'Deepavali Rocket Goes Anywhere, Ours Must Not': ISRO Chairman At Google Ananta Inauguration
During his speech, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan drew an amusing comparison between Diwali rockets and ISRO’s space rockets.
Google recently inaugurated one of its largest campuses, Ananta, in Bengaluru. The event featured ISRO Chairman V Narayanan as the chief guest and he highlighted India’s impressive strides in space exploration while also adding a touch of humour with a lighthearted anecdote.
During his speech, Narayanan playfully compared Diwali rockets to ISRO’s space rockets. “There is a small difference between a Deepavali rocket and our rocket. Do you know what it is?" he asked the audience.
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“A Deepavali rocket, when you light it, goes wherever it wants. But our rocket must go exactly where we want," he joked, drawing laughter from the crowd.
He then shared a personal Diwali experience that almost landed him in trouble. Last year, he purchased a dozen one-meter-long fireworks to launch in his residential complex, which houses 12 individual homes and a 10-story apartment building.
Despite being the director of ISRO’s propulsion system, he admitted he was nervously hoping the fireworks wouldn’t misfire and cause any chaos.
“When I ignited, rather, fired the first rocket, I was praying as the director of the propulsion system, that this rocket should not go to somebody’s house," he said.
His wife tried to stop him. “She was telling, ‘What are you doing? Why are you doing this here on this campus?’" Narayanan recalled.
But he couldn’t hold back and lit the rocket anyway. It didn’t go as expected. “The rocket flew here and there and finally landed on the eighth floor," he shared.
Afraid of complaints from the residents, he immediately left with the remaining fireworks.
“We were so afraid that somebody would come out and raise a big complaint," Narayanan said.
During the event, Narayanan shared a personal connection with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, mentioning that he was a year senior to Pichai during their time at IIT and later during their PhD studies. Reflecting on Google’s global impact, he said, “Google is the dream of most engineers, which speaks volumes about the company."
He also drew an interesting comparison between Google and ISRO, pointing out a shared approach towards growth and innovation. “Both organisations share a common trait—we learn from failures and move ahead," he said.
Talking about Ananta, it is located in Mahadevapura, East Bengaluru and spans 1.6 million square feet. The new campus is designed to accommodate over 5,000 employees making it one of Google’s largest offices worldwide. The office will house teams from various Google units including Android, Search, Pay, Cloud, Maps, Play and Google DeepMind.
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