UV-vis absorption, steady state and time resolved fluorescence studies on the photo physical behavior of indomethacin, a traditional NSAID in binary water ethanol mixtures have been presented. Our results reveal that indomethacin can sense the micro heterogeneity in the binary mixtures forming ground state fluorescent complex with two predominant types of clusters viz. ethanol self-association clusters and hydrogen bonded water clusters. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.