Reporter’s diary: When songs by Ilaiyaraaja ignited a rocket between scribes and ISRO officials

Four Volvo buses ferried about 300 journalists, and the reporters and photographers from Chennai were put into one bus, while heading for the satellite launch. 

The journalists were taken care of during the journey and the bus driver even played Tamil songs for the journalists’ entertainment. On the way back from Sriharikota space port, however, scribes from the city did not travel in the same bus together. When the bus took off, a few reporters requested the driver to play some Tamil songs composed by music director Ilaiyaraaja to which the driver happily obliged. After a couple of songs, two ISRO officials, who were escorting the reporters, made the driver stop playing Tamil songs since they did not understand the language. 

This irked the reporters and triggered a heated argument with the officials. At one stage, all the journalists even threatened to get off the bus since ISRO officials were insistent on listening songs in other languages. 

A photo journalist later called ISRO’s chief public relation officer and explained the situation after whose intervention, the driver resumed playing Tamil songs through the rest of the journey.