Again, it has been several years since I have had the time to write another blog post. Life gets in the way. The kids are growing up too fast. Parents are growing old too fast. Different sorts of issues to face as you step through these phases in life. More on that in a later post.
This post is dedicated to the humble men and women scientists of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Long ridiculed by the Western world for their ambitious goals (see NYT's cartoon picture depicting the Indian scientist as a farmer with a cow knocking on the door of the Elite Space Club).
The immortal words of Sir Winston Churchill, "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" are very apt to describe what ISRO has been able to accomplish. The 1.4 Billion Indians are grateful to the ISRO for this achievement. We (as in most of the Indians settled here in the US) have no right to share the limelight with the men and women engineers of ISRO. These are hard-working, lower-middle-class folks, many of whom struggled to go to school/college because often they didn't even get primary education in English and then to climb out of all these pot-holes, and earn their degrees in second-tier universities (not from the IITs you see). And then after they got their degrees, they didn't go and seek those rich jobs - instead they chose low-paying jobs at ISRO because they wanted their work to mean something. They overcame all the odds that were thrown at them. The rest of us don't even know the meaning of true grit and vision - something that these folks endure on a daily basis with a smile.
To the astonishment of the media, the ISRO chief proudly claimed that it was due to the low-paying jobs that they were able to pull off this success. What he meant was that he wanted motivated people in his team and not people who come to work for money. I wish them all much success and glory. I am glad to see some of the media recognize these hard-working individuals and not glorify some politician or high-ranking official.
Tharoor said it the best - "The IITians went to Silicon Valley but the CETians took us to the moon.". Wow - what a pithy statement.
While NASA and the European Space Agency applauded ISRO's achievements and even helped the mission by tracking the progress of the lander, some elements in the Western media used the opportunity again to question why India needs to invest in space missions when it has so much poverty and lacking basic amenities like toilets. Here are a couple of strong reminders of why investment in science and technology is the only way to pull people up from poverty - an idea that was vehemently supported by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the American Physicist.
Finally, here is a fair and positive article from the Western media applauding the achievement.
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