Indians were yet to get over Chandrayaan-3’s success hangover that Indian Space Research Organization launched a mission to the Sun, Aditya-L1, on Saturday. The Indian space agency has recently been winning accolades across the globe for touching the Moon in a budget much less than film projects like the recently released ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’, and roughly half the cost of space epic ‘Interstellar’.
What’s more interesting is that the heroes behind the success, our ISRO scientists, are much humbler than most people in your urban, posh neighbourhood. Despite their massive achievements, they choose to remain grounded without any showoff.
They scientists did not even get any special privilege or financial incentives to put in extra hours on the special space project. Do you know what kept them motivated? “A free masala dosa and filter coffee at 5 pm, every evening.”
The inside story was recently revealed in an opinion piece in The Washington Post. Former head of ISRO, Madhavan Nair, was quoted as saying, “We spend only on essentials. Our scientists put in more effort than any other scientists in any other company — in India or abroad,” Madhavan Nair, another former head of the ISRO.”
Talking about ISRO having no financial incentives to offer employees for moon mission’s success, Venkateshwara Sharma, a mission scientist, was quoted as saying: “We cracked it by offering a free masala dosa and filter coffee at 5 pm every evening. Suddenly, everyone was happy to stay on longer.”
The report stated that Sharma himself found love at the ISRO. He married one of the key leads on the project.
The Washington Post opinion piece further mentioned that India needs more heroes like Sreedhara Somanath than it needs entrepreneurs like Satya Nadella. “No offense to Nadella, the otherwise brilliant Hyderabad-born chief executive of Microsoft. But it’s the low-key Somanath, under whose leadership India achieved its historic moon landing, who should be a role model for Indians. He represents a generation of gifted scientists who chose not to emigrate — and achieved just as much, if not more, in challenging circumstances,” the author, who is also a popular journalist in India, wrote.
“Somanath will never own a cricket team or show up on any Fortune or Forbes lists. He will probably never be called to dine at the White House. And he earns a fraction of what Indian Americans such as Nadella do. But spending just 30 percent more than Nadella’s annual salary, he took India to the moon,” the author further wrote.
And indeed, ISRO scientists are known for their bigger minds and humbler lifestyles. Recently, the ISRO chief boarded an Indigo like any other co-passenger, and Instagram users could not help but comment “he’s so down to earth.”
Another user wrote, “Thank you so much..for giving respect to real hero..India is changing for sure.” These comments came on a video shared by a flight attendant, captioned: “MR S SOMANATH – The chairman of ISRO. Felt privileged to get a chance to serve Mr S. Somanath on board our INDIGO flight. ”It’s always a pleasure to have national heroes on our flight.”
Somanath received an exceptionally warm welcome from Indigo’s cabin crew and passengers upon boarding the flight. The air hostess, with pride in her voice, greeted the ISRO chief and urged other passengers to welcome the “national hero”.
After the words of praise, the passengers and crew members gave him a big round of applause. Some also turned to catch a glimpse of the celebrated scientist. Another flight attendant was seen handing over a few goodies and a note of gratitude to him, which he accepts with a smile.
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