'Swades' echoes from Sudan to space

WHAT is it with melodies that drive us? Memories or just a feel-good factor to calm oneself when something stressful is happening? There is still some time before our second spaceman, Gp Capt Shubhanshu 'Shux' Shukla, returns to India, but he has already shared feelings as he embarked on his journey to be the 634th earthling in space. NASA's pre-launch ritual, wherein astronauts listen to a song of their choice to soothe their nerves, is so mesmeric. Shux listened to "Yun hi chala chal rahi, yun hi chala chal….', the throbbing and captivating number from the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Swades.'

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The song was apt for the voyage that Shux was undertaking because the traveller goes on to sing "…kitni haseen hai yeh duniya." Yes, Groupie Shukla's journey and stay at the International Space Station is a 'duniya' that we on earth can only dream of; very few will ever get the chance to do that.

The choice of Shubhanshu's song transported me back to my stay in Sudan in 2005 as head of the Indian Air Force contingent to the UN Mission in Sudan. We were 196 souls staying in tents in the blistering desert heat. The only means of communication was via email on a UN-provided link with very poor bandwidth. So, one waited for the connection and clicked on 'send' for the drafted text to be transmitted the moment the link came through. And, if there was a photograph as an attachment — then forget it. But what about cellphones?

Ah! Remember, we are talking of war-torn Sudan and a UN outpost in the middle of nowhere, literally. Well, the only cellphone tower was in a one-horse town (if it could be called one) named Kadugli, 20 km away. We received a weak signal for a few minutes only around five in the morning — that too, with arms stretched to the heavens on top of the tallest vehicle we had, which was our ambulance!

To say that we were homesick would be an understatement. The only entertainment, and connection with things 'Indian', was through the movie CDs that we had carried. We screened one every Thursday evening in our open air 'theatre', that we had named the 'Nile Cineplex'!

One evening, ‘Swades’ was screened, a movie in which the hero longs for his love maiden back home, and his homeland! Every song of ‘Swades’ made us pine for our motherland and our loved ones back home. And, the last song was the clincher.

We do not know whether it is a NASA tradition for a favourite song of the voyagers to be played again on the return trip from space, but if there is indeed such a ritual, my guess is that it could well be that last song from ‘Swades’: "Yeh jo des hai tera, swades hai tera…tujhe hai pukara…."

Yes, Shux, India awaits your safe return.