Skip to main content

COSMOS by Carl Sagan

There was a time when Doordarshan wasn't as heavily desi as it is today. Quality programs were regularly aired, one of them being the legendary series COSMOS by Carl Sagan. This 13-episode series was shown on DD on Sunday morns from 9 to 10. Though my interest in the heavens was gradually growing, I was too young to take in the heavy intellectualism of Dr.Sagan. I would have much rather preferred some science fiction (like Projective UFO which was replaced by COSMOS) to science facts. Dad, though, would watch it in rapt attention. I would try hard to take interest in the heavy dose of scientific facts being delved into before running out of patience.

I went on to rue those moments of infantile ignorance. Sagan became my hero and I framed his photo for inspiration. Dad bought me his book by the same name. It was sheer serendipity that brought me to the doorstep of this wonder series yet again today.

Since bandwidth is a rare commodity, I've been able to watch only the first 13 mins of Episode 9. Two things came to the fore.
  • Sagan inadvertently spoke about the history behind the name of a search engine that was yet to come into existence then. Ironically, it was through this search engine that I managed to rediscover the series.
  • A score from Handel's Water Music was being played in the background while Sagan explained the nature of matter sitting in a banquet hall in Cambridge University. I used to listen to this score very often during my Pune days.
It's a small world! I just can't wait to watch the rest of the episode and the series. Now all I need is bandwidth in plenty!

Comments

Anonymous said…
i know ur interest in space and stuff ,
sky watching even with a telescope and all, since dey have strated space tourism
would u like 2 be a space passenger ? .
might become possible in ur lifetime ,
just if d costs come down r u become richer and more technology is developed ,
and our govt can afford it ,
possibilities look slim , but den dere is .
Deepanjan said…
Would love to break free from the clutches of gravity. Space is, however, too distant!

Popular posts from this blog

This is what Bertrand Russell said about religion...

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. ... A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.

The year that was

I'm wearing a rather striking shirt, one that makes me feel like a clown fooling around in a graveyard. Roving eyes latch on to me and make me too conscious of myself. Checkered in red, grey, black and maroon, I've excused myself into donning it and looking silly for two reasons. It's Friday and…more importantly, the last working day of the year. Tailored half-a-year back, I never had the courage to wear it, not until today. It's that time of the year when it's time to reflect on the events that transpired. Last year ended on the worst possible note. Dad had expired and I was numb with shock. The repercussions rippled halfway thought this year. Things were so abysmal initially that I had lost the will to live. Acrid in everything I did, I was immensely angered by time phlegmatically flowing through its cadence. It was as if Dad meant nothing to anybody. What right did people have to live the way they always had when Dad was no more? Why was much of the world still