“Aaj ki taaja khabar, Logon ne bhari tadaat mein line lagayi hain. Sab log jald se jald chadhna chahte hain taki seat mil sake. Elite logon ke pehlesehi booking karne ki wajah se unhone seat belt tak bandh li hain. Ek taraf military ke logon ne bheed ko control karne ke liye tear gas phenkna shuru kiya hain aur ek taraf weighing machine ke takniki kharabi se line aage nahi sarak paa rahi hain.” said the newsman and the news went on repeating.
Finishing the coffee I made my way to my bedroom where I started putting stuff in suitcases.
“Mom, can we take the Cooler too?” I asked.
“Reva, you know that they will take extra charges for that.” replied my mom.
“Uff Mom, at this time too you are thinking of the extra charges.” I replied irritatingly.
“Reva, already we have paid a lot for the travelling expenses. Take what you require for daily use and pack my stuff too as I am busy making chappatis.”
“But mom, no food is allowed, the news is flashing. Also those who tried to carry food were made to eat there itself before letting them enter inside.” I laughed and told my mom.
“Don’t worry your Dad knows one of the security person. He will let us in without checking.” said my mom.
We packed our suitcases, prayed to god that our journey goes well and took what all required and locked our house. Nihar my younger brother had packed more suitcases than me. Today’s generation boys you know, they visit the saloon more than we visit the beauty parlour. From last one and half hour all he did was go for a makeover in the saloon as if he is going for some match making session. Me, as usual, tired after packing bags, just tied my hair up like a messy bun, wore earrings and a watch (to ward off evil eyes as mom says) and I am good to go. Ah! And last but not the least my favorite pair of sneakers, I don’t know if they ever will be manufactured where we were going.
Mom as usual took all bags containing eateries. You know our mom’s they themselves won’t carry their required stuff but they make sure that they will carry all the things required for their children and priority is the Food. Love all Mom’s !!! Dad as always counted the suitcases, locked the house properly and checked the wallet for money. The most ignored person in the family, Dad. They are the securer of the family; they have to be tough to make the family tough. Love all Dad’s too!!!
Ah! already in line now waiting to get inside and find a seat or else will have to go in the general section where there will be everyone floating in zero gravity, difference is only that seatbelt won’t be required, as it will be packed so there’s no fear of hurting oneself.
Yes! Zero gravity!, Did you get it? Nope! You haven’t. Well! we all are boarding a spaceship and do you know where we all are heading? Well! we are heading for the planet “MARS”. As late scientist “Stephen Hawking” already wanted humanity to leave planet Earth as soon as possible. It seemed now was the time that all the continent’s governments made a decision to leave Earth.
After almost three to four hours in line we finally got to enter the spaceship, till then all the eateries were finished munching while standing in the line. The satisfied look on the mom’s face was clearly seen, after all, her children are well fed now.
At the entrance our documents were taken, Nihar, as usual, due to excessive saloon makeover, was questioned by the checking officers to confirm his identity, as the Adhaar Card photo did not matched. After the checking session, we were let inside to find seats. We sat and tied our seatbelts. After some minutes the spaceship got full.
“Booiiiiiinnnnnng!! Testing, testing, mike testing, Yatri krupaya dhyan de” and the announcement begun. It was first in English then in Hindi and then in Sign language.
“Yatri krupayaan apne seatbelts baandh le aur seat ke niche chipkaye huein booklet ko acchi taraah se padh le.” The announcement went on instructing on how to use the bathroom and the oxygen mask and so on.
It’s human nature not to listen what is required and hence no one bothered to look at the attached booklet. I, out of curiosity, checked the booklet below my seat and started reading. It was titled “Life on Mars”. It had many pages in it. I read the list to my family; it was as follows:-
“Mars has scorching hot days and chilling cold nights, so you have to protect yourself according to the climate.” Dad interrupted asking mom if all the sweaters and Kashmiri shawls are taken.I continued.
“As Mars has thin atmosphere, sun rays will directly enter the martian surface hence you all will have to remain confined to your UV protective houses.” Nihar interrupted “that’s stupid, I won’t sit in the house whole day. I have to join gym and buy new gym clothes and protein shake.” I continued further.
“As there is no liquid water on Mars, water will be formed by melting the Mars polar ice hence water will be charged and will be in limited quantity.”
“As there is limited oxygen on Mars, one will get oxygen cylinders as per your adhaar cards and that too will be in limited amount.” An old lady sitting next to us interrupted saying “I told my daughter- in- law to take our gas cylinders, so I think we can use those, in case we fall short.” We all stared at her and to avoid any calamity Nihar explained her that both the cylinders are different and I continued reading.
“Due to limited water, direct sun rays and chilling night’s only potatoes will be grown and hence one will get only potato as food and it will be charged too.” Mom started searching recipes on her mobile by typing “100 recipes aaloo ke”. I continued.
“One will get either water or food for a day, not both, and if you still want both, you will have to sacrifice oxygen cylinder.”
“There is no air on mars but you will experience storms every now and then.”
“There is no soil on mars but there is sand everywhere, so you will not get to experience the smell of the wet soil when it rains and also you won’t get to see the greenery. Birds and animals won’t survive in the martian environment hence you won’t get to see them anymore too.”
“There is very less gravitational force on Mars, hence you won’t longer be able to run or walk without effort.”
“Mars being approximately half the diameter of Earth, it will remain crowded.”
“One can get an Alien as a neighbor as there were sightings of UFO’s.” I recalled the “Alien vs Predator movie. I continued further.
“You won’t get to see our Moon anymore as Mars has its own moons and hence you will have to stop making romantic songs using moon, as the mars moon are not visually appealing.”
Before continuing further I started rethinking on the importance of my planet EARTH but it was too late now. The earth was already exploited by all human beings and hence the decision to go on Mars was made. I heard an alarm “tring, tring, tring” and it was continuously ringing as if something happened to the spaceship, I panicked and tried to get out of my seat, I was trying but I was stuck on my seat. I couldn’t release myself and started calling for help and my eyes opened, I was sweating.
I found myself in my bedroom on my bed, I looked outside and it was the sun shining, the birds chirping and the wind blowing. I was on Earth and was not in a spaceship going to Mars. “Thank God! It was a nightmare.” I said. I realised that Now is not the time to leave EARTH and go to MARS but to make EARTH a better place to live in so that we don’t have to go to Mars or any other planet.
