Last couple of weeks witnessed some unforgettable moments in
our Nation’s history. Some are unforgettable because of the scar they have left
and the lessons for the society which has seldom shown the needed alacrity to
learn from its mistakes. The mockery of democracy during the course of the
power struggle between the convicts and their erstwhile aides, is something
which will remain undigested in our minds for a long time to come. The other
unforgettable event that happened was the launching of 104 satellites in a
single mission. This has shattered the previous record of 37 satellites
launched by Russia by a mile.
This moment of national pride and importance was rightly
explained by the scientist of ISRO, who said that they are aware that it is not
a number game and they are aware that number of satellites launched is not comparable
to the runs scored on the cricket field. Our media instead of detailing about
the intricacies involved in carrying out such a challenging mission, hyped only
on the numbers. There is a lot of engineering innovations required for stacking
the tiny satellites in the available space and ejecting them sequentially in
the desired orbits without colliding with each other. This is the achievement
of ISRO's launch vehicle team that calls for celebration. Not only that, the
money earned by carrying them almost halved the launch cost of the PSLV.
Buoyant with this success the Chairman of ISRO also said that our country is
now ready to setup a space station. It would indeed a real giant leap. All
these are made possible by hard working men and women who have nothing else in
their pursuit other than excellence.
See what Sri
Sujit Menon, a scientist working with ISRO, has to say about his colleagues.
‘Most of the ISRO employees are ordinary Indians. Most of them did not attend
an Ivy League University. Most of them have not graduated from the IITs or the
NITs. Most of them do not even have a doctorate. Many of them are from middle
class families. Some are even from poor households. I have personally worked
under the person responsible for creating ISRO's supercomputer, the SAGA-220 housed at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center. He has a BSc degree
in Mathematics. That's it. No B.Tech, No M.Tech, No PhD, No Post Doc. I have a
degree from IIST, a reputed national university. But I'm awestruck at the depth
of his intellect. I asked him how he was
able to achieve so much in his career and rise to the highest of ranks. His
answer was simple, Perseverance’.
The success
of PSLVs, GSLVs, Chandrayaan, Mangalyaan etc that most Indians see on their
television screens has been made possible by the consistent hard work of many
such individuals. Ordinary people with extraordinary dedication. May their
tribe increase.
V.V.Balasubramanian
YB-ET
