Parallel Spirals

Standing on the shores of space-time…

Blog

  • Khagol Mandal

    The Wire has a nice write-up about Khagol Mandal.

    I grew up in Mumbai and had heard of Khagol Mandal on my visits to Nehru Planetarium but never had the courage to ask my Dad to go for one of their all night camp until I was in college. I attended a few of their talks and Wednesday meetings.

    However, given that the Internet was full of American websites I too felt the need for splitting the clubs along the science and engineering line. Since, I was more interested in the science vs engineering divide, I started SEDS India in 2004.

    Reading the article, I wonder how different life would have been had I started a Rocketry Hub in Khagol Mandal rather than wasting precious time setting up SEDS India.

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  • Watch “Where in the world is it easiest to get rich? | Harald Eia | TEDxOslo” on YouTube

    From the text: “Counter intuitive as it may sound high taxes, generous welfare states and strong unions make it a better environment for people who wants to earn huge amounts of money than free markets, low taxes and minimal government”

    Sharing this talk since it is a contrary position to what I have experienced in my life.

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  • Happy New Year 2019

    Happy New Year 2019 to all.

  • Aurangabad

    We decided to spend a two day holiday at Aurangabad. Aurangabad is close to 150 km from our current base at Lonar. We had a pleasant three day stay in Aurangabad. We went mostly for buying stuff for our home. Pictures are from our stay in the hotel.


    • Poha
    • Bread and Omlette
    • In the hotel lobby
    • Mom and daughter bonding

    Aurangabad reminded us so much of Mumbai because it has one of the only nearby malls. We also drove rather leisurely and enjoyed the ride with music. We didn’t want to rush back to Lonar and stayed on for another day.

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  • Trip November 2018

    I’m writing this at the Waiting Room at the Jalna Railway Station. After four months, I finally got my leave sanctioned for one week.

    We’re going now to Mumbai on 17618 Tapovan Express. Then, we catch a train to Kolkata where we are going to attend my cousin Vishy’s engagement. Then, we fly to Hyderabad where we stay with my grand uncle before taking the train back to Jalna and go by car to Lonar.

  • Diwali 2018

    It was our first Diwali in Lonar in a rental house. Dhanya wanted to celebrate by lighting a lot of lamps.

    She had bought a dozen lamps in one of her trips to Akola. On another visit she managed to purchase a handsome hanging lantern and a larger lamp.

    On Diwali, she lit all the lamps and we managed to take a lot of pics that we shared via our feed on Instagram. Above we have a video tour of all the lamps mentioned in this post. The hanging lantern was one of the most commented and asked about in the collection.

    My father wanted us to buy crackers to show Rithika. He asked us to atleast light sparklers. We ended up lighting up none, this Diwali.

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  • The Mars Orbiter Mission story

    Imran Khan has directed a short movie on the Mars Orbiter Mission and is now available on YouTube (trailer).

    The video helped me relive September 24, 2014 again. On that day, I watched Mars Orbit Insertion from Mumbai while my fiance (and now my wife) watched with her sister in Kerala. On that day, she didn’t understand the importance of the crucial Mars Orbit Mission maneuver. But, she got it only today after watching the video with me today.

    Must watch whether you follow space and definitely if you have a partner with whom you want to communicate the enthusiasm for space exploration.

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  • Hi! From Lonar

    It’s September. I’ve moved to Lonar and moved my family here for work. It has a hypervelocity crater and the work doesn’t give me too much time to spend there.

  • Pradeep’s Space Podcast Episode 0.1

    Show Notes:

     

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  • Revati

    Revati is Zeta Piscium. It is the “star” under which my daughter was born. So, I seem to have a mental filter that catches that phrase in Twitter’s flowing timeline. Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society had posted there on the International Astronomical Union (IAU) naming a few surface features on Charon, Pluto’s moon. She had also linked to the IAU press release on the same.

    They had named a crater on Charon, Revati. The press release mentioned that the feature Revati was named after a character in the epic, Mahabharata where she was a time traveller. The excerpt is below:

    Revati Crater

    I immediately searched on Google for the story of Revati. Emily, meanwhile, emailed one of the contacts mentioned in the press release to ask the source story of the name. My Google search led to the interesting story of Revati.

    The story of Revati seems to be straight out of science fiction. She is the daughter of Kakudmi who seems to have ruled a kingdom half under the sea. Her father travels to meet Brahma to seek advice on a suitable husband for his daughter. While there, they listen to a small musical performance. At the end as Kakudmi asks Brahma to choose from a list Brahma states that most of the people suggested would be dead as as they waited there, 27 mahayugas have passed and suggested that she marry Balarama, Krishna’s brother when they return. Does this reference time dilation? When they return, humans are much smaller than them. Does this reference the evolutionary process?

    I found the best narrative of the same on another blog, along with an interesting after comment. The comment is below:

    Revati Time Traveller

    In the meanwhile, Emily got the references and this is more fascinating reading. The book is Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy by Richard L Thompson.

    I am a skeptic of the reinterpretations of past treatises using modern astronomy but am equally fascinated by these comparative studies of astronomical treatises of the present and the past and enriched by myths with science fiction elements involved.

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