Meetings of parliamentary committees are supposed to be unexciting, right? You would think one featuring space scientists will an even greater drag, but a viral video from Sunday is here to prove us all wrong.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee ended it's last meeting at ISRO with a flute performance by the Director of its Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, P. Kunhikrishnan, who is also a professional flute player! He played the evergreen Vatapi Ganapatim Bhaje. Sharing a snippet. pic.twitter.com/AkwwPh9oZY
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) December 29, 2019
The first meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee dealing with science and technology, environment, forests and climate change concluded on Sunday.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh tweeted a video from the meeting. The video showed the meeting ended with a delightful flute performance by P. Kunhikrishnan, director of ISRO's satellite centre in Bengaluru. The U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) is the country's lead centre for the design, development and realisation of satellites.
Kunhikrishnan gave a rendition of the Vatapi Ganapatim Bhaje, a popular hymn in honour of the god Ganesha. Uploaded on Sunday evening, the video has been viewed over 19,000 times.
It turns out that Kunhikrishnan is no rank amateur with the flute. He is a professionally acclaimed flute player. Kunhikrishnan gave a flute performance at an event marking the 50th rocket launch from Sriharikota in December 2015.
Kunhikrishnan joined ISRO in 1986, starting at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, before taking multiple responsibilities, including with the PSLV rocket project.
also read
- ISRO gears up for American BlueBird-6 satellite launch: Why it matters
- What is Anvesha? All about India's new hyperspectral eye to be launched by PSLV-C62
- ISRO's next frontier: Bharatiya Antariksh Station design finalised as India eyes 2035 orbit goal
- Chandrayaan-4: How India plans to bring a piece of the moon back to earth
He has served as director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota from 2015 to 2018.
There one reason why those who flock to Sriharikota to catch a glimpse of ISRO rocket launches have to thank Kunhikrishnan. According to ISRO's website, Kunhikrishnan “conceived and initiated a project of establishing a modern visitor's complex to enable 10,000 visitors to witness the satellite launch at Sriharikota”.
