Starting today with synthesis - the folk/fusion band Swarathma singing in Kannada, collaborating with Shubha Mudgal. So a South Indian band singing Western inspired music and a singer of North Indian Hindustani Classical blending their disparate styles and languages into a miraculous whole. Sometimes my head spins from the melting-potness of the melting pot that is India. :)
Now for a very different sound - the progressive metal band Skyharbour with musicians from India and USA, singing a track called Dim -
Finally here's Suneeta Rao with a decades old but super successful number Paree Hoon Main from the album Dhuan, released in 1991, which made her name known to every household.
Space. Sculpture. Story.
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| Sent by R.K.Laxman to ISRO,from their Facebook wall, shared in Jan 2015. |
Today’s
‘object’ is a digital reproduction of a cartoon – it links together two super
success stories in two separate fields. It was sent to the scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation by the iconic Indian cartoonist R.K. Laxman in December 2014. Laxman died on 26th January 2015 aged 93, and ISRO paid their tribute to him by making this, one of his last works, public on its Facebook page and Twitter.
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| Laxman's Common Man on the Worli Sea Face, Mumbai. |
The cartoon features The Common Man, he wears a dhoti and a distinctive checked jacket, and is the silent observer of Indian socio-political events. Laxman captured the plight of the average Indian with a dry wit that was as delightful as it was unique. He created this beloved character in 1951 and his daily cartoon - You Said It, in The Times of India entertained Indian readers for over half a century till 2003 when a stroke paralysed Laxman. The Common Man has been immortalised through sculptures - one stands in the Symbiosis Institute at Pune, and another is on the Worli sea-face in Mumbai. Read more about Laxman and check out his artwork/cartoons here.
Now for the second success story - ISRO. Space Research in India began with the setting up of the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) in 1962, founded by Vikram Sarabhai. INCOSPAR launched several small rockets over the next 12 years from its Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in a remote rural location in South India. Fun fact - one of the young scientists working on India's first space research programmes was A.P. J Abdul Kalam, who went onto become India's 11th President in 2002. In 1969, INCOSPAR became Indian Space Research Organisation following which, in 1975, it built the first Indian satellite, Aryabhatta, launched by Soviet Union.
By 1981, ISRO had built its first communication satellite, APPLE, followed by the INSAT system over the 80s and 90s which became the largest domestic communication system in South Asia. In 2008 ISRO, sent a lunar satellite, Chandrayaan I, successfully into orbit around the Moon. It identified the presence of water molecules on the Moon. Unfortunately, the follow up Chandrayaan II was only partially successful, the soft landing of the rover Vikram could not be achieved due to a software glitch. ISRO is currently working on Chandrayaan III and may attempt a soft landing again in 2021.
The Mars Orbiter Mission started shortly after Chandrayaan I in 2008, with the announcement of an unmanned mission to Mars by the then Chairman. A feasibility study was done in 2010, and the Mangalyaan I was launched in November 2013. It entered into orbit around Mars on 24th September 2014. India thus became the fourth nation to complete an interplanetary mission to Mars, after Roscosmos, NASA, and ERA, the only Asian nation to do so. Moreover, it was the first nation to place a space probe in a Martian orbit at the first attempt. The cost of the mission was also a fraction of the missions carried out by the other space agencies. The cartoon above was presented to ISRO on December 26th 2014, as the Mangalyaan completed 100 days in orbit. Read more here.
Which cartoon characters have been immortalised in your own culture? Do political cartoons play a role in your life/reading?
By 1981, ISRO had built its first communication satellite, APPLE, followed by the INSAT system over the 80s and 90s which became the largest domestic communication system in South Asia. In 2008 ISRO, sent a lunar satellite, Chandrayaan I, successfully into orbit around the Moon. It identified the presence of water molecules on the Moon. Unfortunately, the follow up Chandrayaan II was only partially successful, the soft landing of the rover Vikram could not be achieved due to a software glitch. ISRO is currently working on Chandrayaan III and may attempt a soft landing again in 2021.
The Mars Orbiter Mission started shortly after Chandrayaan I in 2008, with the announcement of an unmanned mission to Mars by the then Chairman. A feasibility study was done in 2010, and the Mangalyaan I was launched in November 2013. It entered into orbit around Mars on 24th September 2014. India thus became the fourth nation to complete an interplanetary mission to Mars, after Roscosmos, NASA, and ERA, the only Asian nation to do so. Moreover, it was the first nation to place a space probe in a Martian orbit at the first attempt. The cost of the mission was also a fraction of the missions carried out by the other space agencies. The cartoon above was presented to ISRO on December 26th 2014, as the Mangalyaan completed 100 days in orbit. Read more here.
Which cartoon characters have been immortalised in your own culture? Do political cartoons play a role in your life/reading?
A-Z Challenge 2020
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