Soulmates - Part II

Posted on February 9, 2004 16:54 PM EST

Continued from Part I...

At first Amar and I thought he was joking and trying to pull our legs - but, Anand was never one to joke or pull legs, that was Amar's job, and sometimes mine. When we discovered just how serious he was (by then we had reached the camp and finished dinner), we seriously wondered if he had lost his sanity. Assuming that Anand saw her as soon as he went into the backyard, and spent with her all of the approximately seven minutes he took (I sometimes remember weird details like that!) to come back, we didn't think it was enough to decide someone was your soulmate, unless this was a Hindi movie, which it definitely was not. All three of us went to bed that night with some uneasy feelings.

I did not meet the two of them for the next 24 hours. One of the senior guys in my group was temporarily out of action due to a death his family. As I took on his work, my responsibilities more than doubled and to my surprise, so did my importance. Once I asked for a manual whose only known copy was in my personal drawer all the way down in Bangalore. Someone was sent there with my key and the manual was in my hands in two days! The next few days for me were a high speed blur of my job done almost exclusively in the night, the new things that I was learning - about Physics as well as about the project, days spent half in study, half in bed and in between all these, Amar filling me in (mostly during breakfast, which was the only time of the day when almost all the personnel assembled in one place) about all the crazy things happening in Anand's life.

He told me that the very next night the two of them had gone back to the village. I asked how they got the pass to go out in the night. To my horror, he said they didn't get any pass, they just stole out and trekked 7 kilometres. I said it was illegal, they could be reprimanded, arrested... what had come over them ? And Amar said not only that, if the villagers came to know of it, they could be killed and that while he had been there only once, Anand was going there every night. Apparently, the girl whom Anand had managed to charm, was a real looker, only fifteen years old, married about ten years ago, and due to be sent to her husband's house the next full moon day. I worried about Anand's romance for only short time. Most of my concentration was taken up by my work. After a couple more days, Amar told me that Anand had lost his virginity the previous night - Anand was present when he said that, and I remember wondering stupidly what to say to a friend who's recently lost his virginity ! And then I sought their help for something which, to me at least, was more important at the moment - the solution for a mathematical equation.

During the last few days, the activity at the camp reached a frenzied pace. People worked round the clock, stealing what time they could for rest. There were many of us who did not even go to sleep during the last few days. There were times when d-day had to be postponed for some reason or the other. Finally, the day arrived and the burst of our fireworks were registered around the world, on a full moon night. The activity immediately after that only increased. For some people, all the real activity started only after d-day. It was during the small celebration that was arranged at the camp after d-day that I noticed Anand's absence. Amar was worried sick. I learnt that Anand had gone to rescue his 'soulmate' from being sent to her husband's house, and that he had not returned. His absence was noticed by the senior people now because Anand was one of those guys whose real job started after d-day. I did not have much time to spend with Amar. Hoping that everything would be okay, I went back to work.

Sometime in the late afternoon, I was summoned by one of the top scientists at the camp. I went into his makeshift office and found Amar, and a couple of other senior guys from Anand's department. I was immediately alarmed by the expression on their faces. I came to know of the story in bits - Anand had gone to rescue the girl, the villagers had known of the romance from one of the girl's friends a little after Anand fled with the girl, the villagers gave chase with weapons, Anand and the girl tried to escape into the desert, they found themselves in the most dangerous place that eloping lovers had ever fled to in the history of the world: the site of our testing. They became the only known casualties of India's nuclear program... to date.

Some questions will always remain unanswered for me: Where did Anand plan to take the girl? She would never have been allowed into the camp. How did Anand end up where he did? There was supposed to be tight security for miles around d-spot, no living thing bigger than a cat was supposed to be able to penetrate that security cover. How did Anand manage to 'get' the girl in the first place? She was an uneducated, always suppressed, married village girl, who should have been afraid to even look directly at men in her own family, let alone love and flee with a stranger! And above all, was she really his soulmate? Do soulmates really exist?

Concluded.