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)