Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Wow! I was in third grade then and was quite excited to read about it in the newspapers, and had been following the news about the space. I was aware of Soviet sputniks, as my dad bought children's Soviet magazine for me. I was very happy and thought that Neil Armstrong was a superman to have reached there. We in India, call moon: Chandamamma, Chanda means Moon and mamma means, maternal uncle. We already read stories about an old woman on the moon who spins Indian wheel called charkha, so I was very curious then, if Neil had met that old woman! Two years later, I was awarded for being the best actress in school and received a lovely book: Man on the Moon, about Neil Armstrong, which I still have. Years later, my husband narrated how his maternal grandma reacted to this event. She said," Huh! moon, they must have gone to some other village, clicked the pics, and are now bragging! How is it possible to reach the moon?"