A semal in ITO
That time of the year when red flowers bloom, signalling the arrival of spring
They fall down with a thudding sound one after another, the red semal flowers. Their blooming marks the arrival of Delhi’s most pleasant, though most brief season—when it’s neither cold nor hot, and that dengue fever is still some months away.
The semal trees, unidentifiable the rest of the year, are suddenly as noticeable these days as those famous Buckingham Palace foot guards in red tunics. As if in flames, they tend to capture our attention in the most unexpected places—through a metro train window, or behind a shanty, or in one case, towering above a flyover.
Semal is one of the 252 species of trees found in Delhi. Its branches grow in tiers. They radiate from the trunk like the ribs of an umbrella—as described in the website of Delhi government’s forest department. The best place to see them in great numbers is in the diplomatic avenue of central Delhi’s Neeti Marg, which is almost totally wooded with semal. Two huge trees on the front lawns of Teen Murti Bhawan are also worth a view. Another grand semal stands tall in Jor Bagh market. In a lane in Panchsheel Park, one such tree stands far above the surrounding trees and bungalows, and these days is looking as if someone had thrown holi’s red gulal powder up in the air.
A particularly poignant semal you might wish to pay a visit to lurks over the ITO flyover in central Delhi. There, the first thing that amazes the viewer is the setting. The semal flowers are placed high on the tree’s branches. The tree itself is unusually tall, its trunk looming far above the elevated flyover. From a certain perspective, the flowers look as if they had freed themselves from the pulls of gravity and were bent upon escalating to the skies. In the evening, the absence of sun gives them a darker version of red, like clotted blood.
But one branch dips and its semal flowers seem to long for the earth—indeed they are drooping down towards the busy rush hour, along with its dust and smog and noise.
Suddenly, a bird lands on the topmost tip of the semal. It puckers around its neck, looking at the flowers. Some moments later, it flies away.
And now a semal flower from the higher branches falls down on the road, surrendering to gravity.
NEW DELHI: A photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a copy of the Bhagavad Gita was sent to space aboard an Indian start-up satellite, which was one of the 18 co-passengers launched with Brazil’s earth observation satellite Amazonia-1 in a one hour 55 minutes long mission.
The PM’S picture was engraved on the top panel of the spacecraft Satish Dhawan Sat (SD-SAT) from Chennai-based Space Kidz India (SKI). “This is to show solidarity and gratitude for his (PM’S) Aatmanirbhar initiative and space privatisation,” SKI had said earlier.
SKI said besides the picture of Modi, it was also sending 25,000 names aboard the SD-SAT.
Congratulating Isro, the PM said it ushered in a new era of space reforms in the country.
This was one of the longest Isro missions, beaten only by the PSLV-45 mission that launched an Indian reconnaissance satellite along with 28 customer satellites and three payloads on the fourth stage of the launch vehicle in three hours in April 2019.
The fifty-third flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C51) was the first fully commercial mission of the New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of the department of space set up by the Centre in 2019. It also became the first mission to carry satellites developed by the Indian industry.
In addition to the Brazilian satellite, the mission carried on-board one technology demonstration and 12 satellite communication and data relay satellite from the United States. The five other commercial satellites on-board the mission included the start-up Spacekidz India’s Satish Dhawan satellite (SD Sat) that has three payloads on-board to study the space radiation, the magnetosphere, and demonstration of a wide-area network communication.
A three-satellite combination developed by students from three universities and a satellite of the Defence Research and Development Organisation for maritime traffic monitoring were also launched.
The earth observation satellite of an Indian start-up Pixxel, which plans to set up a 30-satellite constellation, was scheduled to be launched in the same mission but was withdrawn because of some software glitch.
The Amazonia-1 satellite is the first satellite to be designed, fabricated, and operated by Brazil through its National Institute for Space Research. It was the primary satellite of Sunday’s mission and carried on board wide field imaging cameras for earth observation. “I am extremely happy to declare that PSLV C51 successfully launched in the precise orbit of Amazonia 1 today. In this mission, India and ISRO is extremely proud and honoured and happy to launch the first satellite designed, integrated and Operated by Brazil. My heartiest congratulations to the Brazilain team for this achievement,” said ISRO chairperson Dr K Sivan.
The Brazilian Minister for science, technology and innovation Marcos Pontes, who was present at the ceremony, said, “I would like to thank each and every one of you who helped make this a successful launch. We have been working on this satellite for many years. This is a very important moment for Brazil.” The space agency has fourteen missions planned for the year.