Has Astronomy surpassed Astrology

A few hundred years ago the Earth was considered to be flat. Then came a day when it was known to be a sphere. It was also understood that the Earth was the centre of the universe. Then it was Sun’s turn to be at the centre of the universe. Until now when we have come to know that the Universe began with a Big-Bang 13.4 billion years ago and since then it has evolved billions of galaxies which move farther and farther away as time elapses. These galaxies have various shapes and sizes and sizes and have billions of stars in them.
In the mean time Copernicus was defied his theory of the Earth moving around the Sun and Galileo did not attend an inquisition motion in Rome citing health reasons. He carried forward and showed that the earth did move around the Sun. In the year 1600 when Galileo was still working on the Copernican theory Giordano Bruno was burnt alive with his tongue tied by the Roman church since he too was of the opinion that the Earth moved around the Sun in the Solar system.
How do planets and stars influence humans? First it was the Moon’s influence on tides and waves. Then it was the position of groups of stars heralding seasons that brought drought and floods. These were generic in nature. A logic was applied to arrive at linkages to affect humans and hence the term Astrology.
In the 20th century calendars were the source of horoscopes. The western calendars were based on the Sun’s position throughout the year whereas the Arabs, Chinese and the Indians based their horoscope based on movements of the basic 12 constellations in the sky with respect to the Moon. Good and bad days, marriage days, house warming ceremonies, festivals etc were decided by the church and pundits based on almanacs and astrology.
Today we know that the Sun is positioned in the spur of the Orion arm of our Milky Way Galaxy in the Local Group. The Hubble Space Telescope positioned in Low Earth Orbit sends undistorted high resolution pictures of the observable universe. We are thus able to see 1000 of light years in space and that is how we came to the conclusion that the universe is expanding. Chandra Xray observatory, Spitzer Space Telescopes, Compton Gama Observatory all have contributed to make this Earth a very small place in the cosmic set-up. We have now geographically plotted all the Planets and their Moon’s. We know that there is summer on the planet Mars and it is raining Methane on Titan, the beautiful Saturn’s Moon.
In such a milieu has Astronomy overtaken Astrology? Scientifically the mind is a mish-mash of mythology and our own perception of modern living. It suggests we do not have total control of ourself. We may set up colonies on the Moon and have settlements on Mars . We may go beyond the solar system but uncertainty will drive us back to horoscopes. Today there is no newspaper in India that doesn’t publish weekly/monthly horoscopes. As long as we are groping in the darkness and in search of the truth Astrology is here to stay!

Virtual Realism and Mind Over Matter

If you can control an activity with your mind you can work wonders. This is what exactly Ukrainian scientist Nataliya Kosmyna has done. She has developed software that can recognize and interpret brains electrical impulses. She may have evolved such software for the sake of disabled people. Yet this may have very strong repercussions if able people were to use it without somebody knowing who the user is. Here instead of the fingers in your two hands you use your mind to move the drone. The drone is the means to achieve a function like switching a light on or fetching a towel for you. Drones are installed with camera to shoot a live match for sky vision or enemy launch pads to detect movement closely.
Scientists elsewhere have tracked human thought by imaging rapidly fluctuating brain activity using fast fMRI. This can map the brain function and then you would be in a position to control actions and dementia the most hazardous disease on earth.
Imagine a conference sitting around a table with one flipping pages with a gadget, another controlling air-conditioning and another drone adding insufficient chairs to the room. Another drone fetches a file the Managing Director wants, and yet another adjusts the venetian blinds.
I see a further development gradually these gadgets would be reduced to size micro and in the next stage would completely vanish. Then I see mind completely taking over and instead mind games happening. May be you will then reach the Moon and Mars and beyond with your mind physically remaining immobile. This would prove virtual reality like never before. The western ‘’ matrix’’ would be proved and the eastern ‘’maya’’ (illusion) would be proved and we will get back in time and begin again.

Civilizations in Space

Carl Sagan, one of the greatest astronomers of our times, said there could be as many as 50,000 civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy alone. Imagine the number of civilizations in the millions of galaxies since time was born about 8.4 billion years ago. Strange, looking at the way the earth was born and evolved. The astronomers and scientists have put together the sequence of events that may have triggered life on earth beginning 4.5 billion years ago. They use rocks and fossils and conduct geotechnical investigation to weave this catalogue.
Some of the main events that are documented include accretion of matter in the space around the earth to form the planet 4.5 billion years ago. This was followed by the heating of the core of earth which spilled out molten lava to the surface of earth which formed a sea of churning hot mantle. The number of times the atmospheric composition the earth has undergone over the period due to geological happenings is amazing. Somewhere in between life evolved and underwent a phase of extinction. Then the ice age was followed by the age of the dinosaurs. The infinite fossil fuel we are consuming has formed over millions of years of the birth and death of animal and plant life embedded below in sedimentary rocks hundreds of feet below the earths crust and even under water.
To evolve the right kind of temperature and atmospheric composition and the tilt to the axis of earth so that seasons could have been made possible. To have water and fertile land for the nourishment of human life! To have an ozone cocoon above the atmosphere to protect the earth from obnoxious rays of the sun! And for the sun itself to be the harbinger of life on earth! There are umpteen factors that are a reason for running plant, animal and intelligent human life on earth beyond these. The composition of human body has an immune system that is compatible with its resources. The body make-up has a human form with male and female permutation with its capacity to repeat. There is an abundance of metals and minerals- recipes for the industrial revolution.
If evolution has really taken place in the order scientists believe and if parameters required for the survival of life are so complex it seems difficult for life to exist on other planets with the same parameter as exist now. Either there has to be a short-cut or another set of extremely similar parameters to be repeated which look difficult. Yes life can exist in a very different form with very different senses but then it could be very difficult for us to recognise those however well we use earthly telescopes or techniques known to astronomy.

When were you born

This is in view of a female claiming to be 145 yrs old.
The oldest living person (a female) Jeanne Calment lived to the age of 122 yrs and 164 days. The list of 100 has 10 females in the top of order and also comprises of more number of females proving the longevity of the fairer sex beyond doubt.
Not a single Indian male or female fare in the list of 100 oldest people living or dead. Not a single Indian male or female exists in the list of ten living males or females on Earth. In the days of the Ramayana it was common to live up-to 200 yrs by consuming Amrit (a drink made out of the extract of a plant in the Himalayas) (Oh! Where is the plant gone?) at the age of around 18 yrs . Sages in the olden times who lived an ascetic life lived still longer. Indians believe they consume the best vegetarian (let us forget the argument of organic Vs manure food for some time). Lots of sages and cults make their appearance during the Kumbh mela (every few years) (smitten by ash on their foreheads and bodies) when Gods are supposed to release Amrit and yet we don’t find many living to a century in India. Or at least claims are not made. Or do we don’t have a proper record or evidence to prove the same.
I was trying to figure out if there was a method to calculate the age of a person? Many Indians who were born about 60/70 yrs ago have no records when they were born. Dates were assumed so that they could retire from government jobs, given a retirement age. I bet in to-days time too we have places in the interiors of India where these is neglected and midwives deliver kids to the joy of their families. We know that the age of a tree can be found out by counting the annular rings (Herbchronology). Is there any method for humans or animals? Unfortunately there is no method to prove the age of a person. Looking at the face of a person and his/her body language a lot of people can derive the age to an accuracy of 5 yrs. We can scientifically derive the age of a person from the degeneration of bones, muscle, skin or teeth. We have some methods of testing genes in blood or brain tissue to come to some conclusions. But nothing can find out what date you were born.

Easy Bliss

Hanami is picnicking under the sakura bloom. Sakura is the Japanese word for Cherry Blossom and sakura-viewing is ‘mono no aware’ meaning empathy towards everything. The tradition has been taking place for thousands of years. The Japanese view the bloom, which hardly lasts a fortnight, almost in a meditative way watching it hours on end. They also feel very sad when the bloom starts fading away. It is during March end or April month during which the cherry blossom tree blooms and during which time the hotels in Tokyo and Kyoto are booked years in advance to see the spectacle of the bloom.
Many Indians have suggested starting a similar festival of the Golden Shower Tree or Laburnum in India. The tree too blooms in April, summer time in India. At the peak of its bloom the flowers are so dense that you wouldn’t see a leaf or a trunk or a bark. You will find these trees lined up in many cities of India like Mumbai and Noida and in Kerala and many parts of India. They present a very soothing site during the scorching summer time and are relaxing and de-stressing. Authorities will need to create meadows lined up with these trees to create gardens and picnic spots. The festival has to catch the imagination of the authorities and the population at large. It is also vacation time for schools in India.
The Zen masters have known to teach meditation, relaxing with your body stretched in bath tubs. They have also prescribed meditative walks. In this you can sit on a sofa and imagine you change into a track suit and then wear your sport shoes. You then go out of your house in your mind, remaining in your sofa into a garden lined up with beautiful flowers. You simultaneously measure every step of your walk. You can return back from this imaginary long walk home feeling fit and retrieving on your sofa without moving a limb.
As for me I got up today in the morning to find a blanket of dark clouds on the dome of the sky with a steady drizzle. Sounds of thick drops falling from the 17th floor roof over three floors below me created music to the incessant shower. Green branches of tall thicket trees standing meekly in ovation. Sometimes the drizzle turned awry increasing in intensity to the howl of wind. I gazed at the Mumbai rains for an hour. It was a spell I will not forget for a long time. I recalled a similar hex standing on the bank of a lake in Chhatisgarh scattered with lotus flowers and watching the reflection of birds and passing billows of white clouds on the serene waters. It was bliss.

Olympics and India

India had won six medals in the last London Olympics. We won just two bronze at Rio. It was expected that they would win more this time around. Most countries have grown steadily in their medal tallies over the years before reaching stagnation.
There have been tweets and counter-tweets. People have blamed the sports authorities. There have been controversies on doping. Some people have criticized us for not creating good athletes in a country of 1.20 billion people.
The fact is that there is nobody to take responsibility. The sports ministry does not have targets. There is no organised planning and we have no clue to win an Olympic medal. Whatever financial resources are available are not channelized properly. We don’t know how to go about a sport. We don’t know how to pick talented athletes. We don’t know how to pick managers and trainers. Whatever we have achieved are mostly individual efforts.
Small backward countries including Kenya and Jamaica are creating legends. Korea, Japan and most small European countries produce winners consistently.
We have a vast country with varied climate and skins of all colors and fitness of all sorts. The north-east has stiff competitors, the Haryanvis are great wrestlers. Keralites are good athletes and weight-lifters. We have no dearth of talent. The government offers lots of gifts and free-bees in terms of money and property to winners (Sakshi Malik the wrestler bronze medalist will win at least Rs Three crores and lots of awards including Khel Ratna and accolades). What is wrong is with the way we are handling these affairs. We need to convert novices into qualifiers, qualifiers into medal winners.

Should we stop bearing children

During the last 50 yrs the population of Europe grew by 10% from 400 million to 500 million. American population will rise by a 100 million in the next 50 yrs. African population is destined to grow from the present 16 to 25% in the next 35 yrs. The only consolation is Asia’s population rise will fall from 60 to 54 % in the next 35 yrs.
Looking at the growth it is imminent that there will be immigration to cities. Cities will grow tall but mostly wide. Agricultural land will be encroached. Managing natural resources would be difficult and changes like increased temperatures and flooding will result in degradation of the environmental.
All this leads to my insecurities. This is quite a depressing scenario. The words fading, waning, depleting, hounding ring in my ears.
Sometimes I wonder whether our future generations would have enough space to sleep and enough fields to grow the grains we require. I have been living by such scares since childhood. It all began when we were trained in school to hide below benches on the siren hooting began on the attacks of fighter Pakistani planes during the 1965 Indo-Pak war. We were in Pune and the ammunition factory in Pimpri was their hot target. It drove a childs mind wild in imagination of what lay in life. The perception of a bomb killing you and all your aspirations shattered were nerve racking.
Now I believe life goes on. If we are short of land we may migrate to another planet. If we are short of resources we might tap from a passing asteroid. Nothing will stop!