Imagining Black Holes: AstroSat and Beyond

In recent times, black holes have caught our imagination: we can image them; we can measure the gravitational chirps resulting from the merger of black holes. When black holes accrete matter, they exhibit myriad observational phenomena which often boggle our imagination. Like X-ray binaries in our galaxy  spouting jets which are seen moving with apparent velocities faster than the velocity of light. Or gamma-ray bursts  emitting so much energy that we can see them coming from the edge of the visible universe. I argue that sensitive hard X-ray measurements are the way forward to  understand accretion onto  black holes. AstroSat can make very detailed  studies of these sources, simultaneously with hard X-ray polarisation measurements. I will discuss the expectations and limitations of using AstroSat to study accreting black holes and briefly sketch   some  possible future developments.