The Divine and MOM

 

 
My move to India hasn't stopped my father from sending clippings and topic ideas for my class. This week he emailed to suggest I talk about the Mars Orbiter Mission, India's shoe-string project to explore the red planet that was scheduled to launch November 7 from a site about 80 kilometers north of Chennai. Although the mission received coverage, most of it landed well inside most newspapers. Now, it dawns on me that maybe it was a cautionary editorial move, should the mission fail.

 It didn't! And today, MOM's success is front-page news, and includes an account of India's chief rocket scientist's morning visit to a temple where he sought divine help for the mission: He "offered pujas [prayers] at the Tirupati Venkateswara temple, about 100km from the launch pad, with miniature replicas of the rocket and the Mars orbiter spacecraft."

Yesterday, I ventured to Marina Beach (with Alphonse, of course) to see if we could see the launch from afar. Kind of like long-distance viewing of Cape Canaveral launches.

We scanned the north and northwest horizon. Alphonse called his daughter at home to keep track of the countdown. And at 2:38 pm, we spotted a contrail corkscrewing into the sky, disappear behind the clouds and reappear like a little string connecting the clouds as it sped south over the beach. Not a great view. Still, I felt vindicated as most people advised me to watch the launch online or on TV.  This was way more fun and now I can watch a rerun.

We ambled back to the auto rickshaw, and Alphonse started his own countdown: "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1" and we blasted off to home. Then, I went to yoga!

   Waiting to launch

 Marina Beach pony rides

Scanning the horizon for a bright light

 

A closer view (From The Hindu)

  

 It went that-away!

 

Soaring toward Mars (from The Hindu)

 

After the launch, we tried the fish, deep-fried in a cauldron of boiling oil. Not bad, but Alphonse said it wasn't as fresh as it should be and rushed to get us a Pepsi to prevent any distress. No problems to report..