Sunita Williams’s return sparks celebrations in her native village in Gujarat

When NASA spaceman Sunita hiram king williams’s week-long blank journeying was extended by a few years last year, her family in Gujarat was not particularly worried. But as her return to Earth kept getting delayed, they feared the worst. As weeks turned into months, their worries grew. Their anxiety peaked when a SpaceX capsule carried Williams and her colleague Butch Wilmore to Earth on Tuesday.Dinesh Rawal, Williams’s cousin who lives in Ahmedabad, said they could not sleep all night and kept praying for her sister’s safe return until the SpaceX capsule carrying the astronauts made a soft splashdown off Florida’s coast on Tuesday, ending the nine-month space mission fraught with technical troubles and uncertainty.Rawal said they were not worried initially. “...as her return kept getting delayed, we started to fear the worst,” he said. “For a government like the US, spending a few million dollars to bring back their astronauts should not have been a big deal. Finally, by God’s grace, she returned safely this [Wednesday] morning, and we heaved a sigh of relief.”Rawal, 84, said he met Williams in the US before she departed for the space mission. He described her as bold and courageous from a young age. Rawal recalled her visit to India when she was about 7 or 8 and said she once grabbed a snake and began playing with it fearlessly. “...when we once visited their place in Boston, she was in high school and had gone to participate in a marathon. She came back with a shield, having secured the first prize in a city-level competition. Despite the exhausting race, she immediately started cleaning the garden without showing fatigue,” said Rawal, who was scheduled to participate in the celebrations over Williams’s return in their native Jhulasan village but could not do so due to health reasons.Rawal said Williams preferred Gujarati food—bhakhri shaak, thepla, rotlo, shiro, and khichadi—whenever she visited them. “She always enjoyed our home-cooked meals,” Rawal said.In Jhulasan, Wednesday started with prayers and rituals as residents gathered at local temples to celebrate Williams’s return. Students from the village school danced and organised a procession to the temple of Goddess Dola Mata, where they offered thanks for answering their prayers for her safe return.“Ever since she ventured into space nine months ago, the villagers kept an akhand jyot [flame] burning for her safety and well-being. This [Wednesday] morning, from 9:30 to 11:30, we held a special prayer meeting to thank the Lord for her safe return to Earth. We eagerly look forward to her visit to the village,” said Dinesh Patel, 63, a former village head.Patel said he reached out to her father and other relatives in 2007 and invited her to visit her ancestral village. He added Williams visited the temple and participated in a community gathering with her family.Patel said he could not directly talk much with Williams as he did not understand English and she could not speak Gujarati. “During the village event, she made an effort to greet the crowd in Gujarati, saying, ‘Kem cho? Hun pan aa gaam ni dikri chu [How are you? I am also a daughter of this village]’. The gesture drew loud applause and appreciation from all of us,” said Patel.Patel remembered Williams as a simple and down-to-earth person, who tried to mingle with everyone, especially the children. Williams’s father, the late Deepak Pandya, was born in Jhulasan in the Mehsana district. She was born and raised in the US but maintained ties with her ancestral village. Williams has made multiple visits to Jhulasan, where a library is named after her grandmother, Rambhaben Narmada Shanker Pandya.Patel said they plan to renovate the library. He added residents burst crackers and distributed chocolates to the kids as part of the celebration.Residents said Williams’s achievements are a source of inspiration and motivation, especially for the younger generation, in her ancestral village.