It started by honoring Lieutenant Navdeep Singh(posthumous) with the highest honor during peace “Ashok Chakra” for his bravery during an operation at LoC against the militants. His father took the honor for his great son. Such stories gets my every time. And now the parade is going on at Rajpath(10:23 AM).

Last night I was watching a program on Aaj Tak, the news channel from TV Today, about the India’s glories  in the past 62 years. The program was very inspiring and moreover I got the opportunity to know more about my country.

26th January 1950, India got its constituency and became the democratic nation where the public is the supreme leader. The reason behind choosing 26th Jan as that special day was to give honor to 26th Jan 1930 when India declared “Complete Independence” against the British Rule.

1st April 1951 when the first Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru signed the first FIVE YEAR PLAN of the nation and agriculture was given the prime importance in that five year plan and simultaneously improve the nation’s GDP by 2.1% . The total budget for the plan was Rs.2,06,00,00,00,000.

The first Loksabha (Parliment) General Election was held from 25th October 1951 to 21st February 1952 which registered 45.7% voters. 98.5% votes were in the favor of Indian National Congress(INC) and thus Pt. Nehru became the first Prime Minister of independent India

It was 19th December 1961 when Indian National Army made Goa independent and forced Portuguese to evict. Although Indian Government was in talk with the Portuguese about the independence of Goa since 1950 but later Indian Army was used to do the same and the whole operation took 48 hours to complete.

1966, the year when India got its first and ever lady Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi, after the sudden death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then former Prime Minister.

By the late 70′s the governance of the Indian National Congress was showing penchant for monarchy. This was the time when Lok Nayak Jay Prakash Narayan coined the term “Sampoorn Kranti” and initiated the first political revolt. Seeing the consequences Indira Gandhi, the PM, declared emergency on 1975 and it continued till 1977 until the next general election. This was the first time that a non Congress party came to the ruling position under the leadership of Morarji Desai and thus the new party emerged called the ‘Janta Party’

After the death of Smt. Indira Gandhi her son, Rajeev Gandhi, became the Prime Minister of India and his main aim was to make India excel in the field of Information and Technology and bring the computer revolution in India.

25th July 2002-the day when the Missile Man of India, APJ Abdul Kalam Azad took the oath of President of India. This was the first time that some one from the non-political background became the President of India.

25th July 2007 was another day of great pride to our nation when we got our first lady President – Pratibha Singh Patil, the former Governor of Rajashthan.

5th April 2011 when the crusader of our time, Anna Hazare, went on Hunger strike to bring on the Lokpal Bill to put a check on the ongoing corruption. This man brought millions of Indians together and forced the Government to pass the bill. 16th August 2011 when Anna again went for the strike, he was arrested and was put in the Tihar Jail but out of the protest from the whole nation the Government had to release him and was given the permission to fast.

1929-Darjeeling witnessed the lady from Albania who was later named Mother Teresa and was taken as the symbol of peace. She set examples of extreme charity for the poor and on 1950 she embarked the “Missionary for Charity” house for the welfare of the poor. She received the Nobel Prize for Peace and was also awarded with Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the nation.

1968 H S Khurana, a scientist of Indian origin got Noble prize for solving the sequence of RNA. Following him in the year 1983 S. Chandrashekhar got the Nobel Prize in Physics and Amartya Sen 1998 for his contribution in the field of Economy.

August 1984, the time when the world witnessed the Tri-Color in space. Sq Leader Rakesh Sharma became the first Astronaut from India who went to the space.

Dhirubhai Ambani, the person who changed the face of Indian business, who revamped the figures in the Indian share market. The journey from a petrol pump boy to the business tycoon and thus changing the face of the nation in the global economic scenario, his contributions are impeccable.

The common man’s dream of having a car was also the dream of one the biggest businessman of the nation Ratan Tata. Such were his ambitions that in the year 2007-08 he presented Indians the car of their dreams, the 1 Lac car, the Nano. “A promise is a promise” these were his word during the launch of Nano.

The melody of India, the great Lata Mangeshkar registered her name in the Guinness Book of World records for recording highest number of songs. In her career of 7 decades she recorded more that 30,000 songs in different languages.

Sachin Tendulkar, I guess the name is enough!!! The man who have most of the records under his hat, the game-maker, the master blaster, the Tendulkar.

15th September 1959, the golden date with the golden event. This was the day when the first television broadcast was done in India. Later on 1965 All India Radio took the responsibility for the broadcast.

I still remember the song “Naye bharat ki nayi taqdeer…hamara Bajaj!!” The ad of the largest scooter brand of India, Bajaj Chetak. In the year 1960 Jamnalal Bajaj got the license of manufacturing two-wheelers in India and then the Indians saw a new specie of transport running on the Indian roads which went straight into their heart.

After hitting the roads it was the time for the sky and thus in the year 1969 India established its first space research center ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization).

1982 was the year to say adieu to the black and white world as this was the time when the first color TV was launched in India and the world went colorful.

10th August 1995 marked the era after which the Indians can carry a gadget with them all the time which will keep them connected to the rest of the world, the Mobile Phone. The first mobile phone call in India was made between Jyotibasu, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal and the then communication minister of India, Mr.Sukhram.

PS: This is a never ending post and I will keep on updating as I gather more and more information. Information from my reader are heartily invited.

Teacher: raju, tum kis liye college aate ho?
Student: vidya ke khaatir
Teacher: toh ab so kyu rahe ho?
Student: aaj vidya nahi aayi hai sir

Pati: mere marne ke baad, kyaa tum doosri shaadi karogi?
Patni: nahi. main apni behan ki saath rahungi. aap?
Pati: main bhi tumhaare behan ke saath rahunga

1st wife: tumhaara sharaabi pati roz peekar ghar aata hai na. tum poochti kyu nahi ho.
2nd wife: main poochi thi. lekin unhone mujhe diyaa nahi.

Doctor: aap dariye mat. main hoo na.
Patient: wahi mera sabse bada dar hai doctor.

Patient: Doctor, yeh mera pehla operation hai. thoda dhyaan se karna.
Doctor: dara mat. yeh mera bhi pehla operation hai

Doctor: is dawaa ko ek hafte main poora karo aur baad main aake milo.
Patient: teek hai doctor
(ek hafte ke baad)
Doctor: dawaa khatam huaa kya?
Patient: nahi doctor.
Doctor: kyu nahi?
Patient: usme likhaa thaa ke, bottle ko hamesha bandh rakhe

1st beggar: arey, tum kyu us cinema poster ko aise gur rahe ho?
2nd beggar: main hee is cinema ka producer hoo

Beggar: 10 rupaiya dedo saab. girlfriend ko phone karni hai.
Saab ka girlfriend: dekho, bhikaari bhi apni girlfriend ko kitna pyar karta hai.
Beggar: nahi memsaab, use pyar karne ke baad hee main bhikaari ban gayaa

Maalik: arey, tune 500 saal puraani ghadi thod dee hai.
naukar: bach gaya saab, main to samjha yeh nayaa hai

Ramu: Sir, mere ghar mein TV chodke baaki sabki chori hogayi hai?
Police: chor ne sirf TV kisliye chodaa hoga?
Ramu: mujhe kya pataa sir? main us samay TV mein serial dekh rahaa thaa

Autowaala: sorry sir, meter daalna bhool gaya.
santa: problem nahi hai. main bhi apna purse bhool aaya. chodo

Car chalaataa huaa Santa ko road mein “ACCIDENT ZONE” ka board dikhaa. isliye santa ne sochaa:
“Yeh log accident zone mein kyu road banaate hai?”

Ek kadvaa sach
Behan ki friend behan ho sakti hai,
Bhai ka friend Bhai ho sakta hai,
lekin wife ka friend wife nahi ban sakti

suma: maa, raju ne mujhe kiss de diyaa
maa: haan kya? rukho main poochti hoo.
suma: nahi maa. tum poochoge to woh nahi degaa

Paagal 1: main Taj Mahal ko kareedh loonga
Paagal 2: main use abhi bhech nahi rahaa hoo

Customer: yeh kya offer hai? TV liya to 10 kerchief free!!!
Salesman: TV serials dekhne ke baad aapki aansoo ponchne ke liye

Boy: kal maine tumhaare ghar gaya tha. lagta hai hamaari shaadi nahi hogi.
girl: kyu? pappa se mile the kya?
Boy: nahi, tumhaare behan se milaa tha

Manager: hamaare bank mein hum aapko binaa interest ke loan denge.
customer: arey, jab dena hai to thoda haste haste dona. agar dene mein interest nahi hai, to mat do

Doctor: aapko isse pehle kabhi heart attack hua thaa kya?
Patient: haa doctor, bichle baar jab aap bill diye the

Nurse: udhaas kyu baite ho sir?
Doctor: dopahar jiska operation kiya tha, woh mar gaya.
Nurse: arey woh to post mortem tha.
Doctor: to main subah kiska post mortem kiyaa tha

Patient: Doctor, kya aapko yakeen hai ke mujhe cancer hai. kyunki ek baar kisi doctor ne

cancer ka ilaaj karte the aur patient TB se mar gaya.
Doctor: gabraao nahi… agar main ilaaj karungaa to tum sirf cancer se hi maroge.

Doctor: sharaab peena haanikaarak hai. is vichaar main mujhe aapse baath karni hai.
Patient: theek hai doctor. sham ko moonlight bar mein milenge.

Doctor: aapke pati ko zyaada rest ki zaroorat hai. yeh sleeping tablets leejiye.
Wife: unko yeh kab dena hai doctor?
Doctor: yeh unke liye nahi, aapke liye hai

Doctor: dekhiye, yeh bimaari khaandaani hai. aapke daadaaji se shuru hui hai.
Patient: bach gaya!!! tab aap yeh operation mere daadaaji ko hee keejiye.

Patient: Doctor, meri beti ko aajkal kuch sunaayi nahi deti hai
Doctor: kya? tumhe 5 din se bukhaar hai aur tum abhi aa rahe ho!

Wife: doctor ji, mere pati neend mein baat karna shuru kardiye hai. kya karu?
Doctor: din mein unko baat karne kaa mouka deejiye.

Doctor: roz hotel mein khaane se hee aapko ulcer hui hai?
Patient: to aaj se mein ghar ko parcel leke jaaunga

Patient: doctor, mujhe 3 mahine se khaasi hai.
Doctor: itne din kyu chup the?
Patient: chup kaun tha doctor. main to khaas rahaa tha.

Doctor: operation ke baad ab sab teek hai. tum sab kuch sun sakte ho.
Patient: aapne kuch bola kya?

Doctor: aap dariye mat. main hoo na.
Patient: aap rahenge. lekin main rahoonga kya?

Doctor: tum abhi 2 ganto main mar jaanewaale ho. kya tumhaara koi aakhri khwaaish hai?
Patient: Haanji, ek achche doctor ko consult karna hai

15^th August 1947, India got its much toiled up FREEDOM. This was the year, when foreign rulers were officially thrown out of our country.

15^th August,1947

India is now a self-dependent country with a constitution in the making (basically copy n edit from various constitutions all over the world!!) and envisaging a prosperous,happy country with happy homes and happy people(that basically means providing basic amenities to every citizen) not to forget zero tolerance against caste , creed and race iniquity.
India is now ready to spread its wings in open fresh air…signalling that the once sone ki chidiya (golden bird) is back and is ready to conquer the world .
Be it technology – Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian on moon (courtesy Soviet Union …oouucchh )

Or the Green and White revolution (now,that was big…it made India self-reliant,self sufficient wheat and milk producing nation)… Yeah  VICTORY \m/

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okkkk…FAST FORWARD…

Year 2011

2G,3G…politicians B.G (busy)

Ipods,Ipads,Fb,Twittter…todays youth is hard to befuddle..heehee

Perhaps,so much has changed post independence yeah perhaps but something still remains the same

Our love for characters that depict that ‘the slow and steady can also win the race & they too have a success story’. Success story that we find so irresistible that we relate with them,sympathise,empathize with them…now that’s sad.

The latest and hard to ignore example is of two ladies who might belong to different working areas and environment but their contribution to their field is hard to ignore.

Yes! Sonia G and th e very sexy,hot and sizzling Katrina Kaif.
Sonia G (G for gandhi or just the postposition…whatever you want to put it,lol) has an unprecedented ‘BABU following’. For congressmen, 10 Janpath is like a holy stop and they surely want to get their prayers heard!!

Came or thrown into politics after her husband’s (late Rajiv Gandhi) death. Her first hand politics tutorial came from her husband otherwise she was an economic graduate (allegedly not) from The Cambridge University

20 years on and Sonia G is now the powerhouse of the party. Without her, the party is like a baby abandoned in a forest in front of a hungry tiger (this time,it was the anna issue,that gave jitters to congressmen in her absence) whining ‘ let Sonia G come, sabko dekh lenge’ poor baby L

On the other hand, there’s this very hot, ravishing babe Katrina Kaif!! Well,kaif surname is just a formality, she’s hardly Indian. Her long dark tresses be fool everyone.

For the director and producers , whatever she touches turns gold and we are comfortably ‘jheloying’ her , thanks to her matkas and jhatkas. Actors praise her, for her hard work! WTF! BTW! It requires real hard work  for a non- hindi linguistic person to learn dialogue half-baked. But Katrina G oops sexy Katrina is still a darling among dirs n prods, just like Sonia G ia darling among congressmen.

Just like kat, madame ji also doesn’t posess and deviant talent but some connections that’s hard to turn a blind eye on.(for every1,who lost to  kat,its sallu )

May be 15^th 1947, was the day of independence from the Britishers but  ‘ The Gandhi Parivar’ will continue to rule us for decades to come…you never know, our grandchildren might read and study ‘ The Great Gandhi Dynasty’ in their history books that might read as follows

The Gandhi Dynasty (1940-present)

And might also read about the Kaif clan ( just like Kapoor clan) in any starburst or harper bazaar magazine…come on,she has 6 or 7 sisters in descending order of their age…lol.so. till we reach our 50s or 60s you never know they might be ruling the silver screen.

The moral of the story

• Our independence is a Mirage (I bet u cant provide me a proof!)
•  Jo dikhta hai who bikta hai
• Need Indian public’s vote? Make up a empathizing story.
• WE CAN NEVER GET RID OF OUR CRUEL RULERS .

drrakishsharma@yahoo.com

Money does what nothing can, screws you up, rules you, makes a slave out of a man….

What if one day all of us decided to proscribe money? In the sense that we ostracise and put an end to the ‘authoritarian entity’ it seems to have become over the years. Today everything that we do seems to be inspired by want of money or an outfall of having it. Most of the crime and miseries around us seem to be related some how or the other to money. While some loathe others for having it, there are others who are willing to cross all limits to ensure that they have it.

What if we humans just got back to the basics in life- food, shelter and safety? Now ‘safety’ many would argue is not going to happen without money and in fact it is safety for which one seeks money. Well, to me money and safety are mutually contradictory, wherein one leads to the lack of the other.

Many a times one would realise that not having assets is also a good way of feeling safe. For the world seems to lose all interest in a person who they assume is worthless in terms of worldly possession or position in the society. The moment people realise that a person is worth something, the world starts running after him. Most of us must have experienced it to some extent as to how the same person gets treated differently, before and after his/her achievements in life and many a times by the same set of individuals.

Would ‘Stone Age’ be better wherein all we would perhaps be bothered about would be the basic necessities of life, oblivious of any rocket science, satellites spying on us, with the fear of a nuclear war looming large on the horizon? There might be issues in that scenario too, but then these would be more basic as in related to survival. In such circumstances (and given the resources) may be ‘man’ is not going to be that big a threat to the system and even fellow humans.

To me whenever things start getting complicated it’s always better to unwind and go back to the basics. The more complex an issue, the more simple should be the solution to it, if we ever have to get anywhere close to finding one.

Money and desires trigger this never ending saga of one upmanship. May be it’s the human gluttony that needs to be blamed rather than ‘money’. For money is nothing but a creation of our mind. Perhaps more than the money it is we who need to take the blame.

So is ‘human mind’ the real culprit and are we the victims of our egregious mind and thought process. Or did we wilfully prefer to become victims of what mind seems to have been pulled into.

“On 7/7 I was out filming. Post 26/11 I was out filming again from the 29th onwards. It was horrifying to see TV crews shooting on the streets of my city both during and after – the sheer theatrics, the uncouth, insensitive questions, shoving people, trying to get that dramatic frame or soundbite. I wasnt the only one repulsed. Such widespread was the revulsion that 4 days later, any victims or their families just refused to speak to any TV crews! In fact, for the first time in my worklife, I was welcomed into homes and hospital wards only because I said – we’re not TV; we are documentary film-makers! And really for the first time, I didnt need to explain what a documentary is and no one asked which channel will it be shown on…”

He added that he was “now besieged on another thread by impassioned bigots” responding to another comment of his: “Till the time there is Hate, till the time we tolerate or support Hate-mongers, till the time we don’t oppose Politics of Hate – we can not possibly dream of peace and harmony. No amount of street or online hysteria, momentary outrage, demand for resignations or other meaningless gestures will make any real difference till we allow Hate to breed and flourish”.

The hysterical tirades began when he posted a comment by someone else – “Terrorism is arbitrariness. You can put the whole army on the streets, and you’d still have a bomb blast. You can arrest everyone who has read the Anarchist Cookbook, and you’d still have a bomb blast. You can terrorize an entire society, and you can still have a bomb blast. Its arbitrary nature ensures its survival, and it will survive as long as there is hate in society. ~ Javed Iqbal…

So, now he is “battling the barrage of creative name-calling!” More power to him and other peace-mongers

Yuri Gagarin’s became the first man to reach into space and orbit the earth on 12

Seven years after a man flew into space came the gigantic man-on-the-moon moment the entire world eagerly followed and rejoiced. I was a small girl then and remember my father excitedly listening to Voice of America that evening. Baba then took us outside the house and looking up to the dark night sky, we tried spotting the Apollo 11. I still remember the excitement of that day. Three more names got added to our magic of space travel vocabulary i.e. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Few years ago in a seminar, the speaker asked if someone knew the 3 names of Apollo 11 travelers. Much to my dismay, I was the only person amongst fifty attendees who knew the names. Come on guys, remember these heroes, I felt the need to urge the audience. These heroes have expanded our horizons beyond imagination.

Yesterday, I read about Yuri Gagarin’s life story yet again. I was saddened to read that he died in a plane crash few months before Neil Armstrong could set foot on the moon. Had Gagarin been alive, he would have surely felt the excitement, maybe tinged with a bit of jealously. That moment never came.

Space odyssey has been one of the most exciting chapters in the book of science for me. Years later, I got a chance to see the Apollo 10 shuttle. This was at the science museum in London. The small capsule with riveted metal surface looked too tiny and too low tech to imagine the glorious journey to the moon and back. I remember the comment that somebody had made mentioning that the astronauts must have been either super humanly brave or utterly foolish to undertake the journey in that tiny capsule. The popular verdict of course is that they all were super brave heroes! My visit to NASA that followed after some years was bit of a disappointment. I felt like I was visiting an amusement park, complete with a tuck shop at the end.

Young Indian students now study textbook lessons of Rakesh Sharma and Kalpana Chawla. However it is equally important that they learn about the true pioneers like Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong too. They took, to quote Neil Armstrong, ‘a small step for a man but a big one for mankind’. They are the heroes to entire mankind and their nationality just happens to be Russian and American. After all space has no nationality. It belongs to all of us.

source = http://www.stampsbook.org/

For Ahimsa or Non-Violence to be a way of life, acceptance and respect for those that are not like you is a basic requirement. I do not want to use the word tolerance, because it conveys a resistive and unpleasant feeling of “putting up with the other”. Non-violence and peaceful co-existence seem impossible when you have to tolerate the other. While this comes into play frequently with regards to religion, race, caste , gender, economic status and sexual orientation; it is not limited to just these categories. While people at large need to exercise decorum, understand, respect and appreciate difference, the state and government has a significant role to settle disputes in the event of disharmony. The August 30th- Ayodhya verdict was in my opinion a failure to separate state and religion. The verdict was not based on facts and figures but influenced by beliefs that are not necessarily grounded in objective concrete provable evidence.

I was extremely upset that the courts and judges conveniently ignored the illegality of the injection of the idol into the Masjid (mosque) in 1949. Or the harmony with which the local Hindu and Muslim people co-used the shrine prior to the “nationalistic” intrusion by forces in the country. What about the demolition of the Masjid (mosque) in 1992 – does that not have any bearing on the judgment? I am not an expert in Ayodhya issue or religious disputes in India. But, India needs to deal with such issues in a equitable and just fashion.

Rakesh Sharma’s documentary, Final Solution is set in Gujarat, India; following events post 2002 communal riots. The riots, the carnage and the loss of human life in the hands of Hindu mobs could not have happened without the active aid of the state machinery or at least the lack of effort on the part of the state to curb the attacks. The film investigates and examines a state’s role and agenda in promoting hate or dislike and the resulting violence. The consequences can be pretty scary.

On this day of Gandhi’s birth, that is celebrated and observed as the international day of non-violence, the Ayodha verdict just tells me that as the majority in the country, the Hindus can get away with illegally planting an idol and destroying a Masjid. Just because kings and kingdoms prior to British rule and independence, forced people to convert or destroy temples, should we the so called secular and democratic India do the same?

It is a bad signal to the elements that orchestrated that Babri Masjid demolition event because there are other shrines where a temple/mosque co-exit like in Mathura conveniently the birth place of Krishna. Are we telling them it is ok to do it again and there will be no consequences?

If you’re not passionate about your job, it’s necessary to switch.

Take 1 (Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian astronaut)

http://www.thehindu.com/mp/2010/04/03/stories/2010040352610600.htm

“Incidentally, Rakesh Sharma always wanted to be a pilot. “Since I was six years old, and a cousin in the Air Force took me around and showed me aeroplanes, their cockpits, etc. If you end up doing what you are passionate about, the journey is so easy,” he says.”

Take 2 (James Layfield, entrepreneur)

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main44.asp?filename=Bu130310give_me.asp

“Question: You have so many businesses, why start another one?

Answer: My passion is business, I’m a business geek! I love it, business gets me up in the morning and it keeps me awake at night. It gets me writing this to you on a Sunday afternoon. For me, work doesn’t feel like work: it’s fun. I just recalled how amazing it was when I opened my airport lounge in JFK, New York. It felt so good to stand there, knowing this was my lounge and that all of these happy customers were being looked after by my team.Question:

Question: What do you seek in budding entrepreneurs and promising managers in your company?

Answer: Passion, that’s the main thing – that fire in your belly. Only if you have it can you learn the skills. And I can’t teach you passion.”

Take 3 (Yousuf Karsh, photographer)

“Question: So, his work was his life?

Answer: Yes, his work was his life. I’m not saying that he didn’t enjoy a good glass of cognac. Or that he didn’t enjoy good food. But he was happiest in his studio.”

Source: Article in the Reader’s Digest (Indian ed.), March 2009, by Isabel Nanton

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The first Indian to fly into space, Rakesh Sharma at his home in Coonoor, Andra Pradesh, INDIA

India will Monday celebrate the 26th anniversary of its first astronaut Rakesh Sharma’s trip to space.

The Russian Centre of Science and Culture in the capital will organise an interaction with Mr. Sharma, where he will share his experiences.

Mr. Sharma, then a squadron leader in the Indian Air Force (IAF), embarked on the historic mission on April 3, 1984, as part of a joint space programme between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Soviet Intercosmos space programme. He spent seven days, 21 hours and 40 minutes in space.

742 Charlemagne was born.

1453  Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul).

1513 Juan Ponce de Leon set foot on Florida, becoming the first European known to do so.

1743 Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States, was born.

1755 Commodore William James captured the pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.

1792 The Coinage Act was passed establishing the United States Mint.

1801 Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen – The British destroyed the Danish fleet.

1805 Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer, was born.

1810  Napoleon Bonaparte married Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.

1814 Erastus Brigham Bigelow, American inventor (, was born.

1840 Émile Zola, French novelist and critic, was born.

1863 Richmond Bread Riot: Food shortages incited hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia and demand that the Confederate government release emergency supplies.

1865 American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg was broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.

1865 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

1875 Walter Chrysler, American automobile pioneer, was born.

1900 US Congress passed the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.

1902  Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, was assassinated in the Marie Palace, St Petersburg.

1902 “Electric Theatre”, the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opened in Los Angeles.

1914 Sir Alec Guinness, English actor, was born.

1916 Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana was arrested.

1917 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson asked the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

1917 The first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress, Jeannette Rankin, took her seat as a representative from Montana.

1930 Haile Selassie was proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.

1939 Marvin Gaye, American singer, was born.

1940 Penelope Keith, English actress, was born.

1947 Emmylou Harris, American singer, was born.

1947 Camille Paglia, American feminist writer, was born.

1956 As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere don CBS-TV. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.

1961  Keren Woodward, English singer (Bananarama), was born.

1962 The first official Panda crossing was opened outside Waterloo station, London.

1972 Actor Charlie Chaplin returned to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.

1972 – Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive began– North Vietnamese soldiers of the 304th Division took the northern half of Quang Tri Province.

1973  Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.

1975 Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees fled from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.

1975 – Construction of the CN Tower was completed in Toronto. At 553.33 metres (1,815.4 ft) in height, it became the world’s tallest free-standing structure.

1980  President Jimmy Carter signed the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act in an effort to help the U.S. economy rebound.

1982 Falklands War: Argentina invaded the Malvinas/Falkland Islands.

1984  Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma was launched aboard Soyuz T-11, and becomes the first Indian in space.

1989 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Havana to meet Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.

1991  Rita Johnston became the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeded William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.

1992 Mafia boss John Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering and later sentenced to life in prison.

2002  Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated.

2004 Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks wre thwarted in an attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid.

2006 More than  60 tornadoes broke out; hardest hit was Tennessee with 29 people killed.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Sare Jahan Se Acha (Better than rest of the world) was his answer when asked by then prime minister Indira Gandhi on how does India look from space. To some this may sound like a cliched and rehearsed response from only Indian astronaut aboard Russian Soyuz T-11 on his way to Space station Salyut 7.

Well, I just found a NASA owned image, a true color image of every square mile of earth, taken by a satellite flying 70 KM above earth.  (This and other images can be found here).

Looking at this image, dubbed as ‘BLUE MARBLE’,  I think I agree with Rakesh Sharma

Madhavan Nair, ISRO chief

After the successful launch of the Chandrayaan, India is now dreaming bigger. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on a mission to send man to the Moon by year 2020.

ISRO Chief Madhavan Nair spoke exclusively to about India’s plans of its very own Neil Armstrong.Well, If you extrapolate the dates. Yes.Barely a month after India entered the exclusive nuclear club, the ISRO isaiming to land an Indian on the moon.

Nair speaking on the development towards that, said, “We’re developing a capsule to carry humans to space. 2 astronauts are going to the earth’s orbit for a week or so in 2015 and then 5 or 6 more years to send a man to the moon.”

Next could be a mission that could put an Indian man on the moon just like Neil Armstrong unfurling the American flag on the moon in 1969 evoking the kind of pride that was felt when Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to enter space 25 years ago.

We should set our eyes on the moon and that time it might be the Indian tricolour being unfurled.

Standing at the bottom of his garden, cup of coffee in hand, Gopinath Garirao, 63, peered into the dawn sky and marvelled as the Indian rocket streaked into orbit, fuelled by the hopes of a billion people.

When he was born in 1945 India was still under British colonial rule and more than two years away from the bloody chaos of Partition.

He joined the Indian Railways as an engineer in 1969 – the year that Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon – and worked there until he retired in 2005, on a pension of £100 a month. He has lived through one war with China and three with Pakistan.

There he was, standing outside with his wife, Kalavati Bai, watching the launch of Chandrayaan1 – India’s first unmanned mission to the Moon – from his own back garden.

“I felt very proud to be an Indian,” he told The Times from his home in Sullurpet, six miles from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Yesterday’s launch is especially resonant for Mr Garirao’s generation, who are old enough to have lived through Partition and then witnessed India’s recent reemergence as a world power.

It is not just a landmark for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which has launched dozens of satellites since its founding in 1969 but has never before sent an object beyond the Earth’s orbit.

If successful it will catapult India into the world’s most elite club, ranking it alongside the United States, Russia, Japan and China as the only countries capable of independently reaching the Moon.

It will also mark the beginning of what some experts describe as a 21st century Asian version of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. India is now jostling with China and Japan – Asia’s two dominant powers – to send a man to the Moon by 2025. Even South Korea has its own ambitious space programme.

“In the 20th century the race to the Moon was fought between the erstwhile Cold War adversaries,” said Pallava Bagla, the author of Destination Moon, a history of ISRO.

“In the 21st century those gladiators have been left behind and the Asian nations, on the upsurge, have decided to take their place,” he said. “Chandrayaan is a scientific mission, but it also has implications for global geopolitics. It’s like a coming-out party for India.”

The setting for the historic moment was the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, built in 1971 on Sriharikota island, about 60 miles north of Madras, and now surrounded by a bird sanctuary.

The entrance looks much like that of any other Indian Government compound – a couple of nonchalant policemen, a dirty tea shop, a few stray dogs. Only the two model rockets hint at the futuristic activity within.

At 6.20 am yesterday a 44-metre (145ft) polar satellite launch vehicle blasted off from a launch pad deep within the compound and plunged into the thick clouds over the Bay of Bengal. Nestled in its nose sat Chandrayaan, wrapped in gold-coloured foil like a giant Christmas present.

“Lift-off is normal,” said a crackly voice from mission control. Indian scientists monitoring the launch cheered, clapped and hugged each other, as hundreds of millions more Indians watched live television coverage of the event from their homes.

The 1.38 tonne spacecraft separated from the four-stage rocket about 15 minutes later and began circling the Earth in preparation for its journey onwards to the Moon.

Chandrayaan – meaning Moon vehicle in Sanskrit – will take several days to travel 240,000 miles across space before reaching its final position 60 miles above the Moon.

First it will fire a smaller spacecraft down to the Moon’s surface, carrying an Indian tricolour flag, in an experiment designed to pave the way for further lunar landings.

The mothership will then orbit the Moon for two years, using high-resolution remote sensing to compile, for the first time, a three-dimensional atlas of its surface and analyse its composition.

“This is a historic moment for India,” said G. Madhavan Nair, ISRO’s chairman, shortly after the launch. “What we have started is a remarkable journey . . . to unravel the mysteries of the Moon.”

On board will be 11 instruments: five from ISRO and six from foreign agencies, including Nasa and the European Space Agency. ISRO is footing the £46 million bill for the mission, and will have access to all data from the experiments in an unprecedented example of international cooperation in space.

The results could reveal whether the Moon contains enough water and helium3 (a potential energy source rare on Earth) to sustain human life.

“Man has to go to the Moon,” said Dr T.K. Alex, the head of ISRO’s Satellite Centre, which is overseeing the project. “If something happens to Earth, a natural or man-made disaster, we may also need a colony on Mars.”

The idea of colonising the Moon, let alone Mars, marks a huge strategic shift for India, which has previously focused on cheaper projects with more earthly applications.

India’s modern space programme was conceived by Jawaharlal Nehru, its first Prime Minister, as a peaceful way to lift the country out of poverty. ISRO has concentrated on civilian projects with social or industrial benefits, laying the foundations of India’s recent information technology boom.

Today India has 16 satellites in orbit, supporting telecommunications, TV broadcasting, earth observation, weather forecasting, remote education and healthcare.

Because of an early shortage of funds it also boasts the world’s most efficient space programme, generating income from spacecraft sales and commercial satellite launches.

Now ISRO has far more ambitious and expensive plans. The Government has approved a second unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan2, that will land a rover on the Moon by 2010-12 at a cost of £47 million. ISRO is also planning to put its first Indian astronaut into orbit by 2014-16, depending on when the Government approves the £1 billion budget. It has already announced plans to land a man on the Moon by 2020.

The public response to the plans appears to reflect the gulf between India’s consumer class of between 50 million and 100 million people and the rest of the population of 1.1 billion. Poorer Indians tend to say that the money should be spent fighting poverty in a country where 800 million people live on less than $2 a day and 47 per cent of children under 3 are malnourished.

“Will going to the Moon help me to stop pedalling this?” asked Pappu Tiwari, 34, who pulls a cycle rickshaw in Delhi, supporting a wife and four children on 2,000-2,500 rupees (£25) a month. “To me, this space exploration is nothing but a gimmick.”

Wealthy and middle class professionals generally respond that the country lacks good governance, rather than money, and that the space programme benefits Indian industry.

“Poverty and hunger will always remain,” said Rajeev Kapoor, 48, a salesman from Delhi who supports his wife and two children on 5,000-6,000 rupees a month. “By the time the Government would try to eradicate them completely, the world itself would have vanished.”

There is, however, a new impetus for India’s lunar ambitions. Mao Zedong initiated China’s space programme in 1958 with specific military applications in mind and placed it under the purview of the People’s Liberation Army. That head start, combined with a 30-year economic boom, means that China is now years ahead of India on several fronts, as demonstrated in a series of recent breakthroughs. China put its first astronaut in space in 2003, shot down a satellite and launched a lunar orbiter in 2007, and conducted the first space walk by a Chinese taikonaut last month. Beijing now plans to land a man on the Moon by 2024.

Indian officials insist that they are not racing with China, but they have eyed it with suspicion ever since Chinese forces easily prevailed in a brief border war in 1962. Last year India’s army chief spoke in public for the first time of his fears about China’s military space programme and the need for India to accelerate its own.

Other Asian powers have also been spurred into action by China’s success, and by North Korea’s claim to have tested a nuclear bomb in 2006. Japan launched a new unmanned lunar orbiter last year, has plans for an unmanned Moon lander in 2012-13, and is considering putting a man on the Moon by 2025. South Korea accelerated its space programme in 2004 by teaming up with Russia to develop There’s an element of rivalry, but each country has a mix of motivations,” said Bates Gill, the director of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute. “It’s a combination of national prestige and the spin-offs for technology. The third aspect is the military one. The ultimate high ground: space.”

The new “space race” differs from the Cold War because of the lack of ideology and the international cooperation needed for expensive projects like Mars missions, experts say.

“Space is a global enterprise,” said Henry R. Hertzfeld, a professor at the Space Policy Institute of George Washington University. Some foresee a “golden era” of global cooperation. Nasa plans to send astronauts to the Moon again by 2020 and to build a permanent base there. Russia aims to have one by 2028-32.

Nevertheless, most experts agree that space exploration continues to be as much about politics as science – and a few foresee trouble. China, India, Japan, Russia and the US oppose the “weaponisation” of space, but all are developing space technology with potential military applications.

India is the only country with a lunar programme to have signed the 1979 UN Moon Agreement, which bans ownership of lunar resources. None has yet ratified it.

“There is a window over the next 10 to 15 years for countries to think about a resource race in space,” Dr Gill said. “It’s not too early to think about what these countries might do that could avoid conflict in the future.”

HIGH HOPES

1958 China launches space programme

1964 Japan establishes Institute of Space and Astronautical Science

1969 India Space Research Organisation established

1970 China launches first satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1 (The East Is Red 1) – Japan launches first satellite, Ohsumi

1980 Indian rocket places satellite Rohini in orbit

a spaceport and a satellite launch vehicle, due for completion this year

1984 Rakesh Sharma becomes first Indian in space on a Soviet spacecraft

1990 Japan launches Hiten unmanned lunar orbiter

1990 Toyohiro Akiyama, left, a TV reporter, becomes first Japanese in space when Soviet Union flies him to Mir space station

2003 China puts the first taikonaut, Yang Liwei in space

2007 China shoots down one of its own satellites in space. China launches Chang’e unmanned lunar orbiter. Japan launches Selene unmanned lunar orbiter

2008 China completes first space walk by a taikonaut, Zhai Zhigang. India launches Chandrayaan-1

2009 China to launch Mars probe

2010-12 India to launch Chandrayaan-2 Moon lander and rover

2012-13 Japan to launch Selene-2 lander and rover

2014-16 India to send Indian astronaut into orbit

2020 India to land man on the Moon

2024 China to land man on the Moon

2025 Japan to land man on the Moon

Standing at the bottom of his garden, cup of coffee in hand, Gopinath Garirao, 63, peered into the dawn sky and marvelled as the Indian rocket streaked into orbit, fuelled by the hopes of a billion people.

When he was born in 1945 India was still under British colonial rule and more than two years away from the bloody chaos of Partition.

He joined the Indian Railways as an engineer in 1969 – the year that Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon – and worked there until he retired in 2005, on a pension of £100 a month. He has lived through one war with China and three with Pakistan.

There he was, standing outside with his wife, Kalavati Bai, watching the launch of Chandrayaan1 – India’s first unmanned mission to the Moon – from his own back garden.

“I felt very proud to be an Indian,” he told The Times from his home in Sullurpet, six miles from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Yesterday’s launch is especially resonant for Mr Garirao’s generation, who are old enough to have lived through Partition and then witnessed India’s recent reemergence as a world power.

It is not just a landmark for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which has launched dozens of satellites since its founding in 1969 but has never before sent an object beyond the Earth’s orbit.

If successful it will catapult India into the world’s most elite club, ranking it alongside the United States, Russia, Japan and China as the only countries capable of independently reaching the Moon.

It will also mark the beginning of what some experts describe as a 21st century Asian version of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. India is now jostling with China and Japan – Asia’s two dominant powers – to send a man to the Moon by 2025. Even South Korea has its own ambitious space programme.

“In the 20th century the race to the Moon was fought between the erstwhile Cold War adversaries,” said Pallava Bagla, the author of Destination Moon, a history of ISRO.

“In the 21st century those gladiators have been left behind and the Asian nations, on the upsurge, have decided to take their place,” he said. “Chandrayaan is a scientific mission, but it also has implications for global geopolitics. It’s like a coming-out party for India.”

The setting for the historic moment was the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, built in 1971 on Sriharikota island, about 60 miles north of Madras, and now surrounded by a bird sanctuary.

The entrance looks much like that of any other Indian Government compound – a couple of nonchalant policemen, a dirty tea shop, a few stray dogs. Only the two model rockets hint at the futuristic activity within.

At 6.20 am yesterday a 44-metre (145ft) polar satellite launch vehicle blasted off from a launch pad deep within the compound and plunged into the thick clouds over the Bay of Bengal. Nestled in its nose sat Chandrayaan, wrapped in gold-coloured foil like a giant Christmas present.

“Lift-off is normal,” said a crackly voice from mission control. Indian scientists monitoring the launch cheered, clapped and hugged each other, as hundreds of millions more Indians watched live television coverage of the event from their homes.

The 1.38 tonne spacecraft separated from the four-stage rocket about 15 minutes later and began circling the Earth in preparation for its journey onwards to the Moon.

Chandrayaan – meaning Moon vehicle in Sanskrit – will take several days to travel 240,000 miles across space before reaching its final position 60 miles above the Moon.

First it will fire a smaller spacecraft down to the Moon’s surface, carrying an Indian tricolour flag, in an experiment designed to pave the way for further lunar landings.

The mothership will then orbit the Moon for two years, using high-resolution remote sensing to compile, for the first time, a three-dimensional atlas of its surface and analyse its composition.

“This is a historic moment for India,” said G. Madhavan Nair, ISRO’s chairman, shortly after the launch. “What we have started is a remarkable journey . . . to unravel the mysteries of the Moon.”

On board will be 11 instruments: five from ISRO and six from foreign agencies, including Nasa and the European Space Agency. ISRO is footing the £46 million bill for the mission, and will have access to all data from the experiments in an unprecedented example of international cooperation in space.

The results could reveal whether the Moon contains enough water and helium3 (a potential energy source rare on Earth) to sustain human life.

“Man has to go to the Moon,” said Dr T.K. Alex, the head of ISRO’s Satellite Centre, which is overseeing the project. “If something happens to Earth, a natural or man-made disaster, we may also need a colony on Mars.”

The idea of colonising the Moon, let alone Mars, marks a huge strategic shift for India, which has previously focused on cheaper projects with more earthly applications.

India’s modern space programme was conceived by Jawaharlal Nehru, its first Prime Minister, as a peaceful way to lift the country out of poverty. ISRO has concentrated on civilian projects with social or industrial benefits, laying the foundations of India’s recent information technology boom.

Today India has 16 satellites in orbit, supporting telecommunications, TV broadcasting, earth observation, weather forecasting, remote education and healthcare.

Because of an early shortage of funds it also boasts the world’s most efficient space programme, generating income from spacecraft sales and commercial satellite launches.

Now ISRO has far more ambitious and expensive plans. The Government has approved a second unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan2, that will land a rover on the Moon by 2010-12 at a cost of £47 million. ISRO is also planning to put its first Indian astronaut into orbit by 2014-16, depending on when the Government approves the £1 billion budget. It has already announced plans to land a man on the Moon by 2020.

The public response to the plans appears to reflect the gulf between India’s consumer class of between 50 million and 100 million people and the rest of the population of 1.1 billion. Poorer Indians tend to say that the money should be spent fighting poverty in a country where 800 million people live on less than $2 a day and 47 per cent of children under 3 are malnourished.

“Will going to the Moon help me to stop pedalling this?” asked Pappu Tiwari, 34, who pulls a cycle rickshaw in Delhi, supporting a wife and four children on 2,000-2,500 rupees (£25) a month. “To me, this space exploration is nothing but a gimmick.”

Wealthy and middle class professionals generally respond that the country lacks good governance, rather than money, and that the space programme benefits Indian industry.

“Poverty and hunger will always remain,” said Rajeev Kapoor, 48, a salesman from Delhi who supports his wife and two children on 5,000-6,000 rupees a month. “By the time the Government would try to eradicate them completely, the world itself would have vanished.”

There is, however, a new impetus for India’s lunar ambitions. Mao Zedong initiated China’s space programme in 1958 with specific military applications in mind and placed it under the purview of the People’s Liberation Army. That head start, combined with a 30-year economic boom, means that China is now years ahead of India on several fronts, as demonstrated in a series of recent breakthroughs. China put its first astronaut in space in 2003, shot down a satellite and launched a lunar orbiter in 2007, and conducted the first space walk by a Chinese taikonaut last month. Beijing now plans to land a man on the Moon by 2024.

Indian officials insist that they are not racing with China, but they have eyed it with suspicion ever since Chinese forces easily prevailed in a brief border war in 1962. Last year India’s army chief spoke in public for the first time of his fears about China’s military space programme and the need for India to accelerate its own.

Other Asian powers have also been spurred into action by China’s success, and by North Korea’s claim to have tested a nuclear bomb in 2006. Japan launched a new unmanned lunar orbiter last year, has plans for an unmanned Moon lander in 2012-13, and is considering putting a man on the Moon by 2025. South Korea accelerated its space programme in 2004 by teaming up with Russia to develop There’s an element of rivalry, but each country has a mix of motivations,” said Bates Gill, the director of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute. “It’s a combination of national prestige and the spin-offs for technology. The third aspect is the military one. The ultimate high ground: space.”

The new “space race” differs from the Cold War because of the lack of ideology and the international cooperation needed for expensive projects like Mars missions, experts say.

“Space is a global enterprise,” said Henry R. Hertzfeld, a professor at the Space Policy Institute of George Washington University. Some foresee a “golden era” of global cooperation. Nasa plans to send astronauts to the Moon again by 2020 and to build a permanent base there. Russia aims to have one by 2028-32.

Nevertheless, most experts agree that space exploration continues to be as much about politics as science – and a few foresee trouble. China, India, Japan, Russia and the US oppose the “weaponisation” of space, but all are developing space technology with potential military applications.

India is the only country with a lunar programme to have signed the 1979 UN Moon Agreement, which bans ownership of lunar resources. None has yet ratified it.

“There is a window over the next 10 to 15 years for countries to think about a resource race in space,” Dr Gill said. “It’s not too early to think about what these countries might do that could avoid conflict in the future.”

HIGH HOPES

1958 China launches space programme

1964 Japan establishes Institute of Space and Astronautical Science

1969 India Space Research Organisation established

1970 China launches first satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1 (The East Is Red 1) – Japan launches first satellite, Ohsumi

1980 Indian rocket places satellite Rohini in orbit

a spaceport and a satellite launch vehicle, due for completion this year

1984 Rakesh Sharma becomes first Indian in space on a Soviet spacecraft

1990 Japan launches Hiten unmanned lunar orbiter

1990 Toyohiro Akiyama, left, a TV reporter, becomes first Japanese in space when Soviet Union flies him to Mir space station

2003 China puts the first taikonaut, Yang Liwei in space

2007 China shoots down one of its own satellites in space. China launches Chang’e unmanned lunar orbiter. Japan launches Selene unmanned lunar orbiter

2008 China completes first space walk by a taikonaut, Zhai Zhigang. India launches Chandrayaan-1

2009 China to launch Mars probe

2010-12 India to launch Chandrayaan-2 Moon lander and rover

2012-13 Japan to launch Selene-2 lander and rover

2014-16 India to send Indian astronaut into orbit

2020 India to land man on the Moon

2024 China to land man on the Moon

2025 Japan to land man on the Moon

Video

]]> http://purnimavaradrajan.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/the-new-graduates/ Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:21:13 +0000 Purnima Varadrajan http://purnimavaradrajan.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/the-new-graduates/