Prakash Shenoy's Diary

Arthur Conan Doyle, renowned for his creation of the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes, showcases his versatility and mastery of the suspense genre in "Tales of Terror and Mystery." This collection of short stories, first published in 1922, demonstrates Conan Doyle's ability to evoke a sense of unease and intrigue while weaving intricate plots that keep readers on the edge of their seats. One of the standout features of "Tales of Terror and Mystery" is Conan Doyle's skillful manipulation of atmosphere. From the eerie fog-drenched streets of London to the desolate moors of rural England, each story is imbued with a palpable sense of dread and foreboding. Conan Doyle expertly utilizes setting to enhance the mood, drawing readers into a world where the supernatural and the mundane collide. Moreover, Conan Doyle's characters are vividly drawn, each possessing their own quirks and motivations. Whether it's the astute deductive reasoning of a detective or t

Amish Tripathi's "Raavan: The Enemy of Aryavarta" is a compelling exploration of one of Hindu mythology's most enigmatic characters. In this third book of the Ram Chandra series, Tripathi continues his ambitious retelling of the ancient epic, delving deep into the backstory and motivations of Raavan, the legendary antagonist. At its core, "Raavan: The Enemy of Aryavarta" is a character study of a man who defies conventional labels of heroism and villainy. Tripathi presents Raavan not as a one-dimensional antagonist but as a multifaceted individual driven by his own principles and ambitions. Through Tripathi's vivid storytelling, readers are invited into Raavan's psyche, where they witness his struggles, triumphs, and moral dilemmas. One of the book's greatest strengths lies in its portrayal of Raavan's complexity. Tripathi skillfully navigates the fine line between depicting Raavan as a formidable antagonist and humanizing him in a way that r

 

Narendra Modi is the first Prime Minister to visit Isro’s Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in four decades, where he met the four astronauts-select — Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Angad Pratap, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla —who have been shortlisted for the Gaganyaan mission. At VSSC, PM Modi bestowed ‘astronaut wings’ on the four test pilots after introducing them to the world and called them “the pride of today’s India” who “who will take the aspirations of 140 crore Indians to space”. The profiles of the four astronauts-select: Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair: A native of Nenmara in Palakkad in Kerala, Nair completed his schooling in Kuwait where his father was employed. After coming back to India, he did his engineering from NSS College, Akathethara, in Palakkad and joined the NDA course in Khadakwasla and then entered 163rd pilot course at the Air Force Academy from where he passed

Time of the Universe The cosmic calendar compresses the local history of the universe into a single year. If the universe began on January 1st, it was not until May that the Milky Way formed. Other planetary systems may have appeared in June, July, and August, but our sun and Earth not until mid-September. Life arose soon after. Everything humans have ever done occurred in that bright speck at the lower right of the cosmic calendar. The Big Bang is at upper left in the first second of January 1st. Fifteen billion years later is our present time: the last second of December 31st. Every month is 1¼ billion years long. Each day represents 40 million years. Each second stands for some 500 years of our history. The blinking of an eye in the drama of cosmic time. At this scale, the cosmic calendar is the size of a football field, but all of human history would occupy an area the size of my hand. We’re just beginning to trace the long and tortuous path which began with the primeval fireball a

Gazing our Universe By 1600, the long-forgotten ideas of Aristarchus had been rediscovered. Johannes Kepler constructed elaborate models to understand the motion and arrangement of the planets; the clockwork of the heavens. And at night, he dreamt of traveling to the moon. His principal scientific tools were the mathematics of the Alexandrian Library and an unswerving respect for the facts—however disquieting they might be. His story, and the story of the scientists who came after him, are also part of our voyage. Seventy years later, the sun-centered universe of Aristarchus and Copernicus was widely accepted in the Europe of the Enlightenment. The idea arose that the planets were worlds governed by laws of nature, and scientific speculation turned to the motions of the stars. The clockwork in the heavens was imitated by the watchmakers of Earth. Precise timekeeping permitted great sailing ship voyages of exploration and discovery which bound up the Earth. This was a time when free inq

Sustaining the legacy of wisdom Today, Alexandria shows few traces of its ancient glory of the days when Eratosthenes walked its broad avenues. Over the centuries, waves of conquerors converted its palaces and temples into castles and churches, then into minarets and mosques. The city was chosen to be the capital of his empire by Alexander the Great on a winter’s afternoon in 331 B.C. A century later, it had become the greatest city of the world. Each successive civilization has left its mark. But what now remains of the marvel city of Alexander’s dream? Alexandria is still a thriving marketplace, still a crossroads for the peoples of the Near East. But once, it was radiant with self-confidence; certain of its power. Can you recapture a vanished epoch from a few broken statues and scraps of ancient manuscripts? In Alexandria, there was an immense library and an associated research institute. And in them worked the finest minds in the ancient world. Of that legendary library, all that s

The desire to learn drives scientific inquiry In Alexandria, at that time, there lived a man named Eratosthenes. One of his envious contemporaries called him “beta”—the second letter of the Greek alphabet—because, he said, “Eratosthenes was second-best in the world in everything.” But it seems clear that, in many fields, Eratosthenes was “alpha.” He was an astronomer, historian, geographer, philosopher, poet, theater critic, and mathematician. He was also the chief librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria. And one day, while reading a papyrus book in the library, he came upon a curious account. Far to the south—he read—at the frontier outpost of Syene, something notable could be seen on the longest day of the year. On June 21st, the shadows of a temple column, or a vertical stick, would grow shorter as noon approached. And as the hours crept towards midday, the sun’s rays would slither down the sides of a deep well which on other days would remain in shadow. And then, precisely at

Earth Welcome to the planet Earth. A place with blue nitrogen skies, oceans of liquid water, cool forests, soft meadows. A world positively rippling with life. In the cosmic perspective it is, for the moment, unique. The only world in which we know with certainty that the matter of the cosmos has become alive and aware. There must be many such worlds scattered through space, but our search for them begins here with the accumulated wisdom of the men and women of our species acquired at great cost over a million years. There was once a time when our little planet seemed immense. When it was the only world we could explore. Its true size was first worked out in a simple and ingenious way by a man who lived here, in Egypt, in the third century B.C. This tower may have been a communications tower, part of a network running along the North African coast, by which signal bonfires were used to communicate messages of state. It also may have been used as a lighthouse; a navigational beacon for

The Solar System Most stars belong to systems of two or three or many suns bound together by gravity. Each system is isolated from its neighbors by the light years. We are approaching a single, ordinary, yellow dwarf star surrounded by a system of nine planets, dozens of moons, thousands of asteroids, and billions of comets: the family of the sun. Only four light hours from Earth is the planet Neptune and its giant satellite, Triton. Even in the outskirts of our own solar system, we humans have barely begun our explorations. Only a century ago, we were ignorant even of the existence of the planet Pluto. Its moon, Charon, remained undiscovered until 1978. The rings of Uranus were first detected in 1977. There are new worlds to chart even this close to home. Saturn is a giant gas world. If it has a solid surface, it must lie far below the clouds we see. Saturn’s majestic rings are made of trillions of orbiting snowballs. We are now only 80 light minutes from home. A mere one and a half b

Nebulae Among the many glowing clouds of interstellar gas is one called the Orion Nebula, only 1,500 light years from Earth. These three bright stars are seen by earthlings as the belt in the familiar constellation of Orion the hunter. The nebula appears from Earth as a patch of light: the middle star in Orion’s sword. But it is not a star. It is another thing entirely: a cloud that veils one of nature’s secret places. This is a stellar nursery, a place where stars are born. They condense by gravity from gas and dust until their temperatures become so high that they begin to shine. Such clouds mark the births of stars as others bear witness to their deaths. And after stars condense in the hidden interiors of interstellar clouds, what happens to them? The Pleiades are a loose cluster of young stars only 50 million years old. These fledgling stars are just being let out into the galaxy. Still surrounded by wisps of nebulosity, the gas and dust from which they formed. There are clouds tha

Stars Scattered among the stars of the Milky Way are supernova remnants, each one the remains of a colossal stellar explosion. These filaments of glowing gas are the outer layers of a star which has recently destroyed itself. The gas is unraveling returning star-stuff back into space. And at its heart are the remains of the original star: a dense, shrunken stellar fragment called a pulsar. A natural lighthouse, blinking and hissing. A sun that spins twice each second. Pulsars keep such perfect time that the first one discovered was thought to be a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence. Perhaps a navigational beacon for great ships that travel across the light years and between the stars. There may be such intelligences and such starships, but pulsars are not their signature. Instead, they are the doleful reminders that nothing lasts forever; that stars also die. We continue to plummet, falling thousands of light years towards the plane of the galaxy. This is the Milky Way, our galaxy,

Galaxies Before us is the cosmos on the grandest scale we know. We are far from the shores of Earth in the uncharted reaches of the cosmic ocean. Strewn like sea froth on the waves of space are innumerable faint tendrils of light, some of them containing hundreds of billions of suns. These are the galaxies drifting endlessly in the great cosmic dark. In our ship of the imagination we are halfway to the edge of the known universe. In this, the first of our cosmic voyages, we begin to explore the universe revealed by science. Our course will eventually carry us to a far-off and exotic world. But from the depths of space, we cannot detect even the cluster of galaxies in which our Milky Way is embedded, much less the sun or the Earth. We are in the realm of the galaxies, 8 billion light years from home. No matter where we travel, the patterns of nature are the same as in the form of this spiral galaxy. The same laws of physics apply everywhere throughout the cosmos. But we have just begun

The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our contemplations of the cosmos stir us. There is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation: as if a distant memory of falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the grandest of mysteries. The size and age of the cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home, the Earth. For the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves. This is a time of great danger, but our species is young and curious and brave. It shows much promise. In the last few millennia we’ve made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the cosmos and our place within it. I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky. We’re about to begin a journey through the cosmos. We’ll encounter galaxies, and suns, and planets, life and c

The Universe Index 01. Introduction 02. Galaxies 03. Stars 04. Nebulae 05. The Solar System 06. Earth 07.  The desire to learn drives scientific inquiry 08.  Sustaining the legacy of wisdom 09.  Gazing our Universe 10.  Time of the Universe

मनोहर जोशी यांचा जन्म २ डिसेंबर १९३७ रोजी रायगड जिल्ह्यातील नांदवी या गावात झाला होता. घरची आर्थिक परिस्थिती खूप वाईट. त्यामुळे त्यांचं आयुष्याचा प्रवास खडतर राहिला. वडील भिक्षुकी मागायचे. मनोहर जोशी यांनीही भिक्षुकीतून मागून कुटुंबाला हातभार लावला. मनोहर जोशी यांचे बालपण अतिशय गरिबीत गेले.त्यांना दोन वेळच्या जेवणाचीही भ्रांत होती.पनवेलमध्ये महाजन नावाच्या शिक्षिकेने त्यांना सात घरांत नेऊन सात जेवणांची सोय केली. पाचवीच्या वर्गात असताना ते स्वतःच्या पायांवर उभे राहिले. मनोहर जोशींचं चौथीपर्यंतच शिक्षण नांदवीला झालं. पाचवीचं शिक्षण महाड, तर सहावीनंतर ते मामाकडे पनवेलला आले. मामाची बदली झाल्यानंतर ते गोल्फ मैदानात बॉयची नोकरी करू लागले. या काळात ते मित्राच्या खोलीत राहत होते. पुढे मनोहर जोशी ११ वीच्या शिक्षणासाठी मुंबईतील बहिणीकडे आले. सहस्त्रबुद्धे क्लासमध्ये त्यांनी शिपायाची नोकरी केली आणि शिक्षण घेतले. नंतर किर्ती कॉलेजमधून त्यांनी बीएची पदवी घेतली. वयाच्या २७व्या वर्षी एम.ए, एल.एल.बीची पदवी घेतली. महत्त्वाची गोष्ट म्हणजे मनोहर जोशी यांनी वयाच्या ७२व्या वर्षी पीएच.डी पूर्ण केली. 'श

अशोक सराफ हे एक लोकप्रिय मराठी अभिनेते आहेत. मराठी चित्रपटांसोबत त्यांनी अनेक हिंदी चित्रपटांतही विविध भूमिका केल्या असून दूरचित्रवाणीच्या छोट्या पडद्यावरील हम पांच सारख्या मालिकेमध्येही त्यांनी अभिनय केला. लक्ष्मीकांत बेर्डे यांच्यासोबत मराठी चित्रपटसृष्टीतील विनोदी चित्रपटांचा काळ गाजवणारे अशोक सराफ हे एक मराठी सुपरस्टार आहेत. सिने अभिनेत्री निवेदिता जोशी ह्या सराफांच्या पत्नी असून नाट्य‍अभिनेते रघुवीर नेवरेकर हे त्यांचे मामा होते. त्यांनी अनेक चित्रपटात विनोदी भूमिका करण्याबरोबरच काही चित्रपटात खलनायकी तसेच विविध भूमिका तितक्याच ताकदीने व रसिकांच्या आयुष्यभर स्मरणात राहतील अशा साकारलेल्या आहेत. उत्कृष्ट अभिनय, सहज विनोद प्रवृत्ती, चेहऱ्यावरील कमालीचे हावभाव, विनोदाची अचूक वेळ, इत्यादी त्यांच्या अभिनयाची वैशिष्ट्ये होती. अशोक सराफ, लक्ष्मीकांत बेर्डे, सचिन पिळगांवकर, महेश कोठारे या अभिनेत्यांनी मराठी चित्रपटामध्ये फार मोठा काळ गाजवला आहे. चित्रपट क्षेत्रात सर्वांचे लाडके अशोकमामा या नावाने ते प्रसिद्ध आहेत. त्यांनी मी बहुरूपी हे आत्मचरित्र लिहिले आहे. ओळख मूळचे बेळगावचे असणाऱ्या अशोक

Bangladesh is one of the world's most densely-populated countries, with its people living in a delta of rivers that empty into the Bay of Bengal. Poverty is widespread, but Bangladesh has in recent years reduced population growth and improved health and education. Formerly East Pakistan, Bangladesh came into being only in 1971, when the two parts of Pakistan split after a bitter war which drew in neighbouring India. Bangladesh spent 15 years under military rule and, although democracy was restored in 1990, the political scene remains volatile. Islamist extremism has also been rising in the traditionally tolerant country. Bangladesh is low-lying and vulnerable to flooding and cyclones. It stands to be badly affected by any rise in sea levels. Facts Capital: Dhaka Area: 148,460 sq km Population: 165.1 million Language: Bengali Life expectancy: 71 years (men) 74 years (women) Leaders President: Mohammed Shahabuddin Mohammed Shahabuddin was elected unopposed in the 2023 presidential el

 

 

 

महात्मा फुले यांनी दाखवून दिल्याप्रमाणे महाराष्ट्रातील शूद्रातिशूद्र बहुजन समाज वर्षानुवर्षे आपल्या न्याय्य हक्कांपासून वंचित राहिला होता. त्याला सर्व व संधी नाकारण्यात आल्या होत्या. येथील सर्वच बहुजन समाज सामाजिक अन्यायाचा बळी ठरला होता; परंतु या बहुजन समाजातही सर्वाधिक उपेक्षित असा एक वर्ग होता. तो म्हणजे, दलित किंवा पूर्वापार अस्पृश्य मानल्या गेलेल्या दुर्दैवी लोकांचा वर्ग होय. या वर्गावर होणाऱ्या अन्यायाला पारावारच उरला नव्हता. या उपेक्षित वर्गाला न्याय मिळवून देण्यासाठी आपले आयुष्य खर्ची घातलेले थोर नेते डॉ. बाबासाहेब आंबेडकर हे होत. परिचय व कार्य  डॉ. बाबासाहेब आंबेडकर यांचे संपूर्ण नाव भीमराव रामजी आंबेडकर असे होते. त्यांचा जन्म मध्य प्रदेशातील महू या गावी १४ एप्रिल, १८९१ रोजी झाला. ते महार या अस्पृश्य मानल्या गेलेल्या जातीत जन्माला आले असल्याने त्यांना पूर्वायुष्यात अत्यंत प्रतिकूल परिस्थितीशी संघर्ष करावा लागला होता. तथापि, या परिस्थितीवरही मार करून त्यांनी आपले शिक्षण पूर्ण केले. अमेरिका, इंग्लंडमधील विद्यापीठांच्या उच्च पदव्या त्यांनी संपादन केल्या आणि आपल्या विद्वत्तेची चमक

महाराष्ट्रातल्या सुप्रसिद्ध MPSC या स्पर्धा परीक्षा म्हटल्या की के सागर अथवा क्षीरसागर यांची त्या विषयांवरील पुस्तके प्रमाण मानली जातात. मी स्वत: काही अशा स्पर्धा परीक्षांत सहभागी नसलो तरी या पुस्तकांचे वाचन करून आपले सामान्य ज्ञान वाढवणे मला आवडते. विशेषत: इतिहाचे संक्षिप्त आणि वस्तुनिष्ठ ज्ञान मिळवण्यासाठी ही पुस्तके अत्यंत उपयुक्त आहेत. क्षीरसागर यांनी ही पुस्तके लिहिताना निष्पक्षपणे त्या विषयाची माहिती दिली आहे. त्यात त्यांनी कुठल्याही पक्षाची बाजू घेतलेली नाही. त्यामुळे त्यांच्या लिखाणाला राजकीय रंग आलेला नाही.  मी इतिहास या शृंखलेतील प्राचीन भारत, मध्य युगीन भारत आणि आधुनिक भारत असे सर्व संच वाचले. आपण आपला इतिहास फक्त शाळेत असताना शिकतो. त्यावेळी आपण शाळेच्या परीक्षेच्या दडपणाखाली असतो. त्यामुळे त्यावेळी तो इतिहास आपल्या डोक्यात शिरत नाही. त्या अभ्यासाचा आपल्याला तिटकारा असतो. सनावळ्या पाठ करून वीट आलेला असतो. त्यामुळे आपण इतिहास शिकत नसून फक्त परिक्षार्थी असतो. एकदा परीक्षा संपली की आपण सगळे विसरून जातो. आता मात्र शाळा कॉलेजचे टेंन्शन संपल्यावर इतिहासाचा अभ्यास सोपा वाटतो. त्या

महात्मा फुल्यांनंतरचे महाराष्ट्रातील बहुजन समाजाचे दूसरे महान नेते म्हणून राजर्षी शाहू महाराज यांचा उल्लेख करावा लागतो. राजर्षी शाहू महाराज यांचा जन्म २६ जुलै, १८७४ रोजी झाला. ते दक्षिण महाराष्ट्रातील कोल्हापूर संस्थानचे अधिपती होते. २ एप्रिल, १८९४ रोजी त्यांनी कोल्हापूर राज्याची अधिकारसूत्रे आपल्या हाती घेतली. राजर्षी शाहू महाराज हे प्रजाहितदक्ष राज्यकर्ते होते. त्यांनी आपल्या सत्तेचा वापर लोककल्याणासाठी केला. त्यांच्या कारकिर्दीत कोल्हापूर संस्थानात अनेक सुधारणा घडून आल्या; त्यामुळे त्यांची राजकीय कारकीर्द अनेक बाबीत उल्लेखनीय ठरली. सत्यशोधक चळवळीचे नेतृत्व छत्रपती शाहू महाराजांचे सर्वांत उल्लेखनीय कार्य म्हणजे त्यांनी महाराष्ट्रातील सत्यशोधक चळवळीचे केलेले नेतृत्व हे होय. महात्मा फुल्यांच्या मृत्यूनंतर सत्यशोधक चळवळ निष्प्राण होत चालली होती; परंतु शाहू महाराजांनी या चळवळीला संजीवनी देऊन तिच्यात नवचैतन्य निर्माण केले. राजर्षी शाहू महाराज हे सामाजिक चळवळीच्या क्षेत्रातील महात्मा फुले यांचे खरे वारसदार होते. महात्मा फुले यांच्याप्रमाणेच राजर्षी शाहूंनी बहुजन समाजाला संघटित करून त्याला