Reflections

This 20th of July will mark the 40th anniversary of one of the most important events in the history of mankind. That was the day that man first landed on the moon. I can still remember as if it were yesterday the running commentary carried by the All India Radio, probably from a Voice Of America feed, that told us that Neil Armstrong had indeed put foot on the moon and his now famous sentence (probably written for him by publicists back on earth). However whatever may be said it was indeed a giant leap for mankind. I was just at the right age to be wonderstruck with this feat. Not for me the political questions of the space race, the triumph of the “free “world over the Communist Empire, or the parochial jubilation of the Americans over this stunning success. To me the whole of the second half of the sixties ( when I became old enough to understand the excitement of space travel, was a time when the boundaries of science and technology was pushed to its limit and there seemed to be no...