The last couple of weeks have not
been easy. The entire nation felt the pain- the Chandrayaan mission that
came so close to crowning glory and yet so far. Next time, we will surely make
it. While losing contact with the Lander Vikram is extremely
disheartening, the comforting point is that at least, it is not a
life and death situation.
Many moons ago (no pun intended), it was almost a life and death situation! The year was 1979- the US lost contact with the Space Station Skylab. The spacecraft was now hurtling towards the earth, on a certain collision course! It was a harrowing time, which will be recalled by those who lived through it. The more I read about losing contact with the Lander Vikram, those childhood images of Bombay (as it was called then)...come floating by, images of a different time and age.
The weeks leading to the touchdown of the Skylab were lively. Newspapers carried elaborate diagrams charting the course of the Skylab- where it would re-enter the earth's atmosphere, where it would break-up and where it would crash. Though every place on the planet was equally vulnerable, we were convinced it would strike our neighbourhood and no other! As school kids, we overheard adults involved in animated discussions and tried to piece it together. How could someone goof up and lose control to this extent- where the spacecraft would now crash over our head? It was like the tale of Bhasmasura or Frankenstein- a recipe for self-destruction! There were individual prayers, community gatherings, astrological predictions and astronomical calculations- nothing was left to chance! A sort of nervous excitement enveloped us, where anything in the sky, from a flying airplane to a dragonfly made us jump out of our skin!
A primary school kid's imagination runs riot. Science with its concepts like gravity was yet to pollute our flights of fantasy. We imagined Skylab's impact would resemble a game of marbles...a small marble striking a bigger one! Upon impact, the earth would be thrown into space, where it would do a few spins...before it came to rest at a different corner of the universe! Alternatively, we liked to believe that it would compare to a stone flung into a full bucket of water. The collision in the ocean would spurt out a wall of water- so tall would be the waves at Juhu Beach!
Skylab took over our lives. If we constructed sentences in English class, it was all about doom, destruction and death. If we had to scare the life out of someone, we looked at the sky, screamed "Skylab" and pretended to run for cover! It worked a few times, until it became a standing joke, much like the boy who cried wolf! The film Sholay's iconic dialogue now had a new twist-"so ja bachcha nahi to Skylab aa jayega!" (“Baby, please sleep; if you don’t, Skylab will be here!”)
We pleaded with the Principal to declare a holiday until doomsday was over. Our fears were not unfounded. If we were to perish, it seemed reasonable that it should be at home, than at school. We wore the most sullen face, like inmates on a death roll. At the very least, we negotiated for a few more Games periods! The Principal was firm- it would be school as usual, regardless of doomsday. We felt gutted!
The fateful day was now close. Those were times when few homes had a TV. Our window to the world was a radio- hand-tuned to shortwave stations. One night, the news was out- the Skylab had finally crash-landed in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia. It was all over.
The sun rose the next morning with the same cheeriness. It was a day like any other. There was a stone-like silence in class- absolute disbelief it could be such an anti-climax. How we wished we could have established contact with Skylab and steered the crash to more familiar environs!
It would now be school as usual, the tedium of classes, homework, tests and exams. We sat in class solemnly, cupping our palms to the chin.
However, school kids do not take time to bounce back. At lunch break, it suddenly dawned upon us- life was not over yet! Now that Skylab had given us a new lease of life, we could look forward to many more games of marbles and 7-stones, football and Cricket! We flung the lunch-box away, let out a joyous yelp, picked up the Cricket bat and ran into the sun!
The Skylab then and the Chandrayaan now- they have filled our days with nail-biting excitement, regardless of whether they fully achieved their target. Who can complain now?
Many moons ago (no pun intended), it was almost a life and death situation! The year was 1979- the US lost contact with the Space Station Skylab. The spacecraft was now hurtling towards the earth, on a certain collision course! It was a harrowing time, which will be recalled by those who lived through it. The more I read about losing contact with the Lander Vikram, those childhood images of Bombay (as it was called then)...come floating by, images of a different time and age.
The weeks leading to the touchdown of the Skylab were lively. Newspapers carried elaborate diagrams charting the course of the Skylab- where it would re-enter the earth's atmosphere, where it would break-up and where it would crash. Though every place on the planet was equally vulnerable, we were convinced it would strike our neighbourhood and no other! As school kids, we overheard adults involved in animated discussions and tried to piece it together. How could someone goof up and lose control to this extent- where the spacecraft would now crash over our head? It was like the tale of Bhasmasura or Frankenstein- a recipe for self-destruction! There were individual prayers, community gatherings, astrological predictions and astronomical calculations- nothing was left to chance! A sort of nervous excitement enveloped us, where anything in the sky, from a flying airplane to a dragonfly made us jump out of our skin!
A primary school kid's imagination runs riot. Science with its concepts like gravity was yet to pollute our flights of fantasy. We imagined Skylab's impact would resemble a game of marbles...a small marble striking a bigger one! Upon impact, the earth would be thrown into space, where it would do a few spins...before it came to rest at a different corner of the universe! Alternatively, we liked to believe that it would compare to a stone flung into a full bucket of water. The collision in the ocean would spurt out a wall of water- so tall would be the waves at Juhu Beach!
Skylab took over our lives. If we constructed sentences in English class, it was all about doom, destruction and death. If we had to scare the life out of someone, we looked at the sky, screamed "Skylab" and pretended to run for cover! It worked a few times, until it became a standing joke, much like the boy who cried wolf! The film Sholay's iconic dialogue now had a new twist-"so ja bachcha nahi to Skylab aa jayega!" (“Baby, please sleep; if you don’t, Skylab will be here!”)
We pleaded with the Principal to declare a holiday until doomsday was over. Our fears were not unfounded. If we were to perish, it seemed reasonable that it should be at home, than at school. We wore the most sullen face, like inmates on a death roll. At the very least, we negotiated for a few more Games periods! The Principal was firm- it would be school as usual, regardless of doomsday. We felt gutted!
The fateful day was now close. Those were times when few homes had a TV. Our window to the world was a radio- hand-tuned to shortwave stations. One night, the news was out- the Skylab had finally crash-landed in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia. It was all over.
The sun rose the next morning with the same cheeriness. It was a day like any other. There was a stone-like silence in class- absolute disbelief it could be such an anti-climax. How we wished we could have established contact with Skylab and steered the crash to more familiar environs!
It would now be school as usual, the tedium of classes, homework, tests and exams. We sat in class solemnly, cupping our palms to the chin.
However, school kids do not take time to bounce back. At lunch break, it suddenly dawned upon us- life was not over yet! Now that Skylab had given us a new lease of life, we could look forward to many more games of marbles and 7-stones, football and Cricket! We flung the lunch-box away, let out a joyous yelp, picked up the Cricket bat and ran into the sun!
The Skylab then and the Chandrayaan now- they have filled our days with nail-biting excitement, regardless of whether they fully achieved their target. Who can complain now?
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