Indian Institute of Students

Human beings always had a fascination for the skies. It was quite long back, really back in time when the first person stared at the sky with awe and wonder. Since then, this hobby of looking into the dark skies for other stars, planets, and celestial objects have been popularly summarized in a word known to us as “astronomy”. Astronomy is not just scanning the skies- it is much more than that. In this brief essay I will be writing about why I love astronomy, and the endless possibilities it creates for the youth community.  I got my first telescope at the age of seven, a sixty millimeter aperture Celestron TravelScope model. It was good, not quite bad, for a novice astronomer. It was satisfactorily good but it did not quench my thirst for exploring more and more. At the age of ten, I got a Celestron NexStar 102SLT gifted to me. It had a better mount, and the auto-tracking software made things even better. I started out by looking at the planets in our solar system- Mars,...

It's been quite some time that the exams had ended, and we all have been relaxed enough (seriously, anyone there who needs more time?) Personally, I have been successful in deleting all the junk data of subjects like Bengali, Chemistry, Biology, et cetera.  Now, during this vacation, it feels like as if time doesn't pass by- it merely stands still. Believe me, I had thought that this time after the exams would be "super-cool"; on the contrary it has been boring and brought me tons of idle time. " Idle mind is the devil's workshop" says the famous proverb. More than twenty days remain for the new academic session to begin. The euphoria of meeting with old friends, reliving the fun on the campus, taking down tedious notes and learning lessons, is too tremendous to be explained. But as days pass; months pass - when time seems to run - that's when the mind again longs for this break. Uhh. That's the human mind, like a maze. You never know w...

Here's something interesting for you all. Observe the night sky carefully, and try to find out the star Betelguese. It's easy to find- here's the trick. There are three stars lined up together in the sky, easily seen across India and actually all over the world. They form the Orion's Belt. I am attaching a photo so you may understand how to f ind it out.  The interesting this is, that Betelguese, a red supergiant in the Orion constellation, in the near astronomical future (which may be within the next million years, or even a year since) will explode and convert itself into a supernovae. The explosion will be seen precisely 642 years later after the incident actually takes place. Why is this so? It's because it's distance is 642 light years. Light takes 642 years to reach us. At that point, Betelguese will give out gamma rays. The gamma rays are sort of a hell for any celestial object that gets in it's path. For example, if earth was in it's path, ...

"Point is that if you ain't a celeb or an influential person, no one will be interested in you. But forget me. Ravinder Singh's sort-of-autobiography is complete trash. Sorry for spoilers, but I'm extremely not satisfied. The writing style is also childish, with half the conversations in Punjabi language - you can't figure out if you don't know Punjabi." Like it Happened Yesterday is a novel by Ravinder Singh . If you've read his earlier novels, it's pretty normal for you to expect cheesy love stories. But not this time. Ravinder has twisted his way. Guess what the subject of the novel is? Another love story? Oh no. It's about childhood memories of the author and recollections from his teen years. Unlike what I've read, this is a unique book of it's kind. The book cover, along with a heart clip art, deceived me into thinking that it was another 'lovy-dovy' story. Many of my friends had read his earlier novels and s...

So you used Chrome for a lot of time. And when you tried to close it, it almost froze, became not-responding program, and you felt a mini-heart attack. Fortunately, it closed down before you could react to it. But next, your computer has slowed down terribly. Terribly . A single right-click to refresh the screen can take up to five minutes. Now, this is even bad than the previous case. So what causes this computer to lag? It's RAM who is to be blamed. Especially, if you have a low memory RAM, using the computer would become a nightmare after opening Chrome and using apps such as Google Earth, online Flash games, etc. The basic working of an operating system is through processes. Chrome creates numerous processes, each eating up megabytes of RAM space. A few Chrome processes also take, say, 200 MB space from the RAM. Providing that you have an average build-up, like most of us do, your basic instinct will be to kill the computer right there. But wait. We've got a good fix for...

During the course of last three months I have been researching about Afghanistan, reading memoirs, checking out places described in books via Google Maps (a companion, say a virtual travel guide). Interestingly, as Qais Akbar Omar, the author of "A Fort of Nine Towers" describes, a person not born in Afghanistan, whose feet has not touched Afghan soil, will visualize the nation as a blood-streaked place, with bearded soldiers, wearing turbans and carrying grenades. But no, he says, they are not real Afghans. I've come to know about the Afghans a lot more than an average person does.     Modern-day Afghanistan: The road to Mazar. Copyright: Qais Akbar Omar. I'd provide a very brief timeline of what happened: At first, the Russians had invaded Afghanistan. Afghans didn't like that. Of course, in our country, when the British took us as a colony, we were not happy, too. One night people came out of their homes- unified in a common outcry of "Allah-u-...

Days pass by. Time waits for none. These are so common words. But, have you ever tried to decrypt it's meaning? Days pass by so calmly, so quietly. I just stare back at the days. Days littered with sprinkles of gold, days filled with mists of happiness, and days that shook me from within. I'm just looking at the "Timeline" of my small life, watching the moments of joy. You know what, they come in small numbers. Ask God, and he'll reply back, "Oh dear, happiness and sadness is equally balanced". Balanced. Oh no, the monotonous word, "Balance" that I'm fed up of. When you're in high school, everything around seems to come to a screeching halt, and the only one still efficiently carrying out tasks will be YOU. Yes, you! Look, all these days, in junior section, you have got 85% and above-sort-of marks. Your ribs crack down when you get your terminal sheets in your hand, maybe obtaining a mere 50 outt'a the traditional 80 marks. ...