GRAVITY

Okay.. I got to talk about this, not just the movie but everything about the curious questions of the universe. I just got home after watching the movie Gravity. Now here is the thing, am I the only one or do movies make us feel something after it's over. I mean I know, I have heard people say, this movie made me sad or happy or smile or think etc etc..... Movies are realistic views in an entertaining form. And some movies teach us to feel and understand things, also because there is a story attached to it. So I don't think I am the only one. There are couple scenes in the movie that are amazing, makes you want to be there. Oh! did i mention, I watched it 3D, so now you know why I am all head over heels with the universe at the moment. First of all, it was a great movie. I mean the Oscars proved it already, but it also made me a little emotional and believe me, I drove home staring at the moon the whole time. Thank God for no traffic. This movie took me back to my childhood days, and all the questions my parents had to patiently answer. 

A paragraph from Carl Sagan's book Cosmos, 

 "The ancients knew that the world is very old. They sought to look into the distant past. We now know that the Cosmos is far older than they ever imagined. We have examined the universe in space and seen that we live on a mote of dust circling the humdrum star in the remotest corner of an obscure galaxy. And if we are a speck in the immensity of space, we also occupy an instant in the expanse of ages. We now know that the universe or at least it's most recent incarnation- is some fifteen or twenty billion years old. This is the time since the remarkable explosive event called the Big Bang. At the beginning of this universe, there were no galaxies, stars or planets, no life or civilizations, merely a uniform, radiant fireball filling all of space. The passage from the chaos of the Big Bang to the cosmos that we are beginning to know is the most awesome transformation of matter and energy that we have been privileged to glimpse. And until we find more intelligent beings else where, we are ourselves the most spectacular of all transformations- the remote descendants of the Big Bang, dedicated to understanding and further transforming the cosmos from which we spring".

-Carl Sagan from the book COSMOS - Chapter I

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My first question about the universe or cosmos was in 1986, when I was seven years old. I forgot what day it was or month all I remember was, we were on the terrace of my house waiting for Halley's Comet, ( A periodical comet that returns to Earth vicinity every 75 years) and I remember asking my dad what does it look like? And he replied, in the most easiest way a child could understand, and he said "you will see a star with a tail". As we all know, the tail is all the gases that gives it a tail like shape. I remember that night, I was over whelmed with the universe and the stars that blink in the sky every night. I went to sleep with the curtains open, staring at the night sky from my bed. My second time was around the same year, when I saw a shooting star and went running to my dad and asked him if we could get the shooting star that I just saw falling somewhere nearby, and I remember my dad smiling at me and at all the innocent yet curious questions I had. And now, living in Florida makes it ever more exciting because, NASA space center is forty minutes away from where I live and we hear Sonic Booms all the time. And trust me, it really is a BOOM. You better not have a habit of putting your coffee mug on the edge of the coffee table, because you know what's going to happen next....... I heard my first sonic boom 14 years ago when I moved to Florida from Michigan. I was on the road when I heard it, and I almost skid off the road. I was the only one panicking and wondering why are the rest of the Floridians going about doing their business. Well, now we all know right !!  It's a common thing up here. 

  There was a photo on the web that I downloaded few months back, It was a shot taken from Saturn and you can see the Earth. It was so mind boggling to me, I had to download it to my Ipad, so I could show it to my friends that night, I was so humbled with the shot, and mesmerized with the idea of  the word "INFINITE". Below is the shot of Saturn and the tiny blue dot.

The little tiny blue dot is our HOME. Now looking at this image, does it really matter to be a drama queen or king, this was my first question ..... Oh! By the way this question was not directed at me, but others who fit this category :-)  

( Yea I know, I can be eccentric, but I believe in being eccentric or curious than being a zombie who has no idea of existence).

About a month ago, I bought this book called COSMOS by Carl Sagan, and he talks about the universe and etc etc. And in his book I read the quotes by Mark Twain and my favorite Vincent Van Gogh and the quotes are:

We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they were made, or only just happened

~Mark Twain

I have.... a terrible need... shall I say the word?... of religion. Then I go out at night and paint the stars

~Vincent Van Gogh

I always have a telescope ready in one of my viewing rooms. I call it a viewing room, because that's all it's used for. And quite often I glance at the full moon through the lens, and I remember I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, how it feels to be watching this immense, powerful yet silent wonder through the lens. Quite often I get goose bumps, because I respectfully understand what I am staring at. The most serene, quite, cool, celestial body can bring madness if provoked. 

I have often had conversations with my friends or wondered myself, I mean we all have at some point in time, asked the same questions about the universe and how it came about. Some people believe it religiously and some scientifically. Whatever it is, we all know there is no answer to some questions. It's great to create a belief and to justify the question but I think when you create a belief system then you have decided to stop asking. And I know there are things in this world that has no answers but that doesn't mean we have to stop questioning. Nature, Universe, Cosmos whatever you call it, they are very humbling. Always learn to admire things, look up at the sky once in a while and observe the moon or the stars. You never know you might catch a glimpse of something profound. 

Hope you guys like the movie. And just in case, if you are vacationing in Florida and you hear a loud boom, please don't drop your coffee mugs, it's nothing but just a little universal tantrum:-)