Nancy, France

12th July, 2009
With the little knowing about Europe, In 10th July morning, we landed on the Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Paris one of the most visited city of the globe. With few hours spending on airport, we then headed to Nancy, a small and historical city in Lorraine state on the North-East side of France and close to Germany.
If I substract the usual obstacles related to travelling to new place, we are highly impressed by Nancy. As I said, we have very faint concept of Europe and Nancy is matching with our imagination. This may be the reason for our liking!
With almost no effort I could find our hotel which is just in front of 'Gare de Nancy', Nancy railway station. It was around 4 pm.
Under the effect of Jetleg we dropped our luggage in hotel and straight away went to find our lunch or may be dinner (jetleg effect!). We found a good place (sometime I should write what is good place to eat in our sense!) and got some sandwitch. We went to bed with a planning to roam in the evening in city. Unfortunately, when we woke up, it was ~ 12 am! Do you think we should go to roam? NO, the day was over. Anyway, we are in nancy and the next day would be better... with this feeling I again pulled my blanket.

On 11th, at 8.30 am the workshop started and I could see many big bosses on the floor. Anyway, I think its a different world and I have no intension to bore you with the details on Workshop.

Evening, around 5.30 i was free and straight I rushed to hotel as I was thinking to going somewhere in the city that day. Archita was taking rest so, after 30 mins we were ready to go out. We decided to visit a very old church just on the 5 mins distance from the place we are staying.
Église Saint-Léon de Nancy (Church Saint-Leon Nancy)
This church was built in 1807 and one of the oldest churches in Nancy. Gothic style design is very attactive in the evening light. The age of 200 yrs is evident by eroded motifs and black patches. We clicked several pictures. It was around 7.00 pm and we heard the church bell so we decided to go inside. 'Wow!' was the reaction when I pipped inside from the sidedoor. A simple but very auspicious lighting inside. After seeing inside now it was difficult to make out what's better inside or outside?
to be continued later...

LPSC 2009

Hi,
I am in Houston attending my first Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). This is the 40th LPSC and by all these years, conference is now attended by more and more people every year. That's bad....as organizers have moved the site to one of the posh hotel instead of historic Lunar institute in the area of johnsan space centre. Anyway, hope next year they go back!
After moving to WashU, st louis this is my first conference. Actually its so fast...last week I joined WashU infact!
Archita is around in the campus trying to capture some good moments...hope I will be able to load some of them soon!
rest later!

Why is Religion more accepted than Science?

Since few months I am visiting the small ISCKON centre in Taipei. I really dont know whats the concrete reason for the visits but may be its a better choice to time pass on the weekends unless we are out of the town on weekend exersion. I realized one thing during these visits and some random readings about the religion that generally the people who are active in spereading the good thoughts of religion normally think that 'Science' is insignificant against their 'GOD'. On serious thaught, I realized that most people in this world have great faith in their respective religion which was scripted long time ago by some wiser humans. However, very few percentage of the world understand 'Science' eventough it is purely logical and tested! This percentage of Science believers must be different in different countries and that should depend on the interaction between scientists and common people, government policies and all kind of media (like press, TV, internet etc). Naturally higher percentage of science believers helps the countries as it is expected that higher number of people in that country will do their routine work scientifically! This routine work includes using natural resources like water, energy, food and many other life essentials. Naturally that particular country have advantage as more people believe in science. Please keep in mind that more educated doesn't imply more science believer. The best example is traditional knowledge of the people who live in villages. Sometime I feel that their lifestyle is more scienctific than us who lives in urban areas with more education.

My point is why we are unable to make people think scientifically. Why there is no scientific body who only deals with spreading the science among common people? On the contorary, all kinds of religious sections whether they are small or big, all try to spread their faith to more and more people everyday! You must be aware of the people who come to your house to spread their religious faith. They work on project and targets. Again, eventhough their thoughts and ideas are not tested and mostly without any logic, people listen to thier ideology and may become believer someday.

I am wrong in saying that we do not have any scientific body to spread science. Schools and universities have the job to do it. Unfourtunately these institutions are busy with education only. Education should include this process of spreading Science but I think we, the smart humans somehow extracted only 'degrees' from the education leaving 'knowledge', in text books. On the other hand people who spread religion always try to feed you with what written in their text book of faith.

Please note that I am not agaist the faith as it certainly has a good effect on our lifestyle especially if your religion has some scietific suggestions to practice. My point is the people who are the professionals of science must work 'religiously' to spread science to more and more people everyday! People who thinks more scientifically are asset to this world who can play an important role to solve the burning issues of our planet. This rational thinking would bring efficient leaders on all stages who can drive this world in better future.

Diwali in Taiwan

This was our first Diwali far from India. We were not sure how much enjoyment we would have this time but after attending two celebrations here in Taiwan we thought: It's not too bad!
The first function was held on 25th of Oct, 2008 by the Indians (mostly postdocs) at the National Taiwan University (NTU). The function was in the evening with good number of performances. We liked the performances of a cute little girl Saloni and a Taiwanese lady, Joyce Li. Saloni performed a dance on a nice song (Wo Krishna hain...) from a bollywood film 'Krishna'. I think Krishna is the most beloved God in India and rest of the world (credits to ISKON).

A beautiful classical Indian dance 'Odissi' was perfomed by Joyce. It is remarkable to see the globalization of the art forms. During the British rule, 'Odissi' dance was almost extinct. But after independence, with the significant efforts of great dancers like Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra, Pankaj Charan Das, Deba Prasad Das, Sanjukta Panigrahi (student of Guru Kelucharan Matapatra) and many more, Odissi is revived and now it is one of the famous dances of India, known to rest of the world.

Coming back to NTU Diwali festival, there were several other performances, but some were performed nicely and some were performed with hyper efforts as if you are on the drive to conquer the world. Criticism apart, the overall event was like a water drop in desert as it has given us the feeling that 'Diwali' is knocking the door. In India, it is the biggest festival and the heat builds up almost before couple months. In Taiwan, that was obviously missing. So the program at NTU worked as kick start for the celebration of Diwali! I must thank the organizers at NTU for their efforts and hard work.

The second event was at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Hsinchu. The first impression was overwhelming. Everything was quite organized. Program started on the scheduled time. The best part was immediately after welcome and lightning lamps, dinner was announced. However, organizers smartly advertised the following programs to keep the tempo of the event even after dinner! Dinner was simple and nicely arranged. No mess up, no shortage as organizer preferred to serve the dinner boxes, now a days common in all the conferences and large gatherings. When we came back to auditorium, the environment was festive. The yellow lights, smiling faces, happy eyes, exchange of warm words and flashes around to capture the best moments...all converging to the philosophy of Diwali. It was unique as first time I show different people in just one mood! Imagine such situation...it can only happen in the moments of great happiness or sorrow.

Every performance was unique and able to receive applause. Couple of performances were like odds as the other performances has already set the higher expectations. The excellent ones were the remake of Ramayana, the great epic and the mime performed for the awareness on global warming. Of course, the performances were not professional but they were more than enough to give you the feeling of pleasure and proud. I think if they perform such mime with some professional help, It can be one of the best efforts to teach people about the environment crisis we are running through. The anchor was good and took care to give a feeling that everyone in the auditorium is the part of this event including audience.
Experience at Hsinchu was quite pleasant and we left the place with positive mood and a feeling that we are celebrating Diwali in Taiwan!
Some said that the better event at Hsichu was the result of their continuous 13 years of experience. I can agree partially because the enthusiasm in the air cannot be dependent on the experience, it depends on how much happy we are!
Now after few days as the bubbles are out and celebrations are done, still I can see those sparkling eyes, smiling faces with 'Happy Diwali' background that too in Taiwan. I would be more excited on the day when more Tawenese people will know about 'Diwali' and India.