Of rockets, reptiles and rubbish
Of Rockets & Rubbish The link to Times of India article Of rockets, reptiles and rubbish Of scientific temperament and snake feeding On 5th March a rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre launching a robotic satellite on its 200-million-kilometre journey to Mars . When asked why a poor, low literacy nation should be going to space, the learned men said that it was to demonstrate our capabilities, fill our hearts with pride and most importantly inculcate a scientific temperament among Indians. Two days after that, on C.V. Raman’s birthday, thousands of educated Vizagites, got all dressed up and fanned out into the bushes to find ant hills to feed eggs and milk to snakes! Split personality This is the quintessential split personality of India. One set of people reaching for the stars (a planet really) and the other group visiting our friendly neighbourhood Cobra which - they imagine - waits, mouth open inside an ant hill, for eggs, and milk.