There I was hanging out in coffee bar listening to some good music and sipping hot coffee on Sunday afternoon. Through the glass door my roving eyes were searching for PYTs, but none were in sight. “How sad” I said to myself.
Old habits die hard..I was gazing through the glass pane again and my attention was drawn towards an old lady; probably in her early 60s and seemingly from well to do family, having an animated discussion with auto and taxi drivers. Looked like she was almost pleading to them to take her to desired destination. But auto/taxi drivers being what they are did not pay much heed to her.
Somehow I was drawn towards this. In a flash; I gulped down coffee, tendered the bill and moved out of the coffee bar. Just to gauge the situation, I parked myself close to the scene of action and I realized that the old lady wanted to reach out to the far end of city and our friends in uniform were not much interested to go that far. Surprising I thought, generally these guys refuse to ply the shorter distance and today they were refusing the higher tariff!! ‘Human acts never fail to surprise you, isn’t it?’
For reasons quite unknown to me, I decided to help the old lady. “I can drop her to her destination and can also meet Rajesh, whom I haven’t met for a long time”.
With this dual purpose in my mind I asked old lady “Can I drop you to your sister’s place ma’am”.
“Are you sure, you can drop me there?” My emphatic affirmation brought a wry smile on her face. “OK, then let’s go”.
“Since I was going to friend’s place, who stays nearer to your sister’s place, I thought I can drop you on the way.” “Thank you, so nice of you my boy”. The compassion in her voice sounded very genuine.
The old lady started off immediately “We have no blood relation but Kalpita, is just like my sister, we are very similar in nature. She stays so far that I have not visited her yet or have spoken to her; somehow I have not been able to reach her. I recently saw some of her photographs and I was amazed by the beauty of place where she stays.”
I could not understand and believe that her sister was not contactable or reachable. Old lady was moving full speed but so was my car.
Not the one to stop or pay any attention to my reactions, the old lady continued in the same vein. “This was also very nice place some time back; not only were the people nice to each other but this place was also very beautiful. But look at it now. People are becoming more insular and this place is becoming filthier day by day. I had seen much better place and can just say ‘How green was my valley’.
The old lady had practically given up hope and all my efforts to soothe her feelings were futile. So I chose the best possible option: to keep mum and thrust my foot on the accelerator.
“Here we are! Now you can meet your sister”
“Thanks my son, I hope I can meet my sister” said old lady and vanished in the crowd in speed belying her age.
Though surprised and amused by this event, I continued to drive in direction of my friend’s place. I was still thinking about the old lady and the turn of events. “I am Vasundhara, can you drop me to my sister’s place” the familiar sound of old lady crashed my thought process…and my sleep….
“What! The lady was asking for a lift once again, she did not reach her sister’s place and how come she did not recognize me?” as I asked flurry of questions to myself, I realized that I was on my couch and was staring at my reflection in the mirror. Soon I realized that it indeed was my dream and not a reality!!!
This dream lingered in my mind for long time; even errands could not put off my mind wavering towards this dream.
On one innocuous day, I was browsing through the net and stumbled upon the news- Super Earth discovered/ Twin sister of earth discovered etc. I read avidly and realized that Kepler-22b, which is around 600 light years away, could be the best hope yet for future human habitation, it could have continents, oceans and creatures. The article also said that Kepler- 22b, contains the right atmosphere to potentially support life. Kepler 22b is the first so-called "super-Earth" known to lie within the "habitable" zone- of a star similar to our Sun. This habitable zone, dubbed as the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ is the band where temperatures are just right to allow the existence of surface liquid water throughout its orbit.
Somehow, I could see the parallel in the information about Kepler- 22b and events that unfolded in my dream and as I started to dovetail my dream and information on Kepler-22b, I was struck by thunderbolt!!!!
“Gee, Did I meet mother Earth? Was that old lady the personification of mother Earth?”
Analyzing further I realized that the hints were aplenty, only I couldn’t pick them up. For starters, her sister was staying far away and as the old lady said, she somehow could not speak to her sister, Kalpita.”
“Well the names of two sisters should also have rung the bell. Old lady was Vasundhara, which means ‘The Earth’ and her distant sister’s name was Kalpita, which means ‘imaginary’”. I could not help but to conclude that I met The Earth in my dream.
“Wow! That makes me the first person to have seen and talked to Earth” As I started to revisit my discussions with the mother Earth, I realized that she was very unhappy about the surroundings and how bad the current conditions are. Her plight saddened me. “Promise yourself, that you would do everything in your capacity to make this a better place once again” I said to myself.
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| Artist's impression of Kepler-22b (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-22b) |
We celebrate World Environment Day but it’s still a Day, what we do throughout the year would decide how long we could ‘celebrate’ such days. I was reminded of famous lines from Robert Frost poem,
But I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep
Hey folks, can we take a vow to make our mother Earth, one of the most unique places in this entire universe, really unique, beautiful and a better place. The onus, my friends, is well and truly on us.
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