I, Astronaut

I've just had a good laugh... the reason I cannot write here at this moment because I'm at work and the 'butt' of the joke is around.... (Heehee)... Can't stop snickering...

Anyhow... I've been remembering a lot about this one time when I participated in a fancy dress competition.. it was like in 10th or something... See... this friend of mine and me had decided to dress as astronauts... and thats no easy feat... it was his idea... The plot was to wrap ourselves up in Aluminium foil all over from head to toe.... we would have a backpack... ISRO logos, helmets etc.... the whole works... so we enrolled and gave our names...

Now this friend that I had teamed up with... we fought all the time.... we were the best of friends but we fought more than the number of meals we ate ! (Kids.. what are you gonna do?) So... about a week before the event... we fought... and my friend decided not to participate... I decide to go on with it... But I had no clue what to do ! Never the less.... I gathered all the material and on that fateful day reached my school early to get ready. As always... the kids not participating were helping others get ready... and I needed all the help I could get... The number of foil boxes alone was enough to attract the maximum number of curious kids... The friend I had fought with even helped... it was his plan and I trusted him to do a good job.. Anyhow... the process began... I wrapped foil on my legs... wrapped it around my chest and everywhere in between... I put foil on my helmet... It took a lot of tape (duct tape) and a lotta glue to get everything in place... But then to my horror... I COULDN'T MOVE !! I mean I could move if I wanted to but if I did.... the foil was tearing off or simply jus falling off...

CURSES !

So we decided to get to the auditorium (from class) and fix up the damage there... And so I walked past the hundreds of kids looking at the strange foily creature walking by (my school then had 10,000 students and was the third largest school in the world!).. So... we reach the auditorium and my 'suit' had taken a lotta damage... we fix it up and we wait my turn... I'm standing like a statue... and things started itching in the most 'remote' places... and there is nothing I can do... tick tock tick tock... And they call my name...

Yaaaeee...

I start crawling towards the launch line... from there I intended to do a slow motion bounce type walk to imitate the lesser gravity of the moon... So I start... One small step for me and a giant leap for fake aluminium space suits ! Bounce one... a huge chunk of foil cracks open and falls from my right leg... bounce two... some falls from my arms... bounce three... I'm shedding foil ! With a little Indian flag in my hand I wave to the laughing crowd... Son-of-a-Bitch (I think in my head)... I must've lost almost 20% of the foil... if I was on the moon I would've died by now ! Anyway... so I bounce my way to the back of the stage... There, me and my 'crew' help me get out of the 'suit' ! Mission Accomplished !

I went and joined the crowd.. sat down with my friends and watched other people make an ass of themselves on stage... Some people liked what I did... others thought I was just nuts... but hey... I did get a special consolation prize from the judges just for the effort !! :-D

That event led to a whole series of jokes... This one friend of mine from tuition loudly declared that I was now the first man to 'un-dress' on the moon ! Heehee... and I remember that best !

Thats one for the Indian Space Program !! ;-)