Pune: Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla got emotional after a visit to his alma mater, the National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla, Pune, on Saturday.

The fighter pilot, who became India’s first astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS), was invited there for a guest lecture.

Grp Capt Shukla, however, said that he found himself wandering, not as a speaker, but as “that wide-eyed cadet again”, as reported by The Indian Express.

During the visit, he visited his squadron, the Hunter Squadron, and joined its cadets for push-ups as a sign of camaraderie and shared spirit.
Born in Lucknow on October 10, 1985, the Indian Air Force (IAF) officer passed out from the NDA in 2005.

“Returning to the NDA for a guest lecture felt less like a visit and more like stepping through a fold in time. The moment I crossed those familiar gates, something within me quietly realigned — as though the intervening 24 years had politely stepped aside to let memory take command,” Grp Capt Shukla write in an Instagram post.

“I found myself wandering not as a speaker, but as that wide-eyed cadet again – lingering over places that had once shaped me in ways I probably only understand now. The stretches where we “rode” (and often lifted) our bikes, the library that doubled as both refuge and reprieve, the mess-undoubtedly the most cherished theatre of camaraderie-and, of course, my squadron, Hunter. Each corner carried echoes. Each step felt like a conversation with a younger version of myself,” he added.

He went on to write about the iconic Habibullah Hall of the academy, where he delivered his lecture.

“And then, Habibullah Hall. A place where I had once sat quietly in the audience — absorbing lectures, occasionally films — now had me standing at the podium, addressing cadets who reminded me so vividly of who I had been. It was an honour that resists neat description,” Grp Capt Shukla posted.

“At one point, I was introduced to the adjutant. Instinct took over — my posture straightened before thought could intervene, despite him being a much younger officer. Some reflexes, it seems, are permanently etched. The National Defence Academy isn’t just an institution; it is a standard few can rival and even fewer can truly articulate. To have walked out of its gates as a cadet is a matter of enduring pride. There are places you visit, and then there are places that stay with you-quietly, indelibly. The NDA, without question, belongs to the latter,” he added.