Space is not the final frontier, as Captain Kirk's voice-over in every episode of Star Trek series would have us believe. It's actually one of the first frontiers. While every Nehruvian with a colonial mindset seems to be still tittering at Anurag Thakur for stating that Hanuman was the first person to travel to space - and at Shivraj Singh Chouhan for his statement that 'we had Pushpak Vimaan long before the Wright brothers invented the aeroplane' - the truth is that once you believe in anything, the sky is the limit. Come to think of it, the sky is then no longer the limit. But questions can arise about whether Hanuman, being a vaanar, beats the dog Laika as the first living creature from Earth in space. Or does Vamana, Vishnu's fifth avatar, qualify, since to cover his steps on Earth and the heavens (before stepping on Bali's head), he must have had to step out in outer space.
Gaslighting oneself and mixing fiction with fact, imagination with reality, and mythology with history can do wonders for self-esteem and inspiration. It is by simply believing that 'we' had Pushpak Vimaan before Air India, that 'we' will become viksit, if we haven't already by believing that we have. Just one question remains: if we had the wherewithal to fly through air and space, what kind of dimwittery made us lose and forget that tech advantage in the 'middle'?
Gaslighting oneself and mixing fiction with fact, imagination with reality, and mythology with history can do wonders for self-esteem and inspiration. It is by simply believing that 'we' had Pushpak Vimaan before Air India, that 'we' will become viksit, if we haven't already by believing that we have. Just one question remains: if we had the wherewithal to fly through air and space, what kind of dimwittery made us lose and forget that tech advantage in the 'middle'?
