Every child is full of curiosity while exploring the mysteries of this unknown world. I still remember the inquisitiveness of small Kathan. He wanted to know the Whys of every phenomenon occurring in his daily life like Why does rain fall? Why do stars twinkle? Why do stars and moon disappear in the day? Why does sun follow me wherever I go? and a million more.
In my childhood, I got the most memorable gift of my life that immensely impacted me for becoming who I am today. When I was eight years old, I got my first telescope which came into my life as ‘The Santa’s box’. It marked the beginning of my fascination for astronomy. The moon, the stars, the sun, the earth that we stay on to, all became a wonder to me. It was Mr. Rodger Tuther who had presented me with this wonderful 2.5-inch refractor telescope while visiting India. At that time our organisation was working in the area of developing solar filters and Rodger Tuther was producing the film for these filters for us. While visiting India for work purposes, he handed me this telescope that became my first tool to explore the marvels of the nature by myself. Since then, astronomy has been very close to my heart.
Thus, in most of the projects of Manthan and KHOJ I try to interweave the concepts of astronomy. We promote children to open the doors to the magical world of space and galaxy. We promote them innovate and use technology to explore beyond the boundaries of earth and as well as on the earth. Since at KHOJ, astronomy is the first love, we always try to have public events like public solar eclipse observation, asteroid search campaigns, night sky observation, public outreach events and talks on the miracles of astronomy by the experts all across the country.