The moon and our country

The sulky behavior of the Vikram lander and a whole nation heaving sighs of disappointment at what could have been-needs to be put in the right perspective. Why do we make these things part of some national drama with an unpredictable climax and denouement?

Where were you when the Apollo 11 mission successfully put a man on the moon and Neil Armstrong said “a step for man, a leap for mankind”. Most of us remember the thrill that ran through the world and all of us, except, possibly the Russians who were at that time in a space race with the Americans. Even today, when we or our children or grandchildren visit the Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, there is an opportunity to rejoice in that nostalgia all over again and wonder at the excitement of those moments.

In the context of that path-breaking achievement, the sulky behavior of the Vikram lander and a whole nation heaving sighs of disappointment at what could have been-needs to be put in the right perspective. Clearly, we overdid the expectations with all the hype and hoopla created hours before a scientific expedition which would always have a chance of not meeting a hundred per cent of the goals. That indeed is the joy of scientific endeavour, the pursuit of great goals, the frequent failures and the capturing of data from successes as well as failures so that the learning processes push the frontiers of human knowledge. Why do we make these things part of some national drama with an unpredictable climax and denouement?

Prime Minister Modi spoke to the ISRO team the morning after and made quite a few sensible points, the most important of which was the reaffirmation that the whole nation is proud of our scientists and always appreciate their selfless efforts for the country. He also showed enough warmth to assuage their emotions after the temporary cold-water shower that doused the sentiments at ISRO, though it would have been better if all the events and emotions were not laid out on national television for the TV watchers and Twitterati to comment on freely. The poetry he used about Chandrayaan becoming so enamoured with the moon that it rushed too fast into her embrace would have encouraged many Indians unused to the frequent disappointments in a journey of scientific discovery to realise that this was just one incident that did not take much away from the success of the mission in an overall sense. And certainly, does not diminish the enormous efforts our space scientists have been putting in so that we Indians can hold our heads high with pride time and time again.

Our mathematicians and physicists have mastered the ability to inject space vehicles into orbits of the moon and any other apace object, which is an amazing accomplishment

Reading through many of the hype tweets, Facebook rants and WhatsApp wars that raged for fifty hours after that fateful night, putting poor Dr Sivam and the scientific community into a glare of national publicity that they could have happily been saved from, a few points emerged that are worth recounting for readers of this column. For one, the low power GSLV rocket that was used to park the orbiter in geosynchronous orbit was designed to smartly use the earth’s gravitational force instead of just powering up into space like the Saturn-V rocket of the Apollo missions. Our mathematicians and physicists have mastered the ability to inject space vehicles into orbits of the moon and any other space object, which is an amazing accomplishment. And the very fact that we have demonstrated the ability to monitor and control triple axis motion at interstellar distances is worthy of all the applause we can muster. If we had pulled it off, many of our ISRO folks would have qualified for top international recognition. Once they correct a few glitches that came in at the extreme end of the mission, that will still happen and it will be richly deserved.

The moon landing that did not happen does bring a few thoughts in mind about the future of communications in our country, even as questions are raised about the silence in Kashmir Valley and the stumbling economy. I had the privilege of meeting a well-known Global CEO at NASSCOM’s annual summit in Mumbai this February and he made an interesting point. The US succeeds because the mature folk, particularly in business, largely ignore the rhetoric that emerges from the White House and engage with the powers that be only in matters which affect either national or their own business interest. He was amused even then that much like Fox News and CNN in the US, so many Indian channels tend to be very partisan and obsessed with every utterance of Ministers as well as random politicians, which they colour with their own views.

The message is clear-we all have families, companies and our own society to protect and build. There is enough each one of us can do in our individual and collective capacity to add value to the world. We try and do that in 5F World with our focus areas of digital transformation, skills and investments in companies and social enterprises that can truly add value to people. The Government of the day will do what it can; the politicians who choose to serve us, what they think they have to but surely each one of us can be the best we can be and add our own value to national well-being rather than making national noise in these testing times for our country and the world!