Surya night

By Avikshit Mathur

The Canadian Space Agency was engaged in a sophisticated space mission. Accidently, they discovered that the end to the world is near, and the secret to rescuing the planet lies in the long-lost Indian scriptures. A shift in the solar spectrum indicated that, during a certain window of time, the sun would emit all its energy in the Gamma wavelength, while it would be pitch-black to the naked eye. A complete annihilation was foreseen. Aditya Shankar, the chief scientist of the program, despite his strict adherence to scientific principles, is compelled to take shelter under the guidance of an Indian sage. He sets out on a voyage to unravel the mysteries of the ancient past, only to ¬ find out that his life is intertwined in the situation. He endeavors to understand the whims of nature, with the dire objective of saving the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Feb 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9789383808649

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Prologue

April 21, 2017, 2:15 a.m., Present Year

Inside the Canadian Space Agency, at the Chambre Confidentielles, a meeting amongst the senior scientists from Canada, India, the USA and North Korea was underway. Dr. Ishita Shroff had taken over the projector, and had been trying to put through her argument.

Aditya Shankar had backed her, but due to insufficient scientific evidence, not everybody had concurred with the projections of the world’s two renowned scientists.

No, no, no! That’s not happening. There’s got to be some mistake. This changes everything. How could this happen? Someone else here needs to verify it, and this theory must stay within this room! Gordon McChesney, the chief scientist from NASA roared. He paused and then continued, Just impossible. Nature always holds through the laws of physics.

Perhaps we should stop telling nature what to do, Dr. Shroff bounced back.

McChesney, focussing at the screen, said, Let me interpret this; your calculations suggest that on June 21, the entire visible spectrum of the sun will go out, and all the energy from the sun will be emitted in ultraviolet and higher frequencies. So, while it will be pitch-black to the naked eye for eight hours, the solar radiations, most of which you have predicted will be in the gamma wavelength, will destroy all living tissue it might touch on that part of the earth.

Aditya Shankar responded seriously, Yes, sir, I am afraid that is correct.

Grrr….grrr! His cell phone vibrated on the conference table with an incoming call. At this very point in space and time he would have disconnected any phone in the world, except this one. He picked it up; an old, motherly voice crackled in the earpiece, "Mere Raja Bete! (My dear prince!)"

Chapter 1

Ramayana

May, 1988

Shhh...don’t make that noise. It’s here; we can’t miss out on any dialogues, exclaimed Vinay. "You kids need to settle down quietly, and let us watch the serial. Sit by your Dadi-Ma (Grandma), she’ll also elucidate things to you."

It was a casual Sunday morning, and the Shankar family, like almost everyone else in the city, had deserted the streets and trooped in to watch Ramayana, one of the few serials televised in India at the time.

The extended family of nine lived together in their bungalow at the Civil Lines in Delhi. The ancestral house, close to the India Gate, had been lovingly named Shankar Residence. Houses in the Civil Lines neighborhood mostly belonged to bureaucrats working either for the state government or for the judiciary. Theirs was a privately owned bungalow which they had managed to purchase from the government through their connections and those of their forefathers.

Amar Singh Shankar had been Vinay’s grandfather, and a prominent lawyer at the Supreme Court of India. His eldest son and Vinay’s father, Deen Dayal Shankar, was the honorable Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. Vinay had followed in the family footsteps, and was practicing as a lawyer in same court as his father.

After the demise of her husband, Sarla Shankar had become the head of the family; a 5’4" tall lady in her late 60s. She was a retired principal from the Indraprastha School in Delhi. She had a contented life, and was now enjoying her time with the grandkids. Her two sons, Vinay and Tarun, were married, and they each had two children. Tarun had set up his carpet manufacturing and export facilities in the outskirts of the city. The two daughters-in-law were working at senior positions at the Canara Bank, a nationalized bank headquartered in Bangalore, India. Madhu was the younger one; her 2-year-old daughter was fast asleep in her lap.

It was Sunday, May 27, 1988, and Aditya’s birthday was tomorrow. He would be turning four. "Mera Raja Beta (my dear prince), come over here… see how Megha jiji (elder sister) is sitting and enjoying the show? Stop fighting with your little brother. He is a baby, and so much smaller than you," Sarla urged.

Come here, now, at once. Or we will not get the party horns for your friends tomorrow.

Staring at Tarun she said, Your son is going to break the sofa. Rishi was Vinay’s son, two years younger than Aditya, and was currently getting a beating on the sofa for teasing Aditya over his obesity.

It was evident that the 25-year-old traditional family sofa, which could now be classified as antique, could not have taken this fight for very long. It had already started making squeaking sounds; the springs inside were giving up due to frequent use over the passage of time in the living room of the house. Sarla Shankar had made it clear that this family sofa would not be touched by anyone from outside the family, leave aside repairing it.

Megha was seven, the eldest grandchild in the family. She peered into Aditya’s eyes and then pretended at having the time of her life as she gently cuddled with her Dadi-Ma. Aditya could not take it any longer, and left Rishi to jump alone on the sofa and came by her side to watch the television show with her.

Although the covered area of the bungalow wasn’t enormous, there was a big, beautiful lawn at the front, and a large back lawn as well. The house had four modest bedrooms, a living room and an elegantly decorated drawing room, which was primarily used for receiving the guests occasionally coming over for tea or dinner. The two rearmost rooms belonged to the two sons and their families. Sarla’s room was in the front beside the puja room (prayer room). The puja room had a small home temple, the abode of several Hindu gods who were worshipped every day by the adults of the family.

"Dekho-Dekho-Dekho! (Focus!) yelled Vinay, lifting his chin and pointing it towards the television set. The commercial break is over, let us concentrate!" Nine thirty to ten thirty on Sunday mornings was a time when only stray animals could be seen in any region of northern India; almost everybody else was glued to their TV sets watching Ramayana, the epic Hindu story of Lord Rama. It was wonderfully scripted and presented as a television series, the first of its kind ever for the Indian audience. Aditya and Megha now sat on either side of their Dadi-Ma as the show resumed after the commercial break.

Dadi-Ma reached for her spectacles, which were hanging by a chain around her neck, and put them up on her nose. Most of her hair was gray, and she wore a constant smile; the smile of satisfaction. Rishi was still bouncing on the sofa by himself, but no one cared; he was so tiny that it would have only bounced dust off the sofa.

The scene was of the battle field. Lord Rama was fighting against the Demon Ravana, who had abducted and imprisoned his wife, Goddess Sita. For centuries, this well-known battle of Good vs. Evil had striven to reinforce the belief that at the end of the day, Right wins over Wrong.

The animation in those days used to be very basic, nevertheless intriguing. The children loved to watch the arrows flying from one end to the other, and sometimes turning into multiple arrows, taking a big section of the army out. When the two warriors were of similar strength, their arrowheads would collide somewhere in the middle, and often one of them would vanish, proving the supremacy of the other in that particular turn of attack. They also showed flying crafts called the Udan Khatolas, which were the means of travel for the Hindu gods. According to Hindu mythology, Lord Rama was the human incarnation of Lord Vishnu, one of the three super-gods: Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh.

Sarla Shankar and people of her age never associated Ramayana with mythology. She would often assert, It’s all true, and it’s our history from a long time ago. How long, nobody questioned. She used to read the epic of Ramayana every day, and had been doing so for the last 50 years without fail, even when she was working as a school principal. Her job required her to be away from home only for the school hours, so it gave her plenty of time to read the book. That was one of the reasons she loved her job. She would complete the full book in almost six months, so by now she would have read it 100 times over, bolstering her belief every time. She used to distribute Prasad (holy sweets) amongst the members of the family and close friends every time she would complete the book.

Megha and Aditya, the elder grandchildren, would spend plenty of time with their Dadi-Ma, hearing stories of Lord Rama, of his mystical powers, of his huge empire, and of the demons he fought. She narrated them with a lot of vigor and enthusiasm so that the stories kept the childrens’ interest, and they would remember the stories well. The children were always excited to hear the story, and they believed it to be true, as did their