by AM Aravind
Thursday. 28 Nov, 2013
Vikram was refreshing his browser every few seconds anxiously, though the page was feeding him with live images, auto-refreshing every two minutes. He was deeply engrossed. The blaring loudspeakers, the pizza delivery man, his phone, barking dogs – nothing could distract him. Except his mom.
“Dei, you are getting married in three days, remember? Kalpana is back in town only tomorrow. Did you check with her if she needs anything to be done before the wedding? You were supposed to confirm the menu with the caterer. Are the stage decorations being taken care of? And accommodation for your friends – did the hotel people confirm? The list of pending things is making my head spin, and you are here sitting in front of the computer. God save the wedding,” she said and stormed out of the room.
“Ah, yes. The wedding,” he said, turning his attention to the monitor again. Another fresh set of photos from SOHO spacecraft were in front of him. Vikram was tracing the progress of Comet ISON, which was to reach perihelion in a few hours. Solar and Heliospheric Observatory or SOHO in short, is a spacecraft which scientists use to observe the Sun closely. Since the comet was grazing the Sun, it was in SOHO’s field of view.
Comet enthusiasts around the world were glued to their computer screens, monitoring the comet, for the next few hours were critical. Everyone was dying to know if the comet would survive its trip around the Sun, as it was getting too close. If it survived, it would put up a spectacular show in the next couple of months. But Vikram was distracted now. His mind wandered to his first meeting with Kalpana.
************
July, 2008
Vikram met Kalpana on the very first day of his MBA at IIT Bombay. Kalpana, who was doing her Astrophysics Engineering course there, gave him directions to reach his department. That was the only time he spoke to her during his stay on campus, though he saw her during several Tamil get-togethers in the campus.
************
“Hmmm. There was no spark between us at IIT. Nothing at all,” he said to himself, getting back to the latest SOHO image. The comet was rushing forward at 350 km/s, but he was still thinking about Kalpana. That little flashback disrupted his concentration, and he went on a trip down the memory lane once again.
************
Sep 2012
Vikram was blown away reading about Comet ISON, the newly discovered comet, which could outshine the moon. Vikram was excited. He tweeted about it, with his own calculations and predictions. Kalpana was impressed by his posts and followed him on Twitter. He followed her back.
************
He said to himself:“Haha. We didn’t even know who we were. Hiding behind our Twitter handles, weren’t we?”
That was indeed true. They hadn’t known their identities, till a couple of months later.
The SOHO page refreshed again. ISON was now very close to the Sun. The comet had brightened significantly.
************
Nov 2012
Vikram and his mom moved to a new apartment. It was a clear night, and Vikram was scanning the skies with his binoculars.
“Hey, you are Vikram, right? What are you doing here?”
“Hi! You are Kalpana, right? I just moved here this morning. C-204”
“You are my neighbour, dude! I am in C-205”
A few minutes of stargazing together led to talks about the comet, his calculations and Twitter posts. And with that, their online masks were unveiled.
She shrieked, “OH! YOU ARE @_TaareZaminPar?”
“You know me on Twitter? You are…?”
“I am AstroPonnu, you dumbo!”
Both of them started laughing like crazy.
************
A smile spread across his face. Just then, the next refresh photo from SOHO was in front of him. ISON was not to be seen in the picture. It wouldn’t be visible to SOHO again, till it moves farther from the Sun. The comet had behaved as predicted till now. It would be a long wait to know its status. He went to bed, hoping for the best tomorrow.
“Good fun when she’s around,” he thought to himself, as he hit the bed. His thoughts wandered to the night before Kalpana left to the US for a six-month course.
************
April 2013
Vikram and Kalpana were in the terrace, with their binoculars and sky maps. Both their moms walked up to them, and casually started small talk. But both Vikram and Kalpana sensed something else was coming. And, it did.
“So, when are you two getting married?”
“WHAT? We have no such intensions!” shouted both of them in unison, with shocked expressions on their faces. With an hour of sermons about how they enjoyed each other’s company, shared interests and how destiny had brought them together, the moms succeeded in convincing their kids.
“We’ll have the wedding once she’s back in November.”
Sensing that they were about to protest, his mother continued: “Say nothing. Why delay when you have already decided?”
It was over in a flash.
************
He was lying in bed, wide awake. Something was troubling him. What didn’t seem odd for the past six months suddenly seemed to hit him hard now. With the marriage barely two days away, he started panicking. It was true that they were not strangers. They had spent lots of time together in the past one year, star gazing and discussing science. His mother and her parents thought they should get married. And both of them had agreed.
His mind was filled with questions.
“What am I doing? Why did we rush into this?
Are we in love?
We share similar interests. We think alike. But romance? Was it ever there?
How did I even agree to this?
What does she think about this? Is she okay with the marriage or was she too convinced by her mom?”
Then he thought, “I’m sure she’s as disinterested in the wedding as I am. She left for the US immediately after this decision. She could have taken the course next year too. Why didn’t she?
“If both of us are indifferent, then what is the point of this marriage?”
He got up from the bed. It was 5.30 am. He had spent the whole night thinking about all this. He moved the mouse and brought the monitor to life. The browser tab with “Twitter / Search – COMET ISON” greeted him. He clicked on the band captioned “1000+ New Results”. Tweets flooded the screen, and his heart sank – most of the tweets read “RIP Comet ISON :(”
He shut down the monitor and went to the terrace. He faced towards the east, and waved. “You travelled for 4.5 billion years to put up a great show for us. But that was not to be. Rest in peace, ISON.”
A plane which flew overhead brought him back to the big issue troubling him now. Kalpana would be here soon. He would get married in two days. It was then that he made the decision to call off the wedding. What started with ISON would end with it. As soon as she arrived, he would tell her about it. And then convince his mom and her parents.
Just then, he heard a gentle thud. He was too engrossed in his thoughts to turn around. A few seconds later, he was caught tightly in an embrace. Kalpana was hugging him from behind. He felt her tears flowing on to his shoulders. Then as she let him free, he turned around to face her. She hugged him tight once again and kept repeating “I am sorry, Vicky,” in the midst of her sobs. He had no idea what was happening.
She started talking – “I am sorry. In the 20-hour-long flight, my mind wandered. I wondered if there was any love between us. I even considered calling off the wedding. But I thought about all the good times we shared. Then I figured love is not something tangible. We don’t have to say ‘I love you’ a hundred times or gift each other cheesy presents, for it to exist. The comfort which we share with each other, the way we read each other’s minds, the feeling that unites us – that is love.”
Vikram was in tears now, but he wiped her tears first, and she laughed through her sobs. She continued, “Let ISON accomplish at least one thing it started to do. Let’s go get married.”
He looked at her quietly for a few seconds.
Then he said, “Our kids will have both our names as initials, okay? And we’ll name our first kid Ramasamy.”
Seeing the puzzled look on her face, he said “Naan appove sonnen”, imitating veteran actor late VK Ramaswamy. Both of them burst out laughing. “I have something to tell you too,” Vikram said, leading Kalpana downstairs. “Let’s go home, have coffee and talk about it.”
AM Aravind, who was a marketeer and a product manager in a Telecom company, quit the job and became an entrepreneur. He loves music and photography. An ardent AR Rahman fan, he has also composed music for short films. Bird photography really excites him as does baking. AM Aravind blogs at http://arrahmaniac.blogspot.com
