Timeless Time

By Susheel Kumar Batra

A bit self-conscious Sanjeev Kapoor a.k.a Sanju baba, goes through all the bittersweet experiences of growing up – fearful respect towards his father, love & affection from mom and sisters, bullying and friendships in school, and initial forays into the world of sensuality.

In his university days, he starts loving and later growing in love, his sister’s friend’s sister.

While his academic pursuit develops a keen interest towards science in him, and his love of literature from his younger years remains his constant companion, his life journey gives him a philosophical perspective.

In this semi-autobiographical fiction novel, Sanju baba narrates his life, with its mix of good, bad, and ugly experiences and encounters, leaving his readers with a promise to return with more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Dec 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9789356672369

Susheel Kumar Batra

SUSHEEL KUMAR BATRA is an Engineering Graduate (NIT, Kurukshetra) with PGD in Ecology & Environment and a Master’s in Applied Psychology (Counseling & Psychotherapy). He is a published author of two fictions and one non-fiction. He worked for more than 25 years in the power sector which included deputations to Foreign Assignments, REC and CEA New Delhi.Apart from writing, the author has a keen interest in Yoga, Counseling and Cinema.Readers can communicate with him at [e-mail] and or [e-mail]

Book preview

Preface

Orn

I am writing a novel with a suggested title Timeless Time. Then the idea suddenly came to my mind that am I challenging Elbert Einstein’s concept of the Space-Time continuum or trying to take the shelter of the Indian philosophy ‘Vedanta’ which says there is no time only we as conscious human beings count it and the fact is time is timeless. Can’t I find a way in between? Something like time is there but it is not there. So here Relativity only helps as time is not an absolute term but is a relative only. Can I take the help of Quantum Mechanics to sort out this issue? I also read somewhere that the conclusions of Vedanta and Quantum Mechanics (you may call it Physics as well) are similar if not the same. So, I have to go further to see the exact similarities between the two.

De Broglie, the French Physicist, asserted that matter is both a wave and a particle. There was no clear explanation as to why this is so. Neither was any explanation offered as to the logical interaction between the wave and the particle.

After understanding the seed, subtle and gross aspects of the universe from Vedanta, I think we are ready for the questions raised by the De Broglie hypothesis. The waveform of matter belongs to the subtle universe and the particle form of matter belongs to the gross universe. They both represent the same thing. Every living and non-living physical object in this universe exists as a wave and as a particle. Vedanta teaches us that there is a fully functioning subtle universe where the different waveforms interact with each other to form complex waveforms. For example, for simplicity’s sake, the JPEG file for an image is in a subtle form, while the actual image you see on your computer is the gross version of the JPEG file. This is a good way to understand the connection between the subtle and gross universe. The subtle universe creates the gross universe. The subtle universe operates within the individual and the cosmic universe results Interestingly Maya Shakti converts the subtle waves into gross objects.

Let’s conclude the basic concepts of Quantum Mechanics and Vedanta:

De Broglie has posited that any physical object has wave/particle duality. It is both a wave and a particle. This is the same as the subtle/gross duality referred to in Vedanta. The subtle body, which is the mind, is nothing but a pool of waves, while the gross body is the physical universe. Even Schrodinger’s wave equation is talking about ‘Vrittis" or waves in the mind. The only place you can have waves is in the mind. There are no waves in the physical universe. The observing system which collapses the Schrodinger probability wave function is nothing but Atman, which is the underlying reality of everyone. All the waves in the mind collapse in the presence of Atman. From this, we conclude that Quantum Physics and Vedanta are talking about the same underlying reality.

It is a good idea if Quantum Physics can incorporate these concepts from Vedanta. It will help Quantum Physics make a quantum leap in the right direction.

Let me say a few words about Quantum mechanics which is a fundamental theory in physics that describes the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.

Let’s take now the exact meaning of Vedanta: is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. Meaning ‘end of the Vedas’ Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from or were aligned with, the speculations and philosophies contained in the Upanishads, specialist knowledge, and liberation.

It seems we can enter timeless time through Quantum Mechanics (Physics) with the obvious help of Vedanta. Here I may add Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, both General as well Special restrict itself with space-time continuum is talking about time and not timeless time.

From science and religious philosophy let’s move to the social aspect of it. Two emergent social forms of time and space characterize the network society while coexisting with previous forms. These are the space of flow and timeless time. Space and time are related, in nature as in society. In social theory space can be defined as material support of time-sharing practices; that is the construction of simultaneity. Timeless time is the effects of real-time communication and transactions that are instantaneous, and how that affects the way the world is around us. Time itself is a construct that is being reconstructed mainly now through the immersion of technology in our everyday lives.

So now, in short, if one wants to describe something as timeless one means that it is so good or beautiful that it cannot be affected by changes in society or fashion. There is a timeless quality to one best work.

I presume that the recent reflections on the possible changes that the internet may have on our concept of time that’s absolute time for everybody and virtual time as well. Timeless time is grouped with terms such as "instantaneous time, time-space compression, network time, etc.

But I think I achieved my purpose of naming my book ‘Timeless Time’. You may take it as an autobiographical novel only as per its style of writing is concerned. How will you like this book? Please do write to me. Thanks.

Chapter 1

Orn

It was during April that my father was transferred from Ambala Cantt to Karnal. I was a student of the 6 th standard. I was shifted to Karnal along with other members of my family during May when my summer vacation started. I am the youngest in the family. I have one elder brother and two older sisters. My Brother is the eldest one who is about 10 years older than me then comes a sister who is 6 years older than me then another sister is about 3 years older than me. I was born as an afterthought child.

That night at the dinner table the main discussion of the family was concerned about the admission of my sister to 11th standard for 10+2 and the other one for 8th standard and mine for 6th standard. My preference was that I would get admission to a different school than that of my sisters’ whereas my parent’s interest was that all three of us would get admission to the same school. Strangely my parents had the impression that younger male children would take care of the elder sisters!

In Ambala Cantt. My Cantonment Board High School was not the same as my sister’s because when I was 3 years old to join the LKG class, a new school was started quite near our house so I was admitted to that school. My first year in the school was a very smooth run, I completed both LKG and UKG in the same year and was in the first standard about one year in advance with a new teacher. In the first standard, there were three sections and I became a student of section A where the class teacher was male and his son was also studying in the same class. He was a bully, a roguish child, who used to behave badly with a few of the other students including me. He looked healthier than me and when he bullied me, I remained helpless. I could not even go to the class teacher to make his complaint with the impression that he was a bully’s father so there was no use in doing the complaint. I rather developed the tendency to avoid going to school but that was not so fruitful with the result that with all the unwillingness at my command I became from a brilliant student to just an average student. I happened to see my so-called brilliance go to ashes. I always avoided telling my parents about my school’s affairs as I never wished them to come to my school. Whether it was my shyness or my changed self-image from the protected environment of the house to the school I did not know. Somehow, I passed my first standard with just pass marks and was elevated to the second standard.

I had a craze to see Hindi movies from time immemorial. I don’t even know when I first went to see the cinema. Maybe when I was 3-4 years old. My father rarely went to the cinema but my sisters and mother were always eager to see the cinema. My mother told me that I was so interested in seeing movies in my childhood that I never slept during the movie. I remember very well that I used to participate in any film-related discussions like talking about their star cast or story or songs even when I was five years old and was in class second. I have seen several movies more than once. I am talking about those days when there was no television in India.

I thanked God that my class teacher had been changed. It was a lady now. As I was small in stature, she used to take me a few times even to her lap. Here I should not tell the lie. I used to enjoy it very much. After the first quarter, looking at my class performance she made me the monitor of the class. I was popular in the class as I did behave nicely with all my classmates. There was a sea of change in my outlook. I, several times, imagined that my parents were visiting my classroom when I was monitoring it. My final result was very good and I was elevated to the third standard. I could also muster a few academic awards like first in Math, Hindi, and Painting. I wished that my lady class teacher would remain the same in the third standard. But as per the school’s norms, my teacher was changed

I unwillingly accepted the new male teacher. By chance, he knew my father, and due to my good academic record showed me all his favors though I reluctantly accepted him. Near our house, there was a family where the young man, head of that family, was in the Indian Air Force and lived with his wife who was a teacher, and a small baby boy not more than a year, along with his two sisters. I did not know why his sisters were staying with him and not with their parents. It might be due to the reason that there were good education facilities at the Army school. I, with my mother and sisters, was their regular visitor. I liked to sit with a baby boy and tried to make him laugh. He was a very beautiful child so was the star attraction. I, several times, insisted my mother take me to their house so that I could shower my love on the child.

One day when I was coming from my school, I saw a lot of people coming with a dead body toward our side. My teacher was among them. Then only did I come to know why he went early, handing over our class to the teacher in charge of the other section. When I came nearer, I saw a lot of known faces from our locality. I just took the support of a tree. Oh, I could see my parents and one of my elder sisters. In a public rush, I could also see the Air Force man in a stunning state walking along with other people. I went behind the huge stem of the tree and saw them crossing me one after another. When I found that my mother was on my side, I just touched her hand. She stopped walking and stood near me along with my sister and told me the horrible news that the lovable baby died in the late-night hours due to sudden medical complications. Quite afraid I could not take the bad news so easily. My mother asked me to go home as my other sister was in the house. I had no power to refuse her on that occasion so humbly I complied with her. My house was only a few yards away but I remember even today that it took me a lot of time to reach home. One question was coming repeatedly to my mind: how a child, just at such a delicate age, only one year old, could have died?

I don’t remember exactly now how much time it took me to come out of this tragic death of an innocent but it changed something in me. The next day after the tragic death of that child, we were in our class. It was a Mathematics class. Our assignment was to vocally tell the different tables from 16 to 19. When my turn came it was the table of 16, the same in an audible voice in the class. While getting up I was very happy that it was table 16 which was on my tips. But I could not tell the complete table up to the multiplication of 10. I stopped in between and could not get the next number even with my conscious efforts. All I could vividly see was the taking away of the dead body of the child by the people when the innocent child’s body was wrapped in a red cloth. My class teacher who had always had very good views about me came near me and slapped me. Even today I can hear the sound which was created by that slap. I was very much annoyed with my teacher from that day till I remained in the third standard. Now I think he was also a human being like me though quite mature in age but even then, everybody is affected by the tragic happenings around them.

On Saturday night I insisted that I would sleep with my mother so I was obliged by my parents that I slept in their bedroom. When I got up on Sunday morning, I saw both my father and mother sipping bed tea and discussing some serious matters. I posed as if I was sleeping and tried to hear them. They both were reading some religious books and discussing God and his role in creating, maintaining, and then destroying things. My father was of a bit of scientific temperament and took everything logically and not simply because it was written in a religious book. I liked that viewpoint of my father very much. I, myself, was quite serious due to the innocent death of the child and tried to question everything which was not so clear to my mind.

During the afternoon I was getting rest on my chair after taking lunch when a sudden thought came to my mind and that was when this world started. What was earlier than that? How could it have been started? I could not see or visualize any starting point! Whenever I tried to visualize the starting point, I immediately felt that there was something already existing before the starting point. In the same thinking, I went deeper and deeper and saw that I had no reply to any such questions. Whether I was isolated or connected with others in time? Whether it was as if time was timeless? How could it be? And how could it be otherwise also? Whether everything around me was real or just fake? Whether I, myself was a real or a fake? The fear was sweeping in my mind as if it was clamped with my thinking when the fear became so strong that I could no longer bear it anymore or one could say when I found my thinking was propagating along with itself then an abundant dose of fear was felt by me and then sitting in my room became almost impossible for me. So, I simply ran out of it and sat in the next room with my sisters but not to avail. I remained restless then I rushed outside my house to the group of my friends who were playing there. I tried to get busy, by trying to get involved in their game. That strange condition of mine remained with me for a few days when I used to become afraid of my thoughts but life never remained the same, it kept changing. Slowly, slowly, I picked up the tread of the life around me with more and more strength.

I passed the third standard with a dismal performance. My parents were not happy with my result but they kept mum. There was a sigh of shattering hopes which I could observe in my parents. They took me as a very intelligent boy when during my early days I used