Carring the Burdens

from J. Krishnamurthi's "Freedom from the Known"

We carry our burdens all the time; we never die to them, we never leave them behind. it is only when we give complete attention to a problem and solve it immediately - never carrying it over further, and at very next moment there is solitude.

i qoute here a text from J. Krishnamurthi's "Freedom from the known". it is quite interesting to understand carring our own burdens all the time.

The Story of two monks:
two monks walking from one village to another and they come upon a young girl sitting on the bank of a river, crying. And one of the monks goes up to her and says, `Sister, what are you crying about?' She says, `You see that house over there across the river? I came over this morning early and had no trouble wading across but now the river has swollen and I can't get back. There is no boat.' `Oh,' says the monk, `that is no problem at all', and he picks her up and carries her across the river and leaves her on the other side. And the two monks go on together. After a couple of hours, the other monk says, `Brother, we have taken a vow never to touch a woman. What you have done is a terrible sin. Didn't you have pleasure, a great sensation, in touching a woman?' and the other monk replies, `I left her behind two hours ago. You are still carrying her, aren't you?'

In the reallife also there is very little solitude. Even when we are alone our lives are crowded by so many influences, so much knowledge, so many memories of so many experiences, so much anxiety, misery and conflict that our mind become duller and duller, more and more insensitive, functioning in a monotonous routine. Are we ever alone? Or are we carrying with us all the burdens of yesterday?

Once we can leave off this burden from TIME, what is left is Solitude, and this solitude indicates a fresh and innocent mind.

-Hemant Nagda

Nuclear Power Plant (Visit)

Hamburg, 7th August 7, 2008

Visit Vattenfall’s Nuclear Power Plant at Krumel

After brief talk and discussion at NIT with Vattenfall, a day arrived to visit NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. Dream… of probably every kid!!!!
A Little introduction of Vattenfall and power plant at Krümel, Germany: Vattenfall is one of biggest electricity producer, distributor and seller in Europe. Krümel is a small village near Hamburg, where vattenfall’s nuclear power plant is located. Site of the plant is very historic. About 100 years back, Alfred Nobel (remember Nobel price!) build world’s first Dynamite manufacturing plant here in Krümel at the same site where this plant is built.

Krümel plant from other side of river Elbe

Journey to the plant:
Location of plant is about 40 km form Hamburg, but it took us almost 2 hrs to reach there, changing trains and buses. But overall journey was quite pleasant. The plant capacity is about 1250 MW and is Europe’s one of biggest “Boiling water” type Nuclear power plant. The road passes just next to power plant!!! Quite uncommon to India where it would be probably 2 to 3 km away from normal operational roads.

Plant Model

Visit to Controlled and non controlled area:
A nuclear power plant is divided in to 2 parts in general: controlled area i.e. the reactor and accessories and non controlled area i.e. turbines, coolers and generator section. I never thought that we would get chance to see the controlled area. Fortunately the plant was under maintenance and due to non-operability we got chance to see every part… even the core of reactor with Nuclear raw material. I must say as a process engineer and designing and commissioning chemical plants, this was one of absolute extraordinary experience.

Nuclear reactor Core (during shutdown, under the water level)


Generator with Turbines (1250 MW)


On the top of Reactor Core area !!! (reactor top is seen in back)

Security and Safety:

Even though plant was not operating at the moment, we had to pass through all safety and security procedures. I must appreciate the security protocols for the visit. Even international airport or Consulates Generals don’t have such security. Apart from an independent security for entry to the plant there is continuous monitoring of reactor core and nuclear material by regulatory authority via close circuit cameras. We checked ourselves at least 4 times at different places before entering the controlled area. And same while returning back. We were wearing special suit, shoes helmet and gloves all the time in controlled area. A radioactive measurement device was given to each of us and was continuously monitoring radiations around us. I remember value of 0.001 mSv of radiation when we moved out (safe limit for normal visitor is 2.0 mSv).

Team NIT at one of Control Posts with Suites

Impression:
In India probably I would never get a chance (or permission by authority) to visit a Nuclear Power plant, that too into controlled area looking at the core of reactor. Also I would probably never get a chance to design a nuclear power plant!!! But I’ll never forget this visit to Vattenfall’s Krümel plant.

-Hemant Nagda

Planten un Blumen getting closer to nature

Planten un Blumen : Hamburg
2^nd August 2008

It was Saturday afternoon, and I was bit bored being at home. So thought of moving out and seeing some new place in Hamburg. I had heard from people about “Planten un Blumen” from people but never got time to visit it…. So why not today?

Planten un Blumen

The Planten un Blumen ("Pflanzen und Blumen", or "Plants and Flowers" in low-German) is a large park smack in the middle of Hamburg. The park itself is very large and diverse, and is delightful for joggers, photographers, tourists and just people strolling by.

Despite of being in the heart of the city, it has totally different atmosphere. One simply forgets being in the city while visiting. One can say that it’s a wonderful place to breathe some different air and feel being close to nature.

There's a lot to see around Planten un Blomen. This includes, Japanese garden, Tea house, Rose garden, Lake, fountains, jogging tracks, numerous wild and domestic botanical collection…. Music pavilion (famous fountain-show, illuminated with ´rainbow-colors´ and classical music), Cafes and many more….truly magical!

I would rate Planten un Blumen as one of most romantic places in Hamburg… how come I missed visiting this place for so long!

more pictures of Planten un blumen are at following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hemantnagda/PlantenUnBlumen

Other useful links:
www.plantenunblomen .hamburg.de.

- Hemant Nagda
Hamburg