The question that is the title of this entry, along with several other equally frustrating questions, was left on my answering machine one night a few years back, by about a dozen friends. Such is life when you work for the supposed authority on such matters. All of them had watched a Fox Television Special earlier that night which purported that men had never actually been to the Moon, and that it was all a hoax. “Did you know?” they asked. With each message my anger increased. Not at my friends but at the system that allows such idiocy to reach genuinely thirsty minds. I get NASA related emails sent by various friends to my inbox all the time. I almost always have already heard the news, but it still makes me feel good to know that people care. Earlier this week Manish sent me some blogworthy news that I hadn’t heard.

A 17-year-old village boy has topped NASA’s International Scientist Discovery (ISD) exam, sparking a wave of jubilation across his tiny hamlet of Narhai in Uttar Pradesh.

Saurabh Singh, a senior secondary student, has bettered President APJ Abdul Kalam who finished seventh when he sat for the examinations in 1960.

Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist of the ill-fated Columbia space shuttle and the first Indian woman in space, had stood 21st in the 1988 exams.

After achieving the rare feat, Singh said he always dreamt to explore the outer space.

“I had always dreamt of going on a mission on a space craft. I knew about ISD as I was preparing for IIT-JEE. If this form would not have come I would have been giving my entrance for II-TJEE,” Singh said.

I was embarrassed by this email for two reasons. First, I HADN’T heard this news. Space enthusiast that I am, how could I have missed it? Even more embarrassing however is the fact that I had never heard of the supposed, “NASA’s International Scientist Discovery (ISD) exam.”Yesterday Ennis forwarded me another blogworthy article from the BBC that cleared things up:

The Indian prime minister has cancelled a meeting with a village boy who was reported to have won an international examination organised by Nasa.

It had been widely reported that 17-year-old Saurabh Singh had beaten 200,000 students in the examination.

The reports said President APJ Kalam had passed the same test.

However, Mr Kalam’s office has denied that he had ever taken the exam. NASA officials say they are unaware of any such exam.

Where the f*ck is FOX when you need them? A NASA official subsequently issued the following statement as reported by Rediff news:

There is, they say, no such examination, that they are aware of.

“I have been with NASA for 32 years, and I have never heard of any such programme conducted by NASA,” a NASA official said, when approached for details about the exam. “Are you sure you got your facts right?”

The exam, this reporter informed him citing Indian media sources, has been taken in the past by A P J Abdul Kalam, India’s President, and by the late Kalpana Chawla, the NASA astronaut who perished in the Columbia disaster two years ago.

No, the official reiterated — at NASA, there is no awareness of any such test.

The worst part is this boy’s mom probably put his exam on the fridge and bragged to all her neighbors about it. As far as the answer to the question asked in the title…well I will keep you wondering.

Also see “Where in the World is Hira Manek?”