How 2 Women and Autistic Girl Complete ISRO Mission

This is a gripping story of two young women and an autistic girl child fighting back to uphold the dignity of an honest and dedicated Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Scientist whose inspirational leadership enabled the country to acquire a 'Space Weapon', but found dead under mysterious circumstances during an official visit to Germany.

In his third novel, 'The Last Witness- A Suspense Thriller-, G.V. Subba Rao, dexterously unfolds from cover-to-cover, in virtually bullet train speed, the saga of the ISRO Scientist, Dr. Rangarajan, not caving into pressures, on a wider canvas of India's Space programme and Rocketry competing with the global big league despite the project coming under political fire in a general election year (2019).

Feels too cold for comfort? A throwback to the infamous 'ISRO Spy Case' of the 1990s' which was proved to be completely false against the remarkable and brilliant Space Scientist Nambi Narayanan? Hold on!. This is quite different stuff though turning into cannon-fodder for domestic politics, as the fast-paced events move from Sriharikota island to Chennai en route Frankfurt; the projectile re-enters our skies along the same path, moves further to Bangalore, Itarsi, and Indore until it climaxes at the doors of the PMO in New Delhi!

With ISRO being at the center of it all, the probe into the Scientist's death by the two young women protagonists and an autistic girl child - they are central to the unfolding, suspenseful drama as much as Dr. Rangarajan- runs parallely to the tab and chase of the central agencies- Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the CBI though they are not in the same wavelength in all aspects. The women duo's determination against all odds, to get at the bottom of the mystery chilling readers to the bone, comes out as a shining example of 'discretion is the better part of valour', a key message to today's younger generation.

Dr. Rangarajan was a renowned scientist in his late fifties, who prior to ISRO's 'Mission Antariksh', had successfully launched the GSAT-7A on board its heaviest launch vehicle yet, GSLV-F-11, powered by a fully indigenous cryogenic engine, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, 90-km North of Chennai.

The satellite "has been customised specifically for military operations; once in orbit, it would interlink all the ground-based radars, air bases and aircraft of the Indian Air Force for surveillance. It would vastly maintain air superiority over the enemy with real-time aircraft-to-aircraft communication," describes Subba Rao. Dr. Rangarajan faces more than unnerving moments though; he survives a violent attack in his house in Sriharikota campus by a tall, well-built, masked, muscular goon who suddenly vanishes. The 'brief' given to the 'goon' was to only "scare and soften up" the ISRO scientist, not to kill him. It was part of a larger political power-play with some Opposition parties' pre-poll reading that the success of 'Mission Antariksh' would confer an overwhelming advantage to the incumbent ruling party and deny a level-playing field to all others.

By 'working on' Dr. Rangarajan, an upright, hard-working, humane scientist whose strengths were his intellectual honesty and patriotic fervour, the power-players ostensibly believe that the potential political dividend of such an outcome to the ruling party could be plucked away before the polls. Subba Rao draws oblique parallels to the contemporary political scene without naming any political party, but the referents are pretty obvious to be missed.

The first attack on Dr. Rangarajan and threats to his family living in Bangalore shocks the ISRO fraternity and its Chairman who shares with the former that "all this could be about 'Mission Antariksh'. But the Scientist firmly rebuffs moves by the political lobby's bid to get to 'know' about the mission; unfazed by the attack, he gets ready to lead an ISRO delegation to Germany shortly after the satellite's successful launch from Sriharikota. Confronting one of the lobbyists, Dr. Rangarajan tells him point blank: "Unfortunately, you have picked the wrong guy. You will not get anything out of me, nothing."

Unperturbed, the Scientist moves on to lead the ISRO delegation to the Indo-German talks "for mutual cooperation in space technology and reaffirmation of the strong and growing alliance between the two nations". His visit to Germany also included a one-to-one meeting with the head of the German Space Agency, Johann Schmidt, who was coordinating with NASA and who was tipped to be the next head of the European Space Agency. All these obviously mattered a lot for ISRO's own plans.

In a quaint twist just before leaving Sriharikota for Germany, Sithara, daughter of an ISRO staff clerk joins Dr. Rangarajan. She is badly in need of a job and empathizing with her family predicament, he entrusts her with a key and highly confidential communication task until his return from abroad. On reaching Frankfurt, Dr. Rangarajan meets Jasmine, a German of Indian origin, assigned by the Indian Embassy to guide him in Germany.

Dr. Rangarajan, in a casual conversation, also gets to meet Jasmine's daughter, 8-year old Niniya at Frankfurt, and learns that the girl is suffering from 'Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)'. Giving a patient ear to Jasmine's personal issues, he counsels her that a 'Yoga' center in South India can cure Niniya's 'autism'. Jasmine is convinced and is keen to come down to Chennai soon.

Dr. Rangarajan's talks with the German Space team were successful; he immediately called the ISRO Chairman to brief about its outcome to the PMO through him, as the Department of Space is directly under the Prime Minister. But Dr. Rangarajan was being 'watched' In Germany too! That very night slipping into the wee hours, in a horrific tragedy, Dr. Rangarajan, was found dead with multiple injuries on the outskirts of Frankfurt, though his hitmen had "no orders to kill him".

As the official coordinator of the ISRO scientist's German visit, Jasmine is shattered. The news of his death spread like wildfire in India, and the opposition trains its guns on the ruling party, saying the episode points to a 'huge conspiracy'; their charge is based on an unverified text message sent from the mobile of the deceased scientist that a 'deal' was done. It instantly casts a shadow on the reputed scientist having allegedly compromised ISRO's interests while abroad! The German police launch a hunt for the scientist's hitmen who by then escape to a neighbouring country.

However, Jasmine, who is all set for flying to Chennai with her daughter for treatment, after the initial enquiries by the German Police and a CBI team that flew into Frankfurt, knowing Dr. Rangarajan's personal integrity, refuses to buy the story; so does Sithara back home staying in Chennai then. On reaching Indian shores, Jasmine joins up with Sithara on a highly risky mission to help track the real culprits to restore the honour and integrity of the ISRO scientist who was very kind to them in their crisis hours.

Jasmine's autistic daughter, Niniya, also travels with them despite threats to their lives by 'goons' trailing them in India. How the two women and the girl child, moving from place to place, eventually help the law-enforcing authorities, amid tantalizing close shaves with death, to identify and nab the real culprits forms the rest of the story.

Niniya is a child with special needs. But it was the girl's extraordinary latent ability to remember any number of ten-to-13 digit mobile phone numbers and a unique one and only 14-character digital code on just being shown once- that miraculously opens up a computer programme with help of a former IIT-Kanpur techie friend of Dr Rangarajan that led to demystifying the hitmen and their backers. These movements are captured in a racy style and have all the ingredients of an exciting screenplay.

Eventually, Truth prevails and Sithara is exultant that they achieved their objective, clear the fair name of Dr. Rangarajan and restore his honour, thereby upholding the prestige and honour of ISRO as well. But she, who managed to save Niniya's life from the intruder, was inconsolable that they lost Jasmine on the way. The Prime Minister congratulated Sithara and even announced that he was dedicating the "success of Mission Antariksh" in memory of Dr. Rangarajan.

What looks even more significant about this novel is the way it changes the common perception about autistic children. Naniya's hidden talents are brought to the fore for a cause, which demonstrates "that autism is not any form of diminished capacity". There is a deeper level of awareness in autistic children not always visible, as they externally remain aloof due to various psychosomatic factors. They need that little hand holding to walk the extra mile, to be drawn out of their fears, into the realm of normal communication.

Dr. Rangarajan's brilliance as a space scientist apart, sans these three women- Sithara, Jasmine and her daughter Niniya born of a German wedlock- this ISRO mission would not have found its completeness. There are thus two ways of reading this text, one a straight, chilling thriller with all the spices that a national space body can throw up; but there is also the other human side to it.

Author Subba Rao, son of Sri Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, a celebrated actor, screenplay and dialogue writer in Telugu cinema and theatre, in laying bare the strands of a profound sense of reciprocity by the two main women characters and the autistic girl child to the scientist's generosity and kind acts, leaves a deeper human imprint in this semi f ictional narrative.

Book Review by : M.R. Venkatesh
THE RISING SUN MAGAZINE

The Last Witness,
A Suspense Thriller,
G.V. Subba Rao,
Vitasta Publishing Private Ltd., New Delhi, 2024