Sam Kannappan, one of the many Indians who migrated to the United States in the sixties, has just one regret -- that he could not honour Kalpana Chawla, Houston's most famous Indian-American, after her first Columbia mission. "We should have done it then, but somehow it did not happen."

To make amends for that lapse, the Indian community in Houston tried to honour Chawla at last year's Republic Day function. That too did not take place as she was busy training for her next Columbia mission.

"It was at an Indian store that I first met her. She knew me and was aware I was trying to contact her for the Republic Day function. She was very courteous and said she was quite busy with her training programme, but she did not talk much. Dr N S Jain wanted to invite her to the Punjab Engineering College Alumni Association meeting. Unfortunately, that too did not take place."

Kannappan decided this lapse would be amended once she returned from her second Columbia mission. He planned to present her with a plaque during the Independence Day celebrations this August.

The Columbia tragedy transformed these plans into an atma santhi prayer meeting for the seven astronauts who met a fiery death high above the blue Texas skies.

Kalpana's mother was in no frame of mind to attend the memorial service, which was held at the Meenakshi Temple on Sunday, February 2, at 6 pm. But her father B L Chawla, sister Sunita and cousin Girish were there. Her father, recalls Kannappan, was strength personified. "He did not talk to anyone, but he was very nice. He stood there with his hands folded and left after lighting one of the seven brass lamps kept on the stage to remember the seven astronauts who lost their lives. The priests and a few dignitaries lit the other six lamps."

The Meenakshi Temple Society of Pearland, Texas, built in the style of the Meenakshi Temple at Madurai, is located just a few miles from the Johnson Space Centre, near Clear Lake. Built at Kannappan's initiative during the late seventies and early eighties, it serves a large Indian population of about 100,000 people in the greater Houston area. "This tragedy hit too close to home. One of the astronauts was of Indian origin. Many of the temple's community members reside in the Clear Lake area. A large number of them serve or have served on NASA projects. Some of them knew and had worked with KC, as they fondly called Dr Kalpana Chawla. Some of our community children go to school with astronaut Ilan Ramon's children. The sorrow was personal to all the people gathered there. Everyone who spoke that evening reflected a sense of pride about the glorious accomplishments of those seven extraordinary individuals who laid down their lives for the advancement of humankind!"

"It was very painful to organise such a meeting. It was as painful as the one we organised after the September 11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. One software programmer was from Houston and his parents and sister lived in Sugar Land near Houston."

The service ended with the recital of the famous verse from the Bhagavad Gita where Lord Krishna advises the disheartened Arjuna to carry on with his duty and not lose heart, for the soul is eternal and immortal and can never be destroyed.

He also recalled how emotional Dr Vasantha Putcha, Kalpana's NASA colleague, was at the meeting. 'KC was a very private and hard working individual,' she said. 'After witnessing the Challenger disaster as a NASA employee, she never thought something like that would happen again.'

Though Kannappan never met Kalpana at the temple, he was told she visited the shrine quite often. "People come up to me and tell me they had seen Kalpana several times. Even though she did not participate actively in the community's activities because of her work at NASA and the tough training programme she had to undergo, we feel we have lost one of our family members."

"Kalpana was confident, but reserved," he said. "She was a role model to many youngsters, both in India and the US. She did not, rather could not, mingle much with those Indians who lived outside NASA but her achievements gave confidence to many in India and the US. Now they know that if they work hard, they too can become somebody. What makes every achievement of hers remarkable is the fact that she did it through her own effort. From my interactions with her, I have found she was very proud of her roots. At the same time, she was thankful to her adopted country for giving her the opportunity to realise her dreams."