At the Speed of Mind

Mahabharata - A Retelling

2012-02-12T09:44:00.000+05:30

MAHABHARAT – A RETELLING

“ You don’t have to do this Bhim. Just look at us. Do you want the future of humanity to tell these stories and despise us? “ Said Suyodhan

“Duryodhan, you don’t deserve to live. You are the one who is the cause of this destruction. You will have to pay for what you did to Draupadi – she was ripped off her dignity with the whole bharat varsh to witness. I have made a pledge Duryodhan and today, on the 18^th day of the great war – it all ends here.”

- said Bhim swinging his mace in the air and destroying trees which came in his way.

“Suyodhan. Suyodhan is my name Bhim. At least call me by my real name now that you have won the war. Which mother will believe that I was named Duryodhan? And Draupadi …which act of indignity are you talking about – she was my servant, my slave Bhim and what I did was only lawful. When I won her she became a slave but when she was placed as a wager in Chauser, she had been a royal lady of the palace. So which act is more shameful Bhim? Why don’t you ask your Dharmraj who knows that I was right all along. And that is why he did not utter a word. “ – said Duryodhan limping while searching for a good tree to hide.

He continued –

“And what about your Dharma? You killed my dear friend Karna by treachery. That Krishna was always justifying his misdeeds by convoluted arguments.

Where was his Dharma when he asked Arjuna to attack Karna when he was unarmed?

Where was his Dharma when he asked Arjun to hide behind Shikhadi and kill great Bhishm?

Where was his Dharma when he spread the lie about Aswathama and then beheading our Guru Dronacharya?

Where was his Dharma when he asked you to hit me on my thighs against all the rules taught to us by the great Balarama?”

“You disobeyed the Dharma too Duryodhan- don’t hide behind false arguments. You also killed Arjun’s son ABhimnyu by deceit. Poor kid was killed against all the rules. You killed my son Ghatotkatch. Accept your deeds Duryodhan at least now when you are about to die”

“Weren’t my 99 brothers killed in the battle too? You say I made false arguments but do you think greats like Bhishma, Vidur and Dronacharya would have supported adharma if ever I did one? Do you think I would have had gathering of eleven akshohani armies on my side had I been wrong? What did I ask for? I asked for what was rightfully my own. Isn’t a son rightful owner of his father’s throne? I am the true son of Dritrashtra – and elder son of the elder son of King Shantanu. But what about you? You Pandavas are not even the sons of Pandu – you are the fruits of boon of mother Kunti. You can kill me now but heavens are the witness of whose side was rightful all along. History will vindicate me.”

“No it won’t Duryodhan. History is always written by the victorious. And history will remember you as what Pandavas want. History will remember you as Duryodhan and the name Suyodhana will be lost forever” – Bhim said with a grin on his face. He saw stain of blood on the leaves and swung his mace. The tree came down as if made of sand…and along with it Duryodhan , trying to hide in the fallen branches-blood streamed from his legs where Bhim had hit him.

“God will punish you Bhim –he will. Your all murderes will not go unpunished in the higher world. Ask Sahdeva – he the one with power to see the future. He will tell you what lies ahead. Supreme God will grant me heaven for following the path of righteousness and fighting for my right which is Kshatriya dharma and you Pandavas will go through torments of hell.” – said Suyodhana as Bhim finished him off with one final swing of his mace

The Dialogue

2012-01-22T09:51:00.000+05:30

Date: 20^th April 1889

Place: Ranshofen, Austria

‘But you are wrong my brother. Violence is never an answer to anything.’ Said the younger one

‘Yes it is. In the hands of clever, it can unite the population. And unity gives power- power which can change this world. Yes, changing the world always requires few sacrifices but that’s a cost we pay for a better world in the end’ said the elder

‘Misery of thousands can not be a way to a better world for a few. You must understand it brother’

‘You tell me- won’t you rather have supremacy of those who deserve it? Mankind has always progressed by the efforts of the best and dragged down by the worst of the lot. Isn’t it in humanity’s own interest to leave the worst of us behind? Isn’t this what Darwin said - survival of the fittest? That’s how any species progresses my dear brother. You have to discard the ones who will slow you down. You’ll have to purify the land of humans before you attempt to make it a heaven for the rest'

‘Such heaven is only as pious as the hands of the murderers who built it. Darwin’s fittest survives, but not by killing weaklings. You only have the right to fight for your survival but who on earth except God, gave you the right to cease others’?

And Aryan supremacy? A human is a human – he is not worse if he was born of another womb. Just you look at us. We are about to be born of the same mother but you and I can never be the same. How do you even fathom that belonging to a race gives one a supremacy over others?

Best of humanity won’t be the same if its foundation were to be laid on the corpses of others. The path you seek my brother won’t make you a better human but rather dehumanize you beyond redemption my brother.’

‘I understand now brother – ‘ said the elder one feigning his tone for what he was about to do

‘I understand that you will be the first obstacle in my path of world domination. And for that, you have to become my first sacrifice for the sake of rest of the humanity’ – he continued as his tiny hands wrapped around the neck of his younger brother

‘Please don’t do this’ – said the younger one before his voice died down

‘Mrs. Klara – congratulations you have twins. Boys. But wait…one is not crying…‘ – said the nurse

Some documentaries say that Adolf Hitler had a twin brother who died at birth. My own rendition of events how it happened !!

Though i decided to not to write any more stories on my blog, i think i can't resist it! So, while I am working for a bigger project separately, i will occasionally update it with some such short stories. Hope you liked it.

Black or White?

2011-12-24T12:10:00.000+05:30

Black or White

As discussed in my previous post , I’ll now be writing a bit more about socio-economic issues.

And what better to write on than on our respected (ahem!) politicians.

Well, this post is not about my subjective views. This post is about knowing few facts about politicians i.e. criminal cases against them, their assets etc.

First a big disclaimer – all this data was obtained from a website called MyNeta.info. They have all the details about all the MPs and MLAs, their assets, details of the criminal cases, their education etc. I strongly recommend everyone to go this website and get to know more about politicians in respective constituency.

However, a big flaw – all this data is only a self-declaration by the politicians. So anything you see there is only what was disclosed. Hence, the situation is almost definitely grimmer than what this data reflects. Keep this in mind while reading through this data.

So lets get started:

I. Criminal Cases

A1. Of the total 543 MPs- 163 are facing criminal cases against them which makes 30% of the parliament

A2. Criminal Cases Party-Wise

This graph shows %age of MPs facing criminal charges

Some noteworthy points

· Shiv Sena’s 9 MPs out of total 11 are facing criminal charges against them.
· Congress looks cleaner than BJP on the basis of this data
· CPM looks like cleanest of the lot
· Of the smaller parties (not shown in the graph) – RJD, JD(S) and JMM have 75% (3 of 4),67% (2 of 3) and 100% (2 of 2) resp. of MPs facing criminal charges

A3. Number of Criminal Cases

Now lets slightly dig down more on criminal charges. How about looking at number of criminal cases.

As discussed 163 MPs of 543 MPs are facing criminal charges.

Lets look at these numbers party wise-

Average number of cases per MP

SHS again tops the list with their MPs facing more than 4 cases against them on average

II. Assets

Average assets of the MPs is INR 5.38 Crores

A1. Party-Wise Assets

Surprise Surprise!

Average Congress MP has an asset of 7.3 Crores. The cleanest party (CPM) is also the poorest

Average assets (in Crores)

A2. More Crime more assets?

This analysis might be a bit of overkill on data. But probably not.

So the question is- Does crime pay – literally for Netas? From data it seems that if done in moderate proportions- it does. Again a disclaimer – these are criminal cases and not convictions.

Average Assets v/s Criminal Cases

Politicians having 6 criminal cases against them command more than 15 crore of assets each!

III. Education

More than one-fifth of our esteemed parliament is not even graduate. A quick fact – even for becoming a clerk, you need a graduation and pass a few exams. Imagine these MPs muscling their controls over highly educated and experienced IAS officers, CBI, policy makers and other Govt departments which require high competence and qualification!

My Conclusion

Though data still reflects majority (>50%) of politicians to be clean, educated with moderate wealth; given the fact that this is a self-declaration grossly undermines the actual wealth and unlawful activities conducted by them. Hence, I’d be safe in making the conclusion that -

Netagiri is perhaps the only profession where you don’t need any education, have criminal cases against yourself, have immense power, get to make laws, earn obscenely and still brag about doing a service to the nation!!

Mirror, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

2011-10-05T18:25:00.000+05:30

Hi Friends,

This story has come in record time of a fifteen days. Also, I have written this story in a single part to avoid keeping readers in suspense at the cliffhangers over months :). Please do let me know if I have done justice to the story. As always do send me comments and suggestions - these have hugely helped me to improve.

You can also download pdf version of this story from http://tinyurl.com/3fw84fq

Lastly, an important announcement - Recently i realized that i need a bigger canvas for the sci-fi ideas i have. And perhaps blog is not the right place for the such. Hence, I will be diverting my focus of this blog from sci-fi stories to articles/stories/commentaries on socio-economic issues.

Also, I'll also be devoting some time to my first love (Chronologically. Just to clarify to Ranu) - astronomy :) . You'll hear about my new ventures also in this blog.

Looking forward for your support in future as well

Regards,

Vaibhav Thakur

Mirror, Mirror. Mirror on the wall.

“And that was our mistake I say” said the general Karl thumping the auto-tray with his heavy fists. He was wearing a gold medallion on his wrist awarded to him during the first inter-planetary wars. It was given to the most valor – and he was the only one to not to receive it posthumously.

The young senator stared at the medal as it made a clinking sound on the metallic auto-tray. He was one of those recent University grads who were called for mandatory planetary civil service after the war. Of course, he was amongst the brightest of humanity’s 5 trillion population to hold an OEC seat at such a young age - in fact, youngest after the legendary Prof Lowell.

“That’s something only time will tell my dear general” – he replied

“And time will remember it as humanity’s biggest mistake. I tell ya’. I have seen many wars kid..and even a minion space ranger will tell you that we would have easily won” – said General Karl with passion of a young soldier. His weathered face showed only a few signs other than aggression and this time a young OEC politician Shultz was at the receiving end of it.

“And what you would have done General “Crush”? I believe that’s the name they gave you during the first planetary wars. Isnt it? ‘

‘I would have beamed them and their planet till the last survivor’ – replied general raising his voice

‘Reptilians are not humans general. Literally. And they don’t understand the philosophy of “Everything is fair in love and War” either. They might be the most technology advanced species but their morals and ethics can put even ancient human civilizations to shame. Moreover, its very clear that we did not fight it fair.’

‘Since when you say Guerilla tactics aren’t fair? All planets used it during the interplanetary wars and it came to be expected even’

‘Well to begin with, we were the ones who attacked them. Of course, at that time it was our apprehension of their intentions and even OEC supported it. But then they are a peaceful species. They were not losing because they lacked anything technologically. In fact, their exploration vehicles like this one are at least thousand years ahead of us. They were losing because war to them is more like a religious ritual with its own sets of principles. We looked like savages against them. Inter-planetary wars were fought between humans settled on different colonies. But this….this was not the same’ – defended Shultz trying to finish off the argument.

He knew he won’t be able to convince a war-monger like the general but he still reasoned with him. Partly, to convince himself that a truce was the best way for mutual harmony between the two dominant species in the Universe.

‘And anyway, we got the better end of the deal with access to their technology like this.’ – said Shultz waving his hand at the ship which was now cruising at 3 light year distance from the solar system within a few hours of its launch from Lunar base.

‘I will agree to that General’ – said Carine who was overhearing the conversation while completing her daily scientific log. She then closed her visipad and swirled in her rotating chair to face both of them.

‘A ship like this which can withstand immense gravity and radiation from a black hole wasn’t even conceptualized despite all the technological progress we have made. And even before reaching Cygnus, me and Prof Waleton have already gathered two lifetimes worth of data. We can just imagine what wonders lie there once we get a visual contact with Cygnus.’

General Crush was not impressed. The truce with reptilians did not go well with him. When the diplomats were discussing the peace, he was at the frontlines about to blast through the last defenses of the reptilians. He knew how weak their weapons were and strategy non-existent. According to him – a peace treaty was no different than a defeat; Even if they were able to get a few privileges like anti-gravity hyper jump ships in exchange.

‘I bet you’d even sell your pride for these stupid machines. I tell ya’. He said while casually lighting his cigar now

‘…and speaking of Prof Waleton – where is he? I did not see him since we passed that asteroid belt in the morning.’- asked Shultz

‘ ..bet he is in his study still buried under his artifacts. Seriously, I never saw anyone using those before. Bringing in a history scientist is a waste of precious seat on this expedition is you ask me’ – said Karl while puffing the smoke of cigar into the air

‘Firstly, from where I stand- I can say the same about bringing in a military General on a scientific expedition. And secondly, those are artifacts are called books and it was a prime medium for transfer of knowledge in the dark ages.’ – said Carina irritated by General’s comments and smoke alike

As General was about to reply, announcement system came to life and mechanical voice of Ship’s computer echoed through the ship as announcement was made –

‘Degree three attention everyone. I repeat degree three attention. Hyperjump to the Cygnus sector. Jump in 120 seconds and counting…120…119…118..Please proceed to the control area and gear suit-spaces..108…107’

Everyone scrambled to their specialized suit-space as the countdown started. These were specifically designed for hyper-jumps – another gift from the reptilians.

‘Prof Waleton I hope you know how to gear yourself up’ General mocked the Professor who entered the control area at the last moment.

Shultz and Carine gave General a dire look as the hapless scientist struggled with his suit.

Before General could reply, a flash of light blinded all of them as the countdown reached zero. They got pressed against their suits as the ship reached super-optic velocities. Few minutes later, as the acceleration reduced, a familiar mechanical voice brought them back to their senses –

“Jump successfully completed. Distance to Cygnus – 1 light year. Distance from Earth – 6000 light years.”

“Whoa…that was quick. Only if we had a dozen of these ships during inter-planetary wars..” – said General unlocking himself from his suit-space.

‘Enough of the war general’ – said a visibly irritated Carine who was now helping Prof Waleton from suit-space

Waleton was a scientific history specialist and a Professor at Titan University . He was only few left in his specialization. As the pace of scientific growth increased rapidly more and more researched wanted to explore new territories and few focused on now ancient (and mostly irrelevant) scientific work. And even fewer cared about documenting and studying it. This practice itself evolved into a separate field called ‘scientific history’. It was deemed to be a dead end for aspiring scientists and very few ventured into studying of the science of dark ages of humanity.

He stumbled to get to his feet after Carine helped him with his suit. Clearly, Waleton was not ‘field-type scientist’ and mostly spent his time with his artifacts. Shultz gave a sympathetic look to the elderly scientist who was disoriented after the hyper jump.

‘Not a frequent space traveler Prof.? Just try not to move too much for a few minutes.’ – he said

‘I am alright Senator Shultz. Carine’s kindness is too generous for this old man. ‘ said Waleton as Carine rushed to help him to his feet

‘And anyway, now that we are merely 1 light year from Cygnus, I simply can’t wait to go to the deck’

‘Mother of all sights eh? Well...that’s what our news people were calling it. Well then, lets move to the decks’ – replied Karl

The group made their way through the alleys of the spaceship towards the viewing deck. It was a large domed chamber meant to give space travelers a view of surrounding space. Made up of transparent quartz glass, the deck could rotate on the hull of the ship to give nearly 360⁰ panoramic view. It also helped in alleviating the claustrophobic feeling that was common for travelers spending months in travel.

Soon, the group was standing in front of the main panel. Senator Shultz watched discontentedly as General Karl lit another Cigar and puffed the irritating smoke. Carine and Prof Waleton stood next to each other waiting for panels to open.

‘Computer, reorient the dock towards Cygnus and open the panels’ – ordered Carine

‘Request confirmed’ – replied the grating mechanical voice

Few seconds later, the panels opened to the greatest marvel the human eye had ever seen. A huge accretion disk of glowing matter rotated around a small black dot at the centre. Near the centre itself, the gravity distorted the nearby space. As the material from accretion disk fell into the black hole, attaining enormous velocities, burst of gamma rays several light year across, were ejected into the deep space. Though, most of them had read in the mission briefings on what to expect, the grandeur of biggest forces of nature humbled each of them. Even the general stood silently trying to grasp the enormity of the nature’s wonder.

‘This is Nature’s most powerful creation. That accretion disk would be touching Jupiter’s surface if this was be our solar system. You know Carine, each teaspoon of blackhole’s material is heavier than our whole planet. In fact, technically its density is infinite.’ – said Prof Waleton

‘Its pitch black at the centre. Isn’t it?’ – exclaimed Shultz

‘Because Senator, that thing at the centre has so immense gravity, that even light is unable to come out of it. Its not simply black in color but it is absolute nothingness. The ultimate singularity. In fact laws of physics do not hold inside that thing. ’ – replied Carine

‘And imagine General, humans would have taken another thousand years to build a ship that could sustain anywhere near that thing. Reptilians may not be advance in warfare but they put their resources on things that really matter – like this ship’ said Carine

‘Yeah whatever’ – General said while sitting on a corner chair at the dock and went back to puffing his Cigar

‘Don’t worry about him Carine. He simply can’t accept the fact that power of nature is something to be feared of. Its beyond him anyway. Moreover, I don’t think he will be able to ever accept the supremacy of Reptilians’ technology. You please focus on your readings’ – advised Waleton

‘You are right Professor, let me get started by environment scan. And by the way, don’t you have to take readings too?’- said Carine while taking out her visipad from her bag

‘I should learn to use one of those things sometime. But I guess I am too old for that now. Anyway, Historic Science studies do not involve taking readings from those modern instruments. So I’ll just make some basic observations and try to map those to ancient books and their civilizations.’ – replied Waleton

‘Thank You Professor. I’ll start on my readings right away then’- said now smiling Carine - ‘Computer, start a space scan on primary wavelengths. Direct all the other instruments at the core of Cygnus…’

As Carine and Waleton got busy with their readings, Shultz walked towards the general and took a chair next to him. As both men watched the majestic sight of the black-hole, senator Shultz reached for his visipad in his bag.

‘And what do you intend to do with it?’- asked general who gave a glance to the visipad and went back to smoking

‘We have our own assignments on this mission general. I may not be a scientist but I too have to do my analyses of the situation. Information is as important to politics as tractor beam to warfare. And you too should prepare a report – you’ll be a space hero for the news channels once we get back. First humans to see black-hole this up close’

Karl ignored him but continued to stare at the gamma ray bursts from the blackhole. Shultz went back to his visipad and started making some notes.

Suddenly Carine’s scream echoed through the deck and brought everyone’s attention.As the Karl and Shultz rushed towards her, she was looking at her visipad and screaming at the ship’s computer. Prof Waleton stood calmly beside her looking at her visipad.

“That is simply impossible Computer. There must be an error in your instruments” – said Carine at the top of the voice

‘I considered that Professor. And all our systems are working fine. All observations are verified.” – said an unperturbed voice

‘What happened young Lady?’ – inquired Shultz

‘Computer. Repeat your scan results’ – Ordered Carine

‘Cygnus system. Distance – one light year.

System classification – Black Hole

Mass – 8000 M₀

Known Planets – None

Artificial objects – One hyper-drive grade B ship

Distance – 2 AUs'

‘How the hell there is another ship in the Cygnus system? Senator, did OEC approve another expedition to Cygnus’ – asked Carine

‘No. Not at all. We don’t send back-ups to the scientific missions. Though there were many planetary associations who wanted their representatives as well on this prime mission. But obviously, we can’t let everyone on these reptilian ships’ – replied senator

‘General. You know of any approved military missions in this area.’

‘Lady. I guess you did not hear the computer thoroughly. That’s a grade B ship – similar to ours and military has not yet given access to these babies yet. I tell ya’ these are reptilians ships ready to fry us off’

Carine and Shultz chose to ignore the last sentence of the General. Prof Waleton continued to stare at some old artifact (book) which he brought from his study room.

‘Carine, is there a way we can have a look at the ship and probably try to communicate with it? If the ship is similar to ours then surely they are also aware of our presence’ – asked Shultz

‘Hmmmm….i think that’s a very good idea Senator…Computer. Please deploy ATS (arrayed telescopic system) and focus on this ship. Display the output on screen 3.’

Few minutes later a large screen on the side walls of the deck came to life. It showed a small patch of the accretion disk in the background but the object in focus was what heightened the heartbeats of everyone. It was a hyper-drive enabled ship pretty much identical as theirs – the ship was oriented towards the black-hole and was moving away from them.

‘Carine, this ship looks identical to ours isn’t it. The good thing is that it is oriented away from us. Even if it is a reptilian ship it could be on a scientific mission just like us. And nothing should be alarming about it’

‘Actually, senator there is. I am not sure why reptilians would travel half way around the galaxy, which is 40,000 light years by the way, to study Cygnus when they can study dozens in their neighborhood. I hate to admit it but I think we should consider all the options including those of the General.’

‘So much for the peaceful reptilians eh? I am telling ya’ guys what happened - when reptilians gifted us this ship they must have planted a tracker onto it. This is where they take the revenge of their defeat. Now, if you all are sufficiently convinced then I will be in-command of this ship for the rest of the mission.’

Carine and Shultz looked at each other and realized that their peculiar situation demanded General to be incharge.

‘Fine General, but as long as you don’t do anything too fancy’ – consented the senator

‘Relax Senator, this is nothing more than a drill for me. And anyway, they are still oriented away from us. We still hold the element of surprise. Computer, this is General Karl and now I am the commander of this ship ’

‘Awaiting orders commander’ – replied the computer

‘Move towards 1 AU of the reptilian ship. Keep me updated about its position and arm the ship with whatever weaponry you have on board’

‘Affirmative’

Carine and Shultz stared silently at the screen as the ship moved towards the reptilian ship. Prof Waleton was still immersed in his books seemingly oblivious of the whole situation.

Minutes later as the ship moved closer the Cygnus General ordered – ‘Computer, focus on the ship and tell me its coordinates’

‘One hyper-drive grade B ship, distance – 2 AU. Commander, the enemy ship is moving away from us at the same speed’

‘So they are keeping the same distance from us. I tell ya’ – I am gonna fry them out. Computer, enable the full thrust and double our acceleration. This time they won’t escape us’

As the ship’s computer steered towards the reptilian ship with increased thrust, everyone gaped in surprise as the reptilian ship simultaneously moved away from them.

‘This is quite peculiar. Isn’t it Carine?’ – asked Shultz

‘Yes it is. It looks as if the reptilian ship knows how much and when we are going to move. They must have some other advanced tracing technologies which we are not aware of. Probably, General Karl is right in saying that they have a tracer on our ship. But still I don’t understand how their maneuvers are so instant. Anyway, I really don’t know what General is planning now.’

‘Listen everyone’ – said Karl approaching towards Carine, Shultz and Prof Waleton – ‘We don’t have any other choice but to use firepower now. I am ordering the computer to use the plasma beam. It will rupture the hull and will not give them time to respond. I tell ya’ its gonna be all over before those slimy creatures even know it…’

‘General, I understand that you have the most diplomatic privileges on the mission, but being a senator, I can still enforce you to listen to the suggestions on those on-board. And of course, your final decisions will be reviewed in the OEC where you’ll have to defend all of your action. Your this act of aggression can jeopardize our relationship with the reptilians.’

‘Look Senator, they don’t have any business to be here. . This bloody black-hole is only 600 light years… that’s my back-yard on galactic scale for godsake. I know we have not decided upon our galactic borders yet but by any measure, I consider their ship to trespassing into our flight space. And I am in my full right to defend it.’

‘I am now ordering the computer to engage unless these science geeks have anything to say’

‘That won’t be necessary General’ – said Prof Waleton unexpectedly. He raised his head from the books he was reading. He rose from his seating fumbling to stand as he carried a visibly heavy book in one hand. Carine rushed to give support to him as he faced the other two man.

‘I know what is happening there.’ – said the professor with a confidence in his voice for the first time in the mission – ‘but to understand it, you all need to know some background first…a scientific history background’ – he said

‘Even you Carine, probably don’t know this. In fact, no modern scientist can explain all of this’

‘What do you mean? Don’t try to stall or anything old man and make it quick’ – said the general impatiently

‘Well…well…let me start from the beginning then’..said Prof Waleton…

‘You all might know about the dark ages of humanity….the time when humans only inhibited only one planet. Its only about 6000 years ago when we ventured out to other space colonies and planets. Now, all the technological progress and events after that time are very much well documented as the first settlers kept their daily logs religiously. Something similar to what Carine and Shultz were doing today. So, all the 6000 years of history of all the planets and progress of civilizations is very well documented. All planets except one – the Earth. Earth is the birthplace of all humanity. Though, not many people respect this and its merely reduced it to a scientific history fact. Afterall, who wants to waste their time in digging out a history of a single planet when one can easily go for other planets..and now even the asteroids. But few do…and even fewer like me try to dig out Earth’s history before the space age era’

‘I wonder if this history lesson will help us make any decision right now’ – said the General angrily

‘My apologies General. I am just trying to give you all a fact that much of Earth’s history before that of planetary colonies is unknown. But we can get a glimpse of that in these ancient artifacts called books. Only very people including me know how to use these books to gain more understanding of our ancestral single planet civilization. Even I am not sure about the exact progress of the mankind during those days but there is one thing which is strongly differentiates that from the current age.’

‘Carine, can you please tell us the normal scientific mechanism which is followed right now’

‘Surely Professor. Currently we have observation and experimentations colonies based on seven bodies in our solar system – including planets, asteroids comets etc. The scientists continually look for new observations and phenomenon using advanced simputers and robots. When any such new phenomenon is observed, exhaustive experiments are conducted to get all the data sets possible. Then new theories are devised to explain these observations and the process goes on.’

‘Very well Carine. So basically theories are followed by observation. And this is obvious as we have very advanced laboratories which can churn out enough data to keep millions of scientists occupied for centuries.’

‘But this was not always the case. In what we called dark ages, humanity did not have advanced enough technologies. This severely limited their capability to get any kind of observation they wanted. Hence, their scientific progress took the path other way round. That is, for them observations followed the theories. They used their own powers of deduction and following a chain of logical arguments, arrived at theories first. Then they tested these theories with the observations. It was a slow process of course, but it worked. In fact, some theories were so much ahead of their time that observation could only follow centuries later….and in our case well over 9000 years.’

‘I don’t see how any of that could relate to our situation right now and I am losing my patience Prof Waleton. Please tell us what you want to say at the earliest else you can continue giving your lectures to Senator and Carine while I blast that reptilian ship‘ –said a visibly irritated General

‘I hope you listened to what I just said General. I’ll say it again – what you are looking at right now was predicted more than 9000 years ago’ – Waleton said while pointing his hand at the screen which was now focused on the reptilian ship

‘Carine, remember when we discussed how strong the gravity of the black-hole is so immense that not even light passes through it. Well, that’s the reason it looks black. But one thing which we haven’t theorized, because of lack of observation of course, is that it can also bend light. According to the book I have here, an ancient scientist predicted that at sufficiently farther away from black-hole, light can be bent so much that it can go around the black hole in a complete circle’

“My dear General” he sighed as he now looked at the General

“…on that screen…we are looking at our own ship”

The God Who Wasn't - Final Chapter

2011-09-04T13:33:00.000+05:30

Hi,

First of all I'd like to apologize to everyone again for delay in the final part. I know its unfair to end a chapter at a cliffhanger and don't show up for next 4 months !!
For the convenience of the new readers, you can download the complete story in pdf from Chapter - I to Chapter - III at this link http://tinyurl.com/3tnt36m.

Enjoy the story and I'll see you again at the end of this chapter.

CHAPTER – III

As the moon began to touch the western horizons, Its dim milky light casted a long shadow of the 300 year old abandoned observatory, onto the valleys of Coeltshire. The rotunda of the observatory still stood proudly with many generations of scientists and astronomers unleashing the wonders of the universe. After Earth’s unification the pace of scientific progress doubled as the best scientists worked together using the best resources available.

Setup of wide array telescopes was one such landmark where all planets right from Mercury to way far to Pluto, housed synchronized telescopes. It helped astronomers technically harnessing a solar system wide mammoth telescope.

And then no one needed the old observatory. Once a centre for all cosmological progress - coeltshire observatory was forgotten as an age old relic declaring the footsteps of human civilization.

But tonight, by a sheer stroke of fate, it again was home to greatest scientists in the world trying to unknot the biggest discovery humanity has made.

“I…I don’t understand it. These depictions can’t be the key to ultimate secret of the universe. Its nothing!” – said Professor Lowell as the piece of paper in front of him challenged him at 10 years of intellectually heightened brain’s work in those simple images

“Professor Lowell – to the unwise, the Rosetta is merely a stone but those who seek knowledge are unbound by their own rationalities. For such people that stone changed everything we knew. We are again standing at the same point in the history. These figures represent the ultimate knowledge. I am sure of it. And I have not had a moment’s calm since I got to see these pictures. But I can’t get farther now, and you are the only one who can solve this mystery. Nothing will be a greater loss for the mankind if this knowledge is lost.”

‘Follow me professor….we have a long night ahead of us. Let me show you a place where you can put more thought to it.’

Sudarshana gestured Lowell to follow him. Before leaving, Lowell took one last look at Anuj who was sleeping his deepest sleep.

Minutes later, Lowell and Sudharshana were sitting down on opposite ends of a long dimly lit table. The room was living quarters cum the laboratory of Sudarshana. A variety of instruments lay around the room along with some simputers.

Lowell quickly diverted his mind onto the piece of paper. Still, the figures merely represented some random drawings. He began to wonder if it indeed contained anything at all.

‘But I must give it a try’ – he thought

“A cylinder is the first figure. And it is connected to a circle; the next row has a cross connected to a similar circle. Well nothing much to it but then how is this supposed to contain an answer which will let humanity take a leap thousands of years into future.” – said Lowell with a bit of contempt

“Very well Lowell. You are right. There is an answer somewhere in there. But if there is an answer then what is the question?” – Interrupted Sudarshana

“What do you mean?”

“You see, this paper does not only contain the answer but the question too. Else, whatever secrets it has won’t make any sense. Imagine professor – getting to the biggest secret of the universe summarized in a puzzle, but without knowing the question which it answered, you’ll never be able to decipher the question, even if that represented the biggest discovery of the mankind.”

“So you are telling me that the question is also hidden somewhere in this” – asked Lowell pointing towards the diagrams

“Exactly.” – Said Sudarshana with a confidence reflecting that he had already solved a part of the puzzle

Lowell closed his eyes and tried connecting the pictures again. Cylinder….a circle….a cross…another circle.

And his mind subconsciously drifted to an old memory -

“If 13 : 89 is same as x: 1597, what is x here?” had asked his high school teacher in advance mathematics class

“Its two thirty three” – had answered his youngest pupil

“Defend” - declared the teacher smiling and perfectly knowing that his favorite student definitely will.

“These four form a set of consecutive Fibbonacci primes.” – had answered Lowell much to the awe and envy of his fellow students

And he opened his eyes with the realization that -

“Its not a cross! Its “X”! That’s an alphabet X!” – exclaimed Lowell

“Yes Lowell. X is what is used by mathematicians since ages to depict the unknown. And that is what Anuj wants us to figure out. He want us to find what will X represents here. More precisely – what represents its relationship with the second circle if the same relationship exists between the cylinder and the first circle. And that’s the question. And this is all I was able to understand Lowell. Its now all upto you”

Lowell looked at the picture admiring the beauty in which a very difficult question has been laid out in front of him. The question as well as the answer.

‘The little x’- thought Lowell presently –‘has always been there’

‘So the x is the question here. What is that which holds the same relationship to the second circle as the cylinder holds to the first one?’ – said Lowell summarizing the question

“Yes Lowell, I also came to the same conclusion. And that’s as far as even I have reached. ” – said a visibly impressed Sudarshana realizing that Lowell has cracked the first piece of the puzzle.

‘But still it’s a long way even to the question.’ Sudarshana commented . ‘You see, by that logic the x should be a cylinder again. And that’s not a secret at the very least’

Lowell knew Sudarshana was right. A cylinder to a circle connection is what existed in both the figures.

‘But this doesn’t make any sense.’ – thought Lowell

“Why would someone draw exact circles which will depict the identical things. There must be something more to it.” – he said

Lowell looked again focused on the pictures. For the first time he looked at the two circles in isolation. And after the realization, he felt embarrassed to not to have noticed earlier that -

“The second circle had a dot at the very centre!” – Exclaimed Lowell and continued

“Interesting. Very interesting. But are you sure that is what he intended. Couldn’t a dot just be a small mistake?” – asked Lowell suspiciously

“I don’t know Professor. I haven’t noticed that earlier. But I don’t imagine Anuj making a mistake. I have seen his papers. His logical process is very precise. And his intelligence cannot be measured through any of the known techniques. This human God doesn’t make mistakes Professor Lowell. That dot could be the key to solve this riddle.”

“I understand. But still I don’t see more to it. The first set of pictures clearly represent a geometrical figure and its cross section. If that’s the connection with second set, and assuming our understanding is correct – the X merely represents a hollow cylinder. Nothing more.”

‘But there will be more Professor’ – replied Shudarshana with heightened emotions

‘I know that there is something hidden there somewhere and I urge you to accept that as well’

Lowell sighed. He leaned back on his chair and nodded slightly and plunged himself into the piece of paper hoping to uncover something majestic.

*****

Two hours later, the crumpled balls of paper formed a heap atop the ash-free disposer lying at one corner of the room. A lumiglow flickered in another corner futilely demanding the attention of the scientists.

‘Professor, I don’t mean to interrupt but if you can share your thoughts I might be of some help’ – asked sudarshana pouring another cup of brew for Lowell

‘These’ – said a tired Lowell raising another crumpled sheet of paper before tossing it over to the disposer ‘…are my thoughts’

‘There is nothing more to it Sudarshana….nothing at all. And you will have to accept that.’ Paused Lowell

‘And now I will have to call the OEC and let them take control of everything’ - he said while rising from his chair

‘So is this it? Is this the same Lowell whom I thought would help the mankind take another leap into the future? Tell me, would you give up just because you could not understand the scribe of the God? Tell me Lowell, if you just give up now, won’t you regret for your whole life for this decision?’

‘I might. And I will strive for my whole life to get a glimpse of whatever Anuj has seen. But these diagrams mean absolutely nothing Sudharshana. And I can’t believe that wasted my time in listening to crazy stories of a madman ’

‘I am not scared of being evicted to Mars colonies Professor. And I know no one will listen to me. Please trust me Professor for once. For our old times sake. I have seen Anuj’s work before. And you have too. The EC works professor. I have seen it. I might be an eccentric but I am not a madman.” – said Sudarshana making a final attempt

Lowell suddenly stopped in his tracks. He froze as if stunned by a neurogun. Gradually his eyes turned wide as looked at Sudarshana and mumbled in a half question – eccentric?

‘That’s it !!’ Exclaimed Lowell and rushed back to his chair

‘Quick . Get me a nanoscale.’ He ordered Sudarshana

Sudarshana, a bit confused now, scrambled with his instruments to find the nanoscale - the device which was used to measure lengths smaller than a millimeter. The smallest length which could be measured was a nanometer and hence the name.

He handed out the nanometer to Lowell who was now again intensely looking at the figures again.

He stood silently watching Lowell taking several measurements and scribbling hastily on the margins. Few minutes later when Lowell raised his head, his face showed signs of content.

‘Please forgive me Sudarshana for my outburst earlier. You are right. Anuj is right’ – said Lowell

‘Anuj was definitely working on a complex problem and we were trying to interpret it in a very simple manner.In fact, Anuj has left us clues layered in these pictures. ‘

‘We were assuming that both these circles simply denoted a geometric figure. And that’s where we were wrong. Let me explain’ – Lowell said as Sudarshana pulled up an adjacent chair.

‘We were thinking that the second figure is a circle with a dot….’ Lowell paused before saying

‘…well its not’

‘But then…what it is?”

‘Yes. And that was our mistake. And we assumed that the dot was the centre of the circle.

Actually, It only looks like a circle’

‘Remember that you said that each and every dot has a meaning in Anuj’s drawings. I had that running subconsciously in my head. But when you said eccentric , I realized that perhaps we were not looking at a perfect circle but and eccentric one…in other words….’

‘…its an ellipse’

‘And that’s what I tried to check with nanometer. See here…the circle should have all points at equal distance from the dot. But in this case the smaller side is shorter by 99.98%. In fact, the dot represents the focus of the ellipse.’

‘But that’s not it. As I said…these are not merely the diagrams…..they represent something very real. Something which can help us answer the question. Tell me Sudarshana, whats so peculiar about the ratio of having minor axis and major axis to be 99.98%?’ Questioned Lowell

‘Isn’t that….that’ – fumbled Sudarshana with a sense of disbelief

‘Its not any ellipse here…it’s the orbit of the earth’ –Lowell completed his sentence

‘Are you sure about this?’ asked Sudarshana

‘Yes. I even checked the radius of the centre dot. That’s our Sun on that scale.’

‘That’s….thats marvelous’ said the astonished scientist

“Hold your awe Sudarshana. There is even more. I think I have deciphered the last part of the puzzle as well. I am still not absolutely sure of it. But I think that’s what Anuj intended.” – said Lowell with an air of seriousness

‘Let me start from the beginning itself. See…the first set of figure has a cylinder and a circle. A three dimensional object and its two dimensional cross-section’ Lowell paused

‘That is…if you extend the circle from two to three dimensions – you’ll get a 3 dimensional object called cylinder. If that is the exact same relationship which exists in the second set of figures as well…then…tell me Sudarshana…what will have as its cross-section a part of our solar system?’

Lowell waited for an answer. And then replied.

‘A four-dimensional solar system’ – Lowell said as Sudarshana sat there frozen with what he was hearing

‘That’s right. The x represents a four dimensional solar system and ultimately the existence of a four-dimensional Universe !’ – Lowell repeated

A silence erupted between the two man. Sudarshana knew the concept of four dimensional Universe but merely as a theory. A Universe having an additional dimension was incomprehensible by anyone. Well, that did not stop people from theorizing it – but even imagining it was beyond human limits.

‘That’s …that’s crazy’ – exclaimed Sudarshana

‘Is it really? Let me simplify the logic for discussion professor. Imagine a life of a two dimensional being in a two dimensional world - say, a piece of paper. How will you define your Universe? – won’t you just imagine it to be limited to two dimensions? In such a planar Universe length and breadth will define everything present in such a Universe.

All of your senses and perceptions will be limited only to that plane. You may even imagine huge two dimensional planets circling two dimensional suns. And may be even life thriving on them. Our hypothetical two dimensional life forms may even interpret physical phenomenon observed by them and may develop laws of science fitting into their two dimensional Universe. They would be completely impervious to the presence of a third dimension’

Lowell lifted the piece of paper and waved his pencil near to it as if trying to grab the attention of hypothetical two-dimensional beings -‘Even if a three dimensional object lay close to them…they won’t sense it as they can’t perceive the third dimension’

‘Ok . Even if I agree that such 2 dimensional world might exist. What is it you are trying to prove?’

“By extension professor – our Universe consists of only the dimensions we are able to perceive. What if there exists a four dimensional Universe of which we hold no more significance than a cross-section?”

“What Anuj is suggesting Professor…that there are tangible higher dimensions out there…and we merely are living in our fewer-dimensional-Universes.“

As Lowell emphasized his last sentence, both the scientists who were now standing in excitement stared at each other. Small droplets of sweat were visible at Lowell’s head. Both of them perfectly knew the implications of what Lowell was saying. And that – was the only logical conclusion.

“Sudarshana, as I said I am still not sure. But if this can be proven somehow, it could really be the biggest discovery the humanity has made. Proving it is near impossible. But we must try ‘

Said Lowell with a sigh. He stared down at the two diagrams Anuj has made which now looked completely different altogether. He was the best scientist of his time and now when he thought about his discoveries and his work and it all seemed too insignificant to what might lay in the Universe.

Still looking into infinity he said –

“Have you ever pondered whether we are the greatest creation of the God? I have. And that has always bothered me. If God wanted us to be his greatest creations he would have given us a more prominent place in this Universe. Not a small pale speck in one corner of an ordinary galaxy which itself is nothing more than a dust particle in a Universe of 100 billion such galaxies. And then we believe we are special? I could never push myself to take that leap of faith which religious fanatics talk about."

"Sudarshana…probably we are merely living in part of the Universe handicapped to only 3 dimensions. And probably even higher dimensional beings looking over us. We are merely one of unique specimen in the wilderness the God created. “

And now even if I have to sacrifice my remaining life trying to uncover this reality it’ll be a small price to pay. I don’t know if I will be able to do it or not but I must try.

Sudarshana stood there with a feeling of disbelief as Lowell walked out of the observatory towards his car. The Sun was beginning to rise from behind the hills as the stars fought for their place in the sky. Lowell looked far towards the sky.

He was an ignorant curious child again and sky was again anew.

EPILOGUE

“We never expected this Alpha”

“Yes. I know Beta. But then we never could have anticipated someone like Anuj.” – Said Alpha

“They do surprise us sometimes”

“Beta. They now stand 1 million years ahead of where they should be. I hope you have made your arrangements”

“Of Course I have” – replied Beta

“But this was an interesting Volume indeed. Let’s look at the others” Alpha inquired

******

Hi,

Thanks for reading. I don't know if i have done justice to a great idea. The last chapter, in fact, was written 3-4 times. Please do point out my mistakes and areas of improvement. I have many many more such ideas but their honorable execution will require your honest feedback. Thanks again.

Regards,

Vaibhav

The God Who Wasn't

2011-04-17T17:22:00.000+05:30

THE GOD WHO WASN'T

CHAPTER - II

“Yes. My son Professor. I had to do it. I did not have any other choice. “ –he sighed

“Just when I discovered EC, I asked for help from everyone. I tried reasoning with University. But they considered me to be crazy. They thought I was trying to prove something which did not exist. They asked me to experiment with animals and prove it but it doesn’t work that way. It can’t. Only humans have advance enough EC which can be agitated. I was labeled an eccentric who was trying to fathom non-existent ECs. My research was stopped and I was taken off from the work.

And I had accepted defeat. I had nearly given up on my dream. And then, my wife, Rama, got pregnant. My hopes were rejuvenated at the prospect. I would have my own subject. I could continue my studies and prove everyone wrong. In fact it made even more sense now - An offspring with abilities second only to God oneself , was an irresistible idea. And the opportunities were immense.

I talked to Rama for this. But she did not agree. I tried giving reasons to her. I told her about the abilities our child would get. And then I realized that a mother’s affection for her child is not something which can be reasoned with. She did not approve of it. Mother’s love got better of science – for some time.

And that was when I had to take the painful decision. A decision for which I knew I will be punished. I decided to deceive Rama till she delivered our child. I pretended to agree with her at that time and waited patiently till the very last days of her pregnancy. And then I brought her here. “

A silence erupted between two men as Lowell tried to understand the intentions of Sudarshana.

“And you killed her. Isn’t it?” Lowell asked

Sudarshana went into a guilty silence before raising his head again.

“Professor Lowell, I have done many sins and sacrifices in my life. But aren’t my intentions pure? Nobody else can understand me better than you Lowell. Science is a beautiful window to the reality. Without it, man is nothing but an animal, or worse - a superstitious animal bound by his own irrational decrees & notions and figment of imaginations it calls God. Isn’t my God better than theirs? My God gives me reasons; HE never asks for my submissiveness but only inquisitiveness. My God is never preaching but always wants me to uncover the truths of his existence myself. Isn’t this even worth some small sacrifices?”

“This conversation is over now” Prof Lowell stood up. “Sudarshana. I have no reason to talk to a criminal. I am calling the Sol police now. And be assured that I will ensure that you get no less than a degree five exile. Tonight, when I slept, I thought you were dead. Now, I wish you were.”

“Prof Lowell. Please listen to me completely. When I called you, I knew that I will be spending rest of my life with exhilers at Venus colonies. And I am prepared for it. These 12 years have consumed me and I deserve to pay for those sins. But don’t let my sacrifices go to waste professor. Rama was the love of my life. There was not a single day when I didn’t mourn her. I had no other option Prof Lowell. Don’t you see it?

I was torn to pieces cutting my own son’s skull. But I did all those things Professor. All that… for a reason. A reason which was above me. A reason above my family. The reason for which you and me live every moment professor. A reason for which even the most noble of the men have committed grave sins. And the reason is to know the higher order. We might be even on the verge of reaching there and you are my only hope. I just want to know it the day I close my eyes. This is just what I desire my professor. Its my last wish”

Professor Lowell stopped in his tracks. His mind quickly racing to understand the implications. His inquisitiveness grappled him. He wanted to know more. But he never wanted his answers to be coming from a murderer. Finally his curiosity got better of him and he made a decision.

“I am agreeing to it Sudarshana. But I have few conditions”

“I will agree to anything friend. Anything. Just help me.”

“Don’t call me your friend. After we are done here I am handing you over to the Sol police. And before that you will tell me each and everything you know. All your inventions and discoveries will be properties of OEC from now on. Is that clear?”

Sudarshana quietly nodded.

“Now let me tell you why called you here for Lowell” – Sudarshana said wiping the tears at the corner of his eyes “Please follow me”

Sudarshana lead the way towards another room at the other end of the hall. A dim light emanating from the room declared someone’s presence which Lowell guessed would be Sudarshana’s Son. His heart started pounding at the anticipation of meeting the brainiest man on the planet – a twelve year boy. But as soon as he entered the room he saw something for which he was never prepared for.

At the centre of the room lay a bed surrounded by several medical recorders. IV poles with several colored liquid pouches feeding into a very small figure vaguely resembling a human. A completely bald and naked figure was covered with electronic sensors and small devices. There were stitching marks across the skull declaring Sudarshana’s guilts.

“Professor Lowell, this is my son Anuj."

“But what has become of him?” Exclaimed Lowell

“Professor, EC gives many powers to its bearer. But brain is a very complicated machine. Even in normal humans brain consumes 40% of the energy the body generates. A brain powered by EC uses many parts of the brain…but not without its negative impacts.”

“Continuously stimulated EC required every last drop of energy the body generates. That is the reason why Anuj never grew up physically. It also impacts all the ambulatory mechanisms and other parts of the brain. In simple words : this body is host to the greatest brain of all time. But nothing else. “

“That is the cost one has to pay to expand the human limitations Professor. But that is not it.”

“ It can not even communicate in a normal manner. My only way to talk to my son is this” Sudarshana said pointing towards a large simputer which was connected to Anuj’s brain.

“In the beginning it was simple. All thoughts and reasoning of Anuj were analysed by this simputer in the normal language. That was when I published those papers. But then Anuj’s reasoning became very complicated. His brain entered into another realm altogether. Perhaps Anuj found out a better way to think altogether. A more efficient way. Remember how human civilization progresses by taking already proven theories and mathematical equations and builds new theories upon it. But this is at a whole new level. As compared this brain” Said Sudarshana pointing towards Anuj “ we are merely insects professor. “

And during this whole time . It gave out huge chunks of data which was impossible for me to understand Even the latest simputers are unable to keep up with it. It merely threw out iligible words and theories. As I said, he is using more efficient way to think and communicate which is beyond humans.But I hoped. I hoped that someday I will be able to analyse it or some simputer which can. And then, something extraordinary happened.

The whole system stopped working. Anuj’s brain went blank. After some time Anuj stopped responding altogether to simputer. He went into a self inflicted coma. I feared the worst but he was alive. All agitators were running fine – but his brain was not showing any readings. Even in coma brain shows activity. There was only one possible reason for this Professor – his brain finished the job it was supposed to –a glimpse into the ultimate truth “

This piece of paper, Professor Lowell, holds the key to deepest mysterious of our Universe.

******

Hello Friends,

I guess the apology section is becoming a permanent part of this blog :D. This chapter is in fact three months late. Though i had rough draft for the whole series ready, i wanted it to be engaging. The next chapter is the final part of the series which (hopefully!)will be done on time.

Coming back to the story, the 10 years' work of advanced EC was summarized in conspicuously simple diagram. Sudarshana claims that it contains the biggest mystery of the Universe. Does it? What it can be? Will Lowell and Sudarshana be able to crack the code? All guesses are welcome.

Regards,

Vaibhav

The God Who Wasn't

2011-01-08T19:57:00.000+05:30

Chapter 1

Prof Lowell had a very tiring day. Being one of the greatest scientist of his time had its own tolls. He has to hold advisory positions in important offices including the Council’s President’s, meet many important people, and even give autographs to young wannabe scientists who admired him no less than a celebrity. Now in his 50s, Prof Lowell had 25 years of fruitful career behind him where he contributed to solve the greatest mysteries of nature including his most famous discovery- a 200 year old problem of accurately predicting the mass of the black hole at the galactic centre on the basis of perturbations in the orbits of nearby galaxies.

And unlike many other scientists of his era who produced one significant research in their lifetimes to spend rest of their lives giving lectures on them, Prof Lowell went on conducting researches which had practical applications. And perhaps this is why he was the youngest scientist ever to hold the chair of Scientific Advisor to the Earth’s President. Only in his 50s, one could only guess what lay ahead in his next 80 or so years of his official career.

As he lay on his bed next to his 2^nd wife and his mind was still wondering over 23^rd century’s most daunting cosmological problems; his phone started ringing. His half asleep wife mumbled something about not giving personal numbers to his fans and again went to sleep.

Little did she know that this phone call is going to change his life forever.

“Hello. Prof Lowell here.” – He replied trying to figure out the face of the person on the video feed but could only see a blank screen

“Professor Lowell. Is your phone line being monitored?” – The stranger asked

“Who are you ?”

“I will tell you everything Lowell. But first tell me if our conversation is monitored”

“Is it some sort of joke…and what time is it ?” He looked at his classic Rado watch with hour hand merrily pointing between “1” and “2”

“That doesn’t matter. What I am about to tell you tonight is worth hundred years of your research. But first tell me; is this line discreet?” – The voice emphasized

“Yes. Yes. It is. Now tell me what could even be worth of my 10 minutes…let alone hundred years” – said Lowell sourly

“I am sorry that I had to contact you this way. I am Prof. Ram Sudarshana. I hope you still remember me”

The name ringed some bells in Lowell’s mind. Prof Sudarshana was a man who suddenly shot to fame 12 years back with a flurry of research papers in astrophysics. In fact, he remembered that Prof Ram had a unique distinction of publishing breakthrough ideas in coveted Journal of astrophysics as its highlight research for its consecutive 18 editions. His rise to fame was even more dramatic considering that he had no background whatsoever in astrophysics. In fact, he was a microbiology lecturer in one of non-descript universities for a few years. He then went into hiatus after the death of his pregnant wife only to return as an expert astrophysicist. During the 18 months of his peak productivity he was once considered as a serious contestant for the position of Scientific Advisor for One Earth Council’s (OEC) President and for the same reason considered as a rival for Prof Lowell. But behind this professional rivalry there was a common driver for both the men for the pursue of science. They both have ventured into fields of astrophysics and cosmology, trying to push human knowledge in the courtyard of the Creator. They both did not believe in The One’s existence but found this hypothesis a convenient way to direct their scientific efforts.

And just when their rivalry was about to culminate at OEC elections, something happened with Ram Sudarshana. At the peak of his career, he suddenly declared an early retirement in front of massive media presence citing personal reasons. He then moved to suburbs of Coeltshire and then no one heard from him again. Well, before tonight.

“You still there Prof Lowell?” - demanded the voice at the other end

“Yes. I remember you Sudarshana. But everyone thought you were dead”– he said coming back from his thoughts

“I know , but I have my own reasons. And the thing which I am about to tell you is far above you and me. Have you ever wondered Professor that God is always hiding some of the things from us, and then teases us by showing us glimpses of the absolute truth? Today, I have the ultimate truth lying in front of me but I just can’t see it. May be HE is punishing me for my deeds, and may be its His will only that he wants you to help me see it.”

“God has been very kind to you Lowell in choosing you as his instrument. You began this final journey of human kind towards understanding the mind of the God and I can help you take the ultimate leap. But first you must come to me Professor….now. Come to 78, Brykeen Road. And come alone.” – He hanged up

Prof Lowell stood there for couple of minutes just holding the receiver which was now beeping with the dial tone. He was a man of science and someone like him only could understand the repercussions of what Prof Sudarshana was saying. He only knew how close he was in discovering the ‘Mind of the Creator’… it was the passion to uncover His secrets which brought him to science at the first place. Even as a young child, he found religion inadequate enough to uncover the secrets of God even if it claimed to directly represent the God himself. He always questioned the validity of religion’s knowledge of God by asking reasonable questions. And to his wonder, to which, no priest of any religion had answers too. He asked many times – “Father , where is God?” …and the father invariably used to reply “He is everywhere my son”

“But how can he be father? If he is everywhere, then how did he creat the world?” If the world existed before him, then our world must have created God. Isn’t it?” to which father had no other answer than “God works in mysterious ways my son”

But young Lowell would not be put down by such answers. He knew that world has an underlying order. And that order is sacred. Even if God had a creative freedom to create Man and animals & Plants and trees, He Himself must have been governed by some rules. He wanted to know those rules. Driven by his passion to the extent of obsession, Prof Lowell became what he is today – but he was not satisfied….Though he has discovered many things and hypothesized and proved new natural phenomenon; he always felt that he was only beginning to stretch his arms in the world of knowledge. He felt he was only yet delving upon the creations of the God and not the God Himself. And today all those feelings came rushing back with that one phone call.

*******

Half an hour later, a Government Limo was scurrying towards the deserted suburbs of Coeltshire. It was located in a mountainous range near New Washington and was not much inhibited. The only road connecting Coetshire to the rest of humanity was so narrow and treacherous that the suburb frequently was cutoff from civilization during the winters. On the other side of the road Lowell could see the moonlight bouncing off Lake Dian which was named after a famous Chinese revolutionary Dian Fang who fought against the communist China in early 22^nd century and played an important role in formation of One Earth Council. Lowell wondered about the nature of an inefficient world before the unification. Many geographical sections called countries used to fight against each other on trivial grounds such as religions, languages and petty land masses …and how much scientific effort was duplicated with each nation trying to protect its scientific knowledge from others. He wondered how much progress science would have made had the unification occurred 50 years earlier and scientists like Broscher, Panvell and Seturaman would have worked with each other rather than against. But that’s how human society learns – by doing mistakes at the first place – he argued with himself.

Coming out of his wanderings, he realized that presently he was approaching a huge structure at some distance from the road. As he approached he saw a narrow by-road branching out towards the structure. He adjusted his car’s headlights, and a century old arrow sign lightened up displaying the words “Brykleen Road”.

The “road” itself was nothing but narrow path carved out of dense slush of dirt, dead plants, ice and ancient remains of a brick road. Looking at the large rotunda in the distance, he figured that he was perhaps the only one of the two men in the vicinity of several kilometers …that too if Sudarshana was not playing some cruel joke on him!

After few hundred meters a large iron gate was declaring the boundary of the domed structure. He was surprised to see the gate being fortified through some latest electronic mechanism. Controlled from somewhere remotely; both the doors paved the way for his car, making a heavy squeaking noise. As his car ran towards the main entrance of the dome, he took a brief look at his planetary positioning system and to his dismay found that he was delinked from the network. There must be jammers installed in this area - He thought, and for a brief moment the thought let the fear of the whole thing being some kind of set up crept into him. He did not have any enemies, but the OEC (One earth council) has - Religious fanatics who were angry with gradually declining role of religion in global issues and decision making; exhilers - criminals who were sent off to novel planetary colonies to test human survivalism; to name a few.

He shuddered at the thought of being killed or worse ; taken hostage ; at a place where no one will be able to find him. He was now regretting his decision of coming at the place all alone.

He even thought of turning back to the road he had come from. But there was something in his heart which was still asking him to pursue. He knew that it was his strong desire to become a special child of the God. He could not turn his back on the slightest chance of getting to know even if of a small measure…. the mind of the God. And that prospect, he thought, however tiny it was, worth his life.

Leaving his car near the huge wooden entrance he felt his legs moving him towards the doors. In the far, behind the dome, he could see the mountains and valleys glimmering in the night light. He slowly raised his hand to push the calling device at the corner of the door. But before he could press .. Lowell jumped one step back in surprise as the huge doors begun opening with a creaky sound.

“Sorry Prof Lowell, if I have scared you” – came a grating voice

As Lowell calmed himself and looked into the direction of the voice he saw a pale old man with eyes sank deep into their sockets. He was barely comparable to what Prof Lowell last saw of Ram Sudarshana. “Please come in Professor. We do not have much time.”

Lowell followed the man as he hurried towards one of the rooms through the main hall. It was fairly dark in the main hall and the cob-webs gave it an eerie feeling. Lowell was still containing his fears even though now he knew better.

“I have called you for a reason Professor…” he continued

“You better do have some good ones for calling me here like this. I am here just because what you said about revealing the truth. I can have you arrested for misleading an OEC member” – Lowell interrupted with a tinge of anger

“That won’t be necessary Professor and regarding whatever I said,I meant every single word of that …but you must let me to explain you everything. And pray for me so that He can forgive me for the sins I have done. I have made several sacrifices for the humanity professor. And committed grave sins…perhaps that was the reason why God did not chose me as the One. But you too must prove yourself worthy of it Professor.”

“ Please have a seat and let me tell you everything…I hope my reasons will let you forgive me.”

As Lowell hesitatingly took a chair next to Sudarshana, he took a deep sigh and closed his eyes. Before Lowell could ask anything, Sudarshana penetrated deep into his own thoughts –

"It all started around 15 years ago. I was teaching electrobiology at Fredinne University and conducting my research on neural networks. I was recently married to a beautiful woman named Rama. We were living a beautiful life. Soon a child was also on its way. And I was a happy man.

And that was when I hit something big. Something really big. I was studying the functions of cerebral cortex and its response to external stimulants. That’s the part of the brain which is responsible for abstract thinking Professor. And then I discovered a small isolated part hidden deep below in the labyrinth of human brain. I called it the Epiphany Centre.”

“Epiphany Centre? Haven’t heard of that” – Interrupted Lowell

“You of all people must know that best of the ideas in the history of human civilization just sparked in someone’s mind in a fraction of second. Its only a fraction of the moment when most of the neurons simply by coincidence work together and that’s when the greatest of the ideas are born. Even the greatest brains like Kepler, Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Bohr, Kekule only had few such instances in their lives and they went on to change the world. Archemidi’s “Eureka” was only a verbal metaphor of this moment of enlightenment when a Man gets a glimpse of God’s work. And that Professor is the work of Epiphany Centre or EC – a fraction of second’s work.

EC is the prime mover of human civilization. It is the source of all inventions and ideas. I discovered the source of ultimate prowess. I discovered the Man’s window to the God.”

A chill went through Lowell’s spine. If whatever Sudarshana was saying is indeed a truth, it could change the world forever. The implications were immense – not only for electrobiology but for chemistry, philosophy, culture, arts and everything which defined human intellect. EC could transform the artificial intelligence.

Prof Sudarshana continued –“Preserve your awe Professor. I not only discovered the EC, but I also invented a bio-agitator to keep it at agitated state. If a fraction of seconds of this brain power spread across many centuries of human progress has given us so much technological and intellectual prowess; imagine what marvels the human mind can unravel if the same brain can work permanently at this heightened state. Imagine a millennia worth of leap the human knowledge can take within few years. Imagine a brain having far more logical and abstract thinking powers than that of all the greatest scientists combined.”

“God left a little bit of himself in each one of us Professor. We just didn’t see it. Isn’t it Professor.”

A silence erupted in the room. Prof. Lowell could listen to the sound of wind rustling through the dry leaves. For the first time in his life, his mind felt tired. He felt as if his whole life’s efforts were dwarfed. He felt like an insect who has just gained a higher consciousness and realized his own worthlessness.

“You remember my researches Professor?”- Asked Sudarshana

Lowell nodded.

“Those were produced in a single day by an agitated EC. I have come far from that in last 12 years. You could say that I am ahead of the rest of civilization by at least a thousand years.”

“I see. So you used EC for so many years? But then why did you disappear? You could have become the greatest scientist who even lived. You could have become…” Professor’s eyes widened as he realized the implications of his own words “…the God”

“You don’t understand professor. I could not have implanted the bio-controller in my brain. I was the only one who knew how it worked. Had it gone wrong, I was the only one who could correct it. And this is where I sacrificed my life for a chance to glimpse at the absolute knowledge. I sacrificed my family for it Professor.

I implanted it..” His eyes lowered before he said – “…. in my infant Son”

*******

To be Continued...

Hello Friends,

Despite my self-promise to write a chapter each month, this story comes with at least a month's delay. An idea in my EC takes at least that long to come to black and white :D. Actually, this is my most serious attempt at story writing till date.This story was written and rewritten a couple of times as i tried a third person POV for the first time in my stories. This is also the first time i am writing something with this wide landscape. I hope you will like it.

I have planned two more chapters for this story. Please let me know your honest opinions as it helps me a lot. Specifically let me know if you liked the build-up, description, connect with the characters etc. Thanks.

Vaibhav

The World Between

2010-10-26T12:31:00.000+05:30

“So whats your magic number my lady?” Abbey half seriously asked the girl standing nearby in the other queue

She disdainfully ignored him before giving him a go-to-hell look.

I really liked it.

“Why do you even bother with all this earthly crap” – I said

Not being put down by these small incidences he continued to grin thinking about his next prank

“Well I just want to enjoy my life you know. And why do you always get that awefully serious man. Ok now tell me – does this hurt – “ He said while pinching me on my arm

“Oouch…ya it does. And it will do till we enter the gates”

“And shouldn’t you now start thinking of the gates too. Aren’t you curious which one of them will you go into? I mean you spent whole life working for this moment and…” – I said as his eyes steered away from me

The queues were very long. I could barely make out the figure sitting at the counter sending people to the two gates. How easy would it have been if the concept of bribe was not that alien concept here; I wondered. Anyway, time didn’t matter but getting stuck with Abbey here was a pain enough. He is one heck of a fellow constantly grabbing attention of others. We entered the queue at the same time and started some chat to kill some time. And now,within few minutes he’s on arm pinching terms with me. Though I kept on cursing him, he has actually alleviated the mood of the crowd here…which, otherwise would have given me a nervous breakdown standing in a queue waiting for your settlement and wondering about your whole life.

Finally after what seemed like hours our turn came. There were only two people sitting at the counter. On the left, sat a man who looked like in his 80s with white hair and long white beard. He was wearing a round glass with a big black frame and occasionally tilting his head down to look at the crowd from top of his glasses. He had a very different aura with him. His forehead glowed like a sun and the wrinkles on his face only added to his demeanor. Next to him sat a relatively younger man who was handing down documents the older guy asked. He had a big moustache and strong physique. Behind him I could clearly see rusting almirahs with files and parchments about to spill out any moment.

They both were evaluating every mortal’s life through these parchments and files but I guessed it was the older guy who was making all the decisions. And then I realized that he was Chitragupta– the God who keeps account of good and bad deeds of every human being on earth.

Good God …so Hindus were right – he is evaluating everyone’s Karma. I wondered if he ever made mistakes in counting your deeds. If he was always sure that his accounts were correct. What if he does a calculation mistake? He can’t always be right…I mean 20,000 years of human existence and billions and trillions of lives lived…what are the chances that he was perfect. Afterall, accountants do mistakes all the time, so what makes sure that he did not send say Adolf Hitler to Heaven and Mahatma Gandhi to Hell because of some misplaced files, or a “Lets have fun day” at his job. And what about his account? – Isn’t this a conflict of interest. For a pang of a moment I thought of asking him these questions but then decided otherwise.

Behind the counter I could see the two entry gates. They were not much different from each other as I expected. They both were having an identical golden arch with some divine artistry done on them. But I was quite sure that there would be hell of a difference between them on the other side…literally!

On one of the gates two beautiful angels played harps in their hands and welcoming people inside. It suddenly reminded me of beautiful air hostesses welcoming you on board while collecting your passes. I shrugged at the weird juxtaposition. But it was a no brainer that this was the heaven’s gate.

The other gate had couple of bouncers who were dragging tough nuts to the gate who failed to accept their fate. People were crying and cursing and trying to “resolve” their issues in earthly manner with these bouncers, but in vain. So this is where they put bad guys for eternity. I thought.

At this point I turned to Abbey who was unusually silent for last 2 minutes and was looking at the bouncers. I guess he is quite afraid now.

“Hey man…I hope that pinch did not hurt you much. Even if it did, please don’t tell Chitragupta man. Please man ..” – Said Abbey who now finally looked sober at the deciding moment. I don’t know about his past but based on what I have seen of him, bouncers are gonna love him. Playing pranks on people for petty pleasure must not have gone well in Chitragupta’s books !

Well I don’t have anything to worry about. I paid all my taxes. Lead an average life. Did justice to my work and everything…no chance I’ll be put to hell. I thought.

“Tell me man….please” – by now Abbey was shouting at the top of his voice to get my attention.

“…Yes….ya ya…I forgive you…don’t worry” – I said

“Abbey Choudhury” – shouted the younger fellow over the crowd

“Y…Yes…that’s me” – said Abbey

I wished him best as he nervously stood in front of Chitragupta. While the younger fellow retrieved a thick dusty file, Chitragupta tilted his head to look Abbey in the eye who was now clearly sweating.

HE started going through his file - “Hmmmm, an interesting case…to have done so many things in one life time is quite unique. Well, not necessarily all in a good way but yes so many things…”

“So what do you think Abbey….hmmmm?...whats your number hmmmm? “

“S…Sir.. I really don’t know..but …but I tried sir…this is how you made me..and I tried…” – Abbey was now shaking with a fear of what might await him in hell. Bouncers were now fixatedly looking at him. I guess they have already made up their mind that Abbey won’t go down quietly.

At which point Chitragupta tilted his head towards the younger man and discussed something. After which he gave a smile and shouted – “Plus Two”!

Hearing this the two angels started playing their harp and one of them politely signaled him to come to heaven. Abbey could not believe it and neither could I. Plus two? – it couldn’t have been narrower than this. After that thick account of deeds he had two more good deeds than the bad ones. Well I don’t know how he managed his life but he finally was relieved and thanked Chitragupta and his assistant. Before I could completely absorb the Abbey’s fate, came a voice piercing the crowd - “Vaibhav Thakur”

“Yes. Here.” – I answered

“hmmmmm…interesting……hmmmmm”

“hmmmmmm…..so what are the odds” – I could clearly see Chitragupta smiling as he turned the pages of my account….

“hmmmmm…”- he then gestured his assistant to lean forward

“Take a look…you might be interested” – Said the accountant God who was, for the first time of what I saw, grinning

“Tell me what it is….see don’t play games with me…I am not Abbey that you are taking so much time to decide”

“hmmmm?....oh…well actually you are worse”

I..am going to hell? That’s not possible. I have lived a good life. I never thought that my life would end like this. And I did everything right. I never dropped the ball….but…I have a negative balance…no…this can’t be right.” – I scrambled to find words as my sentences turned to gibberish thinking about the misery which lay ahead of me in the hell; beginning with those two bouncers

“This can’t be right Chitragupta” – I said. But my voice got lost in the assistant’s giggle who was still looking at my account wide eyed. There was a mysterious happiness in his voice.

“See Chitragupta Sir. I don’t know if there is a mistake in your records …but I can’t have a negative karma…I am telling you that I am not going to hell…I did not do anything wrong….you must have made a mistake…” I said while realizing that tears have rolled off my eyes. I could still see a big smile on assistant’s face through my watered eyes.

“No No you are not. Hmmmmmm….” Chitragupta continued …. “You are not going to hell”

“See…Your number is exactly zero!. Your good deeds perfectly outweigh the bad ones…so you can’t be sent to hell..but at the same time you can’t be sent to heaven too. This has not happened in the last 4000 years….do you understand…hmmmmm?”

“What do you mean this has not happened in 4000 years.?”

“hmmmmmmm? It means that it has not happened in last 4000 years.”- answered Chitragupta

“ So now my child you’ll have to service me till next time this happens. Believe me…it is still better than hell. And I see that you have done some finance also…that will help….hmmmmmm?”

“Sir you are forgetting something” – said the assistant still smiling unmanageably

“hmmmmmm?....oh yes….you have served me well for 4000 years…I don’t know if this new guy will keep upto but since you deserve it ….now I declare the Nirvana upon you…Trishanku.”

Disclaimer: According to Hindu mythology, Trishanku was left hanging between Earth and Heaven in a tussle of wills between Devas and guru Vishwamitra. Well, I took some creative freedom to employ him at the court of Chitragupta. Hope this disclaimer won’t irk RSS now ;)

yrevocsiD ehT

2010-10-01T13:39:00.000+05:30

(Year: -1100, Day: -26)

“Yes I knew. And it was fun. So, lets celebrate this in the cafeteria. Your treat !”

“So you knew about this all along. And you were just messing with me”- I said while still trying to cope with the fact that I was wrong.

He pressed the remote control again.

“…so this was Prof Stephan Sagan who was….”

“This discovery has changed the way we looked at our existence and the fluid concept of causality. Our efforts to prove the existence of parallel Universe which exists alongside us have failed before this. A parallel Universe, the habitants of which live as close to us as our next door neighbors, but defy our reach. We don’t interact with each other. We can’t even see each other as we live in perpendicular dimensions. Its like living on a photograph and not able to see another one just held millimeters from each other. But this is the moment when I can say with great pride on behalf of whole scientific community that we have been able to prove its existence. We don’t yet know about any intelligent life as such but yes there is a Universe out there waiting to be explored. I congratulate all of our scientists on this grand achievement.”

“And now we break to telecast a very important discovery by physicists at GSI who achieved a major breakthrough today in our understanding of Universe and laws of nature. The director of Global Science Institute- Prof Stephan Sagan is with us today who will throw more light on this”

And before I could argue further, he pressed a button on the remote control and a familiar voice filled the room.

“Ok. Now I just want to see the look on your face. Turn on the television, the director is making an announcement now”- He said

And he gave me a crooked smile.

“See, that’s where you are wrong. There are no such particles. There is a prescribed set of rules in nature which each Universe will follow, regardless of wherever they are. The concept of causality should be the same everywhere. You remember the paper by an Indian scientist published in the Year -1136 which said that reverse causality is impossible and even imagining that intelligent life can evolve with such assumptions is pure rubbish.” – I said defending my bet

“You remember our bet on reverse causality right? Well, I have found some new arguments for it. And I guess after this discussion you will owe me a few thousand credits and a treat. Now I understand that even if I produce relativistic conditions by accelerating particles closer to the speed of light, the absolute causality will be unaffected. But If I were to tell you that there are particles which can travel at less than the velocity of the light then in such a Universe, causality will be opposite of our Universe. Cause will only happen before the event. Imagine that! ”

And he entered suddenly in my laboratory.

There is a hypothesis that there are some particles called Tachyons which constantly travel at the speed greater than light. The speed of light is a lower limit for such particles and can’t be breached. For such particles events will come before the cause and its as normal as for us to see cause happen before the event. (My brother Gaurav, however, correctly points that the definition and philosophy of their “cause” and “effect” will be different in such Universe) I just tried to imagine what kind of intelligent life might exist in a Tachyon filled Universe.

Message in the Bottle - Final Part

2010-09-20T23:27:00.000+05:30

Hello Friends,

First of all i have to apologize for this very long delay in the 2nd part. Life's been quite happening since last few months - got a new job in consulting, relocated to bangalore and got stuck with hectic schedules and lots of travelling. I will now try to keep this blog alive and update it at least once a month.

For now, i hope you will like the final part of the story. Please give your honest comments. (Which my wife already gave me in form of grammar lessons :D )

-Continued from Part-I-

“Wha…..What?...but how can it be?...”Now- it was my turn to stammer

“A trick once is a trick twice” It was his turn to smile

“But I eliminated the existence of the time machine…its ….its never invented. I made sure that he finally agreed to me ..then…then how did you?..”

“Universe is not dependent on us to change its course- myself. So little was understood about time when you invented this machine. Isn’t it? Well I have made some progress in that area in last 10 years. I discovered many things …time is…its…enlightening… its a way to God’s mind...its not a simple eraser to correct your mistakes…I made a mistake by trying to correct it…and now so did you”

“But I changed the past…I changed the cause of the future which I saw happening…didn’t I?” –I asked…”Didn’t YOU?” I added suspiciously

“Yes yes..i did..i did exactly what you are doing now. I changed the course of the world but only for some time…I changed the cause but I couldn’t change the end. Time works in mysterious ways !”

“What do you mean?”

He was 50 now and his withered face reflected what he has gone through. He took a big sigh and stared at me.

“I was very happy when I changed the course of time. Just as you are now. And so I thought. After going back I found what I expected ….time machine was not invented…I was an average man with a desk job…I had my family…I had my life back…and I was quite happy …but only for a few years. And then I received the biggest shock of my life when I found out that our dear professor has disappeared. The report was identical to what it was when I was eliminated by GRAW in the original timeline. …only the characters were different. And then I realized that….that..”

…and then it hit me.

“That he also knew about it ” – I mumbled to myself

‘Yes…you only prevented yourself from going further on those equations but the professor advanced the knowledge. And succeeded.”

And then, I was scared…not for myself or the professor but scared from the realization that Universe had corrected itself. I realized that I tried to alter something which was far beyond me. I did not realize how and why, but that happened. And then I was scared that Universe will correct itself to what would have happened. There was a bigger force of which I knew nothing about but which was always working to set things right. Maybe wrong.

“But there is way even this can be corrected. Now let me begin from the beginning and then I will tell you what to do next”

“Do what? ..now wait a minute. I came here taking a big risk to set things right..i can’t even yet absorb the fact that you are standing in front of me. I don’t understand anything now and I don’t want to mess with timeline anymore. And you too shouldn’t myself. Now keep me out of it. I will go back to my time and won’t dare change anything…whatever may happen. Moreover don’t you realize that whatever we do we won’t be able to change the future. “

“Don’t jump the gun. Listen to me patiently first. ” – He interrupted me with a serious tone in his voice

“Ok ok…I am listening”

“You remember how we thought that Universe branches out going forward in time.” – He said matter of factly

“Once you stand at a decision point in time, Universe will divide itself into multiverses corresponding to the choices you have”

“I know that much. Our choices change the variables which decide the future course of the universe. “ – I added

“Yes. In fact remember the quantum physics’ interpretation of many-states-universe where multiple Universes exist and all decisions keep splitting the universes on the basis of their probability”

“Now since you have raised this point isn’t this the basic assumption you and me made when we tried to alter the past to change our present Universe. “ – I asked

“Yes we did. And the physics is right. But we were wrong. More specifically our interpretation of underlying physics was wrong. We failed to realize that once time machine was invented- all the border of time dissipated ..the words like past, present and future hold no sense after that. Take yourself for example…you are standing in your past talking to your future. “

“So whats your point?”

“My point is that Universe does not distinguish between time at all ! Universe in fact does not simply split going forward but it just splits. Forward and backward in time are just our notions. It’s a self aware system which only tries to maintain a consistent relationship between its various dimensions…including time.”

“The moment at which you and 10 years before you I, changed the initial conditions, Universe branched itself backwards to create alternate initial variables which resulted in the same final outcome”

“Are you saying that Universe forced the professor so that the ultimate timeline remains the same” – I was shocked at my own words. If what my future self was saying was right then there was a deterministic universe…there was a fate , a destiny for everything… existence of ‘The One’..even a God perhaps” – I just shuddered even imagining the physical and philosophical implications of such a discovery.

“But that means nothing can be changed. Its all decided for us?”- I managed to ask

“Yes and No. Actually here you are missing one very important point” – He smiled again. Like teasing me to solve a complex puzzle

“The change which we did…the dent which we made in the Universe…the delta we created in initial variables …took ten whole years to heal. In other words we delayed the ultimate timeline itself by 10 years. The creation of timemachine and events that followed were all delayed by 10 years. The Universe took a definite time in trying to self correct itself.”

“Had the dent been bigger or in other words had the change done by us being significantly large it would delay it even further. Think about it for a moment – a simple lecture given your past self delays the invention of time machine itself by 10 years. So theoretically…a very drastic change in initial variables will have such an impact that Universe will not be able to heal, and time machine will never be invented. Well… at least not by you or the professor”

“Which now brings me to the task of creating a bigger dent which you’ll have to do. “

“Wait a minute. I don’t agree with you. Even if you and I manage to create “a bigger dent”, how can we be sure that this time it will correct everything. We have seen that Universe corrected itself out. What if this doesn’t work. We have messed up with time too much as it is. Theres no guarantee that some other guy will not uncover those fundamentals anyway. Its quite a simple fundamental you know and the equations have been around for 100 years.”

“EXACTLY” – He smiled as if he knew that I’ll say it.

“You don’t think that you are the first person to unravel those fundamentals and build a time machine. Do you?” – He was grinning now

“I have travelled Vaibhav…I have travelled a lot…been to times unheard of…seen things in time…past and future.” – For the first time in the evening he looked tired now. There was a definite pain on his face. Pain of knowing things which should have gone unnoticed through history books. Pain of living through the times and watching the human civilization grow and probably eventually die in the course of thousands of years.

“I also thought of myself as the first time traveler of humanity….but I have met others…Yes. There were others. Some of them well before even our great-grandfather’s times. I shouldn’t tell you more about them but this is one thing you should understand- the reason why time machine did not exist before your time is because the ones before us, came to the same conclusion. They travelled and tried and experimented with time. But they realized that the only option left with them is elimination of the prime mover – the time machine. It happened again and again and again at various times and timelines without a fail. And today you too won’t fail me. All of time travelers before us made a dent on the universe …so that time-machine won’t be invented again….and today we’ll have to do the same. We will have to……”

He paused for a moment.

“….. kill the professor”

“What. Are you mad???”

“See myself…that’s the only way. We have to do this. Nothing else can prevent this from happening. All time travelers bear a responsibility…this is ours”

“But why? There should be other options. Lets try talking to him. I did that with my past self. We can do it again.”

“You think I haven’t tried that ?” – He said

“The Universe is a paradox Vaibhav. The more we try to deny it the stronger it becomes. If you delay it….a bigger dent will be required later…this is the only way…and trust me this is not the first time I am doing it.”

“Yes. You heard it right. I have done everything to bring Universe to the normalcy. It was just hit and trial…the bigger my delta was….

“But I am very tired now” – he sighed

“….and I can’t do this on my own now. I need your help. Do you trust yourself?” – He asked

I weighed my options. What if he is wrong. But I sure was definitely not right – and he was a living proof of that. I thought about the knowledge which will never be found again. And what about those time travelers. Will they continue to try and prevent this Universe from inventing the time-machine forever. I did not have any answers but only a future self to rely upon. I guess probably this is the ultimate timeline which Universe drives. Perhaps this is what the Universe wants. But if this fails- I’ll end up like him…a time traveler trying to change the course of timeline forever. I guess he won’t want anything bad to happen to his past self.

“Ok. I’ll do it” – I said looking into his tired eyes

Message in the Bottle

2010-06-05T16:37:00.001+05:30

I remember this vividly. As I paddled my bicycle through dry leaves at the corner of the road, a chirpy sound perfectly echoed with the evening chatter of the birds. I loved it......I still do. And that was precisely the time when somewhere in my mind the idea was born for the first time. As the bicycle turned towards the LASER lab, I came out of the hiding and counted again.

That was the only chance I had ....to make it right.

'This should be easy' I thought confidently. And perhaps I was right. Because I knew everything.

I looked at my watch. I still had to talk to the Professor and the technician. And then I would get the chance of the lifetime. And so I thought.

One more hour and i would be alone. And it would be a perfect time forthe faceoff. This could change my future. This should.

I waited patiently.

As the sun began to set, I saw more students around the corner where i was hiding. I saw my watch again. Not yet - i told myself.

As the evening grew darker, I pulled my hood and started walking towards the lab. The lab was a modern state-of-the-art technology building with all the science's latest marvels inside. And the first one being a retinal scanner enabled security system at the gate.

I walked down the deserted aisles of LASER lab, i was careful to avoid any encounters. . But i knew the place was deserted except for the one person, who was working in module number 6.

As I walked down the aisle quietly towards module number 6 which was on my right hand side, my heart started pounding heavily on the anticipation of what I was going to do.

"One small step for man...a giant leap for the mankind" Perhaps.

As I had expected the door was open. The room was dark but i could clearly see a figure on the far side of a small rectangular room sitting on a small chair. The table was lit by a small lamp and he was facing down looking Einstein's theorem.

"Vaibhav" - I called him

"Yes. Who is this" - He replied trying to adjust to the dark to see who the stranger was.

"I am afraid your work stops here" - I ordered

He was confused. “Ah! You know me” I said to myself.

"I have taken permission from the Professor to use this lab for my work" he defended "But who are you sir?" - he asked again still trying to figure out my silhouette.

"You sure you don't know me Vaibhav? 20 years could not have changed me that much " I removed my hood and stepped into the dim street light coming through the window.

–

And the moment arrived….the moment which the history had waited for thousands of years …the moment which was man’s greatest defiance of God …the moment which was created and was never before…dawned upon him as the biggest shock of his lifetime

"It.....it can't be" - He was shaking with fear and anxiety.

"D...Don't play this on me....this is not funny" - he was clearly afraid

"Don't be afraid, Vaibhav. This is real. And i have no intentions to harm you. How can i? I am YOU Vaibhav!!!!"

"But H...How? W....Why? " Poor me. I always stammered when i was afraid. I thought.

"Wasn't this your dream? Your dream is standing in flesh in front of you. Those equations...." I pointed towards his notes. "...are the beginning. Isn't it? And you succeeded. I succeeded"

"I...I don't understand"

"Just calm down and focus on what i am saying. Let me start from the beginning." I pulled a chair for myself as he watched cautiously.

"Who are you ?" He asked a again

"Don't ask foolish questions. Do you still have doubts? Well if you are wondering from how far i came back, i have already told you. 20 years. I am your future self from exactly 20 years, Vaibhav"

"Now let me tell you everything. I came here for a purpose. And i am going to tell you how exactly your life will go, if you continue your work."

"After the study you do on the equations and then building a prototype with entangling LASERS. You will be captured by GRAW -Global Research and Analysis Wing. They came when i achieved a theorization breakthrough for time travel. That was about 12 years ago. They then eliminated my identity and asked me to work at making a prototype. Initially i was very content. I had everything i ever wanted. But then it started to get worse. I saw things at GRAW which i shouldn't have. I realized the implications of such a power in human hands.

But I continued …and after 20 years of work I built first successful working time warp machine."

I paused. Looked him in eyes and said -

"What you see in front of yourself is the first time-traveler in the history of mankind."

And for the first time this evening, he smiled

"I...I succeeded"

"Listen to me" I shouted

“Don’t you see this? I made a big mistake. Imagine what will happen when this invention lands with dictators and terrorists. Each one of them fighting at all the fronts in time-line. Just imagine every power assassinating the ancestors of their enemies and changing the course of the world each time. The worlds will fight with each other at the fronts of time and histories will change. And the wars will be unending as no one would remain safe ....safe from his own past"

“In fact, GRAW will kill me once this first time travel succeeds......and it has. I only have this one chance to change everything

"Do you understand now ? Only you can save me . And save yourself."

"Stop this work and live. Continue and you give this world a weapon more destructive than quark bombs"

"Only you can stop the madness which will begin once i go back."

Absolute silence filled between us. I knew what he was thinking. He would be compromising on his biggest dream. His face hardened.

He stared at me. Perhaps he was measuring me as his achievement....and so i was. Same individuals ....just separated by time. He wouldill make this possible in another 20 years. But not now, I had to change things now.

"I will stop this work future Vaibhav. But i want to know about my alternate futures. Once you go back-your past will also change. I just want to know about these 20 years which will never happen." - he said with intriguing eyes

“This alternate future is a disaster Vaibhav. I lost everything. I lost family…our family…imagine how hard it was for me to stage my own death in front of the whole world. Everyone was devastated…and I…I just stood there doing nothing. I deserted everyone…just for this dream…”

Tears begin to roll off his eyes. It was hard for me to separate from my family…to abandon them. And he understood this.

“I hope you understand now, myself” – I said

He nodded while still crying.

“Now, stop crying like a baby. You have changed your future now” – I said mockingly trying to make him laugh

“I will never change, I guess” – he said wiping his eyes and now trying to smile

"And so i'll part now. Take my advice - Enjoy your life to fullest. You won't know what you are losing till you have lost it. I am going back now. I hope everything will be changed in my time."

"But what will happen to you now?" - he asked

"Me? I will just go back in my time where everything must have been changed. My life will be different when i go back. Perhaps i'll end up in a parallel reality with another Vaibhav living a happy life. I will just have to kill him in that case" - i said with a wink and he smiled.

Knowing that i have changed the world, I departed with a lightened heart. The aisles were empty as before. I walked briskly towards the bushes in the complete dark, hoping to see a changed world in MY time.

Suddenly i realized that someone was following me. I can't risk being detected....this will hamper the balance. I can't be found now. I started running towards the bushes where i hid my prototype. And at that moment i felt a chill in my spine when i heard that voice -

"Stop Running Vaibhav I know you are there"

"It....Can't be...." - I stammered as i turned around and realized what i was seeing

"Don't be shocked Vaibhav. This is me. 10 years could not have changed me that much." - He stood there . Smiling at me.

-End of Part I -

Thanks a lot to Vaibhav Anand again for giving very important comments about the story. I hope i have not borrowed too much from back to the future, primer etc ;). Critical comments are most welcome.

The Rise of Kalki - Chapter 2

2010-04-22T14:50:00.000+05:30

Dear Friends,

This final chapter was long due. Partially because i was afraid of doing injustice to a beautiful idea and partially because i thought no one was reading it ! But many thanks to Vaibhav Anand for continuously pushing me to complete the story and then painstakingly reviewing it.....thrice !

Please read the story patiently and pardon me for insufficiencies in my writing skills. Leave your criticisms so that i can improve.

Chapter 2 -The Eternal Light

“My Lord. Was that the last prayer everyone of us had done?”

“Yes Strot. Time has come when Gaia receives what she already owns”

“I am afraid your words offer more than what I am able to perceive my lord”

“There are some things which you don’t know about the new day my Trisents. You hail me as your Lord. Your savior! But there are matters when even Lord himself has to choose an impossible path. Sriram in Satyug , Krishna in Dwapar …all had to sometimes choose a path of deceit …..even God themselves are caught in this mysterious circle of life which nature has created. Well, It has happened in all the other yugas and it is happening in kalyug. Today is the day when Ishould tell you everything. Today I shall open the doors of sacred chambers my trisents. And I want you to witness it”

Sacred chambers as it was called, was the symbol of the new day. The place where Gaia emerged in her physical form with all nature at her command, was later taken by the Seas and Sands and the Trees for the next eleven days. They all came together in the shape of a mountain - where they danced fiercely - nothing could be seen except the interplay of waves of water and clouds of sands and sway of trees.

Nature was eclectic. Man was afraid. And when all went back, a dome remained- a dome which symbolized nature’s hail to Gaia. But miracle was not over. Soon, all the creatures of Gaia -the animals, small and big- and the elements stood around it as humanity watched. And before they knew, they themselves were standing among nature’s other creations which Man ruled for thousands of years. As if the world had come round the full circle, every element of Brahma was now having its own place in the eyes of Gaia…exactly as when it all began.

But there was only one creature which Gaia found worthy to enter the sacred chambers, and today he himself was opening its doors for his followers.

“Gaia wishes me to do this alone. But my Strot and Trisents deserve to know the truth” – Lord offered as he walked and lead others to a narrow paved path to the sacred chambers.

As always a mystic radiance emerged from the chambers, but today something was very different about it. Trisents, who always felt chambers to be a place of solace , a place where everyone felt close to Gaia, realized that perhaps it was meant for a higher purpose.

‘Kalki chose an “impossible path” to end the cycle…and the chambers is the way to do it? Perhaps chambers is way to complete what Gaia left – the annihilation of mankind! But Lord? Why Him?‘ – Trisents thought

As Kalki went close to one of the walls of sacred chambers, the radiance nearly engulfed him, and then as if guided by an unknown force , others followed him to what now seemed like an opening in the chambers which they had never seen before. As they moved towards it they felt an extraordinary calm inside their hearts. It was as if all their sorrows and all their pains were lifted, if all the fears had been precipitated away from them. They felt as if they were merely observers of their own sufferings and were distant from them.

Once they were inside the chambers, the absolute majesty of what they saw uplifted calmness of their hearts to pure ecstasy. The chambers reflected grandeur of nature in its best. Now they realized what it meant when nature danced in the form of Sands and Waters and Trees for eleven days ….Nature had created her masterpiece.

On chamber’s walls there were mysterious patterns filled with divine colors made by Elements themselves. They could see the sands moving through the patterns and the waters paving way for her. They could feel the divine music on which the Elements danced. They could see the waves of Waters on the walls as if it was flowing in a river ...they could see the sand storms swirling over their heads.

As their eyes followed the dome’s curvature, they noticed a cone of light emerging from the zenith of the chambers. When they looked closely they saw that the source of light was an eclipsing sun! It was as if Gaia wanted to create another Universe inside the chambers.

The nature’s biggest miracle was coming true in the chambers…and only a few eyes to witness it.

The eclipsing sun illuminated the staff standing tall just underneath it at the centre of the dome. The staff echoed the patterns on the wall. It was a mesmerizing sight and though they hadn’t seen it before they realized that the staff was the reason Kalki brought them there.

And it took Lord Kalki’s voice to wake them from the spell which the chambers had cast upon them - “My dear Strot,Primus,Prathus,Alphus! I shall tell you everything now.”

“Listen to me carefully. All of you know that Gaia did come to annihilate the Man on the new day. She brought with her all the nature’s powers unknown to Man, and then Lord came to help him..”

“Yes my Lord. Lord made Gaia forgive us” – Primus interrupted

“But my dear Primus. I couldn’t”

These words brought upon a stunning silence in the chambers. The only sound that could be heard was swirling of sands and waves of water. …but it was nothing before the storms what Trisents and Strot felt inside their hearts.

“I quite understand that you have questions. But listen, and you might not have to ask them.

I did ask for forgiveness for the Mankind at first. I argued that Man would learn. I told her that Man was her greatest creation…but she …she told me that Man’s existence was unjust for her other creations. And she was right…as long as Man has reasons to realize their individuality, their awareness of self-ego, there will be wars. Except Man, no other creature has the power of self realization as strong. Gaia gave this power to him to make him the guardian of the nature’s other creations. …But Man did exactly the opposite. His capacity of self realization and highest degree of consciousness which was second only to Gaia herself, …such a gift…and Man wasted it. “

Lord continued –“Man’s consciousness is the source of his selfishness my friends. He will never truly understand his part in Gaia’s world. And he will always be a threat to her.

This staff is made by Elements themselves. It has the Gaian threads to all the creations in this world, and they live in harmony and peace. But only one thread will make this staff complete and after that Man will be a part of Gaia. Fellow Gaians, I offered Gaia the consciousness of Man on the new day. Once I complete this staff…rest of humanity will become one with Gaia. We will share the pain and joy, sorrow and happiness, death and rebirth with Gaia herself. On the new day I gave Gaia Man’s consciousness for his eternal happiness“

“No…My lord…..No.” Primus said with a deep sadness in his voice.

“You traded man’s existence for his free will” – He continued

“Gaia would have punished us for our deeds…but to save our lives you gave away our consciousness? Lord what is a life without the realization of its own existence? ”

Lord smiled – “My dear Primus. I did not trade Man’s free will …I brought harmony of his consciousness with Gaia. Man will truly become a Gaian….and his will will work for the Gaia and not against her”

“Look around you my lord….everyone lives in harmony…they are all one already. You have said in your prayers that Man has become a Gaian now. My Lord they have faith in you….as long as you are here all Gaians live in peace. Now you are the only God for us.”

“Fear unites them Primus. Not peace but fear. They all live in peace now as they fear their past. They fear another new day. They themselves created God to justify their fear. Religion was nothing but an instrument to unite people…with fear. Every religion Primus,….every religion …had Heaven and Hell, Swarg and Nark, Jannat and Jahannum. Man was united by the fear of God….and faith of afterlife. This balance was only broken when religions were brought against one another. You say that I am their only Lord now….but till when Primus? Once the new day will have become a myth and Kalki a legend….what then? It will only be time when we go back on the same path again. This was the past …..and this will be the future. I only wish to break this circle of Satyug and Kalyug…after what we do here today…it will not be just another Satyug…but it will be an eternal harmony for all Gaians.”

“But Lord, shall peace be justified at the cost of free will? I still have hopes from the Mankind….and I can’t let this happen” –Primus suddenly jumped towards Kalki with a dagger in his hand.

Silence.

As the dagger went deep into the flesh, the blood began to flow down…turning the flawless floor of the dome into a deep red carpet.

Tears flowed down from the eyes of Lord Kalki and Primus alike as the Strot’s body twisted with pain.

“Why did you…” …Lord said with tears in his eyes and Strot in his arms

“I had to my Lord. You were right….Man will always be amongst us.” Strort said pointing towards Primus.

“ I….I …let myself do this ! What have I done Strot..what have I done. Perhaps you are right. ”– Primus said with eyes full of tears and looking at his own hands red in blood. “Now I understand my lord. Evil is the cost of free will”

“Lord, Please do it – I want to be one with Gaia before I die” – Strot uttered as blood continued to abandon his veins…

“Yes my dear friend”

As lord Kalki moved towards the staff Prathus and Alphus stood near Strot taking his last breaths and Primus on his knees crying for the one last crime of the mankind.

Lord Kalki turned towards them, spread his arms….closed his eyes before looking at his followers for the one last time.

“It is time” – he said

Kalki’s forehead began to glow brightly as the eclipsing sun’s light engulfed the staff …the last thread of Gaian staff was to get completed. Suddenly there was a bright flash and Alphus,Prathus and Primus were blinded by the light. Moments later…when they opened their eyes…Lord was not there…only the staff now emanating more brightly than ever.

“We are one with Gaia now. Should we tell the others?” – Prathus asked

‘They already know. Now ,they are us.” – Alphus answered.

The Rise of Kalki

2010-03-01T09:35:00.000+05:30

Hello Friends,

This is my first attempt at science fiction. The idea has been brewing in my mind since last couple of months and was initially meant only to be a short story. But as the story progressed i realised that it deserved at least two chapters. Please provide constructive criticism. For beginners - Kalki is prophesized to be the 10th and last avatar of lord vishnu, and the only one in the age of Kalyug. According to the myths, he will stand on this earth to destroy all evil and pave the way for Satyug again.

Regards,

Vaibhav

Chapter 1 : Of Dark and Light

Year 2010 – France bans burqa in public. Islamic Institutions all over the world protest.

Year 2011 – French president assassinated against Fatwa issued by Taliban Leaders

Year 2012 – “War on terror” begins with religious undertones. 47 countries join in against fight with 8 nations.

Year 2015 – After 3 years of guriella war. Radicalists call for extreme steps.

Year 2016 - “The last Jihad” begins.

Year 2017 – Nuclear arms used by Jehadis as a last resort. 1/3 rd world population is swiped off the planet. Another 1/3 rd suffers from radioactivity.

Year 2019 – War erupts between remaining humanity to capture weapons, safe food and water.

Year 2020 – The world goes back 5000 years as only 1% of original population remains

Year 2025 – Boy named Kalki is born.

Year 2040 – He declares the abolition of religion as core cause of wars

Year 2050 – 6^th Feburary . Unimaginable happens. Later called The New Day (Year 01 of Kalki)

The New Day – Gaia in form of Waters and Sands appeared in its final and true form. Waters of Seas rose so high that it even eclipsed the high sun. Sands decided to remove itself from the Man’s feet. Forests and animals who had obeyed and helped Man to conquer themselves, stood against him for the first time. Mountains who once gave shelter to Man became his nightmares.

And then…the Lord appeared. A man, who he was not – stood against Gaia. Asked for forgiveness for all of the mankind. Asked for one more chance. He asked the Gaia – the soul of the earth, to give Man a chance to serve Gaia. …And She did.

Waters receded. Sands went back to the deserts. Trees went back to the forest.

Kalki made nature forgive Man the very last time.

“Lord, the Gaians wait you for your morning prayer. It might have come to Lord’s notice that Gaians from the west have also come to participate today.”

“Twenty Years . Tell me Strot. You have seen the great wars. You have also witnessed the Dark Days. Tell me – how was it. How was the Man ? Have we really succeeded? Are the Men truly Gaians now?”

“Now my lord? The Gaians await for you. The day which the whole Gaia waited for has finally come” Strot looked at his lord whom he has served for a long time. But today for the first time he saw a strange deepness into his young face.

“I need to know. I need to know if this is what we deserve from ParamShakti. If there are still Men among us, I may fail. Gaians don’t know what awaits them.”

Strot’s sixty year old face showed no signs of emotions. One of the very last Gaians of his age, who saw the world’s order changed in his lifetime. He never thought that a normal Indian teenager would see world going to dark age and see its complete devastation in youth. Now called Strot – a name given by Lord Kalki himself signifying him as his source of knowledge and wisdom, never dreamt that he would be the part of making of a legend. He spoke with a heaviness in his voice –

“Lord, I was among those Men who lived in dark times. Times when religion brought differences and not harmony among people. Doom was imminent, but no one thought it was that close. The last war was not fought for Man’s greed …it was fought for survival. I have seen friends changing to worst enemies during the battle. I have seen wives murdering their own husband for few grains for their children. There was no God left. No religion. Men died the very day my lord. And Gaia was born. “

“I have chosen a wise advisor for the Lord. Stand-up Strot – we must do what we must do”

As Kalki moved towards the veil of the stage , Strot followed.

On the other side of the veil stood a gathering of thousands. Every Gaian looked towards the Lord who brought them from the dark times. Lord, who stood to remind humanity of what its purpose was. He showed them the ways to rise above their survivalist instincts. He showed them the true meaning of oneness and religion, of love and faith, of feeling the pain- of self and others.

The three Gaia leaders Alphus, Prathus and Primus who came from across the world, bowed down to the Lord. Their names were also given by the lord to signify them as the world leaders called Trisents.

Kalki addressed his three leaders first – “Today we stand for the new world my Trisents. You all have served the Gaia very well. You have shown that Gaia deserves you. But after this, we will exhaust our threads to the past, however dark it may be. So I want to ask you….all of you my trisents. Are there any Men among us.”

It was Primus who spoke first – “Lord might know what is wise for the Gaia. Lands of Forests are at peace. Trees and animals and Gaians live harmoniously. I think we are ready for the New World.”

“Alphus?”

“Yes my Lord. Sands and Mountains hail the Lord’s ways”

“My dear Prathus. Are Waters of Seas wish to trust us again” – Lord asked

‘My Lord. I know you trust you trisents for advise. Gaia has been kind to us all along….even in the Dark days. But if we fail her again, I fear even Lord himself will not save us like he did on The New Day”

“Yes Prathus. Your words lead truth. Dark days are past us. But Man has always proved us wrong. And…..“ – Trisents and Strot waited for the next words of Kalki. His eyes trying to probe all three leaders, perhaps questioning their faith on Him and ultimately Paramshakti. He looked different. He looked through the silence to search for words.

It was Strot who came forward to break the silence. – “Your prayer my lord”

“Yes…Yes. Of course." He paused and looked directly into the eyes of his Trisents - "And this could very well be the last prayer of humanity in its full conscience.”

- End of Chapter 1 –

I Love You *Conditions Apply

2010-02-14T11:02:00.000+05:30

I LOVE YOU

*conditions apply

Dear Biwi,

The love is in the air again. And now having spent another year of “unconditional love” with you, there were some aberrations. Now, being the smart ones of the lot, we should take this opportunity to analyze this past one year rationally and take appropriate measures to ensure improved relationship in the following year.

It’s a fact that I love you but were things in the past year which you did to truly test this hypothesis. I really don’t like it when -

You ask me how your new dish was, for which ingredient list contained garlic and saccharine
You keep taking me to obscure stores in the malls and I had to look interested
When you keep questioning the premise of superman movie – dear how hard it is to “assume” just for 2 hours that someone can fly
When you ask me to do some work when I am just about to slay the final dragon of my favorite PC game
When you keep giving me driving instructions when you don’t know a thing about driving. And surprise surprise !, you confuse your left and right hands while giving directions.
You look perfectly fine in all your dresses. Believe me, nail polish mismatch cannot be noticed (except by other bandis probably)
When on one hand you keep complaining about my habits and on other hand mail your friends and tell them how good your life has been with me

I hope you will take all these things in a good spirit and work towards these to make it a perfect ‘Valentine Year’. J

Regards,

Pati

Her Reply

Dear Pati,

I love you too but since you wanted to have a rational discussion, please take these replies positively and constructively. I just want to tell you that-

The garlic-saccharine dish was your mother’s recipe
I keep pulling you into obscure stores to prevent you from ogling at bandis. You think I don’t notice that?
I also find it hard for someone who can totally tell me the scientific explanation of “The Matrix” and watch ‘Architect’s speech’ 20 times to find some logic , finds “Bidaai” and “Yeh Rishta kya kehlata hai” illogical ! How hard it is to assume for 25 minutes that people can really be that dumb ?
The work was to get your coffee mugs which I gave you when you were playing your games
Why the hell were you checking MY e-mail ???
When you write a blog on how things can improve between us when u can actually come to the kitchen and discuss it!

I hope these answers have satisfied your issues. I hope you take them in a good spirit.

Now, come down to the kitchen and do the dishes. Oh and by the way – Happy Valentine’s Day J

Regards,

Tumahri Patni

One Night with India

2010-01-17T17:49:00.000+05:30

This is a true story. This incident happened in train moving from Deoghar (Bihar) to Howrah on 28^th Nov 2009

Date: 28-29^th Nov

Time : 2:30 AM

Place: Sleeper coach of express

As me and my bro-in-law Ravi Da crouched in our sleeper coach seats further, our coach door opened again giving way to freezing winds. As I tried to close it again literally shaking with cold, it was clear that we will not be able to get any sleep tonight.

Earlier, as me and Ranu were returning from her brother’s wedding, we missed our train to Howrah. We had a connecting flight the next morning and luckily Ravi Da had reservation in 3^rd AC in another train. We had to board it anyway. After settling Ranu in ac coach, me and ravi da moved to the next sleeper with side berth next to the doors.

It was freezing outside with temperature probably going below 5⁰C. Wind, accentuated by moving train, was piercing our bodies despite we had three layers of clothing and kept the shoes on.

After two hours, we both knew that it was a futile fight with the freezing cold and we just started chatting to get through the long night ahead.

And suddenly I saw something which I thought could only be seen at Guantanamo prison–a thin, 30 something handcuffed man was nearly completely stripped except the bare minimum and was being pushed from other side of the coach by the policemen. As they brought him to the area near the door I could listen to the happiness in their voice in catching their “Juta Chor”.

I can’t believe it even now that someone can actually survive in that cold with nothing on the body. But my belief was going to take many shocks tonight as the show has just begun.

One policeman pushed him near the sink and opened both the doors. As the crosswinds rushed through, i literally started shaking

The chor by itself shrunk into a blob as his body tried to revolt for its survival. It actually looked as if Kevin Carter’s famous photograph came alive in front of me (link: http://whereinsoever.wordpress.com/2007/03/07/ethical-photography-the-case-of-kevin-carter/)

And this is when policemen decided to "ramp it up" a little bit.

Policeman 1 filled a mug of freezing water from the sink and threatened our Juta Chor –“Saale bolta hai ya daalun”

I really thought the man would die if the water is poured on him…I even thought that he might even prefer jumping from the moving train rather than die from cold.

But to my relief the policeman did not go through the act.

"Don't they have human rights laws against this? " - I asked with a innocence of wide-eyed 6 year old. To which Ravi Da gave a smirk which could probably classify as - "This is India Dude....where have you been all your life? "

As the night passed the policemen continued to press him to confess the crime…they threatened to hit him with the rifle butt. ...abused him....deprived him of a bidi which he found on the floor..

To be fair to the policemen, they gave him tea in the end probably fearing that the guy will die.

Once arriving upon Howrah , they kicked him out of the coach where some other policemen also joined to share the credit of catching the chor.

And all this left me thinking –

Who is the real criminal?

The juta chor ?

The policemen - who have just committed a crime for which they will never get punished?

Me? - Who looked helplessly without uttering a single word?

OR The system which believes in punishment rather than rehabilitation

The Perfect Love Story :)

2009-06-03T16:29:00.000+05:30

I am writing this post after a long long time. Well...life is never static and there comes times when one's life takes dramatic turns . As far as my life is concerned , it also took some drastic turns as I got my Masters degree from IIML, lost my Bachleor’s degree to Ranu and got a job at Gurgaon.

Well....it couldn't have gone better. The nerd, gaming freak, shy boy fell into love; the natkhat, simple and complex girl fell into love too....and that too with each other !! The story which started in the Ghasi deptt (the AgFE deptt is affectionately called ghasi at IIT KGP)...culminated unexpectedly at Indore with the shy boy and simple girl getting married !

It was a typical Indian marriage celebrated by 2 different set of cultures and it was an interesting affair. Two sets of relatives watched curiously as the other set performed some esoteric rituals and i performed both of them being acquainted with neither. Then I sat down on mandap with two sets of Pagdis on my head being watched by the whole world as we spent 5 hrs in front of thick incense of what seemed like a jungle of jadi-butis. Now I know why people don’t dare to marry more than once in India.

Moreover you can’t eat too much of more than 100 dishes for the fear of encountering embarrassing moments while you were at the stage or in front of the camera nearly for the 2 days. So you have a nice extravagant party thrown to celebrate your new life where you sit helplessly looking over to people having gastronomical adventures.

Then you have panditji asking me to put different condiments into the fire and asking me to put chadawa notes near idol alternatively. And trust me you don’t want to mess with this guy by putting smaller currency when he is about to get you the social acceptance of your love marriage.

Anyway, after putting kilos of perfectly edible material into the fire , I was asked to take impossible vows of keeping her happy always and some others to the same effect. I wanted to raise my objection or at least do some negotiations with panditji but as it seemed he did not have power of attorney to negotiate on laws written in Vedas. It felt like someone gave you a very nice discount offer and after swiping your credit card you get to see the fine print saying “conditions apply”.

After me saying yes to all unreasonable conditions and she saying yes to more unreasonable, we got happily married.

After few more days of relatives giving you joda dinners and funda on how responsibilities will increase, the feeling of being a husband finally begins to sink in. After this festive mood fades down, a new realization of “You are on your own now. Kids” begins as people tell you to how to “adjust” and “compromise” in life.

And this is the time when you begin to really get to know the person you were dating for last 5 years. You get to know about her Bubble Sort Shopping methodology (Carrying the least cost item till you find something cheaper) and Get-Your-Shoes-off-the-carpet habits when she gets to know about your throw-things-wherever-you-like methodology and your pious opinions about washing and ironing clothes.

But all these small fights make life more interesting which otherwise would have been a very boring love story. You realize that life becomes indeed beautiful when two individuals who are opposite and perfectly complementary to each other get married.

And yes this is indeed my ..Happily ever after.

Encountering the Gini

2009-02-22T18:58:00.000+05:30

Hi friends,

This is one story i wrote for our college magazine IIMPulse.

“…and as C.K. Prahlad says fortune really lies at the bottom of the pyramid. If India is to truly become “shining” then inclusive growth is the key…and the key to this key is social equality in our highly fragmented society.

And our B-plan I believe, as the judges would agree, has the potential to bring all round development to socially isolated sections of our country. With this I would like to finish our presentation. Thank you very much”

And as Rajiv who was also my teammate for social B-Plan competition, finished our presentation, we got a huge round of applause from ‘101’ .

We looked like some kind of demi-gods in our shining black suits who had all solutions to human misery residing in their glossy powerpoint presentation. This was only enhanced by Rajiv’s perfect mixture of jargons, anecdotes, quotes and impromptu humour.

“That was quite an ending Rajiv ” – I said admiring his charisma which has left judges mesmerized for 30 mins

“That’s my core competency you know” he replied with a wink

“So what you plan to do with your 10k” I asked him about the prize money

“Nothing man….just some booze and stuff” he said casually

“Hmmmm….achchaa chal fauji chalega?” I asked him realizing I have not eaten since morning

“Chal”

Upon settling down at faujis we called the ubiquitous chotu to take our orders and clean the tables.

‘Haan saab’ the unfamiliar looking chotu asked us

‘Chotu pehle to do garam chai le aa fatafat’ – Rajiv ordered

‘You know Vaibhav I wanted to say more on C.K. Prahlad concept’ he said continuing our discussion on the ppt

‘Really ?’ I exclaimed

‘Ya…in fact I also had some other stuff on social equality also but the time was not enough’

As Rajiv continued his stories of social initiatives which have succeeded, chotu entered with two glasses of tea.

As soon as Rajiv touched the glass he screamed – “ Saale bhen**** bola tha na chai garam laane ko…samajh main nahi aata kya ek baar main”

‘saaary saab abhi le ke aata hun’ chotu managed to utter with his wet eyes while his sister was abused for the nth time in the day

“….ya so I was telling you about other social equality initiatives I had in mind….” Rajiv turned to me again.

But.

I wasn’t listening anymore.

...and then there was light

2008-12-16T12:24:00.000+05:30

Well, let me share a secret with you all. My childhood dream was to become an astronaut. I always dreamt of being an explorer on a distant planet and may be reuttering the words – “One small step for a man, one giant leap for the mankind” and imagining to look back at the earth rising from the horizon same as what Neal Armstrong has seen.

I also imagined an earth without life with people leaving in large spaceships planning to spend generations inside them in search of new home. And very few of you might know that I even penned a sci-fi story with these events.I also imagined myself getting “selected” to be members of one of those ships I named “Lau” (Hindi for a small peck of light. Symbol for hope in a dark). But I always knew that my this wish of looking at nature’s spectacular creations with my own eyes will never get fulfilled.

I remember when Prof Jayant Narlikar who also is my idol, visited IIT KGP campus to give a lecture on extra terrestrial life, and I went to Netaji Audi 1 hour before the scheduled start…and it all paid off as he was also there alone uploading and checking his presentation and gave me a surprised smile. I also remember when he described the four ways to detect exo-planets (planets to other suns) and told us about the Kepler mission which will directly look at these exo-planets.

But as time passed I forgot about the mission but kept the track of exo-planets through websites and they were discovering them frequently. But most of these were gas giants orbiting very close to their sun without any possibility of life. Then recently two events happened,

One, discovery of a terrestrial exo-planet and two, announcement of launch date of Kepler.

And it was again a nostalgic feeling of childhood the feeling of The “other” planet. And I felt a tinge of sadness for not being able to follow my dreams but to follow the society and fighting to get a stupid Masters degree in common sense called MBA.

Anyways, the Kepler mission website also contained an interesting proposition – register to send your name along with the Kepler spacecraft. I registered for it and received this certificate.

I know my name will be just among the millions and it will have not be of any practical significance but it gives me an enormous joy which I hope you can relate to – a joy in knowing that the craft which will show us the first terrestrial planet and may even detect life will have my name somewhere with it.

Kepler may represent first rendezvous of mankind with earth like planet and I will be a part of it.

Yes, Kepler is the “Lau” of my story.

My encounter with myself

2008-11-23T13:00:00.000+05:30

It was a nice bright winter afternoon on Saturday…and its not frequently you get to get holidays at a place like IIM L. So I decided to go for my much delayed “shopping chores”.

After reaching somewhere in the city I reached a ubiquitous rickshawala. Trying to look like a localite by making a fake face of familiarity with the city I asked- “Sahara Mall ka kitna loge?”

“20 rupaye de dena sahab” – He said with figuring out that I was indeed a stranger

“20 rupaye !!” I exclaimed.

15 dunga….chalna ho to bolo - I knew that it shouldn’t be worth more than that

“Sahab baitho 18 de dena” – And I knew now that he can be squeezed more and I can save my 3 rupees

“dekho 15 hi banta hai….usse zyada kuch nahi dunga” – Again I knew that 15 hi banta hai

And he yielded. I felt a feeling of triumph that I saved my precious money.

It was some 4-5 kms before we reached Sahara.
I wanted to buy some chappals first so I entered into Metro. Saw some pieces there and selected one:

“Excuse me please. How much is it for this one?”

“Rs. 890 only sir”

Hmmm…little over my budget but this is Metro. I must be worth it- I thought

“Fine. Make the bill”

“It will be 930 sir” – The girl in a formal suit at the counter said

Uh-oh….okay those 40 rs must be some service tax etc. How can I actually question the integrity of the-girl-in-the-suit for 40 rupees. What a cheapskate she will think of me.

“Herez my card”.

Then i went to Mc Donalds for some snack. Just wanted to have some burger or something. At the counter, the-girl-in-the-uniform with a smile asked

“Would you like to have some coke as well to go with your burger?”

How caring she is. How can I say no to her – I thought

“Sure.”

After finishing my burger I took the coke with me.

At the rickshaw stand I realized that I can’t finish the coke.

So tossed the half full glass of coke in a nearby trash bin. …and eyes of the nearby rickshawala followed it.

.....AND then it hit me.

“University chaloge bhaiya”- I asked in a low tone

“Haan saheb kyun nahi. 20 rupaye de dena”

I nodded.

Is Gandhism Dead?

2008-10-02T14:10:00.000+05:30

Today we celebrate the Birthday of a man- a common man who established his own empire agianst the british empire and defeated them. But more importantly, today there will be a national holiday!!

And if you have some extra time in your hands you can even go to your local Khadi stores and get 25% discount on this special occasion. And if you are lucky they will even throw in a pair of goodies with foreign labels which Gandhi would have burned in streets.

Today, politicians will garland Gandhi’s ubiquitous golden framed photos and will give speeches on non-violence to the contract audience , but more importantly , will distribute sweets !!... and if we are lucky we might even get specials in our lunch !

So, Gandhi was a good man…fine. Gandhism established itself as a form of revolt…fine. Gandhism is one of the most ethical and strong form of non-violent protests…very fine. Will you practice it..? Ahem…

Or the question is …Will anyone listen to you if you adopt Gandhian methods?
So the question is -Is Gandhism relevant today? …or even if feasible?

I don’t want to discuss much….i just want everyone to make their own view…I just want to give some food for thought-

Narmada Aandolan protesters adopted the non-violent route and they haven’t got a success yet after 2 decades.

AIIMS doctors and thousands of students adopted a non-violent route to protest against the reservation regime proposed by Arjun Singh. Protests went for weeks including hunger strikes and included lathi-charge and use of water cannon against the students. Final Result?- OBC reservation was implemented.

Gujjars turned violent asking for OBC status. They went on rampage damaging railway tracks and nearly isolated a whole state from rest of the country. Final Result? Within few days Indian Government bowed to Gujjars and gave them the backward status.

My questions to the elite think-tank (or so they say abt IIT-IIM guys) are:

Is Gandhism (or Gandhigiri for romantics) irrelevant today? Would Gandhi himself succeeded in the current world? Gandhi’s principles assume that oppressor will feel guilty at some point of time…is this assumption valid in today’s world?

Go Ahead...your views will be published as a post in my blog for discussion.

Ret Par Likha Hua Naam

2008-08-02T21:54:00.000+05:30

Before you start reading my first kavita i need you to read the disclaimers :D

Disclaimer
1. This poem has nothing to do with my personal status ( I'm happily engaged :-) )
2. Being the first time i didn't bother much about hindi/urdu consistency. Purists may forgive me.
3. Constructive criticism is very much invited (including "Don't bother with poetry again" !!)

Pata tha ishq main mar mit na payenge hum,

Par fir bhi aashiqui ka shauq rakhne lage

Ab woh hume chahe ya na chahe

Par ret ke gharondo main hum hi apne khwab sanjone lage

Pata tha un aankhon ka pyala nasib nahi mujhe,

Use dosh na dena duniya walon

Jab uski ek nazar ko apne hisse ka pyar maan,

Hum hi apni khushfehmi main madhosh hone lage

Sagaron ki baat kahan karte usse,

Hum to lehron se bhi anjaan chale

Jo Ret pe kured ke uska naam,

Hum bhi apna prem amar karne lage

Par thokar to lagna hi thi jo,

Ek sapne par hum apna haq samajhne lage

Jin raaston ko taakti thi nigahain humesha,

Ab to we raaste bhi hume anmane se karne lage

Par

Itna zulm seh kar bhi koi gila nahi usse,

Kyunki,

Aakhirkar hum ab,

Pyar ka matlab samajhne lage

The Bullet Point

2008-07-24T18:02:00.000+05:30

'So you want admission here' - He asked

'Yes Sir, i feel i am well qualified for this place. I did many good things in my life which you can see on my resume'

'Hmmmmmm i see that, but is there anything which you don't have on your Resume, for which i can reward you by admitting you into this place'

'No...this is everything i have. This is my life's work' I said nervously

'Are you pretty sure?' He pushed again

'Sir, i thought i will be one of the most eligible candidates because all the good work i have done in my life'

'Ya you have done good work but you have already received your returns on those by writing it in your resume and getting good jobs. And we have strict laws here. We can only provide a pass for your deeds for which you have not got anything in your life. You flashed these bullet points at every opportunity you got and reaped its benefits.But not here.

Sorry. Your application for entering into heaven is rejected'

India, Religion and Riots

2008-07-04T22:15:00.000+05:30

...or should i say "Riots, Religion and India" ?

Today, on 4th July 2008, my hometown Indore is buring in fire.
Why? Because Court ruled against transfer of forest land to Amarnath Shrine Board (ASB).
By Whom? VHP and BJP sponsored a "voluntary" bandh which turned into a violent communal riot.
On Whom? Obviously a common peace loving man is at the receiving end of these violent acts from extremists from both the sides. As of now some Muslim families were killed and few Hindu homes were burnt by the extremists.

Many issues to be addressed here.
First, bandh was not at all voluntary, todays newspapers were filled with images of (so called)activists , pelting stones at the shops. So, can someone explain it to me what a daily wage earner...be it a Hindu or a Muslim, has done anything in his whole life to get kicked when trying to earn his bread and butter. Who will be responsible if his little children won't get food tonight?

Secondly, why these so called activists (read extremists) always attack innocent unarmed families? If they really believe in their religion and are ready to go to any level (so as they claim), why don't they attack each other and decide it among the equals? At least my country will be far better off without some of these people.

Thirdly, If such issues still are haunting India and are resulting in serious consequenses then are we really a communally neutral nation? Sadly we are NOT, everyone including political parties are afraid to call spade a spade. Hindus and Muslims are not called so but are known as "majorities" and " minorities" in India which itself shows our high level of sensivity to even take the name of religions. See these examples:

"The Kashmir government backed down after protests by Muslims who said the land transfer was aimed at changing the demography of the Muslim-majority region. The reversal of the decision, in turn, provoked an angry backlash from Hindus.
On Friday, two more people were killed in Indore, and several injured when police clashed with both Hindu and Muslim mobs." (emphasis added)
Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINDEL28689020080704

"Irked over the curfew clamped in the city since Thursday, a group of people pelted stones at the police in Khajrana area when body of one of the deceased, killed during the bandh, was being taken for last rites, police said. Police fired in the air and lobbed tear gas shells in the troubled area to bring the situation under control. Four persons were killed and 20 others injured in the violence on Thursday during the nationwide bandh called by VHP and supported by BJP on the issue of revocation of allotment of land to the Amarnath shrine board by the J&K Government. "
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Police_fire_tear_gas_shells_as_fresh_violence_erupts_in_Indore/articleshow/3197175.cms

I hope you see my point. The first example is taken from Reuters and second one is from TOI. And i saw many online newspapers to confirm the same. Even Indian media is "afraid" to "talk about that"
World is becoming truly global and "religious orientations" are just one's faith and not an identity but it seems India is a big exception.

But everyone is scared. Scared of few people who give bad name to their religions and their country. Even if they feel that they are doing this for religion, it is sad that they are putting religon over the development of the country. The passion, with which these people try to prove religious supremacy over others, i wish even if 10% of that is put for development of our country, India will touch new heights.
...but they won't, and they will even try to impair educated people who can make it. Another reason which can make talented people leave India.

I hope I am wrong.

THE TIPPING POINT

2008-06-28T19:09:00.000+05:30

With the announcement of 49.5% reservation in faculty poistions in IITs, the bright days of India are coming to an end. As correctly put by one of the IIT Director ""Some of the finest people have given up top positions and fat cheques that were offered to them in other parts of the world to come and teach in the IITs, despite the low pay scale that the government offers. With reservation in faculty positions, I see a day, not far from now, when the IITs will crumble," Consider that even now IITs are facing severe faculty crunch because of lack of talent imagine what will be the situation when talented faculty move to corporate houses who respect the talent.And it won't be long before UPA's HRD extends this quota to faculty positions in IIMs also.And this crumble is really not far- according to HRDs orders this should be applied with immediate effect. This means either hire SC/ST/OBC Profs equivalent to the number of existing Profs !!! OR fire half of your existing Profs to make way for SC/ST/OBCs. My country is great ! Imagine a education system where sub standard profs are teaching sub standard students who are then going into important positions through quota. To put it in perpective its like using sub standard raw material to be processed in sub standard machinery and aiming for a world class product. Just one word to describe this - DISASTER.It is really sad that we are increasing backwardness in the name of equality. And even this brings a bitterness in the society. I can already see people talking in "them" and "us" languages ....is this equality you aimed for Mr AS?

Some reservation advocates talk about OBC population and numbers. Even if we assume that OBC population is 50% (on which all reservation figures are based on and this figure itself is based on a census taken in 1800s !!) reservation should be according to the SC/ST/OBC population giving the exam. But this is not so.

Fact 2: IITs were asked to fill 27% in three stages. i.e. for 2008 admissions 9% seats were reserved for OBC students. Students who were qualified enough- 7.4 %. And this despite of lowering the cutoffs and giving option of preparatory course to students scoring even lower than that. Imagine what will happen when this reaches 27%.

See the picture attached

Fact 3: Since increased quota is not finding any students now UPA is trying to increase creamy layer definition to Rs 5 lakh pa!! This means any OBC earning 40,000 per month is a backward ! If That qualifies for a "backward" quota i can't imagine what upper class is earning right now.

Fact 4: Last year 28 SC/ST candidates were expelled from IIT Bombay for their dismal academic performance. Being an IITian i would also like to point out that SC/ST/OBC students get one extra year to complete the course before being thrown out. Also, nearly all expenses are bourne by the govt. for their complete stay...and this is your and my hard earned tax money that goes down the drain when that happens. Now, these 28 guys have filed a complaint against IIT B alleging "descrimination" !! As if they were asked to write their caste on their answer sheets and Profs deducted their marks for being SC/ST/OBCs

Fact 5: The above facts are useless because they are intended to be read by educated and knowledgeable people and our politicians do not fall into that category.
(BTW approx 35% face criminal charges pending against them including rape and murder charges. See link in references for details)

Well....now at least i don't see my kids going to Indian colleges. Regardless of whether they are talented or not they won't have the "backward" tag ....and even if they managed to get into some institute they will be taught by Profs who themselves have got there through quota and not talent. This is how this crumble will begin and 20 years down the line...all "general" talent would be outside this country, students as well as faculty, and India will be a hub for education and employment - for the backward classes.

References:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HRD_orders_faculty_quota_IIT_directors_livid/articleshow/3173620.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/IITs_struggle_to_fill_up_OBC_seats/articleshow/3146633.cms

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080054606&ch=6/26/2008%2010:25:00%20PM

http://reportpress.wordpress.com/2007/04/06/criminal-politicians-rule-india/