Following Chandrayaan

Chandrayaan's launch photograph was a relief on front page of newspapers in Korea, which was dominated by global economic crisis a few days prior to that. It was sort of proof that our scientists have done some stuff of international recognition. But being outside India, I was isolated from the last month developments of India's breakthrough space mission.

However, while watching CNN-IBN live stream on last Sunday(before the launch), I was fortunate to see a special 30 minutes program on the mission. It had all the important things from people involved with the project and also about the locations associated with the mission. In report they also mentioned about the place by name 'Bylalu' near Bangalore. I had come across this place earlier this year on the way to Machinbele Dam after Big Banyan Tree. At that time the monitoring center was under construction. It was looking like a high fundoo place because of presence of big dish antenna in the center. To quenched our curiosity we had got down from our bikes and had enquired about the place from a security guarding the place.

Also, in the same program, one of the scientists mentioned the reason Bylalu was shortlisted from a dozen villages by the ISRO scientists because of its saucer shape and a range of hills on the northern and southern sides to block radio frequency noise. Read more about the dish-village in a India-Today article.

There have been lot of discussion in the Indi blogosphere about Chardrayaan. Some bloggers have done live blogging too while doing countdown for the launch. The discussion were whether the program is really needed for a developing country. Some even dismissed the mission as an ego problem, since China is doing it, we also are doing it. Others say this heralds the 21st Century Cold war between India and China, as it had happened between US and USSR in 1960s.

One of the renowned bloggers Rashmi Bansal has mentioned in her blog that Chandrayaan's successful launch may inject craze among students to take up space science as career. Currently, the institute dedicated for space technology IIST may be preferred by toppers in JEE. Let's wait and watch for beginning of next academic year!

'Nobody' rage in Korea

Nobody song by Korean pop group Wondergirls has created sensation in entire country for last one month. One can come across this song at several places from mobile ringtones to screens at electronics shops.




- Working in multimedia domain, I was first introduced to the song as a test content.
- I stumbled upon the song when I heard it properly while waiting for my turn in a hair-cut shop.
- Yesterday when I had been to Yongsan electronics market, almost all display screen shops were playing out only this song.

Some important facts [source wikipedia]
- Released on Sep 22 2008 digitally on official website and also on Youtube(officially).
- Within hours, the song became the #1 streamed song online.

Find lyrics of the song at lyricsmode.com.

Read more at wikipedia pages of Nobody Song
and Wondergirls

Penta Cites # 4

For the fourth edition of penta cites I wanted quote something other economic crisis stuffs. But the crisis so big that I can't neglect the writes-ups about it.

US Economy/Bail-Out

The word “bail-out” is actually a cricket metaphor, as in “taking the bails out to dismiss the batsman”. What the government is calling a bailout is actually a massive nationalization of all the banks. Earlier, only evil dictators and socialist governments used to do it, but now nationalizing banks is suddenly in fashion, because everyone else is doing it.

Aditya PK in his post Global Economic crisis FAQs

Economy/Wall Street Meltdown

There are two sides to a Balance Sheet.- Left & the Right ( Liabilities
and Assets respectively) on the Left side there is nothing right.. and on the right side there is
nothing left

A popular quote doing rounds post Lehman, AIG, Merrill fiasco

Technology/Gadgets

The iPhone clearly wasn't the first smartphone, but it was the first one that every man, his dog and his dog's ticks would sell limbs to own

An article in Economics times while discussing about Gadget of the year

Travel/Planning

Rest all looks good, though I wonder if you are planning a holiday or working on a mission with some tight targets :)

Feedback by freelance traveler Arun Bhat on Srnidhi Hande's Wayanad trip plan

Sports/Cricket

Putting on my pop sociologist cap, let me say that Sourav’s place in history, more than as a cricketer, is because he embodied the “in your face” spirit of the economically resurgent nation of the 1990s-2000s— a young nation eager to throw off the Gandhian ideal of turning the other cheek.

Great Bong in his post His Last Bow regarding Sourav Ganguly's retirement

Seoul Fireworks Festival 2008

On 4th October 2008 and we witnessed Seoul International Fireworks Festival. We watched the extravaganza sitting at Han River Bank next to Yeouinaru Station.



Here are a few videos I shot from my cam.






Day's proceeding
It was a Saturday and somehow managed to take off from office. Sound's weird no ? But it won't be for people working for Korean customers. By afternoon, I was getting set for the firework festival by charging cameras etc. Then I got a call from an unknown number. The guy other side said I am calling from Indian Embassy and they have received a complain loss of passport from me. It immediately sounded like a prank call to me. I responded with imaginative answers and finally got to know it was none other than my colleague Debadatta who was in Korea working for last one week and was staying at Suwon. He was planning to come to Seoul for firework festival. To keep things simple for him I asked him to come to Yongsan station. I along with Nagaraju met him at the station.

Reaching Yeouinaru Station:
At Tourist Information Center in Yongsan I had a tough time enquiring about the place to witness the fireworks. The lady at the counter didn't had an idea about the phrase 'Fireworks Festival'. She asked me "where did you heard this". She started looking for translation in her workstation. No response for 30 seconds, I decided to draw a sketch of fireworks pattern to convey our query. Then she advised us to go to banks of Han River next to Yeouinaru Station to witness the fireworks.


At Yeouinaru Station:
For going to Yeouinaru we had take transfer at Singil Station. At Singil there was a queue at each entry door to the train. After two trains passed by we got turn get on board the train to our destination. Inside the train also it was full packed. And also getting out of train station at Yeouinaru was an ardous task. It took more than 15 minutes, courtesy people from all over city to witness the fireworks.

Getting set for the experience:
Two hours prior to the show, we settled at a nice location besides the Han River sitting on the carpets which we bought for few thousand wons. Later my colleagues Rollei and Suma(who had been to office on that day) joined us. We had to go back to the station exit to pick them as it was difficult for pinpoint our coordinates amidst so many people.

The actual show
The show started at 7.15 pm and lasted for an hour. First five minutes were good. Later on it became repetitive. In the end there were good moments in grand finale section. One of the bridge spanning across the river was fully illuminated with fireworks. It was the signature moment of the show.

Overall the show was more than effort vasool w.r.t time and energy.

After witnessing the festival I am in deep thoughts why can't we celebrate our festival of lights - Deepavali like this ? Instead of bursting crackers(read explosives) at every street why can't we make people gather at a place and enjoy the fireworks.

Korea for second time

Not a blog posts so many days? The reason is, I am in Korea for second time. Came here two weeks back, but unlike previous trip this time I don't have sufficient time to blog. Today somehow made time to compose this post.

In my opinion visiting any foreign country for second time is somehow boring. The curiosity factor won't be there to create enthusiasm. But for me there a few differences relative to my first trip. One of them is that I am staying in Seoul(Gumi in previous trip) and other one was that I traveled by Singapore Airlines.

Singapore Air experience:
There is something in this Airlines that makes it unique. I was delighted to see the menu card given on board Bangalore-Singapore flight was both in English and Kannada(vernacular language). A feature which is absent even in many domestic flights. And also food quality was above average, even in Singapore-Seoul flight.


At Singapore:
When I had a transit at Singapore, the airport was getting set for forthcoming for Formula-1 race. There were a few dedicated merchandise shops of BMW, Ferrari alongside duty free shops. In fact half the contents of in-flight magazine had write ups about the first Formula-1 night race.
Before leaving from Bangalore I had a wish of seeing an A380 aircraft at the Singapore airport. The wish turned into reality when I witnessed the majestic plan parked at adjacent departure gate of my Singapore-Seoul flight. First impression: the plane was not as big as I expected!

Taxi ride from Incheon to Co-op Residence
As soon as coming out of Incheon airport, a taxi driver approached me. I said 'White taxi', he said yes and took my trolley towards his vehicle far away. After reaching to his vehicle I realised that he had an expensive 'Black taxi'. Since I was far off from the terminal didn't any other option to get into his car. The vehicle was luxurious but the driver had not switched on the AC. For making the interiors cool he used to open power windows slightly at regular intervals. What a cheat! that too in a country like Korea. After a while I had a look at the meter it was racing towards 100000 Won, even half the distance was not covered. I had kept not much cash since the fare in white taxi was supposed to be around 125000. I immediately told him that I don't have much cash. I used to all the Korean phrases I knew to convey him that I am not new to the place. And also told him you are cheat etc. After argument we had a deal for a fare of 150000 won ignoring the meter's fare.

Before concluding the post, I wanted to discuss the following point.

Trade offs associated:
With onsite assignment there are trade offs, there are monetary benefits etc but one has to manage with loss of many priceless things. I had to drop out of Srindhi's ISO:14001 planned Wayanad trip in last moment. The trip was on the weekend I was flying. Also I missed Ctrl-Esc Group's outing to Innovative Film City. But there is a old saying that in my life things evens out. Today evening I witnessed Seoul International Fireworks festival at Yeouido. Read more about in a dedicated post.