In the vast horizon rain clouds hovered. The sky was gray. The waters of the Ganges river flowing towards Bay of Bengal was dark. I was on a boat stuck in the middle. I and the fellow passengers were travelling back from Sagar Dwip, a remote island where once upon a time an ascetic named Kapil Muni, had meditated for years and which now is a pilgrimage. The deep waters all around swirled as a storm swept through. Yet we had to anchor. It was low tide and too shallow for the ferry to pass. We had to wait. We could neither go forward nor backward. 

Confined, the travellers each had their own way of coping. Some sighed. “Uff, when will we get to shore?” Some swore. “This is hell.” Others, like a husband and wife duo, quarreled bitterly. “If we caught the earlier ferry we would have reached by now. I told you to hurry up but no, that’s not in your DNA.”  The rest were resigned, if restless. The boatman declared that it could take hours. 

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We don’t like to wait. We don’t like to be confined. The times when we are stuck in traffic jams make us feel helpless. The times when we can’t get off the plane or train perhaps, during a long journey makes us restless.  Even when we know that the wait is temporary. Not indefinite. 

And then there are those like Sunita Williams. And of course Butch Wilmore. Gone to outer space for a designated eight days, they were stuck there for 286 days. Confined within a windowless space station with no gravity to keep them grounded, they waited indefinitely. You could argue that they had little choice. 

But that’s not the point. The point is the immense grace with which they dealt with the situation. We who curse and crumble under the slightest pressure ought to learn a life lesson from the conduct of these two astronauts. They smiled and slighted their ordeals as though it was nothing. 

To recap (for those who have been living under a rock on earth or just returning from outer space….all puns intended), in June 2024, Williams and Wilmore went for a test mission on Boeing’s Starliner, which developed dangerous snags. NASA did not deem it safe for them to return on the same spacecraft. So the astronauts found themselves stranded in the space station waiting to be rescued. This took nearly a year and they were finally brought back to earth on March 18 on a SpaceX capsule. 

Their smiling visages and their happy comments about the time spent in outer space floored people globally. Williams remarked that with no dearth of activity on board and with adequate amounts of food and other rudimentary requirements met, it was not as difficult as people perceived it to be. 

This is food for thought.  Perhaps what we dread is the lack of freedom. We do, most of us, have our rudimentary requirements met. Food in the fridge. Good books on shelves. Water to drink.  

But we need more. We want to know that we can step out the door anytime that we want, hop into our cars and drive off somewhere. We want to know that if we so desire, we can visit a loved one at their home. 

Williams and Wilmore could not do that. They could not step out and go for a walk (no, not even a moonwalk). They could not hop into a car and drive off or visit a loved one. They could not, even if they wanted to. They could not throw windows open and breathe in the fresh air. Yet they smiled. 

The high tide was beginning to return even before the rain and storm could subside over the Ganges river and the Bay of Bengal. But by then I had stepped out onto the open deck, got drenched in the rain and let the sweeping winds carry my thoughts away.  I wiped the frown off my forehead. And I smiled. 

The writer is Editor, Features