Those Magnificent Women and their Flying Machines: ISRO'S Mission to Mars

This book presents a very balanced and well-written picture of the culture of scientists and engineers in present-day India. This book features discussions with roughly 20 of them, one per chapter. There is a particular focus on the women of the Mars mission (Mangalayaan), but there are many other stories featured here as well. ISRO (the Indian Space Research Organization) has made great strides in promoting competent women scientists and engineers. The 2019 Bollywood movie 'Mission Mangal' portrays ISRO as being dominated by women... that isn't quite true, and this will give you a more realistic picture of the struggles, realities, and true successes that women and their teams have had in building India's space program.India is not a very progressive society, and sometimes it is shocking how few women there are in professional careers, or even walking outside and visible, period. But ISRO has made inroads that Indian society as a whole has not yet.The writing is good (it is in English, not translated). It's 'conversational investigative sociology.' It safely stays away from the overly positive patriotism of a lot of domestic Indian journalism. This is not a science book, but science is done by people, and this book more than any other does a great job of portraying the culture of the people doing space research in India today.

An extensively researched book that highlights the achievement of women in India's space program. The author intends the book to inspire school girls to take up science and make a career of it. It also underscores gender equality in a big way. The stories of all the women scientists read well but one should try to go beyond their words to gauge the struggle that they must have gone through. Minnie Vaid flits comfortably between such diverse subjects in all the books that she has written so far. She writes with a fine lucid and candour style that brings out deep insights of the subjects. She strives to bring forth the goodness and honesty that resides in all her subjects who are striving against overwhelming odds. A must read of the year.

A fascinating insight into the life and struggles of the women scientists of ISRO, the forces behind Mangalyaan! The author skillfully weaves the challenges faced by these women , more often than not, stemming from deep rooted societal biases, into the narrative and how they fought their way through, to prove themselves at every step of their professional career. The book would resonate with every woman in the scientific community and is a powerful wake up call to the entire society to treat women professionals at par with men. More importantly, rarely does one find such a collection of role models. This is must read for young girls waiting to break the proverbial glass ceiling! Kudos to the writer!!

The Journey of these women are inspiring for all working women. It gives you inspiration and strength that if they could do it, you can also manage everything your home, your kids and your work. No need to fee guilty of anything.

Besides doing a good job in throwing a light on the contribution of women scientist in ISRO, this book is also a good, light and informative read to have an idea about the achievements of ISRO and the importance of its work in the lives of common people..

Lack of photos of the scientists is a bit disappointing