The Hindu : Front Page : A jolly good feast of <I>samosas</I> in space

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 25, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

A jolly good feast of samosas in space

Mandira Nayar

"IT'S JUST LIKE HOME!": Space Woman Sunita Williams

NEW DELHI: The deep-fried samosa probably never got such celebrity endorsement before. Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams is missing the popular "desi'' snack on board the International Space Station.

Talking about samosas, science and space to children of Delhi's Vasant Valley School during a tele-bridge talk from up there on Saturday, Sunita offered a glimpse of the final frontier.

"It is just like home!'' she revealed when asked what kind of food she eats in space.

"We eat three times a day... I have had some saag-paneer and some halwa because I had requested it," she said, adding, "I would like some more samosas while I'm up here.''

Vasant Valley School here has always enjoyed an "outer space" connection. With astronaut Kalpana Chawla having carried the school's flag to space a full ten years ago and Sunita having visited the school in 2003, the ten-minute tele-bridge talk with the astronaut on Saturday took this relationship to the next higher level.

While Sunita Williams has many firsts to her name, she has now also become the only woman to stay in space for the longest time and also taken the longest walk. Asked what was most memorable about that space walk, Sunita replied that she could see the curvature of the earth. The next time she went out at night, she added, she saw lights on earth.

Adding a dose of emotion to this highly charged interaction, Sunita had a friendly chat with the niece and nephew of the late Kalpana Chawla.

"I think that is Megha's voice,'' Sunita said when asked what kind of experiments she was conducting up there and how they would help. "How are you?'' she asked, adding that she misses them.

"The experiments we are conducting here now will help people stay in space longer,'' she explained.

What does she do for "entertainment''? To that, Sunita replied: "Things that most people do at home''. Apart from work, they e-mail and call home.

"I don't think I will get over this for a long time!'' said a thrilled 16-year-old Akansha who was one of the lucky ones to have posed a question to the much talked about astronaut. "I have wanted to be an astrophysicist since I was five. I have known about this interaction for the past two months and have been looking forward to it each day. She actually said hello to me!'' said Akanksha, her eyes shining.

While it was an event that the young students are unlikely to forget in a hurry, their parents who were also around could barely contain their excitement either at "being part of history''.

"I have goose bumps, we were so excited!" said an excited mother. "We got the chance to witness history.''

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page