National Geographic – September 1983

Each time I visit the Sunday Book Market in Daryaganj, I scan through the National Geographics scattered in various stalls to see if something striking catches my eye. This month, I got lucky and landed myself the issue of September 1983 – the month I was born.

Flipping through it, I realized that I’m becoming a relic.

The cover story was a deep dive on the cutting edge use of satellites in various domains. GPS was highlighted as a technology that would be fully operational in 1989. Live telecasting of surgeries and dish antennas that brought home a bouquet of 300 channels were some of the marvels showcased that would soon transform the world.

A foldout feature on the Spacelab – a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA – carried to space by the spaceship Columbia was somehow moving. Twenty years later, the same Columbia exploded during reentry killing all seven astronauts including our own Kalpana Chawla.

The letters to the Editor had a message on the Israel-Palestine conflict. (Déjà vu)

A feature on the Aleutian islands had interviews with survivors who lived through the Japanese onslaught during WWII. I don’t think there was any island of the Pacific that was spared the wrath of the Japanese. (Some pieces on Japan during WWII are here, here and here)

And finally, the advertisements. Kodak’s DISC (WTF?), according to this review, was the second worst camera of All-Time.