Maharashtra’s Anima reaches for the stars
After Sunita Williams and Kalpana Chawla, Anima Patil-Sabale, from Jalgaon in northern Maharashtra, could be the next Indo-American woman in space. And if Anima does succeed in coming out of NASA’s intense training for astronauts, she will be the first Marathi to reach the stars. Anima told Free Press
Journal on Monday that it was her dream to become an astronaut from her childhood. “Thus, after completing my graduation in science, I applied for a pilot’s course. However, I was rejected due to my short-sightedness. Pilots need perfect vision,” Anima said.
“I completed my Masters in Computer Application, worked in Mumbai and later shifted to California in the United States with my husband in March 2000.”
Anima said that NASA space centre was near her home in California from where she could see the launching of space shuttles. “This inspired me to pursue my dream to become an astronaut. I did then did my second degree in Aerospace Engineering and applied to a local aerospace company which rejected my application on the grounds that I was not an American citizen,” she said.
Anima became an US citizen in 2012 and then got a call to join NASA’s Kepler mission. She is now competing with 13,000-odd aspirants to become an astronaut and should she become one of the lucky ones, Anima may well make the space journey in 2018.
Mallika Kalkonda, Anima’s classmate, had this to say, “She is a versatile woman. She is a painter, a model, a mother of two kids, a choreographer, a poet and a writer. We are all proud of her.”