Reaching for the stars: India's journey to mars and beyond Bagla, Pallava

This is the untold story of India's marathon to Mars, from the Red Fort in Delhi to the Red planet. A historic,geo-political dash with its regional rival China, in this 21st century Asian space race. "We have done a lot,but yeh dil maange more." This evocative challenge, which translated into English,reads "this heart desiresmore", this challenge came from India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to scientists and engineers of the Indian space programme when he spoke at India's rocket port in Sriharikota in southern India. Indeed. India's relentless appetite for space-faring activities led the country to mount its first-ever interplanetary mission, to the Earth's neighbour Mars. The Mars Orbiter Mission, or Mangalyaan, began a tough and treacherous journey of 690 million kilometers through deep space on 5 November, 2013. Inter-planetary journeys are uncharted territories, inspiring human minds and the machines that are created in a million ways. This is the story of a scintillating 15-monthroller-coaster ride, quite literally a hundred meter dash to accomplish a marathon that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) got onto after the historic announcement from the Red Fort in Delhi on 15 July, 2012, that India was heading to Mars, propelling India into an exclusive Martian club.