NAMAKKAL: When14-year-old Abinaya informed her father P Venkatachalam, a plumber by profession, that she had qualified in a test to go to NASA to take part in the International Space Science Competition (ISSC), he couldn’t completely understand or fathom her achievement. But he and his homemaker wife Sasikala were ready to extend every support possible to make their daughter’s dream come true.
On Sunday, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami ensured that Abinaya would definitely go to NASA by providing a grant of Rs 2 lakh assistance from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund. “I take great pleasure in receiving the assistance from the Chief Minister,” said the space enthusiast, who is a student at the Dr M S Udayamurthy school in Namakkal.
Abinaya will be visiting America to take the three-day online test in May 2020. “I have been very interested in learning about space, science and technology from my childhood. I came to know that, on behalf of Go4Guru, an online test would be conducted for school students to visit NASA. I wrote the test in September 2019 and qualified to visit NASA,” she told Express.
Wishing her, the CM said, “Taking part in a global space science symposium at NASA is a victory for her talent.” Speaking of her financial position, the girl explained that as she came from a below the poverty line (BPL) family, she struggled to meet the expenses to fly to the US.
A month ago, she asked Namakkal collector K Megraj for help. “As soon as I made the request, Minister P Thangamani provided me with Rs 2 lakh. Now, the CM has also granted Rs 2 lakh,” she beamed.
‘Interested in space, science and tech’
Abhinaya cleared the online test conducted by Go4Guru to qualify for the three-day event at NASA.