PUNE: The moon is more than the earth's natural satellite for many.

It's the compass of tides for a fisherman, the sentinel for a farmer… the orb an Indian woman awaits restlessly on a Karvachauth evening, the poet's inspiration and incidentally, the epicenter of ISRO's ambitious endeavor called Chandrayaan.

So what is Chandrayaan for a common Indian?

The media has been vocally proud about Chandrayaan's milestones till the latest turning on of Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI).

It's easy to go gaga and lionize the technological feats when you are at this side of the desk.

But how would all that translate for that farmer, that fisherman, that poet and the lady at the window?

I ask N Seetha Rama Krishna, project manager, CRL and one of the key captains of the Eka supercomputer mission, another scientific pride for India.

He asks as he answers, "Why should only nations like the US have the right to satisfy their hunger to explore? India too has that right to benefit by being proactive in undefined boundaries like space. Earth has been divided but nobody owns space."

Think of all the nuclear technology that India has, but which gapes fruitlessly in the absence of enough Uranium. Among other things, Chandrayaan-I will map the mineral deposits in moon.

Projects like these have another beauty of their own. Ask a scientist what a feeling it is to see a complex mission succeeding.

You can feel it in the sigh of pride that Prof. Ajit Kembhavi from IUCAA (Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics) lets out. "Chandrayaan is a very complex undertaking and to do that in a short time is not only a great example on science and technology but also of project management."

Krishna tells me that in a country where scientists work on salaries that are surprisingly meager, a mammoth project of precious long-term significance could be still questioned for its cost.

As I try to sift out the scientific silica,  grains of salt fall along and surprise me. Be it Dr. Krishna or Prof. Kembhavi, they both point out to pointing fingers on the price tag of projects like these. I sit back in surprise.

Does something that myopic really happen? Do people really haggle over the cost of scientific exploits like these? Can we really measure the worth and long-term ROI of such projects?

Prof. Kembhavi talks to me about the opportunity cost if our scientists sit back and do not risk such undertakings. That alone is sufficient to shut questioning mouths if they still haven't calculated the economy of time and money with which a gargantuan and complex project like this has still been achieved.

Science affects us even if we ignore the scientists or worse still, prefer to question them? The very scientists who have dedicated their knowledge, their time and their US $ worth in return for a small incomparable salary and a big incomparable sense of pride for India?
 
Science affects us…. From the riders to the sea to the housewife watching Saas, Bahu on TV. From the farmer toiling in the field to the hi-flying techie there is a drop of science in everybody's life.

Be it India's coups in Supercomputing or in space.

It does every day.

We might sleep oblivious to the significance of a scientist burning his midnight oil somewhere. But it is those unheard, unseen faces that make our lives better, for us, for the posterity.

It's them who make all the difference between gazing wistfully at the moon and asking for the moon.