for Children

of all ages

The fifth of September is celebrated as the Teachers' day all over India. On this day, the entire society honors the teaching community. This day is also the birthday of a great teacher and internationally acclaimed philosopher and writer, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, our former President who contributed immensely to the improvement of all aspects of school education.

A young person's mind is like an empty slate and whatever is written in the early days stays put in it. Students spend most of their active time in the school, in the company of teachers and thus teachers influence, mould and develop the students' personality. Even an occasional remark from a teacher can change the very whole life of a student, of which there are many examples. A good teacher is not the one who covers the syllabus from the students, but one who helps them to discover it. A good teacher explains whereas a great teacher inspires!

We have heard that Lord Krishna was very mischievous in his childhood. He used to steal milk and butter, hide the clothes of women during their bath etc. We also know what happened when he grew up. The timely advice of Krishna to Arjuna in his time of misery is known as the Bhagavad Gita, which contains the very best teaching on what is good and what is bad, what is to be done and what not. The credit of bringing up Krishna to this level goes to Sage Sandipani, the acclaimed teacher of Lord Krishna. Sage Sandipani is indeed the best teacher of the world in my opinion. His name is remembered even after three thousand years because of his famous student, who also later became a great teacher of humanity.

Lack of knowledge and culture is like a catarct in the eye, preventing a person from seeing things properly. When the doctor removes the cataract by operation and opens up the eyes, we are enlightened and see the beautiful new world in a new and proper perspective. Thus, teacher is the doctor who removes the cataract of the mind's eye and makes a person enlightened. This is the meaning of the famous sloka,

Ajnaana timirandhasya, jnaanaanjana salakayaa
Chakshurunmeelitham yenaa, thasmaai sreegurave namah

When did this wonderful Universe of ours originate? And when? All these galaxies and nebulae; stars and planets; matter and energy; `cabbages and kings'; … and you and I! What happened in the very beginning? And, of course, what happened before that?

We all would certainly have wondered about such things some time or other. But then, we do not really have much time to keep thinking about such `useless' things; lots of things are to be taken care of for the day-to-day existence. Our attention is often diverted by universal problems rather than by problems of the Universe!

Physicists and philosophers have been trying for centuries to find answers to some of these questions. The observation that the Universe is expanding and the existence of the microwave background radiation are considered to be evidence enough to take the Big Bang (BB) theory seriously.

The big bang, the very starting point of the Universe, is considered to be a singularity - a state of infinite density. Our ideas are based on the notion of space and time and these very concepts break down at the point of singularity. So these laws can not relate any incident before the BB to any incident after the BB. This it is immaterial whether there existed space or time before the BB; of course, apart from metaphysical considerations. Physics can happily set its clock to read `zero' at the BB. This implies that the question when and where the Universe originated is meaningless.

The famous physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking (alos author the popular book `A brief history of Time' in which he has explained some of the recent ideas about the origin of the Universe in simple language) gives an analogy to answer the `before-the-beginning' issue: The earth's surface is finite and bounded. You go to the North Pole and yet you will not find an edge of the earth's surface. You know the meaning of the word `North' very well as you travel from the equator due North. However, the word looses its meaning at points very close to North Pole. Can you go one kilometer `North ' of the North Pole? That depends also on the geometry of the planet. This is very similar to what happens to the concept of `time' at the BB. The concept of `before' looses its meaning as we near the instant of the BB.

Can theories on the origin of the Universe avoid a singularity? Probably yes, when concepts quantum gravity is taken into consideration. But then, it will take many more years before these theories do find a place, if at all, at an appropriate form and level, in our school text books. The black hole is an example of a singularity. Black hole do emit radiation, `throwing off' energy equivalent to all the matter absorbed by it, and are also likely to evaporate ultimately. Modern Physicists do hope that the some of these mysteries will be partly solved by early days of this century.

Tail piece: (not of the Universe!)

Consider the Universe as a collections of stars that interact gravitationally. All of them must attract one another. Then, why don't all of them come together and collapse eventually?

This,of course, is a famous paradox that has been worrying Physicists for several decades. Newton gave the following answer: Assume the Univesre to be infinite. For every star, the resultant gravitational attraction of all other stars is zero as it is being pulled equally in every direction. (To every star, there exists an equal and opposite star?). This argument is neither flawless, nor well accepted. After all, the Universe need not be infinite. Why, then, don't we collapse?

We all have one face each. Imagine having two faces. How will it be? Would you like to have two faces? Well, Janus, the Greek God is supposed to have two faces, one face looks forward and the other looks backward. The month January is named after Janus. Rightly so, as January marks the beginning of the new year and the end of the previous year. Thus it has one head looking at the future and the other one looking at the past.

But January was not always the first month. In the first calender, called the Gregarian calender, March was the first month. It was named after Mars, the Roman God of war. As you know, marching is very important in a war. The name February came from the Februare, the Latin word for `purify'. April means `open up'. Some scholars say that May is short form of majores, Latin word meaning older men. They believe that May was sacred to the majores, just as June was sacred to the juniores

It was the Roman statesman Julius Caesar who took up task of perfecting the calendar and the month July is named after him. Similarly, August is named after Agustus Caesar. Julius Caesar made January the first month. Before this, March was the first month, as mentioned earlier. Hence September was the seventh month. The word Seven in English is Septem in Latin. Eight is Octum and hence the eighth month was October. Similarly, Novom means nine and decem means is Ten in Latin. Hence November and December. It may be interesting here to note the similarity between words in Latin and Sanskrit. Septem is saptam in Sanskrit, Octom is Ashtam, Novem is Novem and Decem is dasam.

Before Caesar's time, Months had 31 and 30 days alternatively. Julius Caesar took away a day from February and added it to July and Augustus Caesar took away another day from February and added it to August. Poor February !

Now let me ask you a question: How many months have 28 days in them? (Did I hear `one'? well, the answer is 12, of course!)

OLD AGE

As children, you would like to think about what will happen to you after many, many years from now. Will you become rich and famous one day? Will you rule the country? Will you be a well-known cine actor, a cricket player? (After all, Bill Gates, Abdul Kalam, Amitabh Bachan, Sachin and Jackie Chan were children one day.) We can never know these things; there is no way.

However, there is one thing that we all can be very sure about our future: We all are going to be old people one day! In fact, we are growing old every minute, even now, as time flies. There is no escape from this at all. No medicine can prevent this; no amount of money can solve this; no magic can reverse this; even God cannot (and will not) help you to remain school children for ever. Markandeyapuranam is only a story!

Growing old is quite natural, an unbreakable rule of the game of life. The fresh green leaves of a tree turn yellow and brown and fall down and decay. Among the old people around us today, there are some who planted those wonderful trees whose fruit we eat gladly today; some who built houses and bridges which we use happily today, some who fought wars or caught criminals to make our life safer and happier; some who taught generations and also trained teachers who teach us so well today; some who developed medicines, designed medical instruments and built hospitals to which we rush when we are in trouble; several unsung heroes and heroines who helped to develop, to maintain and to improve our world into what it is today. All of them had served the society in some form or other when they were young and active. We owe what we enjoy today to the humanity of the past who made it all possible for us. Today they remain treasure houses of knowledge, information, experience and guidance for us.

We were dependant on many people when we were infants, without their help we would not have survived. When these people become old and weak, it is our duty to help them. Remember this when you see an old man or woman next time: our own parents and even we are going to look like that one day. Even if they may not be our own father and mother, they are surely somebody's father and mother!

We often see very interesting advertisements of soft drinks. We see our favorite cricket players and movie stars dancing with joy and playing practical jokes, drinking those beautifully colored, bubbling liquids (Do you think those stars actually use these drinks in real life?) We immediately feel like rushing to the nearest store to buy some fantastic drink for ourselves. Well, that is exactly what the people behind the advertisements want so that their bank accounts flourish! That is fine, but what do we get in the bargain?

Let us see what happens when you gulp down those fantastic looking liquids. To start with, any cool drink, even chilled water, causes some damage to your teeth, throat and the digestive processes. The magnitude of the damage depends on your age, susceptibility to infections and the difference in temperature. But that is only minor compared to what comes next. A team of doctors and scientists of New Castle University, England studied the effect of soft drinks on human body recently and published several interesting findings. These drinks consist mostly of carbon dioxide and some phosphoric acid which reduces the oxygen content in human cells causing many problems including cancer. Those fantastic bubbles of these drinks burn inside tissues inside our body and damage them permanently. The calcium balance of the body is upset and the bones start decaying. These drinks also dissolve parts of our teeth and spoil them.

The colors and sweetening agents of the soft drinks (and other similar food stuff, of course) contain dangerous chemicals that lead to headaches, sleeplessness, mental disturbances and cancer on prolonged use. In short, the chemicals used in most of the soft drinks in the market today, which lure you with fantastic advertisements, contain chemicals, which can cause serious and permanent damage leading to incurable diseases and finally, a horrible death.

In this world, there were always smart people who made millions at the expense of willing fools and idiots. Such cheating to some extent is unavoidable (and even tolerable when people actually choose to be foolish) , if the products were harmless to health, or at least is the effect on health were well known. But, when the products are silent killers leading to serious health problems to innocent victims, it is the duty of those who know to tell those who do not know.

For more details and a detailed discussion on this topic, visit http://www.mouthshut.com/readreview/7103-1.html and the related pages referred to there.

Okay, okay, but, how do we live in this century without soft drinks? For those who understand all this, but do want an alternative, consider a relatively economical, unpolluted, safely packed actual health drink - tender coconuts. This contains glucose in natural form, which actually gives you instant energy, while being very tasty! It is actually a medicine tested and trusted for thousands of years. No side effects too.

After all, the advertisement does give an excellent advice: be cool, not a fool!