From moon to Jalandhar

Sudeep Mahajan

It was 1969. The year of relative tranquility, President Kennedy, Apollo 11, and, of course, of the mankind landing and leaving its big footprint on the moon. Later-era evils such as unrests, sectarianism, secessionism, terrorism, etc., had yet not reared their ugly heads. Neil Armstrong and module pilot Buzz Aldrin had landed the Apollo Lunar Module, nicknamed ‘Eagle’, on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Catchy phrases like ‘The eagle has landed’ had set the tone for all. The world was agog with excitement and hope, and we, a Punjabi family of a judicial officer living in Jalandhar, were not unaffected by this surge of general optimism. I was in Class II but could sense the excitement and the general feeling that humanity was now poised for some ‘quantum leap forward’. What that leap meant and what it would bring to humanity, no one knew. 

The astronauts had collected 21.5 kg of lunar material to bring back to earth. Looking back, I find it surprising that some of that material found its way to Jalandhar. I had watched a sci-fi film about humans on their voyage to the moon confronted with monstrous creatures, thirsting to devour them. So when I learnt that some material was going to be displayed at the Gymkhana Club, my curiosity knew no bounds. I imagined the rocks to be luminous bodies, emitting soft, shimmering light. The problem was that we were not members of the club. I was, however, determined not to let the opportunity slip away. The rear boundary of the club was not far away from our residence and a part of it consisted of barbed wire. On the day of the lunar display, I found a remote corner of the fence and crawled under it to reach the other side. I found myself inside the club without anyone bothering to notice a kid on a day as special as that. There was a serpentine queue. I patiently stood and waited for my turn. I do not remember seeing any other kid standing in that line, all were mature adults. After a long, slow crawl, for what seemed like a very long time, I finally reached the glass casing in which was kept the ‘material’. I was hugely disappointed to see that the lunar sand and the rock did not seem very different from our ‘mitti’ and stones we see all the time, except that it seemed made of fine granules. There were no luminous rocks the child in me had imagined. 

That was my first lesson in learning that reality is often not as glamorous as we seem to make out from the images on the screen. However, when our own Chandrayaan brings some material from the moon later this year, and the same is on display, I would still be queuing up for a glimpse of a fraction of the ‘Chanda Mama door ke’.