RANDOM THOUGHTS FEB, 2019

Anand Bhushan

5 years ago

Kids display their hands on work in the Palra Library.

When I decided to open a face book account, this month, I rummaged through my photo archives to select a theme picture. The one I chose is the one below. I had taken it sometime in Oct 2018, driving down the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. As I turned the car on a bend, I was struck by the sight of this Aspen tree and had pulled up by the kerb, to photograph it.

The picture above was taken driving back home, on I-25, somewhere between Denver and Boulder. Reflects a peaceful evening.

FACEBOOK ON 20 FEB, 2019

GARDEN OF SCULPTURES, NEW JERSEY

A class mate and lifelong friend, Dr Suprasad Baidyaroy lives in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. When studying for a course in Microcircuits Fabrication at RIT, Rochester, NY, I once drove to his home (about 750 miles) and back, following scenic roads. Suprasad took me to see .”GARDEN OF SCULPTURES” and the picture above was taken there.

FACEBOOK ON 20 FEB,2019

A few more pictures from the Garden of Sculptures:

SANGHI LIBRARY

FACEBOOK ON 21 FEB, 2019

Here is an inauguration day picture of Prof Sanghi, Dean Alumni Affairs, IIT Delhi; Prof B K Behera, former HOD, Textiles; Mr M M Puri, (IIT Kgp), (Corporate VP); Prof Aizaz Mir (NIT Srinagar J&K) and others in the Projection Section of the Palra Library. Another pic is of another part of the Library.

V for successful completion of Sanghi Library

FACEBOOK ON 22 FEB ,2019

A view from a window of the Library at Palra

Library at Village Palra may be ‘modern’, but libraries have been around for centuries and are serious work. Its entertainment component only a frill, an allurement to attract readers. Let the thrill of ceremonies not cover its purpose.

Reproduced below is a classical work, published 393 years ago. Save it, read it, chew it, try to digest it. It’s bitter, but a good mental.

OF STUDIES-by FRANCIS BACON

” STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores. Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body, may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study 197 the lawyers’ cases. So every defect of the mind, may have a special receipt.