We Are On The Dark Side of The Moon!!

Proud of our Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

And history was indeed made precisely 14 minutes later. Photo by Anu Anniah

August 23, 2023! A day to remember! The culmination of so many years of hard work of countless people. The realization of dreams. A moment of proud tears across India and among Indians worldwide!

India made history today as Vikram, our lander touched down softly on the dark side of the moon. Only the fourth country in the world to accomplish this, and the first to land on the lunar south pole — a moment that made every Indian heart burst with pride. We may not know rocket science, but we know how hard a challenge this must have been.

After the heartrending failure of Chandrayaan-2 a few years ago, the fear factor was high for Chandrayaan-3, ISRO’s mission to land on the moon. Then again, so was the confidence in our rocket scientists. We almost got there last time. We would get there this time!

That didn’t stop us from praying. Watching people thronging at religious places throughout the day was a lesson in how our minds operate. We may be light years ahead in our pursuit of science, yet we are grounded. We know there are things out there that we don’t understand. We realize there are forces beyond human control. So we pray. For our success, for the country’s success, for the success of all those scientists who have put their heart and soul into mission moon, and for humanity at large — because our success spells success for all of humanity. Because we believe in vasudaiva kutumbakam — the whole world is a family!

Two of my aunts, my husband, and I occupied our entire sofa to watch the last few moments of Vikram’s lunar landing. The countdown timer moved from 20 minutes to 15 to 10 to 5. I found myself sitting on the edge. We kept wondering how tense the team involved in this must be in the mission control room. Who knows what all is at stake for them? Who knows what all they sacrificed to reach this point? As one of the leaders said later, it has been ‘breathe in breathe out Chandrayaan’ for the last 3 years. Gosh!

Finally, the claps, the jumping up and down in their seats, the ‘lips will tear if we smile any wider’ happy grins — the joy of the folks at ISRO was a sight to behold. Men and women in almost equal measure — ordinary people with extraordinary intelligence and will — people who had families, commitments, and responsibilities — united towards the common cause of rejoicing after years of hard work!

And I had to keep surreptitiously wiping my eyes all through because — who cries for such things?

After we had watched the telecast for as long as we could, my husband and I went out to look at the moon. I am not sure why. Did we expect to see Vikram? We couldn’t! We concluded this was because Vicky was sitting on the dark side of the moon. Meanwhile, the husband was sniffing. Was he catching a cold? I asked him why he was sniffing. “What? Are you the only one allowed to get emotional about such things?” he asked 🙂

We watched the news of the soft landing, discussed all that must have gone into such a scientific marvel, wondered who would act in the Bollywood movie that is sure to be made about this, laughed and felt proud equally at all the memes that came out faster than light, and finally, my husband said: