an ambitious journey

The moon was formed 4.5 billion years ago. At the beginning, basins were formed from the heavy bombardment of asteroids and comets which were floating in space due to explosion of big rocks in the space. Then a short-lived igneous activity happened, commonly attributed as mare volcanism. Thin crusts were formed. After this, intermediate cratering and formation of ray craters took place. Mostly regolith rays covered the moon. These rays were made from the collision of large and small meteoroids on the already forming ball of rocks. These activities kept happening for centuries and the consequent product is what we see up above the sky every evening. The first mission to moon was experimented by the Soviet Union on September 12,1959. Though the mission failed, ten years after the Americans successfully landed humans on the moon on July 16, 1969 from their spacecraft- Apollo11.                               ...

  My parents recently joined a bird watching and stargazing group in Dehradun. It is administered by Mr. Satpal Gandhi, a professional stargazer and birdwatcher. Various sessions are conducted for the group members and their friends which helps spreading of this hobby to many future bird watchers and star gazers.            Mr. Gandhi, on 12th December, asked all the group participants if they were interested in going for a trip the next day, to a place called Asan Barrage for experiencing a meteor shower and observing rare birds. My parents asked my sister and me if we wanted to go and out of excitement we said yes. I was informed by my parents to pack warm clothes as it would be really cold and we would be staying near a water body during the month of December. We set off at noon and reached Asan Barrage at half past 2. We all got mesmerized the moment we saw that place. It was a magnificent riverscape and the cottages had a conical rooftop with...

It was May 1999 when an Indian army patrol led by Lt. Saurabh Kalia walking along LOC in Kargil went missing that raised eyebrows at the headquarters. What came back were badly mutilated bodies of our brave soldiers. This incident started the fourth war between India and Pakistan; The Kargil war or Operation Vijay, which started from May 3rd and ended on July 26th. Yes, this was the fourth time that a war was thrust upon the Indian subcontinent. The war continued for 2 months prior to Pakistan's defeat. 527 Indian soldiers were martyred, breaking the hearts of numerous people and leaving behind hundreds of families in grief. Many soldiers had been awarded with the Paramvir Chakra for their brave and courageous act. India had to fight to maintain its territorial integrity. Though in general wars are not desirable, but one can  flip the pages of history and more importantly in the Indian context, the wars had been fought against invaders, blunderers and enemies of the state. ...