RAMAN EFFECT

India celebrates February 28, as Science Day. On this day in 1928, C.V. Raman, through his experiments on the scattering of light, discovered what is termed as the Raman Effect. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for his work essentially inspired by his observation of the deep blue of Mediterranean Sea from the deck of his ship.

Before Raman put forward his theory it was believed that the sea was blue because it reflected the blue of the sky. Raman observed that the Mediterranean appeared blue even when the sky was dull gray. After far-reaching research, he found that the color of the sea changes because of a phenomenon called inelastic scattering of light.

It is pertinent to note that his path breaking finding happened in his humble laboratory in India with no sophisticated instruments or technology that was available to the western scientist of his times. In fact he did not have the money to buy a light source, so conducted his experiments using sunlight. Raman said “The essence of science is independent thinking and hard work, not equipment”

The Raman Effect journey started with an observation that generated questioning and unleashed a thinking process backed by testing work. Our attitude of thought is our vital resource. The aids of technology and support of equipment is secondary. Hence we must emulate Raman and be better at unconstrained thinking and dedicated pursuit of the logical actions that arise from that thinking.

May we BE BETTER at unfettered thinking…

To find the solutions which lie scattering!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

HEAR OUT

On Saturday, Video Volunteers organised a viewing of the weekend community news show, on NewsX channel ‘Speak Out India’. It includes inputs from ‘India Unheard’ - an initiative (by filmmaker Stalin K Padma & Jessica Maybeery) to empower voices that get eclipsed in the mainstream media. One input by community correspondent, Devidas Gaokar showed farmer Rama Velip speak out whilst standing in the mess created by mining in his field.

Hopefully, the video will be viewed across Goa. Hopefully it will facilitate a better grasp of an irreversible destruction of Goa’s fields, forests and water bodies. Hopefully it will provoke a proactive resistance to the ones who commit the crippling crime as well as those who aid them by supportive acts of omission and commission or by plain indifference.

The word ‘hopefully’ gets into every statement as Rama, Devidas, Seby and others have been speaking out for so many years, but in vain. They have been backing what they say with evidence, yet they are voices unheard. And if and when they are heard, they go unheeded. And if and when they are heeded, they are bypassed by flawed logic of greed masquerading as need!

So many voices go unheard due to our insensitivity, if not complicity. Surely our world would be better if for every person that needs to speak out, there is someone who will hear out, sincerely. This sincerity is to be measured not just by the attention we pay to one speaking out but the aligned actions that we undertake. We need to own up to the reality that we are either part of the solution or part of the problem… even the ones that are unheard, because the onus is on us to hear out!

May we BE BETTER at heeding the unheard situation…

By first hearing out and then responding with apt action!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

LOVE?

Since last evening, many of us received messages by SMS, email and on networking sites that ‘on 14/02/1931, the legendary Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged to their deaths, but Indians forget them and celebrate Valentine Day!’ I replied to the messages I received with the poser: ‘so what happened on 23 March 1931?’

Obviously, when desperate to prove our love for our country, we forget to even examine fiction that flaunts as fact. In their haste to be hypocritical pious about their patriotism and an excessive self righteous condemnation of Valentine Day, my friends forgot to examine the integrity and intensity of their own feelings for the three martyrs!

We must take a reality check about the sincerity of our own stated emotion. Genuine love need not pose as superficial pride. Of course, nor does it have to be superficially flaunted on days which have been only marketed for commercial reasons. But this cannot be justification to look down upon people who celebrate certain days, especially if we ourselves are standing on sanctimoniously shaky ground.

How can we claim love for our motherland, if we are indifferent to the land grab that decimates lives and livelihoods? How can we profess our love for Nature, if our actions are actually harmful for the environment? How can we celebrate a day in the name of love, if our actions reflect intolerance and hatred for some human beings? Surely, it would be better if we connect to the real Bhagat Singh and the real St. Valentine!

Love is neither a competitive nor an occasional emotion...

Let’s BE BETTER at connecting with appropriate action!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

COMPENSATION

Over the weekend, advocates and activists, came to Goa for a HRLN organised National consultation on ‘Litigating against Corporations for Human Rights!’ It was indeed a ‘festival of facts’ of the struggle to reclaim democracy from the grip of unscrupulous corporates patronised by corrupt governance and aided by an often hostile judicial process.

Vaishali Patil who leads the fierce resistance to the Nuclear Power Project at Jaitapur, Maharashtra, told how an overwhelming majority of the villagers refused the compensation cheques in lieu of the forceful land acquisition. Their resolve stood up to the aggressive Government that violates human rights to back a hazardous project that spells doom for livelihoods but also endangers lives much beyond the area.

Once, a Government Secretary explained his estimate of how compared to the poor returns for the farmers’ back breaking work, they would earn better from the interest accrued from the compensation, without doing any work! An 80 year old woman immediately made a counter compensation offer to the Secretary, of a voluntary retirement package to be raised from contributions from over 2000 humble households! Needless, to say, the Secretary was furiously offended.

Compensation changes meaning when it concerns our lives and our rights. In the combined lexicon of Government and Corporation, the word compensation is muddled in language-pollution. And this is more so due to the growing disconnect of us consumerists from the attacks on the lands, lives and livelihoods of the people whose work sustains our lives as well as the world we live in.

We crib about growing food prices, yet we are puzzled by the resistance of the farmer against the annexing of his land. We wax eloquent about the environment, yet we believe that development happens when a forest is mined. We complain about traffic jams, yet we buy bigger vehicles for ourselves. We fight for our own rights, yet we insist that others surrender their claims for an unfair and forceful compensation.

Indeed, the world will be better only if all of us connect to true empathy by putting ourselves in the shoes of the aggrieved. Too often, we are disconnected from reality. When we know, we understand. When we understand, we must do what we know needs to be done. After all, the stakeholder’s struggle requires both, empathy and ‘real solid’ solidarity!

Indeed it is inhuman to barter rights for compensation...

Let’s BE BETTER at connecting to empathetic action!

- Pravin K. Sabnis