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After returning from the first Indian to go to space, Rakesh Sharma, people in India often asked if he met God in space.
He used to reply to this, “No, I did not find God there.” Rakesh Sharma went on a space trip in 1984.
His space travel has been over three decades. And now his admirers who meet him are erasing the difference between truth and fantasy.
He says, “Now many women who come to me, introduce me to their children by saying that they went to Uncle Moon.”
A year after his return from space, Rakesh Sharma was always surrounded by fans. He always used to go somewhere or other. Used to stay in hotels and guest houses.
He used to take photographs with people in ceremonies. Used to give speeches.
Elderly women used to offer prayers. Fans tore their clothes. Used to scream for taking autographs. The leaders used to take them in processions to be held in their area to garner votes.
Recalling the old days, he says, “It was a completely different feeling. I was fed up and tired of the fanbase of the fans. I had to laugh all the time.”
Rakesh Sharma joined the Indian Air Force at the age of 21 and used to fly supersonic jet fighter aircraft there.
In the 1971 war with Pakistan, he flew 21 times. At that time, he was not even 23 years old.
At the age of 25, he was the best pilot of the Air Force. He strolled 35 times in space. And he was the 128th person to do so in space.
The thing that was most easily forgotten was that the year Rakesh Sharma achieved the achievement of going into space, except for this year, it is considered one of the worst years in Indian history.
This year of 1984 is also known for military action against Sikh separatists at the Golden Temple in Punjab and the assassination of Indira Gandhi by Sikh bodyguards in retaliation.
After this, riots broke out against the Sikhs across the country.
At the end of this year, thousands of people were killed in the Bhopal gas scandal. It was one of the most tragic accidents in the world.
Indira Gandhi was trying to start Indian space programs before 1984. For this, she was taking help from the Soviet Union.
Rakesh Sharma was selected after the test in 50 fighter pilots. Apart from him, Ravish Malhotra was also selected in this test and both of them were sent to Russia for training.
A year before going to space, Rakesh Sharma and Ravish Malhotra went to Star City, which was 70 km from Moscow and was an astronaut training center.
Rakesh recalls, “It was very cold there. We had to walk from one building to another in snow.”
The challenge was to learn the Russian language as quickly as possible. Because most of his training was to be done in Russian language only. Every day he used to learn Russian for six to seven hours. The effect of this was that he had learned Russian properly in three months.
Their food and drink was also taken care of. The Olympic trainers were tracking and training his stamina, speed and vigor.
During the training itself, I was told that I have been selected and Ravish Malhotra will be as a backup.
Rakesh Sharma humbly admits, “It was not very difficult.”
But writer Pallava Bagla, who writes on science, believes that Rakesh Sharma has ‘made a high jump of faith’.
He wrote, “He was from a country that had no space program of its own. He had never dreamed of becoming an astronaut. But he went to another country under odd geographical conditions and got rigorous training. He learned a new language. He Really a hero.
On April 3, 1984, Rakesh Sharma and two Russian astronauts, Yuri Mlyashev and Gennady Satrekalov, left for space in a Soviet rocket.
It left from a space center in the then Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan.
Rakesh Sharma recalls the moment, saying, “When we were leaving, it was very boring because we had practiced it so much that it had become like a routine.”
When I asked whether he was also troubled while going from Earth to space.
Rakesh’s answer was, “See, I was the 128th person to go to space. 127 people had come back alive. So there was no such thing to panic.”
The media saw this space mission as deepening the friendship between India and the Soviet Union.
Rakesh Sharma and the astronauts accompanying him spent about eight days in space.
Rakesh Sharma was the first person to practice yoga in space. He tried to know by doing yoga what could help in reducing the effect of gravity.
He told, “It was very difficult. You don’t feel any weight under your feet. You keep swimming in the air completely. So we had to take some measures to keep ourselves occupied.”
When the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had asked Rakesh Sharma what India looked like from space, he had said in Hindi, ‘Sare Jahan Se Achcha’.
It is a Kalam of Mohammad Iqbal which he used to sing everyday after the national anthem during school days.
Rakesh Sharma explains, “I remember it well. There was nothing like patriotic frenzy in it. India really looked very adorable from space.”
The New York Times wrote at the time that India would not have any human space travel for a long time. For a very long time Rakesh Sharma will remain the only Indian to go to space.
Rakesh Sharma, after returning from space, started his life again as a jet pilot.
He flew Jaguars and Tejas. He also served as chief operating officer at a Boston company that designed software for ships, tanks and submarines.
After retiring, Rakesh Sharma built his dream home. The roofs of this house are slanted, solar heaters are installed in the bathrooms, rainwater collects in one place.
He lives in this house with his interior designer wife Madhu. There is talk of him becoming a biopic in which the discussion is that Aamir Khan will play the role of Rakesh Sharma.
I had the last question with him. Would you like to go to space again?
Looking out of his balcony, he said, “I would like to go to space again. But this time I would like to go as a tourist. When I went there, we had a lot of work to do.”
(Note : This interview of Rakesh Sharma was first published on 14 March 2017. Rakesh Sharma went to space on 2 April 1984. Today it has been 37 years of space travel. On this occasion, we will give you this article once. Studying again. )
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