Bhagat Drishya’s diary 20/12/2013
“I’m the guy who makes space look cool.”
This is what I told the new neighbor when she asked what I do for a living. In a way that is true. Working in an animation studio, most of the time my job is to design and render images of space, stars, alien planets, etc based on the data gathered by scientists.
Saying this I gave a wide smile to that woman and drove off in my car. I usually take my bike to work but not that day. On the twentieth of every year I take my car instead because that’s when I get to meet my mother. Not literally, about fifteen years ago my mother passed away from cancer. Before she was gone, she told a naive school going kid, me, that after she is gone she will become a star in the sky.
Not any star, she pointed at a specific area in the night sky saying, “You see those two stars together, exactly ten days later you will see a third star appear in between. The smiling constellation. That will be me.”
As if planned by the universe itself, my mother passed away on the tenth day. That night I insisted my father to take me out of the city where I could witness my mother’s smile. Although reluctant he took me. I was awestruck to see that the third star appear where she said it would. I while watching it remembered the last thing she whispered in my ear earlier that day, “We will meet on the twentieth of every year end. Promise?”
After a short drive I finally arrived at the Piece Animation Studio, my workplace. First thing I did was to walk in my boss’s cabin and tell her that I would be leaving early. There was no need for that, still I did it as practice. After six years of working in the studio, all my superiors knew about my routine and none stopped me from going.
“Bhagat, today Mr. Trevor will be coming to finalize the planet I32…something’s design.” she said to me before I walked out. “I know.” I grunted silently cursing this one guy who has made my life difficult.
My design was ready and all I had to do was wait. Mr. Evan Trevor, the astrophysicist from Star Observatory from Thallar, finally arrived in the afternoon. I was done with my lunch and was feeling drowsy while I sat in my chair doing nothing. The moment I was settling in for a quick nap, this devil woke me up.
“You must have a lot of reserve money in your bank account…” he taunted. No ‘hi’ or ‘hello’.
“Why?” I asked expecting a harsh punchline.
“…because it seems that you don’t mind getting fired for sleeping during work hours.”
He then burst into laughter expecting me to laugh along. How can I? After filling the awkward silence with his annoying laugh, our session began. For a planet that can’t even be seen by a telescope Evan had a lot of specific corrections to make. After strictly following the instructions given by him a week ago, that day he sat and made me redesign the planet.
It was close to five in the evening when I lost my patience. “What freaking matter! if the planet’s image shows 15% of water and not 20%. Nobody cares!” I yelled.
“I care.” he plainly replied and made me continue with work.
I was supposed to leave by six, so quarter-to-six I told him, “Please give me a list of changes and I will do it.”
“Okay fine…” he said in a soft tone after scribbling some corrections on a notepad. Then while getting up he added, “…send me the final render by tonight okay.”
“No.” I said plainly, “I’m leaving now, I have some… personal work to do.”
“Wait what…” he took out his phone, I presume, to check the date. Reading it he suddenly burst into laughter.
“Get out!” I yelled. He continued to laugh while walking away.
One might say that I can’t talk to a client like that. Especially to a soft spoken person like Evan. What they don’t know that he is a blood sucking parasite. He might appear disciplined and well mannered but his comments are painful. I’ve known him for the last two years and he has been exactly like this.
This all began when I met Evan the first time. Being an astronomy enthusiast, I voluntarily took this project. That was before I met the person I was going to deal with. My boss of that time had told me, “This is going to be a long running project, so you better be friends with the guy who is come today.”
As a way to connect with Mr. Trevor, I shared the story of how my mother became the star. I know that’s not true. I’m not a naive kid anymore. Still I told him the story thinking he would be moved by this emotional story. Instead he burst into laughter calling me an idiot. The same annoying laughter I get to hear every time he visits the studio.
It was good that he finally walked away and I left the studio too. Watching the sun set I drove out of the city limits to a beautiful place I had discovered a few years ago. The pleasant breeze that came by driving post sunset cooled me down.
Twenty kilometres from the Vanchi city, there is a hill in the Saarfi region. Perfect place for star gazing. Fortunately nobody had discovered it but me. Every year I started coming here since I bought a portable telescope.
It took me about an hour to set it up and now I had to wait for that constellation to appear in the night sky. The moment that smiling constellation became visible in the sky I smiled as well. While chewing on a light snack, I looked up in the sky and talked about everything that happened in the last year.
Again, I’m not crazy to do this. Having learned more about astronomy ever since the passing of my mother, I know that she didn’t turn into a star. The phenomenon of appearing and disappearing of the star has something to do with the cyclic fluctuation of the star’s luminosity. Still talking about the good and bad moments, venting the work frustration yearly is very therapeutic. That’s why I do it every year.
But, that night was special. A strange thought came to my mind.
“For the last two years, working on this project, I have designed over a hundred planets that have potential to support life, complex intelligent life. So is it an exaggeration to say that as I look at the star, there could be someone one a planet far far away watching me… Even if they don’t see me, there can be someone looking precisely where I am right now. In a way I could be talking to that person. Since we don’t know for sure, there is always a possibility that someone is watching me from that star.”
Bhagat Drishya is a naive idiot who believes in fantasies. As a child he believed in one fantasy, then when he grew old he replaced it with another.
Now, there is no way for him to find if there is any truth to his claim. But, as a story teller I have the power to say this. Someone was indeed watching him from that star that night, and every night he came to look up at the smiling constellation. That someone is a princess in a distant solar system, a girl named Prasthiya. He just didn’t know it.
TO BE CONTINUED
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