Solitary Confinement

• 5th November 2013 it was a great day for our Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO and also
for our country because we have successfully launch our satellite PSLV-C25 to the Planet Mars,
our scientist told that it will reach Mars by 24 th September 2014. I worked at ISRO Satellite
Center, developing and designing satellite and other space equipments. I got retired on 29 th
December 2007 after my retire I had given my full focus on witting stories, out of that story I
want to tell you one, I think this is one of my a wonderful or you can say the most treacherous
experience of my life but before telling you the story first I want to explain the meaning of
“Solitary Confinement” so a solitary confinement “is a form of imprisonment distinguished by
living in single cells with little or no meaningful contact with other inmates” this type of
imprisonment mostly given to that type of prisoner who are very aggressive in nature but I want
to tell you that I am not the prisoner and I had been never sent to jail but the experience that I
felt in my life was not less than any Solitary Confinement, so let’s begin the story. 26th August
1967 I was a 32 year old guy going to my office at ISRO Satellite Center, Bangalore but I didn’t
know that day is the day in my life that I am going to take such a decision that will going to
change my whole life so I reached to office at 10:00 am, I was designing a satellite which will
help us in mapping the radio signals coming from space so I was working on my computer then
our senior satellite designer tell that ISRO chairmen Vikram Ambabal Sarabhai is calling me in his
office so I get up from my chair and go to his office, I see that there are also some other officer
sir Vikram told me to sit, I sit down on the chair, he told me that “Abhinav you are the one of the
most hard working employee in our office and you have given many new and innovative
technology to ISRO and our country too we are very proud of you, so we senior officer have
decided that we are going to start our first man mission to the interstellar space with you and
we want you to put the first step on our country first man mission to the interstellar space”
when I hear this was in shocked and by seeing me in shocked sir Vikram said again “ see Abhinav
if we successfully perform our first man mission so it will the great achievement for our country
and don’t worry you will be given with all safety equipment so you don’t have to face any
difficulty “ they are seeing me in such a way that I can’t say no to them so I accepted there
request , I also have fear in my heart, before proceeding further let me give you a brief
introduction to interstellar space, interstellar space is such a place where you can find nothing
absolutely nothing in interstellar space you don’t have water to drink, you don’t have food to
eat, you don’t have people to talk, you don’t have light to see and also you don’t have air to
breathe, after the long working hour and thinking about our country first man mission to
interstellar space I reach back to home, I tell about ISRO man mission to interstellar space to my
family and I also told them that for man mission they have chosen me, so after listening to my
words my family also is in shocked they started scolding me they are telling me that “ what you
will do going there?, who will take of us?, you have your own family, your own wife who will
take care of us? and many other question” so I can’t do anything I am only listening to there
question, after dinner I straight way go to my bed and then my wife Ankita came inside and seat
in front of me, she hold my hand and asked me that “what you will do there??” I don’t have
answer to her question, I am only looking at her face her eyes telling me “please don’t go” then I
tell her “why are you getting worried our chairman told me that we will give you every special
equipment so I will not face any difficulty there” then she told “If something happens to you
then what I will do? I have no one but you, please I request you don’t go please” “I have already
accepted there request so I have to go” then she stared crying somehow I make her stop crying,
even I also feeling bad that I am going away living my family behind but nothing can be done if I
tell them that I will not go then they will get angry with me, so after the all this thing me and my
wife go to sleep I wake up in the morning at 6:30am because on that day I have to reach to my
office very early for a very urgent meeting for our first man mission to interstellar space so
everything gone well we have decided our spacecraft design this spacecraft is not an ordinary
spacecraft it has many features because the journey is very very long so we need the spacecraft
with some special features like a washroom, place for oxygen tank, a galley for preparing food
and a bedroom, our chairmen sir Vikram has decided the date for our man mission it was on 27th
September 1968 means next year. 27th September 1968 finally the day has come, it is a very big
day for each and every Indian our rocket will going to launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, I
go seat inside the spacecraft the spacecraft has developed in the same way the way we have
design from inside and also from outside from inside it has a washroom, a bedroom, and a
galley, I was very nervous because it was my first mission and our country first man mission to
interstellar space and then the countdown started I closed my eye and I hold a handle beside my
seat my hand hold that handle so tightly that it feel like a magnet, I can see my planet in front of
my eyes this is the planet where my wife and my family live it’s looks beautiful, it’s getting dark I
am in outer space it’s feel like that this darkness will going to cover me up. 24hr later means
after 1 day I can see my planet a little bit small because I am going far away from it and like this
4 days passes I am going to pass our Moon, for the first time I have seen our natural satellite so
closely when the light of the Sun fall it’s look grey in color I can see some small and big craters
formed by meteoroids by seeing those craters I feel very frustrated. 9 years later I have cross
the planet Pluto it’s look like a big rock made with ice, it’s a dwarf planet. 5 years later I am in
Kuiper belt now it has a lots of small and big rocky ice in Kuiper belt the gravity of our sun is low
but not so low that it can’t hold those rocks it’s have been 14 years I am away from home and
still I didn’t cross our solar system completely so just imagine how big is our solar system. A year
later I have cross the Kuiper belt and also other dwarf planet now I am in interstellar space and I
massage the headquarter that I have reached the interstellar space and also I am very happy
that we have completed our first man mission to interstellar space after 9hr I have received a
message from the headquarter to continue the mission for more 6 years that was the biggest
shock for me that I had to continue the mission, I am missing everyone my family, my wife , my
friend everyone interstellar space is very silent no sound nothing I can see only few stars and the
rest is absolutely dark am in such a place now where I will find nothing no water, no air, no food
absolutely nothing it’s like “solitary confinement”.