At Google's Bengaluru campus, ISRO chairman recalls how rockets got him into trouble last Diwali

As Google unveiled its new Bengaluru campus on Wednesday, the chief guest at the inauguration, ISRO chairman V Narayanan, highlighted India's achievements in space exploration and entertained the audience with a humourous anecdote on how despite being in charge of launching rockets into space, a Diwali "rocket" had nearly gotten him into trouble last year.

"There is a small difference between Deepavali rocket and our rocket. You know, what is the difference?" Narayanan said during his address. "Deepavali rocket, when you fire, it will go wherever it wants. But our rocket should go wherever we want."

He said that during the festival he bought a dozen one-metre-long rockets and decided to light them in his residential campus. "There are 12 houses, and there is a 10-storey apartment. When I ignited, rather, fired the first rocket, I was praying as the director of the propulsion system, that this rocket should not go to somebody's house."

The ISRO chairman said his wife was standing near him trying to convince him to drop the idea. "She was telling, 'What are you doing? Why are you doing this here in this campus?' Then, I just ignited. You know, what happened? The rocket went here and there, and finally landed on the eighth storey. We were so afraid that somebody would come out and raise a big complaint," he said, adding that the incident prompted him to leave with the remaining rockets.