Think Indian space programme, think rockets and satellites and adventures to Moon, Mars and beyond. Right? In these trying times, it can also be about electric guitars, saxophones and songs that motivate.
Literally ‘home-bound’ by the pandemic, a clutch of scientists at Indian Space Reseach Organisation’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) here at Thumba have brought out a music video meant to inspire and motivate people to overcome lockdown blues.
We Will Come Back , a two-minute, multilingual piece by the Rock@Band group of the VSSC and produced under the banner of the Space Engineers’ Association (SEA), was released on social media platforms on Tuesday night.
What is intriguing about the short, lilting piece is that the 15 band members who collaborated for its creation worked independently from their homes.
Given the COVID-19 scenario, ISRO units in Thiruvananthapuram had switched to work-from-home option on March 23.
Independent recording
Vocals and instrumentals were independently recorded and then put together, said Shiju G. Thomas, who co-authored the lyrics and music with his scientist colleague K.R. Madhavi.
And staying true to the ISRO spirit of national integration, We Will Come Back features multiple languages – English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu.
“We have done it as well as we can, given the circumstances. Some of the recordings were done on mobile phones, for instance. The piece is meant to convey the message that we all will indeed overcome the crisis,” said Mr. Thomas, who in his main avatar is a scientist/engineer with the Aerospace Mechanisms Group at the VSSC.