Rendezvous with Mars

In a country, where every parent wants to send his kid to Kota but hardly a few want to see them ending with Sriharikota, yesterday's afternoon was nothing sort of a miracle. It was another afternoon for me in the non productive corporate life but little different because of the extended holiday. However, it ended up eventually with a wonderful feeling for those scientist whose motivation is really a case study for many psychologists. They get paid minuscule, have to struggle with govt beauracracy for theirs day to day affairs and small budgets to carry on their research , have all the time alluring offers hanging up to take the mind away from the job and move offshore ; spending those countless hours in making the mission successfull is no less than a extraordinary event. I felt exceedingly proud while explaining this to my 11 year old daughter about the escape velocity, orbits , probes and life on Mars ; wondering if these are going to create some how, why factor in her mind. A scientist are born between the age of 10-15 but unfortunately the education system as well the social norms in India doesn't help to inculcate this among the kids.They get more enamoured by the geeks going to Silicon Valley and making good sum of money by writing computer codes or by those who take some common sense mangement degrees and become investment bankers. 

A welcome sign was that all political biggies were shouldering each other to congratulate the scientist. The reason for sanctioning 450 crore for this mission was difficult to digest, perhaps, some Vadra would be licking to find some more land availability for grabbing and making millions. A twist in turn was the post event discussion on why we spend this 12 Rs per Km for space exploration in the poverty ridden country. Unfortunate is that those people don't understand that we will continue to remain poor, if the science culture does not come back. Historically, our civilization was pioneer in scientific and mathematical discoveries but we lost in the midway around 12-13 th century, when we become too obsessed with non-scientific rituals and Gazni &Gauris of the outer world invaded us and started ruling both physically as well as in mind. The scientific and industrial mindset took a back seat and we were left far behind when Europian nations were going through Renaissance. The remains were collaterally and systematically damaged during the  British occupation and biggest impact was on the scientific developments. We are left much behind both in thinking as well as in ability. In the modern world, one doesnt need to have warriors of Alexandor to become world power. The scientific and economic revolution is only way to become superpower and alleviate the poverty. The one billion expenditure on space exploration in the trillion dollar economy is still too little vis a vis the national pride it brings and technological edge it provides in communication, mapping, weather observation or military capacity at home. These bring direct benefits to ordinary people. Take one recent example: a fierce cyclone that hit India’s east coast last month killed few, whereas a similar-strength one in the same spot, in 1999, killed over 10,000. One reason for the improvement was that Indian weather satellites helped to make possible far more accurate predictions of where and when the storm would hit. Otherwise, improved data on monsoon rains, or generally shifting weather patterns, can help even the poorest farmers have a better idea of when to plant crops.

When we don't mind spending 5000 crores in burning crackers on one night of Dewali, burning 10% of that on liquid propellant of rocket is simply nothing. Let's not connect it to poverty, hunger, rape, child labour and so and so forth and don't let the politicos to fight over naming it after Patel , Gandhi or Ambedkar. We are proud of our scientist and hope this will be a good step in reviving science and technology.