Chapter 7: Who Floats in Space?

Story Time — The Grandfather's Favourite Story

Gurpreet · Patiala, Punjab

Gurpreet's grandfather often told him stories, but one was Gurpreet's favourite, and he asked for it again and again. “Dada ji, please tell me about the Indian who went to space.”

“Ah, Rakesh Sharma,” his grandfather said, settling into his chair. “He was from Punjab, like us. Long ago, in 1984, he became the first Indian to fly all the way up into space, in a spacecraft. The whole country was very proud.”

“And do you know what happened?” Dada ji leaned closer. “From up in space, someone on the Earth asked him a question: how does India look from up there? He looked down at our whole country and answered with beautiful words — that India looked the finest in all the world.”

Gurpreet smiled every time he heard that part. “But Dada ji, how did he move about up there?” “He floated!” his grandfather said, waving his arms slowly. “In space there is no strong pull to hold you down, the way the Earth holds us. So astronauts float like feathers. Even their food and water float.”

Gurpreet stood and pretended to float around the room in slow motion. “They wear special suits,” Dada ji added, “to breathe and to stay safe, because space is not like the Earth — there is no air to breathe up there.”

That night Gurpreet lay in bed and imagined floating high above Punjab, looking down at all of India, just as Rakesh Sharma had done. “One day,” he whispered into the dark, “perhaps another astronaut will rise from Punjab — and perhaps it will be me.”

Story Time — The Homemade Space Suit

Ananya · Hyderabad

Ananya's class was given a special task: to dress as what they wished to become when they grew up. While her friends chose doctor, pilot and teacher, Ananya knew at once. “I,” she announced, “am going to be an astronaut.”

With her mother's help she made a helmet from a large clear bowl, a suit from white cloth, and a backpack from a box painted silver. “Why the backpack?” her little brother asked. “Real astronauts carry air to breathe,” Ananya explained, “because there is no air in space.”

In class, she showed everyone how astronauts move. “On the Earth we are pulled down, so we walk. But in space there is no pull to hold you, so you float.” She pushed gently off her desk and glided across the floor in slow, careful steps, as though swimming through the air.

“And how do you drink water in space?” her teacher asked. Ananya was ready. “The water floats in little balls, and you must catch them in your mouth.” She mimed chasing a floating drop, and the class smiled with delight.

Her teacher nodded. “You have studied well, Ananya. India will need new astronauts, and one day one of them may be a girl from Hyderabad.” Ananya stood tall in her homemade suit. She had never felt more certain of anything.