Even before the accounts of the 1st century BC, there were written accounts of Shipbuilding and war-craft at sea. Professor R.C. Majumdar says that there existed a comprehensive book of Naval-architecture in India datingback to 2nd century BC, if not earlier. During the reign of Raja Raja and his son, there were a complex classification of class of vessels and its utility. Some of the survived classes' name and utility are below. The close diplomatics tie between the Song dynasty of China and the Medieval Cholas facilitated many technological innovations to travel both ways. The more interesting ones to have reached Chinese shores are: *. The famous Chola ship-designs employing independent water tight compartments in the hull of a ship. *. The mariner's compass *. The continuously shooting Flamethrowers for naval warfare. *. Dharani - The equivalent of modern-day destroyers designed to take combat to high-seas. *. Loola - The equivalent of modern day Corvettes ; designed to perform light combat and escort duties. *. Vajra - The equivalent of a Frigate maybe, a fast attack craft lightly armored. *. Thirisadai - Probably the battle cruisers or battleships of the day, they are reported to be armored heavily and could engage more than 2 targets in combat, and relied on its built rather than speed to survive and attack. Though all ships of the time employed a small Marine force (for boarding enemy vessels), this class of ship seems to have had aseparate cabins and training area for them. This ship also is said to be able to engage in asymmetrical warfare. Dharani The primary weapons platform with extensive endurance (up to3 months), they normally engaged in groups and avoided one on one encounters. Probably equivalent to modern day Destroyers . Lola They were lightly armored, fast attack vessels. Normally performed escort duties. They could not perform frontal assaults. Equivalent to modern day Corvettes. Vajara They were highly capable fast attack crafts, typically used to reinforce/rescue a stranded fleet. Probably equivalent to modern day Frigates . Thirisadai The heaviest class known, they had extensive war-fighting capabilities and endurance, with a dedicated marine force of around 400 Marines to board enemy vessels. They are reported to be able to engage three vessels of Dharani class, hence the name Thirisadai , which means, three braids . (Braid was also the time's name for oil-fire.) Apart from class definitions, there are names of Royal Yachts and their architecture. Some of which are, *. Akramandham - A royal Yacht with the Royal quarters in the stern. *. Neelamandham - A royal Yacht with extensive facilities for conducting courts and accommodation for hi-officials/ministers. *. Sarpammugam - these were smaller yachts used in the Rivers (with ornamental snake heads) In addition to these, we find many names of Ship classes in Purananuru and its application inboth inland waters and open oceans. Some of them are, *. Yanthiram - Hybrid ship employing bot sails and oars or probably Paddle wheels of some type (as Yanthiram is literally translated to mechanicalwheel) *. Kalam - Large vessels with 3 masts which can travel in any direction irrespective of winds. *. Punai - medium sized vessels that can be used to coastal shipping as well as inland. *. Patri - Large barge type vessel used to ferrying trade goods. *. Oodam - Small boat with large oars. *. Ambi - Medium sized boat with a single mast and oars. *. Toni - small boat used in rocky terrain.
Former President of India and renowned scientist APJ Abdul Kalam died after he was hospitalized in a very critical condition at a private hospital in Meghalaya's capital Shillong on Monday.
Kalam, 84, arrived at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong, at 6pm to deliver lecture to post graduate students of the institute. He reached Shillong by road from Guwahati. He was supposed to addressed the students till 10.40pm on the same day.
After he reached IIM-Shillong, he collapsed around 7pm while delivering lecture to students and was rushed to a nearest private hospital.
The former President was also supposed to address the students from 10am to 12.30pm on Tuesday.
An IIM-Shillong faculty said that Kalam has been visiting the institute for last three years to address the students. This year it was Kalam's third visit to IIM-Shillong on Monday.
Kalam was the 11th President of India and held the post from July 25, 2002 to July 25, 2007.
He was a renowned scientist and is considered to be the main brain behind India's space launch vehicle (SLV) and missile programme.
Assam and Nagaland governor, PB Acharya said that the nation has suffered a great loss in the demise of Kalam. Acharya said that Kalam is not only a former president but also a highly respected scientist internationally.
In 2012 Kalam was in Guwahati where he attended the 14th convocation function of IIT-Guwahati. Speaking at the convocation function, Kalam told students that wanted to see a "silent" Brahmaputra emerging into a "smart" waterway in the country. Kalam told the students that it is his dream to make Brahmaputra the most vibrant waterway in the country.
"Brahmaputra is very close to me. Yesterday and even today I visited the river. It is a silent river with limited activities now. My dream is to see Brahmaputra become a smart waterway in the country," Kalam had said then.
The government has declared a 7-day national mourning as a mark of respect for the departed former President.
கல்லூரி படிப்பின்போது அப்துல்கலாம் எடுத்துக்கொண்ட குரூப் போட்டோ. (அப்துல் கலாம் உருவம் வட்டமிட்டுக்காட்டப்பட்டுள்ளது). இதே
புகைபடத்தில் கடைசி வரிசை இடமிருந்து வலம் 5ஆம் நபர் எழுத்தாளர் சுஜாதா
அவர்கள் இருவரும் திருச்சி செயின்ட் ஜோசேப் கல்லூரியின் இயற்பியல்
பாடபிரிவில் ஒன்றாக படித்தவர்கள் நல்ல தோழர்கள்
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is a Scientist Without any Formal PhD Degree. Yes you read it right he didn't have PhD Degree from any Famous Institution.
He was Rejected by Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore because he
didn't have Requisite Scientific Credentials. Within a Decade he
received Honorary PhD Degrees from more than 30 Institutions making him
the one of Greatest Scientist of India.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Awards and honours 2014------->Doctor of Science 2012------->Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) 2011------->IEEE Honorary Membership 2010------->Doctor of Engineering 2009------->Honorary Doctorate 2009------->Hoover Medal 2009------->International von Kármán Wings Award 2008------->Doctor of Engineering (Honoris Causa) 2007------->King Charles II Medal 2007------->Honorary Doctorate of Science 2000------->Ramanujan Award 1998------->Veer Savarkar Award 1997------->Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration 1997------->Bharat Ratna 1994------->Distinguished Fellow 1990------->Padma Vibhushan 1981------->Padma Bhushan
The end of life is a powerful, emotionally wrenching, and often
profoundly spiritual time. I have been talking with people who are dying
and with their families (I define family as all those who are
emotionally close to the person who is dying. They might be related by
blood, marriage, love, or friendship. Family members can be caregivers,
but not all caregivers are family) for more than twenty years as both a
social worker and a volunteer, and I have seen how often people's night
time dreams help them find peace at the end of life. When I first began
asking, "How are your dreams these days?," I was surprised at how many
people were pleased and grateful to be talking about something other
than their illness. Some responded by entertaining me with bits of dream
adventures while others launched into discussions about religion and
science. Sometimes people invited me into the very heart of their lives.
What I learned from all of them eventually led me to write Dreams at the Threshold: Guidance, Comfort, and Healing at the End of Life, a book that explores the powerful support dreams offer the dying and their loved ones. Dreams
help the dying and their families focus on what matters most for them.
Dreams help people open the important but difficult conversations they
need to have with each other. Dreams become extraordinary when they help
people who are dying imagine where they are going or reveal glimpses of
a possible afterlife. Grief dreams give solace to the bereaved, so much
so that some people learn how to influence their dreams, and eventually
build a trusting relationship with them. More than anything, dreams
help people love each other as deeply and honestly as they can. Below
are five ways that dreams help at the end of life.
Dreams Focus on What Matters Have
you ever reached the end of a day and wondered what you did with your
time? Daily life can get so filled with the basic tasks of daily living
(work, groceries, laundry, car repair, feed the kids, get the kids to
feed the parrot) that we forget to pay attention to what matters to our
soul. At the end of life these daily tasks multiply. People need help
with basic tasks such as bathing, dressing, or walking across the room.
All of this extra work, however, is set against the backdrop of a
frightening and limited future.
When time becomes short, many
people turn their attention back to their heart's longing, often with
help from their dreams. A man who is estranged from his children dreams
of asking them or their forgiveness and when he wakes he knows it is
time to call them. A woman who farmed all her adult life dreams of
digging her hands into the soil and wakes knowing she needs to feel the
earth in her hands one last time. A woman dreams she is a ballet dancer
again, spinning on point for her family, and decides to leave her
grandchildren a record of all the decisions—her personal turning points,
she explains with a smile—that formed who she is. (Please note that the
above examples are composites of many different people I've met over
twenty years and do not describe any individual person).
These
are dreams of the soul, helping to point the dreamers straight into the
heart of whatever made this life uniquely theirs. Dreams can help people
focus on what has been most important to them.
Dreams Open Important Conversations In
all of the examples above, the dreamers felt inspired to talk with
their families about what they needed most for their life. The man who
dreamed of forgiveness expressed his love and regret for the first time
in years. The retired farmer asked for help getting to a nearby patch of
earth. The former ballet dancer passed along to her family the lessons
she had learned over a lifetime. Some people use their dreams to open
the most delicate conversations of how they wanted to be remembered, or
what they would like for their funeral.
An elderly woman who was
hospitalized with a severe illness listened as her children encouraged
her to try a new treatment. (The full story can be found in Dreams At the Threshold.)
Then she told them all she had a dream in which her late husband came
and told her he was waiting for her. After telling this dream she was
then able to say out loud that she was ready to die, something that
might have shocked them if she hadn't first described her husband's
dream visit. Her dream helped relieve her children of the natural guilt
they felt at not being able to make her well again, and reassured them
that she knew she would be all right. She died in peace with them at her
bedside a few days later.
Dreams encourage people to listen to their hearts' longing, and sometimes—sometimes—help
people show their unguarded hearts to those they love. For many family
members these conversations remain treasured memories for the rest of
their lives.
Dreams Prepare the Dying for a Journey As
death approaches, many people dream more often of traveling or moving.
In their dreams they pack their clothes in suitcases and box up their
belongings. They close up their stores and lock the doors behind them.
They buy tickets for boats, buses, and airplanes, and consult maps to
destinations they can't quite remember the next morning. Some will
complain to family of waiting in line or struggling with heavy boxes,
and fret about whether they will miss their connections.
In these
dreams death no longer feels like the cessation of life, but more like a
transition to something new. As dreamers engage in the familiar tasks
of travel, they remember what it feels like to anticipate a trip. The
excitement of a new adventure can linger for several days after such a
dream, and dreamers and families alike draw comfort from it.
These
dreams show a future in which the dreamers are still themselves after
they have separated from their loved ones. The dreams assume the dreamer
is not heading into an abyss of nothingness but instead is moving to a
new place, albeit an unfamiliar one. The dream gives people new courage
to say goodbye by giving a glimpse of what is coming next, and the
dreamers turn their eyes to a horizon that now holds more promise than
dread.
Dreams Bring the Dying Loving Visitors As
people draw closer to death they are sometimes visited in their dreams
by loved ones who have long since died. Occasionally people dream about
religious figures coming to greet them, but much more often they are
visited by people who have loved them: parents, grandparents, children,
brothers, and sisters. Whatever fears or hurts the visitors might have
had when they were living are now long forgotten, and they show the
dreamer only a radiant, constant love.
Research shows most
visitations take place in vivid dreams, but sometimes the dying person
is awake, making the visitation less like a dream and more like a
vision. The visitor might sit on the bed or lean against the window or
linger by the door, invisible to all but the dying person. They bring
comfort, love, and companionship at a time when people feel most alone,
and they all make the same promise.
Visitation visitors, whether
in the dream or in a waking vision, promise they have come to help
guide the dying over the threshold of death. They offer no hints about
from where they've come or what they've been doing, but they show
themselves as ready to guide their loved one on to whatever is next
beyond the moment of death. Sometimes the one who is dying is ready to
go but the visitor says not yet. Sometimes the dying person is not ready
but the visitor gently says now, and the person dies.
The
emotional impact of visitation dreams can be profound. The dying feel
more accepting of death and more willing to move forward, sure now that
existence continues beyond life. Families feel relieved and grateful
when they see their loved ones smile and reach out for someone they
themselves can't see. For some these visits feel like a glimpse into the
world beyond this one, and they are filled with hope.
Dreams Connect Mourners with Those They Love There
are many ways grief dreams help those in mourning live with grief.
Families and caregivers, friends, and distant relatives may all have
grief dreams as they come to grips with a painful new reality. Some
dreams play over the final moments of the loved one's life, leaving
dreamers with a raw pain when they awaken. Some bring images that
reflect the enormity of the loss—like the wind blowing through an empty
house—and dreamers wake with a better understanding of their emotions.
But
the grief dreams most people treasure, even long for, are the ones in
which the person who died returns and reassures the dreamer that they
are physically and emotionally whole again, safe, and still loving them
from afar. Some of these grief dreams are so vivid that the dreamers are
sure they have seen their loved one again. They wake knowing their
loved one has come back from the other side miraculously unscathed,
bringing messages of love, comfort, and reassurance. The dreams give
mourners another chance to say what they most need to say: goodbye, I
love you, please forgive me, I forgive you, I will remember you. Just
one grief dream of a loved one looking happy and healthy again can
soften the sharpest edges of grief.
Grief dreams can be so
comforting that some people seek out help to learn how to find their
loved one in a dream. I have met several dream workers who teach their
clients how to help their dreams bring a visit from their deceased loved
ones.
How You Can Help Your Dreams Dream
workers know that dreams often reflect what we do and experience during
the day. Our dreaming minds and waking minds are engaged in a
conversation every day, whether or not we are aware of it. When we are
under stress we might dream of falling or being chased, and when we
succeed we sometimes dream of celebrations or flying. By becoming
more aware of this conversation, you can have more of a say in what your
dreams bring you. You won't ever be able to control your dreams, but
you can influence what you dream about. Here are three steps you can
take now to build a stronger relationship with your dreams.
The
first step is to remember the conversation you are already having with
your dreams. Start by telling yourself just before you go to sleep that
you want to remember your dreams. Your dreaming mind will hear that
simple statement as an invitation to retain the images as you wake up.
Some people put a notebook and pen by their bed or download a dream
application, and then record the dreams they remember.
The
second step is to think about the dreams you remember. Play the dream
over in your head when you first wake up. Even if you don't write
anything down, thinking about the dream for just a few minutes will
engage your conscious mind with your dreaming mind. Then ask yourself
two questions: What did you feel in the dream? And what does the dream
remind you of? With these two questions you are building a bridge
between your waking life and your dreaming mind. You are helping your
dream learn what is most important to you, and what kind of dreams you
will remember in the future.
Finally, trust that you can make
your own sense of your dreams in whatever way works for you. Trust that
your dream is a part of you and that it reflects what you want from your
life. If you want to explore a dream further, find a dream dictionary
online or in any bookstore or library. If your dream makes absolutely no
sense, let it go and look for the next one. Another dream will arrive
soon enough, whether or not you understand this one. Start with trying
to understand some dreams sometimes, and soon you will find more of your
dreams making more sense.
Then let the dream go. Building a
relationship with your dreams means trusting not just the dream, but
also your own readiness to think about them. If you are like me, your
dreams have already shown they are sturdy enough to withstand being
ignored. As you remember your dreams you will see they are strong enough
to engage your wildest fears and brightest hopes, and they are polite
enough to fade away when you turn your attention to something else. You
will find your dreams are, in fact, you—they are the product of your
dreaming mind as much as your emotions are part of your waking mind. You
have the ultimate say in how many dreams you will remember and what you
will do with them. And if you decide not to remember your dreams right
now, be assured they will return when you look for them again.
Most
of us in Western culture have been taught that dreams are nothing more
than our brains spluttering out nonsense. At the end of life, however,
dreams often reveal themselves as a strong, supportive ally. They can be
funny, bold, irrational, frightening, reassuring, and insightful. They
frequently offer hope and comfort when we are feeling vulnerable and
afraid. Best of all, they can remind us of our emotional strengths, our
spiritual beliefs, and our most pressing life goals. They help us deepen
our emotional bonds with the people we love and they gently lead us
back, over and over, to the wonder of our hearts. Jeanne Van Bronkhorst
