अंतर्नाद

Memories play a very confusing role. They make you laugh when you remember the time you cried together, but make you cry when you remember the time you laughed together. The above quote sounds familiar eh? It is one of those nights where sleep tries to elude you! Now that I am kind of an insomniac, for the past couple of days, I am going through my neglected hard-disk. I am looking at the old handful school photographs, I happen to spend more than required time on a particular photograph. A photograph of 10 little kids, who had just finished their standard 10th examinations. Oh boy, what a day it was! We were at Saurabh's place. It was a graduation party. Saurabh's mother had left for some work, especially for us! We were home alone (er, not exactly, we were 10 kids with no elder supervision)! So sweet of her! We ate, sang songs and played something! I remember a particular joke - We had decided to sing a really hip song - Saurabh started a really slow emotional son...

This is just another day. She boarded the regular 7 am bus, went to work. Somewhere, one other ‘she’ boarded her 9 am bus, went to work. Every other day she gets on her regular bus, scooter or any means of travel, leave for work! Monday through Friday/ Saturday, she follows the same suit! Meanwhile, she wakes up at 5 am, completes her everyday  chores   cooking, sweeping the floors, makes sure that everyone at home has enough water for the day and is certain that her family is all set to face a yet another day. She is a strong force influencing everyone around; a little sunshine who puts up a smile on everyone’s life; someone who is always around the corner; on whom we can always  depend;  who have faith in us when we have lost one. Indeed yes! She is a woman! A maid, a home-maker, a teacher, a cop, a surgeon, an officer, a pilot, a mountaineer, a politician, actress... many more roles! She is a daughter! A princess of her father and an an...

It’s been a decade since that dreadful tragedy. All eyes were glued to the landing of that ill fated (which saw many technical hiccups before too!) Columbia Space shuttle. Everyone was ready with wide arms, pride, euphoria, just ready to celebrate and congratulate and suddenly the moments were shattered. Just within few minutes all eyes were hoping that they will be safe, they will just smile, wave a hand and exclaim that they are alive but alas, it was destined to be an all together different story. The epic saga suddenly crashed few moments before reaching the final jubilation! They crashed to the same ground from where they rose, in where they dreamed. Among those seven astronauts was one little blue girl, a little dynamite, a power, the first woman in space of the most ambitious developing nation- India! Yes, Kalpana Chawla! She was indeed the representation of the grand dreams of the motivated country, inspiring the future astronauts, the shy girls and the ambitiou...