ON SCIENCE FICTION

I came across an article to day (06.04.06) in the Hindu Metro Plus on Asimov by one Mala Kumar. Reading science fiction is an intellectual exercise. Before drawn to SF I was reading Arthur Hailey and Irving Wallace and of course the classics. During early 80’s I had two personal tragedies. Within spate of one year I lost my father and my best friend. During that period I was depressed and terribly upset unable to cope with my miseries. At that time one of my friend Saravanan introduced me to Easwari Lending Library enticing me to drown my tragedies amidst books. I had access to enumerable books on every author I chose. I owe a lot to my friend
My appetite for books was some what satiated by Easwari Lending Library. Around the same time another friend Nagabushanam introduced me to Isaac Asimov and J.K’s Lectures. These two friends have shaped my Self to what I am to day. My political views, social views, Cosmic and spiritual knowledge expanded through Easwari Lending Library.

Coming to Issac Asimov, I was thrilled by his books-Foundation series, Short stories etc. I was fascinated by his description of alien landscape, Gadgets, Space travel, Time Travel what he calls Time Warping and what not? When I read his Robot series- that is ultimate. The story I Robot is one of the best SF story I ever I read. It is both philosophical and scary. It also tells us about the horror of take over by Machines. I have read I Robot many a times. The fact of being a chemistry graduate helped me to understand SF better, with out getting over awed by the scientific knowledge these books put forth. From science fiction I have graduated to non- fiction. Even Issac Asimov books on non-fiction are simply superb. He has written about many discoveries and inventions in his own style that attracts the attention of every reader. My knowledge about cosmos, Big bang Theory, Black Hole, Red star, Neutron star, Tyco Brahe Herschel- every thing about Astronomy is because of him. He used to give inspiring titles to his articles. One such title is: Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, a line from William Blake’s line.

From Asimov I switched over to Arthur Clarke and other SF writers. Arthur Clarke is another who engrossed my attention. His 2001 Space Odyssy, Rendezvous with Rama, Child Hood’s End, The Sential are masterpieces. Sir Fred Hoyle , the physicist and astronomer is another writer who stirred my attention. His novel The Black Cloud is one of the best.


Issac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:

A Robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

A Robot must obey the orders given to it by human being except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

A Robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The Great Divide

Globalaisation has not made the lives of the have nots any thing better.The difference between the rich and the poor got still wider.An interesting article has appeared in the The new Indian Express supplement SCHOOL MAGAZINE to day(april 5 th). The author Subha Venkatesen said in her article that the people who have not enough to eat or having any place to live consist of 21 percent of the world population. This is fairly a large number. According to her the poor face challanges like living in places that are hard to reach(geography),bad climate,natural hazards,lack of education and poor health. In contrast societies with good harbours, favourable climate, adequate energy and good contacts with the rest of the world have always escaped extreme poverty.

There are other reasons that to add to the plight of the poor like explotiation ,social and cultural discriminisation. The world to day came to gather to help the society by setting goals called millennium development goals. Based on research, they decided to

give aid for enough food

give access to clean water and basic sanitation.

boost agriculture with fertilizers, improved seeeds and irrigation

give health care to everyone

invest in education

provide power to the backward regions.

How can we do this? How much is the cost of all this? The total requirement works out to $160 billions. Is it possible? It only involves 0.5 percent of the combined GNB (gross national product) of the affulent donar nations. This is a mere drop in the ocean.

According to her the world at last realised that unless there is prosperty there can not be peace .

The diaries of a Vietnamese Surgon



Again another news item caught my eyes recently. It appeared on April 3rd. No one would have forgotten Vietnam War. My younger days topic was the bravery of Viet gong army exploitation in battlefield against U.S.Army. The news item is about a brave women military doctor who looked after the wounded and comforted Viet gong soldiers against all the odds. She kept a diary filling her thoughts on suffering and love, the petty politics the communist party indulged in and her hatred for Americans. Her name was Dang Thuy Tram. She covered 36 months of the period. Tram also wrote about the hardships of dismantling and rebuilding of her hospital during wartime. There are frightening accounts of hiding in foxholes, chest deep in cold water or nearly suffocating in underground bunkers. She described Richard Nixon and U.S. Soldiers as “demons, devils. Dogs, pirates and poisonous snakes.”

U.S.troops earmarked her for capture or elimination. She died while giving protection to retreat of wounded soldiers. She laid down her life instead of surrendering to enemy forces. T he U.S. troops found the diaries after the capture of abandoned hospital. The diaries were not burned then as she was a war hero by the time. The people will also read her diaries as they did for another war victim Anne Frank.

Unfornutely Tram also had difficulties with communist party. In her own words “The saddest part of the hardship is that I still have not found fairness.”Oh1 that is politics.

The diaries of a Vietnamese Surgon

Again another news item caught my eyes recently. It appeared on April 3rd. No one would have forgotten Vietnam War. My younger days topic was the bravery of Viet gong army exploitation in battlefield against U.S.Army. The news item is about a brave women military doctor who looked after the wounded and comforted Viet gong soldiers against all the odds. She kept a diary filling her thoughts on suffering and love, the petty politics the communist party indulged in and her hatred for Americans. Her name was Dang Thuy Tram. She covered 36 months of the period. Tram also wrote about the hardships of dismantling and rebuilding of her hospital during wartime. There are frightening accounts of hiding in foxholes, chest deep in cold water or nearly suffocating in underground bunkers. She described Richard Nixon and U.S. Soldiers as “demons, devils. Dogs, pirates and poisonous snakes.”

U.S.troops earmarked her for capture or elimination. She died while giving protection to retreat of wounded soldiers. She laid down her life instead of surrendering to enemy forces. T he U.S. troops found the diaries after the capture of abandoned hospital. The diaries were not burned then as she was a war hero by the time. The people will also read her diaries as they did for another war victim Anne Frank.

Unfornutely Tram also had difficulties with communist party. In her own words “The saddest part of the hardship is that I still have not found fairness.”Oh1 that is politics.