Kalpana Chawla

At the age of three years old, a young lady was preparing to attend school in Karnal, India, when she chose the formal name of “Kalpana”, meaning “imagination”, from three possible choices. She had been born on March 17, 1962, but this ambitious girl insisted on lying about her age so she could enroll in school early. Her parents, Banarsi lal and Syongita Chawla, had settled in the Model Town area of Karnal and then moved to Kunjpura Road, where her father worked his way from post-Partition poverty to the owner and operator of successful businesses that included a manufacturer of steel chests, a cloth store and a tire factory. Kalpana Chawla enjoyed bossing around younger cousins. Her mother, a liberal-minded woman who had fled Pakistan after Partition, encouraged her to follow her dreams though there were hints that she would have liked Kalpana to give her some grandchildren. Kalpana was not the only one in her family to buck Indian tradition. She also had an older brother and two sisters who chose their own paths. Sunita, often called "Pikki" by her family, attended college and became a financial analyst. Rather than submit to an arranged marriage, she insisted on holding out for a husband that could meet her own standards. Through her eventual husband, an Indian navy officer, she was later able to arrange tours of one of the Navy's few aircraft carriers for family members. Kalpana got a few surreptitious photos during these tours. Kalpana hero-worshiped Sunita and the two sisters remained close for all of Kalpana's life. Her younger sister, Deepa, became involved in fashion design and art, earned BA and MA degrees and married into a business family residing in New Delhi. Kalpana hadn't been too sure what she wanted to do with her life as a young girl. She was an avid reader, interested in studying the lives and art of Picasso and van Gogh, and also liked to entertain children with made-up stories. Relatives remembered that she couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, so singing was out. Sports was less of an aptitude though she was able to regularly win games of badminton against family members. At one point, she considered becoming a newsreader for All India Radio. Since watching airplanes at the local airport, and then watching her brother earn his Private Pilot's license, she developed an interest in aerospace and flying. In tenth grade, she decided that was what she wanted to do with her life. When she enrolled in Punjab Engineering College at Chandigarh, she was told that aeronautical engineering was not something that girls studied but became the first woman at the college to major in it anyway. She made friends with her classmates and, when she became an astronaut, invited two of her professors to attend her launches. As a woman engineering major, she was not universally popular and sometimes older students tried to haze her. She shot back at one particularly persistent bully, “What are you going to do, hit me?” She was taking karate lessons and could likely have knocked him flat if it came to a fight. After that, the hazers pretty much left her alone. Upon graduation, she accepted a position as Lecturer at Punjab Engineering College. She had already set her sites on enrolling in an American college to earn her Master's degree. She was accepted into a few universities and chose the University of Texas at Arlington, which also offered an assistantship program to help with tuition. Such assistantships were usually reserved for students who had attended for a semester but they made an exception for Chawla based on her previous academic performance. Getting her father's approval took some convincing and plenty of support from her mother and sister, but her persistence paid off. She rarely took advantage of her family's fortune while in America, and then only to help with basic expenses or to help a friend who was having difficulty buying textbooks. Receiving her student visa was another hurdle. Chawla had no trouble getting a passport but staffers at the U.S. embassy occasionally admitted to laziness and denying visas for no good reason. Chawla took advantage of mutual friends to find a trustworthy person who could be counted on to check her credentials and was approved. The first time her future husband, Jean-Pierre Harrison, saw her, she was sleeping on the floor of her apartment. He generously offered to provide a bed. It turned out that she had only fallen asleep on the floor from pure exhaustion. He was struck by the fire in her eyes. This was obviously a woman who was going places. He was training to be a professional pilot and connected well with both Kalpana and her brother, who had his private pilot's license. Kalpana took a ride in his airplane and, though she enjoyed the ride, had some difficulty hearing over the engine noise and couldn't answer a question he asked. He later gave her a camera as a birthday present and the both of them got a lot of pictures with it. Being an Indian in America could be a challenge at times. As a vegetarian, Chawla was often limited in her options while eating out. Harrison helped by learning how to cook Indian dishes though his attempts at experimentation usually weren't successful. When they traveled, pizza, salad, potatoes and bread were usually on the menu unless they were lucky enough to encounter a good Indian restaurant. Western entertainment was also occasionally baffling even though her English was improving. She never saw the attraction of soap operas and Harrison agreed that they were a waste of time. She once mistook an advertisement for a flying circus as an air show. She liked the TV show Rifleman for its strong lead character. She also took to Ayn Rand and stories of the old American West. When she began following American movies, she developed a dislike for John Wayne when he criticized a colleague for taking the part of van Gogh in Lust for Life. One thing Harrison and Chawla had in common was a sense of humor. They often tested each other's gullibility and Chawla once had Harrison convinced that she had wooden teeth. When they argued, she often gave him a variation of “You're so stupid!” and regarded any dissenting opinion as an “atrocity”. After reading Oriana Fallaci's book In a Man, she often told Harrison to “Calm down, Alekos,” whenever he got wound up. A visit from Chawla's father was enough to convince him that Harrison's intentions were honorable. Banarsi slept at Harrison's apartment due to insufficient room at Kalpana's. Once, Harrison had to apologize to Banarsi over the drunken behavior of a visiting friend and had a firm discussion with the friend. Harrison also took Banarsi flying, something that the older man thoroughly enjoyed even though he kept requesting risky maneuvers. When Banarsi returned home, he was happy to report to anyone who asked that, while it was unusual for an Indian woman to be courted by a Westerner, he was satisfied with Harrison's conduct. Eventually, Harrison began to teach her how to fly. Chawla knew that flying was risky. Once, she claimed to have seen an aileron fall off a glider in flight, which would have created a highly hazardous situation. That didn't always stop her from taking risks. Harrison found that he had difficulty maintaining a dispassionate attitude about teaching her and suggested that she find another flight instructor. It took some time due to an occasionally hectic schedule, but she did obtain her private pilot's license. By the end of 1983, Chawla and Harrison were discussing marriage. They wanted to keep the situation a secret from Chawla's family for as long as possible. Her father might want to follow tradition and arbitrate the match. It took some courage, but on December 2, 1983, they went to a courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas, where they coached a Justice of the Peace in pronouncing Kalpana Chawla's name and were married in a civil ceremony. The Justice pointed out a vintage marriage certificate on his wall to illustrate the importance of their new commitment. They took the point that it was for life. For the time being, they were content to maintain the illusion of separate lives as friends even though visiting relatives may have suspected that something was up. Harrison helped Chawla with her thesis project, a study of a cross-flow fan embedded spanwise in an airplane wing. Her thesis advisor was impressed by her stamina while working in a laboratory that lacked air conditioninng. She received her master's degree and moved to Golden, Colorado, with Harrison. While there, she took classes at the University of Colorado and earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering. Finally, Chawla admitted that they were married during a visit to India. She admitted to Harrison that her father had sulked for a week before accepting it. Chawla was ambitious and not afraid to do what it took to obtain a goal. She had role models to suit, including Abraham Lincoln, Charles Lindbergh and Lewis and Clark. She was smart enough to decide on the most effective and practical way to obtain a goal. She also enjoyed working with her hands and, when she got her driver's license, she frequently made small repairs on a used AMC Hornet she bought. Neither was she afraid to stick up for herself if she saw something as unfair. She once went toe-to-toe with a professor who gave her an undeserved “F”, taking the conflict up the chain all the way to the university president. She briefly spoke with a lawyer who refused to take the case. While she did not prevail, she was happy to report that the professor looked very nervous during this time and got an “A” in every other class. Having an adventurous side, she learned how to SCUBA dive while at college. She was not a strong swimmer, but she got by with only the occasional scare and Harrison was usually right there with her to help if she ran into a problem. He did try to help Chawla improve her swimming skills but didn't get much farther than helping to improve her...

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Kalpana Chawla

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