Sacred lines

Paris abounds in magical lines. Rose line, Divine line and much more. Eiffel is the modern day continuation of that trend. A temporary structure that went to live on. When al Qu'eda targeted Eiffel a few weeks back, it was seeking to hit at the heart of human civilization.

Stephansdom wonders

Vienna Views
Originally uploaded by tharikrish

Stephansdom or St Stephan's Cathedral is in the center of Vienna. Roof mosaic is not the only wonder here. Host of cryptic symbols and signs add to the mystique. Female and male elements, life and death, the two headed eagle and strange numerology are seen here.

Most of the people who walk into this cathedral and streets surrounding it do not see the ghosts who frequent this place, Many tombs used to be here, but leaving a few they were all removed. However, a lot of unknown tombs still lie in the depths. Their inhabitants wander through the arched gateways of this scared place.

All the symbolism points to a hoary past, when endeovour to reveal light was the main purpose of the life. Healing, the realization of eternal life, was the occupation of the people who frequented this place, long before the Roman encampents came up. Romans too pitched there tents to taste the sheer tenacity and vigour of this soil.

Vedas talk of a Great Teacher who sat on the banks of Danube. He had golden hair and his eyes were sparking blue. Who was his mystic who visited India 10 000s of years ago to participate in the Rajasuya Yajna of Emperor Yudhisthra, after the Mahabharata war?

Was he one of the Great Masters in a lineage of Great Ones who sat here? He was to give unsurpassed powers to Vienna that it remained the capital of Europe for 100s of years. The mystical powers were sought by as diverse seekers as the Romans, Gypsies, Turks, Jews, Templars, Teutonic and Maltese Knights and later Hitler.

Wandering ghosts still frequent the place, and stew up an vicious odor in the spring. They come here to die, and become deathless. May the Great Master who sits here have mercy on them and deliver them, without delay!

Vienna Views

In Vienna from 22 March 2009 on an assignment to IAEA, and with many holidays in the last one month, I spent a lot of time on the streets and Schloss (Palace) grounds. Each of the three schlosses of Vienna have their unique characteristics.



Hofburg Imperial Palace rise above the Roman ruins. Before the Romans, it was a Celtic habitation. Danube flows a bit away from the city centre - Innere Stadt, unlike maybe in other cities such as Budapest and Bartislava. The river front in Vienna thus is not that lively as other places.

Schloss Schoenbrunn is the outlying hunting estate modified later on as a palace. Roman ruins, though artificial, grace this place too. Perhaps a good walking ground on a sunny day, ancient culture could be hiding in the depths here t00.

Challenging Times

Ever since I moved over to Hyderabad, time always has been a premium commodity. Hyderabad, true is slower than Bangalore. But I think Bangalore crawls now, atleast yoy have space to move around in the roads. And the new Hyderabad airport is just superb. People opine that the new Bangalore airport worse than the old HAL airport.




A View of Hyderabad airport (Shamshabad)
Shared with Flock - The Social Web Browser
http://flock.com

Now that nuclear energy has been rediscovered as the "light of the future", and uranium short supply has become an issue of concern. This has created challenges on a daily basis. Hope the blog and the other blogs will continue and I will have time to spare.

And the I got promoted as Scientific Officer 'G' amidst all the hectic activity.

Formal Brief Resume

Present Position: Consultant, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria

Professional experience

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna:

2009 - present: In Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Material Section responsible for Uranium resources and production, Best Practices in Uranium Production Cycle and Technical Cooperation with Member States.

Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, India:

2007 - 2009: As part of Planning and Management Services Group (PMSG) responsible for strategic planning of nuclear fuel cycle activities. Also into knowledge management design and implementation.

1997 – 2006: Associated with Data Centre, Southern Region, Bangalore. Involved with IT enabling of the organization including network administration, database administration, and use of computers geological, scientific data analysis and visualization. Areas of strengths include Operating Systems, Databases, GIS, Digital Images Processing, Graphics, Multimedia and Web development. Also associated with IT security management and development of e-learning modules. Developed various software packages for accounts and administration sections. Well versed in the hardware maintenance and repairs of computers.

1995 – 1997: Uranium exploration in Southern parts of Cuddapah Basin, Andhra Pradesh.

1988 – 1995: Uranium exploration as part of the team that developed the uranium deposits of Mahadek Basin, Meghalaya.

Other professional activities:

-Promoted the use of Open Source Software in servers and desktops and in application development for both Windows and Linux platforms.
-Conducted training / competency development in computer applications.
-Conducted 12 week training "Enabling scientific research with Linux.
-Indian languages facilitation in computer applications.

Publications:

-30 research papers in various national / international journals.
-Articles in newspapers and periodicals related to nuclear energy issues, society and development, environment, IT issues etc

Professional memberships:

-Fellow, Geological Society of India, Bangalore,
-Fellow, Gondwana Geological Society, Nagpur
-Member, American Geophysical Union
-Member, National Geographical Society
-Member, Bangalore Linux Users Group

Interests:

1. Use of Open Source Software technology in all spheres of IT.
2. Implementation of convergent technologies for mass communication and education.
3. Use of VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) in geological visualizations.
4. IT enabled Human resources development for personnel working in hazardous and difficult environments.
5. Benchmarking of Environmental Research related to nuclear development
6. Nuclear Energy vis-à-vis global climatic change.
7. Natural Analogy Studies for Nuclear Waste Management
8. Knowledge Management in Mineral Exploration

Education: B.Sc: Physics, Chemistry, Geology University of Kerala 1984; M.Sc: Geology University of Kerala 1986

Fellowships:

-CSIR, Junior Research Fellowship (Earth Sciences), 1987

Research experience:

-1987 – 1988: Research in Sedimentology, Dept of Geology, University of Kerala

A boring sketch

I am Tulsidas Harikrishnan (T.Harikrishnan)
I have basically three (or four) skills:

I am a Professinal Geologist

I am a self made IT man

I write on technology and developmental issues

I also ponder on the reality beyond our preception

I have done a few things so far:

About 17 years of mineral exploration

Published about 25 technical papers in reputed journals

About 15 articles in popular journals and magazines

A few verses in English (unpuplished and never will be)

Done software development, hardware repairs, networking, network adminisration, web development

Delivered lectures and workshops on open source software

Conducted computer and software training programmes

Web published some ancient sanskrit manuscripts on the facets of reality beyond our preception.

I also

Was born in India (Trivandrum or Thiruvanantapuram, Kerala)in 1963

Went to Nirmala Bhavan School, Trivandrum for primary school

Attended St.Joseph's, Trivandrum for high school

Got some medals in athletics, drama, story writing, fancy dress

Was a Boy Scount (Navel Wing)

Was in National Cadet Crops (NCC) Air Wing

Got admitted in Government Arts College, Trivandrum for pre-degree

Sucessfully completed B.Sc with Geology as major from University College, Trivandrum

Finally got a M.Sc from Univesity of Kerala in Geology in 1988

Was active in geoscientific debating society at Department of Geology

Pursued a course in Creative Writing in English

Did two years of research in coastal morphodynamics (and still is in the path of a Ph.D....)

Saw a PC in 1987

Was active in student politics (unsucessfully contested for a student membership seat in University Senate)

Was active in many socio-cultural forums

Learned some Yoga, TM, and Palmistry

Learned some traditional martial arts from Masters of Kerala style

Was initiated (not formally) in the path of spirtuality by the Masters in the disiplic sucsession of Lord Chaithnya

My Professional track:

Joined Atomic Minerals Division (now Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, India in 1988.

For the first seven years did detailed uranium exploration (exploratory drilling, detailed mapping)in Northeastern region, Shillong.

Presently working in more or less in the same field in Southern region, Bangalore

Also is in Datacentre, which looks into all the IT needs

My family:

Wife - Sawitha Harikrishnan, Ph.D (Organizational Behavior)

Two daughters - Srilakshmi (11 years) and Meenakshi (9 years)

I hope to peserve a saga of my activities here so that I or someone daring enough can come and ponder over some of my thoughts. No satisfaction guaranteed.