Mars ke achche din a gaaye: How Firstpost readers reacted to Isro's Mangalyaan

As ISRO’s Mangalyaan entered the Red Planet’s orbit on Wednesday morning and Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave an emotional speech on the country’s historic achievement, people across the country erupted with some intense and interesting responses of their own. [caption id=“attachment_1727667” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The Mars Orbiter entered the Red Planet’s orbit today. Agencies[/caption] Here are some of the comments, made by Firstpost readers, which caught our eye: (Editor’s note: These are readers’ comments we received on the Mangalyaan live post . Some of these comments have been edited for grammar.) Shankar S: ISRO scientists have once again proved that we Indians haven’t forgotten our ancestors’ root. We were rich in knowledge well before 5000 years. In between, (last 700 years) we had lost our pride, unity, glory, etc. due to invaders’ cunning strategy to keep us down. Now Indians working in NASA should come back to India and help our space related programmes. We can rule the world provided if our brains work for our country. India should also remove the quota system and find new talent to nurture. There should not be any caste, language or religion based divisions. Our brains can match anyone’s on this earth. Long live India. flamingdragon: Kudos to the scientists of India…Good luck. We can innovate with such low costs. It is important to take the learnings and technology from this mission for the benefit of mother earth. peddi: Congrats ISRO! you proved to the world, we don’t need huge money to do the impossible!! saviour: My hearty congratulation to all the ISRO scientists for achieving this Himalayan victory..you have made India proud..I hope that ISRO will beat NASA and ROSCOSMOS in future in the space research & race. Gozmuz: PM Modi was in ISRO control room by 6:45 AM. Wow… when was the last time I was so excited about my country to wake up so early, may be during some cricket matches in Australia. Modi is great, has so much enthusiasm. For all the ISRO scientists, it must feel like Modi is one of them, one of us, cheerring us all the way. Yeah that’s how a PM should be. India is blessed. PCG: All our ISRO Scientists should also be awarded in the same manner as we have awarded our so called “gr8” cricketer(s), because their achievement is much bigger than the IPL or International cricket. Guesstimater: Kudos ISRO for achieving this level of sophistication. Congratulations India for becoming an elite space faring nation. And a huge thanks to NASA for all the assistance and guidance. What a fantastic achievement!!!! Ga Ja: Finally some good news! Science and technology unites our country. We should all strive for more such innovation for the benefit of our great nation. Salute to the scientists. M Chandrasekaran: Hello every one. The happiest moment for the Indians and the proudest too. India never sleeps. Come on neighbours, Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka and all others. Join us for a better future. India’s actions are not to harm others. I am among the proudest Indian today. DesTex: Congratulations ISRO. This is an incredible feat achieved on a shoe string budget. Folks, you must realize the challenges ISRO has. Budget is not the only one. Byzantine bureaucracy, limited options available to attract and retain talent, indifferent political leadership to name a few. Rising above these challenges and achieving this is much bigger than any of NASA’s greatest achievements. Bravo, scientists and technologists of ISRO!!! But times are a changin’ now … There is a new cheerleader in chief and he has got your back…. All the way!!! Onward to bigger, better and higher feats proud people of ISRO…  Godspeed. ketam simon: A shameful day for the civilised world. 363 million Indians below poverty line. 620 million India defecates in public. 93 women raped everyday. And people are being fooled by a mars mission! What is the use of this? Money is being wasted by the Indian government. This must be stopped immediately: I am Legend: Dear Media, Please don’t go overboard. Learn to be objective. This was a technology demonstrator and would encourage youngsters to pursue science. It will also help in curbing brain drain by convincing our young people that cutting-edge research may happen in India too. This also vindicates India’s frugal engineering efforts, costing a tenth of the Maven mission. But this is not some grand epoch making event. We have a long way to go, and we require a mature media more than ever. Not Bhangra on success, and wailings on failures. Maneesh Roy: Indian Space Research Organization’s successful installation of MARS ORBITER MISSION in Mars orbit has made 24 September 2014 memorable in history. If all the five pre-defined objectives of this mission are achieved, it will be a big leap forward for Indian scientists. In future, if we can see the live video of inter-planetary spacecraft during its flight and orbit insertion that will be a very big achievement. There should also be efforts to decrease the time delay in giving commands and receiving respose by putting satellites at specific locations in space to relay the commands in real-time or by some other means. In future, inter-planetary space missions to MARS should consist of a lander and orbiter duo, along with with autonomus return of lander with Martian rock samples to earth. NM’s speech after the important event was far better than any speech ever made by eminent personalities at Indian Space Research Organization. Let’s hope that this technology demonstration by Indian Space Research Organiztion produces gigantic inspiration for indigenous future inter-planetary missions: Ramesh R: Mars ke acche din a gaye