In the era of Social Media, the new generation has been forgetting the Patiala boy who travelled in space in 1984 and became the hero of Soviet Union.

Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian citizen who entered into the space. He was born on January 13, 1949 in Patiala and completed his graduation from Hyderabad. Sharma joined Air Force as a cadet in 1966 and later admitted to the National Defence Academy as an Air Force plebe and by 1970 he was commissioned into the Indian Air force to become a pilot.

He was the member of the team and he flew aboard the Soviet Rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakh in USSR. Sharma spent 7 days 21 hours and 40 minutes aboard the Salyut 7 during which his team conducted scientific and technical studies which included 43 experimental sessions. His work was mainly in the fields of bio-medicine and remote sensing.

When the crew was holding a press conference at joint television news with officials in Moscow, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked him that how India looked from space, Sharma gave an emotional reply that Sare Jahan Se Acha quoting from a famous poem by Mohammad Iqbal. The poem was written by Iqbal during the British colonial era.

Sharma was the hero of the nation when he became the first Indian who entered into the space. When he returned to from the space, he was decorated as hero of Soviet Union.  

He became the first human to practice yoga in space using a harness to stop him from floating around to find out whether it could better prepare crews adapt for the effects of gravity.

Unfortunately, the social media was not present in those times and moreover, people were dependent on All India Radio and Doordarshan for the news.