Shobhaa De | Welcome home ‘Bharat ki Beti’ Sunita Williams

Hey Bhagwan… so many contradictions and mixed signals about the dramatic space adventure featuring a stellar star cast. Hero kaun? And heroine kaun? The villain is known (two guesses). No vamp. No item girl. But an Oscar-worthy script strewn with what are called well-timed “hooks” in showbiz. Suspense, black comedy, stunts… sab kuch hai, to make a masala space series, with Elon Musk playing Elon Musk.

Seriously, one of the most detested men on Planet Earth right now pulled off a near impossible feat to rescue stranded astronauts floating about aimlessly in space for nine unending months. The botched-up mission had far too many red faces by the end of the saga, which dented the image of Boeing Starliner, and yes -- the Biden administration, too!

Enter swashbuckling Elon Musk and trumpet blowing Donald Trump. With awe-inspiring derring-do and impeccable technical expertise, an audacious attempt to bring back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore was announced, while the watching world held its breath. Would the much-reviled duo pull it off, even as irate protesters burnt Tesla cars and cried blue murder. Tesla lost over $800 billion in market cap?

Err… the main man Elon didn’t blink. And Trump’s bluster was as belligerent as ever.

In all this, I reserve my admiration for Sunita’s mother, Slovene-American Ursuline Bonnie Williams, who remained unfazed while waiting for her daughter to get home safely. “This is her job! She’s a professional astronaut,” she declared, adding: “I miss her… she’s my best friend.” Sunita (“Suni”) won over the world with her relaxed, cheerful smile after making her splashy touchdown off Florida’s coast, surrounded by a pod of curious dolphins. Little is known and even less seen of Sunita’s husband of 20 years, Michael J. Williams, who is said to have embraced Hinduism. Reportedly, Sunita took copies of the Bhagwat Gita and the Upanishads into space with her, along with a Ganesh murti for good luck. Faith is what saw her through the ordeal.

Faith, hope, discipline and a deep commitment to her mission. Yes, she has been an astronaut for two decades and knows what goes with the territory. But the bizarre turn of events and the weird scenario of being a “space cadet” (literally!) would have seriously unhinged a lesser person. Just the uncertainty of getting back to earth, home and loved ones with months and months going by… horror! God was on the side of Butch and Sunita for sure. But… what if Trump had lost the election? What if Elon Musk had not been elevated overnight to the most powerful man alive? What if his braggadocio had let him down and the experiment with the SpaceX Dragon had failed? Logic and reason are never enough to explain these events. In India, we look beyond.

Our emotional relationship with time and space is radically different from the cold and calibrated thinking of the West. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited “Bharat ki Beti” Sunita Williams to India, describing her as “the most illustrious daughter”, which she indeed is. Sunita’s ancestral village Jhulasan, in Gujarat’s Mehsana district, erupted in joy when she came back to earth. Let’s hope she gets her hard-earned rest and is left alone by the hungry press.

I have to add my own two bits’ worth here. Have we not done enough damage to our long-suffering planet? Why inflict that and worse on an unsuspecting Mars, the moon, Venus? What are these space missions all about, besides greedy humans looking to exploit unknown resources in space? Despotic, ambitious heads of state sanctioning billions of dollars to send probes to distant astral bodies -- for what? How selfish are we? The claim that we are doing all this “for the good of humanity” is completely bogus! We are doing this for our own greed and selfish motives… to avariciously enrich ourselves, now that we are done with stripping and raping our own beloved planet.

“Tesla is doomed! We can’t survive!” the Great Egotist Elon Musk has admitted. So are we, Sirji. So are we.

Closer to home, it’s business as usual -- violence, rioting, arson, looting, rapes and deaths. When even that is not enough, we decide to go after the dead. Even those who have been resting in peace for centuries. A recent “Mumbai Meri Jaan by Manjul” cartoon in Mid-Day provided the best perspective. It showed a tomb with the caption: “Aurangzeb (1618-1707). Ruled from 1658 to 1707. Returned to politics in 2014. Still ruling in spirit!”

Maharashtra has declared Aurangzeb’s tomb as a “no drone’ zone”, amid growing protests. Described as the “most disputed Mughal emperor in Indian history”, his tomb stands in comparatively unknown Khuldabad in Maharashtra, even though he died in Ahmednagar. A man of contradictions, he had asked for a simple grave, saying: “The rich may well build domes of gold and silver on their graves. For the poor like me, the sky is enough.’’

Three hundred years after his death, over 65 people have been arrested in Nagpur’s Mahal area, with cars being set on fire and dozens of people suffering injuries. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis believes that these protests were “pre-meditated’’. With the heat in Nagpur steadily going up, what’s needed is a cooling down of passions about an emperor whose own life ended as an anti-climax after what is dubbed as Aurangzeb’s “Deccan Folly”. To demand that his bones be interred and shifted out of the state sounds like an even bigger folly. What purpose will it serve? What exactly is being avenged after three centuries? Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has introduced the role played by Chhava, a recent hit movie with Vicky Kaushal playing Sambhaji, into the protests. “I am not blaming the movie…” he clarified. “…But people’s sentiments have been ignited, leading to a lot of anger towards Aurangzeb”, he added. Hmmm… I was at a multiplex watching The Brutalist when a special screening of Chhava had been arranged for the CM and his party colleagues. The multiplex was converted into a fortress, sealed and secured like one of Shivaji Maharaj’s impregnable forts. The ones that defeated Aurangzeb eventually.

Political games pyrrhic victories… as RSS leader Sunil Ambekar says that Aurangzeb is “not relevant” today. Make up your mind, guys!!!