DK Kapila The Oracle

 Engineering !  A Chain of Thoughts on Vishwakarma Day ! Dinesh K Kapila Vishwakarma Puja is celebrated in Punjab after Diwali. Unlike other states where it is around August or September. Vishwakarma Puja is a festival that honors the birth anniversary of Bhagwan Vishwakarma, the god of creation and architecture. It is a day to celebrate craftsmanship, creativity, and skilled labor. In Durgapur, at the Durgapur Steel Plant of SAIL, where I started my career in 1983, we used to welcome this festival as it meant the hot headed trade unions would cool down and spare us the gheraos (surrounding us and shouting slogans and not even getting to go to the loo at times) and bandhs and cribbing about overtime or acting promotions for the leave reserve or just about the food. Maybe the hot months contributed to taking some time off for trade union activities! But once Vishwakarma Puja was upon us, we could look forward to comparative days of serenity as then it would lead upto Durga Puj...

  The Teacher has ten Avtars now ! Honestly ! Dinesh K Kapila The profession of teachers, specially in private schools a female oriented profession. Once upon a time comparatively stress free, reasonably paying and accorded a degree of respect and recognition by society. Well times evolve. Me, I am miles away from anything and everything but somehow land up knowing something. Then writing something. Its fun to meet teachers from the newly established private schools, these schools are slick, smart, well packaged and ranging all the way from just about passable to the well heeled, catering to the just about have’s to the really full to the brim ! One commonality is striking, the teacher and her roles. Its expanding formally and informally. As one middle aged lady put it, I on being introduced asked her what do you do, and she smiled and asked you really want to know. Then she smiled as she went on to list – hold your breath – model, artist, dancer, sports, coach, counsellor, ...

  Wars and Compassion at Ground Zero by Dinesh K Kapila   (Note - As related By Major General PK Batra, AVSM (Retd).   45 Cavalry) General Batra and my late father, Major General Rajendra Nath, PVSM (Retd) go back a long way. Their bonds were forged in the din of bitterly fought battles in Bangladesh in 1971, where Dad Commanded 62 Mountain Brigade and then Major PK Batra commanded the A Squadron of 45 Cavalry. About these bonds I will write separately. And their battles. This story, well, it’s different. It’s from Another War. 1965. And touched my heart. It really did.   Where do I come in, well, I got connected with Major General PK Batra over the years as I deem it an honour to be connected to my father’s comrades in arms.     Wars are not only about death, bullets and blood and guts but also acts of caring and compassion. A barbed fencing or a wall can only create a superficial barrier but can not run through the hearts of people who were part of ...

  Training my Pencil and Persevering ! Dinesh Kumar Kapila I am at my wits end while repeatedly training my pencil. It just does not want to learn. Try as I might, With patience. Diligently. It’s as  though it is telling me, you damn human,  go take a walk. The pencil, a very humble writing  instrument, well, I and the pencil have a rather chequered history. Mostly the pencil, in it’s real humble avatar, has notched up more victories in this battle of attrition. Here I am really discussing the Apple pencil, its been tough going, as I scribble away on my iPad. Then I just cannot make out what the words are, my thoughts and words are at a 180 degrees to the actual words on the IPad.  The Pencil has guts, it’s adamant, it just refuses to even adapt. Its stressful and really annoying. And confusing. Junior, Prashant,  an Advocate, uses his pencil and Ipad with ridiculous ease and motivated me to opt for this productivity tool. Now Junior’s hand writing is...