Ravish Malhotra

Back-up Cosmonaut for India's first space mission

Born: 25th December 1943, Lahore

I was on the lawns of Bangalore Club and there was a buzz about a spaceman in the vicinity. It was Air Commodore Ravish Malhotra who was visiting along with some friends. I quickly found a clean sheet of paper and a pen and requested him for his autograph. Someone around said something about there being a woman behind every successful man. I knew what that meant and I promptly turned to Meera Malhotra and got her autograph too!

Ravish Malhotra and Meena Malhotra autographs, 1987-04-19

19th April 1987

My brother Nagesh had separately encountered the cosmonaut and gave me what he had saved.

Ravish Malhotra newspaper clip

This newspaper article is from one of Bangalore's papers,

several years after Ravish Malhotra's space training.