Back in school I was taught an Astronaut is one who goes to space. Years later I realized it was a specific name given to the Americans who don those fancy suits and venture out into space. Then as I grew older (and hopefully wiser) I learnt about Cosmonauts – the Russian guys. Recently I came across yet another term Taikonauts  for the Chinese guys who successfully completed their space walk and joined the elite league of extraordinary people – and of extraordinary nations might I add.

With our own mission to the moon Chandrayaan - I slated to take off in the very near future that day can’t be far when we send our own Bharatwasi’s to space. Technically Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to go into space – but he is labeled a Cosmonaut because of the fact he went onboard the Salyut – an USSR built launch vehicle. That was 1984.

When we do send one of our compatriots into space, I wonder will we have a fancy name too to call them by or will we just tie ourselves in nauts ooops knots? May be we will end up calling them “Bharatnauts” and probably their space walk could be aptly called “Bharatnautyam”?   ;)