Celebrating two years and 7500+ readers of my monthly Indian Space Progress blog+newsletter with edition #24: “High on docking, low on navigation. Cool new projects, same old budget” https://jatan.space/indian-space-issue-24/ 🚀🇮🇳


How to announce that your offering will be the worst of both worlds.


Scott Manley suggested in this recent video that India could dock their Gaganyaan spacecraft with China‘s space station on the basis that the docking adaptors could be compatible. A big oops!

To be clear, this is not about Scott—who makes awesome technical videos and I love and learn from his knowledge and passion—but it’s a typical example of just how much western media, creators, and influencers are oblivious to things in the East including India-China relations, which combined with their reach proliferates stuff like this when it could’ve been prevented by reading a little bit from the many people in this part of the world who also know their stuff.


How tech marketing works.


Crows add life to the seashore.


Places I’ve published Moon Monday editions from:

  • Airports
  • Trains
  • Cafés
  • Amid conferences
  • Hostels and Hotels
  • Weddings
  • When traveling in Europe and China
  • A hospital

How? Since the day is etched in the name, I plan every week around it. Someday I’d love to publish a Moon Monday from the Moon. 🌙


Achievement unlocked. Published Moon Monday from a beach: https://jatan.space/moon-monday-issue-211/ 🌊 🚀


Pretending to have French breakfast at Puducherry. The equivalent of having vada pav in Bangalore. This coffee is supposed to be as good as the croissant but is only better than Suckbucks.


A nighttime windy seashore you hear more than can see. A crescent Moon, red Mars, bright Jupiter, and stellar Orion hang above. Wave crests lightly lit by ambient light. What a lovely experience of breezy serenity. 🌊 🌌


The Puducherry museum is fantastic! Saw locally excavated human artifacts about a million years old, those traded with the Roman empire 2,000 years ago, and ancient peri-mineralized tree trunks as well as over 200 rocks and minerals sourced from Puducherry and nearby areas. One hell of a value for ₹10.


African lovebird.


The best ₹100 Cappuccino I’ve had. Coffee vibes, a roadside café at Auroville.


If I had a Death Note, I’d strangle all social media algorithms, obliterate the like button out of existence, and choke Instagram to death by fittingly depriving it of links pointing to it from everywhere.


Poetry pulled from the past yet pertinent in the present. Timeless.

Auto-generated description: A person is holding a book titled lyrical poems 1930-1950 by Sri Aurobindo. Auto-generated description: A page from a book with a poem titled Journey's End is shown, accompanied by a faint shadow at the bottom.

An evening with waves of thought and the sea.

Auto-generated description: Waves crash against large rocky boulders by the sea under a clear sky.

Our Moon, and Mars. At dusk, Puducherry, India.


That’s one way to scarecrow.


To keep randomly missing my posts and articles in ad-infused, ego-maximizing, cashed algorithmic timelines sprinkled with sponsored content and AI slop passed off as human, follow me on social media!


I don’t dislike people but I hate their social media versions. When using the latter, they’re more performative, less patient, more outraged, have instantaneous demands, and are gullible to peer pressure. But 1:1, some of the same people are none of those things. They’re authentic and attentive.


The upgraded default Medimix soap in hotels has improved quality of life across India more than the Bangalore metro. 🫧