India Today Interviews Astronaut Sunita Williams

October 8, 2007

Hare Krishna, India Today Interviews Astronaut Sunita Williams INDIA, October 15, 2007: On her first visit to India after her record breaking space odyssey, Sunita Williams, whose father, Deepak Pandya originally hailed from Gujarat, wowed audiences across the country with details of her experiences at the International Space Station (ISS). As a female astronaut, she holds the record for the longest space flight (195 days), the highest number of spacewalks (four) and the maximum time spent on spacewalks (29 hours and 17 minutes).Williams's experience in space has radically altered her perspective of life. From 350 km in orbit, the earth appears a magnificently beautiful whole. She says: "It is hard to imagine people arguing down there, not to

mention fighting. It looks so peaceful... so calm down on earth. From space, there are no borders that you can see. We are lucky to live on such a planet and we should not take it for granted. After my space experience, I am a lot more tolerant of people and opinions, of everything."Television records show her flying around in ISS like Superwoman, her short hair billowing Medusa-like, while proudly taking viewers on a guided tour around her space home. She takes pains to explain that ISS was not some kind of jail in space but as big as a 747 jet that housed just three astronauts. Not to mention the awesome view from the many portholes the spacecraft had.Williams took with her into space a Deity of Lord Ganesha and a copy of the Bhagavad Gita for company. She had never read the Gita with any depth before her space journey though her father had narrated to her the epics--the Ramayan and the Mahabharat--when she was young. She says: "This may sound a bit

corny, but it sort of grounds you. In a little spacecraft zipping around the earth, you are doing a lot of things, sometimes it feels like work... may be you are taking for granted where you are, what you are doing...things like Ganesha, the Gita bring you back home. It is nice to read about Arjuna's trials and tribulations and it puts your life in perspective."Eating food was an issue, especially the Indian stuff that she liked. She says: "Up there while eating food, you have to have one thing and then the next. You can't put it up on a plate and mix it up because it starts flying all over the place. So it was a problem eating Indian food. I am used to spicy food but some of my Russian colleagues got a little bit red in the face when they ate shahi paneer (cheese in hot sauce)." www.indiatoday.com

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