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Cosmic celebration: Bengaluru students honour Sunita Williams on her birthday
Cosmic celebration: Bengaluru students honour Sunita Williams on her birthday
新闻详情:最后更新时间: 2024-09-19 13:57:50
Bengaluru: ‘Baar baar din ye aaye' echoed in a small school in north Bengaluru on Thursday. About 350 children looked up in the sky as they joined in to sing the refrain of Mohd Rafi's song, ‘Happy birthday to you'. The students of Bapu Group of Institutions in Yeshwantpur were, after all, wishing Nasa astronaut Sunita Williams , who is orbiting Earth 400km above. As Williams turned 59, and several celebrities took to social media to extend their wishes, the students celebrated the occasion in their own little way, in the presence of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre chairman and former Isro chief AS Kiran Kumar. Class 9 student Govardhan read before his peers a poem he had penned for Williams in Kannada. Among those who prepared greeting cards for Williams was Nandakumar: ‘She is an inspiration, having once broken the record for the number of spacewalks'. Poorvi J, of the same class, is keenly interested in Williams' journey. Pooja R does not want to be an astronaut like her peers, but she loves following space developments. "Teachers taught us about the solar system when (we were) younger, and now we hear about Sunita Williams going to space and that she loves it there, although she is stuck there because of technical difficulty. She is a bold girl," said the 13-year-old. Students joyfully marched around their school carrying placards adorned with birthday wishes to Williams. "You must try sending this to Williams online with the notes you prepared, attract her attention, ask her the questions you want answers to," Kumar said while fielding questions from what made him choose space research, to why galaxies are so different from each other. "Concentrate more on acquiring knowledge which can help you in improving your capability in different spheres, including art. Make the best use of opportunities and remain curious," the former Isro chairman advised students on the way forward. Asked what was the biggest hurdle for human space exploration, Kumar said it is the resources to make and use equipment. "In 1957, when Russia sent Sputnik I to space, marking the first satellite to be launched, India was just 10 years old after coming out of colonisation." He explained that food and education were problems and they were the govt's priority then, even as scientists started thinking about how to expedite the country's space odyssey. "In just 77 years, we have become the 5th biggest economy," he said, adding India has since gone to the moon, in another mission launched 104 satellites and landed on a new site on the moon. Rekha, secretary of Bapu Group of Institutions, said ever since the 1970s, they have been holding programmes to inculcate scientific temper among students — from celebrating the birth of a girl child to now live-streaming space launches, and screening movies and shows related to science. "Sunita Williams is a role model for our children," she added. Photo caption: Students of Bapu Group of Institutions celebrated the birthday of Nasa astronaut Sunita Williams in Bengaluru on Thursday Photo credit: Muthu P