Astrovelo

Ashwini had an epiphany and she told me about it yesterday.

“Dad, if you fart and move away, it doesn’t go with you.”

P1: Do you know where we live? P2: Where? P1: In the Milky Way galaxy. All the planets and Sun and Moon are in the Milky Way.

P1: Do you know which stars are hotter? P2: Which ones? P1: Blue stars are the hottest.

P1: Do you know how to make a star? P2: You can draw 2 triangles… P1: No. No. A real star??? P2: How do you make it? P1: You have to take gas and dust and put it together to make a star.

I am sure you can guess who persons P1 and P2 are. But, that is wrong. Person P2 is me and P1 is Ms. Ashwini. One of her teachers was talking about Astronomy in her class last week. Isn’t that just wonderful?

I wish I was the one telling her all this stuff, but as long as she learns all the correct things, it is all right.

These two bright objects are hard to miss in the morning sky these days. They are seen in the southeastern sky before sunrise. Due to their brightness, they are visible even as the sky starts to lighten up. On Friday, Feb 1st, they will appear to be at their closest point (less than 1deg.). Don’t miss the spectacular sight. Here is more information.

Came back from Hindustan over the weekend. I had a such a nice time for two weeks, I didn’t realize that it was time to come back. It feels good to be back with my babies. It was precious to see the happiness on their faces to see me.

The journey back home was very uneventful. Non-stop flight from Mumbai to New York was about half full and I had a whole bench of three seats to myself. I could make full use of them to lie down through most of the travel time. First class treatment in economy class fare. Who would complain about that?

Other than meeting with parents, friends and relatives to eat about 5-6 meals every day, there were just a few mentionable things I did.

• I was invited to present a talk at the 50th Anniversary celebrations at my alma mater, The Bombay College of Pharmacy. The two-day (Jan 18-19) symposium was a great success with presentations mostly by alumni on topics ranging from genomics and drug discovery to formulations and regulatory affairs.
• Keeping up with tradition, I had to visit at least one fort in the Sahyadris during my trip. This time, it was Lohgad near Lonavala. It is one of the best preserved forts as it was occupied and in-use till 1818 when it was transfered to the British without shedding a drop of blood or using a single bullet. Here are some photos...

  Lohgad 01-2008

  After eating a meal at one of Mumbai's fanciest hotels, The Orchid, on the night before, I was treated to simple zunaka-bhakar for lunch at Hotel Baba at the foot of Lohgad. After the arduous hike in cool weather, freshly made hot zunaka-bhakar with onions and pickles was just heavenly.
• Met with radhika74 in person. After unsuccessfully trying to catch a couple of other LJ friends, we decided to meet at her home. I have many close cousins that I meet during every trip and meeting with Radhika seemed like seeing another of my cousins. A simple home-cooked meal with 'Naturals' ice cream to follow added to that perception. We had a good time chatting for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun and am going to add her name to the list of my cousins to see on every trip. One thing I couldn't figure out... Why was she talking with me in english? It took her good 15-20 minutes before settling down to Marathi. She has a post on her LJ about our meeting and it reads almost like mine.

This was my time on Air India and It was one of the best airline experiences ever. Direct flight from New York to Mumbai takes only 13 hours and 40 minutes. This route is serviced by new Boeing 777 planes that are really nice. Lots of legroom, the seats are comfortable and are equipped with personal on-demand video service. I had unlimited and uninterrupted access to TV after a long long time and I made full use of it. Other than about 4-5 hours of sleep, I was watching it constantly.

Here are the movies that I watched:

• Casino Royale: It is probably the most action-packed Bond movie ever. I was getting tired watching all the running around. The new Bond is the best built, but his face most definitely is not suitable for Bond. As I had mentioned before, he looks like a KGB agent.
• Khosla ka ghosla: I like it. Anupam Kher did a good job without making a fool of himself. The movie is made very well, too.
• Lage raho munnabhai: bande me tha dum, vande mataram!!! Quite entertaining. I am not ashamed to admit that I like Sanjeevay Dutt.
• Eklavya: It was OK except Amitabh Bachchan. It was painful to look at him. He looked so so old and his costume and make-up didn't help him.
• Uttaraayan: Watched a Marathi movie after a long time. It was a good adaptation of "Durgi" by Jayawant Dalwi, but it could have been made better. The dialog lacked substance and cohesiveness at times. Also, it should included more poetry as it was an important part of the relationship between Raghu and Durgi.
• Bhagum bhag: couldn't take more than about 10 minutes of it.

The best part about all these hindi movies was that they were edited to remove all the songs and made to fit in less than 2 hours. It was just perfect. All the three movies had Boman Irani. He seemed much better than Kader Khan and Johny Lever. Maybe, after a few more movies, he will become unbearable too. Also, two of them had Vidya Balan. She looked quite good. Probably one of the best of the newer actresses in Bollywood.

Looking forward to watching a few more movies on my way back on the 25th.

Yesterday, it was time for the bimonthly blood donation drive at work. Usually, my hemoglobin is well above the 12.5 gm/dl limit required to be eligible for donation. When the nurse tested it yesterday, it was 12. Upon retest, it was 11.4. So, she brought her supervisor to repeat the test and then, it came out to be 14.4 gm/dl which is in the normal range for me. Don’t know if it was the inexperience of the first nurse or some glitch with the machine that were responsible those lower readings. After several pokes for the hemoglobin test and registration, I had to wait awhile before they could put the big needle into me. During this time, one woman fainted on the bed half way through her donation. Another man finished his donation with a big bruise developing at the puncture site. Watching all this drama, I was getting skeptical about the donation, but fortunately there were no problems for me. I was done in 5 minutes.

This will be my first and last donation of 2008. After my India trip next week, American Red Cross will not take my blood for one year. In the 1990’s this deferral period used to be a six months but, later increased to one year.

Adit was a very happy boy last week as it was his birthday and Santa dropped by too. He received a lot of presents from us, but my favorite ones were sent by his Sujitkaka.

• Automoblox: set of wooden block cars with interchangeable parts that are crafted so well. These cars must have been very popular lately. I wanted to buy more and had a hard time finding them online. Finally, found what I wanted at Mad Cat Toys.
• Kikkerland windup toys:
  1. Awika
     
  2. Sparklz
     
  These beautiful and minimalistic mechanical critters are designed by Chico Bicalho. They walk around and make sparks. There is a whole series of these things. I should try to get all the rest of them.

Ten years ago, I placed my first ever online order at Amazon.com in Dec 1997. In the last 10 years, online shopping has become our main source of stuff. The only things we buy in store these days, are groceries. I am contemplating use of peapod.com for that as well. Haven’t done it yet, but maybe soon, we’ll switch to online groceries, too.

My first ever online order was for two books:

• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids
• Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book

The following post is not explicit, but acknowledges the existence of sex. Use your discretion.

At a recent doctor’s visit:

Doctor: Are you sexually active? Me: yes. Doctor: Are you monogamous or have multiple partners? Me: only one. With two kids, ages 2 and 4, and both of us working, do you think I have time or energy for affairs? Doctor: I know what you mean. I have three kids myself: 2, 4 and six years old. But, I have to follow the script and ask all the standard questions.

All you men and women with similar family responsibilities and who are engaged in extra-marital affairs, I really admire you for your time management skills. I wish I can learn some of that from you. Also, how do you get the energy? Is it cocaine or ecstasy? Just caffeine doesn’t do much for me any more.

You still suck for cheating on your partner unless you have an open relationship and are free to spread your love around.

As a response to premkudva’s comment, I wrote this stuff about the position of Moon and times of mooonrise and moonset. Just want to keep it here, so I can find it later…

Moon moves the same distance every day. Here is how the calculation works out… On new moon day, Moon is very close to the Sun and on full moon day, it is on the opposite side compared to the Sun. So, in 28 days it has to cover the whole sky which is 360 degrees. 360/28=12.8 degrees per day. Earth rotates 360 degrees in a day, i.e. 1440 minutes. so, 1440/360=4 minutes per degree. so, 12.8x4=51.2 minutes. That means it rises 51 minutes later everyday compared to the prior day and hence you see it at different location at the same time of the day.

The change in position of sunrise/moonrise and sunset/moonset has to do with the inclination of the axis of rotation of Earth. Sun, Moon and all the planets are approximately in a plane called “The ecliptic”. The axis of rotation for Earth is about 23.5 deg tilted with respect to the Ecliptic. That causes the heavenly bodies to rise and set at different location during the month for moon and through the year for others. On a new moon day, moon is towards the Sun and hence, close to new moon, it rises and sets around where the Sun is and on full moon day, it is at the opposite end of the range. For the days in between, you see it drift gradually every day.

They were very excited to see each other after three weeks and really are very happy to be together, except when they fight.

Adit and I went for an outing to Fort Griswold in Groton, CT. It is a revolutionary era fort on a hill next to Thames river. It is a small fort but is not a disappointing one like most other forts in USA. It has some rock fortifications, but mostly earthen berms. The most interesting feature is the two levels: one on the top of the hill and another one with many canon positions closer to the river at the bottom of the hill. There is a covered passage, part of it is a tunnel that connects the top and bottom levels of the fort.

On September 6th 1781, this fort saw its most intense battle for about 40 minutes and was lost to the British army under the command of a local Connecticut traitor, Benedict Arnold (America’s own Khandoji Khopade). American Colonel Ledyard finally surrendered by giving up his sword to the British and was instantly killed by his own sword and rest of the American force was massacred. Here is the whole story:

Tangled woods and swamps slowed the British force of 800 that landed on the east side of the Thames River. A battalion of New Jersey loyalists responsible for moving the artillery could not keep pace with the Regulars who came within striking distance of Fort Griswold at 10 a.m. Meanwhile, the fort had been garrisoned with about 150 colonial militia and local men under the command of Colonel William Ledyard. Colonel Ledyard and his officers, expecting reinforcements momentarily, elected to defend the post against the superior force. Colonel Eyre, the British commander, sent forward a flag demanding surrender. Ledyard refused. The demand was made again and Eyre threatened that if he were forced to storm the fort, no quarter would be given to its defenders. The response was the same.

The British force immediately spread their ranks and advanced on Fort Griswold. As they neared the ditch, they were met with an artillery barrage that killed and wounded many, but the seasoned and disciplined troops continued their charge. Some tried to gain the southwest bastion but they were repulsed and Colonel Eyre was badly wounded. Under heavy musket fire, another group dislodged some pickets and by hand to hand combat reached a cannon and turned it against the garrison. Another party led by Major Montgomery charged with fixed bayonets. They were met with long spears and the major was killed. A few of the Regulars managed to reach the gate and open it and the enemy force marched in, in formation. Seeing this, Colonel Ledyard ordered his me to stop fighting, but some action continued on both sides.

American and British accounts of the subsequent events are at odds. The American version holds that after Ledyard gave up his sword in surrender he was immediately killed with it and that a massacre ensued. Before the “massacre” it is claimed that less than ten Americans had been killed, but when it was over, more than eighty of the garrison lay dead and mutilated and more than half of the remainder were severely wounded. The British version makes no mention of the massacre or the manner of Ledyard’s death. The entire battle had lasted only 40 minutes.

Adit had a lot of fun going back and forth through the tunnel. First he was skeptical to go in the dark passageway but followed me when I went in. It was a cold and cloudy day. We stayed at the fort for about 45 minutes before going back to the warm car.

They are counting down the days before they can see each other next Sunday. This has been the longest time apart for them.

Ashwini at the wedding

Ashwini had a blast, modeling at the wedding. After the bride and the groom, she was the most photographed person at the ceremony. According to V, even the priests took out their cell phones to take pictures of Ashwini.


Ashwini with her Aai.

Ashwini with Aaji & Aajoba.

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Picture of me and V along with our pets in Dofus, the alternate world that we have been living in, part-time for the past year or so. It has helped us keep our sanity during these crazy times.

And, Yes!! V is about a foot or so taller than me.

December 22nd is Winter Solstice: the official shortest day of the year. But, that doesn’t mean that it is the day with latest Sunrise and earliest Sunset. Thanks to canyoncat for the following excellent information. I guess the times mentioned here are for Boston, so they will be approximately same for me as I live close by.

Well, the good news is that we are now experiencing our earliest sunset, at 4:12pm, and it stays at 4:12pm until December 14. Beginning on December 15th the Sun will start setting later and later every day. Our latest sunrise, at 7:14am, does not occur until January 2-6 and then that starts getting earlier. I know there is a reason why these do not correspond so the shortest day, on December 21... some nonsense about a tilted planet... more likely a warped mind. :)

We actually have two shortest days this year. December 21 and 22 are both 9h 04m 48s.