Space, Dreams and Beyond

Some politicians have tough time separating religion from state. Be it American Republican candidate for U.S. Senate who thinks appointing non-Christians is equivalent to ’sin’ or be it Indian BJP leaders who wants to make singing Vandemataram mandatory in schools and parliament on the songs 100th anniversary on Sept 7th.

On the face of it, one might not find anything religious about Vande Mataram. So just to remind you, the only reason, in spite of being a revolutionary slogan during independence, Vande Mataram did not qualify as national anthem, was because it literally translates as ‘I bow head in front of you, Mother’. ‘Mother’ could be thought as Mother-India (not the movie!) but some believe it was actually meant to be Hindu Goddess. Indeed, she looks like one in this image which was posted on net as ‘Bharat Ma’. ! In any case, Islam allows that kind of respect only to Allah (May peace be upon Him) and secular India had to respect that choice. (Note that definition of secularism is quite different in India than what it is in America and LOT different than what it is in European countries like France).

Well surely every Muslim does not take Quran so seriously. I would not if I were a Muslim. Neither did A R Rahman, and surely not Mukhtar Abbas Nakvi, BJP Spokesperson, who is very vocal in supporting his Party’s stand.

But that’s not the point. Point is for good or bad, whether you agree or not, Vande Mataram is not our National Anthem and we have to live with it! Its really ironical that both National song and National Anthem of India have always been in controversy and more ironical is that most (or all) the reasons fueling the controversy were just dumb. Reason Vande Mataram is in controversy now is exactly the same it was 60 years back.Nothing has changed now. So why you just do not accept it and move on? Singing a song is not going to solve our problems, would it? Unless, your problem was there has been no political-religious controversy stalling the government for a while. Don’t we have a Nation to run? Oh right, I forget, these politicians don’t.

Yes, Vande Mataram is our ‘ National Song’ but still that does not warrant the idea of forcing everyone to sing it. What’s next? Making it compulsory for everyone to play India’s national Game’ hockey on Dhyan Chands 103rd Birthday?

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas..if this phrase reminds you of nine Planets, better change it to My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nothing, because International Astronomical Union, declared today that Pluto is  not a planet anymore and neither are other three contenders (Ceres, Charon and Xena) who were hoping to hop into  planet family.

So its not nine, certainly not twelve ., its just Eight Planets.

Pluto looses out on last two of the three conditions as presented on BBC

Note: This one is just a re-post with some minor updates from my yahoo 360 blog. I am just trying to move some of my earlier and most viewed blogs to wordpress.

My guess is about 1.5 million Indian youths, living in India, USA and other countries are on Orkut, an “online community” , to increase the “circumference of their social circle”. It might seem like a low number when compared to about 14 million Brazilians out of about 22 million (more than 26 million at the time of this update) total Orkut members. However, it is clear that among Indians this website is more popular than any other similar ones like myspace, yahoo 360 or hi5. Every other person from India I come across seems to be registered here.

So what is in Orkut that makes it so popular among Indians. From my two month (now 4) experience on Orkut, I figured out top 5 reason why Indians like Orkut.

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Astronomers around the world are surely divided on fate of the number of planets in the solar system and so is the public reaction. It wont be easy for everyone to change the notion of  ‘ Nine planets’.  Is it necessary to bring these changes or astronomers are just bored is a debatable question.

The resolution is to have 12 planets, which would mean addition of Ceres(Demoted from planet status about 100 years back), Charon (Pluto’s moon), and 2003 UB 313 (Farthest known object in Solar System) to the planet list .

Then there are reports of Pluto being demoted to a dwarf planet and eventual possibility of Earth’s Moon being added to the list (long after you and I die), subjected to to survival of Earth-Moon system.

Immediate question which comes to the mind is how frequently we will update this list and how strongly will this definitions stand over the centuries. Would something be retained as ‘XXX Classical Planets of XXXX World’ just as we have ‘ Seven Wonders of the Ancient World’ 

Astronomers are divided on every aspect and what ‘may’ happen depends on who you ask! So I just stopped following the reports and look forward to the outcome of meeting at International Astronomical Union (IAU) at Czech capital of Prague. (Sounds so similar to my name!)

I hope whatever they come up with, they come with a strong definition which will allow only addition of planets as and when they are found but not be dropped like Ceres only to be reconsidered as a planet after 100 years and now the shaky status of Pluto!