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Thursday, December 20 2007

Nice, The French Riviera

Nice, the capital of French Riviera is a fantastic travel destination.

It is a beautiful French town flanked between the gorgeous meditation and the mighty Alps. The pebbly beach by the deep blue Mediterranean is absolutely superb. The old town is just a few steps from the beach and its narrow alleys are lined by restaurants and shops of exquisite Nicoise items. You can get hand made potteries, wooden items, lavender, olive, herbs and other spices from these shops. If you like good, exotic perfumes, then you must visit the shops selling local perfumes. Nearby place Grasse is renowned for exotic perfume factories made from the local herbs.

The restaurants are fabulous with a range of French and Italian menu. Quite a few of them specializes in sea food and you can give yourself a treat with Oysters, Crabs and Lobsters. To accompany it there will of course be good French wine or Champagne!

Just Walking beside the beach along the Promenade de Anglais is an wonderful experience. Or just take sun bath in the beautiful beach. If you feel more active and energetic, then there are plenty of things to do; staring from surfing, water scootering, canoeing, parachute diving etc. etc.
You can also go on trekking or hiking in the olive and pine covered Alps.

There are many other places to visit on day trips...all along the beautiful mediterinian coast. You can either visit glamorous Monaco, Menton and Cannes, Saint Tropaz. Or can visit less known but more exquisitely beautiful places like Beaulieu, Villefranche, Saint Raphael. All this places are reachable within an hour drive. They are also connected to Nice by frequent trains and buses.

There are plenty of hotels and B&Bs in nice to suit every budget. If you are planning to stay longer then renting a holiday apartment may not be a bad option either.
Nice is very well connected to all major European cities by flights. There are also train connections from Paris, Venice, Luxemburg or Rome. And of course you can drive down there, if you like.

This is a place worth visiting, even if you are a seasoned traveler with the experience of many sea side trips.

************ read my blogs at http://theworldandtheaffairs.blogspot.com/ ***********************

Last modified: 2008-07-02 22:57:55
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Wednesday, November 28 2007

Ancestors’ Tale : An evolutionary chronology

Ancestors’ Tale is another beautiful piece of literature by Richard Dawkins on evolutionary biology. Written in a true Dawkins style, this book explains the stages of evolution in planet earth. Dawkins is an expert in this field and he explained the complex aspects of evolution in a way so that even people without backgrounds in biology can understand.

According to Dawkins’ own admission this book is written in the style of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales; Like Canterbury Tales, here human beings start a “pilgrimage”. Just as the pilgrims in Canterbury Tales want to meet God at the end of their journey, the Dawkins’ pilgrims want to meet their oldest ancestor….the ancestor who is the forefather of all living beings on earth today.

In this book, Dawkins takes readers to a backward journey tracing the path of evolution. Just like in Chaucer’s masterpiece, at every important juncture along this backward journey, we are joined by other “pilgrims” and continue our journey together into farther along the road. These newly joined “pilgrims” are other living beings who evolved in a separate branch of evolution.

For example, in the backward journey we (human beings) meet chimpanzees in the first junction and then we continue our journey along with them. In next junction, we (both human beings and chimpanzees) meet other apes from the great ape family and so on.

At each stage, as we meet other pilgrims, Dawkins explains why we would expect them to meet at that juncture. He cites and explains the proof from genetics, paleontology, geology etc. As we move deeper and deeper into the past, such proofs become less direct and more difficult to find. Dawkins explained these proofs (or lack of them) at every stage and the theories supporting them and the possible margin of errors.

Things are a bit hazy and inconclusive (as expected) towards the end of path, still it describes a good chronology of evolution. This book is written by an expert of the subject and hence the facts are right; at the same time the author has a command over the language which makes it pleasant to read. Scientific facts are described in such a free flowing way that anybody can grasp them.

This is an interesting book written in a lucid manner and will definitely satisfy the intellectual appetite of the reader.

********* read my blogs at http://theworldandtheaffairs.blogspot.com/ ***********************

Last modified: 2008-07-01 08:57:40
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Tuesday, September 18 2007

Dhoni as Indian Captain: A disastrous decesion

After the surprising resignation of Rahul Dravid from the post of Indian cricket captain, the BCCI and the selectors seems to have just one agenda in mind. No, the agenda is not to select a good captain who should be able to lead India confidently and successfully; the first and foremost agenda is to keep Sourav Ganguly, the most successful and gutsy captain India ever had, at bay.

Rahul Dravid does not enjoy captaincy, neither does Sachin Tendulkar. The next generation of cricketers like Shewag and Yuvraj are struggling to get their places secure in the team. So what next? Appoint Dhoni, who merely played a handful of ODIs , as ODI captain. It does not matter if he his inexperienced, it does not matter if he does not have great records outside India. Nothing seems to matter as long as you can get rid of Ganguly. If Dhoni was unavailable they would not have hesitated to make Piyush Chawla the ODI captain!

Sourav Ganguly has been the most successful Indian captain. He groomed the young stars. Under his captaincy India could see eye to eye with any other teams in the world, including Australia. Great players all over the world have praised his captaincy. He has more than 11000 runs in ODI and made a fairytale comeback after being dropped from the team. Why then the BCCI does not like him? He did not have any problem with any of the existing board members in the past. His bitterest enemy Greg Chappell is no longer with the Indian team or board. Why the current board is so reluctant to choose him then? Well it is because he has a mind of his own. He can not be made to give in to the whims and fancies of board members. The board wants a ‘yes man’ and Ganguly by no means is one.

So, Indian cricket fans just brace yourselves for disastrous Pakistan and Australia series. As long as the board will be run by people with their vested interests and ego in mind, rather than the interest of Indian cricket, we the fans will not get anything better.

Last modified: 2008-07-04 05:58:11
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Monday, September 17 2007

The Selfish Gene: A Review

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins was first published in 1976. Even after 31 years of its first publication, it remains an international best seller. Dawkins, an expert in his field (Evolutionary Biology) explains complex biological ideas in a very interesting and lucid way so that even a layman can understand him.

In essence, this book explains the theory of evolution by natural selection from genes' action point of view. He explains, through numerous examples that the ultimate goal of any gene is to survive in future generations. To do so, the genes adapt to the environment and if necessary resort to "exploitation" and "deceit"; and hence the name "Selfish Gene". The genes that are thus successful in adapting favourably towards the changing environment are selected by the nature and they pass on to the future generations. Others just get annihilated.

Genes of course do not have any mind or conscience and they do not behave selfishly at their will. Genes are just chromosomal DNA sequences which can not choose to behave in either selfish or in altruistic way. So when we say that a gene is deceitful, it means that its external manifestation (phenotype) looks different from its actual “motive” (i.e., the way of functioning). The animals possessing such gene get advantage in survival (either in terms of fining food or mate or in terms of deceiving the enemies) over others who possess the non-deceitful version of this gene. Thus these animals have more chance of surviving and producing healthy offspring some of whom carry the same deceitful gene. In this way the deceitful gene gets carried from generation to generation and its selfish motive of survival is satisfied. This is just how the nature works...in a ruthless, exploitative and deceitful way, where every gene "wants" to triumph over the others for their own survival. Throughout his book, with the help of many examples, Dawkins has shown the apparent altruistic behaviour of some animals (like worker bee sacrificing their life to save the hive) is also in fact selfish from their genes’ perspective.

In this book, Dawkins repeatedly said this so called selfish behaviour of genes have nothing to do with selfish or altruistic behaviour of human being in the society. He never said that selfishness or ruthlessness is there in our genes. Human behaviour or psychology is a completely different subject and has nothing to do with genetic adaptation or natural selection. This is a book on evolutionary biology and genetics, not on morality and ethics. Yet, time and again, some people have accused him of advocating the selfishness. But these accusations are completely baseless.

This is a marvellous book written in a very lucid and free flowing way and it has all the gripping quality of a good suspense thriller! People’s whole outlook towards the nature and the animal world might change after reading this interesting book. This book has been translated into many languages and acclaimed very good critical reviews. This is a fantastic piece of scientific literature which is scientifically authentic and enjoyable to read at the same time.

************ read my blogs at http://theworldandtheaffairs.blogspot.com/ ***********************

Last modified: 2008-07-03 19:41:31
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