THE DECISION & THE DESTRUCTION

Chapter 3

THE DECISION

The implications of the mistake could have been far worse than my expectations, because it was an experiment in which I was the subject, and my subjectivity had led me in Suchitra’s embrace. Yet I rejoiced every moment of it. My love, my sweetheart was in my embrace. I could smell the scent in her hair. I could feel the flutter of her heart. I could sense the warmth of love emanating from her. It was perfect. And, I wanted to live in this present without worrying too much about the consequences of my action. It was the happiest moment of my life, the moment which I had awaited a long time.

I had known Suchitra ever since I was nine. I always felt happy when she was around. She was angelic, cherubic and chirpy; ever-smiling; ever-chatting.  As a kid of 9, her voice was very sweet; even sweeter than most of the other 9-year-olds at my school. We used to play and run around sometimes at my house, sometimes at her house. We were neighbours. We used to chat for hours.  She used to tell me stories about her school, her family, her neighborhood, anything and everything, and I listened to her rapt with attention. I used to be hypnotized, because I would not be just listening to the story, I would be observing her – her expressions, her voice, and the way she would flick her hair back, when they came in front of her eyes. She had a charm that no one else seemed to possess. Naturally, I was attracted to her. But then, childhood is fascinating. It is filled with forgetfulness. So, I could forget those feelings of love, attraction and infatuation, and yet they could be aroused again. Thus, when we used to be together, I had those feelings. But, when we were not together I would forget. But, at those moments of separation, for example when she would go to visit her Granny’s house (in Chandigarh) for a month , I always felt emptiness in my heart. I would say ‘Goodbye’ with a smile, yet my inside would scream, ‘Do not go. Please stay. God, please cease the time, so that we can stay close forever.’

Today, I don’t have to say all that. Today, I don’t have to remember any of those feelings. Today, the unexpressed and concealed has been expressed, has been revealed. This day hence my life changes forever. I have now decided that I will not leave this universe. All I sought was purpose. All I sought was happiness. Now, I have a purpose – to live forever with my soul-mate, Suchitra. Fulfilling this purpose keeps me happy... I am happy. I am content. I am in love.

--*--*--*--

THE DESTRUCTION

In an unknown and unexplored territory, within the depths of a dense forest, where no human dare pass, the beasts started running wildly here and there. The birds’ soothing melody changed into a cacophony of chaos. The winds signaled an approaching storm.  The clouds roared and thundered. And, out of the thin air materialized a machine, which was not-a-time-machine, which was a paradigm traveler. From the traveler came out a surprised and excited a look-alike of Mohan. He felt happy, yet anxious. It seemed that he had been successful in accomplishing a time-travel, but the landing took place in a time different from his destination-time.

He started walking further to explore the unknown land and ascertain the time, because the traveler showed an inaccurate time, 25^th February 2011, 1:25pm

As he carefully walked through the thick bushes, he noticed the chaos in the environment. His initial thought was that his own unusual presence in the middle of the jungle had created the disturbance. But, that was far from truth. He started moving towards the direction from where the other beasts and birds seemed to flee from.

 Moments later, he heard a big thud and the land beneath his feet seemed to shiver. What was it? He had no idea. Out of curiosity, he kept moving forward. The thuds increased in frequency and intensity. But now, with each passing moment his curiosity started to diminish and gave way to fear and panic. And then, he saw through the dense trees a shadow; a shadow so huge, that it almost hid the sun; and, the shadow came crashing towards the traveler, and the traveler was crushed beyond the point of recognition.

What would happen to this-Mohan now? Will he survive? Will he be able to reach back to his time? Or, will this evil shadow end his story here?

--*--* --*--

THE DATE

“Mohan, what all places did you visit during your travel?”, asked a cheerful Suchitra.

(…to be continued)

SUCHITRA - The Beautiful Picture

Chapter-2

Last time I introduced myself and Ranga sir who is an amazing man because he challenges your commonly held beliefs and perceptions. As I have already pointed out, his advice will play a crucial role in my journeys of the paradigms.

Enough of talk! Let’s venture in some action! Let us see where my journeys take me and who all do I encounter on my way. Let’s go back to the beginning of all this, the Day 1 of the experiment. The big day! The day that changed my entire life!

DAY 1

25^th February 2011, 1:30pm

In my laboratory, I was the subject of my experiment. I was undertaking a huge risk, but the one which was essential, for the implications of the invention, I knew, meant a lot. Keeping my mind filled with the positive thoughts, I overcame fear and ventured on one of the most amazing journeys anyone could ever imagine.

In the glass-chamber of my machine, I pressed the GO button and waited for the engines to start-off. The engine started zooming and the smoke emanated, yet my machine remained still. Though the speedometer actually showed the speed increasing, I did not feel any motion and in fact could still see my laboratory from the glass walls. Then, it happened.

The speed of the chamber was approaching close to the speed of light, though still as a reading on the speedometer only. But, as the numbers approached closer, the machine began to vibrate and as soon as it touched the speed of light, I felt a sudden jerk and a huge expanse of light rays fell on me. It was as if a number of flashlights were focused on me from all the directions, as if I was a criminal caught while trying to run out from a penitentiary. I closed my eyes and waited for the machine to stop. It was supposed to stop automatically, because it was coded to do so after reaching the assigned destination (rather, time). I waited. It took fifteen minutes and twenty two seconds (according to the clock in my traveler) to travel. The machine responded by making a beep sound and running the smoke-remover-fans. I stepped out in anticipation.

What awaited me was distressing for I found myself in the same lab where I had started my journey; just that it was a bit disorganized.  I thought, maybe some vibration or movement from the machine would have done that. I came out of the traveler feeling dejected. I lied down on the sofa.

When will I get success? So, much of labor, and no result!

I tried to calm myself by taking in deep breaths. But, while I did that, I heard someone insert a key in the lock and move the door-knob to open it up.

How can this happen? Only, I keep the keys to access to this part of the lab! God, who is there? Oh! I need to hide the machine.

With a quick movement, I hid the machine behind the automatic curtain and I myself crouched behind the sofa. As the door opened, I heard a familiar voice.

“What’s your big surprise Mohan?”, a voice asked. I was surprised. How could someone know that I was hiding something in here? Feeling that I had been caught red-handed I was about to come out and offer an explanation, when I heard someone else say, “Suchitra, It’s a machine that I have made. I will experiment it today. And, I wish that you be present here with me.”

It was my voice.

The explanation was that I had in fact been successful in doing time travel. But, it was not past, for such an event had never occurred in my life. I had always kept my machine a secret. Maybe the aberration in my machine had taken me to the future. To ascertain my destination (rather, time), I looked at the digital clock kept on the table. To my surprise, I discovered the date and time were 5 minutes less than the time when I had pressed the GO button.

So, was this not a time travel?

I recalled that before entering the machine I had thought about bringing Suchitra, my trusted friend, in and showing her my invention. The secrecy had been killing me. I needed someone to encourage me on my endeavor. But, that had remained just a thought. I had not brought her in. Here is ‘myself’, I mean the ‘other myself’, standing in the lab with Suchitra thinking about telling it all to her. But, what is it? If this is not a time travel, then what is it? I was trying to figure out what my existence in this place meant.

Meanwhile, their conversation went on.

“It’s my new invention,” said the other-Mohan with a visible spark in his eyes.

He removed the curtain and showed her the traveler. For a moment, I thought that this other-Mohan will see my machine. Fortunately, his machine that looked quite similar to mine was kept on the opposite corner of the lab, and he did not notice my machine.

“It looks nice,” Suchitra said with a smile. “What does it do?”

“It’s a time machine.”

“A time machine! A real time machine! You must be joking.” Suchitra was incredulous.

Mohan added, “It’s a real one. And, today I perform the first test on it. I will myself travel using it.”

“You are joking, aren’t you? Tell me that this is your new trick to make a fool out of me.”

Suchitra still could not believe Mohan. However, when she noted sincerity in his eyes, she asked, “Are you sure?"

After a pause, she added with a look of concern, " In that case, don’t you think that you should first test it on some animal like a cat or a dog to ensure the safety of this travel?”

“I can’t risk doing that. If the machine does not work as expected, it will not return back. The animal along with the machine will stay in some other time. If that happens to be past, it might result in anachronisms which might change the world, as we know it today. That would be too huge a risk for it could alter our histories and our lives. Such paradoxes need to be studied and understood.”

“But, what if it lands you some place which is very dangerous?”

“Don’t worry about me. I will be safe. I just want you to keep these blueprints safe and use them wisely, in case I do not return. You are the only one I can trust.”

She frowned and said, “I don’t think you should go on like this.”

“This research has been my life, Suchitra. I have to do this. For emergency, I have stocked in enough food to last a month, and I’m confident about my calculations. If things turn out to be right, there will be no need to worry, for I will land in the future, precisely 10 minutes from now. So, I might spend a month or a year somewhere else, but you will find me here with you just another 10 minutes.”

While the other-Mohan and Suchitra were busy talking, I tried my best to stay low and do some calculations on a piece of paper. I wrote a lot of formulas and did some mathematics to figure out what went wrong. I wanted to ascertain my present location and time. The thought of going to this other-Mohan also came to my mind. But, you never know, time-travel is a tricky thing. He might be very friendly. Or, he might get scared and attack me.  Random thoughts, some rational, some irrational; some logical, some illogical crossed my mind, as I did the math. And, then my eyes noticed something significant on the paper of the notebook. Of course, how could I be so stupid? I observed the parallel lines drawn on the page of the notebook and exclaimed, ‘parallel! Parallel universe!’

“Did you hear that?” asked Suchitra.

“Hear what?” asked Mohan turning towards the sofa.

I realized that instead of travelling through time, I had travelled through space and landed in a parallel universe. There were various theories on parallel universe’s existence, some of which I had even read. But, my algorithms were designed to make a time-travel possible. How could I land in a parallel universe? I had no answer to that. In any case, this travel itself was a breakthrough and that - our understanding of the universe is still very less - was proved.

“Nothing,” said Suchitra.

“It is time to leave then. Adieu,” the other-Mohan hit the GO button. And, he was gone. I noted the time. It was 1:30pm.

Suchitra waited anxiously for Mohan to come back. Every minute, every second seemed difficult to spend.  She waited. As the digital clock showed 1:40pm, Suchitra’s face lit up with anticipation. Her heartbeat was audible even to me. But, nothing happened. And then, tears came rolling down her cheek.

Though she didn’t say anything, I heard her voice in my head. I could not understand how, but I heard her voice say, “Why didn’t I stop you? Why did I let you go? At least, I should have told you about how I felt about you? You were so dear to me. Oh God...”

As I heard the voice in my head, I felt a strong urge to go to her and seize her in my embrace. I always loved Suchitra, ever since our college days. The day I  met her first, I had fallen in love. She was beautiful, sensible and committed to her work. She was all any geek like me could hope for. There had been many instances when I thought of speaking my heart out. But, I could never gather the courage and the most important matter was always suppressed and postponed for some other day.

“I loved you! I loved you so much!”

No, No, damn it! Don't listen to her. I cannot be subjective here. This is not my universe. It’s an alternate reality. I could cause a disaster in this universe with my actions. Moreover, what if the other-Mohan returns? What will I do then? In any case, the simple truth is that my traveler has malfunctioned and I need to go back in my timeline. For that, I have to stay focused. This is an experiment and I need to be objective!

But, Suchitra’s words hit me like painful arrows and pierced through my heart. And, what should not have happened, happened.

I let myself go. I came out of my hiding, embraced her and planted a kiss on her lips. Although she was slightly taken aback, she kissed back passionately. I could hear her thoughts, “never ever leave me again Mohan. You don’t know how much you mean to me.”

A terrible mistake was committed.

(Stay tuned! For the next part has more to keep you all enticed.)

NOT A TIME MACHINE

Dear Readers,

This year I had taken a resolution to post at least one blog entry per fortnight. Unfortunately, since my posting in New Delhi, I have been unable to take time out to fulfill my New Year resolution. Now things have settled down a bit and some of my articles are (to use the software lingua franca) in construction-phase. I will keep my promise and try to keep my readers enticed as well. So, here’s an experiment I begin with this blog-entry. A Science-fiction! And, that too in an experimental style of writing, which one of my mentors like to call ‘conversational style of writing’. I hope you like it. Feel free to share some critical comments on the style as well as the content. Thanks for your encouragement showered on the Facebook page.

Here we go…

CHAPTER 1

NOT-A-TIME-MACHINE

Now the machine that I have built is in no way close to a time machine. It’s a lot different. Although my use of the advanced scientific theories including FTL (faster-than-light) concept and warp hole gravitational modification gives you an impression of a time machine, it is not one. I discovered this deviant nature of my machine while experimenting with it in the laboratory. That was the day one of the experiment and I, who usually had a calm demeanor, was anxious.  

On running the machine what I discovered was something very odd, yet extraordinary. You may call it an aberration. But, an aberration can only exist for a while and that too for a particular measurement or reading. In this case, I was myself the subject of the experiment as I used my machine to travel through (what I perceived was) time. And as a result of the aberration, I landed in a different PARADIGM. Interestingly, even though my machine had not functioned the way I had expected it to, the result meant a huge leap in the science of time-travel. Still I was unwilling to discuss it, fearing the consequences of its misuse.

My journey was not a time travel, because what I saw was not history; and it did not make sense to expect what I saw to be future either. It was the same present presented to me in such a way that it seemed as if someone had taken the fabric of time and twisted it a bit and added some cohesive in the resultant minor cracks. Thus, what I saw was a lot similar to my own world and yet it was different. I thought that maybe I was supposed to be a part of a legend that people will talk about many years from now. The legend, I fancied, would be similar to the legend of King Revaita (which also happens to be the first-ever account of time travel in the world) from the epic Mahabharata, where he reaches the heavens to meet the Gods and when he returns back he finds that many centuries have passed and all his family, friends and relatives are long gone. That might have made up for an interesting mythical story in the past, but today it is simply an example of the phenomenon of time dilation which was propounded by the great Einstein himself while explaining his theory of relativity.

Any case. More on the epic and science later.

Now, if you ask me what my machine really is, I will say that it’s a paradigm-shifter or (more precise scientific name) a parallel-universe-traveller.

From day one, the intent of building this traveller was to travel in time. Building it took much of my time and energy, as I had kept the machine secret from the other people in my lab. Thus, I had to do all the relevant coding and circuitry by myself. Fortunately, as a senior I did enjoy some private research grant from the 

ISRO, and thus funds were never a problem.

After the initial success of my machine I wanted to study all the paradoxes that resulted from the possibility of time travel before venturing on the topic of my interest which was HISTORY. I wanted to go back in past to see how people actually lived. Were the modern scientists and archeologists accurate in their hypotheses? Did Alexander The Great really conquer 3 continents some two thousand years ago? What inspired Leonardo Da Vinci to draw Monalisa? How did Ashoka The Great transform from ‘chand ashok’ to ‘dhamma ashok’? More importantly, when and where the great messengers like the Buddha, the Mahavira , Jesus or the prophet Muhammad present, and what were their teachings? Those meetings could have resolved a lot of dilemmas about life and I could have led a peaceful existence.

Nature willed otherwise. The aberration spoiled all my dreams, at least for some time. However, as I stepped into the parallel universe, I realized that it was also filled with huge possibilities and a lot of value could be derived from my experiences in that universe. In any case, I reached a parallel India which was vastly different. And what follows below are my adventures.

INTRODUCTION

Before beginning with my exploration, let me introduce you to myself. My name is Mohan Bhargava, somewhat similar in traits to the fictitious character of the same name from the legendary movie Swades. Like the fictional Mohan, I also had a deep interest in science. At the age of 18, I was awarded a scholarship to pursue studies in space science from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), one of the most prestigious institutions for studying space science in India. Right after that, I was recruited to work for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), another remarkable organization with numerous gems of victory to its credit. The four year course work and practical sessions at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre left a distinguishing imprint on my mind. The sense of ownership and responsibility towards my organization was cultivated in me at IIST and that has never gone out of my psyche. Another important event of my life that transpired at IIST was meeting Ranga sir. Prof. Ranganathan, or Ranga Sir as we called him, was an amazing person. While teaching he would talk about usefulness and uselessness of technology. He was not like those usual professors who would teach technology keeping in mind the positives alone. He would criticize technology and urge us to think before inventing anything new. At times, he would even criticize Einstein for giving us the equation E=mc2, because of which 2 cities of Japan were destroyed in the World War II. Had Einstein been sane enough not to disclose his finding, the world would not have lived in the fear of nuclear threat.

Ranga Sir was born and brought up in Chennai and had completed his bachelor degree from the Madras University. Later, he went to Purdue to do his doctorate. In spite of being exposed to the whole lot of Western way of education, he maintained some of those aspects of Indian, which youngsters like me called idiotic or old-fashioned traditions and superstitions. His colleagues at times made fun of him, but he seemed unfazed and lived peacefully in his own world.

When in class, apart from teaching laws of gravitation, he would also discuss philosophy and impact of technology on human progress. He seemed to me an eccentric character; at times he disproved the usefulness of technology, yet he continued to teach us technology. That seemed like a paradox. But, like science, life is also full of paradoxes. So I did not mind much. But, it was only after my travel through not-a-time-machine or paradigm-shifter did I realize the significance of his ideas and thoughts. Had he been in the paradigms that I travelled, he would have been hailed a visionary.  

(...to be continued)
(next part comes within the next 7 days)