How does one measure the scale of an achievement so singular?

To grow up in middle class, small town India and get an Engg. degree. in Aeronautics and journey to America and acquire degrees and PhDs and become a trained pilot and a flight instructor and apply to become an astronaut with NASA and compete against millions of Americans who share that dream of going to space and come up trumps and travel to space and not only once but twice...

All one can think of to say is that Kalpana Chawla compressed into one lifetime of 41 years what others would have taken 200 years to accomplish.

So, what does that teach us? What do we try to learn from this extraordinary human being's life? How do we preserve the memory of this extraordinary individual?

I think what Kalpana's life teaches us is that no matter how impossible one's dreams may be, if we are willing to put in the hard work and if we are willing to persevere, then those dreams do translate into a reality.

Her life has the positive message that we Indians have it in us to succeed in endeavors and enterprises that truly characterize what is truly Godlike about us humans. The spirit of inquisitiveness and adventure and an utter unwillingness to accept the prosaic realities of life and to dream impossible dreams and have the courage to translate those dreams into a reality.

Hopefully, Indians will be inspired by someone like her and try to emulate her and try to reach the heights of glory that she reached in her short life.

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From paper planes to Columbia...Kalpana remembered - National News – News – MSN India - News

A building more than 1 kilometers in height !!!

This dream is close to being realized and that too sooner than any of us would have expected.

The location, amazingly enough, is Dubai.

And what 'world' record are we Indians going to claim soon ???

Are we planning to venture beyond the Solar System onto worlds no one has ever dared to visit ???

Are we planning to build a supersonic, nah, a hypersonic airplane that'll fly from New Delhi to Mumbai in a minute?

Are we, per chance, planning to build the world's first megapolis undersea?

Are we developing techniques that will let embryoes grow into babies outside of a woman's womb and in a test tube?

Are we planning to build a tunnel that goes through the center of the planet and emerges on the other side?

Are we planning to build a nuclear-powered rocketship that will carry a million people on a journey that will last a thousand years or ten thousand years and lead us to a new planetary colony?

Are we trying to discover the secret of life and make humans immortal?

No, we Indians will soon become the most populous nation in the world. That is the record that we'll soon make our own !!!

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World's tallest: Dubai to get another taller than the tallest building - International News – News –

  Hmm, the article has generated very little readership and I think that tells a story in itself...

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Cricket RIP
Many thoughts cross one’s mind as one reflects on the events that have taken place Down Under both on and off the field – mostly of it. The Great Bard of Stratford had said: some are bor...

First let me thank Swetha Amit for reminding me through her article on msn that today is Nehru’s birthday.

What a shock it was to me to realize that today is the birthday of my favorite character from the pages of history.

When I flip through the pages of history and of course I am no professional historian, I find that I have more regard and affection for Jawaharlal Nehru than anyone else.

Of course, there is Mahatma Gandhi. And there are others belonging to India and to other nations whose achievements I find awe inspiring or admirable or creditable or inspirational.

Internationally, there were men like Washington to Jefferson to Lincoln – three of the founding fathers of the United States. There was Napoleon and there was Lenin. And Mao. The 20th century was a period of time that provided enough scope for megalomaniac men of varied hues to chase their dreams. So, recent history is replete with larger than life characters – some who achieved an astonishing amount of infamy such as Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini to others who have left their mark on human history which is essentially positive: men such as Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. Of course, the position of President of United States seems to offer an undue amount of scope to create heroes out of ordinary men. So, may be, some of those who have held that position probably don’t deserve the kind of fame and recognition and greatness that they have been endowed with. As the immortal Bard had said: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

Be that as it may, I don’t claim to be able to have any great expertise in being able to weigh the relative contributions to human welfare of these men who lived and contributed and died under very different circumstances across a time span of centuries.

So, it is rather perplexing to single out any single individual from this diverse bunch of great men (and surprisingly, the list comprises of ‘men’ exclusively! – may be that’s due to my scholastic shortcomings) and say that this individual stands out as the greatest of them all. And indeed, that’s not what my perception of Nehru is.

I don’t claim that he is the greatest human being in all of human history. But, it’s merely my submission that he’s the most “MULTI-FACETED” Indian that I know of and someone who was the perfect person to lead India at its birth. I can’t really measure the greatness of say the Founding Fathers of America and what were the challenges that they overcame. Nor can I do an assessment of the conditions which prevailed in 19th century Russia which was the backdrop for Lenin’s revolutionary ideas. European history of the 20th century with two World Wars is so vast that perhaps one will need to devote one’s entire life to absorb it adequately. So, as laymen, I would not like to venture into judging the greatness or otherwise of European and American leaders from Churchill to Kennedy.

As an ‘unknown’ Indian, all I would like to say is that Nehru had this fortunate combination of skills – a deeply ingrained appreciation for the lessons of human history, an abiding confidence in the beneficial influence of science, a sense of empathy for the diverse multitudes inhabiting this vast country despite his aristocratic upbringing, an ability to hold his own on the international stage, etc.

I look at it from the perspective of the kind of leadership we have in India today.

Certainly, nobody would argue that Nehru was better than these diverse characters by leaps and bounds.

Lastly, I would merely say that I think I am not really in a position to make a proper appraisal of Nehru nor are the countless pundits who like to pontificate on each and every issue. I think I need to better educate myself on who Jawaharlal Nehru really was as a person and what roles he played in his 17 years as Prime Minister of India in formulating policies that had a bearing on everything from India’s economy to science & technology to its agrarian economy and its complicated and tangled legacy of caste problems.

I am sure, if any of us likes to revisit Nehru or consult with him by going through his voluminous writings, each of us will come away rather surprised and chastened by the kind of insight we will find Nehru had into any and every aspect of this drama of human life.

I hope I will find time in my old age to read more of Nehru’s writings…and remember to celebrate November 14 as the birthday of this great Indian and a great human being.