Wednesday, June 20, 2007
As the world prepares to welcome Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams back to mother earth, my mind just went down memory lane when India's Rakesh Sharma went into outer space on Soyuz T-11 in 1984. I was a standard 6th school kid then and was fascinated watching all that was shown on Doordarshan. The memory of his famous answer is still fresh in mind. The then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi asked him, "upar se Bharat kaisa dikh raha hai aap ko ?" and prompt came the reply.. "Ji Bharat to Saare Jahan se Achcha hai". Wow ! That answer went down in history. I also remember his backup Wing Commander, Ravish Malhotra who was on a set of preparatory exercises too. But finally it was Rakesh Sharma who made it.
Hi AV,
Its very wonderful thought of recollecting our memory block contents, I appreciate that you remember the Spaceship name and the year and our men's very our own Indian HEROs. As they will always be truly remembered....by every true "INDIAN".
Cheers,
Aks(AR)
Yup, that answer is quite etched in my heart as well. :-)