- 5 - The big show :)

It was incredible, that’s all I can say. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and went to Pulicat lake area where the launch can be seen clearly. It was nearly 10km from the town and I shared an auto with 8 others… Yes, 10 adults in an auto!!

Among others in the auto there were three guys from Hyderabad. From the point where we got down, we could see the launch site brightly illuminated. By six, we were able to see the second launch site and the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) as well. The weather was great and the sky wasn’t too cloudy, so we all knew we can expect a great show.

We could have gone another 4km towards the launch site, i.e. till the front gate of SHAR. There we could have seen the rocket a lot closer but won’t be able to see the trajectory and can see very little of the lift off itself, if the rocket enters the cloud (as happened today).

Folks at home alerted me when the final countdown was initiated. It was so beautiful, the huge ball of flame rushed towards the sky while the assembled crowd went berserk. A few seconds later, the rocket vanished into the cloud, that’s when the people assembled close to the launch area lost sight of it. Once the rocket came out of the cloud it took a curved path away from us, so we couldn’t see the full arc. But people watching half a kilometer away from us were able to see it perfectly.

It was a great learning experience. We heard the rocket approx 30 sec after it lifted off the ground. Sound travels at 330 m/s; if you do the math, the rocket should be approx 10km from the point where we are standing, and the actual distance would come around that much (correct me if I am wrong).

By the way, I have uploaded the video in YouTube.


             

- 4 - Just ten more hours to go.

Amruthanjan balm and a pain killer tablet did work wonder, I feel great now. It stopped drizzling as well. I walked through the crowded streets for over an hour after lunch. I can’t make out a thing what the locals speak. Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada have a lot in common, but Telugu is something else.

I met someone who works for ISRO; he was pretty excited and showed me a list of duties he was supposed to perform prior to the launch. He also told me about the best locations to witness the launch.

You can actually go as far as the front gate of the space center, SHAR, but you won’t get to see much because of the trees. According to him, the best spot is a place called ‘Kudri’. It’s supposed to be a beach and gives you a very good view of the lift off. So that’s where I am planning to go early in the morning.

I can’t wait… :)

- 3 - @ Sullerpet

I reached Chennai on Sunday afternoon. It was so damn hot when I got down at Chennai Central railway station and it took another hour in the local bus to reach Adayar.

By the time I took a shower and had lunch, it started raining. It rained for the rest of the day and the next too (two days of rain in Chennai.. how rare is that!!). So, all I saw of Chennai was pretty much nothing.

Monday evening I left for Sullerpet. Even though it’s a remote town, the road that connects it to Chennai is the smoothest ever and after a 2 hour bus ride I reached Sullerpet.

The rain has been following me all the way from Chennai, It was raining at CMBT, it was raining when we stopped at a dhaba and it was raining when I got down at Sullerpet....... its still drizzling here :(

I checked into ‘ABC lodge’ (can a name get any simpler?!) at around 10 in the night. I’d like to tell a few incidents that happened along the way, but I am not in the right frame of mind. My neck sprained (yes, once again), and it sprained big time. I couldn’t sleep the whole night. I had planned to visit ‘Nellipat bird sanctuary’ today; forget birds I can’t even look at my own feet.

I applied balm and took pain killers; I am feeling a little better now. Less than 20 hours for the launch and I have a stiff neck; I didn’t see that coming!! If I don’t get better by tomorrow, I’ll have to stay in my room and watch the launch, happening 13km away, on TV. That’s sad…

- 2 - So far so good.....

I got my leaves approved and also booked ticket to Chennai for Sunday morning; so far so good… I am planning to spend two days in Chennai with some old friends who are now working there.
I have never been to TN before. I’ve heard that except for the climate and the scarcity of water, it’s a great place to be. This time I can visit Marina beach, Spencer plaza and wherever they are kind enough to take me. Also I can sweat like a pig; I really can’t remember the last time I got drenched in sweat and I kind of miss that. Bangalore has the best climate and that’s one of the reason I am reluctant to go work elsewhere.

I still haven’t figured out how close I can get to the launch site. There is a town called Sullurpeta located just 17km from Sriharikota. It’s 83km from Chennai and can be reached within an hour and half, thanks to the excellent rail service. I am hoping to be there on the third day as early as possible, so that I can talk to the locals and find out the best possible spot to view the launch scheduled on the next day.

So that’s the plan………

What if they abandon the launch for some reason!? I do have some back up plans; but since I am hoping for the best, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and forget about the alternate plans.

- 1 - Man with a plan

I was beginning to feel that I stand a better chance of giving birth to triplets than writing a few lines in my blog. Getting to that frame of mind where ideas flow effortlessly was not happening at all. Since I am not the only person in history to experience this, I’ll just stop whining and write about some interesting turn of events.

A couple of days back I was at work reading an online feature on ‘Chandrayaan-1’, India’s first mission to the moon. I have to admit that even though space exploration is one of my favorite subjects, I wasn’t really keeping a track of this particular launch. Then I learned from Google maps that the launch site, Sriharikota was less than 100 Km from Chennai and 300+ Km distance between Bangalore and Chennai didn’t sound too much. That was when it struck me, maybe I could witness the launch LIVE!!

Then there was a sudden rush of adrenalin, an insatiable desire to be there when history will be written. If there is one wish I have now, then it’s to experience the deafening sound and feel the ground vibrating while the rocket thunders away to the sky.

From office I went straight to my friend’s place, the first thing I said as I saw him was

"Do I look like a man with a plan?!"

(I have no idea how that popped out, but I am sure I’ll regret saying that)

“Huh??” He couldn’t make out whether that was a question or a statement.

“I am going to Sriharikota to watch the rocket launch…”

“Huh??” again, this time totally lost.

I needed moral support, so I explained for half an hour how exciting it would be to witness the rocket blast off. I must say I had some success even though I have a feeling that the term ‘man with a plan’ will pop up in many get togethers we will have in the future.

Since the blast off is scheduled on the 22^nd, a Wednesday, there is no point trying to persuade any of my friends to tag along, also I don’t think anyone would be interested in traveling all the way to witness something that would, in the best case scenario, barely a minute.

So am all set, and will update my plans in the next post.