The Dream

For a few precious moments, I was dwelling in the Elysium,
like teardrops in the eyes of time, I think you must have passed me by.

Shattered the walls of dismay laid, And dusts of autumn settled in,
the drops of elixir divine, I think you must have passed me by.

Ecstatic were the winds of spring, And ink of songs had touched my lips,
Cobwebs of light were shining bright, I think you must have passed me by.
                               
                                       -Ankur

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OF PASSPORTS AND VISAS, CHAINS AND BORDERS

We all follow our natural instincts. And when I say 'we', I do not necessarily mean just humans. Everything and anything in the Universe has a natural tendency to behave in a certain way unless forced otherwise. One can say it is a philosophical generalization of the Newton's first law. One such tendency is to compete with each other. For example, most of the games that human beings play - football, cricket, badminton, chess, basketball, tennis etc. involve pitting teams against each other to win the game. They all involve collectively or individually competing against a team or an individual. We barely invented any games where instead of pitting teams against one another, we join together to achieve a common objective. My natural tendency tells me that such a game, if ever invented, will be boring anyway. After all, where's the fun if there is no one to lose?! It can be deduced that one of the natural tendencies is to enjoy winning 'over' others, and not winning 'with' others.

And what is political map of the world if not just another big game like all the others we know? We have divided ourselves in teams, and started calling them our 'nations'. And we have been playing all sorts of games. And interestingly, we also gave these games very interesting names! - "World War I", "World War II", "Gulf Wars"...oh and yes, a very fancy class of games - "Revolutions". We could have saved ourselves from playing all of these wonderful and bloody games if only we had not divided ourselves into teams in the first place. You wouldn't kill Jews if they you didn't consider them to be 'another team'. People in Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima wouldn't have to die if there were not in opposite teams. In fact there is never a right side and a wrong side in a war. There are just my side and your side. You just want your side to kill and win irrespective of the fact that there are innocent people like you in the opposite team too. Nobody cares to ask for a justification. It is just our natural tendency to make teams and compete and that's why we do it. My point is clear.

We do not need teams. We do not need nations. We do not need to pledge loyalty to landmasses which have divided the humans into different teams and have caused bloody games. Of course I sound unpatriotic. I sound unnatural and very revolting. I may not be on the logic's side, but at least I am on God's side - Because you see, God never created an Indian or an American or Chinese. He merely created a Human being who was supposed to do whatever necessary to survive. He was supposed to hunt together in a pack, live together to stay safe and grow together. If we chose to divide and fight amongst ourselves instead of protecting each other from the 'real' problems, it is our weakness, not pride. You and me are a human being first, then perhaps an American or a Korean. I hate to apply for a passport. I hate that I am asked to get a Visa to visit Japan. It makes me feel like I am an untouchable beyond the borders of my country. Like I am a prisoner asking for a parole to visit my brothers, sisters and friends who live in a free world. An average American wastes more food on his or her plate than a Somalian can gather on his plate for an entire day. Why so? Why would my American brothers not share their extra slice of pizza they are willing to throw away in dustbin with my far less fortunate Somalian brother? "Because they are not on my team, they are a different country, I do not have to care".If that brutal mentality is all that is served in the name of Patriotism, I am better off being a Revolutionary. At least I am still a human. 

Everything needs to be redone. Every rule needs to be broken and the society needs to be restructured. If we are to divide ourselves into nations, it should be to make the administration easier. It should be done to make sure that who has a surplus, shall share, not so you can stop me from visiting my friend in North Korea and my sister in Brazil. It should be done to be able to protect each other better, not to sell my oil at a rate beyond your capacity to buy just so I can fill my bulge while you starve. Emailing a Russian friend should not mean conspiring against the United States, And being an Indian should not necessarily mean hating a Chinese or a Pakistani. 

To a better world.          

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Dragon's aggression gone too far? - The Diaoyu Dispute

Can a group of islands, no matter how important, be worth all the trouble China and Japan are getting into? Territorial claims and controversies are nothing new when it comes to China- Be it Philippines, Taiwan, India or Vietnam, the Chinese have always preferred laying claims to trivial pieces of rocks with a pinch of unwarranted aggression added to their taste over the warmth and benefits of cordial relationships with the neighbors. And we all had pretty much gotten used to that now haven’t we? Aggressive patrols, denying visas and releasing intimidating comments were common weapons for Chinese leadership to reinforce their claims on what they consider is theirs by whatever logic that suits them. But the recent move of China, to announce the air defense identification zone over the region encompassing the Diaoyu Islands has packed a new punch in this old game. It’s like a brand new “Warmongering 2.0” with improved aggression promising a far more interesting global response and consequences. It’s important indeed to notice the difference in Chinese stance here.  For example, in Indian context, the Chinese often make inroads into Indian Territory to highlights their claims in regions like daulat beg oldi and aksai chin. But then the Indians launch counter patrols and both sides eventually cool down and go back to the status quo. Same was the story with Japan earlier, the Chinese would sneak peek into the Diaoyu waters when the Japanese were not looking and Japan would do the same, and the same chain of events kept getting repeated with monotonous statements like “China urges Japan to respect China’s sovereignty” etc- without any remarkable escalation.

So what does it tell you? The move tells you about China’s exponentially enhanced confidence in its military capability. A child can tell you that the natural response of Japan will be to reject the restrictions imposed by China through this Air defense zone and they will keep flying their military jets into the controversial airspace. It is very much probable that any military adventure in this region can now quickly escalate into “an act of war”. Let get involved in the hypothetic. If history is any aid, it is quite reasonable to assume that Japan will not be the first one to take any military action. In worst case scenario, the Chinese will shoot down a Japanese surveillance drone or something to which the Japanese will pay back in kind. This is something the Chinese leadership must have already thought about while declaring this air defense zone. Their decision to go ahead with this declaration anyway, shows how confident they are of being able to handle any kind of military aggression in this area. And we have hints in this regard – they displayed their nuclear submarine fleet for the first time in 40 years! The Chinese jets stole the show at Dubai air show. Operating three jets simultaneously from the Air craft carrier Liaoning etc…they have all been subtle hints that the Chinese are confident of their military prowess in the area.

But there’s more to this love story. China is confident of handling Japan alright, but has it considered the presence of Uncle Sam enough? After the World War 2, United States disarmed Japan and prohibited it from keeping its own defense forces, and also signed a document which allowed the United States to maintain military bases all over Japan. After half a century, this treaty has proved to be a boon for the Japan. Japan and United States are closer than ever and external security of Japan is now almost officially the responsibility of Washington itself. Anyway, important point is that, Diaoyu islands are also a part of the region which was vowed to be protected by the Americans under the treaty of 1952. Not only this means that US considers diaoyu islands an integral part of Japan, but it also signifies that any action unilaterally taken by China on diaoyu islands will also be an action directly against the United States. The Eagle has wasted no time in registering firm opposition to this move. Even before the United States policy makers could formally issue statements against the ADIZ set up by China, two B-52 bombers had already flown over the ADIZ without informing Beijing about their presence. South Korean  and Japanese aircrafts followed the act and Japanese coast guard carried on with their usual patrols along the Diaoyu coastline. It will be hard to say if B-52 bombers were flown through the ADIZ merely to send a stern message to the dragon to not cross the line, or if it was done to check any additional deployments and infrastructure put up in place by China to enforce the guidelines of ADIZ.

Conclusion? Perhaps China needs to reconsider its stance. You should play with fire when you know you can handle the heat. Even if China does acquire the islands by force, (well…) it will have to pay the price of upsetting all its neighbours. And ask any five year old boy, is it worth all this trouble? Maybe The Socialists need to see the long term effects of their aggression. They should know that unnecessary quibbling over a small group of rocks is not worth putting the years of hard work in improving the foreign relations into garbage bin. And whoa!...that too when they know that their entire economy is based on trade with the countries they are messing with. I learnt it while playing chess – one wrong move, and the game wraps up even before you know it. 

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VOYAGER I CROSSES SOLAR SYSTEM: The little spacecraft that could

Pasadena: The spacecraft's technology was laughable by today's standards: It carried an 8-track tape recorder and computers with 240,000 times less memory than a low-end iPhone. When it left Earth 36 years ago, it was designed as a four-year mission to Saturn, and everything after that was gravy.

But Voyager I has become - unexpectedly - the Little Spacecraft That Could. On Thursday, scientists declared that it had become the first man-made object to exit the solar system, a breathtaking achievement that NASA could only fantasize about back when it was launched in 1977, the same year that "Star Wars" was released.

"I don't know if it's in the same league as landing on the moon, but it's right up there - 'Star Trek' stuff, for sure," said Donald A. Gurnett, a professor of physics at the University of Iowa and the co-author of a paper published Thursday in the journal Science about Voyager's feat. "I mean, consider the distance. It's hard even for scientists to comprehend."

Even among planetary scientists, who tend to dream large, the idea that something they built could travel so far for so long and pierce the sun's reach is an impressive one. Plenty of telescopes gaze at the far parts of the Milky Way, but Voyager 1 can now touch and feel this unexplored region and send back detailed dispatches. Given the distance, it takes about 17 hours for Voyager's signals to reach NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.

"This is historic stuff, a bit like the first exploration of Earth, and we had to look at the data very, very carefully," said Edward C. Stone, 77, NASA's top Voyager expert, who has been working on the project since 1972.

Ever the stoic scientist, he does get excited about what comes next.

"It's now the start of a whole new mission," he said.

The lonely probe, which is 11.7 billion miles from Earth and hurtling away at 38,000 mph, has long been on the verge of bursting through the heliosphere, a vast, bullet-shaped bubble of particles blown out by the sun. Scientists have spent this year debating whether it had done so, interpreting the data Voyager sent back in different ways.

But now it is official that Voyager 1 passed into the cold, dark and unknown vastness of interstellar space, a place full of dust, plasma and other matter from exploded stars. The article in Science pinpointed a date: Aug. 25, 2012.

"This is the moment we've all been waiting for," Jia-Rui C. Cook, the media liaison at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in an email to a reporter. "I can't even sleep it's so exciting!"

Coincidentally, the same month that Voyager 1 left the solar system, Curiosity, NASA's state-of-the-art rover, landed on Mars and started sending home gorgeous snapshots. Soon afterward, Curiosity's exploration team, some 400 strong, dazzled the world by driving the $2.5 billion robot across a patch of Martian terrain, a feat that turned the Red Bull-chugging engineers and scientists of Building 264 of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus into rock stars.

A spoof video, "We're NASA and We Know It," recorded to the beat of the song "Sexy And I Know It," generated 2.8 million views on YouTube.

Voyager, meanwhile, stopped sending home pictures in 1990, to conserve energy. In its heyday, it pumped out never-before-seen images of Jupiter and Saturn, but lately there has not been much to see.

Voyager's Golden Record: Will be useful in the event when the spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings from people such the Sec-General of the UN and US President and a medley, "Sounds of Earth", that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a collection of music including works by Mozart. 

As the mission lost its sizzle, its 12-person staff was booted from the laboratory's campus and sent to cramped quarters down the street next to a McDonald's. Suzanne R. Dodd, the Voyager project manager, said that when she has attended meetings in Building 264, she has kept a low profile in deference to the Mars team.

"I try to stay out of the elevator and take the stairs," Dodd said. "They're doing important work there, and I'll only slow them down."

Now she and her team seem poised to be back in the spotlight, perhaps for years to come. Stone, vice provost for special projects at the California Institute of Technology and former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, expects Voyager 1 to keep sending back data - with a 23-watt transmitter, about the equivalent of a refrigerator light bulb - until roughly 2025.

Not that the aging spacecraft has made things easy. An instrument that measures the energy of particles in plasma stopped working in 1980. But scientists still have access to a related sensor, a spindly antenna that records electron oscillations in plasma. The catch is that these oscillations don't occur all the time; they typically happen when stirred up by a solar eruption.

Voyager 1's plasma wave antenna picked up audible vibrations in April and May that allowed Gurnett and his colleagues to calculate the density of the plasma around the spacecraft, which would help them determine whether the craft was still in the solar system.

"It was exactly what we expected for interstellar plasma," Gurnett said.

Moreover, by combing through older oscillation data collected by Voyager 1, the team discovered that the edge of the solar system - the threshold that was crossed in late summer of 2012 - was roughly where Gurnett predicted it would be back in 1993 by using different solar storm calculations.

"Am I bragging here? No," he said. "All right. I admit it. It's bragging a little."

As the solar system's edge grew tantalizingly close, NASA asked Dodd and her team to increase the amount of data collection. The problem: 8-track recorders from 1977 are not exactly bursting with extra space. Could she even find anyone who specialized in that piece of recording technology?

"These younger engineers can write a lot of sloppy code, and it doesn't matter, but here, with very limited capacity," said Dodd, "you have to be extremely precise and have a real strategy."

At 52, Dodd is a relative newcomer to Voyager, first working on the mission in 1984, when Voyager 2 - a companion spacecraft also launched in 1977 and still inside the solar system - was headed toward Uranus. But she was able to find her man: Lawrence J. Zottarelli, 77, a retired NASA engineer. He came up with a solution. But would it work?

Zottarelli waited at Voyager mission control one afternoon last month to find out. The first of the newly programmed data dumps was set to come down. Dodd, Stone and Zottarelli watched two old Sun Microsystems computers like children watching for a chick to peck through an egg.

"Nine, eight, seven," Stone counted down.

"Everything's fine," said Zottarelli, flashing a thumbs up and hiking up his trousers. "You're on your own now."

The relief was written all over Dodd's face, too. "It's not easy flying an old spacecraft," she said.

Her eyes moved to Stone, who was peering at a computer through his trifocals.

"There are lots of old missions," he responded, a sly smile taking over his face. "But not many are doing exciting new things."

© 2013, The New York Times News Service

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Mumbai: City Where Dreams Come True

Mumbai is India's financial capital, but this doesn't even begin to describe it. It is the city where dreams come true - it is a city of opportunities. It doesn't matter what your dream is, Mumbai will have something to offer towards its realization. If you want to be a famous actor, Mumbai is the home of Bollywood, if you want to be an entrepreneur, Mumbai has a wonderful business atmosphere, and if your dream is simply to enjoy life at a pace you like - slow or fast, Mumbai is still the way to go. There are countless stories of people rising up from its slums to become some of the most influential people in their fields. From being home to Asia's largest slum to being world's fastest growing cities, Mumbai can show you every colour. Welcome to my India's beloved city - the city where dreams come true. 

Gateway of India(above): Mumbai's most famous monument, this is the starting point for most tourists who want to explore the city. It was built as a triumphal arch to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary, complete with four turrets and intricate latticework carved into the yellow basalt stone. Ironically, when the Raj ended in 1947, this colonial symbol also became a sort of epitaph: the last of the British ships that set sail for England left from the Gateway. Today this symbol of colonialism has got Indianised, drawing droves of local tourists and citizens. Behind the arch, there are steps leading down to the water. Here, you can get onto one of the bobbing little motor launches, for a short cruise through Mumbai's splendid natural harbour.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus: Shown above is the Historical train station in Mumbai, and also the largest in the city. 

The city's architecture was largely influenced by the British and to an extent, by the Portuguese during the 18th and early 19th centuries and much of it has been preserved even till date. Its not very uncommon to find a beautiful cream coloured building with English architecture amidst a contemporary urban setting. 

The city's skyline is changing fast. Shown here is the Arabian sea coastline of Mumbai with upcoming skyscrapers in the background. Many super tall structures like the Palais Royale and World One are in advanced phases of construction. Many of these buildings when complete, will set new records.

Four Seasons Hotel with under construction 'Palais Royale' in the background.

Something unique to Mumbai is the co-existence of slums and skyscrapers together. On one hand it amazes me to think how two economically opposite sections of society exist in such proximity to each other with no egos hurt, and on the other hand its equally tragic to see how uneven the distribution of wealth here is. 

      

  

Promising downtown and business center of Mumbai.

Mahalaxmi Race Course



The Imperial Towers (above) which were until recently India's tallest buildings with 240 meters from ground to antennae. 

Palais Royale (above): Currently the tallest building in Mumbai and in India running 320 meters vertically.

Ah! A view from India's...oops, Asia's largest slum - Dharavi. I take pride in introducing it because people here might be poor, but they are a hard working class. They are not beggars, they are people running small businesses many of which have become crucial to this city's growth. Goods made here are exported all over the world with the total turn over expected at 500 million dollars.

   

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