An attempt at poetry

So this one time,
When the day had past its prime,
With no reason or rime,
I had an urge to whine!

Decided to try my hand in poetry
though my skills were rudimentary,
Metaphor wasn’t my cup of tea,
nor was I good either at simile.

Wanted to write about love,
But I couldn’t think beyond the dove,
so switched to writing on pain,
but, there too, I found no gain.

To write something philosophical,
was the next process methodical,
failure now seemed periodical,
situation now turned comical.

Harder and harder did I try ,
Alas, the subject of the poem never did arrive!
To survive and quit with grace,
I poetrified the sequence of events and saved face!

Mars, here we come!

What is it with rocket launches? why do they always give me goose pimples??
 
Well the most obvious answer is because I have always been fascinated by space and rockets (Now you will ask well, who isn't??). Space, Universe, Gravity etc has always been my favourite physics concepts since childhood. Can't remember when, but I think I was fascinated by space travel sometime in Class IV or so watching the launch of some INSAT satellite on DD 1. I was one of those crazy guys to faithfully watch Captain Vyom series on DD as well (the Indianized version of Star-trek). God knows how many times have I hunted for used up Diwali Rockets and tried to resend them up by using un-used gun powder from bijli bombs :-))

The not so common answer is that, I fell in love and continue to love a book called The Rocket Boys / October Sky by Homer Hickam Jr long back. In fact the very word Zincoshine (which happens to be the name of this blog of mine) is flicked from the novel, which was the fuel that Homer Hickam and his fellow Rocket boys used to achieve maximum altitude with their rockets. Not long after I came across Carl Sagan and his book "The Contact", all of these furthered my interest in space exploration. Infact at one point of time, I was even gullible/foolish enough to think that I had it in me to be an Aeronautical Engineer. But this blog isn't another rant of my remarkable failures, or a book review of *not so widely known book*, or my fascinations of space exploration.

This blog is about ISRO and its grand achievement today. ISRO you've made us all proud. You've managed something which is not fathomable to an average Indian living in Chennai, your budget of Mangalyaan (59million USD) makes it approximately Rs 15/KM for space travel (Much cheaper than Call-taxi rates in Chennai!!).

Jokes apart, Mangalyaan launch has really given us Indians some hope in these dark times, and I bet it will bring a billion smiles next year, when the satellite enters Mars orbit (We surely will have an early Diwali)!!

For now please enjoy this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DcSDOkDvyQ&feature=share&t=32m7s

Rajnath v2.0

Some quick thoughts on the denial of second term to Gadkari and the installation of Rajnath v2.0 as the President of BJP

• Rajnath v2.0 might not be a great choice, but he is always a better choice than Nitin Gadkari.
• Now the declaration of NaMo as the prime ministerial candidate becomes all the more plausible.
• BJP supporters on Social media must be congratulated for keeping constant pressure on D4 of the BJP and stopping them from nominating Gadkari for a second term.
• NaMo must take efforts to set things right in Karnataka.

more to follow later.

When wards excel

Believe me, your joy will have no bounds when you watch your ward(s)
excel in fields that you, were never good at! This is exactly what I
felt during this course of this race!

Leads from the start

Extends his lead

Finishes miles before the rest

The case of two terrorists

Ajmal Kasab one of the terrorists caught during 26/11 attack on Mumbai was hanged this morning at 7:30 am IST. The execution was carried out after nearly 4 years of the attack on Mumbai. Earlier this week Kasab's mercy petition was rejected by President Pranab. Immediately after the news of Kasab's hanging came through news channels started to praise President Pranab of showing resolve. News channels also reported Mr. Salman Khurshid saying that the Govt of India has sent a strong message to terrorists by hanging the terrorist.

Keeping the adjectives aside. I really can't understand the stance of news channels when they say that President Pranab showed bravery. What is the bravery is rejecting a mercy petition? An act of bravery was shown by the people who caught Kasab and also by the numerous armed forces who fought the terrorists during the 26/11 attack. Just rejecting a mercy petition is no act of bravery!! There was no other choice, the public perception on the delay of the justice to the victims of 26/11 was quite strong and the hanging of Kasab should have happened quite soon.

On 13th December 2001, 5 gunmen infiltrated the heart of Indian democracy (The Parliament). The attack led to the death of a dozen people, including one civilian. In the investigations that followed Afzal Guru was found guilty was sentenced to death. It is nearly 11 years since the attack on the Indian Parliament, but Afzal Guru is yet to be hanged. Be it the earlier President or the incumbent one, none have taken a decision on rejecting his mercy petition.

In my opinion, the only reason for the difference in the treatment of these two terrorists are that one is an Indian while the other is a Pakistani. The hanging of a Pakistani terrorist wouldn't upset the vote-bank, while the hanging of the Indian terrorist would seriously affect the vote-bank. Thus, the Country cannot expect Afzal Guru to be hanged anytime soon. The only message UPA has sent out on hanging Kasab is that only those who do not have political support will be hanged!!

2G auction and media spin

The just concluded 2G auction for 22 licenses fetched the Govt of India INR 9250 Crores. The Govt and the ever obliging media are potraying this as a damp squib auction. Few of the *Usual Suspects* in the media have already started to use this information to state that the CAG's 2G's presumptive loss of 1.76 lakh crores as incorrect and thereby the 2G scam never actually happened!

Firstly everyone has to get their facts right. Mr. A Raja sold 122 licenses of 2G for INR 9150 Crores and this auction was only for 22 licenses of the total 122. If the auctioning of just 22 licenses could have fetched nearly 100 crores more than what Mr. A Raja sold the licenses for, how could this auction be stated as damp squib?

One thing is pretty clear, all those journalists calling this auction as damp squib are absolutely mediocre as they do not have any understanding of the field which they are reporting or they can be very well be assumed to be Govt stooges/Govt propagandists.

If only there wasn't the Internet, everyone would have believed what was being spoken on the "National" media. Thank god for that (Now Rahul Gandhi would want us to thank Congress for this because as per his speech earlier this month, Computers were brought to India by the Congress Govt!)