Backbenchers

A young couple of boy and girl have long sweet dreams after getting married. Honeymoon gets over as soon as they have a baby. The tussle to tutor the toddler from the very tender age keeps them on tenterhooks. They start bombarding the young mind with alphabets, birds and animal pictures, nursery rhymes etc to face the interview for admission to the best school in town at kindergarten level. After the admission, they always desire their kids to be seated in front rows of the class. Since all can’t be seated in front rows, the teacher keeps them rotating at regular intervals. No parent wants his child to become backbencher. But the big question is, do all the backbenchers end up as failures in life? Let us try to dig deep.

Once they reach higher classes, several groups of students of common mindset evolve. One group likes to be seated in front rows. Another group is little shy, and wants to settle in the middle part. And then we have some students who wish to have their own life even when the teacher is very seriously taking the class. These last row sitting students are busy discussing movies seen previous day, or the soccer match between Arsenal & Liverpool, or planning something nasty to perturb the teacher, or hatching a conspiracy to teach a lesson to the front row sitting topper student.

After leaving the school and entering a college or university, these backbencher students develop into boss or leaders. Even some of the front benchers, who were good at studies under strict control of their parents, become backbenchers after reaching hostels. These backbenchers enter from back door of the class and love to exit from same gate at their will and wish. They form group of like minded rascals and plan to disturb the class, bunk the class en-mass, arrange demonstrations, shut the door of hostel bathroom from outside when someone is inside getting late for the class. Some of them are even looking out to pick fights with others and prefer to flash knives or if possible pistols to portray a macho image. They don’t like studies, neither do they like others to study.

Let me narrate some of the pranks of my college days. We were at the ground floor and our one year senior batch of Engg College was housed on the upper floor of hostel. It was around 01 am midnight. The light of one room on upper floor was lit as the student was merged in deep studies. Our group of henchmen didn’t tolerate this. One friend soaked white chalk and pasted on his forearm. Then he fixed some thin wood chips on the fingers as long nails. He colored some part of his white forearm and long nails with red paint to look like blood. He climbed the concreted shade of his window to reach out to the upper window which was flung wide open. With a loud shout he banged his forearm on the book that the senior was studying. In great horror and fear that senior student rose up, cried and ran to reach out to the exit-door of his room. In an attempt to cover just few feet, he fell twice.

They approach the toppers for the syllabus when exams are round the corner. Some of them even try to connect with the professors who did set the exam papers and/or expected to check the answer sheets. Few of them become sincere only during the exams and study only the few important topics. Some indulge in preparing chits. Some even form groups to observe demonstration for postponing the exam date. Few do visit temples and churches to please God.

Like that the time flies and four year period of engineering course comes to its final phase (let me take the case of engg). Companies from the corporate world come to recruit students through campus placement. Mostly the toppers get placed first but not necessarily so. The job placement criterion for each company is different. Some test your course knowledge but some check only the general aptitude. Now onwards the career life starts. What one achieves in this career life depicts one’s success story. That entire long struggle from the time of Kindergarten school to the last day in college was primarily aimed at achieving a successful career.

Less than 25% of engg students get a career of their core branch. That means if he has studied electrical or civil engg, he joins a firm engaged in doing business in the fields of electrical or civil engg. Even for these core students, not more than 5 or 10% of what they studied in engg course comes to help in the job career. For Electronics Telecommunications and Computer science branches, the advancement is so fast that whatever one studies today becomes obsolete tomorrow after couple of years.

Remaining 75% students don’t join their core companies. They either go to IT field where jobs are enormous employing civil mechanical any branch, or financial firms, or administrative & management with or without MBA, or consulting company, and so on and so forth. All this boils down to give a very nasty conclusion. Why did we all burn midnight oil to study so hard, when nothing much of what we studied is utilized in career life? Why did our parents run from post to pillar to give us the best possible education in top of the town school?

So we have concluded successfully that hardly anything that we studied all through our lives is of much help in our job career. What matters is ones administrative and management capability, the power to convince others, the ability to dominate the proceedings in a meeting, the leadership qualities, over and above all – the common sense, which is actually not so common. As and when the time passes and one climbs the career ladder, the job requirement becomes more and more administrative and managerial. The job of a successful manager is not to do the job, but to get the job done by others. He has to build social network to grab the business. After bringing business he has to then find resources, man or machinery, to accomplish the work. At this point, that very successful brilliant scholar student bagging close to 100% marks may or may not succeed. But the other nasty vagabond of college backbencher having dominating capability is poised to shine. He was driving the group of students, bossing over them, leading a procession, arguing with professors and principal. He is also likely to have wider social networking and the flair to expand it more.

While reaching close to four decades of post student career life, when I seriously take a close look at the current status and achievements of all my engg college friends, shocking revelations emerge. Many backbenchers and not so good students of those campus days have overtaken the toppers. Some of them are heading companies as CEOs and even commanding those toppers. Some of the toppers went out for higher studies. After achieving higher qualifications like M.Tech or PhD, they found the career doors of corporate and industry closed for them. They were declared over-qualified for the job. The only option left for them was to go for R&D or teaching. In developing nations, R&D doesn’t have much scope and salary. And the teaching faculty has mix of talent. It has either very talented toppers who missed the corporate bus in the zeal of higher studies, or those who could not find a job in the industry and finally settled for teaching. Off-course there are, but very few, who were really interested in making ‘teaching’ as their career from the beginning.

Today when we visit our alma-mater, the old professors who taught us remember the backbenchers more than the toppers, “Oh, you are that nasty fellow who created unrest and institute was closed for a week”. Another remark may come like,” You are Rajesh who set ablaze the sports room in protest”?  While organizing get-together of batchmate alumni, I find these backbenchers taking deep interest. They are the ones who volunteer to host such gatherings. They are also more active on social platforms like facebook and whatsapp groups. Due to them being more active, happy, agile, smiling, laughing, trying to live every moment of life, they are found to live longer.

So dear parents; don’t lose heart if your kid is not the front bencher and not the topper. The world doesn’t end here.

Citizenship Amendment Act in India, The real facts

I believe almost 70% of people living in Mauritius are Indian descendants, called Girmitiya. So it is very natural for them to remain emotionally attached to India, and keep a tab on the events unfolding on Indian soil. They always want to keep firmly connected to their roots for the simple reason that nothing happens to a tree even if the branches or leaves are cut provided the roots are left intact.

Over the last few days, the Indian media and the world media covering Indian news had been agog with one big news item ‘CAA’, the Citizenship Amendment Act. This act was democratically passed in both the houses of Indian parliament. But there has been lot of talks and protests for and against this act, on the streets, in the media and social media. An attempt is being made in this article to dig out the real facts.

Before we embark on the real facts about CAA, let’s have a quick look on the historical background of Indian subcontinent. The cultural richness of India or Bharat dates back to 7000 BC or even more, when Indus Valley civilization was unearthed in Harappa. This region had the world’s highest peak ‘Mt Everest’ and one of the deep seas Indian Ocean. It has the dry ‘Thar desserts of Rajasthan’ and wet ‘Cherapunji of Meghalaya’ recording one of the world’s highest railfalls. It has the vast fertile plain lands of Ganga-Jamuna belt and five rivers belt in Punjab. It has 22 officially recognized languages most of which have different scripts too whereas entire Europe has just one Roman script. Bhojpuri, widely spoken and having status of a language in Mauritius and Nepal, doesn’t find a place in the above list of 22 languages. It is just a dialect. Awadhi language in which great poet Tulsidas wrote famous epic ‘Ramcharitmanas’, too doesn’t find a place in this 22. The country has 28 states and 9 Union Territories, each having their own large number of dishes and delicacies.

Now coming to religion. If we traverse back to Ramayan and Mahabharata period, it was called ‘dharma’ in India. This dharma was a set of rules to govern Indian society. Translating literal meaning of religion into ‘dharma’ is misleading. Whereas other religions on earth are not subject to amendments, this dharma was flexible and subject to regular amendments suiting need of the hour. If you think Hinduism to be a religion, then in this same religion a north Indian near Delhi doesn’t eat non-veg or even onion-garlic during holy 9-days period of ‘navaratri’. But if you go to Bengal or Nepal or Assam, same Hindus eat only non-veg but even sacrifice animals to goddess Durga/Kali. So this dharma (not religion) is different and very tolerant, compassionate, flexible, adjusting and changeable. This dharma allowed many social reformers like Nanak, Kabir, Mahavir, Buddha, Gandhi, Raja Rammohan Rai to keep suggesting changes in the rules. They drew many followers who later became sects within Hinduism, like Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Aryasamaji etc. In real sense they were not different religions. Marriages were taking place among them. The eldest son of Hindu family was donated to the cause of Sikkhism. But later on with the induction of other religions in India like Islam and Christianity, the word ‘dharma’ took the Hindi meaning of religion. And later on, all these sects became known as religion.

In ancient time, this Hindu dharma society was spread out up to the foothills of Himalaya and Hindukush mountains in north covering Pakistan & Afghanistan, and up to the coastal belt of three oceans in the south. Gandhar king ‘Shakuni’ in Mahabharat epic was from present Kandhar in Afghanistan. Maharaja Ranajit Singh and other kings rule upto Kabul further brought in many Sikh and Hindu settlers. In the seventeenth century, British reached India and ruled for over two centuries. Their rule ended in 1947.

In 1947 when India was gaining independence, many Muslims demanded separate land for them. There was lot of violence and bloodshed. Finally the leaders decided to give part of land to Muslims. West Pakistan and East Pakistan became Islamic states whereas India continued as a secular state (East Pakistan later separated and became Bangladesh). However in India, Muslims were given the option to leave or stay back whatever they wished. Large scale migration took place from both sides. Still many minorities on both sides opted not to leave their soil.

In India, all the minorities including Muslims were enjoying equal status and constitutional rights. In fact Muslims were given special status in constitution in the form of Muslim Personal law. A separate ministry ‘minority affairs’ was formed to look after them. All Muslims were enjoying and growing. But their counterpart minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan were not so lucky. Their life soon became like living in a hell. They faced lot of violence and attacks. They were not allowed to freely practice their religious rites. Their women were kidnapped, raped and converted to Islam. Men were forced to grow beard and women to wear burqua. Minorities were forced not to eat or drink in public places during Ramadan fasting. The famous world heritage Buddha statues of Bamyan in Afghanistan were blasted away into pieces by Taliban using tanks and cannons, as the entire world community watched in horrified silence.

After partition of India in 1947, the minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh were 23% each. This got reduced to around 8% in Bangladesh and 3% in Pakistan in 2011. On the contrary, the minority Muslims in India grew from 9% to 14% in same period. Large scale atrocities and violence forced the minorities in these 3 theocratic countries to either convert to Islam or run away to safer countries. India being closest, many of them illegally migrated and crossed over. They started living illegally and unwilling to go back. They say,” we will not go back to that hell again even if you kill us”.

They continued to stay on but were deprived of basic rights. This could not secure essential ingredients of life like education, jobs or property. So the govt thought of bringing in a legislation to grant them regular citizenship, only for the people who came before 2014. Since there was no reason for Muslims to face torture in these Islamic nations and then come to India, only non-Muslim minorities were covered under this act CAA. The 6 religions to be covered are Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christians, Jain, Parsi. That makes sense. Then where is the problem and why all this brouhaha?

A false narrative is being created unnecessarily by some vested interests working against India. Some political parties eying on the minority vote bank are spreading false rumors. Here are some of the rumors and their answers.

Q: why should there be any act based on religion?

A: because the victims suffering is based on religion.

Q: it will deprive the Muslim citizens of India.

A: no, it covers only the outside immigrant non-citizens. It has nothing to do with those who are already citizens of India.

Q: India is already over populated. We don’t need immigrants to burden our economy.

A: according to intelligence bureau records, only 31,313 people will be covered under this act. This is mere 0.002% of current Indian population.

Q: Why not include Tamil and Rohingya refugees of Srilanka and Myanmar respectively?

A: Unlike Pakistan Bangladesh and Afghanistan theocratic countries, Myanmar and Srilanka are secular. So there is little chance of religious persecution. In fact the problems were created by minority communities themselves, and what followed was majority backlash in retaliation. Tamils created LTTE and fought long guerilla war demanding separate land which no sovereign country could agree to. Now after the annihilation of LTTE, Srilanka has no problem in taking back Tamilians of their origin. Most of them have already gone back. Those staying back even now have no reason to stay. Rohingyas too tried to follow LTTE path. But their attempt was nipped in the bud by Myanmar which considers them to be the immigrant from Arab nations. When Myanmar doesn’t consider them to be citizens of their country, why should India which has no historical bond with Rohingyas?

All said and done, the truth is that the CAA does not shut the door on anyone from anywhere who wants to apply for Indian citizenship. It is only defining an expedited path for some specified categories of applicants. Anyone can apply for Indian citizenship after having stayed in India for 12 years. For the specified group of immigrants (non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan) who entered India before 2014, the condition of stay has been reduced from 12 years to 5 years. Essentially this means that they can all apply now (doesn't mean that they will be granted citizenship) while others may have to wait. The fast track is being made for the people who are illegal immigrants on account of religious persecution.

एक इंजीनियर की जीवन यात्रा

चाह नहीं पुलिस बन रिक्शेवालों पे डंडा बरसाऊँ

चाह नहीं वकील बन झूठ का पुलिन्दा फैलाऊँ

चाह नहीं प्रोफ़ेसर बन क्लासरूम में ही रह जाऊं

चाह नहीं डाक्टर बन आधी रात को दौड़ा जाऊं

चाह नहीं आईएएस बन नेताओं से गाली खाऊँ 

मुझे बना देना तुम भगवन, दे देना एक ऐसा मन्त्र

मानवता के लिए समर्पित, बनाता जाऊँ नूतन  यंत्र  

आईआईटी में दिया नहीं आया, रुड़की में दिया नहीं आया.

इंजिनियर बनना नहीं भाग्य में, खोदो घास धरमेंदर भाया

तभी मोहल्ले का डाकिया आके, बत्तीसी निकाल हाथ लहराया  

बस्ते से निकाल, मालविया में सेलेक्शन का लिफाफा दिखलाया

हनुमानजी को लड्डू चढ़ाया, कई बार था माथा रगडा

साहूकार नरम पड़ गया, वसूली में तोड़ गया था जबड़ा

पत्नी अब सुन्दर मिलेगी, दोस्तों में भारी हो गया पलड़ा

अड़ोसी-पड़ोसी जलने लगे, साले को दहेज़ भी मिलेगा तगड़ा

जमाने भर की तारीफों ने हमें, चने की झाड पे चढ़ा दिया,

इंजिनियर है विश्व में सबसे बड़ा, ये अहसास दिला दिया

यूपी रोडवेज की बस ने हमें, बर्ड घाट पहुंचा दिया

रिक्शे वाले ने फिर हमें, मालविया ला टपका दिया.

भाई साहब, वार्डन से मिलने का कुछ तो बताओ जतन 

उसने कहा, फ्रेशर हो साले, पहले देखो अपना थर्ड बटन

मलावियन सॉंग व ऐन्थेम से, करो इस कालेज को नमन

फर्शी सलाम ठोंकते हुए, फिर यहाँ से करो वार्डन को गमन.

मैंने कहा कुछ समझ आया नहीं, रक्षा करो हे माँ दुर्गा

उसने कहा सब समझ आ जाएगा, पहले तू बन जा मुर्गा.

कालेज में एडमिशन लिया, कुछ मित्र भी बन गए

खूँखार सीनियरों को देख मगर, हम बहुत ही डर गए

शाम को भाग के सारे मित्र, शहर में गोलघर पहुँच गए

पार्क सिनेमा हाल ट्रेन का डब्बा, कहीं पे भी लटक गए.

रात भर सोने न दें, सुबह भी जगा दें तड़के

ज़रा भी ना नुकर किया, तो दे तमाचा जडके

घर वालों से कही, तो वो अलग से भड़के

मन तुम्हारा लगता नहीं, पढाई करो जमके

रैगिंग का अंत होता नहीं, बीत गए दो मॉस

इससे तो बेहतर था, मैं गाँव में छीलता घास

वर्ष युग के सामान लगे, हर पल हर एक सांस

हे बजरंगी अब ख़तम करो,  ये अंतहीन वनवास

तीन महीने बाद एकदम, छप्पर फाड़ वो ख़ुशी आई 

फ्रेशर पार्टी की नोटिस जब, हॉस्टल में पडी दिखाई

पंकज का गीत व शर्मा के नृत्य की, अदा सबको भाई

सीनियर जूनियर सब हुए समान, ख़त्म हुई बीच की खाई  

तीनों बटन अब खोल के चलते, हम भी बन गए पूरे दादा

पढाई लिखाई कभी न होती, बस हल्ला करते रहते ज्यादा

हाकी राड और कट्टा रखते, सबसे लड़ने पे आमादा

परीक्षा जब सर पे आ गयी, तो दिखाई देने लगे परदादा

तिवारी से माँग सिलेबस लाया, पढूँ कहाँ कौन से छोर

कमरे से बाहर विंग में तभी, होने लगा यकायक शोर

परीक्षा टालो पीछे करो, जयदीप लगाये नारा जोर

सारे बकैत सहमत हुए, चला हुजूम प्रिंसिपल की ओर

बड़ी मशक्कत घेराव के बाद, परिक्षा पूरे एक हफ्ते टलवाई  

गंभीर पढाई का माहौल हुआ, नकलचियों की चिट भी बनवाई  

चलो सब फिल्म लावारिस देखने, तभी सतेन्दर की हुँकार लहराई

हमारे कम्पटीशन में, चम्बल गैंग ने परिक्षा एक हफ्ते और खिसकवाई

आखिरी पेपर देने के बाद, ट्रेनों में पूरा कब्जा जमा बैठे

वानरी सेना ये नोच खाती, यदि डब्बे में कोई ज़रा भी ऐंठे

पूरा कालेज चौथाई कंसेशन में जाता है, रेलवे विभाग बड़ा परेशान

सारे के सारे दलित बन गए, जनरल का नहीं कोई नामोनिशान.

क्या क्या सुनाऊँ, तीन सौ एकड़ मालविया से कितना गहरा नाता है

खेत से ताजा गन्ना चूसे कोई, किसी को बाग़ का अमरूद ही भाता है

कोई आम का टिकोरा तोड़े, कोई ऊँचे पेड़ वाली ताड़ी पीने जाता है

कोई टीचर्स कालोनी में निहारे, तो कोई जीनत अमान की रोटी खाता है

कोई यादव के समोसे पे लट्टू, तो कोई मुंशी-ढाबे पे जीमने जाता  है

जिन्हें मुंशी ने मना कर दिया, वो हॉस्टल मेस से ही बंधा रह जाता है

क्योंकि ऐसा दानव दो रुपये थाली के रेट में, दस का खाना खा जाता है   

कह डीके कविराय, मरने के बाद जब भी ऊपर जाऊँगा,

अंतिम इच्छा के रूप में, वहाँ भी एक मालविया मागूँगा.

Telecommunications for a Layman

Telecommunications – for a layman

What is Communication? It can broadly be defined as two or more persons speaking and hearing to each other. This involves mouth and ear. After inhaling the air in our lungs when we pump out, our throat muscles modulate the passing out air in a set pattern. This creates vibrations in the surrounding air creating a wave pattern. This wave or vibration travels in the air and reaches nearby ears. The receiving ear converts that waveform into understandable intelligence.

Mouth is the transmitter and ear the receiver. Is that all? Ok, then try the same process while swimming under water. Can you communicate? No. That means there is one more factor involved other than transmitter mouth and receiver ear. This 3^rd factor is medium. Transmitter/ Receiver working in one medium may or may not work in another medium. Humans and species living in the air atmosphere are designed to communicate through air. Without air medium we can’t communicate, neither under water nor in the space or on the surface of moon.

Different mediums require different modes of communication. The water animals have their own way of communication. Medium is very important in Communication which opens a vast and interesting field called “Tele-Communication”, means communication from a distance. Anything that involves communication beyond ‘human mouth-ear range’ may be termed as Telecommunication. Till not very long time, say just two centuries back, we were using distant communications through pigeons carrying messages tied to their neck.

What are the possible mediums of communications other than air? One we have already talked about above, that is water. Unfortunately, so far we have not been able to exploit this medium much although over three fourth of earth surface is occupied by water. Only limited communication is available for short distances, mainly used in warfare, in the form of signals to detect movement of enemy ships/ submarines etc. Like RADAR, we have SONAR for underwater.

Human voice or speech doesn’t work beyond earth’s air atmosphere. But sunlight is coming to us from millions of miles where no air exists. That means light can travel in air as well as outer space or vacuum. Like sound waves, light also travels in the form of waves. They are called Electromagnetic Waves or simply EM Waves. This EM wave has very vast range out of which only limited range is visible to human eye. Can we communicate in visible range? Suppose you are standing in a hall where loud music is playing. Can you talk with other people? No, because the loud music overpowers your weak voice. Similarly in visible range, strong sunrays overpower all other optical signals if one tries to communicate. Hence we devised methods to communicate using non-visible range of EM waves, the details of which will be discussed later.

In nineteenth century, there was big invention which changed the history of mankind. It was electricity. One more medium ‘metallic wire’, other than air water and space, was discovered. Initially it was used for the transfer of electrical power. Do you know the basic difference between ‘Electrical’ and ‘Telecommunication’ engineering? Very simple. Electrical is ‘transfer of power’ whereas Telecom is ‘transfer of intelligence’. Hence scientists were looking to exploit this new medium for ‘transfer of intelligence’. How to do that?

Let me go back to the first para using “mouth-ear” analogy. Mouth has to modulate air vibration in a particular pattern understandable to the ear. If mouth doesn’t speak a language but shouts randomly. Or mouth speaks Hindi but ear understands only Creole, it will make no sense. It will simply be noise to the ear. So a scientist Samuel Morse tried to put intelligence (language) on electricity. On one side he put a switch and at the far end an electrically operated magnet. When he puts the switch “on”, the magnet on the far end hits a bell and makes sound. But this was not enough. So he developed an electrical language involving”dash (-)(long press)” and “dot (o)(short press)”.  In this language, A= -o (one dash, one dot); B= -ooo; C= -o-o and so on. The person sitting at the far end was able to decipher and note down. This language was known as “Morse Code”, and became the first instance of telecommunication on electrical wire.

Suppose your wife is very angry after seeing a girl roaming with you. She calls you home and starts yelling. Due to fear, you just keep listening without saying a word. This is called one-way communication or “simplex mode”.

A leader standing high on a platform is addressing the huge crowd. Only leader is speaking and many others are listening. This is called one-to-many communication or “broadcast mode”. Radio channels, Televison, Newspaper portals are some of the examples.

A boy and a girl are newly married. They both have a lot to talk and share. Both are speaking and both listening. This is called two-way communication or “duplex mode”. Telephone, Video conferencing, internet chatting are some of the examples.

There is fourth category also “Semi-duplex”. While transmitting, the ear gets closed. Police walkie-talkie is an example where they use press to talk.

Above example of Morse code communication is simplex. The sender doesn’t know whether the receiver at far end has got all correct messages or no message at all. There could be snapping of wire or the far end magnet might have missed some dashes and dots. To overcome this, he duplicated the arrangements in a complimentary manner. Far end also has a switch and near end a magnet. Upon receiving a message, the far end sends back the acknowledgement or same message to the initiator. This Morse experiment graduated to be known as Telegraphy after several improvements and the machines were called teleprinters.

Human race is over 3 million years old. Out of this only last 200 yrs saw all the inventions of modern science, after the invention of electricity in the nineteenth century. Isn’t it strange? No modern invention can work without electrical current. We are so lucky to have taken birth in this era.

What is electricity? We all have seen high-rise water tanks wherein water is stored. This tank is connected to various houses through pipes for distribution of water. How much water is to be released is controlled by a valve. Same analogy can be applied in electricity which broadly consists of three components Voltage, Resistance and Current. Water stored in tank at higher level is ‘Voltage’. Regulator valve is ‘Resistance’. And amount of water flowing out is ‘Current’.  For a given voltage, current will increase if we reduce the resistance and vice versa. In a battery, electric is stored in the form of charge and we can measure the voltage across it. Every battery has two poles +ve and –ve. Current flows from +ve to –ve through a wire joining both the poles. Torch bulb is inserted as resistance between the poles.

There is another interesting fact. If a magnet is moved inside a coil of wire, electricity is produced. Similarly the reverse happens. That means, if electricity flows in a coil, it produces magnetic field. There is an interesting story behind this. Michael Faraday was working on producing electricity with magnet. He was thinking if by flowing electricity through a coil magnetic field is produced, the reverse phenomena also must happen. He kept on working for many years but did not succeed. Finally he got fed up and threw his magnet inside the coil in anger. But that produced deflection in the current meter and he got what he was searching for. He threw again and meter deflected again. That means the current is produced only when the magnet moves inside the coil and not when it is stationary. That is how dynamo was invented to produce electricity.

After transmitting short messages over electric wire using Morse code, the next challenge comes how to transmit voice. It was achieved in the late nineteenth century by Graham Bell. A set of microphone and speaker is used on both sides. Microphone has a diaphragm connected to a magnet. Around this magnet is a coil through which electricity flows. When a person speaks, the diaphragm vibrates which in turn moves the magnet to & fro. Movement of magnet changes the flow of current in coil. This coil is connected to the far end speaker through a metallic wire. In a speaker, just the reverse happens. Change of current in coil moves the magnet to & fro, which vibrates the attached diaphragm to produce sound waves.

This invention of Graham Bell changed the history and revolutionized the world. He may rightly be called the father of telecom. This primitive telephone system underwent several improvements and subsequently entire world was wired with telephone network.

But wiring the world was not so easy. Suppose you want a message to be conveyed to a place 1 km away. But your shout can be heard only up to 200 mtr distance. What to do? Put 1 person at every 200 mtr distance on that 1 km stretch who keep re-shouting the same message onward. Same technique was deployed in telephone system. The electrical voice signal in metallic wire becomes weak after 2 or 3 km and can’t then be retrieved back. Hence at every 2 or 3 km these signals are amplified and retransmitted onwards. They are called repeaters.

Thus far we have analyzed communication in air and electrical wire. Third mode was discussed in short previously which involves EM waves. Light rays also come under EM waves. As already stated earlier it’s difficult to communicate in open space using light waves. Hence waves other than optical range were looked for, generally called Radio waves. Marconi is called the father of wireless. However, many dispute it. Jagadish Chandra Basu, an Indian scientist successfully demonstrated wireless communication in Calcutta much before Marconi, but he was not interested in getting it patented.

Wave is defined by two broad terms, Frequency and Wavelength. Wavelength is defined as two successive crests or troughs of the wave. Frequency is number of cycles of wave in one second. The behavior of radio waves change with change in frequency. Therefore radio frequencies are divided into many groups: 3 MHz-30MHz (HF); 30MHz-300MHz (VHF); 300MHz-3GHz (UHF); 3GHz-30GHz (Microwave)

Radio waves in the range of VHF and above travel in straight line similar to light. Since earth is round and not flat, the radio rays will go away from the earth and get lost into space after travelling some distance. That is why you might have seen antennas installed on high towers to achieve greater range of coverage. To gain more height, they are installed on hill peaks as well. To gain more range of coverage, we can install antenna repeaters (like telephone described earlier) at regular intervals at a height before it moves away from earth. Repeaters receive the signal, amplify it and then forward ahead.

However, antennas looking into space to communicate with satellites have no such restriction and they can be installed at ground level.

This was the basic communication concept for a layman. More telecom techniques like Microwave, satellite, optical fiber etc shall be discussed in next edition.

................................
Concluding part-2

In previous edition we discussed the basics of Telecom. Broadly there are two ways to achieve telecommunication; wireline and wireless.

Suppose you have a road between 2 cities A & B. It doesn’t make sense to use that road just for one vehicle commuting between A & B. To make it cost effective, this road must be shared by maximum possible number of vehicles. But at the same time, they need to follow traffic rules to avoid accidents & collisions.

Suppose there are 4 political parties desiring to take out procession from A to B with large fleet of vehicles. There are 2 possible ways to achieve this. (1) Give one lane to each party on 4-lane road. All will move simultaneously within their allocated lanes and reach the destination. (2) Give all 4 lanes to each party one by one in different time-slots.

Similar to road we have frequency band in telecom called bandwidth. This bandwidth can be used by many users in two ways. (1) We can assign unique frequency slots to each user within the same bandwidth. All information (voice or data) flows at the same time on different frequencies. This is called FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing). Alternatively like (2), we can assign entire bandwidth to each user one by one on time sharing basis. This is called TDM or Time Division Multiplexing. These 2 technologies, FDM and TDM, are the basic building blocks of telecom.

In rural areas, we have just one narrow road. Same road is used for the traffic in both the directions. Since the traffic is thin, vehicle flow is manageable without much congestion. But if we move to urban areas, the road widens. It becomes 2-lane, one each for both side of traffic. If we move further up into bigger metro cities, the road may widen to 4 or 6 lanes. Between two big cities, there are wide and fast express-highways.

Similarly in telecom, we have different type of transmission systems:-

·         Small capacity copper telephone lines are used from house to telephone exchange, like rural road above. It can send small telecom traffic 2Mb upto 3 km (ADSL). This part of network is called ‘’Access network’’ or ‘’last mile connectivity’’.

·         Coaxial cable is used between small exchanges to carry little high traffic. They can send 10Mb upto 4 km (using cable modem).

·         Microwave is used for little bigger exchanges. They can send 70Mb upto 30km.

·         Optical fiber Cable (OFC) is used as telecom super highways between big cities. They typically carry 10Gb upto 80km or even more. In fact the bandwidth of optical fiber is enormous with speed reaching into terabits.

However, above network topology is old and has undergone sea changes now. With the advancement of technology and optical fiber having several advantages over copper and coaxial, like (i) cheaper in cost (ii) lightweight hence easy to handle (iii) no resale value hence no pilferage (iv) no metal content hence no interference/noise (iv) enormous bandwidth, it is being used extensively in all areas right upto the level of each subscriber (customer). The hunger for data requirement is increasing for each user with many new technologies coming in, like triple play i.e., audio/video/internet on the same line. We can say telecom highways are reaching to each subscriber (FTTH). OFC has come a long way since its commercial induction in the year 1988 or so. It has eaten away copper and coaxial.

Last mile connectivity or Access network was always a problem in telecom. Snapping of wires, loose connections, bad behavior of linesmen made it unpopular. So when mobile technology stepped in, traditional copper landlines started shrinking. It was thought at one time that wired landline had gone into oblivion. But with the arrival of OFC, wired line got fresh lease of life. Mobile technology also has many limitations. It has shadow areas where the signal coverage is unavailable. It is dependent on limited frequency spectrum shared among many telecom operators, whereas OFC line has no such limitation and can entirely be dedicated to a customer.

Which type of telecom system to deploy depends on many factors. If it is plain terrain with road connectivity, laying of Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) along the roadside is easy. But if we have mountainous hills and we need to connect two hills having no proper road, then microwave is the option. But if the mountainous villages are scattered very far apart (say 400 km) and reaching there with OFC is not possible. Deploying microwave with repeater at every 40 km for thin traffic will not be cost effective. In case of ocean islands, the microwave is not at all feasible due to difficulty in placing repeaters (towers) enroot. In such cases we should think of connecting through satellite (VSAT).

What is OFC and why has it become so popular? Why has it remained invincible and non-replaceable since last 3 decades? There are more than many factors. It is very thin, as thin as human hair. One cable can accommodate from 1 fiber to several hundred fibers depending on the requirement. Silica (sand, available in abundance) glass is used as raw material to manufacture optical fibers. This bare fiber is very weak and fragile, hence other materials are added to give it strength and protection. Now the next question is, how does it work to give enormous speed?

In the previous edition, we discussed various EM frequencies. HF, VHF, UHF, Microwave, Infrared, Visible light (optical). These are in the ascending order of rising frequency or descending order of wavelength. Higher the frequency more is the carrying capacity (bandwidth or speed) and also the quality. Microwave the highest radio frequency, ends at 30 GHz, whereas optical range starts at 430,000,000 GHz (700 nano meter wavelength). Optical fibers communicate at near infrared range, just below the visible range, hence undetectable to human eye. Typical wavelength is 800/ 1310/ 1550 nm. At such high frequency or low wavelength, fibers are able to possess enormous capacity. One hair size thin fiber can carry over 13 million simultaneous telephone calls or a speed of over 1 terabit. At this speed one can transmit 100,000 books from coast to coast in 1 second.

OFC, copper and coaxial were the wireline communications. In wireless we have microwave for terrestrial (along the earth surface) and satellite for space in long distance communication. Microwave is slowly being removed by fast and high capacity OFC, except hilly regions where cable laying routes may be difficult. However, electrical HT towers are also being shared for carrying OFC. Since OFC doesn’t have any metal content, it remains unaffected by the nearby high voltage electrical wires running in parallel on same pole/towers.

Satellite communication is unique and can’t be replaced by OFC or any other wireline technology. Moon is the natural satellite of earth. How does it work and why not go away from earth? Take a thin rope, tie a piece of stone at the end and start rotating in a circle around your body. Stone will try to go away from you but the rope is applying force to keep it held around you. Same thing happens in satellites. Gravitational pull of earth doesn’t allow it to go away from its orbit. However, if it comes nearer than specified distance, earth will pull it down. If it goes farther away than the specified distance, gravitational pull will not be enough and the object will get lost into space. This min and max distance to keep it rotating is called earth’s orbit. A satellite nearer to earth will rotate faster. There are three types of orbits (i) Low earth orbit (LEO) (ii) Medium earth orbit (MEO) (iii) High earth orbit.

LEO satellites are used for weather and military purposes. Communication satellites are mostly placed in geo-stationary orbit at 36,000 km. At this height the satellite rotation and earth rotation gets synchronized and satellite looks stationary at one point with respect to earth. Three geo satellites are required to achieve the coverage of entire 360 degree of earth. Communication satellites are nothing but simple amplifiers (repeaters) for greater range of earth coverage. LEO satellites for weather and military have high resolution cameras.

एक गिरमिटिया की जीवन यात्रा

ब्रितानी उपनिवेशवाद के समय कई ऐसे द्वीपों पे अंग्रेजों का अधिपत्य हुआ जो अविकसित थे. मारीशस, सूरीनाम, जमैका, फिजी, त्रिनिदाद, गुयाना आदि. जंगल झाडी व कीड़े मकोड़ों से भरे इन द्वीपों के विकास व् खेती बाडी के लिए भारतीय मजदूरों को वहाँ ले जाया गया. सब्ज बाग़ दिखाए दलालों ने कि वहां सबको ढेर सारी जमीन दी जायेगी, सब मालामाल हो जायेंगे. दास प्रथा समाप्त हो चुकी थी. इसलिए उन्हें ५ वर्ष के एग्रीमेंट पे ले जाया गया. अनपढ़ मजदूर एग्रीमेन्ट को गिरमिट बोलते थे. कालान्तर में उनका नाम ही पड गया गिरमिटिया मजदूर. अपने मारीशस प्रवास के दौरान बहुत दिनों से इस विषय पे लिखने की सोच रहा था. अन्ततः इसी पे आधारित एक नई रचना करने में सफल हुआ.

ओझा को बुलवाया

मंदिर में शीश नवाया

ग्यारह बाभन खिलवाया

चारो धाम चक्कर लगाया  

कई चतुर्थी  व्रत करवाया

पर इश्वर को तरस न आया

सातवाँ बच्चा भी मृत पाया

दिन महीने बीते, बीत गए साल

फिर कहीं मिला उसे, ख़ुशी का हाल

जिन्दा बेटा पैदा हुआ, बजाये ढोल ताल

बूढी काकी चिल्लाए, चुप रह बेताल  

क्या ये  बच पायेगा, मुझे है मलाल

न पूछे यमदूत कोई, जो नाम रखे बेकार  

बुद्धू घूरा चिरकुट रखो, या रखो चण्डाल

बुद्धू बना सबका दुलारा

घर का नूर आँखों का तारा

न करवाए कोई काम

बस आराम ही आराम

न करे खेती, न कोई किसानी

देखते ही देखते, आ गई जवानी

हो गया लगन, सब दुल्हन को निहारे

पर अगले ही रात, पिता परलोक सिधारे

जमींदार का कर्ज, अब कैसे उतारे

दो दिन की किसानी में, नजर आ गये तारे

दिन भर दोनों का बदन, धुप में जलता

आधे पेट खाता , और चिथड़ा पहनता

रात में भी काम, चौकीदारी था करता

जमींदार का कर्ज, फिर भी रोज बढ़ता

दशहरे का मेला, लगा था मजमा

मंच पे खडा कोई, सुना रहा नगमा

अंग्रेजों को अभी अभी, मिलें हैं कई टापू

जल्दी चले जाओ वहाँ, सुन लो अम्मा-बापू

बहुत ही उपजाऊ, सब खेत खाली पडा है

चोर डाकुओं का ढेरों, वहाँ खजाना गड़ा है

पहले पहुँच के वहाँ, जो करेगा दीदार  

लक्ष्मी की कृपा से, हो जाएगा जमींदार  

बुद्धू और पत्नी के, मिले नैन से नैन

कर लिया फैसला, अब न रहे  बेचैन

लिखा दिया नाम, भाग के पहुंचे कलकत्ता

था रोम रोम रोमांचित, बूटा बूटा पत्ता पत्ता 

हुए सवार जल-जहाज पे, सपना होता साकार

पर टूट गया दिल आधा, जब खेने लगे पतवार

थोड़ी झपकी में पडा हंटर, तो यात्रा हुई दुश्वार

महीने भर की यात्रा में, मर गए कई सवार  

मारीशस आ पहुंचा जलयान, यात्री सभी उतर गए.

बहे रक्त सुर्ख नयनों से, पति-पत्नी जब बिछड़ गए.

पत्नी को डाला महिला कैम्प में, बुद्धू को अलग लिवा गए

धधकती ज्वाला में जलते दोनों, हाय विधाता कहाँ गए.

गलबहियाँ डाल रात भर रोते, मिले कभी जब हफ्ते-हफ्ते.

विवाह की मेहंदी उतर गई, हाथ पैर सब जाते  फटते.

खजूर में अटकने से तो, आसमान ही भला था

जमींदार के यहाँ हंटर कभी, पीठ पे न पडा था.

भाई बहन बाबुल और मायका, का साथ ही बड़ा था.

होली दीवाली पे साथ सबका, पूरा समाज खडा था.

जमीन का सीना चीरे बुद्धू, सूरज बरसाए आग.

होठ सूख पपड़ी बने, प्यास जोरों की लाग.

गन्ना तोड़ लगे  चूसने, बगल खेत में भाग.

दांत ही उसका तोड़ दिया, अंग्रेज कालिया नाग.

हालत ऎसी देख उसकी, पत्नी को चक्कर आये.

भाग तो सकते नहीं, चलो मौत को गले लगाए.

निकल गए दोनों ग्रैंड बे,  समंदर में डूब समायें.

गश खा तभी गिरी संगिनी, अस्पताल में जा पहुंचाए.

अस्पताल में सिस्टर बोली, बुद्धू देती तुम्हें बधाई.

पत्नी तुम्हारी माँ बनेगी, सोहर की अब करो गवाई.

हा देव ये कैसी लीला, मन मै कैसे हुआ विकार.

बच्चे की जान चले थे लेने, नहीं हमें इसका अधिकार.

इस बच्चे को अब पालेंगे, रहा यही हमारा संस्कार.

मरने को यदि अब सोचा तो, ऐसे जीवन पे धिक्कार.

यहीं जियेंगे यहीं मरेंगे, मारीशस द्वीप  हमें स्वीकार.