ISRO's much hyped Chandrayaan project came to life this morning with the launching of the unmanned vehicle from Sriharikota.Buoyed by this success,the chairman of ISRO,G Madhvan Nair has made an ambitious declaration of putting an Indian in moon by 2015.With the amount of dedicated brainpower available to them,it is not going to be impossible for them to achieve that.

But I for one,don't feel all that happy and proud for India's giant strides made in Space science.I mean.we simply can't afford spending hundreds of crores into the whims and fantasies of the astro physicists when there are so many other direct issues to be dealt.The money can be better utilized if it is properly channeled towards education,disaster management,strenghtening our armed forces and the police which are always woefully short of funds and many such urgent requirements which will have a more direct and fruitful impact on the lives of the citizens.

I have nothing against the scientists and salute them for their untiring pursuit of excellence,but I feel they should also understand that India ,despite it's recent economic growth is still quite a poor country.We simply can't afford to be in this race of "superiority in the outer space "with countries like US and China and some others.More so when we are already pumping millions to come up tops in a somewhat unavoidable arms race with Pakistan and China.