Having had my feet planted firmly on terra firma, I never really looked to the skies for inspiration. True to my star sign ruled by the disciplinary Saturn, I have always been grounded, with epithets like down to earth being applied to me often.
While the pull of humanities has always been irresistible, science hovered somewhere in the background, its presence neither acknowledged nor ignored. I could never relate to science fiction, all that transpired seemed so implausible and far, far away from our beautiful blue planet. But a piece about outer space and scientific marvels that I read one day piqued my curiosity and all those science lessons in school came crowding into the mind. While earlier Yuri Gagarin, Neil Armstrong and Rakesh Sharma were names I mugged up for the GK exam, now I began to read about them and their exploits with great interest. With great fervour I googled Elon Musk. And finally I wondered what my own countrymen were up to.
In the time that my mind was occupied with a few other things,we had explored the Moon, Mars and now were in the top league of space-faring nations! Mission Chandrayaan-2 seemed to be on everybody’s lips, with thousands of people gathered at Sriharikota, the island town, to see ‘Baahubali’ take to the skies. He was, of course, carrying with him the weight of expectations of millions of Indians. And if there is one government organisation that the country looks at in awe it is the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), that was formed under the aegis of Vikram Sarabhai who was in turn mentored by C V Raman. Our men (and women) of science persevered to get us where we are today. It was not entirely rosy. Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) might have been the turning point in our space history, but back then a series of failures saw it being dubbed the Sea Loving Vehicle.
Now all eyes are on Gaganyaan—the country’s first crewed mission into space. Hopefully we will successfully put our countrymen/women into space and join the ranks of the USSR/Russia, US and China. This year August 15 will usher in 50 years of ISRO. And in the near future someone will hopefully echo those famous words—Saare jahan se accha Hindustan hamara—this time from outer space.
Sunita Raghu
Email: sunitarag@gmail.com