. It is a pity that I have not been able to find the lyricist’s name.

The great Nitin Bose directed the film for New Theatres, a major studio of the time. On a side note, I found it strange that the usually meticulous IMDB makes no mention of the movie “President’ either in Saigal’s filmography or that of Bose’s.

It is amazing how Saigal’s speaking voice was the same as his singing voice, something I find to be rare. Also, I couldn’t help but notice his rather stylish clothes, especially his tweed and what seems like a knitted tie. I wouldn’t mind wearing both 80 years hence.

An artist in supreme command of his genius and light

‘Fishing Nets’—Sorolla (1893)

All great painters are masters of light but some seem to be more so than the others. The Impressionist pioneer Claude Monet was one of those. So for him to have described one of my all time favorites, the Spanish icon Joaquin Sorolla (Pronounced Wokin Soroya) as “a master of light” it means a great deal more.

I relish everything that Sorolla did and he did over 350 paintings. Although he was an Impressionist he also had that little edge that is hard to describe. That edge has much to do with the way he captured light.

Look at the way he paints the filtering of light on the wall, the floor, the woman’s forehead, the fisherman’s shirt. This is magical. Consider the picture number two below. Look at the light on the wall of the doorway where another man is looking in. In Impressionism, which is about capturing fleeting play of light, it cannot get better than this. As someone who paints regularly with no discernible skills, I can tell you that this is absolutely splendid.

As you go closer, you see Sorolla’s deft brushwork in the close-up of the woman right above this. To make the surface of a wall, fabric and human skin appear so distinct within the definitions of Impressionism is brilliant.

Also, look at the fishing net on the floor below and see how he manages to paint the two very different materials so well even while not missing on little spots of light. This is an artist in supreme command of his genius and light.

I would strongly recommend Sorolla’s collection here.

What is life, if not light?

‘Approaching storm’

A painting a day in the last ten days has been an exhilarating ride. Each of these has taken on an average 25 minutes. None of these started with any specific idea what I was going for until they began taking shape on paper. These are all acrylic on paper with some touches of pastel. One does not realize while doing it but the number adds up. If I add five small canvas boards, it is a total of 15 in 12 days.

I was looking for a thematic pattern here but I am not sure if there is any other than some form of Impressionism.I am not sure though if I can call it Impressionism since I did not actually paint any of these from real life. Except ‘San Sebastian’ and ‘New York’ the rest are just off the cuff.

Irrespective of the merit of these works, what continues to capture my imagination is how light is everything in life. What is life, if not light?

‘Camouflage harbor’

‘Ellis Bridge’

‘Forest Lodge’

‘Path’

‘Dawn’

‘San Sebastian1’

‘San Sebastian2’

‘Fantasy Morn’

‘New York’

‘By the sea’

‘Apparition’

‘Yellow Woman’

Dorsen struggles because some ass somewhere might send out whiny tweets

Dorsen, an eight-year-old Congolese boy, carrying a sack of cobalt that is used in smartphone and laptop batteries. (Image: A frame from Sky News investigation.)

The world abounds in heartbreaking stories. Those that involve children are particularly depressing. A story that has been affecting me a great deal since yesterday is an investigation by Sky News about children often as young as 4 employed in cobalt mines to extract the mineral in harrowing conditions. Cobalt is used in smartphone and laptop lithium ion batteries.

The investigation was carried out in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. As such stories always do, the story of a single boy, eight-year-old Dorsen, cruelly illustrates how an an economic and cultural order that is so criminally unfair. This blog is not the platform to dwell in scholastic detail about all the terrible inequities in the world but it might be useful to hear Dorsen describe his life in a short clip.

“When I wake up I feel terrible knowing that I have to come back here again. Everything hurts,” Dorsen tells Sky News. I am conscious that there are children trapped in even more cruel circumstances in many other parts but those two sentences make one feel unhinged. An eight-year-old lugging sacks of cobalt drenched in rain for 12 hours straight with the threat of being beaten up hanging over him is heart-wrenching. To think that someone as privileged as me or even a quarrelsome 70-year-old might use that very lithium ion battery powering a smartphone to send out absolutely useless tweets makes it even worse. I, of course, rarely tweet. I do a couple of tweets a day to upload a link to this blog or a retweet a story like this one. That still does not make me more charitable.

I watched this video last night with a sense that I was indulging in voyeurism of some kind. This morning I was told by my daughter how a classmate of hers goes around breaking other students’ headphones because he “finds it fun.” I could not but be struck by the staggering chasm in fortunes between Dorsen and this schoolboy here. One breaks things because it is fun while the other breaks his back for 12 hours to barely manage food perhaps once every two days. WTFFF, man?

When Dorsen says “Everything hurts” I felt physical pain myself. Of course, one would return to one’s utterly selfish existence after finishing this blog, inuring myself to the Dorsens of the world.

Note to self: Try and move beyond your own petty little privileged hardships and do something about children like Dorsen.  What an ass I am!