Kalpana Chawla: A Life

Born into a conservative, middle-class family in a small provincial town in Haryana, Kalpana Chawla dreamt of the stars. And through sheer perseverance, indomitable intelligence and immense belief in herself she became the first Indian women to travel to space, and even more remarkably, to do so twice. In this well-researched biography, journalist Anil Padmanabhan talks to friends and colleagues who knew her at Karnal and at NASA, to produce a moving portrait of a woman whose life was a shining affirmation of the fact that all of us can reach for the stars.