NOTE MAKING WORKSHEET
Make notes on the passages given below with the headings and subheadings. Use recognizable abbreviations
(wherever necessary — minimum four) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply an appropriate title
to it. Write a summary of the passages in about 100 words.
PRACTICE QUESTION -1
James Doohan, Scotty from the original ‘Star Trek’ series, died in 2005. Before his death he left instructions
in his will that he wished to be buried in space. It took a long time, but Doohan’s ashes made it to space in
2012.
The first space burial took place 20 years before Doohan’s and it involved the ashes of another person
involved in ‘Star Trek’, that of its series creator Gene Roddenberry. Since then, space burials have become
big business. And believe it or not, with traditional funeral expenses going through the roof, the costs of
space burials have actually become competitive. A company that specialises in space burials, Celestrix,
offers a price list to potential customers. The launch of a single gram of a loved one’s ashes into the earth’s
orbit starts at around $5,000. A launch of the same amount of ashes into deep space costs $12,500. The third
option, of having one’s ashes scattered on the moon can cost $9,950.
The popularity of space burials is now changing funeral habits in the United States. More and more people
are choosing cremation instead of burial so that their relatives have the option of sending their ashes into
space. Since 1999, according to the Cremation Association, in Canada and the United States, the rate of
cremations has almost doubled.
Companies like Celestrix take payment from the departed family, receive the ashes and even provide the
container to carry the remains. The container in this case is a special one as it must be secure enough to get
past thermal, vibration and vacuum tests, before it can be launched so as not to explode while orbiting in
space.
The space urn then is taken to ride out to space. It needs a vessel in which it can escape Earth’s gravity. Thus
it has to be launched into space with the help of rockets with satellites, scientific equipment, climate
instrumentation and other payloads.
As there are yet no dedicated spacecraft to run exclusive burial services, the remains have to be in waiting
till a suitable opportunity can be found in a craft which can find room to accommodate the urn. Some
companies have begun to specialise in this operation. Ceveit is one company that offers customers ‘a
dignified memorial spaceflight.’ The company takes the ‘remains’ up to join communication satellites, spy
satellites and thousands of other satellites that circle the earth.
As a step further, there are companies that are looking at other options. One of them is planning to start a
service to send a keepsake, such as a DNA sample, a wedding ring, a photograph, to the moon. Once the
keepsake reaches its destination, the client will get a photograph on the social media or any other network of
one’s choice, to cherish forever afterwards.
PRACTICE QUESTION-2
How does one go about creating joy on a regular basis?
According to Meadow Linn, one should start small. Happiness can grow and blossom into a beautiful
bouquet, but first it needs to start as a tiny seed. Thereafter it must be nurtured every day. One must begin by
reveling in seemingly insignificant objects and moments. Perhaps it could be the perfume of a vibrant
flower; the way the evening light dances across the sky before sunset. Once one starts seeing the beauty and
magic in everyday life, one can begin to experience the same in all areas of one’s life.
Thereafter these ‘eureka’ moments begin to prompt the person into making big and small changes in life and
help the person in mending broken relationships, help them find a new hobby and so on. The list is endless.
Sitar player Anoushka Shankar says that she would like to create her moments of happiness by staying
connected with her inner core and then projecting her own unique light outwards. Greek mathematician
Archimedes, when he uttered the words: ‘I’ve found it’, established the important principle of physics in that
moment. Today we don’t need life-changing discoverers. We can find personal inspirations by discovering
our own ‘eureka’ moments.
According to Katja Rusanen, a spiritual coach, the two most powerful words that can empower us are: I AM.
According to him, whatever we attach to ‘I AM’ is what you will finally become. If you give yourself the
power to be negative, negativity will be repeated and if you give the power to be positive, you will create
eureka moments every day.
According to fashion designer Kiran Uttam Ghosh one should take time out to repeat one’s happy moments
every day. During breaks through the day by doing new things, one indulges in an unknowable essence that
exists. Her eureka moment comes when she creates a new outfit or drinks a cup of chai.
Another eureka moment comes in our lives when we suddenly start understanding a complicated problem.
According to writers John Kounios and Mark Beeman, it is the moment when the fog clears and you have a
rare insight into a problem which you didn’t have before.
Yoga coach Mini Thapar says that for her there need not be something extraordinary to find her eureka
moment. One can get one’s eureka moment from the complacency that sets in while living an everyday
routine. The ecstatic moment comes when one least expects it. Researchers have seen that much of what is
seen as creativity folklore actually has foundations in rock-hard fact. There are firm reasons why we get our
best ideas at times when we are simply gazing at the ceiling.
