'Left my laptop mid-air assuming it would float': Shubhanshu Shukla on re-learning the effect of gravity

‘Saare jahan se accha’, astronaut Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma had said which translates to most beautiful in the universe. These words when then prime minister Indira Gandhi had asked him about how India appears from space in 1984. And four decades later, Shubhanshu Shukla reiterated his words, saying it still looks as marvellous. He was falling short of words to express his experience at the press conference.

To space and back

Talking about his journey to space and back, Shukla narrated his experience and how the body goes through changes. On coming back to the planet where gravity is of consequence, he said, it is different. Mentioning an episode after his return, he said he was working on his laptop and casually left it, assuming it would float like it did in the space station. Much like going back to reality, it fell, but luckily, he said there was no damage. While highlighting the changes, he said his face felt bloated and everything felt different, so one has to realign and relearn and couple of things.

Coming to the data collected, the Indian astronaut said, "All the information I have collected in the past year will be extremely useful to us for our own missions, Gaganyaan and Bharatiya Antariksh Station. Very soon we shall send someone from our capsule, from our rocket and our soil.”

He added, “The benefit of executing a human space mission is more than the training. The supplementary knowledge we get just by being there is invaluable.”

Habit - learning and unlearning

Be it going to space or coming back, he said, one has to learn the new routine as the environments are so diverse. Humans are creatures of habit, and highlighting the difference gravity brings about in our daily lives.

Closing his comments, Shukla asked children and those watching to keep dreaming and dream big.