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Book- The Cosmic Mask
Category-Science Fantasy
Publisher- Lulu Press,Inc
Year- 2014
ISBN- 9 781500 464806
When I was a small kid growing up in a small village
in rural eastern U.P,every night my mother would tell me stories of a demon
from ocean in deep south flying towards mighty kingdom of Ayodhya in search
of Ashrams of holy saints to destroy it
and abolish the Kingdom of Ayodhya. She would also tell me many stories of
flying demons and how various gods of Hindu mythology lives in outer space in
their respective kingdom of Swarga and Narka. Many stories told by her made me
think how life can exist on other than earth, when my teacher told me that no
where else other than Earth life exists. Sleeping on a mat on roof top of my
old house alongside my mother I always looked in to sky and thought about
bright stars and moon which were integral part of her stories.
When I grew up and was jobless for almost ten years I
peeped in to NASA website and came across that magnificent thesaurus known as
Space Science. In a crowded market of Thipsandara in Bangalore I sat for many
hours in a cyber café searching and studying NASA website .The very same year Colombia Space Shuttle collapsed
while on its returning path to Earth killing all six astronauts on board
including India born Kalpana Chawla.I saw on television that entire India was
worshiping for safe return of Colombia , a magic which did not occur. Two years
later when I realized that I had enough information on various space missions
and many other activities of NASA,I started a series of workshops in my
ancestral town of Ayodhya on various activities and space missions of NASA.
Soon I realized that there was a lot of potential among rural students to learn
the adventure of space science, but there was a need to enlighten them with the
knowledge through stories.
I knew that there has very less work been done in this area of story writing on space
adventure as for as Indian authors are concerned, so I started searching
western authors and after couple of years research I joined some of remarkable
NASA workshops and conferences conducted by Education outreach department of
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I was also given responsibility to conduct a
prestigious essay contest of NASA in Indian schools which I am doing till date.
In this exercise of attending NASA conferences and workshops and organizing its
essay contest in India I came across a number of science fiction authors who
have done commendable job and out of almost 1000 stories selected ten stories
which caught my eyesight and to which I felt could be best for Indian readers.
In this whole exercise I am thankful to Gina
Brisssenden of American Astronomical Society who conducts may workshops and
tutorials for K-12 students in U.S. Schools .She is head of observatory
division at University of Arizona. I am thankful to her for kind of insight I
got by the workshop material she supplied to me. I am also thankful to David M. Sidel, Manager, Education Cell of
JPL to whom I know since I first peeped in to NASA website. I am also thankful
to Shari Asplaud of McREL ,who allowed me to attend some of NASA workshops in
Discovery series.
I am equally thankful to all my NASA Scientist friends
who are on my Linked in friend account.
I bow my head to my parents who have been my source of
motivation through all my life and equally I am thankful to my elder brother
who nourished in me how to think scientifically. This book would not have been
possible without constant support and love from my wife and five year old son
who like me also intends to know about Sun, Moon and Earth.
And last but not least a word of thank to my publisher
who made this compiled work possible and helped me in my goal to create
awareness about Space and Astronomy
Science among Indian readers.
