That Tiny Spec !!!

Finally had clear skies after the on and off grey monsoon clouds. Got my telescope pointing towards the sky and well, even though there were no clouds, could hardly see any distant objects. Guess its the city pollution. After tens of minutes of rigorous sky searching, was able to see this. (check the image below)

Yup, just a tiny spec ! Rather a tiny dot. And oh yeah, thought I need to mention this here, that its not a star :D

Its the galaxy M-13, also known as NGC 6205. Read that again. It is not a star, but a Galaxy ! Compared to our own Milky Way galaxy, it is very small. M-13 has only 300,000 stars (thats 300 thousand.......and yes i said only) within it. Milky way has more than 100 Billion stars, so yeah hardly a comparison. But the wonder and excitement for me was to see what appears a tiny dot in the night sky, is actually a galaxy with about 300,000 stars inside it :). M-13 is 145 light years wide. So light takes about 145 years to travel from its one side to the other. And it is just 25,000 light years away from our Earth :D. So that image I just clicked of M-13 is of the light it emitted 25,000 years ago, which means how it looked that many years ago. And how it is right now, shall know after 25,000 years. ...... too complicated?? or interesting?? :) Universe is vast, can make one truly wonder !

So when we look at the sky everything that shines need not be a star or a planet. Who knows how far that object is, and how many magnificent worlds it has within it.

There was one more dot in the image attached, to the right of M-13, but was so faint that could not be captured with my camera. That too was a galaxy 'M-91', which is about 63 million light years away from Earth. So technically, if we could travel there right now and look back at earth, we would see the extinction of Dinosaurs !!!

'Q' bole to....Quilling! ....part 2

If you missed my previous post ....... do read the earlier blog on Quilling

And its Quilling with double 'l's and not Quilting. If one searches Quilling on google, it asks back "Are you searching for Quilting" .

Well my friend keeps surprising me, and many others with her new Quilling creations :). Yeah Yeah.......it just gets bigger......better! The new designs have evolved from an envelope to photo frames to birthday cards ....... and who knows what next :) . Well, we can only wait and watch.

So as I had mentioned earlier, the wonder still continues :). And its so nice to see so many people ordering the Quilled artwork from her. Well, in this post i won't write much, but will leave you with many more pictures for you to enjoy and comment upon. If you have any creative idea, or would like to have any of the Quilling creations, do let me know. Enjoy the pictures of the Photo Frames , Envelopes (Ganesha and Rakshabandhan special), B'day Cards.

My personal fav here would be the Peacock design on the photo frame, but the Butterfly Park frame is also a close contender :)

Also one of the pic is of the Quilling art from my car, that's called a snowflake......as it has the shape of a tiny particle of Snow. (i guess writing a blog and posting pictures is much easier than Quilling :P .....pun intended! )

PS: I had ordered the frame with wooden finish, and the person whom I gifted it simply loved it ! :)

Jumping from a Plane!!!

Had written this article a long time back. Thought of sharing it on this blog....

Summer of 2008, Oulu, Finland

Heights have never been my strengths. Friends who really know me well can vouch for it. It’s not that I am afraid of heights, but kind of a phobia where in I get a tingling sensation in my legs when I look down from few feet above ground. And if I am standing on a rooftop and looking downwards, then I need something to hold on to, else, I’ll never go near the edge J

So here I was in Oulu during the winters and while exploring this new place, found out a skydiving school nearby. Upon enquiry, they told me there are two types of jumps:

1) Self jump, that needs a training of 7 hours and one can jump on his own from a height of 1 km’s above the ground. (3281 feet)

2) Tandem jump, needs just 30 min’s of training and one can jump along with the instructor, but from a height of 3.7km’s above the ground. (12139 feet)

That’s it. I just enquired and thought, let it be. Not something I should get involved in J

One fine summer day, few others who were working with me started planning for skydive and asked me if I would like to join in. They were just pulling my leg…….they knew my height disorders ;)

However, I agreed to their request. It later on so happened that the others where a little chickened out and I had to really convince them to go for it J. So out of so many of my friends, only 4 agreed to go for it.

Now the next question, Self jump or Tandem? I opted for a Tandem, simply because it was from a greater height. Well, it’s not that I was all brave to challenge myself. But the Tandem jump had a greater free fall time. Free fall as the term implies, is that part of a skydiving jump, where you just fall before opening the parachute. For Tandem jump it was 50 sec’s and for a Self jump it was 3 sec’s.

So I opted for 50 sec’s ;). I still don’t know why, but it was the best choice I made.

I made the bookings and visited the facility. The instructor was Petteri Korhonen, a Finnish local, who by profession is a Software Engineer, and does this as a hobby. He had done about 5000 jumps then. Wow! Could you believe that……..so many jumps and he has still survived. Guess that made me feel more safe and put aside all the nonsense thoughts I had in my mind.

Then there was a brief training session that had me lying down on my tummy on a skateboard with arms and legs in air so I could balance my body against the aerodynamics during the jump. A little bit of theory about the parachute and how it needs to be handled.

Cool, so training was over and we headed for the jump site. I had a personal camera man too who would jump with me and record it. We got into the small Cessna plane, ready to take off. My final instruction given by the instructor was simple…..”Roland….don’t do anything silly. Just Jump!” J

As the plane gained altitude, I started to have a strange sensation in my tummy. The pilot and my instructor kept asking me how I felt. I just smiled like an idiot and said I am fine, enjoying the view. In reality……..I was not fine. I was nervous and scared. I just pretended like I was calm. Thought of asking them, “Well, can we take a U-turn and go back please, I don’t think I can do this”. But I didn’t. And thank God I didn’t

I closed my eyes for few moments and talked to myself “Come what may, I will jump. With total trust, let’s jump”. Then I started to enjoy the awesome view around. There was land and sea all around. Everything seemed so tiny. The skies were clear with few clouds around. From the window, I could see the vast horizon. All I could hear was the engine of the Cessna, like the starting of an induction motor from 3 idiots.”DDhhurrrrrrrrrrrrr…..”

It took us nearly 20 min’s to reach the height of 3.7 km’s. They opened the plane door. My instructor did a final round of checking that the parachute was correctly attached to him. He checked the four hooks with which I was attached to his body. Yes, that’s all that would hold me until we landed……..those four hooks.

The altitude gauge showed a reading of 3.7 km’s and a temp of -4 C.

I slowly moved to the open door, one baby step at a time. The wind was gushing at my face. It felt refreshing but the fear I had earlier, returned. The more I moved closer to the door, the more my mind started looking for reasons to not jump. My cameraman was already out holding on to one of the plane wing ready to shoot my jump. I managed to get to edge of the door with my one leg outside by now, hanging in air. I had to gently getup and standup with my instructor behind me and move outwards near the plane wing. That’s when I looked down upon the earth. Well it did look all gorgeous and beautiful, but it didn’t interest me then. My feet were shaking, my tummy was tingling. Slowly, taking support of the plane wall, I managed to reach the wing.

I was facing my Ultimate Fear! Then I heard a count “1……2……3……jump”

And………… can’t explain

We somersaulted and I could see the plane fly past away from us. And I was falling at speed of 220 km’s/hr.

And that was it. Fear had been kicked out. Then there was total ecstasy during the fall. It felt like ultimate freedom. Everything seized to exist in those moments of free fall. I couldn’t feel my body though I was breathing, my mind was clear, and the intellect wasn’t doing anything, felt like there was no memory of anything before the fall. All I could feel was that Moment.

Everything felt like it just vanished. No thoughts, just being with the fall. It was bliss!

While having a fall from that altitude, one has nothing to lose, nothing to hold on to. All I remember I had was happiness. Yes I was scared before I jumped, but a small push was indeed needed for this experience J

Then I heard one more count “1………2…….3……parachute”

And Whooosssshhhh……the parachute opened and pulled us upwards due to the air pocket it creates. That’s when I realized the beauty of the skydive………”You fall first, and later enjoy the view J”

Everything around was serene and pure beauty. We guided our parachute to the nearby clouds, then moved swiftly over the nearby sea. I was still attached to my instructor with those four hooks J. We then made way to the landing area, and bump, we were on the ground. I looked up and thanked for this experience.

Summer 2010, New Jersey, USA

Again I got a chance to jump in New Jersey on 4^th of July. This time from a height of 5.4 km’s (17717 feet) and free fall extended to 70 sec’s J.

It’s not that my height phobia has gone away and that I am not scared during skydiving. I still am. And every time fear is only the moment I stand at the open plane door. Once I jump, it all goes away and it is freedom. The experience is worthwhile. :)

Check out the video:

Skydive in Oulu

Skydive in New Jersey

Attaching few pics.

'Q' bole to....Quilling!

Every once in a while, we come across people who put you in wonder! As in, they just make you go Wow! I have a good friend who often amazes me.

Well...this post is not about her. It’s just about a creative quality she possesses :)

If I ask you a question....Have you heard about Quilling? Your immediate answer would be, ….hmmm.......errrrr……..ummm…...Quill...what??

Well, even I had the same answer the first time :P

Quilling is a form of paper art, where strips of paper are rolled, shaped and glued together to create decorative designs.

Yeah I know it sound silly when I define it :) ..... but when one sees it...... it’s just wonder ! ....that Wow I mentioned earlier :)

And this friend of mine does it so beautifully.

I remember the first time she had showed me few of her Quilling art work. She had made few designs on an envelope.

And it looked so simple yet brilliant.

My first thought was......wow......we generally use plain lame envelops to gift something. So why not use the Quilling envelopes for gifting.

It makes the gift look so much more attractive and royal :P

Well the only downside would be people may consider the envelope to be the gift and neglect the gift inside it : P

And it’s just not Quilling envelopes that she does…….there’s a whole range of endless ideas she can play around with.

Enough talks...... just look at some of her designs. The Ganesha one is my personal favorite :)

I know what everyone's thinking !!!............how do I get my hands on them :) ........well....you just need to get in touch with her.

For now, if you need any of her fantastic creations, just let me know.

Space !!!

For past few days......i have been curious about sky , space, universe.......or whatever we call it. Its amazing that when one sees at a clear sky at night, with so many stars, planets and other objects, it expands one's consciousness.

So to take a look at the night sky, I bought myself a "Konus - Skyview 60" telescope last week. :-)

Assembling it was easy but i took my own time understanding it. Then excitedly went up my building rooftop hoping to see some space stuff :P.

And then, the big question.........where do i start looking? Which direction do i point my telescope to see Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and all the other planets. Thats when my Galaxy-S android phone came to help. The Google Sky Map application was a beauty in helping me locate what i wanted to see in this infinite neverending sky above me (or rather i would say all around me).

It was 10pm and all that i could see then was Saturn as all the other planets, our Moon were on the other side...meaning, they were near the sun. So they wouldn't be visible at night for some more days now.

So i pointed my telescope up in the sky where my phone said i would find Saturn. And guess what..... i found it exactly where it said it would be. My excitement just grew :-). Technology makes things so easy :P

Now the next part was to adjust the scope and its focal length to see Saturn clearly. I was able to do that and adjust few scope parameters to see Saturn. And WOW !..........it was awesome. Saturn and its rings were clearly visible. Not like a huge image........but could clearly make out its round shape with the rings along its diameter. Looked gorgeous. I had only seen the images on T.V or the internet. But this day.........i was seeing it with my own eyes....Live ! :P

And after a while......a thought dawned in my mind. That was that Saturn there when i saw it? I mean yes it was Saturn.............but was it exactly at that same location when i saw it? We all know the fact that for light to each the earth it takes 8 minutes from Sun. So in this case, the rays of light from Sun, hit Saturn, and then get reflected from its surface towards earth. And that is how we see it. That is how we see all planets.

Saturn is 1 light hour away from Sun. It means it takes an hour for light to reach from Sun to Saturn. And then about 52 mins for few rays of light to reach from Saturn to Earth.

Interesting right ;-)

What that means is...........that Saturn what i was seeing with my telescope was not exactly there at that time. What i was seeing was Saturn that was there an hour back. Do you get my point :-)

So initially for me, the Truth was that what I was seeing was Saturn. But later I realized......that it was just a distortion of Truth, and not the actual truth :-) . (samajh ne waale samajh gaye !!!)

Space is indeed interesting. Reveals a lot just by being in the moment.

Here is the picture i managed to take from my DSLR cam...... to take a clear pic of Saturn, i would need a SLR and an adapter to attach it to the telescope!

India vs Finland - Volleyball !!! :-) .... Chak De style.

There are so many stories about how a person who is considered as an underdog rises to his tasks and achieves his goals merely by his desire and belief to win. Take for example the stories shown in Chak De India and Lagaan. But these are just reel stories. What i have to tell is not a reel, but a Real Story. :)

The day was 29^th August 2008 on a beachside. That’s where a beach volleyball tournament was to be held for all Elektrobit (Oulu, Finland……that’s the company where I work) employees and sub contractors and all entries were to be given 2 weeks before the date. So we decided to participate and send in our entry. Total number of players in a team was 7 and all were Indians. The team name was selected as Just4Kicks!

Great, so we had our team we had a funky name, and now the big question was, how to play the game. Well, for those of you who do not know, the Finnish people play volleyball in their country as we play Cricket in India. So they are well versed with all kinds of tactics and strategies. And to top it all, the average height of a Finnish person is 6 feet 2 inches and they have a very strong and muscular physic. More like the WWE people. Now just imagine us standing among these huge dudes. Its like Rajpal Yadav standing among a group of Dara Singhs :). So it was evident that our team had no chance to win even a point in the game, forget winning a game.

For the next two weeks, we practiced regularly for 2 hours after office, thinking that its fine if we loose, but we will not loose without a fight. We learned a few basic tactics during our practice sessions and had a simple game plan – that come what may, we have to give our 100% and pass the ball to the opponent’s court. We all felt good about the practice sessions as we took it like a temporary exercise to this software body of ours.

So the day came, 29^th of August. It was a Friday and many employees were ready at the venue. Some to see the games and some to participate in their teams. There were 5 teams including ours, that made it 4 Finnish teams and 1 Indian team. And from the Finnish teams, there were 5 players who were national level players. While we were warming up before the games, our Finnish colleagues challenged us that we wouldn’t even win a Set. As a matter of fact, that’s what we all felt when we seen the Finnish people or Finn’s practicing. Their game was so perfect, and so strong. Unfortunately for us, the temperature that day was 7 degree Celsius. The temperature did not matter for the Finn’s as they are used to extreme cold temperatures.

Well, with all odds against us, we said to ourselves, let’s enjoy the game and win some hearts :). The games started with a huge applause from the crowd. Luckily, we started our game with a bang. We got 3 straight points on our serve. So we were leading from the start. It was a best of 3 Set matches. So the team who won 2 Sets would get points added in the table. We were doing very well in the first Set, and guess what, we actually won it. This gave us confidence that if we just calm down and focus on the game, we can do better than we expected. The match continued and we performed even better and won the firs match. Wow! But there was a weird silence in the crowd. The Finn’s never expected us to win, but we did. So this became a prestige issue for them. And they started cheering all the Finnish teams against us.

Our second match was against a team named Godzilla. And likely so, all players were huge:). But we had one thing in mind, not to go down without a fight. And fight we did. We won the first Set. Seeing us perform so well with such enthusiasm and high levels of energy, few of the Finn’s from the crowd started cheering up for our team. And we really liked it. The game went on. We lost the second Set, but won the third Set comfortably thus winning the match against the mighty Godzilla. And the crowd cheered even more for us.

Then was time for a third match. We stumbled at the start but won that match too in the end. So with 3 wins to our team, we were now going to play a last match, which was the final. Now could you believe that? Well, we couldn’t at that time. With no chance to win even a point, here we were winning 3 continues matches against some of the best players and now even had a chance to win the finals. That itself is some achievement, isn’t it?

The whistle was blown and the tournament finals started. We were playing good, but the opponents were even better. We gave everything, but it didn’t matter, they were just too good. We lost the finals. But it was still a close match, with just a difference of couple of points.

But too our amazement, everyone from the crowd was just saying our name Just4Kicks……Just4Kicks :). Most of them came and talked to us, saying that they liked our style of playing the game, it was unique and different. Even the Finnish players came and applauded us. Everyone was in total surprise that how could a bunch of Indian guys manage to give such a great performance when they had all odds against them.

We lost the finals, but it didn’t matter, as we had accomplished what we had aimed for – to win hearts! And we had done it in style:). We won the silver medal and we felt like winners, not the reel way, but the Real way.

Cycling in Oulu

I still remember those days when I used to cycle around in Mumbai. I got my first cycle at the age of 14, it was named Generation X Ranger ( yeah I got it for its funky name ;-) ), and used to cycle a lot during holidays and vacations. But soon I gave it up as the roads were very bad and I used to get a flat tire almost every 2 weeks.

And ten years later, now when I am in Oulu (in Finland), I bought a second hand cycle and started cycling again. And the only reason was the well maintained separate roads for cycling. In fact, the cycle roads in Oulu are considered as one of the best in the world. The total length of roads is approx. 512kms. That’s right, no heavy motor vehicles are allowed on these roads and they are meant only for cycling, skating, walking and running. And unlike that in Mumbai, its great to see so many people cycling around the city.

Well, I see it as a nice solution to reduce pollution. And it’s a nice way to stay in shape as well ;). The scenery alongside the roads is filled with greenery and forests.........simply breath taking. Its as if I am traveling through one of the landscapes shown in Lord of The Rings movie.

Its been 3 months now that I have been cycling within the city and its been one of my best experiences here in Oulu. I even go to work on my cycle. As a matter of fact about 20% of employees in my company get their cycles to work. And about 10 % come on their roller skates and the rest get their car. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined to come to work on a cycle (that too dressed in formals………hehe).

Here are few pictures for you to enjoy. The cycle in the last photo is mine :)