I was watching the news today and saw the momentous launch of Chandrayaan -1, India’s maiden PSLV to the moon. The papers were full of it — detailed illustrated stages of the PSLV launch, interviews with anyone is remotely connected (even retired persons) to ISRO, chronological list of all of India’s satellite launches up to date and the usual hullabaloo. The only dampeners in the whole process was Raj Thackeray’s untimely arrest, which of course took first page top spread coverage and India’s (again historic since it is very very verrrrrrrrry rare) win over Australia in the test series – we are after all Indians, and politics and cricket will any day precede any kind of scientific progress- be it even a cure for AIDS.
Back to what I was saying, watching the morning news, I was feeding my son (it's usually cartoons, but guess my son is growing up as well). The channel had a live coverage of all the scientists involved in the launch wearing coats labeled PSLV, and looking very austerely at laptops, there must have been at least 20-30 in a row and all of them the same. The scene was straight out of a Hollywood Harrison Ford political thriller, where he is the President or ex-military personnel, single-handedly fighting some sinister terrorist plot to destroy the world (its always the world and never just the US, but we always end up getting an American to save our lives- wonder Y) and all dignitaries sitting around laptops in the White House, strategizing to get him out alive. I am digressing again, anyway, most of these Indian scientists had no clue what they were supposed to be doing, I guess all these guys just have to monitor the readings, since they possibly can’t be doing anything crucial at that stage of the launch (which brings me back to the point, all Americans are so full of themselves, they act so self important at such times), Indians are not such good actors, they can’t really make-believe to be doing something important when they actually are not.
One guy, even had a paper open out in front of the laptop and was reading it ;) Finally after successfully launching it into its orbit, the scientists were all blank — unfortunately one of the live cameras were focusing on them. This senior officer suddenly reacts, like he got a shot in the arm or remembered this very same scene from a CNN telecast or something, and started clapping his hands. All the others followed suit, but not before blankly staring at him for a minute at first and looking around vaguely at one another. This guy then goes one step ahead and shakes everyone’s hand and hugs others around him (this is so not Indian style, especially not expected from someone of his caliber) I am not saying it's bad, it's just not our style, and it all looked so contrived.
Finally they were all exulting and hugging each other (again very Hollywood style), but this one senior person, who was also sitting in front of a laptop, just got up from his seat and removed the stuffy PSLV labeled coat, put it on the chair and walked off. It was hilarious, like the end of a drama, his face almost said “the charade is over, can we please go home now.” That was the only really Indian thing about the whole affair – it reaffirmed my whole faith in our countrymen —Mera Bharat Mahaan!!!
Back to what I was saying, watching the morning news, I was feeding my son (it's usually cartoons, but guess my son is growing up as well). The channel had a live coverage of all the scientists involved in the launch wearing coats labeled PSLV, and looking very austerely at laptops, there must have been at least 20-30 in a row and all of them the same. The scene was straight out of a Hollywood Harrison Ford political thriller, where he is the President or ex-military personnel, single-handedly fighting some sinister terrorist plot to destroy the world (its always the world and never just the US, but we always end up getting an American to save our lives- wonder Y) and all dignitaries sitting around laptops in the White House, strategizing to get him out alive. I am digressing again, anyway, most of these Indian scientists had no clue what they were supposed to be doing, I guess all these guys just have to monitor the readings, since they possibly can’t be doing anything crucial at that stage of the launch (which brings me back to the point, all Americans are so full of themselves, they act so self important at such times), Indians are not such good actors, they can’t really make-believe to be doing something important when they actually are not.
One guy, even had a paper open out in front of the laptop and was reading it ;) Finally after successfully launching it into its orbit, the scientists were all blank — unfortunately one of the live cameras were focusing on them. This senior officer suddenly reacts, like he got a shot in the arm or remembered this very same scene from a CNN telecast or something, and started clapping his hands. All the others followed suit, but not before blankly staring at him for a minute at first and looking around vaguely at one another. This guy then goes one step ahead and shakes everyone’s hand and hugs others around him (this is so not Indian style, especially not expected from someone of his caliber) I am not saying it's bad, it's just not our style, and it all looked so contrived.
Finally they were all exulting and hugging each other (again very Hollywood style), but this one senior person, who was also sitting in front of a laptop, just got up from his seat and removed the stuffy PSLV labeled coat, put it on the chair and walked off. It was hilarious, like the end of a drama, his face almost said “the charade is over, can we please go home now.” That was the only really Indian thing about the whole affair – it reaffirmed my whole faith in our countrymen —Mera Bharat Mahaan!!!
