“RARELY has a waste-disposal programme been so closely scrutinised or so keenly awaited,” says The Times under the heading ‘One Great Lump for Mankind’.
“As a small piece of space-junk was relegated to the great dustbin in the sky yesterday, observatories swivelled their powerful lenses to the heavens and thousands of observers squinted through telescopes to witness its dramatic dispatch.
“The operation by the European Space Agency (ESA) to scrap Smart-1, an unmanned probe that had completed a 62 million-mile odyssey on just 60 litres (13 gallons) of fuel, ended in spectacular style as it slammed into the Moon at 4,500mph (7,242km/h), blasting its own grave in the rock.
“It was the first time that Europe had made its mark on the Moon. Coming 37 years after America’s first manned lunar landing, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin tripped across the Sea of Tranquillity, ESA’s smack-down in the Lake of Excellence, scattering debris for 30 miles and gouging a new crater, might have seemed crude by comparison.
“But it marked a successful end to a three-year mission that has not only gathered new information on the Moon’s chemical and geographical make-up, but also tested new technology that will prove valuable to future expeditions.
“Weighing 367kg (809lb) and costing just £75 million — a drop in the ocean for a space mission — Smart-1 was launched in September 2003 and took 14 months to reach the Moon.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.