Red Mars, Grey Moon, Green Earth - Chapter 2

Earth, 2098

Mandakini was operating the handloom. She was using her hand. People on Earth had eschewed from getting daemons installed. She had woken up early. She had finished her morning work. She had prepared breakfast for her husband. 

She was operating the machine out of habit. She had forty years of experience. The sarees she designed were for her daughter and her extended family, and the excess she sold at the Thursday market. Her mind was with her daughter. Meera had left home a month ago. She had not yet heard back from her. She had expected to hear from her three to four days back. 

She heard her husband call out to her. She stopped the machine and engaged the break. 

Venkataraman was sitting on the wooden chair on the front porch. He was removing his shoes. When he saw his wife coming out, he handed her the vegetables he had picked out from the garden on the way back from his morning walk. He shared the morning gossip with his wife. Mandakini clicked her tongue at some of the bad news she heard. 

Meera going away to the Moon was a piece of news that would have elicited similar clicks from Venkatraman’s friends’ wives. Mandakini returned the favor. Mandakini was waiting for her husband to talk about their daughter. 

“Raman, Have you heard anything from Meera?”

There was silence. He stood up and went to his vegetable farm. Mandakini returned to her handloom. 

It was afternoon when he returned. His face showed how happy he was. 

“Meera has reached the Moon. She is safe.” 

Mandakini relaxed visibly. She had spent the last month very worried about the well being of her daughter. She had not gone the legal route. She had felt responsible. 

Meera had a hard time mastering the loom. Her mother tried her best to teach her. But her fingers did not seem to be designed to run the loom. Mandakini had become frustrated and cursed Meera that she would never master the loom. 

Meera had spent the rest few days with her father. Her father had taken her to the garden. They had spent most of the days in the garden. When they returned home, Meera did not speak to her mother. She broke her silence only on the day she left to the Moon.

“Bless me mother,” she had said and left home with her backpack.

Venkatraman sat again on the chair on the porch.

“She is in isolation quarters. It is just a safety measure. One of the officers on the base was a Malayalee. She said she expected to be treated badly. But, she said she was well treated.”

“What else did she say?”

“I got the communication from her daemon.” 

“Daemon?” 

“One of the requirements for going to the Moon is that they must get a daemon installed in their head. The daemon basically does operates bots that do the work. Earth had banned their use on humans on Earth.” 

“What have I done, Raman?”

Venkatraman hugged his wife. “You should not blame yourself for Meera’s choices?” 

“I drove her to the Moon.”

“No, I did.”

Mandakini looked at Venkatraman. He nodded.

“Meera was frustrated that she could not grow vegetables like I did nor handle the loom like you. I expressed my concern about how she would survive on Earth. I probed her about what she liked to do. We spoke over several days walking up and down the hill behind the house.” 

Mandakini walked into the house. Venkatraman followed her into the house. 

“I did not know. I was also blaming myself about sending her away.”

Mandakini started the loom. It was the only way she could think. She had blamed herself for what Meera had done. 

“Why did she choose the Moon?”

“The Martian economy is on the brink of collapse. The lunar economy is still in better shape. She wanted to become a trader. A trader fixes prices for the minerals returning to Earth from various spots in the solar system.” 

Mandakini could not understand Meera’s choice. “Could she not have done that by being on Earth?”

Venkatraman stepped out of the house. He could think only in the garden.