NASA Dream for Orissa Kids facing Roadblocks

Four school students from Rourkela have bagged the second prize in the prestigious 'Space Settlement Design Contest' conducted by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) AMES Research Centre in USA in March 2006.


The NASA space centre has invited Ullahs, Amitav, Asim and Soumya of the Ispat English Medium School, Rourkela, but the budding scientists are finding it hard to realise their dreams because of lack of sponsorship.[via]

While the government is busy trying to distribute jobs and admissions based on Caste, Class and Creed, these meritorious students are finding it hard to make to it their Dream Destinations because of lack of funding. This is not new.

The quantitative analysis professor back in my B-school had a similar story to tell, and we had shed tears of joy when he shared a story he had never shared with anybody. He was quite a recluse, an introvert and talked only statistics and stuff, when on Teachers day we asked him to share some personal story. He was never asked, perhaps, and he had opened up, then, a flood of emotions. How he struggled as a child, as a teen and as a youth newly married, and a job ultimately as a professor.

His work on some algorithm had won him accolades from far and was invited to Germany to help develop a traffic synchronization system for the German Autobahn or some convention regarding the same. Not to mention he was elated. The government refused to fund his Air ticket. He was OK with that and wrote back. The German embassy sent him the ticket and he had a royal treatment in Germany, Limousine pick up and five star hotels. He never looked back since. He was lucky. But there are hundreds like the kids above, who for the lack of funding miss such opportunities. Too bad they don’t have reservations eh.

I am writing this post hoping someone might listen. They need at least Rupees five lakhs to go visit Nasa.

Amrit has blogged about it first, here, Alka left me the link. She also blogged about it, here. And Tarun's post here.

Keep blogging about it. I will try to update link roll.

And please click here to digg the story.

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