Happy 42nd Anniversary, Aryabhata…..

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, our first Prime Minister laid the foundation for the development of science and technology in India. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was one such organisation which grew into a prominent research organisation. ISRO is India’s NASA of America. ISRO built its first satellite in 1975 with the aid from the then USSR. The satellite was launched by Russia from Kapustin Yar using Cosmos 3M launch vehicle.  It was launched on 19^thApril, 1975 and it is the 42^nd anniversary of the ISRO’s first satellite launch.

The name Aryabhata was suggested by our first woman prime minister Indira Gandhi after the great astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata in the fifth century. The event was celebrated by the Reserve Bank of India and made historic by using satellite’s image on the two rupee bank notes between 1976 and 1997. The satellite’s data receiving centre was in Bengaluru, where a toilet was converted into a receiving centre to serve the purpose.

The satellite’s cost was around rupees 3 crores and was built to conduct experiments in X-ray astronomy, aeronomics and solar physics. The space craft was twenty-six sided polyhedron of 1.4 m in diameter. All the faces except the top and the bottom was covered with solar cells.

The spacecraft weighed 360 kg. the object of this project were to indigenously design and fabricate a space-worthy satellite’s system and evaluate its performance in orbit to evolve the methodology of conducting series of complex operations, to set up a ground based receiving, transmitting, tracking system and to establish infrastructure for the fabrications of the spacecraft system. After seventeen years of its formal launch, Aryabhatare-entered earth’s atmosphere on 11^thFebruary 1992.

To commemorate the event both India and Russia released commemorative stamp and first day covers. On this day (19.04.2017) we in India feel proud of both spacecraft and the mathematician…..

Aryabhata.

P.S: your feedback will be highly appreciated. 

Along Came the Superman

Kids adore him. Adults enjoy him. Superman has fascinated even the scholars and the critics who were exploring the impact of superman in the US and worldwide. Superman’s appearance is distinctive. He usually wears a blue costume with a red and yellow emblem on the chest, consisting of the letter ‘S’ in a shield shape and a red cape. Superman is widely considered as an American cultural icon. The character has been adopted extensively and portrayed in the other forms of media as well, including films and television series. Several actors have portrayed superman in motion pictures and television serials.

The character superman was created by two high school kids- Siegelend (writer) and JoeShuster (artist) in the year 1933, but they sold their creation to D.C Comics in 1938. Superman made his debu in action in D.C Comics and subsequently appeared in radio comics, newspaper strips, television programs, and films and even in video games with high success.

It is this month (April) in 1938 that superman made  his debu as the cover feature of the action comics. He is one of the longest running superheroes in the comic books. Superman is a sci-fi character. He was born as Kal-EL on the planet krypton and was sent to earth by his scientist father Jor-EL before planet krypton was destroyed. On the earth the child is raised as ClarkKent. As a young boy he had strong moral instinct and at an early age he started to display superhuman abilities. Superman has been described variously as man of steel, man of tomorrow and the lost son of krypton. Superman resides and operates in a fictional American city. ClarkKent is a journalist for the daily planet, a city newspaper. Superman is also in love with Lois Lane.

Superman who defeats the evil and saves the mankind is a fictional reel character. A hard truth is that situation on earth is no different from the situation in his films. Bad elements in our society have made common man’s life a hell. To defeat the real bad elements on earth, how we wish that we had had a real……

‘Superman’.

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The Niagara Falls: Nature’s Gift to Man

The sheer divine beauty of the Niagara Falls mesmerizes the tourists. It is a ‘phenomenon’. The ‘falls’ is the most sought after tourist spot in America. The movies ‘Niagara’ (starring Marilyn Monroe) and ‘Superman’ were filmed in parts at the falls.  The height of the falls is 176 m. the volume of the water is 160000 US gallons. The falls is a gift of nature to man. In the evenings, intense spotlights bathe the falls with different shaded of colours.

The Niagara River and the entire great lakes basin is a legacy of the ice-age. Eighteen thousand years ago the entire great lake basin was covered by the ice sheets of two to three  kilometers thick. When the ice melted it released vast quantities of water into the great lake basin. The Niagara peninsula became free of the ice twelve thousand years ago. At the bottom of the falls water travels fifteen miles and reaches the great lake basin. The tremendous volume of water never stops flowing. In the winter when it is very cold the ice will stretch on both banks of the river and forms the ice bridge. As the water goes over the land, at the bottom the falls makes a tremendous sound. This is an international boundary between the USA and Canada.

  

The flow is greatest in the falls in the day time during the peak tourist season of the month of June, July and August. In the event of an emergency, the flow can be somewhat reduced by the hydroelectric companies increasing their intake.

Do the falls freeze over in the winter? Yes it once happened in 1848 for 30-40 hours because of the strong south-west gale winds that had pushed the huge chunks of ice blocking Lake Erie’s outlet. The bed of the river was exposed. Many water animals died. Water wheels stopped and mills and factories shut down because there was no power.

After this freeze, after 30-40 hours, on March 31^st night, suddenly a wall of water came roaring down the upper Niagara River and over the falls with a giant thunder and the royal march began once again. The falls is a small mercy of nature. Man feels like falling at the feet of nature when he views the great……

‘Niagara Falls’.

PULITZER: journalist for the common man

The print media is a loyal friend of the common man. In this unjust society, media fights for oppressed and suppressed common man to uphold his rights and dignity. Joseph Pulitzer was such an American journalist who displayed a flair for reporting and helped establish the pattern of modern newspapers. He was one of the most powerful journalists. Through his newspaper ‘New York World’ he fought relentlessly for the oppressed class.

The term ‘Yellow Journalism’ was coined in the 1890’s to characterize the sensational journalism that used some yellow ink in the circulation war between Pulitzer’s New York World and its rival New York Journal. Pulitzer left two million dollars in his will which led to the creation of the Columbia university school of journalism in 1912. In the year 1917, Columbia University organised the awards of the first Pulitzer prizes in journalism. The winner received a certificate, fifteen thousand dollars cash award and a gold medal.

Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian born on tenth April, 1847. (Last week was his birthday). He became a leading national figure in the Democratic Party and was elected as congressman from the New York City. He crusaded against big business and corruption.   

Today he is best known for the Pulitzer Prize which was established in 1917. It is a prestige for any journalist to get the ‘Pulitzer prize’. Pulitzer renounced his allegiance to the Hungarian empire and became a naturalized American citizen.

In 1895, his newspaper introduced the immensely popular ‘the yellow kid’ comic strips. This is one of the first comic strips to be featured in the newly launched Sunday colored supplement.  The circulation grew from fifteen thousand to six lakh copies making it the largest newspaper in America.

Pulitzer was born in 10^th April 1847 and died on 25^th October 1911 at the age of 64 years.

Pulitzer had an uncanny knack for appealing to the........

‘Common Man’.

P S :

YOUR FEEDBACK WILL BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED.

Banana Wars

There were wars when man was uncivilized. There were wars when man called himself a civilized animal. There were wars for Woman, Gold and Land. The reason can be trivial for a war. So why cannot there be a war for Banana, the unfortunate fruit in the hands of man. Yes, we have had banana wars. Perhaps war is a part of man’s psychology. It is interesting.

Read on…..

Profit is a dangerous motivation for any adventure, even for a war. Bananas were brought and sold at 1000% profit. War is a minor thing in the face of such huge profit. This is how market works. In the operation of the multinational companies governments were toppled. When foreign enterprises push the local government around to suit their interest, then that local government is called ‘Banana Republic’.

European Union was importing bananas from its former colonies Africa and the Caribbean countries at the expense of Latin America. The powerful US multinationals dominate the South American banana market. Hence America was annoyed by the tariffs to protect the small growers of banana in Africa and the Caribbean countries. President Bill Clinton’s administration took banana wars to the W.T.O (World Trade Organisation).

By the end of the nineteenth century the Americans were sick of growing fruits in their chilly country. Giants such as the United Fruit Company moved to South America. Another US multinational company supplied the weapons for a coup against the government of Honduras. America’s CIA backed a coup against the government of Guatemala, which had threatened the interests of the multinational companies. Hence the real meaning of ‘Banana republic’ a country in which foreign enterprises pushed the local government around.

The banana proved very popular with the Americans as a nutritious tropical fruit that was less expensive than the fruit apple grown locally. Bananas have typically stratified social class, the largely impoverished working class. The united Fruit Company whose nickname was ‘The Octopus’ had come to pervade their society and controlled their transport infrastructure and manipulated national politics.

We are living in a time where market controls our lives all for a big …..

‘PROFIT’.

P.S.

YOUR FEED BACK WILL BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED

Dandi March - - 6th April

It was not planned.  Such incidents cannot be planned.  British officials foolishly introduced taxation on salt production from sea waters and declared sea salt production activities illegal.  Perhaps this was a fate’s hand.  This British order in 1930, gave birth to a novel method of protest to a freedom fight, called Civil Disobedience movement.  The civil disobedience movement was non violent movement that got worldwide publicity.  This movement took birth on 6^th April 1930.  Gandhiji lead the march, popularly known as Dandi March to produce salt from the sea water.  The march was started on 12^th March 1930 and ended on 6^th April 1930.  Dandi march broke on 6^th April.  It was the first non violent act of Civil disobedience against the British rule in India. 

The march was the most significant organised challenge to British authority since non cooperative movement of 1920.  Gandhiji lead the march from Sabarmathi Ashram.  At the beginning of the march less than 100 people participated in it.  The intended walk of nearly 240 miles to coastal village of Dandi.  The number of protestors grew large in numbers as more people joined the march when Gandhiji broke the salt laws on 6^th April 1930.  It started a large scale act of civil disobedience against British Raj's salt laws.

The campaign had a very significant effect on British attitude to Gandhiji’s call for self rule.  Gandhiji was arrested.  The salt satyagraha continued for almost a year.  In all 80,000 people were jailed.  The salt satyagraha campaign though not successful, was Gandhiji’s vision of non violent protest.  Indian National Congress chose non violent civil disobedience as their main tactic for winning the freedom.  This movement was used to fight social and political injustice. 

Martin Luther King said that he was deeply fascinated by this campaign of non violence.  More than 1000 papers world wide covered this movement.

The New York times said ‘British had lost America on Tea and losing India on……..

‘’SALT’’ 

Breslin: The champion of common man

We live in an unjust world.  It is as if a wicked minded architect dreamt of structure of this kind of society where in common man always suffers, always at the receiving end.  Common man suffers silently.  Does anybody care?  Yes.  Press cares for common man.  In this tragic scenario only press seems to be a small ray of hope for common man.  Press takes up the cudgel on behalf of common man against injustice done to him.  Jimmy Breslin, the legendary American journalist, who passed away on the 19^th March this year at the age of 88 was regarded as a Champion of Common Man.  Breslin elevated the powerless for more than 50 years.  Breslin’s demise is  a big loss for journalism and common man has lost a friend.

Breslin wrote a book “The church that forgot Christ”.  In this book, he exposed the church’s sex scandals.  His columns in the newspaper were very popular because he injected the novelistic techniques into his columns.  He once said that the rage was the only quality which had kept him writing.  His close friend Mario Cuomo said that Breslin was writing or thinking about writing for more than 50 years except for a short period when he was unwell and doctor had to drill a hole in his head in his congested brain to let out some of his unused line.  Breslin even wrote a book about this incident. 

Breslin’s career as an investigative journalist, led him to cultivate ties with various mafia and criminal elements always not with positive results. Once he was viciously attacked and beaten.  He suffered a major concussion and nose bleeding.  He survived the ordeal without any permanent injury. Breslin didn’t set out to be a reporter in the traditional sense. He was more interested in the prowling the street of common man for his stories. What set him apart from other reporters was he listened to common man and wrote his column in a distinctive language.

Once a mafia man wrote a letter to Breslin about his columns in the newspapers and appreciated Breslin’s honesty. Breslin’s reaction was ‘the guy can write better than me’.

In 1986, Breslin was awarded the PulitzerPrize for his sympathetic view point of the working class people of the New York City. Always his columns were reserved for…..

‘Ordinary Citizens’.

“Ha… Ha…… April Fool …….!”

“Fools were really wise men” said Joseph Baskin, a history professor at Boston University.  He further explained that the practice of April fool day celebration was started when Constantine was the Roman Emperor.  A group of Jesters, Professor explained, told the emperor that they could do a better job of running the Empire.  Constantine was amused and made one of the Jesters the emperor of Rome for one day.  The Jesters declared that day as the day of absurdity.  Professor concluded that “It was really a serious day”.

Professor Baskin’s explanation for fools day was picked up by the associated press and the same news (article) was printed by many news papers in 1983 was turned out to be a prank and the press after several days realised that they were victims of April fool’s day joke.  To this day no one knows the origin of this event.  It is not just playing pranks but also making fun of ourselves.  This is also a day of laughter.  One can make fun of literally anybody or anything on this day because no body takes it seriously. 

After demonetisation in the month of November 2016 (thank god it is not in the month of April) our beloved Prime Minister gave a call to the people of India to “Go Cashless”.  A scenic exclaimed that “we have already gone cashless long back”.  A cricket match was going on in the month of April (Year forgotten) but India was on the verge of defeat then an Indian cricket fanatic cried that “India was all out for no loss”.  The same scenic of cricket had us (his friends) jittery when in one of the one day matches India needed just 3 runs in 2 balls to win the match.  The fanatics became nervous and asked us as “how to make one and half runs in each ball”. 

Well, ignorance seems to surround us like a fog.  We seem to grow silly with age. In this bad world it is better to set apart at least one day in a year as a lighter day or fools day to lessen the burden and pressure on us in this age of fast life and make this day a most light hearted day of each year and declare ourselves as……

FOOLS.