Yes!! Mangal Yaan

Today morning, after a long time, I believe, pretty much all Indians were concentrating on only one news. Normally it happens when Indian team is playing a crucial cricket match, either a world cup final or a match against Pakistan. But this time the event was altogether different.

For  the first time, any country's satellite has reached and successfully has started revolving around any other planet than Earth. Our Mangal Yaan,which was launched almost 300 days back finally reached in the zone of Mars. A set of commands were sent almost 10 days ago, which functioned today and the engines were started. This was done to adjust the path to be followed by the satellite, so that it will start orbiting around Mars in the decided trajectory.

There is a time delay of nearly 24 minutes to know what exactly is happening some millions of kms away.

Our Scientists at ISRO have done it. That is the tag line for today. It is a big boost for all of us. At the same time, we have been economic in doing this. We have spent less money than in the making of movie Gravity and in turn have actually sent a satellite to Mars. This is a big achievement.

After a long time I am feeling proud and feel like sharing and discussing it with any body I meet today. 

I wanted to talk about it and that is why this post. I believe all of you are also sharing the same feeling.

Congratulations to all the involved scientists and also congratulations to all of us.

The picture are taken from: http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/india-to-launch-its-mars-mission-today--isro-calls-it-a-turning-point-for-country/1191063/

The story of Sailing Stones of California

Imagine  a day, you come out of home and see a big rock (immovable by normal humans) lying on your way. And no body knows how it came there. And apparently, it sailed its own way at your doorsteps.

Sounds creepy. But there are some rocks known to move on their own. These rocks are as heavy as 300 kgs and they may cover a distance of upto 250 meters.

These rocks are found in the Mojave desert of  California where the temperature goes upto 57 C on a hot day. In this desert, there is a plain surrounded from all sides by mountains. In this plain, the temperature in the night may go down to sub zero. And this is the key behind the movement of the stones.

Scientists have been trying to understand the mechanism behind the movement of these stones since 1948 when it was first observed. And it took so many years, when just last month, the work of Dr. Lorenz of Hopkins University revealed the mechanism behind this movement.

Apparently after the rain what ever water is remaining on the surface of the soil, it freezes to ice under sub-zero conditions. If this ice is surrounding a stone, then it will be responsible for the movement of the stone. When wind breeze moves over the ice, this ice partially melts and a motion in the direction of the wind is initiated. The friction offered by the surface of the soil is relatively less as compared to the push by the ice layer covering the stone. As a result, the stone is compelled to move in the direction of wind.

Thus, a suitable combination of water on the surface around the stone, a sub zero temperature condition, a slight wind breeze makes it possible for a heavy stone of ~ 300 kgs to move with out any human intervention.

This is an interesting observation solving a mystery revolving around scientists mind for over 70 years.

You may read a lot more in details about sailing stones here and about the answer to the mystery here.

The Flame

Ganapati Bappa Moraya

Since tomorrow a big festival is beginning in India. Especially in Maharashtra. Its called Ganesh Utsav.

Beginning tomorrow, people in Maharashtra brings a statue of Lord Ganesh at their homes or even in their society and worship for period of upto 10 days.

The story behind this festival is less of religion and more of social and political reasons.  In 1893, Lokmanya Gangadhar Tilak started this as an event to bring people together and create awareness among people about the ruling British empire. It received a huge support from people and became an important event. Slowly over the time, it spread all over India. After Independence, the social cause of social development got attached to this festival. But over the time, somehow, the component of social cause has been depleting in the festival. Even the component of religious belief has reduced significantly. At the same time, people are using this festival more like an opportunity to earn money and giving an erratic form to the celebrate. Big processions which went on  for over a day, when all the transportation of the city is crippled is very common. People drink and dance on very loud music without bothering that the loud music may bring heart attack to some one.

There is a heavy load over police in these days. Not to forget, this is a very big chance for terrorist attack since there is a big crowd every where.

But all is not bad. There are some groups which are very famous among people for their activities.

For ex. Lord Ganesh statue by Dagdu Sheth Halwai in Pune. This is one of the most famous Ganesh Statue in Maharashtra. People not just from Maharashtra, but from all over India and even abroad Countries visit Pune to worship.

This group is very famous for the kind of decorations and arrangements they make during this 10 days festival. In the immersion procession which takes place on 10th day, this statue is among the last few ones and all the people actually wait for this statue to participate in the procession. Once this statue passes through, the crowd significantly decreases.

One interesting activity by the group is the "Atharvashirsh Pathan". Atharvashirsha  is a most recited Sanskrit text in Maharashtra. Here, Lord is praised in many different fashions by remembering his strength, wisdom and intelligence. The interesting thing to note here is this Atharvashirsha is recited by hundreds of women in front of Lord Ganesh. This has given an opportunity to bring women power together and brings awareness and change in many different ways of looking towards women. All the women of Pune actively participate in this event where there are hundreds or thousands of women reciting Atharvashirsha together. It is an amazing environment to experience.

One of the Lord Ganesh Statue which is equally famous is the Lal Baug Raja statue in Mumbai. This is the most famous statue in Mumbai and is the centre of attraction for all the people in Mumbai. A rough estimate is that in the 10 days of festival, number of visitors for this statue as big 50 million or even bigger than that.

These coming 10 days are a wonderful time to visit Maharashtra. There is some kind of energy every where. All the people are in festival mood and all evenings are an event. It brings people together, and teach them to celebrate together. At times, as is the basic theme of the festival, it crosses the boundaries of  religion and involves every body irrespective of religion or caste. There is a need to route out some erratic behaviours that got associated with the festival. But it will take its course to undo them.

So, if you happen to be in Maharashtra and more specifically in Pune or Mumbai, do make an appointment with Lord Ganesh and get upbeat.

Bobby Jasoos - An entertaining movie

Now a days I have kind of visiting Cinema Halls for movies.It is painful to spend Rs. 300-400 and end up with disappointment. My last movie in theatres was IronMan-III. That is what almost 2 years back I guess.

Anyway, I happened to catch a recently released movie "Bobby Jasoos" on TV. 

We were apprehensive to watch the movie considering it was recently released and now it is on TV with in few months. But then there was nothing else worth watching on other TV channels, we ended up watching this movie. And for a change, it was a good decision. Some how, the movie managed to kept us connected to it for whole time. Good thing is even whole time was hardly one hr and 30 minutes.

Movie started OK. But the Hyderabadi style started taking grip slowly which it could hold till the end. Well ofcourse there were many visibly lacunae in the movie but still it was entertaining.

For a change there were a few songs in the movie. And even the songs were bad. In stead of regular "Dinkachika" kind of lyrics and music, the songs carried some beautiful words which went well the melodious music.

Vidya Balan really pulled the movie. One doesn't feel, but her acting skills slowly takes hold of your attention. And then there were some strong actors working as side actors. This is one movie which I found clean and cool to watch. Its entertaining and surely is not disappointing. If you haven't watched this movie yet, so find some time and take a look at it. You will surely have a good time for atleast one and a half hour.

Dahi Handi, new rules made and taken back

Just five days back I wrote a post about the new rules brought in for Dahi Handi festival. As per the rules, members involved in pyramid formation should be at least 18 years old and the pyramid can not be of more than 5 steps.

But with in 5 days, Supreme court changed this rule. Now the pyramid is back to 9-10 steps and the members age can not be less than 12 years. For safety purpose, there should be cushions on the floor surrounding the pyramid.

As of now, while I am watching the live telecast on TV, what  I am seeing doesn't really fit in these new rules. There are no cushions I see on the floor. Also, the apex member seems to be in the range of age 10-12 years. For name sake, there is safety belt given to this only member. On Paper, it says that this time there is no cash money prize on any of the Dahi Handis in Mumbai. The program live doesn't show it that way though.

 I believe some reformations will be brought in coming days to make it a safe festival and reducing it from commercial value.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/children-below-12-not-permitted-to-participate-in-dahi-handi-supreme-court-575893

New rules for Dahi Handi: Justified

 One of the big festivals of India is Dahi Handi. Back ground of the festival connects it to Lord Krishna who used to gather his friends and with their help used to steal Makhan (Butter) which used to kept at a height in a pot. To gain access, Krishna's friends would make a pyramid and Krishna will ride over it and get the pot down. Some times, the pot would break and all the butter would spill out.

In today's date, a bigger version of this small story is seen round every corner. This festival is most famous in Mumbai. It has received a professional touch where some businessmen, MLAs, Corporators put this as a challange for different groups called Govinda Pathak to make huge pyramids and then break the pot. There is a big prize for the winner. Sometimes, the prize money goes upto Rupees 65 lakh or say Rs 6.5 million ( 1 $ = ~ Rs. 65)

To make the challenge more difficult, the pot is put at a very big height. At present, the group has to make a pyramid of 9-10 steps. If average height of group members is considered say 5.5 feet then, the pit height would be somewhere around 50 feet from the group. 

To top that, till date the person who breaks the pot is a small kid mostly around 10-12 years old chosen because of his light weight. As far as my knowledge goes, there is a support provided to this person only through a crane. All other group members who make pyramid steps say upto 8 steps  (40 feet) are on their own.

The Govinda pathak agrees to take up this challenge mainly because of the cash money associated with it. This pyramid building is a difficult task and most of the time the attempts fails when one of the group member looses balance. This results in crashing of all the members. Imagine one falling down from 40 feet. On the ground, it is mainly the people who  try to catch them and that is the only way for the safety of the Govinda pathak. It so happens that many of the group members get injured and even sometime die because of the head injury. In short, the festival has become more of a money making businesss than the actual connection with the Lord Krishna.

This year, there was some controversy where allowing small kids in pyramid building was prohibited. A lot of things happen and eventually the court gave orders that the minimum age of the member of Govinda pathak is 18. No body less than this age will be allowed in pyramid building. Also, the maximum height has been reduced to 20 feet. That means the pyramid will be formed maximum of 4-5 steps.

I think this is a welcoming order and it should be strictly followed. One should not forget that the people who actually participate in such activities are those who have to earn their bread daily. These are the people who don't have lots of money in their bank account and if they don't get their daily wages, they might not get food for the day. And many a times, this need is the reason which makes them put their life in danger.

Many of the organizers have opposed this order and are planning to go ahead with their original plan. Because other wise there won't be big gathering to see a small pyramid breaking a pot. Guess, they care more about the gathering and less about the festival and Govinda pathak.