Canals, First Computer Programme and Smart Garments!

Perhaps the most common topic of conversation among the British is weather (these days of course it is economic recession and banking crisis). When I moan about not having enough sunlight during long autumn-winter a good friend of mine tells that the sun is always there only if you were high enough beyond the clouds. Though he says so jokingly, it is true that if you fly well above earth you can always see sun! Altitude does make difference. This is exactly what happened few days ago when I was sitting by the wall without window, the whole one side of the 19th floor room at Hilton in Manchester was made of glass. One could see many examples of technology from industrial revolution days to 21st century. Right below the hotel I could see Manchester Metrolink station Deansgate where two-three coach electric trains were passing by quietly.

Just near the station is a canal which reminded me of the importance of canals during the industrial revolution in 18th century England. Canal map of Britain makes a fascinating economic map because it was through canals that much of the coal, clay and other goods were transported from one place to another. They were equivalent of highways and railways in modern economies. Many industrial towns flourished around the canal network. Much of industrialisation in late 18th century would not have been as rapid as it happened in absence of an affordable and efficient transportation system that canals provided. Major impact of the first ever private canal built in 1759 was to reduce the price of coal by 50%. Coal was the main source of energy and the factories in Manchester needed lot of coal. The builder of the first canal Duke of Bridgewater, Francis Egerton made a huge fortune from the canal idea borrowed by him from his trip to France. And as happens in free societies with free markets, there was rush of entrepreneurs to jump in canal business and by the year 1815 thousands of kilometres of canals crisscrossing British isles were constructed and in most cases investors got good returns from their investment in canal shares. But the emergence of railways driven by steam engines made canal business less profitable. Unsurprisingly there was huge rush for investment in railway company shares this time. Soon the railway network spread and competition from rail made canals economically unviable as mode of transport. But none the less it is noteworthy that in form of canals private sector provided fantastic transport infrastructure during the Industrial Revolution in England. But things change.. in 1947 the Labour government nationalised both the canals and the railways. But after 50 odd years another Labour government denationalised railways. Political ideologies change…These days canals are mostly used for leisurely activities and constitute a heritage industry.

In Manchester, UK you can not miss the historical context of the city and its association with textile industry revolution. About 300 yards from the hotel where I had gone to attend an academic conference, is Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). I had been to this museum many years ago, but with some time during the lunch break that day I couldn’t stop myself from walking over to peep once again into the history of technology and industrial revolution. By the time I returned to the hotel the history and the future had fused into my present thinking. This is what happened.

There are many departments in the museum which I will not describe here anyone interested can look them up by clicking at the link given below. I chose to go to the textile section. This is particularly interesting for me as I grew up in Ahmedabad, India which was famously known as Manchester of India because it housed more than 100 textile mills once upon a time. Indeed I had actually studied a declining textile industry all those years ago as an MBA student. Anyway, while I was passing through various exhibitions at the museum I came across an exhibition on textile fabrics of future. A Sri Lankan, Dr Tilak Dias of Material Sciences Department of Manchester University, was explaining in a short video programme the research that he and his team have been doing on the smart fabrics which will be made from fibres embedded with various sensors and microprocessors. The purpose had been to make garments that could monitor the changing condition of body during stress and other conditions so that vital changes to heart rate, blood pressure etc. are quickly reported and preventive measures can be taken by health professionals. Already smart garments are being marketed for sports people, heart patients, army personnel and so on. Imagine a smart dress that could control your body temperature. Or dress that could change the colour as the day wears on. One dress for sunny, wintry or wet weather! These are my imaginations but after watching the video on Dr Tilak’s research I think my imagination is not unrealistic. This is how when I went to see history but returned dreaming future textiles! Next time you are changing clothes think that few generations down the line that activity might be quite different! A fusion of history and future!

As I type this on my laptop, again I am reminded sitting in the library of Manchester Business School which is on the 5th floor overlooking several other buildings of Manchester University. Altitude matters! One of those buildings I distinctly remember because it is the building which I passed by everyday knowing that in that building on 21 June 1948 first stored computer programme was run! Few months ago in 2008 the 60th Anniversary of that first programme, appropriately called Baby, was celebrated. I encourage you to visit this site and find for yourself how big and different that computer looked in 1948. Also on this site can be seen the BBC’s TV news clip announcing the event in the year 1949 as following:

"Manchester University, where anyone who urgently wishes to know whether 2 to the power of 127 minus one is a prime number or not, can be given the answer by an electronic brain in 25 minutes instead of by a human brain in six months.”

25 minutes has now probably shrunk to 25 nanoseconds, but it was a giant leap in 1948.

Some relevant links:

Manchester Museum of Science and Industry link

More about Dr. Tilak Dias and his innovations in textile

If you want to see actual news item in black and white TV of 1949 click here.

Find out about Baby, the first ever stored programme that was run go to multimedia and take an interactive tour of the Baby
Document about first ever stored programme run in 1948

Economic and eco-friendly kissing zones

Economics is science of understanding unintended consequences of decisions. Most of the time we look out for intended consequences of economic choices and fail to see unintended consequences. That’s why most of us don’t understand economics fully. It has been called ‘dismal science’ but that is because we ignore the above principle. Apply this principle to many decisions of several communist governments around the world and you get many horrible unintended economic consequences. The path to hell can be paved with noble intentions. Apply unitended consequences principle to managerial decisions of many banks in the past ten years and you have unintended consequence of global banking crisis arising from intended focus on the short term profitability. Apply this to decision to marry, hmm.. few intended consequences but unitended.. keep counting.

Gary S Becker, Chicago economist, thinks social and family issues can be understood and explained through econmic rational choice approach. He has done research and published a lot on family, divorce, investment in children and so on including A Treatise on the Family published in 1981. Prof. Becker's interests in issues 'non-economic'-divorce, marriage, altruism- were not necessarily appreciated by mainstream economists, but hey, he ended up getting The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1992! So one could discuss a social-cultural sounding issue from an economic point of view. So let's get going and see the the unintended consequences of 'no kissing zone'.

Recently in a north western town of Warrington in England ‘No Kissing’ signs were put up near drop off zones outside the railway station to suggest to people not to stop car for long to ‘kiss long goodbyes’. The station authorities do not want to stop people from kissing but wants people to move to ‘Kissing Zone’ if they have to, for which also signs are put up. The reason is to help smooth flow of cars and taxis streaming in to drop off or pick up people. A potential solution to ease traffic near the station but it took 11 years of convincing and arguing by the Warrington Chamber of Commerce to implement. The consequences of this decision to put two little sign boards on the walls of station include at least one intended and three unintended. This is a stone which kills four birds! An intended one and the other three unintended ones! Let’s start the journey with economic logic.

Time saved is money saved, congestion means more pollution. The decision for no kissing zone was based on the argument that people spending time in cars kissing each other long goodbyes was causing congestion and wasting people’s time in the car queues. These queues can be really long in developed countries like the UK. Thus reduced congestion would save time. This is going to be intended consequence if people follow the rule. Now Warrington is not the first in this case. As reported they borrowed the idea from Deerfield, in Illinois, USA. A hospital in Norway did the same thing in 2003 when they went for four lanes near reception area and the fourth lane, which was farthest from the reception gates was designated as see you later-goodbye ‘kissing’ lane for the staff being dropped off! So the first intended bird killed. Time saved, money saved, assuming all other things are equal as they say in economics.

Second bird, unintended, reduced congestion means less pollution. This makes ‘no kissing zones’ eco-friendly. I know what some of you are thinking. People kissing in the cars in ‘kissing zones’ are unlikely to switch off their car engines so pollution will not be reduced. But at least their cars will not be obstructing other cars in the queue hence I suspect there will be net reduction in pollution.

Third bird, unintended or not, I can’t say. But it is publicity advantage for Virgin group. Advertisers and brand builders know the importance of being in the news for right reasons or wrong! Controversy or praise, whatever attracts consumer attention goes (almost in most cases). Imagine how many TV programmes will not attract attention of people if they did not court controversies! Let’s get back to third bird.

The colour red usually is associated with warmth or danger depending what you fancy reading this now. If you combine that with images of advertisers of Valentine events red also means much more than warmth. Those who are aware of Virgin brand, the colour red is quite prominent part of the brand. I’ve travelled several times on Virgin Trains in England, every thing is red about it. The train colour, the dresses of stewards and stewardesses, the train manager (it is a new name for old Train Conductor or Guard) wears red jacket and/or red tie and indeed the colour paper napkins and the paper cups that you buy coffee in. Red is there. In England train companies are private and manage stations also. All train stations managed by Virgin Trains are painted, you guessed it right…, predominantly red. Warrington Bank Quay station where ‘no kissing’ and ‘kissing’ zone signs have been kept happens to be managed by Virgin. Now look back at 'no kissing' sign above: red is un-missable.

In addition publishers of romantic novels Mills and Boon have launched a poster campaign using Virgin’s name. One can understand the Mills and Boon’s anguish at discouraging ‘no kissing zone’ sign from their perspective, but like most of us, they have failed to notice the other sign, the ‘kissing zone’ side of the coin. Had they seen this unintended opportunity, they would perhaps be launching supporting campaign rather than opposing the decision. But whatever the campaign, Virgin gets publicity through Mills and Boon!

The fourth bird, the unintended consequence number three, is right here! I am writing about it to explain economics and you are reading about this. Millions have read and heard about the decision already through several media.

Let me conclude by saying that on one of the BBC’s blogs a caption competition was launched about the image of no kissing zone sign. It received more than 400 responses. Here are few funny ones but with serious message too:

Station pays lip service to public freedom by some one called SundayParkGeorge.

Walls may have ears, but lips are right out. By someone called OGNash.

WARNING: Kissing causes large lumps to appear all over your head. Wear a HAT. By someone called Pedro_fusball

Fun apart, the last one is good caution too as one woman in Italy had to be taken to hospital with swollen lips after a kiss by her husband because she was allergic to some chemicals used in the medicine her husband had taken half an hour before they had their expression of love for each other! Human body can be mega sensitive to things such as even peanut butter smell!

Three reasons to learn your language

If Hindi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Russian, German, Arabic, English indeed whatever is your mother tongue, mother language or home language, please read on. I put before you three reasons for speaking and learning your own language that you should consider before forming any quick judgement based on the title only. Through out the following I’ll be using condition of Sindhi language in India as an illustration but I am sure in most places you could replace that with name of your language and the arguments will still make sense. But before I do that I call for your patience to read about some events that took place 57 years ago in what was at that time East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

February 21st is a special day, not because it is exactly one week after Valentine day, but because it is celebrated as International Mother Language Day (IMLD)! If you knew great! if not, you know it now. Why would United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation (UNESCO) deem it appropriate at turn of the second millennium AD to declare a day to celebrate importance and recognition of mother language? Bit of search and lot of curiosity led me to finding a gripping story of struggle and sacrifice to sustain one’s mother tongue. The events leading to IMLD were intimately related to a major unfortunate event of 20th century, namely partition of India.

Division of India was a hurriedly carried out exercise. The demarcation of lines between India and the new nation of Pakistan was such that Pakistan was born on two sides, eastern and western, of India! Pakistan on east of India was East Pakistan carved out of Bengal and on north western side it comprised large parts Punjab, North West Frontier and so on. While the Pakistani people in East Pakistan shared the religion, Islam, with majority of Pakistanis on western side, they did not share the same language. East Pakistani (now Bangladeshis) have had a rich tradition of literature and a great language just as the people speaking Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto and other languages in Pakistan on its western side have had. Soon after the independence Pakistan government decided to have Urdu as the only official language for Pakistan. Bengali speaking people in East Pakistan started resistance to this decision and launched agitations. On 21st February 1952 the Bengali Language Movement in East Pakistan led to unrest in Dhaka and in police firing many students lost their life fighting for recognition of Bengali as one of the official languages of Pakistan. Subsequently in 1956 Bengali was recognised as one of the official languages in Pakistan. A beautiful monument, Shaheed Minar, commemorating the student sacrifices for their mother tongue was built very soon and is still located on the campus of Dhaka university. Till today 21st February is celebrated as Bengali Language Movement day in Bangladesh and is a public holiday in Bangladesh. In 1999 the United Nations, based on proposals from Bangladesh and some other language lovers declared 21st February as International Mother Language Day. So hopefully after reading this story you are ready to read further few other reasons that I put before you to consider why one must learn and speak one’s mother language.

First reason: Is functional utility only purpose of language promotion?

I frequently get asked this question while talking to young Sindhis in urban India or abroad. What is the use of learning Sindhi language? It is of no use in business and profession, it does not help in education as English dominates school and higher education therefore, there is no need to learn Sindhi. Let’s deal with this functional (utilitarian) argument for not learning which also leads to my first reason for learning Sindhi. Clearly it is possible that your mother language may not be one of the main international languages such as English, French, Spanish and other internationally dominant in the world of commerce and professions and neither might it be medium of instruction at higher education level. If it is so, what is the point in learning it. I will call this ‘functional' utility argument. Many world languages be it several regional languages in India, China, wherever, face this challenge, although some more severally such as Sindhi in India than others.

But now let’s extend this functional utility argument to other walks of life. Let’s take architecture. What is the functional utility of having great architecture in the present times? Imagine someone could argue that Taj Mahal in Agra or Egyptian Pyramids or Stonehenge in Scotland or Eiffel Tower in Paris have no functional utility and hence suggest that they be demolished to construct houses or offices on those spots. Most sane people will disagree with such an argument and put forward the case for preserving ancient architecture as these represent some of the finest achievements of human endeavours (and also pains in many cases, which is not justifiable I must say). That’s why so many of these places are declared as World Heritage sites. There are many other arts and crafts which may not have so called ‘functional’ value in our day to day living but we would still support the idea of preserving them. Actually many of such arts might have served some purpose at some place at some time.

So what’s different when we consider a language? Is it because it is intangible compared to a physical structure? As a matter of fact evolution of a full fledged language is far more complex, intelligent process than construction of a monument is. The refinement and development in linguistic feature such as vocabulary, cultural nuances of language use, grammar spans many generations. Yes language is intangible and but is not ‘invisible’ one can read, write, hear and speak it which involves three senses rather than just eyes. A particular language may not possess the same functional utility in time and space but its importance is high if not more than say that of ancient architecture heritage sites as preserver of the human accomplishments. Language enabled transmission and storage of knowledge that facilitated the growth of civilisations.

Actually if functional argument were extended to extreme, one could argue for benefits of having only language world wide. But this is a dangerous idea. This is why. Human progress requires diversity in thinking. Different people, different societies, different cultures when co-exist in peaceful manner produce far more and solve more problems than uniform cultures, homogenous views would do. There are plenty of examples in human history to show what such one track thinking can do in any walk of life be it politics, economics, religion, science or culture. Different languages represent different cultures, different dialogues, different interpretations and different systems of knowledge. Hence languages are precious for the progress of human civilisation. I am sure many languages would meet this criterion and therefore, using narrow ‘functional’ view on language with reference to career and commercial relevance does not seem a rational choice for intelligent people. That’s my first reason why one should learn one’s language even though it may not have in current socio-economic conditions so called ‘functional’ value.

Second reason: Language enriches human living

My second reason for learning one’s language is to get a flavour of its richness. Languages are not just medium of communication but they embody human experience and create human experience. The words have impact on how we feel as anyone who has been verbal abused or verbally praised would know. This short article is not suitable for describing its richness but having read some of the great poems and, knowing the versatile and the rich repertoire of words in Sindhi language I can only say its richness can be tasted only when we speak or read it.

I am sure most languages have same level of richness and there are quite a few languages in the world. Let me try to tickle your imagination with few facts. There are nearly 7000 languages in the world with known speakers of which 428 are spoken in India, 18 in the UK and 72 in Pakistan. 516 of the total known languages are endangered. Sindhi is spoken by more than 50 million people[1] which makes it 22nd ranked most popular language in the world according to estimates by Ethnologue[2]. You may like to check where your language stands before it becomes endangered!

According to Nancy Dorian there are three symptoms of death of language: fewer speakers, fewer domains of use, and structural simplification.[3] For example, while there are many speakers of Sindhi, its domains of usage have shrunk seriously because of non-Sindhi medium of education and migration of (mostly Hindu) Sindhis from Sindh and getting dispersed all over India and rest of the globe. An important domain of the use of language is home and the other being social-cultural domain. Sindhi like many other languages is also facing the challenge of so called of modernity where western culture and western languages, particularly that posed by English in India. It does not befit the intelligence of Sindhis to deprive themselves and their future generations of the privilege of knowing one more language. It is also not responsible of them to run the risk of Sindhi becoming gradually an endangered language. This also applies to other linguistic communities in the world.

Third reason: Mother language helps your development too!

My third reason for learning one’s language is based on the argument the evidence that learning one’s mother tongue along with other languages has several advantages. Here are some listed by Jim Cummins of University of Toronto:[4]

Bilingualism has positive effects on children's linguistic and educational development: More than 150 research studies conducted during the past 35 years strongly support what Goethe, the German philosopher, once said: The person who knows only one language does not truly know that language. The research suggests that bilingual children may also develop more flexibility in their thinking as a result of processing information through two different languages.

The level of development of children's mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language development: When parents and other caregivers (e.g. grandparents) are able to spend time with their children and tell stories or discuss issues with them in a way that develops their mother tongue vocabulary and concepts, children come to school well-prepared to learn the school language and succeed educationally.

Children's cultural and linguistic experience in the home is the foundation of their future learning and we must build on that foundation rather than undermine it. (Source: Cummins[5])

So the third argument is that knowing one’s language along with other languages is not going to be a disadvantage for you or your children. On the contrary it seems ‘profitable’, if I may use the term bit lightly knowing very well the enterprising spirit of Sindhis who are known to weigh the costs and benefits or everything!

Let’s conclude now. The aim of this write up has been to reason with the readers that it is worth and necessary to speak and learn one’s mother tongue illustrating with Sindhi language as I happen to be Sindhi and know that this language is struggling to survive in India as written and read language. It is argued that functional utility of a language should not be only criterion in accepting or rejecting one’s mother language. There is clearly a very rich body of literature, rich Sindhi culture embedded in Sindhi language which is part of finest traditions and human achievements for which, those who know the language, have responsibility to pass on to future generations. And finally it's argued that there is scientific evidence that bilingualism helps children do well in education also. I hope you are persuaded enough to make a start, even if it is small start tomorrow morning on breakfast table having cereal with milk. Here is the richness for you. There is a word ‘Shree’ Sindhi/Hindi/Sanskrit (after all they are sister languages!). The word Shree means good and also means goddess of prosperity and agriculture. Latin Ceres comes from ‘Shree’[6] and Ceres in Latin means goddess of agriculture and food which is the root of word cornflakes Cereal that you enjoy in the morning. Although Shree looks very plausible derivation of could not verify this from Oxford Dictionary of Etymology. By the way UNESCO had declared 2008 as year of International Languages!

Notes:

[1]According Encarta, reported on Wikipedia, there were 54.3 million speakers of Sindhi in 2006. But I am not really sure about this number. It appears to be very large to me. Ethnologue website suggest that number of Sindhi speakers is 21.3 million. DK
[2] http://www.ethnologue.com/ is part of an international organisation that studies trends in languages.
[3] Dorian, Nancy C. 1980. Language shift in community and individual: The phenomenon of the laggard semi-speaker. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 25.85-94.
[4] For full article refer to http://www.iteachilearn.com/cummins/mother.htm
[5] From above quotation, accessed on 14th October 2008.
[6] Source: Bherumal M. Advani (1944, 2008) Qadeem Sindh, National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language, New Delhi.

Why do I like the word algebra?

Some hate it, some love it and some just do it because they have to as part of studies or jobs. I am talking about mathematics and in particular algebra. I am not great at algebra but I like the word algebra a lot. It is a mathematical term as we all know but actually if you dig deeper into it you find it brings together two cultures from Asia and one from Europe. The period between 7-8 century AD to about 16th century AD is sometimes called period of Islamic scientific revolution as many Islamic scholars in middle east were discovering new things in science and technology during this period. One of these scholars was Muhammad Ibn al-Khwarizmi who was Persian scholar working on mathematics, astronomy and geography. He lived during 780 to 850 AD and wrote books on geography, astronomy and various branches of maths.

He was perhaps the first one to put forward idea of systematic procedures to solve the mathematical problems such as quadratic equations. He wrote a book called Al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wa-l-muqābala (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”). Now those who understand Urdu or Hindi would recognize the words in the title. Kitab = book, mukhtasar = short , hisab = calculation, jabr = force (multiplication) and muqabala = balance. This is where the word al-gebra comes from. Its journey to present day English was routed through Latin like for most of Arabic or Sanskrit origin words found in English. The above book was translated in 1145 AD in Latin as Liber algebrae et almucabala. In this title notice the al-jabr changing to algebrae and from there to algebra seems a short journey of dropping ‘e’ from the Latin term algebrae. Actually it was through translation of this book that notions of zero and decimal places were introduced to Europeans who at that time were using Roman numerals I, V, X,L, D,C M,V. Imagine solving 369 x 24 using Roman number (CCCLXIX x XXIV)! Al-Khwarizmi himself got the concept of zero from his studies of Indian mathematics. When he wrote his books on mathematics and astronomy great deal of scientific development was going in India also. One of his books Kitāb al-Jamʿ wa-l-tafrīq bi-ḥisāb al-Hind (The Book of Addition and Subtraction According to the Hindu Calculation) shows his awareness and understanding of the Indian mathematical knowledge which was quite advanced by 7th century AD. During those years there was extensive exchange of knowledge and scientific literature between scholars from India, China and Middle-east. Much of the knowledge about advancements in sciences in India reached European scholars through Arabic translations and interpretations by the Arab scholars.

Al-Khwarizmi’s name has provided an English word changing first into Algoritimi in Latin before getting the shape as we now know algorithm. Yes, that algorithm which today means systematic breaking down of a problem or a situation in step wise manner and then trying to solve it. A technique used by most of us from high school children for solving mathematical problems to computer programmers to military strategist to management experts. Most visible form of algorithm is flow chart or pathway analysis. All courtesy 8th century great scientist Al-Khwarizmi whose approach to problem diagnosis and solution remains pervasive in different forms of algorithm.

Let me get back to algebra! Now let’s go eastward for interpretation of al-jabr. The term jabra is used till today in Urdu and Hindi as meaning force as root in different words. Jabardasti (or zabardasti) meaning forcefully, majboor (helpless or slave i.e, without any force or power and also there at least two Hindi movies by the name majboor), in Gujarati I have heard jabro (one who is powerful or someone like bully) and of course there is a saying in Hindi aadat se majboor (helpless due to habit or habits die hard!).

So there we have fascinating word ‘algebra’, do you still hate it?

Words and life- Juggernaut 2

If curious among you have already read etymology (etymology means study of origin of words) of juggernaut, excellent! If not here we go.

As already said in earlier posting, the word juggernaut is derived from Jagannath. Every year in month of Ashad Indian lunar month (sometime in June-July months) a huge religious procession is taken out with statues of Lord Krishna, his brother Balaram and their sister Subhadra placed in the huge chariots nearly 14 meters tall. The journey from Jagannath temple through the city of Puri moves very slowly as hundreds of thousands of devotees of Lord Jagannath congregate to worship and touch the chariots. In some earlier dictionaries on mythologies it was said that worshippers threw themselves in front of chariots to be sacrificed and thereby creating the image of unstoppable crushing. But I think it was and is an exaggeration perhaps based on the accidents and loss of life that may occur when so many people get together (if you have forgotten remember in September 2008 more than 150 people died in a stampede at a temple in Jodhpur, Rajasthan). One of the violent computer games is called juggernaut!

Words and life- Juggernaut 1

I have always liked to explore words and their meanings. When I was in standard 7 or 8 I bought my first dictionary, it was English to Sindhi. Yes, I did my school education in Sindhi medium which has meant that I can read and write in Arabic script too. Perhaps you may know that Sindhi language has 52 alphabets. Sindhi Language is quite close to Sanskrit and Ancient Sanskrit. I will talk about Sindhi language some other time but now let me turn back to words.

Juggernaut is a word in English which means a powerful force that is unstoppable. It could be said that in business a particular company, say Microsoft in software or Google in internet business are like juggernauts. But do you know what this English word's orgin is? Well it is derived from the name of Lord Krishna, yes, one of the many names of Lord Krishna is Jagannath. Lord Jagannath of Puri city in eastern state of Orissa is famous among Hindus and Jagannath Yatra (a religious procession) is an spectacular occassion and juggernaut is related to this procession. In the next posting more will be explained about how the word Jagannath term travelled from eastern India to modern day English in the following posting. Till that time happy reading whatever else you are reading. Check this out in a week's time.
Thanks.

शब्द और ज़िन्दगी - जगन्नाथ २

अगर आप में से जो ज्यादह उत्सक juggernaut शब्द की 'उत्पति' खोजते हुए पड़ चुके हैं तो बहुत बधाई, अगर नहीं तो चलो अब पड़ते हैं!


भारत के पूर्वी प्रान्त उड़ीसा के पुरी शहर में हर साल आषढ माह में भगवान् जगन्नाथ की रथ यात्रा निकलती है। इस यात्रा में भगवान् जगन्नाथ एवं उनके भाई बलराम और बहन सुबधरा के रथ संवारे जाते हैं और एक यात्रा निकलती है। ये रथ बहुत विशाल होते हैं जिनकी ऊंचाई १४ मीटर तक होती है। कई साल पहले तो एसा भी प्रचलित हुआ के जगन्नाथ की यात्रा में लोग जान बूज कर आत्म हत्या करने होते रथ के नीचे गिरते थे। लेकिन मेरा यह मानना है के ये सिर्फ़ बढावा है। हकीकत यह है की भारत और विदेश से लाखो श्रदालु और पर्यटक इस यात्रा में शामिल होने के लिए पुरी पहुँचते है। जब इतनी बड़ी मात्रा में लोग एकत्रित होंगे तो स्वाभाविक है के भीड़भाड़ में कभीकभार लोगों को गंभीर चोटें भी लग सकती। अगर व्यवस्था अच्छी नहीं हो तो इस की सम्भावना बढ़ जाती है जैसा के सेप्टेम्बर २००८ में जोधपुर शहर में एक मन्दिर में किसी त्यौहार पर एक दुर्घटना में १५० से अधिक लोगों की जान गई। शायद इसी प्रकार के कभी किसी श्रदालु को चोट लगते देखकर पुरी की विशाल यात्रा को एक ज़बरदस्त न रुकने वाले बल का चिह्न बनाते हुए अंग्रेज़ी में juggernaut शब्द की परिभाषा ऐसी हो गई।

शब्द और ज़िन्दगी - जगन्नाथ १

मुझे हमेशा से ही शब्दों से बढ़ा लगाव रहा है। जब मैं ७वि या ८वि कक्षा में था तो पहेली बार इंग्लिश सिन्धी शब्दकोष ख़रीदा। मैंने हायर सेकँड़ैरी तक सिन्धी मध्यम से शिक्षा प्राप्त की। उसकी बदौलत आज में अरेबिक लिपि पढ़ लिख सकता हूँ। शायद आप को पता हो सिन्धी अल्फाबेट में ५२ अक्षर होते हैं! सिन्धी भाषा संस्कृत और आदि संस्कृत के बहुत नजदीक है। सिन्धी के बारे में फिर कभी बात करेंगे इस वक्त चलो वापिस शब्दों की तरफ़ मुढे॥

अंग्रेज़ी में एक शब्द है juggernaut जिसका अर्थ है कोई भारी भरकम ताकत से भरपूर चीज़ या जिसे रोका न जा सके ऐसा बलवान। जैसे बिज़नस में बोलते हैं यह कंपनी तो juggernaut की तरह बढ़ रही है। लेकिन आप को पता है इस अंग्रेज़ी शब्द का मूल क्या है? इसके मूल में है भगवान् कृष्ण का नाम जगन्नाथ! जी हाँ वाही भारत के उड़ीसा के पुरी शहर वाले भगवान् जगन्नाथ। अगले अंक में इस शब्द juggernaut की यात्रा को आगे बढ़ांऍगे और एक आधे और शब्द की बात करेंगे, तब तक के लिए खुश रहें और पढ़ते रहें।
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