An Evening Drink with My Liberal Friend. I was delighted to see my good friend visit me last evening. Like old times, we sat over a round of scotch. I was particularly upbeat after I witnessed the Chandrayaan 3 landing. So, naturally, our conversation started with this. It went as follows: Me: Quite a feat, no? LF (Liberal Friend): Yeah. 651 crores. Big amount, no? Me: I thought the budget was less than a few Hollywood, even Bollywood movies. LF: Yeah. Add to that the money wasted on Chandrayaan 2, a failure. Taxpayer's money, you see. Me (A little baffled): Hmmm. But I thought this space mission had strong scientific objectives. LF: Like? (Takes a long swig at his single malt) Me: Like, to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface to gauge the environment, metallurgy, carry out in-situ scientific experiments etc... LF: And what good would that do for a poor country like us? The money would have been better spen...