Williams shared her maiden space flight experience with journalists in New Delhi on Monday after a meeting with Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, who said, India held such a special significance for the astronaut that she flew out of America on her birthday on September 19 for the week-long India trip.

"For ordinary people like us looking at the Himalayas is an enormous moment but for Sunita viewing the same object from space is like a wrinkle in the dress," Sibal said adding ‘We are very proud of you. Every Indian is proud of you and you are a source of inspiration for all Indians’.

"When I looked at earth from space I did not think of the earth as divided by boundaries or territories but as an entity in itself where all human beings are one," said Williams who is the second woman of Indian origin after Kalpana Chawla to be in space.