One morning in October 1961, when I was 12, my mom asked me to accompany her to the Mahalakshmi temple junction, not far from our house at Breach Candy in Mumbai, to join the crowds and wave to an important person who would soon drive past us. There was an air of excitement and suspense. Many kids like me had taken a day off from school, of course with the full approval of our parents!
A tryst that changed me
We waited for some time, and a while later, a convoy of motor cycles, VIP cars and diplomatic vehicles appeared at a distance. As they came closer, I noticed there was among them an open car, from which a person with an extremely cheerful expression was waving to the crowds enthusiastically, with a smile. Mom asked me: “Do you know who that person was to whom you just waved?’’ I said I had absolutely no idea.
She told me that he was none other than Yuri Gagarin, the first man who flew into space on 12 April 1961. My instant response was a loud “Wow.’’ It was at that very moment at the Mahalakshmi temple junction that my addiction and passion for space exploration began, and of course am extremely grateful to my late mom who showed me the way to the stars. Today, when I pass that junction each day, I recall that October morning with my mom where my journey to space began.
I never had the opportunity to meet Gagarin, but when my dad went to Moscow on Air India’s inaugural flight, he got me a number of memorabilia and medals connected with Gagarin.
The Gagarin connection
But luckily I have had some links with the Gagarin family over the years. One day in November 2012, I got a call from an official of the Russian Centre for Science and Culture at Pedder Road asking me if I could drop in as he had something “interesting’’ to tell me.
What on earth could it be? Unable to bear the suspense, I walked to his office and met the official. After the usual exchange of pleasantries he said a person who will be of interest to me would be visiting Mumbai soon. He asked me to guess who it could be and honestly I was unable to figure it out. Finally, he told me that Elena, the daughter of Gagarin, would be in Mumbai. “ Would you like to meet and interview her for the Times of India (TOI)?’’ he asked. Was I hearing right? Will I be shaking hands with the daughter of the man who was the first to fly to space? I told the official that it seemed like a dream!
Elena and I met inside a Russian consulate car outside the municipal headquarters at CST. She spoke a lot about her dad and added that though she was a jeweller and art lover and not a part of his life professionally, she still had followed his professional trajectory. “Dad used to tell me that he wanted to set foot on Mars,’’ she told me. After the interview, both of us posed for a photo in front of the statue outside the civic headquarters. The interview was carried prominently by TOI the next day.
Eight years later, I was back at the Mahalaksmi temple junction on a hot Sunday afternoon on October 25, 1969. Once again the scene repeated itself with enormous crowds on the other side of the road. I joined them and with me was the eminent nuclear scientist – the father of India’s nuclear bomb, Raja Ramanna, and his daughter, Nirupa.
The big three
A few minutes later, a convoy drove past us and in three open cars sat three men who waved to the crowd which had braved the Sunday afternoon heat to greet them. Any guess who they were? They were the first men to fly to the moon in July 1969 – Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. There couldn’t be a greater gift because three days earlier, on October 22 was my birthday!
Then, in the early hours of November 11, 1995 – almost a fortnight after my daughter, Rimanika, was born – I was at the customs arrival hall of the Sahar international air terminal waiting for a person who was my idol. At that pre-dawn hour with the arrival of numerous flights there was every chance I would miss him. Passengers were exiting from the customs hall continuously and I was finding it difficult to spot my hero.
Then it happened. A helpful and polite customs officer whom I had met when I had reached the airport, pointed to a person and told me: “Look he is the one you are looking for.’’ I mustered courage, rushed upto him, introduced myself and requested him to sign on a book, First On The Moon, which I was carrying. To all my questions he gave monosyllabic answers. Not-too-hard to guess who he was: Neil Armstrong! When I told a group of girls who were at the airport that he was Neil Armstrong, they responded in a chorus: “You mean to say you met the first man on the moon!’’ The next day my story hit page one of TOI. At a media briefing at Hotel President the following afternoon, I asked him: “If you had an opportunity will you go back to the moon?’’ He responded: “Yes, certainly. Would you like to come with me? “I said I certainly would like to!
Not only the first man on the moon, but I also met the second man to set first on the lunar surface, Buzz Aldrin.
Aldrin faced a barrage of questions and when my turn came finally I asked him to comment about India’s ground-breaking Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM- – now officially called Mangalyaan. He was full of praise for it and paid tributes to the Indian scientists who were behind the success of Mangalyaan. “The technology used in Mangalyaan could perhaps be used to solve some day-to-day problems in India,’’ he said. The report quoting Aldrin was published in TOI. But, the next day when I ran into him and requested his autograph, he rudely brushed me away which many said was typical of Aldrin!!! I did not mind his behaviour.
Apart from the first and second man to set foot on the moon, I also spoke to the last man to have stood on the moon, Eugene Cernan, in May 2001, who in every sense was the opposite of Armstrong. I interviewed him at Mumbai’s domestic airport. For each question, he gave long enthusiastic and informative replies, and to use a newsman’s parlance it made “good’’ copy. I got his signature on his autobiography ‘Last Man On The Moon.
The daring girl from Haryana
From the moon to the space shuttle. In the 1990s, the name of a young, daring girl from Haryana was slowly grabbing international headlines. She had a passion for space exploration and her name was Kalpana Chawla.
I reached the office at 1.45 a.m. The third floor editorial department which was bustling with life a few hours ago was now empty and deserted. I asked the operator to connect me to the Johnson Space Centre and gave him the number. The telephone at the other end rang, and within seconds a girl answered: “Hi, this is Kalpana Chawla here.’’ I introduced myself and she greeted me. An interview which was to last only 15 minutes, went beyond an hour. She answered all my questions politely and patiently, mainly about her space shuttle flight, her future plans and space exploration in general, and vehemently countered all the allegations which had been made against her. We talked, chatted and talked as though we had known each other for years. After more than an hour it was I who signed off, not she. Years later, after the tragic Columbia accident on February 1, 2003, in which she was killed, I met her family in New Delhi and her dad at Karnal where she grew up.
Years later when I was doing a story about the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight for TOI, I interviewed her over the telephone – she was at the Johnson Space Centre. In detail, she explained the significance of Gagarin’s flight, which she said eventually led to the first manned landing on the moon on July 20 1969.
After a few years I met her at the Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai when she interacted with a large number of school kids. I presented her with a copy of my first book about the Indian Mission to Mars called Mars Beckons India. She told me that she was happy that I was following my passion for space exploration with complete dedication.
India’s original spaceman
The Hyderabad astronautical meet in September 2007 also saw two world renowned space personalities share the dais and address the audience – Sunita and Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian cosmonaut who participated in the 1984 joint Indo-Soviet manned space mission – a pet project of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Over the years, I have interacted with Rakesh any number of times, the first one being during a press conference organised in Mumbai by the defence ministry to announce the joint Indo-Soviet manned space flight.
Whenever there is a development with regards to India’s much-delayed human space flight programme, I make it a point to seek his response for a TOI story. On December 18 2014, when ISRO successfully launched for the first time the GSLV mark 3 rocket with the crew module, he was happy that the government was taking a step towards the implementation of the manned space flight programme. He has always told me that if the government sleeps over the manned space flight project, India would lose its position as an emerging global space power.
Some years ago my father and he were jointly felicitated by the Sri Venketeshwara University at Tirupati. He helped my parents to carry a huge idol of Lord Balaji which was given to all the dignatries, on the flight from Tirupati to Chennai. This figure now adorns our sitting room at Breach Candy below the beautiful photo of my late, wonderful parents.
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Srinivas Laxman
Srinivas Laxman worked with the Times of India as a reporter, where his focus was on aviation. He later graduated to the space sector covering numerous launches at Sriharikota. He has visited various NASA centres and the European spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana. He has interacted with well-known luminaries like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams and Rakesh Sharma. Laxman has written four space-related books – two about India’s mission to Mars, one about the Indian moon mission, and a biography of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. [/column]