Prakash Shenoy's Diary

Amish Tripathi's "Raavan: The Enemy of Aryavarta" is a compelling exploration of one of Hindu mythology's most enigmatic characters. In this third book of the Ram Chandra series, Tripathi continues his ambitious retelling of the ancient epic, delving deep into the backstory and motivations of Raavan, the legendary antagonist. At its core, "Raavan: The Enemy of Aryavarta" is a character study of a man who defies conventional labels of heroism and villainy. Tripathi presents Raavan not as a one-dimensional antagonist but as a multifaceted individual driven by his own principles and ambitions. Through Tripathi's vivid storytelling, readers are invited into Raavan's psyche, where they witness his struggles, triumphs, and moral dilemmas. One of the book's greatest strengths lies in its portrayal of Raavan's complexity. Tripathi skillfully navigates the fine line between depicting Raavan as a formidable antagonist and humanizing him in a way that r

 

Narendra Modi is the first Prime Minister to visit Isro’s Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in four decades, where he met the four astronauts-select — Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Angad Pratap, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla —who have been shortlisted for the Gaganyaan mission. At VSSC, PM Modi bestowed ‘astronaut wings’ on the four test pilots after introducing them to the world and called them “the pride of today’s India” who “who will take the aspirations of 140 crore Indians to space”. The profiles of the four astronauts-select: Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair: A native of Nenmara in Palakkad in Kerala, Nair completed his schooling in Kuwait where his father was employed. After coming back to India, he did his engineering from NSS College, Akathethara, in Palakkad and joined the NDA course in Khadakwasla and then entered 163rd pilot course at the Air Force Academy from where he passed

Time of the Universe The cosmic calendar compresses the local history of the universe into a single year. If the universe began on January 1st, it was not until May that the Milky Way formed. Other planetary systems may have appeared in June, July, and August, but our sun and Earth not until mid-September. Life arose soon after. Everything humans have ever done occurred in that bright speck at the lower right of the cosmic calendar. The Big Bang is at upper left in the first second of January 1st. Fifteen billion years later is our present time: the last second of December 31st. Every month is 1¼ billion years long. Each day represents 40 million years. Each second stands for some 500 years of our history. The blinking of an eye in the drama of cosmic time. At this scale, the cosmic calendar is the size of a football field, but all of human history would occupy an area the size of my hand. We’re just beginning to trace the long and tortuous path which began with the primeval fireball a

Gazing our Universe By 1600, the long-forgotten ideas of Aristarchus had been rediscovered. Johannes Kepler constructed elaborate models to understand the motion and arrangement of the planets; the clockwork of the heavens. And at night, he dreamt of traveling to the moon. His principal scientific tools were the mathematics of the Alexandrian Library and an unswerving respect for the facts—however disquieting they might be. His story, and the story of the scientists who came after him, are also part of our voyage. Seventy years later, the sun-centered universe of Aristarchus and Copernicus was widely accepted in the Europe of the Enlightenment. The idea arose that the planets were worlds governed by laws of nature, and scientific speculation turned to the motions of the stars. The clockwork in the heavens was imitated by the watchmakers of Earth. Precise timekeeping permitted great sailing ship voyages of exploration and discovery which bound up the Earth. This was a time when free inq

Sustaining the legacy of wisdom Today, Alexandria shows few traces of its ancient glory of the days when Eratosthenes walked its broad avenues. Over the centuries, waves of conquerors converted its palaces and temples into castles and churches, then into minarets and mosques. The city was chosen to be the capital of his empire by Alexander the Great on a winter’s afternoon in 331 B.C. A century later, it had become the greatest city of the world. Each successive civilization has left its mark. But what now remains of the marvel city of Alexander’s dream? Alexandria is still a thriving marketplace, still a crossroads for the peoples of the Near East. But once, it was radiant with self-confidence; certain of its power. Can you recapture a vanished epoch from a few broken statues and scraps of ancient manuscripts? In Alexandria, there was an immense library and an associated research institute. And in them worked the finest minds in the ancient world. Of that legendary library, all that s