On a more sublime note this afternoon, I thought I'd share something that a coworker of mine discovered last week while leafing through The Penguin Book of Hindu Names, which someone had borrowed through Interlibrary Loan and returned (this coworker likes to pick through the returns, as do I. Since we work at a medical library, our collection is a little on the dry side, which means anything interesting usually has to be ordered through our office. We also handle a lot of what we call 'courtesy returns' - books checked out from another Harvard library that are returned to our Circulation Desk - since the Medical School is located in Boston, a good haul away from the main campus. Chance finds in the returns pile is one of the quirky perks that keeps me here). He looked up the name Kalpana, which is the first name of Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia when it was lost during re-entry, and here's what he found:

Kalpana (Sanskrit, Feminine Name)-- imagination; doing; decoration; composition; idea

A beautiful name for one who dreamt beautiful dreams. Hopefully her death - and the death of her comrades - will not have been in vain, and the dreams of space exploration will go on.