"This may sound funny, but when I settle down I hope to live in a colony on Mars"-- Kalpana Chawla.
Kalpana Chawla can perhaps be termed as the most luminous Indian-born American astronaut, who took India and the boldness of Indian women to empyreal heights. Indeed, from childhood Kalpana`s eyes were always trained at the stars, which is where she found her final home. Although born in a small provincial town of India, where even today human-driven cycle-rickshaws outnumber motorised vehicles, she believed herself to be a citizen of the world and was always free from all prejudices of caste, race and religion. And despite the fact that she married a French-American and went into space aboard an American spacecraft, Kalpana lived like an Indian.
Somewhat short, approximately five feet and dark-eyed, Kalpana`s spoken English was free from an American accent. She enjoyed Indian musical concerts and Bharatnatyam performances, was a vegetarian and went to Indian restaurants in America to eat her favourite samosa with imli-chutney and sev-puri. Once, when Kalpana came to know that her favourite fries marketed by a popular American fast-food chain contained beef tallow oil she gave up eating them. When in space she only ate raisins, nuts, cornflakes, bread cookies and drank tea. Even during the celebration of Thanksgiving aboard Columbia on the second space flight, Kalpana ate vegetarian food, while the others ate turkey. Her house was also furnished in a traditional Indian style and decorated with Indian handicrafts.
Kalpana Chawla was extremely proud of her birth-place and made every effort to bring it into the limelight. During space flights she would proudly point it out to her fellow-astronauts. Once, during the second space flight she remembered her closest friend, Daisy Chawla, who died in a road accident. In fact, despite her celebrity status, she took pains to track down her former teachers, classmates and friends in India and showed a keen desire to stay in touch with them. Her affectionate and humble nature won the hearts of all who came in contact with her.
Although Kalpana was brought up in a religious environment, she never practised any religion. She was secular at heart, was deeply spiritual and loved listening to bhajans and kirtans. She was especially fond of Sufi music. Later, in the US, she discovered some western musicians; whose music she felt was deeply spiritual. In fact, if she was religious about anything it was about flying. Flying appealed to all her senses, whereas the theoretical side challenged her mind. Such were the umpteen nascent qualities of Kalpana Chawla, the woman, the Indian astronaut who made herself rise to sublime heights, only for the sake of her passion.
Thoughtful and philosophical by temperament, Kalpana was fond of reading especially literature, stories of adventure and exploration and spiritual journeys. Her role models were several pilots, explorers and astronauts, like J R D Tata, Charles Lindbergh, Patty Wagstaff, Ernest Shackleton, Michael Collins and John Young. The spiritual journeys of Peter Matthiessen who wrote about his treks on foot across the Himalayas and African continent inspired her and she loved the writings of the environmentalist Carl Safina. The crucial element of Kalpana`s success was perseverance in face of all odds, while reading and exploration broadened her perspective and outlook on life and enriched the journey to her goal.
Kalpana always loved and enjoyed her work. She was always highly attentive to the task before her, whether it was a classroom lecture or the performance of an experiment aboard the shuttle. Even during briefings to astronauts, while others simply listened, she always took notes. Above all, she possessed this inner striving to do something extraordinary in life. Kalpana Chawla always urged young people to take time to figure out what they wanted to do in life and what they enjoyed doing. And once that is done, she urged them to strive hard to achieve that goal. She always believed the journey to be as important as the goal.
Although Kalpana had a strong desire to go to Mars, fly over its canyons and die in space, she was equally concerned about the well-being of the earth. She always urged young people to listen to the sounds of nature and take care of the planet. During her space trips, she took many breathtaking photographs of the earth for various terrestrial studies later on the ground. When she was in space, she always felt a sense of connection with everyone on earth.
It was Kalpana Chawla`s long cherished desire to visit India again. But that was not to be. A few months after her tragic death, Jean Pierre Harrison, her husband visited India. He went to her school and college, met her family, teachers and friends and scattered her ashes over the Himalayas. Her short but eventful life in Karnal, in Chandigarh and later in the United States thus deserves special mention, in which she perhaps had tried to achieve every single wish she harnessed since girlhood.
Early Life of Kalpana Chawla, Indian astronaut
Kalpana Chawla was born in the city of Karnal in Haryana, in a home of three elder sisters and one elder brother. During her early life, Kalpana was nurtured to an archetypal Indian family in the mid-20th century, with education taking centre-stage. However, she was unusual in every thing she did.
Educational Life of Kalpana Chawla, Indian astronaut
Kalpana Chawla as a student was hugely interested in science and always desired to make it into engineering and the science of space. Hence her educational life pivoted around that very subject only. Hence Kalpana took admission to DAV College for Women for her pre-University lessons. Later, she got herself admitted to Dyal Singh College, just to pursue engineering from the illustrious Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. Each of her dreams were answered, owing to her tremendous will force and zealousness towards studying aeronautics.
Kalpana Chawla in NASA, Indian astronaut
It was precisely in NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) that Kalpana Chawla lived her dream to travel and die in space. After completing her education in aeronautics, Kalpana received a call from the MCAT Institute, San Jose, California as a research scientist. The project was made under the guidance under NASA. For her research work in NASA, Kalpana had to study several complex features of earth and its gravity. Yet, she always yearned to fly and kept wishing on to finally get selected for a NASA mission to space.
Kalpana Chawla s Maiden Space Mission, Indian astronaut
Kalpana Chawla`s maiden space mission was like an impossible dream coming true to her, owing to her severe perseverance and determination to make it big in aeronautics. Her first mission was to fly in Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87, which began in the late months of 1997. She was a part of the six-member international crew on board. Kalpana had many emotional moments with her members during her journey into depths of darkness. Kept under strict discipline and control in the maiden mission, Kalpana had to monitor several functions of the planet, including zero gravitational activities. After initial minor malfunctions of Payload Bay, Kalpana`s first mission was a huge success after touchdown. Overnight Kalpana Chawla had become a legend.
Kalpana Chawla`s Final Space Mission, Indian astronaut
Kalpana Chawla`s final space mission was in association with NASA yet again, on board the Space Shuttle Columbia, the one in which she made her first voyage, with flight STS-107. In spite of a first flight, she was most eager to resume a space flight, a rare among astronauts. Her mission this time however was purely scientific, with more complex work to be performed. Kalpana was assigned as the Flight Engineer and the Mission Specialist for STS-107. Her experiments in space would bring about path-breaking results for earth and its population. However, everything was cut short quite pathetically, when Columbia accidentally broke down just 16 minutes before landing, burning and annihilating everything and everyone with it.
