Over the Moon

India successfully launched Chandrayaan-1. Its a major achievement for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is a time for jubilation for all Indians and specifically the scientific community of India and they are cherishing every moment of it with the successful launch. In two weeks time the robotic probe will reach the lunar orbit (about 100 km).It will orbit the Moon, compiling a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and mapping the distribution of elements and minerals.

ISRO revealed that Chandrayaan-1 is only the beginning, and that the mission, which is expected to last for two years, will be followed by Chandrayaan-2, which will go even further, by landing on the Moon, and continue exploration with a rover. India’s plans don’t stop here, and in the future, the ISRO also hopes it will be able to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars and beyond (to asteroids and comets, and even one to study the Sun). Mr Madhavan Nair Chairman of ISRO announced that they plan to send a man to space in 2015. For the time being, the Moon awaits......

Unlike the lunar and space race in the 60's and 70's that was probably exploratory or for supremacy (between erstwhile Soviet Union and US), the present spike of interest in moon exploration (especially from Europe, Japan and China) is more commercial, scientific and even has tactical implications. It is to find out what is there on the moon, and whether technologies can be developed on earth to make rewarding use of lunar resources.The presence of helium-3, believed to be a clean and excellent fuel of the future is just one of the reasons why countries want to literally, reach for the moon. The Moon may well hold hidden tales about the early history of the Solar System, its evolution and of the crucial period when life emerged on the Earth.

The Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe marks an effort by ISRO to go beyond the Vikram Sarabhai dream (Father of Indian Space Program) — a first step in taking on the challenges of deep space exploration. ISRO is setting a trend in space exploration by demonstrating the fact that we are all one world ie "Vasudeva Kudumbakam" (the entire creation of God is one family). It is exemplified by the fact that the mission includes five ISRO payloads and six payloads from other international space agencies including NASA, ESA and the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency, which are being carried free of cost. Congrats to all the scientists and people behind this successful venture. I conclude with the words of Professor Vikram Sarabhai (1919-1971)

"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight. But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society. "

Mohanlal and Suraaj show

The feedback from the Mohanlal show (termed Mohanlal Daily Delight show 2008- Europe) was that it was average.We went with Sunil and family and it at Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. One of the reasons why people said it is average because most of the malayali homes at present have Satellite TV and have watched the skits and other similar performances before.

Generally, I liked the programme especially the performance of Suraj Venjarumoodu. He was the star of the show. Mohanlal was also impressive. It was a great feeling watching a legend perform on stage at a liveshow.In dance performances Mohanlal was very flexible and his movements were very subtle and elegant. However, the lip singing was quite evident, though he tried to make it up with his acting performanc. The female artists ie Jyotirmayi and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy were good. Meera Nandan, Jagadish, Mukesh, Afzal and Vineeth were average.

320...in great style

India recorded their biggest test- cricket victory today (in terms of runs). They crushed the test champions, Australia by a huge margin of 320 runs. It was an emphatic win, outplaying the Aussies in batting, bowling, fielding and captaincy, consistently over 5 days. Australia have lost before but it's been a long time since they were so comprehensively taken apart. India is the only team in the last 10 years who has stood up to Australia and such a result was imminent.

MS Dhoni rightly deserves the man of the match award, though potentially it could have been given to any of the nine players with the possible exception of Dravid and Laxman. It was a great team effort ably led by the captain from the front. As I had said in one of my previous blogs, Dhoni is the man for Indian Cricket at the moment and there should be no hesitation in making him Team India's test captain (http://pradeepcvasudevan.blogspot.com/2008/08/msd.html). Congrats to whole team and management and specifically Kris Srikkanth who in my opinion took some sensible decisions in team selection and went for a right mix of experience combined with youth.......

Hanuman Temple

"manojapam marutha thulyavegam

jithendriyam budhimaatham varishtam

vaathatmajam vanaraayutha mukhyam

srirama dhuutham shirasa namami"

I first went to the PMG Hanuman temple (near Vikas Bhavan and Kerala Legislative Assembly building) during my school days. I used to offer my prayers at the temple, every Thursday during my Pre-degree and MBBS days. The temple used to be a small one during those days; but it has expanded and changed tremendously over the last 10 years and has grown into one of the most important places of worship in Trivandrum.

The Temple was consecrated for the benefit of the soldiers (of Travancore army)to offer prayers in the 1850's. The main offerings are 'vadamala', 'vettamala' and cheese. Pushpabhishekham is also a "nercha" (an offering).

Palayam- yet another 'kerala model'

Palayam in Trivandrum extends from the cantonment house in the north up to the present A.K.G. Centre in the south, including areas now occupied by the University Stadium and Chandrasekharan Nair stadium. It was the camping area of the former Travancore state army and cavalry. That place, therefore, came to be known as Palayam/Cantonment – meaning military area.......

A church, a mosque and a temple were consecrated side by side, with their compound walls touching each other near the Palayam junction for the personnel of the State Forces and their family members to perform their religious duties. The peaceful co-existence of these three centres of worship of different religions is a shining example of the religious tolerance, secularism and harmony in the state.

Palayam Shakthi Vinayaka Temple. Note that part of the
Mosque is visible on the right side and both share the same
compound wall .....

Palayam St Josephs Church

Palayam Mosque (Juma Masjid)...P K Ahmed Kutty Moulavi,
imam of the Palayam mosque, opened the doors of the
mosque for women for the first time in south Kerala.
More than 250 women attend the prayers at the Palayam Mosque
on ordinary days, whereas on Fridays their numbers increase
to around 1,000. The imam is of the opinion that there is nothing
unIslamic in women offering prayers in mosques.

The western media always finds it difficult to understand and 'digest' how India can survive as a nation and usually try to portray India as a place where communities and religions fight each other. These media should come and report from Kerala, where about half of the population is either a christian or a muslim,living peacefully and fully integrated for many centuries along with the hindu population.....

Kerala Art and Literary Association

Yesterday went to the KALA (Kerala Art and Literary Association) annual get-together. It always feels nice to be at KALA. The main reason being its different from the usual malayali get-together.

This association is the Brain child of Dr Sukumaran Nair, started in 1996. As its website says KALA is an ever growing network of like-minded friends and families based across the length and breadth of United Kingdom committed to promoting Kerala's rich and varied artistic, literary and cultural heritage among international community, particularly younger British Malayalees.

The annual day celebrations have been held for the last few years at Parmiters school hall in Watford, usually on a Saturday evening in October. I still remember the first time I went to the KALA garden party in 1999 with Balumaman and Susha aunty. It was like a 'small kerala' recreated in this part of the world. Since then I have tried to attend the annual celebrations every year, but have not been successful a few years due to various commitments. I think Balumaman has been to almost every KALA function since 1999.

Every year there will be a couple of invited chief guests who are eminent malayalees from the socio-cultural-literary world. Over the last decade the chief guests have included Sri Madhusudhanan Nair, Sri ONV Kurup, Sri Nedumudi Venu, Singer Sri Venugopal, Sri Vishnu Narayanan Namboothiri etc. 'KALA evenings' reminds me to some extend of the 'Surya' cultural society celebrations or other cultural evenings at Kanakakunnu palace, Trivandrum.

The performances at KALA are usually a class of its own ; but probably the the best part of this evening is catching up with our old friends, meeting new ones and sometimes surprise meeting with a person whom you have not met for many years (how just a casual comment by Unnikrishnan snowballed into a big circle of new friends for me is a long story...will write on that later....)

The dinner is in traditional kerala style..but I like the 'vada' and snacks more, that are served at the start of the meeting. This year I was particularly impressed with the performance of KALA Youth; the skit was excellent. Another unique feature of KALA is the in-house magazine PALMLEAF that has a rich mix of articles written by the malayali talents in UK. All in all it was a superb evening with wonderful performances, great crowd, delicious food and colourful atmosphere. ....like a real 'malabar dream' come true.....

The Ever Smiling Buddha

On Oct 2nd 2008 (Gandhi Jayanthi day!) US Senate approved the 'Indo-US Nuclear Deal' by an overwhelming majority (86/100) and also earlier the house of representatives by more than 2/3rd majority. There was strong bi-partisan support for the bill in US; even rival presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, besides a host of heavyweights on both sides of the aisle such as Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, backed the deal on what was a momentous day for the deal. This has paved the way for civilian nuclear cooperation between India and countries around the world.

The context of this bill is very relevant i.e in spite of the hectic and busy discussions that have been engulfing US regarding the 'financial bail out' package and the biggest economic fallout since the 1930's. This signifies the importance 'Uncle Sam' has given to the bill and adds a new dimension to the strategic partnership and foreign policy for both the countries. This bill paves the way for India to get nuclear reactors, fuel and technology not only from US , but also France (already Indo-french deal has been signed) and Russia (when Russian president visits India in December 2008)

It is interesting to look at some of the facts and reality. I think in general, Indians have been welcoming the deal. Naturally Congress party is elated by this and may consider using this as a strong campaign point for them in the next general elections(2009). But I feel this is a personal triumph for Sri Manmohan Singh. He in fact was trying to correct a 'mistake' by his predecessor, the former Indian Prime minister, Smt Indira Gandhi.

In 1974 it was Mrs Gandhi who for 'political gains' gave authorisation to conduct the Pokharan-1 test ('Smiling Buddha'). The scientist's used the CIRUS reactor ("CIRUS" = Canada-India Research U.S.) to produce the plutonium that was a research reactor donated by Canada in 1960, with heavy water supplied by the USA. This led to the formation of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

India never signed Nuclear- Nonproliferation-treaty(NPT), terming it discriminatory (probably true) creating a world of 'Nuclear haves and have nots'; a view that was unacceptable to the other signatories. This has prevented India from obtaining commercial nuclear fuel, nuclear power plant components and services from the international market, thereby forcing India to develop its own fuel, components and services for nuclear power generation. Thus the NSG embargo has had both negative and positive consequences for India's Nuclear Industry. The positive effect for India has been the creation of a large pool of nuclear scientists and engineers who have developed new and unique innovations in the areas of Fast Breeder Reactors and Thorium fuel cycle.

Nuclear power at present supplies only about 3% of India's electricity. By 2050, nuclear power is expected to provide 25% of the country's electricity. India has limited coal and uranium reserves, but has vast Thorium resources; about 1/4th of the world. I hope the government of Kerala (keeping political differences aside) takes a pro-active role in ensuring that the state uses this unique opportunity, as Kerala has a significant reserve of thorium in its coastal areas.

This nuclear deal should help in addressing the needs of energy hungry India in the 21st century. In the future, Dr Manmohan Singh will not only be remembered as the person who started economic reforms in India, but the person who brought India out of Nuclear isolation.

Tail piece: Even though Sri Buddha is smiling on India, another Buddha deserves all the sympathy ie the chief minister of West-Bengal state where TATA (and Nano project) bid 'tata' to the state......