{"id":124,"date":"2016-04-25T09:37:02","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T09:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=124"},"modified":"2016-04-25T09:37:02","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T09:37:02","slug":"a-star-for-my-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=124","title":{"rendered":"A Star for My Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

R<\/span>avi wants to do something different for his girlfriend\u2019s birthday. They\u2019ve been together for two years and it\u2019s time for a grand gesture. He\u2019s ready to commit. He wants to marry Nicole, have children; in short, buy her the world.\n\nBut since he can\u2019t do that, he settles, after much thought, on having a star named for her. He would find one nestled in a distant galaxy. That way their love would be immortal, yet private. He\u2019s heard of people doing this before, and is confident it will work out.\n\nHe rushes to tell Nicole. She\u2019s thrilled. \u201cYou are the best ever,\u201d she says, kissing him. She yells out the news to her parents, scaring Coco, the cocker spaniel. Of course she loves the idea of a star named Nicole.\n\nMeanwhile, Ravi who has gotten to work on his promise, has gone through <\/p>thousands of websites<\/a> \u2013 Cheetos strewn all across his lap, beer dripping down his beard. He\u2019s beginning to feel a bit suspicious. The 25-year-old law student is going to be spending a lot of money \u2013 between US $60-100 \u2013 but is unsure if the gift is legitimate.\n\nThe more he Googles, the clearer it becomes. He\u2019s over promised. The International Astronomical Union (IAU)<\/a>, which controls space nomenclature, has really strict rules about how stars are named. Ravi isn\u2019t the first sucker to give naming a star a shot \u2013 it\u2019s the opposite, in fact. His grand idea is beginning to feel less special already.\n\n\u201cLike true love, the beauty of the night sky is not for sale, but is free for all to enjoy,\u201d explains a statement on the IAU website<\/a> in plain-speak. \u201cThe gift of a star may open someone\u2019s eyes to the beauty of the night sky. This is a worthy goal, but it does not justify deceiving people into believing that real star names can be bought.\u201d\n\nSo you can\u2019t just name stars on a whim and a fancy. Many of them, like Sirius (Greek for \u201cburning\u201d) or Taurus (Arabic for \u201ceye\u201d), come from ancient times. Occasionally, a star is named to honour an astronomer or astronaut for their stellar contribution to the field. For instance, \u201cBarnard\u2019s Star\u201d, a red dwarf<\/a>, is named after EE Barnard, who spotted it in 1916. A recent example, Teegarden\u2019s Star, was discovered in 2003, and is named for Bonnard J Teegarden, the NASA astrophysicist who led the team that discovered it.\n\nIn most cases, however, stars are simply given numerical descriptors that best locate them in the night sky. The IAU doesn\u2019t appreciate suggestions for naming stars, and if they did, they\u2019d prefer numbers<\/a>.\n\nIt\u2019s rare to see six-foot-four Ravi anxious. But tonight he is a worried man. He had promised Nicole the stars. And she had told her friends. Would he be \u201cdeceiving\u201d her if he named a star for her on one of the websites that the IAU had warned against? And could these websites be flat-out lying? He knows the answer\u00a0is an unequivocal yes.\n\nNo database on any of these websites is accepted by the scientific community. The IAU characteristically doesn\u2019t mince words here either. It said buying a star would be like buying a temporary feeling of happiness. \u201cLike if you take a cup of tea instead of the doctor\u2019s recommended medicine. But at least you do not risk getting sick by paying for a star name, only losing money.\u201d\n

The more he Googles, the clearer it becomes. He\u2019s over promised. The International Astronomical Union (IAU)<\/a>, which controls space nomenclature, has really strict rules about how stars are named.<\/blockquote>\nRavi swears at the site, but has a thought. Doesn\u2019t SRK have a crater on the moon named after him? How did that happen? Maybe Ravi could find a way out after all. That hope lives only as long as the next search.\n\nThe International Lunar Geographic Society<\/a>, a New York-based organisation devoted to the study of the moon, had named a crater after\u00a0SRK on his 44th birthday in November 2009. And the IAU had approved it.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m no SRK\u2026 This is fucking pointless,\u201d Ravi concludes. He can, of course, just spend the money and be done with it. But he can\u2019t get over the fact that the websites lie so blatantly. He wonders if he should hire a lawyer and sue them. But the IAU, which is now his trusted advisor, weighs in again. \u201cChances are that they will either laugh their heads off or suggest that you invest their fees more productively…\u201d\n\nFuck it, he decides. \u201cLet her be angry, I can\u2019t buy her a lie.\u201d But the words, \u201cInstantly Delivered Personalised Star Certificate only $19.95. Print it yourself on any colour printer,\u201d stare at him from a website called Name a Star<\/a>. It is 3.30 am. Ravi decides to sleep on it.\n\nThe next day he\u2019s up early. It\u2019s Nicole\u2019s birthday. The star has not been named but he might just have a better idea. A 40-minute drive later, he finds what he should have been looking for all along: a Galileo sky telescope.\n\nThis is an updated version of an earlier story.\u00a0<\/em>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Propose Day, the story of Ravi who decided to name a star for his girlfriend, inspired by the lunar crater named after Shah Rukh Khan. Ravi’s discovery is less than stellar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-love-and-sex"],"yoast_head":"\nA Star for My Girl<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On Propose Day, the story of Ravi who decided to name a star for his girlfriend, inspired by the lunar crater named after Shah Rukh Khan. 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