Look up... and you'll see stars, even in Bombay...

Most people think that star gazing is not possible in a big city. But it is possible… I know from firsthand experience. In New York we met most every Friday and Saturday in Central Park to view the stars, basic solar system stuff, the moon, and open/closed clusters too. I hung out with some astronomy buffs Peter , Charlie and others. Peter generally brought one of his telescopes to the park. We all had our binoculars as well. As you can imagine, once a scope is setup, it's an immediate people magnet. People are surprised firstly to see that that star gazing is possible and then curious to see what we are looking at. Pointing out Venus shining brightly in the setting west sky would always draw lots of oohs and aahs. Mars & Saturn were also great favorites. The joy for me in star gazing is not so much the physics and theory of the universe etc but more the idea of the stars and how they move through the night sky. Watching stars moving daily allows me to connect with them and lets me imagine how seafarers in times past navigated by them. It's magical.

Now that I'm in Mumbai, I'm missing hanging out with the NY star gang. However, here there's a wonderful amateur astronomy group as well (of course) - Khagol Mandal . And congratulations to them for celebrating 25 years this year. The group meets weekly at a school in Sion where they discuss stars, astronomy, and have lectures too. November onwards, they have star viewing parties in Vangani, some 75kms from the city. Right now with the monsoons etc, the skies are cloudy more often than not so star gazing is not feasible.

I met with the Mandal folks for the first time couple of weeks back. I met Dilip Joshi (a journalist and a founding member of Khagol Mandal), Anurag (I believe he's a physicist), Sameer Kadam (admin manager of the group), amongst many others. That first meeting on Sept 15th they were discussing Jupiter and how on Sept 21st it was going to be closest to the Earth than it has ever been. The Mandal folks were very sweet and wanted to know my story and why/how I am interested in astronomy. I was asked to say a few words so I introduced myself to the group and shared with them the star gazing we did in New York. I had taken with me my two astronomy books: the Chet Raymo book 365 Starry Nights (thanks to Peter for introducing me to Raymo) and an old edition of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky (I've had this for at least15 years). I also had my iPhone; although the phone has been disabled while in India, it was thrilling to see that the Star Gazer app worked even without wifi. So it was really fun to show them what the app was and how it worked. The Mandal folks also have an extensive library of astronomy books that they've collected over the past years. They had some amazing books that I would love to borrow sometime.

I love seeing how small clubs and groups in India pool resources to gather data, and learn about things. Life, in general, is more difficult than not. Hobbies and interests then have always been harder to do here it seems, for lack of various resources, be it financial or just access to books, materials etc. So if someone is interested in an activity, it would require dedication and perseverance to make anything of it. More dedication and perseverance than usual since there are so many trivial and not-so-trivial obstacles along the way. I like this story about my father joining the British Origami Society (BOS) when he was in college back in the late 60s early 70s. Being interested in origami (among other interests) he found some (now classic) books by Robert Harbin. Those books led my father to the BOS, which he then decided to join. With an address noted in the Harbin book, my father wrote them a letter requesting a membership application. As one can imagine, correspondence by post in those days was not a quick affair; it took couple of months to request information, receive it etc. The membership fee was £3, which meant going to the bank in Bombay, getting a bank draft etc. Let me not digress into the archaic processes in the banking world here but suffice it to know that sometimes obtaining even a simple bank draft ain't that simple. He did join ultimately and received their magazines (cyclostyled in those days), which we still have. We even have some rather old but fantastic origami paper that BOS was selling or giving free to new members, I'm not sure exactly how we got them. Of course my father is not alone in having interests and wanting to pursue them even in the face of general Indian ho-hum-ness. The Khagol Mandal library is a great example of how resources were pooled and put to great use for the community at large. Every trip abroad was a chance to get a new book or magazine or item related to the stars. The Origami Mitra (started in 1981) folks have a similar tradition. Then, and now too (to a certain extent) there is a general dearth of origami books, paper, craft tools etc here. The solution has been to have people share books, diagrams, ideas, tools... and make origami possible for all. The great news is that India has changed so much in the past 10-12-15 years. More people have more spendable income than before, Forex rules have relaxed more too, people are traveling abroad more than ever, so the obstacles are fewer than before. It's wonderful to see both Mandal and Mitra groups thriving...