A date with the stars

 

February 28 is celebrated as the “National Science Day” in India! This is to commemorate the discovery of the “Raman effect” by Sir C.V. Raman on 28 February 1928. The 01-March-13 newspapers carried a tiny news article on this, the larger sections being devoted to the Railway and Union Budget news. After all in a nation of a billion people and its billion challenges, science often takes a backseat.

However, the last weekend of February, I had a close brush with science like no other. My father who was formerly a senior scientist at Indian Institute of Astrophysics had promised a family outing to the IIA VBO Observatory at Kavalur, near Vanaimbady, TN located at a distance of 170Km from Bangalore. The observatory is devoted to studies in inter-stellar and deep-galactic research and studying of stellar activity and star’s life cycle. 

We started early on Saturday morning, and were pleasantly surprised by a thick mist that engulfed the empty streets, e.s.p the Electronics City expressway, which presented an eerie sight. The ride from Bangalore to Vaniambady is effortless, the roads are wonderfully maintained, but multiple toll-booths on the route play spoilsport. However when we reached the IIA campus, its well maintained lawns and office buildings was a welcome sight.

And not to forget the awesome views of the Telescope buildings. The observatory houses Asia’s largest optical telescope (2.3m lens!!) and many other smaller telescopes. The Kavlur observatory started operation in late 1970’s and the sleepy and quiet town offers clear skies and ideal conditions during much of the year, making it an apt site for observing the night sky for deep space research. 

Its love at the first sight , the first look at the 2.3m telescope building! The building not only houses the gigantic telescope, but also electronics labs, optical labs, control rooms, libraries and "guest-rooms” for the scientists to stay after a night long ‘observation’ slot. This 2.3m (90inch) telescope is fully “Made In India” and commissioned in 1986 by the then P.M. Rajiv Gandhi.

    

We stayed at the 1m (40inch) telescope which first started operation in 1972 and has been the main stay of extensive scientific research in the field of astrophysics in the last 40years in India. The beautiful structure is an imposing sight.

Close up of the dome that houses the telescope:

And lo the actual 1m telescope itself

We spent the evening gazing at the night sky, and thousands of bright twinkling stars greeted us on a dark clear sky. The observatory campus and surroundings are designed to reduce lighting in the buildings (by the usage of shades etc.) which can impact the sensitive instruments. All in all, one gets the eerie feeling of walking around Jurassic Park! The Observatory is located in a jungle area and pythons, cobras, deer and elephants are visitors to the campus too, keeping the scientists in “lively” company. Of late, the electrified fencing keeps some of these unwanted visitors outside the gate!

We viewed Jupiter, Moon and Sirius (brightest star in the night sky) using the telescope. The gas bands in the Jupiter’s atmosphere, its 4 closest satellites, craters on the Moon could all be very clearly seen. Its hard to imagine how the clean disk of the moon when viewed directly turns out  to be a scarred and cratered surface when viewed with a telescope (almost resembles a golf ball!)

After an evening in the company of “stars” we departed for Bangalore. As i sat in the office bus on Monday morning, i could not help but think how our daily life revolves around bugs, meeting, traffic-jams and other little worldly worries when a fantastic universe exists right above holding billions of stars, galaxies, and even possibly intelligent life outside!. Its creepy even to think that they might just be observing us on Earth using advanced high resolution telescopes ! 

Reading is everyone’s pastime (really???!!!)

 

Not every one falls in love with reading. Some of us are just born to read. Its something in the head really. The contraction of the brain nerve cells, the buildup of anxiety, that congestive feeling in the chest area and general restlessness when one is the midst of a gripping novel can only best be explained by the ‘READER’. I know it, since i am an avid reader too.

The habit was actually born at school. I wanted to finish everything in the school library before i finished class10 and the library no longer became accessible. If the book was good, i couldn't put it down till i finished it. Come what may – exams,rains,sunshine, dad/mom shouting from across the hall. No power in the world can separate me from a good book. There are others (like my brother) who can read books at their convenience, take breaks in between, socialize and get back to the book only when they find the time. My wife’s a reader too. But she can pick up a really exciting and suspense filled book and stop midway, having feeling bored! My God!

Anyway, i returned to reading after a long gap. Many years to be precise. And that happened quite accidently. A “gift card” from  a leading book store can be used in only one sane way – buy books from the same store. I am an old fan of Alistair McLean. It isn’t therefore surprising that i picked up two books.

I’d read many of Alistair McLean’s books earlier – can’t remember their names now, let alone their plot. Thee two however standout :

“San Andreas”

“Night Without End” (one of the better books from McLean)

Now adding two more to this list :

“Bear Island” (again a good book. McLean seems to enjoy weaving his story lines around cold regions – artic, greenland and so on). This one’s based on ‘Bear Island’ and makes for a  delightful read. McLean’s language is impeccable. Fluent and glossed with all the fancy words from the Queens English language.  I should’ve laid hands on these while at school. Would've definitely improved my language and grammar.

One more “The Golden Gate” (a perfectly boring book. This must’ve made a lot of sense  in the 1970’s or 80’s) The main plot is about kidnapping the US President, and anyone reading this book in the 20century will laugh out aloud the the technique. You cannot even dream of kidnapping the US president in the ways described

Well that’s not quite all. My brother and myself have taken a liking to Sidney Sheldon books now. I just finished one in flat two and a half days, a well written thriller (but felt a little dragging towards the end) The murderer is easily guessable and the story drags on and on pat this stage with no new insight to offer.

Angel of the Dark:

 

Well for the moment my book shelf’s full :

And a 3book box set of… Lord of the Rings! I’ve watched the movies, always wanted to read the books sometime:

(all pictures from the internet)

Wild Wild - east!!

27/06/2009: [3.00am]

The alarm buzzes waking me and Rj. We just have about 50mins to get to the ready, as flight is to Kolkotta is scheduled at 6.05am. Frenzied preparation. Just before we leave I grap Renjiths old Christ College handbook, to jot down the memoirs.
At 4.00 am Saji’s Amby draws up in front of the house (sigh of relief, it doesn’t look like mr. Chandran’s ramshackle piece). We set off towards the airport at 4.09am or so. The route we take is MGRoad-Mekhri Circle etc. 15 mins later we are on Cubbon road!
Don’t remember much of the journey, we covered ~45km in 50 mins in the trip to the airport. Beautiful roads. The BAIL is truly a world class airport [as we would discover later in comparison to the Kolkotta airport]. The main attractions being the Kingfisher crew, coffee shops and the spot clean and spacious surroundings. We did see the old Malayalam movie actor (the guy who played second fiddle to mohanlal –neelakandan)
Mum gives the last minute scare as she disappears when the flight boarding has started.
We enter the aeroplane in an aero bridge. The plane is neat and FULL!!. Middle aged air hostesses move around rather sluggishly. Three of us mum, renjith and me are in the same row, dad sits on the parallel column of seats. I take a veg-meal for breakfast. Mum and Rj take non-veg (which has yesterdays omelette and two sausages.) My stomach’s aching already, and I feel glad on eating the veg: idli-semia upma-bread. As we near landing, the scenery below is surprisingly green and wet (indicating heavy rains recently) plenty of rivers/waterways can be seen too.
We land at NSCBose airport at Kt at 8.30 am or so.
Two rickety old air India buses drop us from the A320 to the airport arrival lounge.
The toilets (and the airport here) make me feel that I am at shivajinagar bus stand.
The next flight’s at 2.05pm and we have a kewl 4hrs at the airport.
Theres a call from Sean, and I return the call. Seeing a chinki sitting next to Rj read a book, I march into a book store and buy a Rs395 Jason Bourne book and settle to read it.
Meanwhile ms kf-lean is strolling around

~12.30 we check into the departure terminal of the same airport. (quite crowded). Ms yellow and her father sit opposite us. Cute. After security check we settle at the departure lounge. Ms violet’s reading a book too?
AC buses ferry us to a new looking A320 to BGD. Air hostesses: mrs plump, mrs tall scurry around. The flight is not full and theres plenty of space. Travel from 1-05 to ~2-15pm. As we near the BGD airport, greenery again!. Temp outside the plane is >30C and the heat hits us hard. A tractor mounted stairway arrives!
It’s a loooong walk to the airport terminal. A little distance up ahead, a Pawan Hans helicopter’s waiting to take off (my first sight of a helicopter take off.) yellow and violet are standing close!
At a certain distance away is an IL76 parked and I can also see 3 military helicopters land.
Immediately on entering the arrival terminal a smiling B uncle welcomes us, papa jokes that his bald head shone/reflected bright light to lead us to him. yellow and violet wait to collect their luggage and we head out.

We head home in the zen, ac at level 4 takes considerable time to cool the hot car interiors. BGD outside the airport is lush green, tea estates and later military campuses come into view. En route we see a township (still under construction) that has a huge mall (city centre).
Many nepali origin- or nepali looking boys, girls, men and women around. We reach home before 4.pm, and A aunty has a lavish spread on the lunch table. My stomach’s still troubling and so I have very little. Sh and Gl giggle around, pleasantly delighted to see all of us.
At abt 5, me and B head out to the Baazar to buy carom pawns. Man the bazaar!, cudnt bring myself to leave the place.
Papa suggests that we head to the best cloth shop in order to buy clothes for Gl/sh, god only knows why/how we decided on Vishal megamart. B drops us there first and after initial hesitation and with some coaxing Gl/sh buy clothes. Papa’s given me the money and I take the credit for buying all this.

B drops us at BigBazaar/Cosmos after this and went back to fetch the others. It’s a big and beautiful mall, not complete yet though. And no crowds! I smartly suggest going to the gaming arcade, instead of e-zone that Gl so badly wanted to show us. Armed with a preloaded 200buks card, we try bowling/car racing/table foosball/basketball. Thoroughly enjoyable.
We see the others outside BigB store, B goes to drop them home first and we hang around the mal same more time, looking/gazing/gaping.

B comes in at around 10, we drive towards the Don BosCo school, and return- I ride the car on the way back homeJ. At home preparations are done for the journey to GTok the next day. We’re all tired and settle to sleep. Me Rj and Gl in the biggest bedroom.


28/06/2009: [7.00am]

I wake up at about 7am and head to the terrace to meet B and Sh and Rj. The water tank is being filled up and they are keeping watch. We chat with a neighbour on the building’s roof (and he says “acha nepu??!!!” – he was asking if I was B’s nephew!!!)
Dosa for breakfast (I managed two), the ragged and worn tavera that would take us to Gtk arrived at around 8.30am?

We start off with me/Rj/Gl in te behind seat along with the bags, mummy/A/sh in the middle row ad papa and B up in the front next to the driver. The Driver rides at a constant and moderate speed throughout. We cross BigB and go thru a protected forest.
The scenery and the views that surround us on the way to gtk is breathtaking! But the journey is arduous and sickening. Mummy pukes twice, the curvy and winding roads having taken the toll. During one of these breaks theres swapping of seating places. Me and Rj move up front, papa/B take our places behind. I doze, on and off.
Reached our room by >12.00pm. the 3 rooms are clean and airy, but no fan!! (we would later realize that this was not necessary!).
We head out to have lunch, but that turned out to be a long and gruelling walk in the hot sun. papa wudnt enter unknown/empty restaurants. Finally papa/B head out on a recon mission to a hotel which B and family had visited on their last visit. i spot an exhibition (national gtk summer exhibition) and see lotsa people head out of the building. Theres also a theatre showing Terminator-salvation which just released on the 26th. Me and Rj debate on whether we should see the movie here in GTK.
Papa and B return and we finally head up a wide and large stairway with hawkers and small stores doting both its sides. They sell everything from clothing to other utility items here. At the top this leads to MG marg (mg road!)

Surprise! Mg marg is a tiled road and off limits to vehicles. Colourful and neat shops line up on both sides and there are seats in the middle on the road.
We have lunch at parivar hotel (veg- plain nan with paneer chilli and malai kofta) I keep the meal light, the stomach’s still troublesome.

After lunch B/papa/mum/sh settle down on a seat on mg marg. The others, head to a gift store, buy UNO cards in the hope of playing it back in the room. We stroll around the length of the road, climb an over bridge, take pictures and join the rest of the gang. We take the same route back to the ‘highway’ hotel and are dog tired. Me/Rj/Gl settle into room2 and watch golmal returns and I start up with Bourne too. But feeling very tired, we drift off into sleep and wake up only at 5. We chat with the others and head out to dinner – plan is to go back to the same place that we had lunch. Us four head up fast and ahead only to be called back bcoz dad found another hotel nearby. All of us order chowmein. (actually veg noodles and nothing else), on the way back Rj’s forgotten the camera and thank god for the sincere Sikkimese people, on guy was actually walking towards us with the cam!
We retire for the night. I sleep around 1 am?



29/06/2009: [8.00am]

Loud banging on the door. ‘excuse me sir!!’ the hotel boy has brought tea. The original plan was that we vacate the hotel in the morning, head to siliguri and go go-karting!
But constant bickerings on not having done anything in gtk reaches papa and he finally assents to visiting couple of places in and around gtk.
Breakfast is the memorable brad toast J. My best meal so far- nothing can go wrong with this.
We hire two omni’s and head out to visit a monastery and a waterfall. Ours is driven by MJ J. It’s a treacherous ride to the monastery. Potholed and winding roads made this a completely unmemorable journey.
The monastery itself is a beautiful place, huge and clean. On the drivers advice we rotate the mini pillars at the entrance. But after doing this some 50 times its not fun anymore L
We take pictures inside the compound. People are seen attempting to throw coins onto the flattened top of a tall pillar. Not sure how many of them succeeded. Gl/sh/Rj and me head into the inner temple. We see a very silent and peaceful hall that has small tables and texts laid on them. Three huge statues are also in the room. We take turns to take pictures with a young monk. And head back to the taxis.
We shortly reach back at the waterfall. A well maintained and kept garden surround what can otherwise be mistaken for water falling from a small height. We leave soon.
Lunch- we have it at the same hotel as previous night’s dinner. Roti’s and paneer butter masala for everyone.
Its time to bid adieu to gtk. We hire 2 taxis to the taxi stand at gtk border. Surprisingly our driver is MJ again.
It’s a tavera again to goto siliguri. But this is a new vehicle and does not stink.
We start at abt 3.00pm.
The journey back is quiet and I slept most of the time- banging my head against the side of the car most of the time.

Tired, we reach home at about 7.30, two of B’s old students have come to see him – one an engr and another medical student.
We freshen up and me/rj/papa/gl and B head to Mintri’s house for a visit. an old fashioned mansion with 2 servants. Snacks were served in precisely same order as Gl had earlier warned us about.
We reach home by 9.00pm and have a light meal. B serves us a glass of beer after this!!.

Finally at about 12.00 am we sleep, Gl having given us a through insight into our other ‘cousins’ –notably joji and raneesh.


30/06/2009: [8.15am]

Nothing much, its going to be goodbye to siliguri today. B/Rj/Gl/me haed out on an early morning shopping. The drive takes us through narrow streets of Siliguri, mangoes, milk, ice cream bought. Mummy prepared upma for breakfast. And we settle to watch Malayalam movie Goal- time pass movie. That ate up my time till 11.00am
Quick bath, lunch and we are ready to go.
B heads out to call a taxi, promising to be back by 12.45pm.
But by 12.45pm theres no sign of the taxi or B and this has papa worried! We bring down the luggage till the gate and wait up. Soon a bright red omni pulls up, we load the luggage and Rj/Gl/Sh/ and me in the front head off towards the airport (otheres following in the zen)
Mid way the driver stops and gets out with a bottle in hand. Man – I see the fuel gauge shows ‘E’!! shit.
But we manage to reach the airport without any incident. Its already 1.30 on my watch. Flight’s at ETD 2.40pm. B’s car soon follows. We rush in for check in.
B and family join in till the departure zone with visitor passes.
A few departing snaps and we head towards security check up. A long line awaits. 2.30 we are done with security check, but mine and Rj’s bags ‘need extra check’ god knows for what. We open up and display the contents – including the spray which the security guy asks to spray!!
Finally done, but wheres mummy??!!!! Another heart break moment.
We finaly rush out, mummy’s actually heading to the plane already. We get into the plane and seconds later the back door’s shut. Passengers come along thru the front door alter too.
Mrs plump is here!! Air hostess again!
Flight finally starts at about 3.00pm on my watch, and I settle into reading Jason Bourne.

As we reach Kolkotta, seat belt sign goes on and for good reason, the plane’s bouncing up and dow, each of them worse than the previous shake. Though this seemed okay at first, as the jolts got more violent- I got scared. Mum/papa in the seat behind us are sitting quietly too. The jolts and shakes last till we hit the ground- fully reflected by the little boy sitting next to us who started clapping and laughing!

Heavy rain outside the plane at the airport.
Back at Cal airport I spot ms kingfisher again.
All of us have thick coffee at a Nescafe outlet. I am still buried in Bourne.
We shortly head to the security check in. theres a long line and having learnt our lesson well at BGD, we started in the line. Check is a low key affair- no issues. We wait up another hour or so at the departure lounge. The cramped lounge has no 4 seats free together for the taking. So we all split up. I am still buried in Bourne. J

Flight starts at about 6.30 pm (10-15 mins late) its raining outside still. It’s a new A320 and boy mrs plump is the air hostess again L!! On the speakers we hear that the flight captain is Nagraj. Me and Rj exchange smiles- nagraj is a KK kannadiga name J -also we are advised to intermittently fasten the seatbelts. The plane passes through patches of turbulent weather causing jolts, shakes and turns.
Food is served in between- my veg meal was a wrong choice- clearly because Rj and mum enjoyed a good meal and I was left with a bad taste in my mouth.

By 8-45 we were at BIAL. Wah! The airport shone. We walked out of the plane towards the exit in an aero-bridge. Saji picks us up at about 9.00pm in the dear old amby and we head home.

For most part of the car journey home, I am asleep. We reach home at about 10.pm.
After the unpacking theres a scare of having lost the camera. But it turned out to be a false alsrm. Finally at round 11pm, I tuck into my bed and am fast asleep in no time.

What a short yet frentic and fantabulous trip! Memorable indeed,