Covid Catches up with Sachin Tendulkar : Prayers for his speedy recovery. 

One year and counting, yet COVID continues to take centre stage and hog major headlines, particularly in the city of Mumbai and Maharashtra that are in the grip of a second wave of the SARS-COV2 virus which has not spared even the God of cricket in India - Sachin Tendulkar. A glimpse at the latest Covid numbers in India, particularly in Mumbai and Maharashtra provide a sordid tale. The active Covid cases in India have risen sharply in March this year and now stand at 6,58,909 as of today, with an increase of 44,213 in just one day. Yesterday, India accounted for an increase of 88,415 with 44202 recoveries and 714 deaths. The death toll now stands at 1,64,110. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr Uddhav Thackeray, in his televised address has emphasised the seriousness of the issue and has appealed to the citizens of Mumbai and Maharashtra to follow Covid safety measures to avoid repeat of the lockdown. The silver lining however has been an exponential increase in the number of people taking the vaccine. Just yesterday 30,93,795 people have taken the Covid vaccine with Maharashtra leading the way and the over all number of vaccinations in India now stand at an impressive 7,30,54,295. The mantra for Covid control continues to be prevention using mask, physical distancing, hygiene and sanitisation, whose importance has been stressed unendingly by all concerned. 

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week, has now been admitted to hospital. Tendulkar tweeted on Friday ;  “Thank you for your wishes and prayers. As a matter of abundant precaution under medical advice, I have been hospitalised. I hope to be back home in a few days. Take care and stay safe everyone”. The news of his admission into the hospital has sent shock waves among his well wishers with millions praying for his speedy recovery and wishing him well. I am one among those cricket fans for whom Sachin continues to be a legend and I join them all in wishing him a speedy recovery. Through this blogpost, I am not only praying for his speedy recovery but also wish to pay my tribute to the ‘God of cricket’. I am reminded of two Cricket Connect exhibitions, which I had the honour to curate in which I had included a section each on Sachin. For the Australian Cricket exhibition, this section was featured under the title ‘ The God ( Sachin Tendulkar) and the God’s God (Don Bradman)’ and for the England Cricket exhibition, it was featured under the title  ‘ The Almighty Bat’. I was also fortunate to host another interesting art exhibition ‘ Deconstructed Innings - A Tribute to Sachin Tendulkar’ at the NGMA Mumbai, in 2016, while I was holding the additional charge of NGMA. Sachin Tendulkar with his entire family in attendance came for the opening of this exhibition and he gifted a signed bat, which has been preserved at NGMA, Mumbai. The current Chief Minister of Maharashtra - Shri Uddhav Thackeray ji, had also visited this exhibition and I had the honour to walk him through this exhibition. 

Sachin Tendulkar, a spectacularly talented prodigy, is more than a mere cricketer for Indians. He has carried the hopes and aspirations of one billion plus Indian cricket fans for all of 23 long years that he played the game. Sachin's unparalleled achievements and his simplicity and humility have led to his fans placing him on a reverential pedestal. Many of Sachin's fans have come dangerously close to believing that Tendulkar is God. Certainly much of Tendulkar's batting seemed like a Gods gift from above. But the impression short-changes him, for no one has worked harder than Sachin to hone that legendary batting talent, which he is associated with. Sachin, who is a devout Hindu, does not like his fans calling him God. In one of his interactions with his adoring fans, he said  "he is not a god as he makes mistakes and gods do not", but that had little impact on many of his fans. Every 'God' has a share of non-believers. The great Sachin too had some. Some critics started writing his cricketing obituary when he was past 35. He bounced back and proved his critics - who had coined a new phrase 'End'ulkar, to signal the end of Tendulkar - wrong. At the age of 37, he had his most fertile year (2010); scoring more than 1500 Test runs and in the process he achieved a feat not witnessed in cricketing history. 

Sachin has to his credit an unprecedented record of scoring 100 hundreds in international matches, playing in a record 200 Tests. He continues to be the highest scorer in both Tests and ODI and he holds several other records, which are hard to conquer. Sachin had to wait for a long time to get to his 100th hundred. He says “When I got to my 100th international century, I was not jumping or celebrating. My first question to God was ; why did it take so long? What did I do wrong? With a billion plus people waiting for this, it shouldn't have taken so long”. Sachin played 664 international matches in 24 years. It means around 27.67 matches per year, and yet he maintained an average of approximately 44 and 54 in ODIs and Tests respectively. Although the average is less than Bradman's, the matches are way higher. His consistency, keeping in mind his longevity in the game, the varying opponents and conditions, is probably the best at the international stage and therefore it is no wonder that he commands so much love and affection from his fans.

The veneration that Sachin receives from his fans not just in India, but globally, was beautifully captured and portrayed in one of the art works that was displayed at the ‘Deconstructed Innings’ exhibition at NGMA Mumbai, under the title “Arrival of a Cricket God” by Manjunath Kamath. The artist essayed the birth of Sachin as an auspicious occasion where little Sachin is blessed by mythical godly figures. The artist said he drew his inspiration from Indian Calendar Art, popular culture, and epics to celebrate the legendary stature of Sachin Tendulkar to present a visual imagery, which includes metaphoric mythical elements that is juxtaposed with the childhood image of Sachin's arrival at the centre. There is a book titled “If Cricket is Religion, Sachin is God” written by Vijay Santhanam and S B Subramanyam, which also juxtaposes the position of Cricket and Sachin for Indians. It is therefore no wonder that when Sachin tweeted about his hospitalisation, his fans in millions stood by him wishing and praying for him. 

When Sachin was playing cricket, more More often than not, India's chances for success rested on his shoulders. Entire stadiums erupted at the very sight of seeing the little master walk out to the wicket from the pavilion and the very crowd entered into a deadly silence, and often emptying the stands, when the bowler got the better of Sachin. Sachin was born in Mumbai, one of the prime cities having a very rich cricket history. In a work titled “The City of Dreams” exhibited at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai the artist, Remen Chopra presented a sculptural representation of Sachin's Cricket career in a skyline of his city of dreams that is symbolic of his unprecedented skyline scores and achievements on the cricket field. 

In the history of Indian Cricket, no one has had a following bigger than Sachin – more than a billion. Cricket Fans all across the globe continue to keep the spirit of Sachin alive long after he has laid his bat to rest. He has connected Indians to cricket and to his own play, more than anyone else. His performance used to be the reason for whole country's happiness or sadness. Harsha Bhogle, an erudite and highly respected commentator, once said "India sleeps well when Sachin plays well". The crazy and unsportsmanly attitude of the crowd at the Eden Garden during the semi final world cup match against Sri Lanka after Sachin was out, stands testimony to the dependence of the cricket fans on Sachin. Many of Sachin's fans have come dangerously close to believing that Tendulkar is God. It is therefore no wonder that the he was conferred with the highest civilian honours - Bharat Ratna. Sachin Tendulkar at 40,  is the youngest ever and the first sportsman to receive the coveted Bharat Ratna, which was conferred by the then President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.

Among his innumerable fans one man, Mr Sudhir Chaudhary, from Odisha is conspicuous. He is seen with his whole body painted with the colours of the national flag and at the bottom are three words: 'the god of cricket'. Like a true disciple he has followed Tendulkar wherever he has gone. Likewise there are several other diehard fans of Sachin who are equally passionate about their idol  who continue to keep the spirit of Sachin alive. The exhibition “Deconstructed Innings” at the NGMA was actually an outcome of the reverence that Indians have for their idol.

At the World Cups, Sachin has been more prolific than anywhere else, his total tally at WCs (2278 Runs) is 30.6% higher than his closest and arch rival Ricky Ponting (1743 runs). And if you think he has played more, you are wrong. He has played 1 match less than Ponting in WCs. He has also hit 6 centuries and 21 half tons. Sachin's achievements can best be summarised in the words of Ponting who wrote in his forward for a book titled ‘Tendulkar in Wisden: An Anthology’, “For me, he's the greatest batsman after Don Bradman. While I hold Brian Lara in high regard because of his match winning ability, I don't think any batsman can achieve more out of the game than Sachin has". 

As Covid numbers continue to raise in India with a growth rate of 6.8 per cent in March 2021 which has surpassed the previous record of 5.5 per cent in June 2020, it is time for all of us to extend an unprecedented cooperation to all the Covid warriors and local administration and ensure that we not only follow all the Covid protocols but we must also help others in adhering to these mandated protocols to win over Covi pandemic so that no one including our hero Sachin Tendulkar will ever be effected with this Pandemic.

Once again wishing Sachin and all others who have been affected by Covid 19 and are in hospital recouping from this dreaded disease a speedy recovery. 

 Science Museum Metro Station - A Immemorial Visit.

One endearing image of the city of Mumbai, these days, is an unprecedented level of infrastructure construction work going on across the city including the works for the Mumbai Metro. Notwithstanding the Covid pandemic, which has rampaged the city of Mumbai and brought down the pace of these works, the Mumbai Metro construction work has once again picked up pace and continuing unabated. One of the major construction site of the Mumbai Metro is right opposite our science centre where a Science Museum station is coming up in  the Metro-3 corridor. The Mumbai Metro Line 3 is one of the most challenging engineering works for the Metro construction in Mumbai since this corridor is fully underground and it connects south Mumbai to the city’s western suburbs. It therefore was a privilege and honour for me to visit the Science Museum metro construction site yesterday and see first hand the tunnel boring machine live in action. The Line 3 metro is the first underground metro line for Mumbai, which is taking  metro services to the very tip of the Mumbai peninsula at Cuffe Parade. All the other public rail services including the metro services in the city are either at grade or elevated.

The Aqua Line ( Line 3) Metro spans a distance of 33.5 kilometres and will have 27 stations, including the Science Museum station -  just opposite our science centre, in its route. When completed, some time next year end, the Metro Line 3 will connect Cuffe Parade to Marol Naka passing through some of the most crowded areas including Worli. The Nehru Science Centre will be one of the major beneficiaries of this metro line and we earnestly hope that visitors to our science centre will improve substantially courtesy the connectivity that the Metro line 3 will provide for our visitors. For creating an awareness on the engineering marvels that this metro construction incorporates, we had organised an exhibition of the Mumbai Metro 3 at our Centre, which was opened by the then head of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), Ms. Ashwini Bhide on the Technology Day - 11th May, in 2018. Nearly three years later the pace at which the metro construction work has progressed is mind boggling, although there has been some delay due to the setback faced because of the Covid pandemic.

For quite sometime I was contemplating in visiting the Science Museum Metro construction site, which unfortunately had not happened until yesterday when the authorities of MMRC facilitated my visit to the site along with two of my colleague Engineer curators from our Centre. Mr Rohit, from the MMRC, incharge of the Science Museum metro station site, along with his other team of engineers, who have been tasked with this monumental work, offered us a guided visit to the underground works. The very site of the TBM piercing through the rocky area, 25 metres below the surface, to create the path for the metro line going southward’s towards Mahalaxmi station, with all those engineering paraphernalia with extraordinary safety protocols that are warranted in such projects, was a sight that will remain etched in my memory for years to come. Meandering through the massive construction site within the specially created movement path, we journeyed 25 metres below and walked more than a kilometre to see the construction and the tunnel boring works in action. Slightly more than half a kilogram of safety kit, which we were mandated to carry, was one of the prerequisite material which we had to carry alongside sporting the special shoes, helmet and jacket which were provided to us by the MMRC team. We walked through tonnes and tonnes of steel and other concrete materials with girders and unending metallic pipelines and very heavy duty motors and pumps, which were running full throttle to carry the caved in materials from the rocky areas to create the path for the Metro. Unfortunately, due to security measures, we could not photo document this fascinating site and journey of ours which we undertook towards that historic 1118m up-line tunnel towards Mahalaxmi, which is currently in progress. We were accompanied by Mr Rohit from MMRC and other engineers from Dogus-Soma JV, who have recommissioned their second tunnel boring machine (TBM) 1239 for connecting end of the Science Museum Station site towards Mahalaxmi Station. This 6.65m Robbins slurry machine, the TBM, nicknamed Tansa 2, had earlier been used for connecting Science Museum station to Worli Station in March 2020.  The Tansa 2 TBM uses a cutter head and shields, which  weigh 480 MT. The very sight of the transportation of this giant TBM on road some time in August last year was quite historic and this transportation coincidentally was carried out by the same agency and the gentleman who had transported our Electric Locomotive from Sion station to our campus in Worli in November 1979. We walked all the way to the TBM machine, interacted with the technicians and engineers and tried quenching our thirst for understanding some basics of the monumental engineering challenges that engineers are facing while executing such mammoth engineering works. 

This experience of walking through the construction site completely flooded with heavy engineering machines and instrumentation panels etc. with a range of safety sensors and feedback instrumentation interfaced to the computers in the main TBM control room, which was being operated by the skilled technician, appeared more like a cockpit of the aeroplane fitted with a range of instrumentation panels. The TBM operators who work in two shifts of 12 hours each in those trying circumstances manage to bore some 20 metres or so per day. We were informed that the place we were standing and interacting with the engineer and operator of the TBM was below the western suburban line below the Mahalaxmi station and that those unending movement of the trains is one of the many challenges, which the engineers and designers have kept in mind while designing and executing the project with all the redundancy and other safety engineering measures put in place while engineering this project. Engineers are a set of those unsung and nameless heroes and heroines who work silently and tirelessly behind the scene to create extraordinary comforts for humankind, applying the scientific knowledge to create engineering marvels that benefit society. The extraordinary role played by the unsung heroes - engineers, who apply their minds to engineer solutions to problems has been very well documented with some great examples by one of my young US based friend, Mr Guru Madhavan in his book ‘Applied Minds’. Incidentally he delivered a lecture on this subject at our Centre in 2019.

This book - Applied Minds,  is an engineer's delight since it provides a plethora of examples of how engineers apply their problem solving minds to analyse complex engineering and technical problems to find solution spaces that an engineering mind can create for solving complex problems. Engineers silently articulate their engineering minds, behind the scenes of glory,  to try and formulate and see solutions and structure where there is none and adapt themselves to design solutions under constraints. The author of the book, Guru Madhavan, considers science, philosophy and religion as the pursuit of truth while engineering is at the centre of producing utility under constraints. The outcomes of engineers are there for everyone to experience and enjoy and one such engineering marvel is the Mumbai Metro Line 3, which I had the honour to have a glimpse of. Therefore in a way I wish to dedicate this blogpost as a tribute to the engineers - unsung heroes and builders of our modern society. 

Mumbai, a cosmopolitan city of hope and aspiration for millions is majorly dependent on the rail transport. The Mumbai suburban Rail transport (central, western and harbor line) is inextricably linked to most Mumbaikars, for whom Rail is their lifeline. The EMU ( Electric Multiple Unit) services are a house hold name in Mumbai. The Mumbai electric rail transport started on February 3, 1925, when the the Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR) introduced the first electric train (EMU) that ran between Bombay VT ( now CSMT) and Kurla Harbour.  Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai is privileged to be in possession of one of the earliest electric locomotives, which ran in the city of Bombay (Mumbai) during the period from 1930 to 1960s. This 90 plus years old Electric locomotive engine was donated by the Central Railway to our centre in the year 1979.

Although, daily, more than 2000 plus train services in Mumbai are commissioned to hurtle through the city, carrying millions of Mumbaikars to their destinations, yet the ever increasing population and unending migration of people to the Mumbai metropolis was making it extremely difficult and often times dangerous for people to commute by suburban rail. Most rail commuters in Mumbai, specially during the peak hours, are confronted with every day challenge of searching for foot-space in a train that does not even have an additional square inch of space left. Realising this hard fact, the civic infrastructure planners have long been struggling with solutions and have firmly believed that the time has truly come for ‘the lifeline’ of Mumbai to now change to Metro (rail based Mass Rapid Transit System). Accordingly the Government of Maharashtra, taking on board all stakeholders, has committed to implementing the ‘Metro Rail Projects’ to improve traffic & transportation scenario in Mumbai Metropolitan Region(MMR) and has entrusted this task to the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), with the Chief Minister as it’s Chairman, to implement its vision. The ambitious Metro Rail Master Plan includes 9 corridors covering a total length of 146.5 k.m., out of which 32.5 k.m was proposed underground and rest elevated. One of the most challenging corridors in this master plan that employs the best of technology, is the Metro 3 project with Science Museum as one of it’s important stations. The Nehru Science Centre had hosted an exhibition in 2018, which briefly presented the making of this challenging metro line. Ms Ashwini Bhide, the then MD of MMRC had inaugurated this exhibition and delivered an outstandingly informative and fear allaying lecture on this project, particularly highlighting the Line 3.

Ms Bhide had spoken on the technological challenges involved in the project while honestly touching upon some societal issues including displacement of people and also uprooting of several trees. She was honest about the sound pollution and such other medium term problems that the project will create but was unequivocal in stressing that they are most concerned about these issues and are doing all that is possible to mitigate the hardships. She listed out details of the rehabilitation plans and also the plans for plantation of innumerable number of trees in lieu of the ones which were mandatorily required to be uprooted. She informed the audience that they have achieved an important mile stone of completing more than 2kms of tunneling in a short span. She spoke on how the MMRC is using Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) at various launching shafts for tunnel construction and added that the metro line 3 had so far received eleven TBMs, out of which eight had been lowered and have started main drives. She added, the MML-3 would bring multiple benefits such as comfortable Air conditioned travel for more than 16 lakh commuters daily, reduction in travel time, reduction in air & noise pollution, improving safety & security of the citizens etc. Upon completion, this fully underground corridor with 27 stations would connect Six business districts, 30 educational institutes, 30 recreational facilities and domestic as well as international airport terminals.

The Metro transport has revolutionised public transport in most parts of the world including the city of Delhi, which now boasts of an advanced metro rail system. As per the data available from the Advancing Public Transport (UITP) site, which provides the statistics of the world metro figures, at the end of 2017, there were established metro networks in 178 cities in 56 countries, carrying an average total of 168 million passengers per day. This massive growth is largely to be credited to developments in a few Asian countries which are prioritising this sustainable mode of transport. It adds that a total of 194 metro lines (both existing and new networks) accounting for approximately 40% of the length of metro infrastructure worldwide, have been opened in this period. Among the new metro systems that were inaugurated in this period, Mumbai is one of them and the others include ; Salvador (Brazil), Changsha, Ningbo and Wuxi (China), Shiraz (Iran) and Panama City (Panama). The Mumbai Metro 1 (Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar) corridor was opened to commuter traffic in June 2014. It has now emerged as the most hassle free transportation mode and its ridership per weekday jumped to 3.55 lakh commuters in 2017, up from 2.96 lakh in February 2016. Mumbai Metro 1 has surpassed the projected ridership of around 4.2 lakh. Before the pandemic hit the city, Mumbai Metro 1 had a ridership of 4.5 lakh on weekdays.

The Metro Transport is one of the most preferred transport in the world with several densely populated cities adopting this means of transport. The busiest metro network in the world is Tokyo, which boasts close to 3.6 billion passenger journeys per year. Chinese metro systems, have experienced even more significant passenger growth, with Beijing (+39%) and Shanghai (+25%) rising to 2nd and 3rd busiest networks. Taken together, metro systems in Asia carry over 80 million passengers per day, nearly half the world total passengers and with most Indian cities preferring this mode of transport this number is only heading north words. The New Delhi metro ridership has crossed the 1800 million ridership per year in 2018. Metros are of critical importance for mobility, as societies are becoming ever more urbanised and hopefully the Mumbai Metro will follow the path of the New Delhi Metro and will help in easing the commutation difficulties that the Mumbaikars face. Our science centre will be one of the major beneficiaries once the Mumbai Metro 3 is in operation since the Science Museum Station just opposite to our Centre will be a landmark that will help not only with access to our Centre but also in marketing our science museum to many more new visitors. 

I am sharing some of the earlier images of the construction site of Science Museum Metro station which Mr Rohit had shared with me besides images of my visit to the site on 26th March 2021.

Perseverance - The NASA Mars Rover, Lands Successfully on Mars. Dr. Swati Mohan’s announcement confirms “Touchdown”.

Perseverance - The NASA Mars Rover, Lands  Successfully on Mars. 

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I am not sure how many Indians were tuned in live on Thursday late night / very early morning Friday, to witness an unprecedented live coverage of the NASA Perseverance landing on the chosen surface of Jezero Crater on Mars. The Perseverance rover has been primarily tasked to find answer to an all-important question that we are confronted with ' Are we alone in the universe’? 

There were millions of people watching live from across the world, history being created by NASA and I was one among those millions, notwithstanding the fact that it was 2.55 AM on Friday - 19th February, when that moment, which everyone was waiting for, arrived to a thunderous applause in the control room in JPL, NASA.  What was even more pleasing was the fact that it was Dr Swati Mohan, the Indian American NASA scientist, who is part of this mission,  who confirmed that the Perseverance rover had landed  on the chosen Martian surface. “Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking the signs of past life,” with these words, Dr Swati, who was so very calm and composed all through her live commentary assignment, made an announcement of the Perseverance touchdown on Mars to the thunderous cheers of her compatriot, who erupted in unison at the NASA’s JPL mission control room in California. Dr Swati Mohan had specially chosen to sport on her forehead that quintessential ‘Bindi’ - a sociocultural trade mark for women in India, a practice which connected her to her roots in India. Therefore it was no wonder that Dr Swati Mohan was all over the print and electronic media in India and so also she was trending on Tweeter for a couple of days. 

The Mars missions have had a special focus last year. Besides NASA, both China and UAE too have launched their mars mission at about the same time as that of NASA in 2020. The UAE Mars mission is very special because it is headed by a lady scientist,  an extraordinary achievement for any gulf country, which is sure to kindle interest in science among the young girl students in the gulf nations. Sarah Al Amiri is an Iranian born lady scientist who migrated to the United Arab Emirates and she is now mantling the all important position of scientist in charge of the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission to Mars. Our neighbour, China too launched their mission to the Martian surface last year. China's Tianwen-1 probe was launched around the same time as that of Perseverance in July 2020. The Chinese mission has sent its first image of the Mars surface, as it prepares to touch down on the Red Planet later this year.

The NASA Perseverance Rover after a 203-day journey, covering a distance of 472 million kilometers from Earth, landed safely very close to the chosen surface of the Mars at the Jezero crater, after carrying out set out maneuvering to guide itself to the chosen landing site. It landed about 1.6 Kms from the planned landing site and this accuracy is something which speaks volumes for the scientific and technological excellence of the untiring scientists and engineers of NASA who had persevered to make this mission a grand success. One such scientist/ engineer who is part of this mission is Dr Swati Mohan. The mission team announced that ‘the rover landed itself flawlessly’. Very soon "Percy," as the spacecraft is affectionately called at the mission control, sent back its first images of the landing site immediately after touchdown, which showed the rover's shadow on the surface of its landing site of Jezero Crater. The Perseverance rover’s goal is to study the site in detail for its past conditions and seek the very signs of ancient life on Mars. Its mission is to identify and collect the most compelling rock core and soil samples, which a future mission could retrieve and bring back to Earth for more detailed study. Perseverance will also test technologies needed for the future human and robotic exploration of Mars.

The landing location, the Jezero crater, is believed to be the best possible scientific site in our entire solar system, which can possibly throw some light on the origin of life in our solar system. It is for this specific reason that NASA chose Jezero crater as the landing site for the Perseverance rover. The NASA scientists also believe that the area where the Perseverance has landed was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta. Scientists believe that some 3.5 billion years ago, river channels spilled over the Jezero crater wall and created a lake and therefore it is hypothesised that the crater may be home to an evidence that water carried clay minerals from the surrounding area into this crater lake. This means that microbial life may have evolved on this wet Martian surface and could have lived in Jezero crater during the period when it had flowing water on its surface. The Perseverance rover has therefore been tasked to collect samples from this surface which will be brought back to the Earth by future NASA missions to search for signs of the early life  remains, which might be found in lakebed or shoreline sediments of the crater. Although the site chosen for the landing of the Perseverance on Mars is very precious from the scientific research point of view, but then for the engineers and scientists of NASA this site for the landing was an arduous task with herculean challenges. Considering the sites significance to the objective of the mission, notwithstanding the challenges for landing on the Jezero crater, NASA has chose this site to land the Perseverance rover.

Over the period the Perseverance rover will collect sample data from this crater, which will be carried back by the future missions to Mars. Collecting the samples and bringing them back to Earth for analysis will be another breathtaking technological achievement of NASA, which it has planned. These samples collected by the Perseverance may reveal the secrets to the ancient life on Mars that existed on this crater some 3 billion years ago. Understanding the origin of the evolution of the cellular lifeforms on the Jezero crater on the Martian surface, the NASA scientists believe, will perhaps help us in understanding the genesis of life on our planet Earth and in a way lead to unravelling the mystery ‘Are we alone in this universe?

An icing on the cake to the live NASA telecast of the Perseverance landing mission event was the presence of an Indian origin NASA Engineer/Scientist, Swati Mohan, who has been working on this project for the past eight years. She was also one of the key commentators from the NASA mission control room. She was at the commentary in those crucial seven minutes of Entry Descent and Touchdown of the Perseverance rover. Dr Swati Mohan has a PhD in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical engineering from MIT. She emigrated to US with her parents from Bangalore, when she was just one year old and was raised in Northern Virginia / Washington DC metro area. My classmate from school, Viju Patil, who too has migrated to the US and settled there, informed me that an Indian origin Kannada speaking lady scientist who works for the JPL - NASA will be one of the commentators. He therefore urged me to watch the program live. Until then I was not inclined to watch the program since it was expected to land around 3AM on 19th early morning (IST). Courtesy  my fried Viju Patil I remained awake to watch the program live and I thoroughly enjoyed the coverage including those immemorial moments when Dr Swati made that historic announcement ‘ touchdown confirmed’. Viju also had given a brief background about Dr Swati and has said that her parents are from Karnataka and that she speaks Kannada at home. Perhaps it was this motivation from my friend, which made me watch this live telecast of Perseverance landing, which I will treasure. 

Dr Swati Mohan, who in one of the interview that she gave post the Perseverance landing said ‘I consider myself American, and I consider myself to be Indian too’, emigrated from India (Bangalore, Karnataka) to the United States with her parents when she was 1 year old. By age 9 Swati was enjoying watching intently ‘Star Trek' programs and she was fascinated by the beautiful depictions of the new regions of the universe that the astronauts were exploring. She therefore envisaged that she wanted to  "find new and beautiful places in the universe."  But then as with most kids she had other dreams too and one of which was to become a paediatrician.  But then when she turned 16 and attended her physics class things changed for her. As luck would have it she had a great teacher in Physics and his way of teaching the subject captivated Swati and she soon realised how application of knowledge of physics in engineering is what leads to space exploration. There was no turning back from then on. She instantly chose "engineering" subject to fulfil her interest in space exploration. She was supported by her parents to pursue subjects of her interest and thus Dr Swati joined for a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University. She then completed her MS and PhD from MIT in Aeronautics/Astronautics and the rest is history which she went onto create while landing the Perseverance rover on Mars. The first call that she made after the landing of the rover on Mars was to her parents - Srinivas and Jyoti Mohan. 

Srinivas and Jyoti Mohan, the proud parents of Swati, were ecstatic that their daughter, Dr Swati Mohan, had just completed her onerous task of guiding the landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. “My parents were the first people I called... They were completely proud and overwhelmed!” she said in the interview. Dr Swati Mohan, is the guidance and controls operations lead for NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission. When asked what prompted her to sport a Bindi, Swati, In the interview to Savita Patel for the Quint, said, “It was  an Appropriate Moment to Dress Up For. I Decided to Wear a Bindi”. She added “ I don’t necessarily wear it every day, but I do wear it when I want to dress appropriately, when being seen by others, to look professional and look nice, to look presentable. I made sure to put it on before I left the house”. Excited about her achievement Swati said ‘I have to say that I was so focused on what I had to do... I made that touch down, and it took a few minutes to sink in after I made the touch down call”. 

Dr Swati Mohan has been a member of the Perseverance Rover mission since the beginning at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. She has also been a part of various other important missions of NASA namely projects Cassini (a mission to Saturn) and GRAIL (a pair of formation flown spacecraft to the Moon). Most importantly she has worked on the terrain relative mapping, which is a specialty for the Perseverance mission. It is this new technology, which helped the Perseverance to navigate its landing on the right surface of the Jezero crater.  Apart from being the lead systems engineer during the development process of this technology, she has also looked after the team and schedules the mission control staffing.

When Dr Swati announced the confirmation of the Perseverance rover touch down on Mars she made history. NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is the first space craft to use this new technology - terrain relative navigation system, which Dr Swati was involved in for aiding the rover to assist itself with the Artificial Intelligence to land safely on Mars. As the guidance, navigation, and control operations lead, she was involved in developing and executing the new system. Perseverance is the first space craft to integrate this new technology in its flight. The terrain navigation system has a new sensor that consists of a camera and a second brain. Swati explains how this system functioned “ While Perseverance was on the para-shoot and decelerating, the camera took pictures of Mars. The second brain had preloaded images of Mars from earlier missions. The camera images are compared to the orbital map, to figure out where Perseverance should navigate, just like we compare street signs to a map when we navigate. This allowed for safe target selection — once you know where you are, you can choose where you want to go. Based on pre-entered data, she identified the terrain for safety levels — to avoid sharp, pointy rocks or cliffs. Perseverance could decide where to land, as she was coming down, she had the solution to where she was, where she was going and where she wanted to go. She looked and scanned between two regions and decided to land in a small strip area, in between two features of rocky areas. It was about 2 km south east of the target point- she was well within the landing target area.”

It is truly a momentous occasion that the fantasy like space mission - Perseverance, with an embedded Ingenuity helicopter mission integrated into the mission, worked to the exacting standards of the space mission planning, operation and control, which are rid with monumental challenges that needed tens of hundreds of scientists and engineers to persevere to make it a grand success. The successful landing of Perseverance on the surface of Jezero, encountering those terror 7 minutes’ moments of Entry, Descent and Landing, is that much more creditable considering the Covid pandemic during which this monumental Space mission challenge has been accomplished. 

The NASA Perseverance rover, which landed successfully on the Martian surface, has been designed with the key scientific and technological objectives of exploring geologically diverse landing site on Mars, assess ancient habitability, seek signs of ancient life, particularly in special rocks known to preserve signs of life over time, Gather rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth by a future NASA mission and to demonstrate the technology for future robotic and human exploration. Like with most of the space exploration missions, the Perseverance rover is also carrying specialised scientific instruments to conduct unprecedented science and test new technology on the Red Planet. The mission hopes that these scientific and technological tests would immensely benefit NASA in aspiring to send astronauts to Mars. The new technologies which the Perseverance has carried on board include ;

Mastcam-Z - It is an advanced camera system with panoramic and stereoscopic imaging capability with the ability to zoom. The instrument also will determine mineralogy of the Martian surface and assist with rover operations.

SuperCam - It is an instrument that can provide imaging, chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy at a distance.

Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) - This is an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and high-resolution imager to map the fine-scale elemental composition of Martian surface materials. PIXL will provide capabilities that permit more detailed detection and analysis of chemical elements than ever before.

Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC)- This is a spectrometer that will provide fine-scale imaging and uses an ultraviolet (UV) laser to map mineralogy and organic compounds. SHERLOC will be the first UV Raman spectrometer to fly to the surface of Mars and will provide complementary measurements with other instruments in the payload. SHERLOC includes a high-resolution color camera for microscopic imaging of Mars’ surface.

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) - This is a technology demonstration that will produce oxygen from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide. If successful, MOXIE’s technology could be used by future astronauts on Mars to burn rocket fuel for returning to Earth.

Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) - This contains a set of sensors that will provide measurements of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, and dust size and shape.

The Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX) - This is a ground penetrating radar that will provide centimeter-scale resolution of the geologic structure of the subsurface.

The Perseverance mission created quite a buzz across the world and as expected more than 3.5 million people witnessed Perseverance land on Mars, and the video of Swati’s team celebrating the achievement has gone viral. Dr. Swati has now become a house hold name in India for her achievement. Like most of us in India Swati too likes to watch Bollywood movies. When asked what is  on Swati’s agenda in the coming days? She said “Well, for the next few months, she’s going to be busy analysing data coming in from Mars. She also hopes to finally make the time to watch the Akshay Kumar-Vidya Balan-starrer ‘Mission Mangal’, which heralds the Mars orbiter Mission melodramatic story of ISROs achievement. Swati exhibited that extraordinary sense of calmness and self confidence when enduring and communicating the nail-biting final stages of descent of the Perseverance rover from orbit to the ground, in a sequence, which is termed as “seven minutes of terror” because so many things have to go right in this final stages of the mission to pull it off. During that seven minutes, hundreds of engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who have worked on the mission, were standing by to see if nearly a decade of their work pays off. It did pay off off to a thunderous applause of not just those engineers and scientists who persevered to make this monumental mission possible but also millions of the online visitors, who had tuned into witness this historic moment.

Long live science, engineering and its accomplishments for the benefit of humanity. 

Jai Vigyan

Images : Courtesy Wikipedia, NASA and tweeter handle of Dr Swati Mohan.

One Year of Covid 19 in India – A Thumbs Down to all those Dooms Day Forecasters for India.

 It was on this day last year -  30th January, 2020, that India’s destiny began with COVID 19 pandemic when it first came in contact with a lady patient, who had returned from Wuhan, China and was confirmed to be infected with Covid 19 by National Institute of Virology, Pune  on this day last year. 

Images : courtesy - Wikipedia.

This year as I unfurled the National flag, at the Nehru Science Centre, during the auspicious occasion of the 72nd Republic day – 26th Jan,  2021, I briefly addressed my colleagues and dealt into the bye gone tumultuous Covid pandemic year, which has adversely effected the globe including India and our centre. Incidentally it was on the 25th January, 2020, five days before India came in contact with Covid 19, that I had written a blog on the Novel Corona Virus (nCOV2) and this was the beginning of at least another four blogs on this subject. Most news headlines across the world, including India, had front paged the news of the novel Corona Virus (nCoV), in January 2020 and had forecasted that this would rampage the world, which it did most unfortunately and continues to do so even today. The fear of the virus and its spread was heralded to be so severe that the Chinese Government had restricted the movement of nearly 40 million people and an unprecedented and indefinite lockdown had been imposed in 13 cities in central China, aimed at arresting the spread of this virus. But then there is also credible evidence to suggest that the Chinese were late to pass on this information to the world community, particularly the World Health Organisation (WHO), which was informed only on 31st December. Had the Chinese been more honest and transparent, perhaps the world would have been a far better place with far fewer deaths. But then expecting transparency and fair play from the Chinese is almost an impossibility, which India has been witness to since early days, the example of which was seen during the 1962 China war and even recently during the Galway Valley treacherous encounter, the outcome of which has its adverse effect even today.

Immediately after being alerted of the Covid pandemic, the WHO realizing the severity of the spread of this epidemic declared it to be a health emergency in China and just stopped from calling it a global epidemic. Had the Chinese been more forthcoming, perhaps the WHO could have declared it a global epidemic much earlier, which would have given more time for the world to be prepared to face this Pandemic. However that was not to be. The virus, which originated in the city of Wuhan in China was no longer confined to China and it started spreading quite rapidly to other countries, since millions had travelled to and out of China by the time the Chinese had sounded the WHO. In this process the Covid also travelled to India and touched Kerala through one of the lady medical student who returned back to India from Wuhan China. As stated earlier she was confirmed Covid positive on 30th January 2020.

This 20 year-old lady who returned to India from China reported at the Emergency Department of the General Hospital, Thrissur, Kerala, with a history of dry cough and sore throat, on 27th January 2020. She did not have any history of fever, rhinitis or shortness of breath, telltale symptoms of Covid 19. However, the authorities had learnt that she had returned to Kerala from Wuhan city, China, on January 23, 2020 and therefore the health authorities were concerned that she may have been  asymptomatic between January 23 and 26. On the morning of 27th January 2020, she felt a mild sore throat and dry cough and therefore reported to the hospital for checkup. She did not give a history of contact with a person suspected or confirmed with COVID-19 infection. She also stated that  she had not visited the Wuhan Seafood Wholesale Market – the epicenter from where the Covid spread. However, she gave a history of travel from Wuhan to Kunming by train where she had noticed people with respiratory symptoms in railway station and train. The Thrissur General Hospital, recorded that she was afebrile with a pulse rate of 82/min, blood pressure 130/80 mmHg, temperature 98.5°F and oxygen saturation at 96 per cent and that the patient was breathing ambient air. The doctors also noted that the lung auscultation revealed normal breath sounds with no adventitious sounds. Notwithstanding all these normal health conditions, in view of her travel history from Wuhan, the district rapid response team decided to admit her in an isolation room, which was designated for the corona patients. An oropharyngeal swab was obtained from her and this sample was sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), a well established CSIR laboratory in Pune, along with her blood samples, for the detection of viral respiratory pathogens, on January 27, 2020. The NIV, Pune, used real time reverse transcription PCR method of testing and confirmed on the 30th January last year -2020, that the patient suffered from Covid 19. Thus on this day -30th Jan 2020, that she was tested positive for Covid. This India officially came in contact with Covid 19, through this lady patient who had returned to Kerala - India from the Wuhan province in China. Her oropharyngeal swab result was officially reported by the NIV, Pune, to the District Control Cell, Kerala on January 30, 2020 as positive for COVID-19 infection.

Therefore today is the first anniversary of Covid 19 case in India and in this tumultuous year which has passed by, it is time to look back at the bygone year. We can notice that amidst the huge tribulations that we had to endeavor during this tumultuous year, we can also feel a sense of triumph as well, particularly when we notice that the situation seems to be improving and the doubling rate in Mumbai as reflected in the news headline today is now 557 days as against a week earlier. Moreover we have now dropped down to the fourth position in terms of number of deaths from the second position, which we had climbed to. Considering our extremely high population density, particularly in the metropolitan cities, and so also our relatively poor health infrastructure and sanitation we must realise that we have definitely fared better than even the developed nations. We must also not forget that there were several so called experts who had forecasted a definite doomsday predictions for India and predicted that hundreds of millions of people will be contracted with Covid 19 and millions will die from Covid in India. Fortunately that dooms day predictions have not happened in India and for that we must stand in reverence and salute our front line health workers, our scientists, police and other civic agencies, and so also our political leadership - cutting across states and political parties, who, notwithstanding their utterly divided polity and ideologies, have worked together to take control of the situation. Hopefully the current situation will help us in the coming year to turn around our economy, which has adversely impacted most lives in India, particularly those in the bottom of the ladder - the labour force who bore the brunt of the Covid 19 pandemic with millions loosing jobs and livelihood. The government, all states and the central government, must be credited for handling the Covid pandemic situation fairly well.

 

Today - on the occasion of the first anniversary of Covid 19 pandemic in India, when we look back and see what its adverse impact has been we notice that Covid has literally rampaged most parts of the world with the number of Corona confirmed cases crossing 100 million and deaths hovering at 2.2 millions. When we analyse the world data and compare how India stands against the world average, we will notice that we have fared better and for that we must complement all those Covid warriors, health workers and others who have strived hard for achieving. Credit must also go to all of us - the citizens of India who have endeared all the pains and tribulations of lockdowns and such other difficulties, while combating the pandemic. A look at the worldometers.info, reveals that the total number of Covid cases in the world today stand at 102,628,625 cases and the number of deaths are 2216285 and the total cases per million population is 13,166 and deaths per million population is 284.3. When we compare these world numbers with that of India and other countries, which have faced deaths in excess of 50000, the data reveals that India has fared better than other countries and this must give a big thumbs down to all those dooms day predictors and naysayers for India, who had predicted dooms days forecast for India. Here are the numbers for comparison.

India now stands fourth,  in terms of number of deaths from Covid, behind US, Brazil and Mexico, a climb down from the second position, which it was hogging for a long time. From those early days when India was severely criticised for poor testing we have managed to overcome all those odds and our Covid tests now stand at a respectable 1,40,562 per million and this number is higher than most countries and fares better than Brazil, Iran and South Africa. These numbers must also be seen in the context of huge population - 130+ crore population of our country. A look at confirmed Covid cases per million shows that India has around 7734/ million population confirmed Covid cases as against US -79825, Brazil -43727, UK -55407, Spain - 60525, France - 48250 and Italy -41865. Comparison of data of deaths per million population also show that we have fared relatively better in comparison with even the well developed and better equipped health infrastructure countries. Indian deaths per million population is around 111 / million as against US -1347, UK-1533, Brazil -1044, France -1157, Spain -1247, Italy -1454, Germany -680 and South Africa -730. 

Mumbai, which faced a huge challenge in the initial stages, and even today the state of Maharashtra stands second only to Kerala in the new numbers, is now inching back to normalcy with the doubling data reaching 557 days as against a week earlier. The city of Mumbai has managed to control the pandemic against all the odds and for that we at the Nehru Science Centre also have played a small contributory role. When the pandemic started raising its fangs by spreading rapidly and was in the process of overrunning the health infrastructure preparedness of the city, Dr Lakdawalla thought of an innovative way of creating a jumbo Covid facilities in some of the public places and one such place used for creating the Jumbo Covid centre, very early on into the pandemic times, was our centre. There was a 200 plus Covid bed facilities created in our campus in our temporary exhibition space for emergency preparedness for handling Covid pandemic. Similarly any more such innovative methods were used across the country to combat Covid 19. With all such great innovations and outstandingly well coordinated measures between the health workers and administration the city has managed to over come the major health crisis, which was predicted for Mumbai. There was even a dooms days prediction which many naysayers envisaged for Mumbai, which fortunately and with the untiring efforts of health workers, has been avoided. 

Today when two of the vaccines, which are made in India, have rolled out and India has started the vaccination drive across the country beginning with the health workers, we can feel a sense of relaxation. But then we must not forget those deadly haunting thoughts which were forewarned and dooms days predicted for the city by many people. Although we have managed to prove those naysayers wrong, we must continue to abide by the Covid protocols and not let our guard down. We must continue to maintain that physical distancing and wear our masks and maintain health hygiene and use those sanitisers to keep us safe from the Covid pandemic and also enrol ourselves in the vaccination program as and when it becomes available for us. We must also abide by all the other procedures and protocols prescribed by the government. It is only then that we can pat our backs and join hands with our health workers and the government to completely eliminate the Covid pandemic from India. Let us all look back and see what those early dooms day predictions were for India and how we have all collectively proved those naysayers wrong and have made them bite  the dust and given them a big thumbs down.

Some where around end of March 2020 just when we went into the first stringent lockdown, I vividly remember that several international media and some of the so called health experts and commentators had predicted one of the worst dooms day for India. One of the headlines in The Wire dated 19th March, 2020, read ‘Watch: 'India Could Be Next Coronavirus Hotspot, in Worst Case up to 60% Indians Could Be Infected',  They quoted Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, Director of the Washington-based Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy. Incidentally Dr Ramanan was all over the news in India and was interviewed by many leading journalists in India which included Dr Karan Thapar, Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, NDTV and others. These media quoted Dr Ramanan and some other self-proclaimed epidemiologists and their so called statistical models to forecast that tens of millions of people in India will die and many more will be affected by the Covid pandemic in less than a year. This dooms day scare was unfortunately given traction by some of the media who kept playing these interviews and wrote about them. This news further accentuated the already existing fear among the people and made it that much more difficult for health workers and other Covid warriors to tackle the situation. Fortunately India managed the situation very well. From preparing for the huge quantity of required face masks to PPE kits, to sanitisers, to preparing adequate health infrastructure, Covid testing kits, medicines and such other medical aids, India rose up to the situation. Amidst the difficulties of lockdown and non availability of public  transport, the Internet infrastructure and our online preparedness came in very handy. Work from home was very effectively implemented and most emergency workers who were to ensure that these facilities worked efficiently did not fail us. Scientists, technologists,  industry and all others extended their support so as to collectively overcome our hardship. 

We not only helped ourselves but also helped other countries too. During Covid pandemic one could see that India was a nation which supplied maximum amount of pharmaceutical drugs like the paracetamol chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine (HCQL drugs to the world. The supply of Malarial drugs from India were questioned since among others who asked for these drugs was Trump. The Lancet too fell prey to this and published a paper against the chloroquine and hcql based on suspect data which they had to retract publicly. In a way the Covid handling in India and its success became political, which I feel is unwarranted. India has also pledged free vaccines and is transporting vaccines in large quantity to most of our neighbouring countries and including Brazil who has welcomed this gesture by comparing it to the mythical Sanjeevini which was carried by Lord Hanuman.  In that sense we have not only managed to pass through this tumultuous times but have also helped the world community in this testing times. 

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the Covid in India let us earnestly hope that it dies down much before it reaches its second anniversary, not just in India but globally as well.

Jai Hind