Kalpana Chawla’s Conversation With India From Space

Brut India

When Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla spoke to the late IK Gujral and shared her view of the Himalayas from space.

Transcript

00:00He said, shitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain, there are worlds beyond stars and now you

00:07have seen them.

00:08How do you feel about them?

00:09It's a dome of a dark sky and stars everywhere and the earth, lot of time covered with thunderstorms

00:18here and there with some small sprays of lightning and every once in a while city lights see

00:27the clouds and it's very much like a storybook.

00:57Good morning Columbia.

01:04Hello Columbia, this is Prime Minister Gujral from India, can you hear me?

01:11Yes Mr. Gujral, I hear you loud and clear, how do you read me?

01:19Kalpana, we are proud of you, each one of us in India is proud of us, proud of person

01:28like you who has done such a pioneering work and particularly the women and youth of India,

01:35a great deal of pride in seeing what you have done in the space.

01:40My hearty congratulations.

01:42Thank you sir, thank you very much.

01:45You know when I think of you, I think what a long journey you have covered from Karnal

01:50to space, long distance and therefore when I talk to you, I feel I am talking to a person

01:58who is representing India in the space now.

02:02My all good wishes to you.

02:04Thank you sir very much, those are very kind words.

02:09It must be very interesting to sit with colleagues and friends in the same weightlessness.

02:15Is it a very interesting experience and friendship that you have formed now?

02:20That's very true sir, on our crew we have people from very different backgrounds and

02:28we bring a lot of different cultures together and it's just a lot of fun.

02:35It was fun while we trained together and now in space too.

02:40I don't know if from your satellite you can see some other Indian satellites also,

02:46which are also in the space, projecting Indian television program to every home.

02:52Yes sir, I am aware of that.

02:54Yes, but you know we are also, our scientists and our technologists are sharing the same

03:01experience of space.

03:02They have not gone themselves to space like you, but they have sent quite a few satellites.

03:07Yes sir, I knew about that when I was going to school back in Karnal or I should say Chandigarh

03:15in India and then also after I came here, I have been following that in the news out here.

03:22You know Kalpana, I do not know if you remember, there is a saying by one of our poets who

03:30is very well known in the subcontinent, Iqbal.

03:33He said, there are worlds beyond stars and now you have seen them.

03:41How do you feel about them?

03:43It's a very special feeling and really out here the night sky when you look at it,

03:52what you are saying does become very literal.

03:56It's a dome of a dark sky and stars everywhere and the earth,

04:02lot of time covered with thunderstorms here and there with some small sprays of lightning

04:10and every once in a while city lights speak to the clouds and it is very much like a storybook.

04:19If you would just take a second, a couple of days ago we taped the view of Himalayas

04:25from the orbiter and I will downlink it to you for a minute or so and we can be talking

04:31while that is happening.

04:34Mr. Prime Minister and all the people from India, we taped this view a few days ago.

04:40I was hoping that maybe by chance when the call came, we would be flying over some regions

04:47that folks there were familiar with.

04:50But the view of Himalayas is so magnificent that it really belongs to all of us

04:57as you can see on this video.

05:00And I want to extract a promise from you that when you come back to the earth,

05:05please come to India with all your friends in the satellite and also your whole family.

05:11Sir, the whole crew would love to come. That would be an honour.

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