Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla brought a slice of space history to Srinagar on Day 3 of the Chinar Book Festival, engaging with over 2,200 children at SKICC in a session that organisers described as one of the most anticipated of the four-day event. Shukla, who became the first Indian to visit the International Space Station, walked the young audience through his personal journey: from a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force to a name etched in the country’s space history.
Addressing the packed hall, Shukla spoke candidly about discipline, perseverance and the long, often unglamorous years of training that precede a single mission to orbit. He urged the students, many of them still in middle school, to hold on to their curiosity and build confidence early, telling them that the qualities that carry a person to space are the same ones that carry them through ordinary classrooms and exams. His remarks struck a chord with a generation of Kashmiri children for whom a real astronaut speaking in their own city is a rare occurrence.
Shukla also touched on the roadmap ahead for India’s human spaceflight programme, detailing the Gaganyaan mission, plans for an Indian space station and the ambitious target of landing an Indian on the Moon by 2040. For a state where career conversations rarely extend to aerospace, the session offered students a tangible sense that such paths are within reach.
The Chinar Book Festival’s third day extended well beyond the astronaut’s address. A dedicated panel examined the rollout of multilingual education under the National Education Policy 2020, bringing together educators to discuss how mother-tongue instruction can be woven into early schooling in a linguistically diverse region like Jammu and Kashmir. The evening softened into culture, with a Mushaira drawing poets from across Kashmir and cultural performances by artists who had travelled in from other parts of the country.
Now in its third edition, the Chinar Book Festival has steadily grown into one of Kashmir’s most significant literary and cultural gatherings, drawing writers, scientists, students and performers under one roof at SKICC. Monday’s proceedings reaffirmed that ambition, pairing a rare brush with India’s space programme with conversations on education policy and an evening of shared cultural expression.
