Firstpost Editor's Picks: Chandrayaan 2, US Open 2019, Mammootty turns 68; today's must-read stories

Chandrayaan 2: From showcasing space capabilities to providing indelible images, why ISRO's project is far from a failure The Chandrayaan 2 project has successfully completed two specific and one unexpected tasks. One, it has placed an orbiter on the Moon’s orbit from where it will keep sending pictures of the lunar surface to ISRO for a year. The significance of this maneuver shouldn’t be underestimated. Two, it has showcased the increasing sophistication of India’s space capabilities and three, the apparent failure to place a rover on the Moon’s polar surface has thrown up an unexpected moment of inspiring leadership: from the ISRO chief K Sivan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. **_Searching for Wives_: A Singaporean photo studio helps Indian migrants find prospective brides back home** At its heart, Searching for Wives is a story of migrants – people who fade into the backdrop of the city but form the backbone of its workforce. “People don’t give a thought to what these migrants’ lives are like, especially since they work as labourers or truck drivers,” says the filmmaker, Zuki Juno Tobgye. **Chandrayaan 2: How Narendra Modi magic turned temporary setback for ISRO into tangible hope of seeing flag on Moon** While India slept, Narendra Modi was back at ISRO chinning up the disconsolate ISRO scientists who had pulled an all-nighter, and when he gave his 56-inch chest to Chairman Sivan to lean on in an impulsive gesture of warmth and belief that went on for a minute, he literally hugged the whole nation and deflected so beautifully the sense of dismay, literally turning a moment of great sadness into one of tangible hope. There will be a tomorrow and Orbiter is still up there and will be for a year, circling the moon. We have not failed, so let’s not go there. US Open 2019: Serena Williams versus Bianca Andreescu in women’s final will pit power against guile, experience against youth It’s not a secret anymore; Serena Williams has developed the very human habit of becoming nervous in Grand Slam finals. Can Bianca Andreescu become the latest player to take advantage of that? She certainly has the game for all occasions and conditions, so you’d think she would be a good candidate. As we have seen throughout 2019, Andreescu is comfortable at both attack and defense, and her arsenal of trick shots and changes of pace can unsettle any player in the world. Mammootty turns 68: How the Malayalam megastar stays relevant by straddling big-budget films with meaningful cinema Reinvention. That perhaps explains the longevity of Mammootty, the 68- year-old Malayalam superstar who continues to co-exist with his 33- year-old superstar son, Dulquer Salmaan, in an industry where fortunes fluctuate every Friday (and Thursday). It is again reinvention, hard work, and an unending process of dusting and polishing his craft that makes Mammootty sustain along with the other superstar, Mohanlal, who is often conventionally eulogised as a born actor.