By IANS
Ahmedabad : Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams, who arrived here on a weeklong visit, said every individual should ensure that “Planet Earth which looked stunningly beautiful from the space stayed that way”.
In a brief thanks-giving speech at a felicitation programme organised by the National Federation of Indian-American Associations (NFIAA) at the historic Gandhi Ashram, Williams said 400 kilometres above the earth, there was just a “thin line” that seemed to separate the earth from the space.
“If this line got rubbed out, the earth’s environment could be impacted with either the extreme heat or coldness of the space,” Williams told the audience, which included more than 1,000 schoolchildren.
The astronaut, who created a new record for a woman astronaut with her 195-day space odyssey this year, spoke in English and one of her relatives translated her speech into Gujarati.
It was her first public function in the city soon after her arrival in the morning.
The 40-minute felicitation programme began with the recitation of prayers. Notable among them were Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite hymns “Vaishnava jana to tene kahiye” and “Raghupati raghava raja ram”.
Clad in a red T-shirt and jeans, Williams arrived at the Ashram to a wild cheering and waving of hands from the children. A smiling Williams kept on waving back at them.
Sharing her experience of the space journey, she said from the windows of the space vehicle she could see the earth full of vibrant colours, with blue oceans, green craters and valleys cut through by rivers.
“The idea of border and limit existed only in our minds. Similarly, what one could do and cannot do also existed only in minds.”
Paying tribute to the father of the nation, she said it is amazing that Mahatma Gandhi knew about these perceptions without going into the space.
Williams’ father Deepak Pandya in a brief talk recalled how in his childhood days he frequented the Ashram and spent hours at the Sabarmati river or at the place where Mahatma Gandhi held his prayer meetings.
NFIAA president C.K. Patel said people of Gujarat and the Gujarati diaspora across the world were proud of Williams’s stunning achievement of the longest stay in the space and the longest space walk for a woman.
Present at the function were several leaders of the Congress party, including state unit president Bharat Solanki and Urmilaben Patel, former MP and wife of former chief minister Chimanbhai Patel.
Williams’ uncle Vithal Pandya, father of slain home minister Haren Pandya, was on the dais.
Earlier in the day, Gujarat gave a warm welcome to Williams, a day after her 42nd birthday was celebrated. Her father cut a cake at the residence of Vithal Pandya.
She arrived on an Air India flight Thursday morning. This is her second visit to Gujarat; the first was in 1998.
On Friday, she will visit Jhulasan, her ancestral village in Mehsana district where the village council is eagerly waiting to give her a grand welcome. Sweets and gifts will be offered to her to make it a truly emotional homecoming.
The Vishwa Gujarati Samaj has planned to make the visit an event to remember by conferring Williams with the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vishwa Pratibha Award on Friday.
The astronaut is scheduled to attend a series of felicitations here. The busy schedule may keep her from enjoying the street food of Ahmedabad’s walled city that she relished during her last visit.
On Sep 24, she will go to Hyderabad to attend the 58th International Astronautical Congress, where she will interact with Indian scientists and share her experience of living in space and space walks.
Williams’ visit is organised by the NFIAA.