A Walk in the Neighborhood

I am sure most of us would like to take a walk around our home on pleasant summer day like today. When you go out, you might see the neighborhood kids biking on the side walk. You might even see some neighbors walking their pets. You might stop to exchange a few pleasantries with people whom you know. You will see blooming flowers, in the bright summer air.

But, just for a moment, imagine that when you take your walk there is nothing around. The only thing you see is a dim light afar. You walk towards it; you do not meet anyone on the way. You have walked more than 4 miles, to your surprise you find a he toddler crawling slowly on the ground. Then you look around; The light you were following all this time is much more closer now, and you can see a couple standing below the light pole. Could they be his parents? Do you think if such a neighborhood be interesting? Do you find it creepy? Are you willing to take a bet that such a neighborhood does not exist?

Don’t take that bet! Because that is exactly like the interstellar neighborhood we live, or rather our Sun lives in. The Sun is an average star – meaning when compared with the bulk of stars in the Milky Way it is neither very big, nor too small. It is not one of the hottest stars and not one of the coolest. It is not a very old star nor is it very young.

The solar neighborhood is typical of what you would find on the periphery of the galaxy. The stars are packed very loosely. If you take s sphere of radius of about 20 light years around the Sun, there are only about 100 stars!

The scene I described before is a solar analogy. The slowly crawling toddler 4 miles away from your home is Proxima Centauri. in the constellation of Centaurus. This is the nearest star to the Sun at a distance of about 4.2 light years. This star is much cooler than the Sun and has a diameter 1/7th that of the Sun. Proxima Centauri is not even visible to the naked eye, with a brightness 100 times dimmer than the faintest stars that we can see with the naked eye.

This dwarf is orbiting a star pair, called Alpha Centauri. Many of the bright stars have proper names, otherwise they are referenced by the constellation they belong to, normally with a Greek prefix. Generally, the brightest star in a constellation is termed Alpha. Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the constellation Centaurus.

Many stars that we see are in fact multi-star systems. The stars that constitute Alpha Centauri, generally termed Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B and these are analogous to the couple I mentioned before. These two stars are both very much like the Sun. When seen by the naked eye, Alpha Centauri looks like a single bright star, and it is the third or fourth brightest star as seen from the Earth. Because of it’s location in the celestial southern hemisphere, it is not visible from large parts of northern hemisphere. The pair forming Alpha Centauri is located about 4.4 light years away from the Sun.

Who comes next in the list of our neighbors? It is Barnard’s Star – another dim star about 6 light years away. This is at least 15 times dimmer than the dimmest star we can see with bare eyes. The Star is named after an astronomer who first identified this star. We all know that stars are fixed points in the sky. But the truth is that all stars, including our Sun, are moving. We can not notice the change in the positions of the stars because of the large distances involved. In case of Barnard’s Star, it has perceptible movement and within your life time you will be able to see the change in its position in the sky with respect to other stars. Because of this fact, it is also called the Running Star or the Flying star. In fact, it is moving so fast that in another 10000 years, it would be replacing Proxima/Alpha Centauri system as the closest neighbor of the Sun.

The next closest star Wolf 359 is rather an uninteresting dim star named after a scientist. After this, at 8.3 light years is Lanande 21185. This is dwarf star, and an interesting one. Scientists have evidence to believe this star has 2 planets comparable to the size of the Jupiter in our solar system.

Little further, at around 8.6 light years we find Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, and is about 30 times larger than the Sun. This brightness attracted all ancient civilizations. It is called vyAdha in Samskrita, Al Shira in Arabic and Tian Lang in Chinese. Ancient Egyptians found out that the annual flooding of the Nile occurred when this star appeared in the sky just before sunrise, and so it became quite an important star to them. Sirius is also a binary system, but in this case, one of the stars, Sirius A is a huge star, while B is a dwarf star.The star is part of Canis Major constellation and called Alpha Canis Majoris and in common usage, the star is called the Dog Star.

Let’s skip a few more naked eye-invisible stars and come to the next naked eye star. This is Epsilon Eridani located at about 10 light years. It is similar to the size in Sun, but only quarter as bright. What is special about this star? Well. It turns out that this star too has a planetary system, with at least two planets!

We went around our solar neighborhood. We found all kinds of stars, big and small. Bright and dim. We visualized how space is very sparsely populated. We also saw that planetary systems are not unique to our Sun. So could life be? That is a question only future can answer.

I enjoyed waking in this stellar neighborhood. And hope you did too!

-neelanjana

**********

(p.s: This was a speech I gave in one of the meeting of our Toastmasters Club)

Sky, Stars, Memories and G T N

Last night, when I went online to my favorite Kannada portal, Sampada, I saw the news posted by Ismail.

G T N is no more.

The very first name that comes to mind when someone says the two words “Kannada” and “Science” is that of G T Narayana Rao was better known by his initials – G T N.

He was the Chief Editor for the Kannada Encyclopedia published during 1970’s and 1980’s. In addition to that, he also wrote a large number of articles on Kannada periodicals on various science-related topics. His articles were the prime reason for me to catch on to the “Sky” bug

I just can’t forget the four days I spent as one of the zonal finalists in the “Lekhak – Student of the Year Contest -1983″, conducted by MSIL. The panel of experts who were the judges was headed by GTN. This is where I saw different faces of GTN – the orator, the scientist, the teacher and the music connoisseur. I just can’t forget those moments when I had the opportunity to interact with him.

On the last day of our camp at Madikeri as the contest participants, GTN took us (20 students from Mysore, Haasana, Mandya, Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts) to Bhagamandala and Talakaveri, the place where river Kaveri takes birth.

It was almost 25 years ago, but seems like it happened yesterday.

G T N is no more.

Not really, as he still remains in the memories of thousands like me.

Till we breathe our last.

-neelanjana

* A Kannada version (actually the original write-up) of this is available here.

Naasadeeya Sooktam

The 129th sookta (hymn) from the 10th manDala of Rg vEda is called the nAsadIya sUkta (नासदीय सूक्तम्). The recurrent use of the word नासत्, नासीत् (meaning, ‘it wasn’t there’ ) has given the the name – nAsadIya sUktam.

Here is the text of this sookta in original:

This sookta has also been termed as the “Hymn of Creation” because it talks about the wonders of this creation, and wonders whether there is a creator behind it.

The 10th manDala of Rig Veda has been accepted as one of the latest parts of this book. But since this manDala describes the Saraswati river, it definitely dates at least to 1800 BC. Satellite imagery has shown that Saraswati river had all but dried up by that time. So, given that this sooka was written almost four thousand years ago, I can’t but admire the wonderful minds behind this poetic creation!

For those who were DD fans – This sookta (more specifically, it’s translation in Hindi) made the catchy signature tune for a fairly popular TV series titled “The Discovery of India: भारत् – एक् खोज्” in the 1980’s.

I had posted my translation of this sookta on my kannaDa blog almost an year ago. I am re-posting it again here.

ನಾಸದೀಯ ಸೂಕ್ತ
-ಅಥವ -
ಇಲ್ಲದುದರ ಮೇಲೆರಡು ಮಾತು

ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಇದ್ದದ್ದು, ಇಲ್ಲ ಇಲ್ಲದದು
ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಗಾಳಿ ಬಲು ದೂರದಾಗಸ
ಸುತ್ತಿತ್ತು ಏನದು? ಯಾರದನು ಕಾಯ್ದವರು?
ಇತ್ತೇನು ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಆಳದ ಕರಿನೀರು?

ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಸಾವು, ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಬದುಕು
ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಹಗಲು ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಇರುಳು
ಉಸಿರಿಲ್ಲದೇ ಉಸಿರೆಳೆವ ಭಾವ
ಅದನೊಂದ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಏನೂ

ಕರಿ ಕತ್ತಲ ಕಟ್ಟಿಟ್ಟ ಹಿರಿಗತ್ತಲು
ಎಲ್ಲವನು ಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಅರಿಯದಾ ನೀರು
ಶೂನ್ಯವೇ ಮುಚ್ಚಿ ತೆರೆದಿಟ್ಟ ಮನಸು
ಅದನು ಹೊರತರುವ ಆ ಮಹಾತಪಸು

ಹುಟ್ಟಿತ್ತು ಅದು, ಹರಡಿತ್ತು ಎಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲು
ಮನದ ಮೂಲೆಯಲಿ ಮೊಳೆತಂಥ ಪ್ರೀತಿ
ಎದೆಯ ಬಯಲೊಳಗೆ ಆಡಗಿದ್ದ ರೀತಿ
ಅರಿತರೇ ಇಲ್ಲದಕು ಇದ್ದುದಕು ನಂಟು?

ಇಲ್ಲದಕು ಇದ್ದುದಕು ನಡುವೊಂದು ಸೂತ್ರ
ಅದರ ಮೇಲೇನಿತ್ತು ಇತ್ತದದರ ಕೆಳಗೇನು?
ಆ ಬೀಜದ ಭರದ ಮಹಿಮೆಯ ತರವೇನು?
ಏನದರ ಶಕ್ತಿ? ಏನದರ ಹುಮ್ಮಸ್ಸು?

ಯಾರದನು ಅರಿತವರು? ಯಾರದನು ಹೇಳುವರು?
ಜನಿಸಿದ್ದು ಎಂದು? ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಕರ್ತನು ಯಾರು?
ಕಾವ ದೇವರು ಕೂಡ ತರುವಾಯ ಜನಿಸಿರಲು
ನಿಜವಾದ ಚರಿತೆಯನು ಪೇಳುವವರಾರು?

ಜಗವನ್ನು ಇದನು ಹುಟ್ಟಿಸಿದರಾರು ?
ಹುಟ್ಟಿಸಿದನೊ ಇಲ್ಲವೋ? ತಿಳಿದವರು ಯಾರು?
ಆಗಸದಿ ಮೇಲೆ ನಿಂತು ನೋಡುವನವನು
ಹೇಳಬಲ್ಲನೆ ಇದನು? ಅರಿತಿಹನೆ ಅವನು?

-neelanjana

Nine Months, Nine Days

No. I am not talking about the gestation period of human womb! This was the time it took to see 10,000 clicks on my blog page.

Few days ago, when I saw the number of hits was two short of 10000, I thought I should record that moment. So I refreshed the browser couple of times, and took a screen shot

Just thought that I would share this with visitors to this blog!
(click on the image for a zoomed view)

-neelanjana

Concert on June 21st: Veena Duet by Jaysri and Jayaraj

There is a nice concert coming up this weekend in Sunnyvale.

Click on the images for a zoomed in view.

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Since some of the visitors to this blog are from the bay area, I thought it is a good place to make this announcement.

If you are around here, don’t miss the concert!

-neelanjana

Tyagaraja, on Sangeethapriya

If you did not know already, Sangeethapriya has a new website dedicated to Tyagaraja. Check it out!

You can listen to 393 of his ~700 kritis! I am sure many more will be added soon.

Jai Sangeethapriya and every one who has made this possible.

-neelanjana

Vasudeva Smarana – 2

Last weekend, there was a program called Vasudeva Sankeerthana at our local temple ( Sanatana Dharma Kendra, Sunnyvale) .

Several music schools presented compositions of Mysore Vasudevacharya. It was a 4 hour long program and I was present for most of it. I was listening to many of the kritis for the first time and that made it more interesting.

Here is a list of compositions sung/played during the program:

I knew these compositions before:

vandE anisham aham – hamsadhwani – Adi
praNamAmyaham Sri prANanAtham – ranjani – miSra tripuTa
marchitivEmO nannu – pUrvikalyANi – Adi
ninnE nammitinayya – SimhEndra madhyama – miSra chApu
SrI chAmunDEswari pAlaya mAm – bilahari – Adi
dEvAdidEva – sunAdavinOdini – Adi
mahAtmulE teliyalEru – riShabhapriya – Adi
lambOdaram avalambE – kAmbhOdi – rUpaka
rArA rAjIvalOchana – mOhana – Adi
brOchEvArevarurA – khamAch – Adi
rAmAbhirAma – darbAr – miSra chApu

I heard the following compositions for the first time:

SrI kESava mAm pAlaya – bhairavi – rUpaka
manasA vachasA – bEgaDe -Adi
dayalEka bratuki phalamEmi – Sriranjani – Adi
nannu brOchuTaku evarunnAru – SankarAbharaNa – Adi
bAlam gOpAlam – bhairavi – Adi
rArA eni pilacite – kharaharapriya – Adi
bhAvayEham raghuvIram – bEhAg – Adi
gAnasudhArasa pAnamu – kharaharapriya – Adi

Of these, the SankarAbharaNa kriti had a very catchy, and unusual chiTTe swara with the viSESha prayOga “snpmpgrs”. The bhairavi kriti (bAlam gOpAlam) and the Sriranjani kritis were also very impressive. The bEhAg kriti, had a distinctive feel different from other bEhags I have heard.

I had to miss out a few renditions at the end, and am typing these from the list:

mari mari vacchuna – kAmbhOdi – Adi
Sankari ninnE – kAmavardhini – miSra chApu
bhAvaya achutam vAsudEvam – pUrvikalyANi – Adi
nE pilicitE – kamAch – rUpaka
tillAna – mOhana kalyAni – Adi

(I suspect the kamAch composition in the list above might be a jAvaLi. However the kamAch jAvali in the list of Vasudevacharya compositions does not begin with ‘nE pilicitE’. It could be that the jAvali was sung starting from the anupallavi, as it often is. I’m not too sure on this.)

Overall, a very impressive program and enjoyed it very much. Just shows how many compositions of our composers is yet to be explored! And a look at the talent of some kids tells me that we don’t have to worry about future of Karnataka Sangeeta

-neelanjana