Down the memory lane

Down the memory lane

Reflecting about Infancy

I think, I am not sadly mistaken in my self assessment of myself, if I say I am a fairly intelligent scientist. Scientist because I hold a doctorate degree in science from one of the most prestigious institution in my country, also because I believe that I can pass all tests for a scientifi temperament.

Now, How is it that I developed these traits. They could not have been in my genes, no one, in our family for the past several generation ever ventured close to science, I am the first generation scientist in my family.

I asked my mother, to tell me, the background of my birth. By the way I am the eldest offspring of my parents, who hailed from a well to do family that had some history in landowning. So the econonomis status was fairly comfortable. My mother, who is not highly educated, in fact she is not even a university graduate, tells me that at while she was pregnant, she would extensively read, and the younger brother of my father, Prof. G .C. Hallen, who was preparing for his postgraduation in Sociology, would narrate to her the biographies of great men and women.

After my birth, I was the favorite child of my uncle, I was the first grandchild of my grand parents. Therefore he would tend to me affectionately while he studied. This uncle of mine later became a distinguished Professor of Sociology.

So I can safely say that I was brought up in an enviroment, which was intellectually above average.

My thoughts now revolve around another person whom I have known closely. His name is Suvrat Raju, currently a graduate student at the Harvard. Incidently, he got admitted to Harvard just after obtaining a Bachelors degree from St. Stephens College. In fact the top most universities/institutins like MIT and Cambridge were willing to give him admission. Now about his parents. His father C K Raju is an eminent scholar of physics (he authored a book entitled "The eleven pictures of time") and his mother Ms. Jaya Mehta is a scholar of economics. Suvrat like me was the first son born in a well to do family, that had enough intellectual leanings.

The third person that comes to my mind is named Tathagat, a child prodigy. I had no direct interactions with him but I read about him and his parents in the newspaper.

Thinking and Reflecting

Lately I have been busy thinking about this issue. It all started one fine morning, when a question struck my mind, "Is the personality of a human being totally determined by his/her genes?" So I went up to CSEC, logged on to the Hypography Science Forums and posted the question "Do Biological organisms have extra chromosomal source of info?" It has turned out to be very interesting, especially so in the context of the developments in the past few days; I am referring to the reservations for OBC's in the IITs and IIM's etc. This issue came up after I had posted on this discussion for several days. So I connected the two and started pondering about the issue also. Is it neccessary that the children of the lower caste have less mental skills than those of the upper castes. The answer is a vehement NO, but then why is it so that statistically they have not succeeded as much. Well one factor could be the genes s/he is endowed with other factor can be economic status of the family and so on. I have posted several times on this issue, if you are interested you might as well visit the thread on Hypography.

Here I will limit myself to the thoughts that I have not posted on Hypography.

In praise of idleness

I have lately really started enjoying my idleness. Till very recently, I often used to get tense, often because I was not earning any new money. Although the need for it is not really pressing, I have some savings from earlier life, which assure me my bread and daily needs. But now, I am past all that. After my leisurely breakfast, I regularly take off to the Center for Science Education and Communication, University of Delhi, just a couple of kilometers from my home, most often I take a bus, sometimes I just walk down thinking.

I spend my time thinking about various topics that arise in my mind. Often I post them on Hypography science forums under the psudonyme Hallenrm, or about a science fiction story, only one so far has been published in Science Reporter, you can read it on this site too. I go back home for lunch, and after a nap and tea am back to the university campus for a walk, some exercise and meditation. That's indeed the normal schedule of my life.

I have started feeling really relaxed and enjoying my present state. I don't really know how long will it last.