Ahmedabad, Sep 18 - There is an air of expectancy and mood of elation in the family of Vithal Pandya, whose niece, Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams arrives in Ahmedabad Thursday to a big welcome.Williams, who this year set a record for the longest stay in space by a woman, will be here on a week-long visit. Government and voluntary organisations, educational institutes and others have planned a series of functions to welcome her.'Sunita loves Gujarat,' Pandya said, adding that the family was looking forward to have her here and she was visiting after a decade.However, given the hectic schedule of public functions she would have to attend, Williams may not find time to savour the street food of the walled city that she relished during her last visit.On Friday, she will attend a prayer at the historic Sabarmati Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi and garland a statue of her cousin Haren Pandya, a former Gujarat home minister who was murdered here in 2003.She will then proceed to her ancestral home in Jhulasan village in Mehsana district in north Gujarat. Later she will attend a felicitation function by the Vishwa Gujarat Samaj, a worldwide association of Gujaratis.Williams will also have interactions with students at the Gujarat University here Saturday - something she has been looking forward to for a while.Later in the evening, she will participate in an hour-long programme of the Gujarat Chambers of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and interact with the state's industrialists and corporate leaders.'We are curious to know about her achievements and how she could accomplish them,' Parul Jaykrishna of GCCI told IANS Tuesday.Gujarat Governor Nawal Kishore Sharma will host a function in Williams' honour at the Raj Bhawan Sunday.Next day she will be the guest at a number of functions organised in her honour by several voluntary organisations, though details were not immediately available.A visit to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) is also on the cards, according to the institute sources.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
