THE BUBBLE

The Control Room of the Submarine was fully lit up. The boat had settled down into its patrol routine and the sweet hum of various machines was like music to the ears. The patrol had begun in utter secrecy and no one other than the Skipper knew the mission and its modalities. On the day of the cast off, the Skipper had come with his briefcase and had kept it in his custody even as the Heads of Departments made their readiness reports to him. An affable guy, the Skipper, had been in his thoughts since the time the boat sailed out of her home port. Soon, the crew and the boat had settled down into the regular patrol routine and waited for some clue to the mission. Since nothing was coming forward from the Skipper, the crew also kept waiting and moved with the routine.

The boat was operating with utmost precision and had dived deep into the confines of the sea. A tropical storm had built up overhead and underneath the deep layers of temperatures, the crew was in a chilled out environment. Suddenly, the Sonar Watch keeper (or the ears of the dived Submarine) reported a group of contacts. In a jiffy, the Skipper appeared into the Control Room and everyone got to their Action Stations. Finally, everyone thought, the action time had arrived. Scratching their 2 weeks old stubbles, all Officers and men took their designated positions. The Electrical Officer (LO) powered up his Fire Control System (FCS) to check that his torpedoes were ready to merge with the sea and detonate the enemy ships. It was going to be LOs 25^th Torpedo Firing and he was fortunate to be reaching the coveted milestone.

The Sonar was feeding the FCS with automatic plots and as a pro- active approach; LO was also feeding manual inputs to his system’s versatile computer channels. This approach was considered a bit unconventional by the Skipper but that was how the LO had approached all his attacks. Soon enough, the various Officers were calculating the enemy’s coordinates to make a perfect underwater attack. The Skipper ordered the boat to be planed to the Periscope Depth (PD). The behemoth 3000 tonnes+ Submarine’s massive motor fired up and turned the propeller blades as per the telegraph orders. She was all loaded and ready for action. Soon, the bubble shifted towards the aft side of the gauge and the planes man pushed his rudder to bring the Submarine up. The breaking temperature layers pushed the boat and the gravity lost its battle with the momentum. The super machine was now climbing to meet its targets.

It was at this juncture that the FCS started reflecting a rapid change of the bearings of the targets. There were multiple targets and each one was reflecting a rapid change of bearing. LOs manual feed input time was also reducing at a rapid pace and he was constantly stretching the computing power of the computer. A rapid change of bearing indicated that the targets were either at close quarters or right overhead. The boat by now had built its momentum and was approaching the PD at a rapid speed. LO gave the first warning for close quarter situation to the Skipper. The pressures were high and the drops of sweat had broken out on the brows of the Control Room crew. The boat was inching fast and the LO had flagged a warning. The dream attack can be reduced to ashes if a target is not analyzed with perfection. The boat was now meters away from the sea surface and bearings on FCS were spinning in circles. The periscope was raised in synchronization with the boat’s movement and broke the surface. The experienced Skipper took a quick sweep of the surface picture and shouted an Urgent Dive. He shut the Periscope and lowered it with great speed. The urgent dive procedure had by now activated and the emptied out tanks of the Submarine were now gobbling tonnes and tonnes of sea water to gain enough buoyancy for gaining depths. The machine responded to the Skipper’s commands and plunged again into the sea’s dark fathoms. The enemy ships were sited at a precarious distance by the Skipper. He came down to the FCS and the LO showed him the plot. The attack had to be done and the bubble was now shifted forward. The boat was soon brought into its firing depth by the deft Skipper and the torpedo was itching to go out its tube to meet the enemy’s wake. Soon enough, the fire control parameters were aligned and the torpedo lost contact with its parent tube to make its journey for sinking the target. The Sonar reported the torpedo’s movement even as the ships on top made a hasty retreat to save their steel from getting shredded. The mission had been completed and the bubble was again even as the Submarine settled down for its next action.

In almost all situations in our personal and professional lives, the bubble keeps on getting shifted. It hardly remains steady at the centre of the life’s gauge. Humans are either climbing or descending with the change in the life’s bubble’s position. The bearing of the environment around us keeps on changing rapidly as the time of action draws nearer. The action time always hits the humans with its ferocity and its challenge has to be met with precision. Sweat beads have a tendency to build up and it is a natural process. The breaking sweat beads should not fog the vision. The periodic wiping keeps the sweat at bay and also helps to cool down the internal temperatures. This should rather help the clarity to build up to tackle the situation.

The bubble would always remain an integral part of the human lives. Its natural tendency is to shift from front to back as the “Submarine called Life” goes through its motions. All that we need is to let the action be met with action and then steer the bubble to take part in the unfolding action. It is important to play the game fairly and squarely- the bubble does get eased into its neutral mode as the action time stabilizes into a routine.