1987. A room in New Delhi is thick with the smell of old files & cold tea. The United States has just delivered a stinging slap to the face of the Indian Republic. They have officially refused to sell India the 'Cray X-MP' Supercomputer, the most powerful machine on Earth, claiming that India would use it for nuclear weapons.
The American officials mockingly suggest that India does not even have the electricity to keep such a machine running. In the middle of this national humiliation, a young, soft-spoken engineer named Vijay Bhatkar is asked by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi: "Can we build our own?" Bhatkar does not hesitate. He looks at the No of the West & says: "We will not just build it; we will build it faster than you can ship it."
The Americans did not just stop at refusing the sale; they actively lobbied other nations to ensure India remained digitally blind. They believed that w/o their Logic Gates, India would remain a 3rd world backwater.
Bhatkar realized he could not replicate the Single-Processor behemoth of the Cray. Instead, he turned to Parallel Processing. He decided to stitch together 1000s of low-cost, off-the-shelf microprocessors. It was like building a giant's brain out of the neurons of ants.
In 1991, while the West was still celebrating its monopoly, Bhatkar unveiled the PARAM 8000. It was not just a computer; it was a Gigaflop monster.
To prove the PARAM was real, Bhatkar ran a standard global benchmark test. The results were sent to an international conference in Zurich. The PARAM 8000 was ranked as the 2nd most powerful supercomputer in the world, behind only the American machines. But there was a twist: the PARAM cost a fraction of the Cray, performed better in tropical heat, & was built in just 3 years.
When the PARAM 8000 was 1st turned on, the team did not have a high-tech cooling system like the Americans. They used industrial-grade desert coolers & adjusted the airflow manually. It was the ultimate Jugaad that defeated the most sophisticated tech embargo in history.
A major US newspaper ran a story with the headline: "Denied supercomputer, Angry India does it!" The ghost of the Native Engineer had officially entered the silicon temple. Vijay Bhatkar’s history is the story of how India became the IT Capital of the world.
Bhatkar founded the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). He did not just build a machine; he built an ecosystem. Every software engineer in India today stands on the shoulders of the man who proved we did not need the West's permission to compute. Bhatkar was the 1 who realized that if computers only spoke English, 90% of India would be left behind. He led the development of GIST (Graphics & Intelligence Based Script Technology), allowing computers to work in Indian languages. He gave the Machine a local tongue.
Today, Bhatkar is a Padma Bhushan awardee, but he lives a life of deep spirituality & simplicity. He vanished from the corporate headlines to become a philosopher of the digital age.
The West thought they could freeze India’s future by withholding a single machine. They forgot that the Indian mind does not need a 'Cray' to think; it only needs a 'No' to ignite. Forget building a supercomputer; Bhatkar built a mirror, & for the 1st time, the West had to look into it & see that the primitive colony had become the master of the code.
The river's name is Iravati. Literally it means that she surrounds the earth because of her meandering nature.
River Iravati meets Asikhni who literally means one who is brown colored. This brown color is due to sediment rich water . This is incorrectly called Chenab.
Other river Vipasha who is incorrectly called as Beas joins them. Vipasha is called so because Vipasha means unrestrained. This is because she is fastest river among five rivers that feed Puncha Aap. Literally Five Waters in Sanskrit.
Another river Shatudri is called so because she has 100 tributaries. She is incorrectly called as Sutlej by invaders who do not know Sanskrit.
Then up north we have river Vitasta also incorrectly called Jhelum. Vitasta is called so because she is one Vitasta wide at the source.
These names are meaningful and allow us to reconnect with mother nature.
Please use native names for Bharat's rivers.
I have written about this earlier.
Thanks.
@garudyaan@BibekRoyC If wrong on this Bengal one May 4th, I will lock and hibernate my account myself for months. If someone wants to take my handle will sell it and shut up once for all.
IT TAKES A LOT TO BE REVATHI…!!!
While the whole country is celebrating the landmark judgement of death penalty for the NINE policemen in the Santhanakulam custodial torture and murder of Jeyaraj and Bennix, you should know about Revathi.
Revathi was a constable in Santhanakulam police station in 2020 when the gruesome incident took place. She was the key witness and the sole reason for all the arrogant officers getting punished today.
The police men involved in the brutality were all big men, Revathi was a small time constable. But she stood unperturbed.
When Magistrate Bharathidasan, who initially investigated this case, arrived at the Santhanakulam police station he had no clue that constable Revathi will help close the case.
"Sir, I will tell you everything, every detail, the truth that is being hidden. But I am the mother of two young girls... can you guarantee the safety of my children and my job?", she had asked the magistrate.
Revathi was on night duty when the cruel incident took place. She witnessed the brutality being inflicted on Jeyaraj and Bennix and narrated every single detail.
She told how SI Balakrishnan, inspector Sridhar and SI Ragukanes, kept beating the father and son with whatever they found, and how they also stomped on their private parts with their shoes.
She remembered their screams. She saw how the officers took pause only to sip alcohol while the victims withered in pain.
When the father and son were semi-conscious, unable to bear it, Revathi asked Jayaraj if he needed anything. She gave him coffee which the officials spilt it immediately.
Revathi couldn’t stand the brutality but being a woman constable there was only so much she could do. She then offered water to the victims.
The so called policemen then stripped Bennix naked, tied his hands and legs separately, and beat him up. They did the same to Jeyaraj. Revathi couldn’t bear the pain of their screams, she left the place.
According to the postmortem report, their entire back was skinned, iron rods were inserted and they bled from their rectums.
When the case was being discussed by the media, when even the CM of Tamil Nadu tried to brush it away, Revathi knew the truth.
The police officials, cleaned up the station of any DNA evidences, erased the CCTV footage and warned everyone to shut-up and not try to become heroes.
But Revathi didn’t just narrate the entire ordeal in exact detail…she even helped the investigating officials obtain other crucial information.
Despite everything being cleaned, Revathi gathered DNA of the victims in crevices of the walls and floors, on furniture and other objects.
She was questioned, threatened, intimidated, bribed and even abused. She stood by justice. She had to go against her colleagues for justice of comman man.
In the time when police force is often looked upon with reasonable suspicion, there are people in uniform like Revathi.
Today court could pronounce death sentence to nine police officers - only because one woman decided she will stand by truth!
Kudos to Revathi, an amazing woman and an absolutely fabulous police officer.
The world is a better place because of her courage.
Salute ma’am 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
The “Noida jinx” dates back to 1988, when Vir Bahadur Singh was forced to resign days after visiting the city. His successor, ND Tiwari, also lost power in the 1989 elections after a Noida visit.
What followed was capitulation. Successive CMs reduced governance to superstition, avoiding Noida like a cursed zone, as if electoral fate depended on dodging a city rather than delivering performance.
One might excuse this from other leaders. But Akhilesh Yadav, with a master’s degree from the University of Sydney, also stayed away. That’s where it stops being tradition and starts becoming intellectual embarrassment. If education cannot override such irrational fear, what exactly is it for?
Then comes Yogi Adityanath, ironically stereotyped as “superstitious” because of his attire and identity, as he himself candidly says in this below video while addressing nurses during a job allotment letter distribution event in UP. However, he did what the so-called educated leadership would not: he visited Noida soon after taking oath, ignored the myth entirely, and returned to power in 2022.
The real takeaway is that the problem was never about who looks “modern” or “traditional.” It was about who actually thinks rationally, and who just pretends to.
Thanks @manishbatavia. It wasn't planned. I wanted to ensure that the player called out is the one receiving the award. But that left large gaps and so I had to make up lines on the go. That is also why I fell short with a few names.
A player from Kerala, a spinner from Karnataka, a hitter from Bihar, a smasher from Punjab...stars from Mumbai…
Gujju, Punjabi, Tamil…
Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian…
Different languages, different roots, yet united by one jersey.
What a team. What a victory.
Bharat Mata ki Jai!