“A stitch
in Time will confuse Einstein”
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“At
every singularity or point of inflexion in the Universe- whether physical or
abstract- strange, unpredictable and exciting things start to happen-say, at
the brink of a black-hole, or at a spot where geography takes a sudden turn, or
at sunset - the sandhikaal where dark embraces light. ..when…mundane objects
assume weird dimensions…Make for the spot, if ye seek for Adventure in Ideas..”
The
first quotation is from JIR- The
Journal of Irreproducible Results, and the second manufactured a while back by
the author of IK, that is Yours Truly, beg pardon…
For
those who came in late, etymologically the word ‘Singularity’ arose in a
mathematical context, and was subsequently borrowed by various other
disciplines including Humanities. In the context of Mathematics, it is “a
point at which the derivative does not exist for a given function but every
neighbourhood of which contains points for which the derivative exists.” Derivative, as students of Calculus will tell, is
the change in value of the function for a small change in the value of the
variable, and is the indicator of ‘area of predictable-ness’ here..It could
also be defined as a point where a measured variable reaches un-measurable or
infinite value, for example in the function f(x)=
Lim 1/x as xà0. Thus,
things are predictable at every point in the neighbourhood, but not at the
singularity. Naturally the gender of the noun ‘singularity’ is feminine, ha, ha, ha…just joking बरं …
John von Neumann used the term in relation to
technological change thus:
"the
ever accelerating progress of technology ... gives the appearance of
approaching some essential singularity
in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could
not continue."
We suppose a time-warp could be cited as an example of 'singularity'. A geometric example of a singularity is explained
in the accompanying picture.
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| Tschirnhausen's_cubic: singularity at (0,0) |
Our hypothesis today is that what makes the North
East so wildly fantastic is the existence of major singularities in the
terrain, as well in the affairs of humans, plants and animals, he, he, he..!
CHERRAPUNJI AND JATINGA HILLS
These are two places in the North East, which
have no duplicates anywhere else on this globe. Why Cherrapunji (or Mawsynram,
a few km away) is the rainiest place on Earth or why birds commit suicide in
Jatinga Hills, has always been a mystery. After a series of personal visits to
these exotic spots, and after interaction with the local tribals, we conclude
that the apparently unrelated phenomena are but two aspects of the peculiar
geographical placements of the spots. That is, geographical singularity lies behind the shenanigans.
THE LUMDING HAFLONG RAILROAD
You’ll find videos of this trail on Youtube, many
of them prefaced with the words: “The most dangerous railway in the world..”.
Till last week perhaps, we ascribed the sensational words to the endearing
propensity of You Tubites for exaggerating things, in order to magnify their
own cause. The journey last week with Missus converted us to The Cause!
This treacherous track extends from Lumding in
Central Assam, south of the Brahmaputra, to Silchar, deep inside South Assam. The
whole 130 km route bristles with Military presence, and the fire-power is
unbelievable. Ordinary soldiers carry SLRs and revolvers, and the rest, especially
the PSOs, carry the more compact AK 47s along with their revolvers. The
commandos are shielded 24x7 with bullet-proofs and helmets, so deadly are the
insurgents. We travel in the sole AC Chair Car in the procession of bogies in
the Hill Queen Express, which is guarded by five AK 47 wielding PSOs each at
either entrance. That makes our task of shooting the trail with our camera quite
tedious, but we did it with due cooperation from the personnel who all bank
with us, God bless Chabiwala Bank!
For a large part of the year, the NE Railway is
constrained to suspend the service on account of breaches and explosions on the
tracks engineered by the Groups. The latest such break taken by the Railways
was in October 2012. A few days before our own journey, two Kuki Militants were apprehended removing
fish-plates just before Lower Haflong station. The strife is as usual for and
against autonomy.
“Haflong”- the name has an exotic ring. Its
beauty is haunting. It’s one of the cleanest places in the North East,
elevation being around 1700 ft. The place is surrounded by the Borail Valley
and at least 200 days in a year, clouds descend into the valleys and it
invariably rains in the town. Strong winds sweep the Jatinga Hills. That partly
accounts for the cleanliness and the low temperatures. A new lesson is learnt
by us this time- that the ‘absolute’ altitude of a place does not have any
bearing on the beauty of hills so long as the valleys and ravines are deep. Only
you’ll not get as breathless, and maybe the temperatures are higher by a couple
of degrees…But then Haflong is Haflong because of the ‘singularity’ we are
going to talk about..
The Dimasa
tribals are the originals here. Since they are one of the Bodo like tribes, they are supposed to have settled in Assam even
before the Ahoms came. Di masa stands for ‘large water’, that is, the
Brahmaputra, and they were the original rulers of Dimpaur, now in Nagaland
plains. The Dimasa form 43 % of the
population of Dima Hasau district
(earlier NC, that is North Cachar), rest being the Kukis and Nagas (Mar). The warring groups are the deadly
NSCN (I-M), that is the Nationalist Socialist Council of
Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), DNRF or the Dimasa National Revolutionary Front, KLA that is the Kuki Liberation Army, and IPF or Indigenous People's Forum,
a non-Dimasa tribal body. The local
Government is with the Dimasa
Autonomous Districts Council.
If you recall our tribute to the gallant Col.H.S.Kohli, the ketchup episode took place right in the Cachar forests, and as
we pass the village Bada Nagadun
where it all happened, we silently bow to the Guru’s True Son, and mumble….Satt naam waheguru..!
So, Cherrapunji and Jatinga. The Google terrain
map of the area is quite graphic. We give below the HTML output which can be
explored to one’s heart’s content. Both
Cherra and Haflong lie in the terai of
the lower Himalayas which commence their ascent after the Bangladesh plains. Cherra is 200 km to the west of Haflong. They both are thus in the ‘twilight’ area on the Bangla border, lying in the shadows
of a singularity where the flat surface suddenly wakes up, shakes itself, and
starts a steep jog northwards. The joint where She[i]
welded the plains to the mountains is our ‘singularity’! You have to click (-) 6 times and then click TER-
Sohra or Cherrapunji
is an unusual place, both ethnically and geographically. Ethnically, it is an
area with a substantial quasi-Hindu population, and a dominant tribal
allegiance, the Sacred Forest of Mawngap
having an overbearing presence. An Ashwamedha
like ritual is performed here each year around during tribal festivities. Don
Bosco, the Evangelist of the North East, had vision enough to accommodate the
tribal aspirations, while Sankardeva proved a little less flexible..and hence
the predominance of Christianity in the North East..
From the MSL to an altitude of 5000 ft., the
Cherra ascent is abrupt. Clouds which when hovering over Bangladesh, considering
themselves exalted, suddenly come up against the Cherrapunji hills, and
naturally precipitate in no mean measure. This kind of precipitation is technically called 'orographic'. One night, when YT and Missus were put up in a
Cherra resort, it rained 12 inches flat is a period of 8 hours..Annual rainfall
here is 500 inches…
The wonder that is Cherrapunji therefore, owes to
the singularity subsisting on the Bangla-Meghalaya border.
Jaitnga is more complex. This is ‘arguably’ the theatre
of the most intriguing avian phenomenon, anywhere on the globe, and has
received the attention of no less a bird than Dr. Salim Ali….
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| Dr. Salim Ali: Shankar Paramarthy's interpretation |
The North-easterly winds have a run of Jatinga
valley in the months of September to November . Most of the 40 odd suicidal
species breed after the monsoon, and the birdlings are in the learning mode
during the post monsoon months. The
birds with the suicidal tendencies are the Pond Heron, Kingfishers, Tiger
Bittern, Black Bittern, Little Egret etc., around half the casualties being
Kingfisher kids. The Kingfishes, any way, is not a bird of flight. Winds of
over 20 km/h, qualifying to be called ‘strong breeze’, funnel down towards the
Bangla plains during September-November when it all happens. Here is the
governmentspeak (www.dimahasao.com) on the climate:
“The Dima Hasau district can be divided into
three distinct Zones South to North. The Southern face of Borail Range receives
considerable high precipitation. The northern face falls in the rain shadow of
the Range and consequently precipitation is much lower. The northern part of
the district around Langting is one of the driest and hottest parts of Assam.
The central part has a cool and equable climate. Cyclonic disturbances and
storms occur frequently in Surma valley but seldom visit Dima Hasao district.
This is due to shielding effect of Borail Range. Thunderstorm is quite frequent
during summer months. Mist and fog occur the winter months. Frost is unknown,
even in depression. Light to moderate winds blow from North or northeast,
expect during monsoon when the wind blows from southwest.”
As our Dimasa friends posit, the birds, by the
time they reach the Jatinga valley turning, are worn down by the winds to a
vegetable state, and they head for succour following the beam of the nearest
light source in sight, and in the process become food for the tribals, there
being no PDS…
Our Dimasa driver says all birds taste just like
pigeons..for another authentic report, check http://en.articlesgratuits.com/jatinga-phenomenondo-birds-really-commit-suicide-id984.php
We
end the dispatch with some snaps we took and movies we shot.
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| Cherrapunji view point |
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| You enter Cherra here |
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| Haflong from Haflong Point |
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| Jatinga Valley |
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| Baby kingfisher on tower parapet wall |
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| Missus with Rajanikanth @ Jatinga watch-tower |
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| Penitentiary for surrendered militants @ Haflong (ha,ha,haaaa...) |
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| Feel the Jatinga valley winds, North Easterly clouds swooping down. Peak in the middle is 7000 ft. |
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| Valley view from Abraham's Point |
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[i]
From the feminist slogan “I saw God. She is black.”
