Click to play videoNew Delhi: Perhaps the astronaut who sparked off India’s romance with the space was none other than Kalpana Chawla. ‘The Kalpana Chawla’ phenomenon was a whole new chapter between Indians and the adventure of outer space.
India’s very own space-walker from small-town Karnal was known for her special relationship with children, particularly those from her own school.
At her alma mater, the students have stars in their eyes, the brightest among them being Kalpana herself. After all, it was from here that she went on to NASA and then into the cosmos, and into the heart of every Indian child.
Kalpana remained deeply and heartwarmingly in touch with the children of her school. On her first space flight in 1997, she asked her school back home in Karnal to send a T-shirt which she could carry to space as a souvenir.
In 1998, the International Space School Foundation at NASA asked Kalpana to suggest some Indian students for a summer program. She suggested inviting students from her school.
“She said she was not from one country, but of the entire universe. I want to be like that,” says a girl from he school.
When space shuttle Columbia, carrying Kalpana back to earth from her space soujourn, crashed - taking with it the face of India’s space dreams - it was almost as if the spirit of innocence that combined high science with the adventures of a little child died.
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