Books in Kilograms

Stationery, Grocery, Vegetables and fruits, Shoes, electronic goods are sold differently. Stationery is sold in numbers or dozens or pairs (all in close relationship with numbers), Grocery in weight, Vegetables in weight and fruits in numbers and dozens. Shoes are sold in pairs and electronic goods in numbers. All these goods are consumer usable, food to eat or shoes to wear or a television to entertain. There are standards of weights and measure that a country approves and others like a dozen or pair can be known out of common sense.

I am trying to disembark on something that appeared in a newspaper advertisement which sprang out from my heart a cry that will reach all those connoisseurs who line up books neatly in their bookshelves in the studio. All those aficionado who climb stairs of libraries and wade through innumerable books standing between rows and long rows of cabinets. The books that have history, the books that have science, that have mystery and those longings lovers may have celebrated and that rocket technology that may have taken man to the moon or mars.

How could anybody think of selling books in kilograms! Textbooks, novels, porn, history, science cannot be weighed on the same scale. There would be a day when a painting could be sold in kilogram, when a pashmina would be sold by weight!!

Aha..

Space Exploration..Benefits

Some people thoughtlessly keep asking the purpose of space exploration and the billions of dollars spent by NASA, ESA, ISRO, Russian, Chinese and Japanese space agencies. Besides what we would gain if man finds an organism on Mars and if SETI can find out the possibility of planets with habitation some of the minor benefits are mentioned below......these are tips of the iceberg examples.

*Worms on ISS offer clues to keep astronauts healthy on space trips and offer solution to osteoporosis patients on earth
*How did the robotic missions opportunity or spirit and now Curiosity collect samples on Mars. Their robotic arms stretched, bent at their elbows and then sank onto the Martian regolith and drilled and scooped samples back. This technology is being used to carry out accurate brain surgeries where our hands and arms are flexible and inaccurate and risky.

*ISS as ‘global observation and diagnostic centre’. ISS monitors weather, earthquakes, tsunamis and keeps minute eyes on movement of traffic on land and sea. It thus is capable of giving advanced warning signs and clear pictures of coral reefs and offers sharp images.

*As many as 1.7 million students questioned on the ISS about its technology and purpose. This is something not taught in curricula and the question raised show positive inclinations and curiosity about things happening not only on earth but also in space thus proving to be a great educational drive indeed.

*LED light used to grow plants in space is used to cure bone pain and arthritis. Infrared ear thermometers, artificial limbs are other applications. Grooving on concrete surfaces to avoid skidding, rubber stronger than steel to be used in parachutes to land on Mars are some more examples.

Psasms in Time

I saw a documentary that showed the history of the earth and life itself. It was beautifully chronicled and more serenely illustrated. However it was based mostly on evidences buried in the sediments of rocks buried in slivers of time and in the open caves of carves sliced to reveal history of the jingles of time thought to have gone by. It covered 13.7 billion years of the birth of our cosmos and the evolution of over 4 billion years of earth. The earth was first a globe of molten lava. Then over millions of years it froze into a crust of ice. And then in another stage of millions of years grew warm and again went through a period of an ice age. In between several creatures made their presence on the planet under the sea and over the dry arid plains and over time moss grew on the rocks which yielded to make way for all the foliage and plant life.

All through the movie I had a critical corner of the brain telling me the far flung imaginations of one’s mind and the extreme vision of your brain to back something that goes back to trace the trails of time.

The Hindu philosophy believes that the world is a figment of imagination and everything is ‘Maya’ an illusion. Some daring observers from the west too have imagined this entire set up being played to some pre-recorded tape.

How do you wipe these blotches and clear your mind and arrive at an analogy that cancels the hypothesis and makes life a more realistic place to stay in.

What will strike you through all this is we had been thinking only about the past. As I write this the present moment has eloped into the past. Only what remains is the future! But isn’t it a fantasy. Things bring us to the evident future of the near and far cosmos that could show its true colours over a period of the coming time. Secrets of the present are embedded in the past and they will be revealed by the future. Mars today is what earth was a billion years before and its crust and atmosphere are undergoing the same changes as earth went through could also be observed on a planet in deep space by the Kepler telescope in the near future or by more sophisticated telescopes that are being thought to be placed beyond the earth’s atmosphere. More of the hypothesis could be proved right or wrong as we experience the shape of proof to come from the study of astronomy and astrophysics. Some evidence has already come (like formation of metals and minerals in the interstellar clouds and the stage of various stars in the star formation) forth and more will follow as time progresses and then we will be able to link what happened 10000 years before and a million and a billion and be able to connect our past with the present and the future in a better way.

We are at the cusp of better understanding of the cosmos.

Infinitesimally Small

We can see 93 billion light years into the Cosmos and that is our Observable Universe. In trying to see the ultimate we focus on matters available through the telescope and see its infinitesimal nature. Rather than the telescope having to see the far fringes of that space it is the magnanimity of its heart to peruse to see beyond. It is a way of opening up new vista of knowledge and trying to unfold the ultimate truth.

There is a very famous series of pictures in which the Earth and its size is shown first. Then it is compared to some bigger object in the solar system viz Jupiter and then to the Sun and you go on with bigger and bigger objects in the sky. Gradually the Earth size reduces and you cannot see it with naked eye and then vanishes and objects keep increasing in size forever

All this Makes your mind have a bigger conception of life and takes you beyond the ordinary and makes you feel infinitesimally small- an iota in the cosmic set up.

Conserving Nature

Rohinton Mistry having visited Mumbai after a long time has said in an interview that he was happy to see kites flying on the Mumbai skyline following a thermal but was sorry he could not see many sparrows in the house. Many a friends from far off places have complained that the sparrows are a threatened species and were less found these days than in the recent past of 20yrs.

The reason being the interception of waves by communication towers hung all over the country and the breeding of these tiny birds thus severely affected. The other reason could be the closed apartments in metros and these tiny tots have no place to sleep.

In the large houses with high ceilings these birds in households were usual with their cyclical hopping on floor picking insects intermittently with their beaks being a common site. Their flybys from outside veranda and windows with hay punched between their beaks and their fluttering around holes and perches to make those innocuous nests. Their eggs spoiling down and babies craning their necks out of those nests was a part and parcel of any house. They were with you and you were with them. Probably this is how culture is lost and ethos vanish in these small closed houses called apartments or flats. We lose resilience and perseverance and have no time for such old lingering.

My daughter-in-law has hung two lantern sized cylindrical glass bird feeders with proper rests in our terraced garden as well as a ply board nest (for off seasons stay) and fills up these cylinders, which has small holes on all sides, with bajra. Flocks of sparrows visit the cylinders, cling to the rests all through the day and feed themselves by poking their beaks into those holes. We need to conserve nature.

Time Travel

We were travelling at a breakneck speed on the modern expressway and the other side of the road was not much in view due to the large width of the central verge. The three+ highway was a master construction and the better vehicles zipped past from either flank in the mellow sunlight guarded by thickets that roared past in the din of thick abrasion of the wheels on the concrete road which created a monotonous grind in the mind as you focussed deep on the lanes. Unknowingly there came a time when most of the vehicles in view were travelling at the same speed and it felt as if we were travelling either to eternity or to know where.

Suddenly I recalled time travel in a tunnel on a superhighway. Travel at 100...200....400 kmph and get sucked into the tunnel and end up on the other side light years in space and gradually decelerate to 400...200....100 and arrive at the other end. Simple and sweet for an interplanetary exodus of a few light years! Just like you were visiting a friend on a sunday evening to a suburb through a subway. You would also recall watching Hindu mythological TV series in which Gods disappear from Swarg ( Literally heaven -but let us just call this a planet) and appearing on Prithvi (Earth- another planet).

Simply nerve shattering!

Growing Lettuce on Mars

How is plant life possible? Photosynthesis is the conversion of light into chemical energy that has carbohydrates. This conversion happens through proteins that have a green pigment called chlorophyll the reason for the green fauna on earth. On Mars there is an atmosphere with sufficient sunlight enough carbon dioxide (96%) and traces of oxygen, methane (very life supporting) and water that makes one believe growing plants possible but without the green pigment. This will conclude that plants may not have the conventional green leaves but surely they can be grown.

Small glass shield terrariums have been planned to be used on the moon to grow plants. By carrying a miniature greenhouse cold frame with proper installations like heating, cooling, lighting etc students involved in project works plan to grow lettuce on Mars.

Amazing!