Whenever in open the little Monto could not help gazing into the sky hoping to spot a bird or an aerial craft in flight which was her delight. At the age of seven, the father realised that it was time his Monto was admitted to school in proper fashion. The choice fell on English medium ‘Tagore Bal Niketan School’, a reputed institution for the education of kids. For Monto it was good news because now she could everyday fly from her home tree to the big school tree, on which lived hundreds of other birds like her.
Pre-admission interview was held presided over by the primary class teacher. The teacher found Kalpana Chawla alias Monto to be a perky and intelligent girl who knew quite a lot of things even before joining the school. It became apparent that the girl’s mind was science oriented and naturally inquisitive unlike other girls who were mostly all arts and social studies.
The impressed teacher recommended the girl’s admission in third standard. Kalpana seriously got down to the business of gleaning knowledge from the books. A serious type was her nature who put most of her time in studies and doing homework in which her elder sisters proved a great help. Being reserved Kalpana did not make great many friends or any enemies because she would not poke her nose into the affairs of others. She kept to herself. No one had any complaints against her. The teachers were satisfied with her progress and the parents too were happy to see her studiousness.
The time ticked on and years went by; Kalpana studied on in the same school advancing class by class without any hitch. The examination results always rated her ‘First Class’.
From a kid she was in due course a teenager.
Many of her talents were now manifesting themselves. She was showing her interest in cultural programmes and drawing pictures. Her interest in skies and flyers was becoming an obsession, she wanted to know more and more about the space above and the flying objects. Her eyes would scan the skies every now and then whenever she was out in the open.
There was a big Neem tree in the compound of the Tagore Bal Niketan. Sitting under it to scan the space was her favourite pass-time. She did it in recess, vacant periods and any other free time she could steal. Her face would lit up if any flying craft, chopper or aeroplane flew by overhead. Sighting any such craft was enough to make her spring up on her feet and follow its flight with unblinking eyes till it went out of her view.
Once the school organised a painting competition. The drawing teacher named a subject on which the pictures had to be based. It was an earthly subject like a landscape. Kalpana tried hard but the hands refused the draw the scene. It was difficult for a girl to draw a land scene because her mind was always in the skies. In sheer frustration she gave her mind and hands freedom to draw whatever they together fancied even at the cost of the rebuke of the teacher.
After the drawing time was over all the students handed over their drawings to the teachers. Some of the girls had drawn really good pictures true to the given subject. But Kalpana Chawla’s drawing was odd.
The teacher questioned her, “Kalpana, what is this? It has little relation to the subject I had suggested. Didn’t you hear my instructions clearly?”
“I did, Ma’am,” Kalpana replied diffidently and added, “My hand refused to draw the picture of what you asked for.”
“So?”
“So Ma’am, I allowed my hand to doodle on the paper to pass the time. It dragged the pencil and drew outline of an aeroplane. Considering myself out of the competition I decided to give the picture a proper colour finish as well. I’m sorry, teacher.”
The teacher looked smilingly at Kalpana for some time and spoke, “You won’t win any prize, of course. But no need to be sorry. Infact, I like your picture, good imagination and what is most striking is that the drawing has a touch of draughtmanship…same technical details and precise lines.”
“Thank you Ma’am.” Kalpana blushed.
“Does aeroplane fascinate you?” the teacher could not help asking.
“It does. To me an aircraft looks like an angel, Ma’am,” Kalpana confided.
She had a limited number of friends but they were all very close. Daisy, Renu, Alka and Meena were the real friends of Kalpana. Unlike her, rest of the girls were chirpy, outgoing and gigglers. But this characteral difference did not affect their friendship which was based on some natural sympathy and not on outwardly equations.
With the time her aerial fascination went on increasing which sometimes puzzled her earth bound friends. Once again, Kalpana was sitting under the school Neem tree when a plane droned on overhead. She was seized by a sudden excitement. The girl sprang to her feet and ran in the direction plane was heading above, her eyes rivetted on it. At last, the school compound wall broke her run to her dismay. Kalpana would have loved to run with the plane to the end of its journey and congratulate it on its being able to fly like a bird.
Daisy saw her friend in a sad mood. She asked, “Why so sad? What is eating you?”
“The fact of not being able to fly like a bird and accompany that plane,’’ Kalpana confided.
Daisy shook her head saying, “Dear girl, why don’t you accept that you are a ground creature who can not fly like a bird?”
Kalpana argued, “But that aeroplane flew like a bird. And it was made by ground creatures like us. The pilot who flew it was a human like us.”
Daisy said, “Okay, may be, that is right. But it is a man’s business. Whoever heard of a woman flying an aeroplane?”
“Come on, Daisy! Women fly planes and helicopters in foreign countries. Haven’t you read about it?”
“In far off foreign countries but not in India. What foreigners do makes no sense here in Karnal of Haryana. Stop flying high, Kalpana, and all your day dreaming. Put your mind to studies and…”
“And filmy magazines…gossip columns?” Kalpana mocked, “I don’t see any harm in day dreaming. Isn’t our country being piloted by a woman, Indira Gandhi?”
The school gong broke their debate. The time for the next period. Kalpana and Daisy ran in.
Kalpana’s sky gazing made her friends sometimes think that she was whacky. Some teachers too thought that Kalpana was going over the hill with her flying obsession. Some teachers even admonished her to ground herself and use her intelligence to achieve the earthly tangible goals.
All her teachers Vimla Raheja, Krishna and Nirmala Namboodripad were impressed by her brilliance and learning capacity. Kalpana respected her teachers but Nirmala was her fovourite teacher, not without reason.
Nirmala Namboodripad was different from the other teachers. She helped her students in the subjects beyond the school curriculum and Kalpana needed a lot of it because of her interest in astronomy, space, man made flying objects etc. Since the teacher learnt about Kalpana’s interest in space related information, she herself made it a habit to glean it from media to feed it to her inquisitive student. Madam Nirmala revealed to Kalpana the known facts about space, cosmos, galaxies, solar system, earth, satellites, UFOs etc. and the progress of scientific exploration of the space. The more Kalpana learnt, the more she wanted to know.
Along with her scientific quest, Kalpana was getting interested in music and dance, a manifestation of youth spirit. She loved flowers. To her the joy meant listening Lata Mangeshkar songs and in smelling the flowers.
Kalpana’s sartorial taste was also different from the typical Punjabi girls. While the latter stuck to traditional salwar-kurta, the former sported T-shirt and pants. There was something odd about this girl.
Then, there was this habit of her’s to go around the block riding a bicycle after she had done her homework. Kalpana believed that pedalling around was a good mode of the physical exercise. For back woods town girls it was an audacious act. The other girls of the block would look at her disapprovingly remarking, “Look at that tomboy act! The bicycles are made for boys. Ever seen a girl from a nice respectable family go around pedalling!”
“What a scandal!”
“She is a refugee girl. You know, she left her shame where she came from,” some girl would accuse.
Sometimes Kalpana would retort, “Look, cycling is no disgraceful act. It works for a good exercise. You don’t know what’s happening in the world. The girls are doing what boys do. In some fields the girls have stolen a march over the boys. We must not feel inferior to boys in any way.”
The meek girls, brain washed by the orthodox set-up of their families would stare at the impudent refugee’s daughter named Kalpana.
Many a time, Kalpana would recount the deeds of the great women achievers of the world to the other girls. They included freedom fighters, revolutionaries sports persons, writers, nobel laureates, rulers and scientists. She had local examples also in her list like Rani Laxmibai, Durgavati, Rani of Kittur, Chenamma Indira Gandhi etc.
For the same reason, Kalpana Chawla was a great fan of India’s first I.P.S. officer Kiran Bedi and the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi. She also wanted to do something to set apart from the soap-opera crowd or Jai Santoshi Maa mob.
One day Kalpana was cycling around her block as usual when she heard a great rumbling sound above. She looked up and saw a low flying helicopter. She pedalled hard to chase it, waving her hand to the pilot. She covered quite a distance and returned only when she exhausted herself.
After that experience, Kalpana made it a habit to chase overflying aerial craft to some distance to see it off. Her aircraft obsession rubbed off on her elder brother Sanjay too. He would also pedal his bicyle with his sister and take part in the ‘seeing off aerial craft’ exercise with great enthusiasm. The flying bug caught Sanjay and he began seriously thinking of going for pilot training or aerodynamic engineering.
After some thought Sanjay did join ‘Karnal Flying Club’ and undertook training for a commercial pilot licence. Now Sanjay became a valuable source of information for Kalpana. He would tell her about aircraft engines, mechanisms, aerodynamic principles etc. His talk excited Kalpana to such an extent that she herself wished to learn flying.
In 1968, Kalpana had joined Tagore Bal Niketan school and studied there for 8 years. She passed high school examination in 1976 in flying colours. Now it was time to say good bye to the school to go elsewhere for higher education.
Kalpana had over the years come to love the school, its building, class rooms, Neem tree, ground, teachers who had become familiar to her as her own parents and of course the classmates and the other friends. But the time moves on and so has everyone to do to move ahead in life. With a heavy heart she took leave and departed with fond memories she would ever cherish.
Kalpana Chawla took admission in D.A.V. college of Karnal. Here she would give concrete shape to her dreamy ambitions if everything went according to her plan.
