Tid Bit from My Diary

Marc Quinn is a British contemporary visual artist of a very high repute and caliber. His repertoire include sculptures, paintings and installations. We were fortunate to be able to stand in front of his sculpture called ”The Conservation of Mass” and admire as it was displayed in the grounds of the Museum of Islamic Arts (MIA) Doha. This majestic looking 2015 stainless steel piece is of dimensions 263h X 750w x 192d cm was part of his first solo exhibition in the region. Varshika had made a brief video presentation of this sculpture in her own way during our visit. This is part of Quinn’s wider body of works titled “Frozen Waves” characterized by minimal arches, gestural shapes and stainless steel construction. The artist cautions that these are not sculptures of waves but an unwitting self-portrait by nature. These has been inspired by the brute authority of nature that constantly enforces the “dust to dust” existence of all living creatures. Each piece ar...

YouGov.uk has recently released their survey result for world’s most admired individual 2018. The most admired man turned out to be Mr. Bill Gates, while Ms. Angelina Jolie came out as the most admired woman. Both are well revered for their philanthropic efforts, no one would dare question Gates’ contribution to proliferation of the personal computers. Bill and Melinda Gates’ foundation is also doing a lot for the underprivileged children and medical research among other. Barak and Michelle Obamas were both placed in second position in their respective categories. It’s understandable that the selection is heavily reliant on computer literacy and internet accessibility among the voting population. When it comes to the internet users in terms of pure numbers, India is in the same league with the USA and China. This is quite obvious from the names that popped up in the first twenty for both genders. Even after discounting the much maligned AI and manipulative analytics, it’s har...

Did you ever wish to be in a place where you would open a cabinet and take any book if you fancy and return it at another time after you are done with it. Or for that matter place one of your own books that you have finished reading for another book lover to enjoy. No questions asked, no string attached and unmanned. There is one such place that I know. Its the Katara cultural village in Doha, Qatar. There are quite a few shelf like these for used books that would promote the habit of reading.

There is an International school where the choir of which my daughter is part of practices on a regular basis. The other day I decided to go around with my phone camera while waiting for them to finish singing. The environment within that school is very different from the school that I went to… albeit many years ago. It is even somewhat different from the school my daughter attend these days. The school, I am referring to here is not under pressure of large number of students like Indian schools and that allows them to have a lot of open spaces. Pupil do not feel constricted either inside the class room or outside. The walls are painted with scientific formulae and quotable quotes. I am sharing a few photographs and those should give some idea of the message I want to convey. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and therefore I leave you with these pictures to do the talking. I keep posting images in my Instagram account and my user name ...

There is a new NATIONAL MUSEUM OF QATAR, which is nearing completion. This is how the museum will look once it is completed.   National Museum   Nature is known to inspire and influence human being’s creative mind since time immemorial. The interlocking disc design of the museum by Jean Nouvel is inspired by the desert rose.   Desert rose is the colloquial name given to rose-like formations of crystal clusters of gypsum or baryte which include abundant sand grains. [Wikipedia]  The flattened crystals has a great resemblance to petals of rose. Holding in her hands Last weekend me and my daughter went to the museum gift shop and bought a sizable piece of this desert beauty. We were quite excited with the new toy and had a quick photo session to treasure the moments forever. Posing with a yellow rose The desert rose may also be known by the names: sand rose, rose rock, selenite rose, gypsum rose and baryte (barite) rose.

Napoleon had cautioned long ago that " Mankind's worst enemy is fear of work ". But centuries have passed but the fear of work doesn't seems to go away. One of my ex-colleague used to question " why we need to complete this today while we could do it tomorrow? " Another one's philosophy was to leave office early if you happen to reach for work late. " one should not be late twice in the same day " he used to advice. But the winner is one who left office in the morning because his boss wished him " have a great day! " Obviously he had figured it out that he could not be in the office and have good time. I looked high and low all these days to find a word that would describe this attitude towards work. On the 6th of March 2018, I got this word sent to me and I am glad to share with all who were not aware of it.

Everyone would unanimously agree today that the need for saving water is no longer an option, it's our responsibility towards the generations scheduled to arrive in our planet in the future. When we say generations, it is not limited to a specific race, species or lifeform. The earth belongs to all. Life is a balance between what we can control and what we cannot. There is however, another dimension to this old sayings…Life is also a balance between what we should try to control and what we shouldn’t. While any idea to conserve water, #CuttingPani , is potentially a noble initiative, we should interrogate it with all seriousness to make sure that it would not send wrong signal. Inadequate consumption of water will have negative implications leaving the world with a generation of dehydrated people, quite similar to the anorexic population of today. Our bodies are made up of about 60% water, more or less and constantly loses water through its excretory system. This need...