On 2016 February 11, the LIGO-Virgo scientific collaborations jointly
announced the detection of gravitational-wave signals from the merger of
two black holes in the distant Universe. The existence of these elusive
ripples in the spacetime was predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years
ago. At times, even Einstein doubted the existence of gravitational waves
in nature and never imagined that they would ever be detected. This lecture
will tell the story of the quest for the detection of gravitational waves,
culminated in the recent discovery by the Advanced LIGO observatories. This
has opened up a unique astronomical window to the Universe.
Gravitational-wave observations will complement, corroborate and perhaps
challenge our understanding of the Universe gained from other windows of
astronomy.