Being born and brought up in (undivided) Andhra Pradesh, I haven't heard that a place called Gooty existed in Andhra Pradesh. It was not until 2008, when my first posting (Indian Railways) was in Gooty - I came to know the correct pronounciation as 'Gutti' rather than what looks like rhyming with tourist Parasdise OOTY. My assosciation continued with Gooty and Guntakal Diesel Loco Sheds for four years from 2008 to 2012 - both in the Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh. Gooty and Guntakal both railway towns are separated by 30Kms and connected by one of the nice roads of Andhra (rather India).  When I used to ply on the Gooty - Guntakal Highway my attention was always drawn by a rocky structure high up the hill in Gooty. That is the Gooty Fort at around 300m above the sea level. Cupious with the absence of any multistoreyed buildings, except a few duplex houses - the Fort could be seen from quiet long distances in and around Gooty.

After the tremendous success of ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission launch, ISRO maintained surprisingly near silenece baring release of one or two pictures by the Mars Color Camera. The USD $71 million mission, launched on November 5, 2013, had a planned six-month life span once in orbit. The probe entered the Martian atmosphere on September 24, 2014 and was due to complete its mission yesterday (March 24).Now when the planned six months of mission life came to an end, ISRO has released breathtaking views of the RED PLANET.

And one more good news is that the orbiter has enough fuel for extended mission of six more months..

 ISRO's Mare Orbiter Mission - Mangalyaan's scintillating success was recognized across the globe as a feat in itself. Now the ISRO Mars Mission team gets another international recognition in the form of National Space Society's 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category.

India has successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars, becoming the fourth nation or geo-bloc to do so. The Mangalyaan robotic probe, one of the cheapest interplanetary missions ever, will soon begin work studying the Red Planet's atmosphere.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) kept its ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission on sound footing when its ground controllers successfully corrected the spacecraft’s trajectory on Wednesday (11th June). This complex trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM), as it is called, puts the spacecraft on the right celestial path to reach Mars on the scheduled day of September 24.  

We hear people often chiding , "its no rocket science" implying that rocket science is the most advanced of the technologies.The advancement in space research is no doubt the reflection of the advancement of science and technology of the country. Escaping out from the earth's gravity well, placing satellites in to the orbits of moon and other planets is no simple thing.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) since its inception in 1970s always kept pace with advancements in the space field. Chandrayaan-I and recent Mission to Mars are the most astounding examples of its capability. But its the success of indigenous cryogenic engine that was alluring ISRO for more than a decade.

After failure of the first attempt in August 2010, the Indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage was successfully flight-tested onboard GSLV-D5 launch vehicle on January 05, 2014 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. In this successful flight of GSLV-D5, a communication satellite - GSAT-14 - was launched very precisely to its intended Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.

I am one of those lazy flok who dream of doing many things in and out of life, but finally settle with doing almost nothing great. In this rush of life, we are always busy not knowing what we are doing and what we are up to.

Except those great few, many of us wander on some dimensions of the earth and vanish into thin air just like any other ordinary being. Are we on this planet to eat, drink, sleep, study , earn and spend money, marry, have children, make family and ultimately die-- with a photo of our smiling face hanging somewhere in the corner of the house?

I always (which I feel most of us) have these questions playing on my mind - what is this soul? Is soul real? Does god really exists? If god really exists why he is not responding to pains of the mankind? Can we see the god? Is there life after death? What happens after death? Is astrology real or just a blind faith? How this creation started? Does the cycle of birth and death real? Is all this what we are seeing is maya/illusion? Are we all just puppets in the game of god? And above all these doubts - the most important one - What is the purpose of my stay on this planet?

Whenever I gaze the empty sky or gaze inside my mind - the above puzzles prop up. But ofcourse in this materialistic world I hardly had time to explore answers and with time the questions also got burried. And Thanks to KINDLE, I chanced upon this wonderful book "The Autobiography of a Yogi" penned by Paramahans Yogananda. As I read through the pages of this book ( I guess I have taken some two months to read it) - it fell upon me what treasure of wisdom we had lost of our great ancient yogis.....