Lunar Escapes

Twelve-year-old Vela cried herself to sleep. It was a fitful slumber dotted with nightmares. Every now and then the loud jingle-jangle spilling out from the TV in the adjacent room would shake her awake. She would sit up with a start and find comfort in the fact that her amma and appa were somewhere in the house even though she was not allowed to touch them, and vice-versa. Oh, how she had wept, begging her mother to hold her close. And while the mother's heart had reached out to her, she knew that her daughter would have to bear the grief and joy of this metamorphosis alone, just the way she had, when she had her first periods...the way her mother had...and hers, and so on and so forth. It was a tradition entrenched in time and space. 

At 18:04 on Aug 23, 2023, Chandrayaan-3 made a perfect landing at the uncharted south pole of the moon. Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) made waves across the international scientific community. India made history, bagging headlines across the world. For the next two weeks, the rover from Chandrayaan-3 will be busy collecting data and shedding light on the elemental make up of the lunar plasma, determining its mineralogical composition, measuring its thermal properties, seismicity etc...

Has anyone ever tried to measure a young girl's seismicity when from one moment to another she is jolted into a different world? When from being a pigtailed happy individual, expectations of womanhood are suddenly thrust upon her?  For the next few days, Vela would have to sleep alone, for such is the custom. Seated on a chariot, wrapped in silk and bejeweled in gold, she would be lead through the narrow streets of her village. It would a way to announce that she had reached puberty and was biologically eligible to bear children. 

As children, the moon mesmerized us. We walked, and it walked with us, we stopped and it did the same. We sprinted across the park and it chased us. On special religious festivals, our mother offered water to its silver radiance. And, what's more, we grew up being told that we belonged to the Solar Dynasty; the handsome Moon was our maternal uncle!

Vela's uncle made her a kudisai on the porch of their humble house. A kudisai is a small makeshift hut made out of coconut, mango and neem leaves. It is here that she would be expected to spend most of her time until she had finished bleeding. A few days later there would be a cleansing ceremony followed by a pooja.

On the morning of August 23, 2023, in several temples across India, special poojas were being performed for the safe and successful lunar landing of Chandrayana-3. Many mosques and durgahs too offered namaaz for that very purpose and even churches held prayer sessions to fulfill the dream of a nation. "What could truly unite a divided country?" 

"Anything, it just has to be out of this world...something that just floats in and occupies everybody's mind..."

Along with pain and sadness, many questions raced through Vela's mind, as she shifted from one side to the other trying to find a comfortable position. She had taken time off from school for the duration of the ceremony. She wondered how she would catch up with a whole week's homework. She thought also of all the fun games she played with her younger brother and whether she would be allowed to play them now. Oh how she would have loved to chase that little munchkin there and then, with him screaming on top of his voice and amma scolding them...

It was dark in the kudisai. Yet, through the little gaps she could see the half moon broken into pieces. Its silver rays would sometimes penetrate the leafy roof and soothe her. But, it was the fireflies she liked the best who flitted in and out of the hut freely. Flying lanterns, she called them. She too had often dreamt of flying..brushing against the sky with her shimmering wings, tickling the clouds, and may be having her own little perch on the moon. Who knows, may be one day. Didn't her amma always say that everything was possible?