Lovely, looking at Shubanshu Shukla in Space. A step forward in the direction of India’s manned missions in future.
Category: Science Engineering Technology
Welcome back Sunita!
Kudos to NASA and SpaceX for making what almost seemed impossible and forgotten, possible. Watched Sunita Williams and other astronauts alight from SpaceX Dragon live in You tube. What a moment! Congratulations to all! Well done America, this is why you are No.1. Sunita is back on earth after spending a whopping 286 days in space.
India’s Chandrayaan 3 finds MORE WATER on the Moon.
So India goes down the history as the first nation on earth to document the presence of water on Moon surface. Thank you ISRO!
ISRO’ SpaDex completes docking satellites in the space.
ISRO achieved another milestone making India the fourth country in the world after the US, Russia and China, docking satellites in the space. Future manned missions to the space and setting up of India’s own international space station are incumbent upon this strategic development.
Congratulations to Bharat! Congratulations ISRO! Jai Hind!
Airport Showcasing: Building strong, Basement weak!
Airports need to be utility oriented, user friendly, serving the purpose. Nothing more nothing less. Airports are not a nation’s showcase.
Always wanted to record this about airports. We are having upgrades even in India. Chennai domestic and international got a facelift just recently. Far more efficient now and spacious. Quicker services. Apart from that I don’t look forward to aesthetics in airports. If something mild and extra is there conspicuously, its fine. Let us remember that airports need not have to be a statement. The promise lies outside the airport.
As I take my connecting flights all around Middle east, I get bedazzled by the expansion and luxury of the airports at Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Dubai etc. One word that comes to my mind is: unnecessary. Airports need to be functional basically that’s all. You don’t have to showcase your airports to world connoisseurs so forcefully trying to market your country. The green Changi airport at Singapore etc., are fine. May be the smaller nations with just a single or double airports feel the need to identify themselves to the world. With nearly 500 airports, a nation like India can hardly afford that.
Besides, after seeing the US airports stripped to the basics, I am all admiration for their business mind. There is NOT a single piece of art in them! No posh Chanel and Estee Lauder and other customs duty free shops. May be one or two maximum in rare few. Only the cafes and washrooms tucked back to back after every gate. The American airports handle heavy traffic flow compared to rest of the world. I like their connectivity within airport terminals using airlinks such as shuttle buses/trains. The shuttles give you an idea of the size of the airports and the volume of trade handled by them. One thing about them: noway you are made to climb stairs lugging your cabin bag. All the growth stories of America lie outside the airports. They leave it to you to find about their glory by yourselves than try trusting their supremacy on you right in the airport. There is no gloating commercial in the American airlines flights either telling you where to shop and how to relax on holiday in the city you are disembarking. MOST IMPORTANTLY NO RELIGIOUS PRAYER. I like even their short snacks of pretzels, biscuits and cranberry/apple juice with water/beer for shorter flights. Nothing fancy. I am reminded of the operational efficacy on shoestring budgets cutting costs when things are kept bare minimum. Sprawling airports with multiple terminals seeing a thousand flights take off and land with million footfalls every single day. Immigrations. Security. All handled quietly and efficiently.
Airports need not have to be swanky at all. They need to be super functional that’s all. They need to cater to the transit passengers with seamless efficiency. Airports need not have to become advertisement for your home country. AIRPORTS ARE NOT A COUNTRY’S IDENTITY. Let the world discover you. I must say I enjoy the comforts of the transit airports. I fly a little around. My flying years may be drawing to a close slowly. But I am not the one to judge a country looking at their airport. The covid brought to end the on-plane marketing of luxury brands including those such as Swiss watches and Bvlgari etc., advertised in glossy inflight magazines that used to be so common until very recently. I really loved those mags and miss them! I noticed something else: gone are the days of butter and cheese going with bread! Governments can spend on their airline food instead of splurging on their airports.
I look forward to excellent washroom facilities in airport, charging points and if possible lounges, nothing more in airports. Once was stuck in Dxb (Dubai) airport for 12 hours. I was lucky it was Dubai airport as I could survive within airport and afford opting out of a night’s stay in a five star hotel at the expense of the airline. In last couple of years, using the lounges that I find are able to keep me less tired. One of the reasons for travel tiredness as I realize is that, eating less by way of airline food. I have a good appetite. So the lounge food completes my platter by supplementing to the airline food that is meagre. I have also made it a point these days to keep myself well hydrated during my travel times be it train or air travel. I therefore have regained strength on landing that I used to miss in the earlier years because I used to keep my fluid intake minimum. I used to hold my bladder. No more I do that. I have plenty of fluids, don’t shy about using the washrooms at regular intervals, eat sumptuously including at the lounge and eat again on landing on way home (if its Doha). That practically restores my energy levels. I recover fast from the flying sickness or tiredness, typical with many of us. More fluids most importantly. No holding bladder skipping fluids.
Another thing about the rated five star airports is that, sometimes the aprons are not ready in them when flights land early/later than scheduled time. They make you board their shuttles lugging your cabin bags climbing down steel stairs on foot from the planes after a long tiring journey. Once someone who wanted a wheelchair even questioned the cabin staff about the inconvenience. The steward then offered to carry their bags down the steel staircase to the waiting shuttle bus. The aero bridges are the most convenient way to alight from a flight for tired passengers. It is a must for wheelchair users. In what way are these so-called five star airports disabled-friend when you make senior passengers exit from flight down steel stairs carrying their bags. Then what is the point in boasting of world class airports. At the end of the day, passengers are left in the lurch when you don’t have ready aprons for incoming flights. Airports have to simply build as many aprons that’s all. If you are a rated airport, that is the least passengers may expect of you. I don’t know how airports get rated. But I can imagine, it is not a fair or free method.
Chennai International may be moving to somewhere 70 km away within next ten years. Looking forward to dedicated expressways like they have in Hyderabad – like a bubble – dedicated totally to airport traffic. All these years we had the luxury of flying out of the city from the heart of the city. In our senior years, we will have to travel a bit to board a flight out of Chennai. But its okay, the city is expanding beyond our imagination. Energy (from solar power) and services efficient: this is what I want from new Chennai international. Not chandeliers and duty free shopping.
In Tamil we say, துடைப்பக்கட்டைக்கு பட்டுகுஞ்சலம். Really gaudy airports with uncalled for luxury remind me of this! Just be travel efficient, that is enough. Airports are not our national museums. Or our barometer to measure culture and economy. Airports are just airports. May our airports be slick and efficient handling business and air travel business alone. The rest of the paraphernalia can stay away.
Project Gaganyaan.
ISRO showcased the four Bharatiya astronauts who will be part of India’s Gaganyaan in near future.
Remember India has lost over 2500 scientists and researchers who chose to live and work in the country rather than migrate to America, in the last six to seven decades. They met with mysterious deaths. If we succeed as a nation despite these sabotages, it is a marvel.
Its premature to delve into the subject at this stage. Let us catch up when things heat up. Winding up the post with best wishes to the four astronauts. Jai Hind!
Findings from Chandrayaan 3
Pragyan the probe from Vikram lander has so far discovered oxygen, aluminium, titanium and sulphur besides other minerals on the moon’s surface closer to the south pole. India’s Chandrayaan 3 rover also has registered seismic activities (natural vibrations) in the lunar surface. As the rover has been put to sleep along with the lander during the moon’s night time, hopes are kept alive for the rover to wake up exactly after the 14 day interval, during the lunar day when its batteries can get charged from the solar power. A single lunar daytime typically lasts 14 earth days and a night in the moon extends to 14 earth days as well. Vikram also took a leap and soft landed again near the south pole, the darker side of the moon which is a remarkable feat for ISRO.
This page shall be updated when Pragyan and Lander wake up after their siesta and set on to discover water ice, essential for human colony at a future date in the moon.
The Shiv Shakthi Point On the Moon
India named the landing spot of the Pragyan probe/Vikram lander from Chandrayaan 3 Lunar Mission as the ‘Shiv Shakthi’ point – after the father and mother of the Universe, Lord Shiva and Shakthi. There is no Hindu dharma without Shakthi, the power. India became the first country in the world to softland/touch down in the darker side of the moon this August 23, 2023, which means India/Indians have been to that part of space where NO OTHER NATION on earth has ever had access to. Shakthi is the kinetic energy. Shiva is static. Together they enable the function or activity. India also named the Indian territory of Antarctica ‘Dhakshina Gangotri’ decades earlier. The ISRO chief Dr Somnath says, its the prerogative of the prime minister to name the spot in his capacity and he is just a scientist. Very mature answer. Similarly someone asked world No.2 and runner-up in Chess world cup Praggnanandhaa about the vibhuthi mark in his forehead. Just 18, he gave a very diplomatic reply that he did what his mother wanted him to do. Faith is someone’s private affair. We Hindus have every right to practise our faith the way we want to. If Mary could get impregnated by IVF (or whoever) over two thousand years back and you have the gall to call it ‘immaculate conception’ and if you cannot stop dreaming of the seventy two virgins waiting for you on the other side of the world, you have no right to comment on anything Hindu.
Never sent my son to a school or college exam without the mark of vibhuthi on his forehead. My father, grandfathers and uncles could never be seen without the vibhuthi ash mark on their foreheads. Some men sport a ‘naamam’ – mostly the vaishnavites but there were grandfathers in our family who sported the naamam as well. In Kerala, men sport even the sandal paste (chandan). Vibhuthi is the ash mark of Lord Shiva. A bindi/vibhuthi is part and parcel of our Hindu identity. It is offered in all temples where we wear it in our forehead with reference and we also have it at home in our puja. Men wear it in forehead after shower. I anoint kumkum (vermilion) in my forehead in the middle east and in India but not in America because America is full of racist bigots and hate crimes. Its safer to be seen a practising Hindu in the middle east. What an irony! Just like the bombers of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Nazis were never called terrorists!
Every Indian satellite is launched only after heartiest Pujas are performed at the most ancient temples of India for the success of the space missions. After the successes, the gods and goddesses are also thanked for their benevolence.
Shivashakthi: Shiva plus Shakthi: Hindus do not believe in an all male god. Brahman for Shakthi followers is Shakthi. We believe the ultimate creator of the universe to be the SHE. This is the reason for most of us Hindus not identifying with Islam or Christianity: because God for us first and foremost is a SHE.
I want to close the post with the beautiful Shivashakthi reference in Soundarya Lahari – partly composed by Lord Shiva Himself we believe and then taken over from 42 to 100th stanza by Shankaracharya in the 7th century CE. That is the antiquity of Bharat, the Hindu country.
How NASA took credit for ISRO’s discovery of water on Moon.
BBC and other foreign media reports sound as if this is India’s first moon mission. India landed in the moon in the year 2009 with Chandrayaan 1 when ISRO probe found proof of water in the lunar surface. So far three other nations too have landed only on the bright side or the easy side of the moon. 2019 was Chandrayaan 2 in south pole when Vikram lander crashed. Chandrayaan 3 now successfully rolled out the desi probe Pragyan out of Vikram lander near the south pole which is the dark side of the moon finally on Aug 23, 2023. India must go on and help smaller nations with scientific temperament achieve their space goals and open up the space. There are many truly aspiring world nations without facilities who when given impetus can go on a long way in achieving solidly when it comes to science & technology. Asian nations are truly happy for India. Putting aside our differences, every country in the world applauded India except of course,… you know who… who did it grudgingly. BBC went to the extent of asking stoppage of any aid to India when India actually is a nation that REFUSES aid even for natural calamities such as earthquakes etc. As a policy India has not taken aid for a long time now. We give aid, we don’t take aid. WE are the world’s fourth largest economy. In fact, we can give aid to UK so that more miserable Brits can be put on welfare.
India first nation in the world to land on south pole of the moon.
Watching live the softlanding of Chandrayaan 3, India’s third lunar mission on the dark side of the moon – the south pole beamed live from ISRO, I couldn’t help weeping in quiet happiness. Its 5.30 in Tucson, the US. India creates history and becomes the first nation in the world to softland/touch down in the south pole of the moon, so far not accessed by NASA or other space agencies. India is also only the fourth nation in the world to have successful lunar missions. After our grand success in Maiden Mars Mission, Chandrayaan 3 comes as shot in the arm for ISRO scientists. Good to see Chandrayaan 2 still alive and giving a warm welcome to Chandrayaan 3! What a proud moment! Jai Hind! Jai Bharat! Congratulations India and hearty congratulations to entire ISRO team both at Sriharikota, the launching pad and also at Bangalore. Thank you the scientific community of India!
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