February 02, 2003

India mourns space heroine

Front pages of Saturday's Indian newspapers carried pictures of Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman in space, to celebrate her expected return to earth on the U.S. space shuttle Columbia.

Instead of a celebration, a pall of sadness descended on India as much of the country watched with horror the video footage showing the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia.

In a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee conveyed his sympathies to the American people. "We mourn with you in this moment of grief. Our hearts go out to the bright young men and women who were on that spacecraft. For us in India, we felt that since one of them was an Indian-born woman it adds a special poignancy to the tragedy."
"The world has seen with admiration the U.S. spacecraft program. We hope that in the days to come it will reach new heights," Vajpayee added.
[...]In India, which has launched satellites for years and is preparing for a moon orbit this decade, Chawla was a new kind of heroine.

Born in Karnal, Chawla earned a degree in engineering from Punjab Engineering College in 1982 and then went to the United States, where she earned her Master's and doctorate in aerospace engineering.

Even more sadly, Dr. Chawla got here graduate degrees here at the University of Texas in Arlington, not far from where the shuttle Columbia tragically exploded...
What a lovely, smart lady and such a heroine already for India, for women everywhere and also, in these times when immigration has been such a controversial issue here and in Europe, Kalpana was a shining example of someone who was foreign-born, but American-by-choice, who, no matter where she was, was clearly an outstanding person.
We're grateful that you chose to serve our country as an American citizen, although you're clearly loved in your native India.
R.I.P., Dr. Kalpana.
You're an angel up above now and an Indo-American-world heroine here down on Earth!