Mumbaikars have now wearily resigned to the familiar joke of the city's roads resembling the surface of the moon. Potholes are often caricatured as craters and social media is full of the Mumbaikar pictured as an astronaut negotiating those, only half in jest. Now as Mumbai gets a real lunar surface, citizens need to look up, and not down at the roads to witness it. The Nehru Planetarium at Worli opened up 'The Lunar Dome' on Thursday evening for public viewing.

The artists who have painted the dome, have attempted to capture the moon, and give as true a picture of the lunar landscape as possible. Artist Gulammahmad Bukhari, who is known as Sharad in the world of art, has 40 years of experience. He has worked on 500 walls all over India and made 1,000 canvases. Sharad has drawn from all of his experience for the Lunar Dome, which is painted as a doff of the hat to ISRO and Chandrayaan-2 Mission, which India can be very chuffed about.

Conversation starter

With this, the facade of the planetarium becomes the ignition for scientific inquisitiveness. It is a way to bring scientific curiousity and conversation into mainstream discourse. Arvind Paranjpye, director, Nehru Planetarium, said, "This project was started a while ago and was to be launched just after the Chandrayaan-2 mission as a tribute. Yet, sporadic rain played spoilsport and the painting could not reach completion. Yet, just like the undying spirit of ISRO, the team of these young professionals worked diligently to convert their dream into reality. It is a stand out mark of respect."