Image by Mozzer502 via Flickr

She was six, when she first came to a sleepy neighborhood in a small town in Mysore. And it didn’t take her much time to liven up the town. It wasn’t particularly her wish to change anything- but it was due to the playfulness she seemed to awaken in the people around her. Nobody had taken more than five seconds to say, “So Cute!” to her and pinch her large white cheeks.

Though she had to perennially endure burning red cheeks throughout her childhood, the cuteness had its perks. People would bring her chocolates, cookies, cakes, pastries and all the exotic sweets- as if she was their own daughter. She always seemed to bring out the “Let’s Party!” emotion in the adults around her and almost always parties ensued. She would sing, she would dance, and she would clap, and jump, and fall- all, as requested by the many laughing care-free adults around her. She seemed to absorb this carefree attitude- or was it her own, to begin with? Whatever the case was, it didn’t really matter- at least not when she was six. Soon she’d do more than just sing and dance and laugh and clap and jump and fall- she’d start delivering love letters.

Her name was Sharmila and she was the town’s love messenger. A kid of the conservative 90s, she was part of a town where most boys found it tough to talk with the girls they liked. Asking out for a date was a concept straight out of a sci-fi movie for them.

But boys will be boys. They prayed, requested for knowledge transfer from their helpless seniors and tried imaginary love-potions; they did many brain-storming meetings in the last benches during the class- and found the answer to their prayers- Sharmila. After all, isn’t there a saying- Use poison to break poison? Only a girl could break a girl! Sharmila was cute- and if she ever delivered a love letter to you, even if you were a girl, the least you were supposed to do was to read the letter and give a reply, preferably in another letter. Of course, writing your reply using the scented pen and the pink paper was optional- naturally, both the scented pen and blank Pink paper come with the love letter being delivered to you. And giving a blank pink paper with a scented pen to a girl in those days can be compared to giving a mobile phone with unlimited talk-time to any such girl today. And thus, the combination of love letter, plus a blank pink paper, plus a scented pen, plus the charm of Sharmila always ensured a reply.

Sharmila enjoyed all the attention she got from the boys wanting her to deliver their love-letters. Her services were the best in town- and she guaranteed a reply from the girl. And she did all this, for free. Though the boys did give her sweets and ice creams and all other sorts of bribes they could afford, it was also true, that people gave her far better sweets just for clapping and singing. In that sense she was the richest kid in town- she could play with any toy and get any sweet- and she didn’t have to cry for them like most other kids. She was the darling of the town and she was never, what some boys notoriously call, high-maintenance.

By the time she retired from her first job of delivering love letters at the age of 11, she had delivered 399 love letters- and got 399 replies and started a new field in Modern fortune-telling called Papistry. In that town in Mysore, she’s called the Prophet of Papistry who brought 230 positive replies from the Almighty Girls. Her success was probably better than the town’s marriage bureau.

Though Sharmila cannot be credited with the opening up of this new stream in Fortune-telling- she was no doubt, the cause of this Papistry. The term Papistry was coined by her first customer- Sriram. He said, “Just like the random lines on your palm, written by Destiny, can tell your future- in the same way, the pink paper brought by Sharmila, is written by your Destiny. And this pink letter contains glimpses from your future- and I call the Science of reading such Pink Papers as Papistry!”

When Sharmila first heard this from Sriram she said, “It makes sense. But why does it sound so tasty?”

“Ah, it rhymes with Pastry!” said Sriram.

“I see…”

And thus began the legend of Papistry in a sleepy town in Mysore.

And thus, the greatest devotee of Papistry- who’s also the only saint and prophet of Papistry- Sharmila began, rather impatiently, to wait for her pink paper of Destiny- the pink Love Letter meant for her- and was not to be delivered to some other girl. And she prayed to the Gods of Papistry, that the scented pen used to write on her pink paper, should be the scent of Mango. She just loved mangoes- and mangos meant love for her. Her father always used to bring mangos, till he died, didn’t he?

Though she wasn’t particularly religious- by the time she was 15, she generously began to borrow concepts from many religions into her Papistry. One of the concepts she learnt from home was Karma- and it fit pretty well with Papistry. It was her Karma, that for 4 years she hadn’t received even a single holy Pink Paper- else, what could explain the absence of boys’ interests towards her? For 11 years she enjoyed the attention of society- the society pampered her for 11 years, with sweets and toys and parties- but what did she give back to society? True, she delivered 399 Love Letters. It was an accomplishment. Wasn’t it? But now at the age of 15 she felt that she did too little. She could have thought out of the box, and go all out- advertising herself and her services- in distant schools and colleges- for the sake of the poor boys! How many boys married their moms’ choice because of her? Just because she didn’t deliver letters for them? It was a frightening thought! Her carefree selfish attitude filled her pot of sins- and she was paying for those now.

It had been four years since she officially started her wait for a love letter meant for her- when she retired, she retired thinking that from then on- she’d only read love letters meant for her- and not somebody else’s. Alas, no boy seemed to be interested in her. At least no boy, who was brave enough to show her that he was interested in her. And the fact that her ultra-conservative mom had put her in a girls-only high school didn’t help her chances of running into hot boys.

However, she knew that the Gods of Papistry were benevolent and kind. After all, she had delivered love letters to girls far worse than her. She still remembered delivering a love letter to the girl who had lost half her teeth to biting school chalk-pieces. Yes, it was obvious, that the Gods of Papistry were kind. They were responsible for the common playground for two schools- the Girls’ High School and the Boys’ High School, weren’t they?

Sharmila’s Girls’ high School shared their playground with a neighboring Boys’ High School. The playground had an imaginary Line of Control, much like the political borders of any country. The Line of Control was formed by a crazy line of tall trees, right in the middle of the playground. The playground could have been an excellent cricket ground except for those trees. In fact, the whole playground was once a big cricket ground, and it is said that when the ground was divided among the two schools, the curator refused to plant new trees right in the middle of the pitch. His refusal was understandable-all his life he dreamed of making a pitch which would even rival Lord’s pitch in London. Dreams have a heartless way of breaking, don’t they?

It is also said that the curator wasn’t happy with the name of the tree which was planted on his meticulously prepared pitch- the Heart Tree. The Heart Tree was so called because, on the tree there were a lot of hearts. Sanjay Heart Sanjana. Ritu Heart Nikhil. So on and so forth. On his death-bed the curator requested that the tree be named as Stumps.

“Sanjay Stumps Sanjana” certainly sounded better than “Sanjay Heart Sanjana”. But still, the name Heart Tree continued. The Heart tree was the spot for the boys and the girls. It was like the WALL of the two schools, just like in facebook, where boys wrote “I Heart U” messages. Soon the Heart tree ran out of places where one could write. And soon the other trees on the imaginary Line of Control became the new Heart trees.

For Sharmila, the Heart trees were like an alien religion. They had their good points- but they had one flaw- they was not her religion. Her religion was Papistry. She would prefer a guy who followed Papistry than the Heart Trees- just like same caste love-marriage. But she was willing to experiment- and go for inter-caste-love, if somebody wrote on the Heart trees first.

One afternoon after her lunch, she was dangerously flirting with the imaginary Line of Control in the playground- trying to read the many “I Heart” messages.

One of her friends, Priya didn’t like being seen around the Line of Control. She didn’t fear the enemies across the border, but the guards on her side wouldn’t even blink before shooting her down, if they feel that she’s crossing the limits.

“Sharmila!” said Priya, “The teachers might find out we’re here! Let’s go back to Class!”

“Class?” said Sharmila, “What’s fun there? Look at all the prayers of the devotees of Love, here on these trees- just like Papistry!”

“But you said this wasn’t Papistry, and that’s why you don’t like it that much!”

“That was when I was ignorant. Now I have opened my eyes. Can’t you see? Where does Paper come from? Trees! Writing on these trees is also a form of Papistry!”

“You and your logic will kill me- Oh the embarrassment of being caught here! Please let’s go!”

“Ok Ok! You talk as if I was giving you drugs or something!” said Sharmila and turned towards her school. And as she turned, by the power of evolution that gave women a slight advantage in wider vision, than men, in the corner of her big eyes, she caught the Captain of Boys’ High School’s Cricket Team sitting under the Heart Tree, with a Pink Paper and a yellow pen which looked much like a scented pen- much like mango-scented pen. She captured all this info about the boy, as she turned- in less than a second. Truly, women are amazing, aren’t they?

“Papistry!” Sharmila exclaimed.

“I’m tired of that word already!” Priya grumbled.

“Atheist! I can see Papistry happening- there the Captain of Cricket team, Srikanth! He’s writing a love letter!” she said pointing her finger at Srikanth.

“You’re right!” said Priya, “He seems to be writing something on a pink paper with a weird looking pen!”

“That’s a scented pen- Mango-flavored!” said Sharmila, “and I think, I think, he’s looking at me and writing it!”

“What? How can you tell its mango flavored?”

“You always ask the wrong questions!” said Sharmila “Look, look at him! He seems to be stealing glances at me and writing a love letter! Finally the four year wait will be over- My sins are finally washed!”

“Have you gone crazy?” said Priya, “Don’t point your finger at him and smile at him and look so happy! He caught us catching him writing something!”

“Who cares if he caught us or we caught him! It’s Papistry! And it’s so good! I’m so happy!”

Priya dragged Sharmila away from the Heart Trees. Meanwhile, the rest of the Boys’ Cricket team seemed to join their captain, Srikanth, and they all seemed to laugh at him, while Srikanth seemed to get embarrassed.

“See! What did I tell you!” said Sharmila, “He was writing a love letter! Otherwise why would his team-mates make fun of him?”

“Who knows!” said Priya, “Maybe he was writing Poems or something!”

“Love Poems?” asked Sharmila.

“No! Poems about trees and flowers and butterflies and such crap!”

“You really are weird!”

“I don’t want to hear you calling me weird!” said Priya, “Look at you- Smiling and laughing for imagined reasons! You’re the weird one!”

“Look! The boys are leaving and Srikanth is keeping that Pink Love Letter under a rock near the Heart Tree!” said Sharmila, “It is for me! I’m going to take it!”

“Sharmila!” said Priya, “Act natural for once in your life! I can see those boys looking at us! They know that we know!”

“So? Doesn’t that mean that they’re telling me to go ahead and take the letter? They want me to take the letter!”

“You idiot! What if some guard, I mean, some teacher catches us taking a Pink Letter left by a boy? Imagine the embarrassment! And the trouble we’ll get into! I beg you, please, think and do the right thing!”

“Ok!” said Sharmila, and ran towards the Heart Tree, towards the first Pink Letter, meant only for her.

Instinctively Priya ran behind her, to stop her. But it was too late. Sharmila took the Pink Letter from its hiding position.

The Pink Letter was blank, on both sides. There was nothing else around.

Both girls heard the jeering laughter of boys hiding behind some trees, as tears came down like rain on the Pink Letter.

The Gods of Papistry had more bad news for Sharmila- the newest and strictest teacher of Girls’ school practically pulled both girls’ hair, and dragged them to the school office. The teacher, who caught the girls, was observing them from the beginning when they first started flirting with the Line of Control. She had just finished her B.Ed, and joined the staff of teachers a mere two months ago, and she had high regard for morality and as such, was very strict.

“My God!” said the teacher, “How low the girls have fallen these days! Falling for a silly prank of boys in broad day-light! To think that girls would run after a love letter losing all their self-respect! Such a shame!”

“Please forgive us, Madam!” said Priya.

“Who am I to forgive for your shamelessness? Can you forgive yourselves in your hearts? What am I thinking! You probably think that there is nothing wrong in what you did- it was just a paper, right? Left by a boy, right? And you it picked it up, right? To write another one!”

“We are sorry, Madam, We’ll never do this again!” said Priya.

“I know you girls! You’re the trouble-makers of class 9D! And you, Priya- are you Sharmila’s friend?”

“Yes, Madam!” said Priya.

“How can you call yourself her friend? Back in my days, if my friend had done, what she did, I would have slapped her, right in front of all those jeering boys! That is what a friend would’ve done!” said the teacher.

“Madam, Please don’t insult, Priya, it wasn’t her mistake,” said Sharmila, “You remember Papistry right? I just got carried away in fantasizing.”

“Papistry!” yelled the teacher.

“Yes, madam,” said Sharmila, “You remember right? I had given you a Love Letter from a boy, six years ago?  And you gave a positive reply for the boy…”

“Because of that Papistry, I had to end up as a teacher!” said the teacher, “That boy cheated me and got married last year- leaving me all alone and miserable! I am going to mend your stupid ways- you have to call your parents, before you can attend any further classes!”

Like every Prophet of any radical new system, Sharmila had to endure the non-believers and their resistance. But unlike those Prophets, who never faltered in their belief- our Sharmila gave up. Not because she didn’t believe in it anymore- but for a cause much nobler. The teacher called Sharmila’s only surviving parent, her mother to office and humiliated her- in front of the entire school staff. If it was anybody’s mistake, it was Sharmila’s- and not her mom’s. It was a letter after all- but to humiliate her innocent mother for no fault of hers, did not go well with Sharmila.

Thus the prophet of Love Letters became an angry young woman- determined to prove to the teacher, and her mother and herself- that she’s not just some girl with no pride or morals.

Back when she was 11, when people asked what her dream was, Sharmila would reply, “I want to become a Marriage Broker!”

Yes, she probably would have made a great Marriage broker. And she probably would have loved doing it. But at 15, when she was asked what her dream was, she would say, “Being a good girl and earning a lot of Money for my Mother!” In short, the path she chose was, to become a Software Engineer and start earning good money for her mother.

How often do kids do this? Sacrifice their dream for a so called better dream? Isn’t a kid’s true happiness a parent’s dream?

At 19, when asked about her dream she would say, “Software Engineer, but a part time Marriage broker for my friends!”

With time, Sharmila cooled down as she approached her dream- almost becoming a Software Engineer. In her 5^th semester, she was the top student of the best engineering college in Mysore. Probably many would argue that she experienced the best of both worlds- being a silly innocent girl and being a practical, hard working student. But she herself would never admit that she enjoyed her current situation.

She still longed for the Pink Love Letter, meant for her, and only her, from somebody special.

The blank Pink Letter doesn’t count of course. Even in her 5^th semester of her Engineering, she remembered the Captain of the Cricket team, Srikanth, and how she would kick his ass if she ever saw him again. There was something unforgettable, and unforgivable about him that made her miserable and happy all at once, even after four years since he broke her heart. Unaware, her sins had been washed- and the lines on her palm welcomed an old enemy.

Wondering why her palm tickled, Sharmila stood looking at the entrance of college- as if expecting somebody. And as fate would have it. Srikant was walking towards her, with a red envelope!

Sharmila was dumbstruck. It was over three minutes since Srikanth stood near Sharmila- both speechless- looking at each other- looking for the right words.

“Sharmila?” asked Srikanth.

“Yes?” asked Sharmila.

“You re-, really look… I’m re-, really sor… It’s my brother’s wedding next month. Please do attend the marriage ceremony.” mumbled Srikanth.

‘What? The red envelope was a marriage invitation letter?’ Looking at him, and the envelope, a ray of hope had suddenly let her sad heart with happiness. But Sharmila was utterly disappointed. She realized that she was disappointed because Srikanth hadn’t brought a Pink Love Letter, and she was mad. ‘Why this boy, again? Why does he have to look the same, when he looked that day, at me, while he wrote nothing on that blank Pink paper under that Heart Tree? Why do I have expectations from him, as if he owes me a Pink Love Letter? Haven’t I grown up at all? Why am I so hurt?’ She had no answers.

“Excuse me!” asked Srikanth.

“Srikanth! Right? Why are you inviting me to your brother’s wedding? Do I know him?” she asked.

“Yes. His name is Sriram. He was your first customer who asked you to deliver his Love Letter to Rekha.”

“Oh, yes! I know him! I have been in touch with Rekha too. She said she’d send the invitation soon, through some special delivery service!”

“I,” smiled Srikanth, “am the special delivery Service!”

“Oh, she told the wedding would be in Delhi and it’s a two day journey through train…”

“Yes, the tickets are inside.” said Srikanth, “Please do come. My brother and Rekha Dee are very adamant that I convince you to come….”

“No need for convincing!” smiled Sharmila, “I will come. Besides we are having a fest in college during that week, so there won’t be any classes, and I have already informed mom, and since tickets are already here with me, thanks to you, all I have to do is pack!”

“That’s great!” said Srikanth.

And without realizing what she was really doing, she agreed to attend the wedding. When she opened the envelope and saw the pink tickets, she was shocked. The train tickets were for two passengers, one Male aged 21 & the other for Female aged 19.

She called Rekha to tell that she won’t come with the scum of a boy because of whom her mom got humiliated. However her call was futile. After all, she had called a person who had convinced her parents to agree for an inter-caste marriage. Sharmila really had no chance to argue with Rekha, especially on the grounds that Rekha’s brother-in-law was scum who made fun of girls by writing blank love letters to them. Come on, which boy wouldn’t like to make fun of cute girls to attract their attention towards his miserable existence?

One month later she found herself in a train bound towards Delhi for the next two days with a boy she might or might not be in love with or/and  she might kill him to avenge her mom’s humiliation and for writing a blank love letter to her- a love letter for which she had waited 4 years, for which she had shamelessly ran.

She would decide on what t do with him based on how he’d behave with her in the first few seconds… He better leave her alone, or else….

He completely seemed engrossed in some novel.

Two hours went by, no response.

Three hours and still, not even a glance at her! Wasn’t he good at stealing glances!

‘He’s definitely ignoring me and leaving me alone on purpose! Who does he think he is!’ thought Sharmila, as she found herself going crazy sitting alone with him.

And Rekha’s words seemed to play in a loopback in Sharmila’s head- ‘Sriram & Srikanth- those brothers are something aren’t they? Sriram started the whole Papistry with his idea of Love Letter+Scented Pen+Blank Pink Paper and asked you to deliver it to me. That Letter changed my life. Look at me today- I am so happy! That Pink Letter affected your life too, right? You went on to help so many love birds, using that idea! And then, from what I hear from you, another pink letter changed your life- this time it was the brother Srikanth. Srikanth scandalously changed your life with just a blank letter, now isn’t that something! In a way, he gave you purpose and determination to do something in your life, though might not agree with the fact! Those brothers have changed our lives in ways they don’t even know. And again, Srikanth has come to you- the same Srikanth who’s so nice and shy, that he can’t even talk properly with his female colleagues in office- he came to you with another pink letter- the tickets. How do you think these pink letters- these tickets will change your life now? ’

Tickets don’t count as Papistry, do they? Tickets can’t change lives, right? Rekha must have strayed from Papistry! Trying to fix his brother-in-law with me! There must be a ton of things wrong with him!

Just then an IRCTC staff member came to take orders for lunch.

“Actually I won’t eat anything because in the left part of my mouth there’s an ulcer and on the right side, a tooth hurts, for some reason” shrugged Srikanth, “Would you like to order something, Sharmila?”

“No” said Sharmila, “I have brought enough food for two days for both of us. I don’t like outside food- even more so in trains….”

“I see,” said Srikanth, “So you have prepared the food yourself?”

“Yes. I am learning how to cook and my mom helped in preparing it…”

“Oh, I see, well,” said Srikanth, “ I just remembered that I lied about having a tooth-ache and an ulcer. I didn’t want to embarrass the IRCTC Staff Member by criticizing their food. I too don’t like food served in trains…”

“Good to hear that you don’t have a tooth-ache or ulcer! Shall we eat now?”

“Yes, uh” said Srikanth, “Do you have any medicated gel for Mouth Ulcers? I forgot to pack…”

Sharmila looked at him with a smile, and shook her head. This guy can’t even hide a lie!

“That’s Ok,” said Srikanth, “I have tooth paste.  I, huh, I just have to brush one more time. Will be back in 5 minutes…”

Sharmila saw Srikanth awkwardly walk towards the bathroom without a toothbrush. ‘He definitely has an ulcer, and probably has a tooth ache too. He was lying about lying. And he’s terrible at lying! To eat food prepared by me, he went to apply tooth paste on his ulcer! Nice Guy? Or was he just hungry? Or is it another game?’

Sharmila was smiling for now. ‘Maybe, he’s a nice guy. Rekha said so.’

After they had lunch and some pleasantries exchanged, Srikanth seemed to get more comfortable.

“Looks like I was worrying too much!” said Srikanth.

“You were worried?” asked Sharmila.

“Yes, of course! I mean, I made you cry over a blank paper, didn’t I? I was worried that you might hate my guts…”

“Well I do! I haven’t forgiven you for that yet!”

“I see. But even if you hate me, you seem, I mean, you are so nice to me! You cooked food for me!”

“Oh, now I get why you ran off to put tooth paste on your ulcer! You didn’t want to hurt my chef feelings?” laughed Sharmila, “If I think about it, it was just a silly prank, and I fell for it, that’s it. No big deal. Are you good at pranks?”

“No, I’m not good at planning pranks.  And about that day, it was not a prank, I mean, it wasn’t my prank…” said Srikanth.

“What do you mean?”

“I was writing under the Heart Tree and the boys caught me writing and they saw you with Priya pointing your finger at me and smiling- so they, so they made me put a blank paper under that tree…”

“Wait, what?”

“I didn’t expect you to run towards the paper! Not even in my wildest dreams…” said Srikanth.

They were quiet for a while- staring outside the windows of the train. It was monsoon and the cool wind couldn’t keep the thoughts and emotions cool inside that tense atmosphere.

She had to know what he was writing that day. She deserved to know- considering the things she went through…

“What were you writing under the Heart Tree on a pink paper with a yellow mango-scented pen?” asked Sharmila finally.

“I was just scribbling something- nothing important…” said the stunned Srikanth.

“Why did you have to steal glances- to look at me, for scribbling?”

“It was nothing intentional- I was looking everywhere- I’m absent-minded like that- maybe I gave you the impression that I was looking at you…”

“A girl can tell when a boy is looking at her…”

“And that’s, that’s your argument and proof?”

“Yes, what were you scribbling…”

“Ok Ok! I was looking at you, Ok?”

“I already know that- what were you writing?”

“I can’t really tell in words what I wrote…”

“Give it a shot!”

“I can’t really tell! It’s a boy thing!” gulped Srikanth.

And suddenly Sharmila started feeling irritated and stupid. Being lied to by a bad liar is not a good feeling. This boy had been driving her crazy in more ways than one. But what was more irritating was the fact that she was the one who was acting crazy- not him. Could she really blame him, for everything- for what happened that day with the blank letter or the teacher or even now? Most of it was her fault.

She was the one who ran to pick up the pink letter. She was the one who had pissed off the teacher. She was the one who was unnecessarily grilling a shy boy about what he was writing under a tree looking at girls during his high school days.

She felt even more stupid and mad.

They were silent for a few minutes.

“It looks like you are mad at me…” said Srikanth.

“No, I’m Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you something inappropriate.” said Sharmila.

“But you still seem mad than sorry” smiled Srikanth.

“Do I?” laughed Sharmila, “I don’t know, the blank letter of yours brought me a lot of tough times, so I just can’t help but imagine, what if you left something that wasn’t blank! I mean, I know, I sound crazy…”

“I saw the teacher drag you while you were still crying…” said Srikanth, “I’m so sorry, because the guys made me pull a prank on Priya, you got stuck in it…”

“What? The blank paper was intended for Priya?”

“Yes. Didn’t Priya tell you? She used to be my neighbor and always used to drop by my home for some reason or the other & the boys thought that she liked me…”

“Priya never told me about that!”

“I thought you girls were close…”

“I thought so too! But she never mentioned being a neighbor to such a hottie, I mean… I mean, naughty boy- who… who writes blank love letters!”

Both Sharmila and Srikanth blushed for some time.

“By the way, were you writing that letter for Priya?” asked Sharmila.

Sharmila did not know the concept of uncomfortable questions! But then again, even if it was a bad prank, all these days she thought that the blank love letter was meant for her- as if there was some relief in the fact that somebody, and that too not just any somebody, the Captain of the Cricket Team, Srikanth, who she saw- the boy who won many matches, single handedly for his school, the boy who had a funny shyness around him, who sometimes walked ten steps behind her, to school, for almost ten years with a stupid smile- instead of a confident hello- that same Srikanth who was always dear to her, somehow, at least as a prank had written her a love letter, even a blank one- and that thought somehow sustained her angry studious years. But, now he comes along, not so shy, not so cute and lies often- but tells the truth about the one thing she’d rather live, again and again, all her life- as she knew how it was- but he decides to tell her that it was a lie. The prank was not meant for her- but for Priya. The letter was not for her- but for Priya. Anger won’t be enough for the angry young woman this time.

And, Srikanth looked like was in serious dilemma.

“You must have written that letter to Priya- you were looking at me because you wanted to give that letter to me, to ask me to deliver it to her! You thought we girls were close, so you thought that I might deliver it to her without any problems! After all I had done such things in the past!”

“No! no! You are getting it all wrong!” urged Srikanth.

“How many times can I get the same thing wrong- that one thing that changed my life!” said Sharmila, almost crying.

Srikanth was confused even more now. The event changed her life? What did she mean by that? And why did she look so hurt?

“I am feeling a bit tired, I’ll sleep for some time, OK?” said Sharmila.

Srikanth waited till Sharmila fell asleep. He took out his phone and looked at Priya’s Contact number for a few seconds. ‘No, not Priya. Rekha Dee! I should call Rekha Dee, she might know about what Sharmila was talking about!’

And Rekha told him the whole story. But she also told him to keep quiet, and said “Get to know her a little and see if you still want to tell her the truth!”

For the rest of the journey both of them just talked about other things. For some reason, Srikanth became more confident and comfortable around Sharmila. But for Sharmila it was really painful. She wanted to stop thinking about this pink paper mess. But she couldn’t. She felt that for Rekha, the Letter changed her life by bringing forth love for the person who wrote the letter- Sriram. For herself, she felt like, the Letter had brought out the anger, the craziness she had within her towards the person who wrote the Letter- Srikanth.

By the time the wedding was over, Srikanth and Sharmila grew closer. Once the wedding was over, Sharmila had to return back to Mysore- with Srikanth., in the same train for two days. And then part their ways…

Once again, just before lunch time the IRCTC staff member came to take orders for lunch.

“Sharmila, my mom has prepared food for both of us…” said Srikanth.

“That’s very nice of her! Even during the hectic time of his son’s wedding she prepared food for us…” said Sharmila.

“Oh she was worried about you when I told her that you don’t eat the food from train,” said Srikanth, “You really left an impression on them. Everybody loved you at the wedding- you were the centre of attraction during all the songs and dance!”

“Oh really?” smiled Sharmila, “But for all the girls, the centre of attraction was you Mr. Guitar Hero! You really were amazing- and you played so many of my favorite songs!”

“Ah I just joined in when you were singing!” said Srikanth.

“I really loved some of the songs you wrote yourself! You are really talented!”

“Some of them were mine and some of them were from my college rock band, but you’re the one who’s really talented”

“Really? And why is that?” asked Sharmila.

“Even though you were mad at me, you sang with me and danced and made the wedding so much fun. You really have a big heart”

“I think I should really apologize for my behavior, earlier. I asked you so many questions & got mad at you for such a petty reason”

“No, you were right to get mad. I talked to Rekha Dee and she made me realize my mistake. I am sorry- I never knew that the prank had caused you so many problems…” said Srikanth.

“Hey that’s all in the past,” smiled Sharmila, “Friends?”

“Yes, friends!” smiled Srikanth and shook hands.

“So now that we are friends,” said Sharmila, “Can I see that pink letter? I want to see what you wrote to Priya!”

Both Srikanth and Sharmila laughed, “Sure, now?” asked Srikanth.

“You have it with you now?”

“Yes!” he said as he took out a folder from his bag.

Sharmila took the Pink Letter from him. It smelled of mangoes. But it was blank!

“Srikanth!!!” said an irritated Sharmila.

“Turn it over!” laughed Srikanth.

And when she turned over the Pink Paper, she could see a really beautiful sketch of a 15 year old Sharmila- signed by Srikanth. He had drawn a portrait of her with a mango-scented pen.

“I never wrote it for Priya- that day under the Heart Tree, I was writing the letter, for you… But I never had the courage to give it you… Now that I know you, I can’t help but give it to you and show you my feelings, how I felt that day, and how I feel today…”

Sharmila couldn’t believe her eyes. He was stealing glances that day-to sketch her- and so beautifully too! This was the letter that fate had denied her four years ago. But she was really happy- four years was worth the wait. She had seen 399 Pink Love Letters, and this was the best one- and not just because it was meant for her.  She couldn’t hold back her tears. Sharmila looked with teary eyes at Srikanth, and he was blushing and smiling and turned his gaze away from her.

“It’s not fair! I suffered so much! And you look so… So uncharacteristically confident! You’re not scared of my rejection?” asked Sharmila wiping her tears.

Srikanth looked at her and said, “Actually, I knew that you won’t reject me from the day of journey from Mysore to Delhi…”

“What! How?” she asked.

“You talk in sleep! And you were…”

“What did I say!” she yelled in horror.

“Of course, you were dreaming…”

“I know that already! But which dream! Which dream!!! I get very embarrassing dreams! Oh my God! Oh my God!!!”

“Oh! This is breaking news!  But before we talk about your naughty dream,”  laughed Srikanth, “I always wanted to give this letter to you- but it’s still incomplete. I have to make a small change- wait” and he took the Pink Letter from her.

On the blank side of the paper with a mango-scented pen, he wrote down something and gave it back to her. It was his phone number with a grinning self-sketch!

“Give me that mango scented pen” she said after a while and took the pen from him. And from her bag she took out the original blank pink paper that she had taken from the Heart Tree when she was 15 and wrote down something and said, “In my hand are all the stuff a girl receives as part of Papistry- the scented pen is yours and the blank paper is the one you left under the Heart Tree, I am assuming that the sketch is the most beautiful Love Letter, ever, which you have given me, finally, after four long years!  And there’s me- so with this the Papistry is complete! This is the 400^th reply in Papistry Histroy, you blushing idiot!”

“And the 231^st positive reply!” added Srikanth looking at her reply. She had written her phone number too.

“Congratulations! And hey! I can already see the glimpses of my future in this Pink Paper!” he said.

“What do you see!” she asked getting excited.

“Oh I am awake late in the night- listening to what dreams you are having!!!”

“Srikanth! What did I tell you in my dream? What!!!”

He took out his mobile and sent her a SMS.

It read- “Wanna SMSistry?”

She replied, “Gladly- coz it’s still Papistry!!!”

****************************************************************************************************************

Dedication:

This story is dedicated to Srikanth, for being one of my coolest friends, and Sriram, who will be going away for a while, on a new adventure

Credits: 

Though the story is entirely a work of fiction- my sister, Swaroopa and Pavan did give me the seeds, from which this tree of a story has born.

(A Romantic Thriller Story)

I am a young struggling actor and I have just one dream- to haunt every silver screen in the world. I want to be the biggest movie star the world has ever been an audience to. For the past 3 years, I’ve lived every day like a high profile audition for my next big break- each day the tickets were sold out and each day it was a stellar performance. Today is one such day…

A rich and successful producer, Kapoor Saahab, wants me to go to the Apollo Hospital and meet his sick daughter, for two hours. If I do this, and if the sick daughter is pleased by my performance, then I will get to play the lead character in the very talented director Bhansaali  Saahab’s next Romantic Sci-fi movie titled “Trisexual Quadrelateral”- where the species of man is trisexual, instead of bisexual. And all I had to do was-to pretend that I was the sick daughter’s boy friend, convincingly! Sure why not! To be the lead actor in Bhansaali  ‘s next movie- I’ll be her God-damned husband for the rest of my life.

I brought Jasmine flowers, as instructed. She was still sleeping restlessly, when I entered her room. I read her chart- the sick girl’s name was Anju, just Anju. Her whole body was nothing more than pale tight skin wrapped tightly on some fragile ancient bones. She was very ghastly, unlike the very handsome & lively Kapoor Saahab, her father. Kapoor Saahab and Anju had no physical similarities at all. Anju must have gotten her looks from her mom- or was it her sickness?

She probably realized my presence & opened her eyes. She looked like she was recovering from being in a coma or something coz she couldn’t move her body in a well coordinated way. She was clumsy with the flowers that I gave her and she didn’t know how to respond to my very generous hug. She was just too weird- too not human.

“What’s your name?” she asked cheerfully, breaking the gaze of my judging eyes on her body. She had a melodious voice.  That was a pleasant surprise- for some reason, I imagined her to have a monstrous voice, like the female ghosts in some horror movies.

“Did you forget your boy-friend so soon, Anju?” I teased.

“So you are my boy friend, huh?”

“Ah! You and your jokes! Sometimes I don’t get your jokes, dummy! Of course I am your boy friend Vicky- how can you forget this cute smile of mine, huh?”

“So Kapoor Saahab wants to cheer me up, after I woke up from that horrible accident, in this way?”

“Ah Kapoor Saahab?” She calls her dad Kapoor Saahab? I tried to change the subject, “So your friend died in this accident, is it? How long ago was it? You were in a coma weren’t you?”

“Ho! Slow down there SuperMan!” she muttered, “I just woke up after a year! I’m slow, and uncoordinated and dizzy and dazzled by your… by your sweet handsome looks!”

“Story of my life!” is all I could say and gave her time to do whatever she wanted to do. I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable- my career was on the line here. I wanted to make her happy. This was a feeling I never felt before- the feeling of trying to make others happy or laugh… And I always wanted to be an actor, whose profession is to entertain others- yes, yes, I am getting the irony!

“So you’re here to make me feel better?” she asked finally.

“Yes”

“How long do you have…”

“A little less than two hours…”

“All righty then- Entertain me! Blow my mind away!” she exclaimed lighting her eyes up.

“Well, I always seem to have all the solutions”, I began, “Maybe I made a wrong career choice- I should have been a chemist!”

She blinked. She didn’t get the joke.

“A chemist, you know- he has… he has all the solutions … in the beakers” I said making shapes of beakers and Bunsen burners through my fingers.

“You’re joke sucks! You know, you’re too cute to be a comedian- why don’t you try doing some romantic stuff”

“Romantic, huh?”

“You know kiss- slap stuff”

“Romantic Action?” I winked.

“Yeah! Stuff like that!”

“So, romance for you and some action for me!”

“Well, stick to just Romance, for now” she smirked, “Like making me feel beautiful… Can you do that?”

“You are beautiful!” I said casually. It came very naturally.

“Yes, like that, make me feel divine!” she said raising her head. Her unkempt hair bounced over her shoulders- coming alive, as if they too had woken up from the coma. This girl was not just bones. She had a lovely voice, with wide lively eyes. She had a cute smile- with her long black hair- inviting me to play with them.

There was a new aura in the room now. I let myself into the magical mood- I entangled my finger gently in the single strand of hair, which was fishing around on her forehand.

“Looks like I caught myself a pretty merman here” she teased.

I smiled. I didn’t answer her. There was no need for words to feel this moment- to make her feel beautiful.

I continued playing with her bouncy hair and gently pulled her onto the pillow. I could almost hear her pacing heart- her eyes were giving away her naughty smile- which she tried so hard to hide. I broke the slender thread holding the Jasmine & Crossandra flowers together and sprinkled the flowers all over her hair.

“You’re making a mess in my hair! This is supposed to make me feel pretty?”

“It reminds of the night-sky…”

“What?” she asked getting curious.

“Your long shiny hair…  That’s the dark night sky… You are playful and ticklish and restless in my arms, the flowers in your hair seem to be imitating you- scattering all over your hair- as if tiny fairies prancing around in the night sky. The white Jasmine flowers look like shiny little stars against your hair…. The orange Crossandra  look like planets, like Jupiter…. The white bed-sheet, when it flows over your hair, looks like the clouds and…”

“And?”

“And your bright happy face looks like the Moon… No, it’s prettier than the Moon.  And whenever you smile, it reminds me of the Lightning… The erratic electrifying smile… You are the true spirit of the night…“

“Wow! Beautiful!” she whispered.

She looked so cute, I couldn’t help myself from saying- “I can keep looking at you forever”

“Be careful about what you wish for- it might come true, you know!”

“I’d love that!”

Suddenly the atmosphere grew heavy. I saw fear in her eyes. She was trembling all over. I thought it was something related to her condition but she kept looking at the window, as if her life depended on it.

“Hey Vicky, can you see something over there, near the window?” she asked.

“No” I replied, as I walked towards the window. Suddenly I could feel my body freeze. I could see my hands turn bluer and bluer. I froze. Everything was getting blurry & I was scared. I thought I was going to die…

“I don’t need you… Go away! Go away! Please, I beg you…” I heard her shout at the top of her voice.

Slowly I could feel the flow of blood in my body. I could feel my heart beat faster; my breathing was not natural- “What the hell was that?” I yelled breaking into sweat.

“Your job is done, Vicky. Go home,” said Kapoor Saahab running into the room, he seemed to be panicking, “Here take this address and come tomorrow at 11 a.m sharp. Bhansaali  Saahab will be eagerly waiting for you.”

I suddenly remembered about why I had come here. Was I dreaming? Is this really happening? Was I really going to be a lead actor in Bhansaali  Saahab’s movie?

“Kapoor Saahab, his two hours are not over…” interrupted Anju.

“But honey, just now…” Kapoor Saahab’s eyes welled up.

“It’s not what you think it is…” Anju was crying too.

What was going on here? What just happened?

“All right Sweety, whatever you want… You know I’ll do anything for you…”

“I know… I know”

“I love you, angel”

“Love you too…”

“Just a few more minutes” said Kapoor Saahab, locking the door behind him and Anju and I were alone again.

“Just don’t ask about it, OK?” she ordered.

I nodded my head reluctantly.

“Here’s what I want you to act like,” she continued, “You are dead…”

“That’s easy!” I smiled lying down.

She giggled- “No, you are a ghost and you haunt your own grave!”

“How very glamorous of me!” I noted.

“You know there’s a reason why you haunt your own grave- you have many people that you love. There are many people that you want to help and protect, but you can’t. You have no powers at all. You couldn’t hurt or help a fly even if you wanted to… And nobody can see you or feel you, not even your girl friend… You are helpless and lonely… Very lonely”

“This gets better and better every second….”

“Stop complaining… now here’s the interesting part. Your girl friend, which is me, visits your grave daily …”

“I would expect nothing less from her!” I smiled.

“Now now, calm down fella! You have a scary task at hand…”

“What?” I asked getting interested.

“Your girlfriend wants to desperately meet you, wants to have one last conversation with you. Luckily for you, there’s a way for you to do that- just one time, you can appear before her and talk to her- to ease her suffering… would you do th…”

“Wait! Is that what it was? That thing near the window… was it your boyfriend’s ghost?”

“What- no! No! Silly! This is a romantic horror!” she started laughing hysterically.

The door opened and Kapoor Saahab entered again, but with much more composure than the last time.

“Time’s Up” he said.

I looked at him. I didn’t know what to do. He was my benefactor, and I didn’t want to do anything that would offend him. But on the other hand if I could solve whatever that thing near the window was, then maybe, I might make him much more relaxed. Of course, the real reason probably was that Anju was scared of that thing and I really wanted to get rid of it. I wanted to protect Anju- I just didn’t know how or why though… And what was that story about the ghost that Anju was talking about…

“Thank you, Vicky for being such a wonderful boy friend! And Kapoor Saahab, he’s going to be one helluva actor! Please gift him a good shelf, with lots of space, for all the Oscar Trophies he’s going to win…”

“Ah won’t that be the day!” I winked.

“Goodbye!” said Anju.

“Goodbye? I will be back tomorrow to see you!’ I said warmly.

“Now that won’t be necessary young man! If you want to continue to be in that movie, then promise me, that you won’t ever try to meet my Anju ever again!” warned Kapoor Saahab.

“Kapoor Saahab, you don’t have to be that harsh on him! Vicky, it was fun meeting you, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to meet again…”

“What!” I was so confused. What’s going on here? Did she not enjoy my company? And what the hell was I thinking? I should be happy for getting my dream job! Why am I getting so worked up over this, this skeleton of a girl! She didn’t mean anything to me! Did she?

“Please try to understand! You know, I love Bhansaali Saahab’s movies! And this new movie with you in it, I’ll definitely see it a million times, OK?” I sensed tears in her eyes. Or was it just my eyes playing tricks on me? Her voice was as cheerful as ever and she probably was enjoying this twist in the tale, which the father-daughter wrote long before, with loud sadistic guffaws.

Was this just a father-daughter game? A very cruel sadist game?

I showed myself the door without even a second look at her and without fuss. I was shocked and my heart was feeling heavy. And God Damn it! Why did I care so much if I see this skeleton-girl again or not? I had seen better girls right?

I waited outside the room for the lift. I was lost in the thoughts of the starry sickly girl. I was getting impatient.  I was getting irritated. Even the damned lift was not coming- I kept waiting and waiting- the lift was not coming.

Finally a doctor came towards the lift and pushed the lift button.

He pushed the button. What the hell was I doing? I was just waiting impatiently, without pushing the button- without doing anything… I was doing nothing. Was I not going to do anything to lift myself towards Anju?

I walked into the lift. As the 2 doors closed I could see that someone had drawn a man on one door & a woman on the other door with a permanent marker, with great effort. When the doors closed, the 2 sketches merged into a single piece of beautiful art- the man kissing the woman.

“Even the man in the lift door sketch is having more fun than me!” I thought.

Really, the man in the sketch was having a better time. He knew exactly what was going to happen. No matter how long the door wasn’t in his favorable position, it was going to change, & soon. He’d kiss the girl he loved, eventually & repeatedly. Sure, she wasn’t Mona Lisa or Shakunthala in her beauty of art, but she faithfully waited for him, understood him. She loved him & every time he was lonely, she gave him the best of her hugs & kisses & made him happy. No wonder the man loved her, & never looked at other girls in the lift!

Man, what am I thinking! I really must be going crazy! Was I jealous of a lift-art? Was I expecting to get kissed like the lift-man, without even pushing a damn button? I had to do something. But what? She doesn’t want to see me! I tried to laugh at myself, for having such stupid thoughts, but my eyes were feeling heavier.

I wanted to think about something else- I looked at the doctor in the lift.

“Hey! You met Anju just now, didn’t you?” he asked me.

“Yes” I replied.  Of all the topics, he starts with Anju! Damn, my eyes are getting heavy!

“I’m Dr. Sharukh. Feel like a cup of Tea?” he asked.

“Only if you are paying!” I managed to say with tears in my eyes. Damn it, I can’t stop thinking about her! I just saw her a few seconds ago- and I already miss her so much!

We walked towards the cafeteria.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Anju- they don’t want me to come here again tomorrow…”

“Obviously” he said with a sarcastic shake of his head.

“Obviously? What do you mean?”

“Don’t you know?”

“What? I met her for the first time today!”

“She’s a lily- like in that poem”

“What?”

“A lily of a day, Is fairer in May?”

“English Please!”

“She wakes up only once in a year and goes back to sleep after 8 hours of being awake or so…”

“What? She’s awake for just 8 hours in a whole year and for the rest of time she’s.. she’s…”

“… she’s just a vegetable, man…”

“Am I being duped or something? Is this some live reality TV show where they fool people?”

“It’s all real man, believe me. I’m her doctor. I just wanted to know something from you…”

“What can I tell you? I don’t know anything! This is all so messed up!”

“Listen! Did you see Anju and Kapoor Saahab interact with each other today?”

“Wha—yeah. Yes.”

“Was it cordial? I mean, were they like father-daughter? Was there genuine concern for each other and all that bull?”

“Yes. They love each other a lot.”

“I am going to press charges against Kapoor Saahab, today. I think he doesn’t care for Anju- he’s delusional and thinks that his daughter is a demon. The ward boy heard him say this when Kapoor Saahab was drunk last night…”

“Wait, what are you saying? He’s a really good father. Now that I think about it, he gave his daughter a boy-friend for 2 hours from the 8 hours that she has… that must have been very tough, but he did it for Anju’s happiness…”

“Dude, Anju is not Kapoor Saahab’s daughter”

“What?”

“Well, I caught them kissing once…”

Huh? The old man and the skeleton girl? My skeleton girl? My Anju? Is the doctor playing some prank? Anju and Kapoor Saahab are a daughter-father pair, right? Not some kissing… Yew! No! They are… Wait, I never heard Anju call Kapoor Saahab as Dad or Father or Appa or Pops or … or anything else… She always called him Kapoor Saahab… It can’t be! The words- they called each other- they were- Honey, Sweety, Angel- I love you- they said that they loved each other- the old man and the skeleton girl- playing some sick games with me- I, I, huh… I couldn’t take it anymore…

I ran up the stairs to her room. I could hear Anju and Kapoor Saahab arguing loudly. I opened the door…

“Vicky!!” said Anju.

“What are you- you two?” I asked disgusted at the sight of them holding hands. Were they arguing while holding hands? Who are these people?

“I was just telling Kapoor Saahab, that I love Vicky, more than him!” said Anju cheerfully.

“And I was just telling her, that you, my dear Vicky boy, that you don’t fancy her!” said Kapoor Saahab, “Surely you have better women- and with Bhansaali Saahab’s movie coming up, I don’t think you’ll be sticking to just one girl, and definitely not some sick twisted girl!”

I looked at them in disbelief- “I love Anju- just now I was… I was crying, coz I was missing her…”

“You did?” asked Anju with a smile, “Awwww!”

Kapoor Saahab calmly reached inside his pocket to take out a pistol and shot at me. But he missed.

Anju screamed wildly and when she realized that I was not hurt, she looked at the window and said- “Kill Him!”

Kapoor Saahab instantly froze to death- and Anju began to shiver.

I could see her fingers, practically melting into the void near the window. Soon her entire left hand was missing. I was at my wits end- nothing was making sense. I grabbed her right hand and held her face in my palm. She looked so beautiful- so peaceful.

“You made me feel beautiful!” she said.

“You are beautiful, silly” I said, controlling my tears, “Don’t leave me… Please don’t leave me alone here…”

She bent her head towards me. Her entire body was almost gone.  She looked like she was in pain now- I caressed her cheeks and kissed her. Lightly, at first- and soon, it became fierce- and painful and teary. I let go of her lips, which later said- “I’ll be… back, Chemist!”

And she was gone.

******************************************

When I finally regained some sense, I realized that there was a dead body in the hospital room. Kapoor Saahab’s frozen eyes were looking straight at me- as if mocking in a victorious hurrah. It was very unsettling- the old man looked very happy. In his hands I could see the pistol, and a letter.

Surprisingly, the letter was addressed to me. Did the old man plan all this? Did he plan his death?

I read the letter-

Dear Vicky,

If you are reading this, then it means that I’m dead! Finally! I am dead! What a liberating feeling!

I met Anju some 612 years ago. I was just a normal human then. But Anju wasn’t. Even to this day I don’t know what exactly she is. There are no stories that truly describe what she truly is- no a historical account, or rumors or myths.

All I can tell you is that, she’s crazy. And she’s powerful- very powerful. When I first met her- she had no human form. But we fell in love with each other. I hate myself for falling in love with her- I hate that wretched stupid moment, I fell for her- it was the beginning of my doom- and my immortality.

She wanted to make me happy- make me enjoy the pleasures a human body desires and longs to savor. But she couldn’t do that, the way she was. She had a body- which was invisible. My hands would touch her- yet I couldn’t feel her. She was, nothing more than thin air… And this pained her.

She longed for a human body. To feel, what I wanted to feel. So she did something crazy using her powers. She sealed her “good” part into the shape of a human girl and sealed her “evil” into the invisible beast, which constantly guards the weaker human girl. Somehow, she failed. The human girl could maintain her conscience for eight hours only, in an entire year. And the beast was just a beast- with no human intelligence.

She tried many times to gain a body with longer time-limit of being awake, but she kept failing- every year. As I aged- she began to feel more scared- and lonely. So she put a charm on me- and made immortal, and put me in charge of taking care of her vegetable of a body, throughout the year, just like what the beast did. And for eight hours, I was supposed to love her sickly body. It was sickening. Death would’ve been so much better than the life I was living with her…

There was no love… no death… for me. And every girl, I ever loved or cared for, during the time when Anju was asleep, the beast would find her, and freeze that girl to death. I kept trying to find new love, and the beast would take it away from me. I ended up killing many girls. I fought with the beast, countless times- the beast always left me a half dead cripple- and when Anju woke up, she’d find me and revive my body and this cycle repeated for what seemed like eternity.

There was no Escape. There was no Nirvana…

There was no hope… for a long, long time, till you came along.

I’m so happy that my savior is finally here… I’m not even sorry for what I’m putting you through. All I can say is that, I can understand your pain- and that Anju is very loyal, she’ll not leave you, no matter what you do- and that she’s very jealous. And very very callous.

Hope you like Romantic Horrors…

Hope you enjoy your “Lived happily ever after”

Goodbye!

******************************************

The next day I became accustomed to being lonely and helpless like the ghost in the act written by Anju. Additionally I was scared- the letter drove me nuts. Each second I looked at the window, and wondered whether Anju was dead or alive. I would go near the window, half-wishing that the thing would kill me and spare me from this misery of not knowing and the horror of Anju’s romance.

Soon my mind was playing tricks on me. I knew that the thing was near the window and yet I wouldn’t freeze- it wasn’t trying to harm me. My hands didn’t turn blue. And this scared me! Kill me already! I don’t want to live… for ever with Anju! Anju! Anju- I could almost feel her…  I could almost hear her heart beat…

“You there?” I finally asked.

“Yes” was her reply.

“Anju!!!” I gulped. My whole body was trembling… I was… I was…

“Till death do us apart- make me feel beautiful!” and I could almost feel her kiss me. She was right- this is a romantic horror…

Just then my mobile phone rang. It displayed- “Bhansaali  Saahab Calling…”

Book: The Time Tourists (aka Earth’s Rebirth)

Chapter 1: How to Kill Science

Timeline 1

As he looked at his Mother Earth, at the peak of her glory, a vision flew by Vibhuti. The planet earth was rolling down from the peak of the Majestic Pyramids- at lightning speed,  in the grandeur of Pyramids, he could almost hear the excitement in Mother Earth’s voice- he tries harder to hear her voice- her words. His pupils dilate- it was her deafening scream for help- the earth was rolling down towards the vast lifeless desert.

He could see his Mother Earth pale- the blues and greens on her face were fading and gathering the dust from the pyramids. She soon turned brown & her face was cracking- falling towards an abyss of sand…

And then he saw himself- running down the slope of that Pyramid, desperately in pursuit of his goal- Mother Earth. “I won’t let her get away!” he says and his heart beats so loudly- as if to answer her cries. He hears himself shout, “Mom! You’ve put on weight, you can’t outrun me! I’ll catch you with these small arms! And carry you around like an infant!” And he sees in his hands two paint brushes- one green, the other blue, trying to paint his Earth back to her real glory- the earth was not rolling towards her death- he was guiding her- helping her to go through rebirth…

The vision was exhilarating- he couldn’t wait anymore. He couldn’t waste time here anymore. He looked at his tour-mates. They read his expression and nodded back with happy smiles.

He changed the time co-ordinates, from 2781 AD to 10,000 BC.

“Mother, here we come, to save you.”

***********************************************************************

Timeline 2

It took only a few seconds, to travel from 2785 AD to 10,000 BC. Vibhuti, somehow, expected the travel through the Time Tunnel to last longer- and there was no light at the end of the Time-Tunnel. This disappointed him further. But he couldn’t shake away the strange feeling that was nagging him- his whole body felt charged up, refreshed. All his senses seemed to sense the world for the first time- it was all too strong- too much information for the brain- he felt like crying like a baby- like a baby taking birth. It was a rebirth…

He looked outside the window of his TimeBus, called the Time Tourister. The sun was about to rise- the sky had that strange red hue throughout- and the stars still shined magnificently- it all looked like a big red glittery bridal Saree. He pictured Earth in her bridal gown- he had never envisioned it. It was a strange comforting thought…

“It worked! It worked!”  Chandan shouted, “Hip Hip…”

“Hurrah!” shouted the other tourist Kumkum.

All the three tourists in the Tourister looked at each other with dancing eyes and shouted- “Hip Hip…”

“Hurrah!”

“Touristers, ” said Vibhuti, “do a quick smoke test of all the equipments and our “special” gadgets. Meanwhile, I’ll check on the TimeBus 36 & TimeBus 90”

“Understood Captain” replied the Touristers.

TimeBus 36 and TimeBus 90 were the other two time travelling TimeBuses, though the crew in these two TimeBuses were not really Tourists. They were part of the Elite Military of UCSA. The job of the crew in these TimeBuses was to ensure that the tourists in the Tourister just observed during their time-travels. Today, they had failed their jobs…

“Rangoli! Can you hear me? Rangoli…” said Vibhuti through his Holocomm.

“You big Industrial exhaust pipe!!” shouted Ila  (read i-L-a) through the Holocomm. A noisy grainy hologram of Ila was now visible to Vibhuti.

“Well, hello yourself!” Vibhuti smiled.

“Why do the time co-ordinates show 10,000 BC?”

“Because we’re in 10,000BC!”

“It’s not possible! You’re playing some prank!”

“Did you look out of the window?”

The hologram went out of view and soon came back, shouting, “I see Llamas! They’re supposed to be extinct!”

“Not in 10,000 BC, Rangoli” smiled Vibhuti.

“Stop calling me Rangoli! You’ll call me Ila from now on!” yelled Ila.

“Till yesterday, you didn’t mind me calling you Rangoli, Rangoli”

“That was when I was your girl friend! You’ve screwed up big time, mister! We’re broken up! We’re through!”

“Ooooh! This is our 100^th break up! How long do you think this’ll last?”

“Till you give me a valid reason as to what the hell we’re doing in 10,000 BC, with freaking Llamas roaming around!” yelled Ila.

“Aren’t you curious as to how we came to 10,000 BC in the first place? You always get your priorities wrong, Rangoli!” teased Vibhuti.

“Yeah! How did we come to 10,000 BC? One end of Time-Tunnel was built in 2781 AD and the other was built in 2785 AD! So we should have travelled from 2785 AD to 2781 AD, not freaking 10,000 BC!”

“Glad you asked! The answer is worth one Kiss!” winked Vibhuti.

“You Dicrotyl Sulfide in a pool of rotten vomit!”

“Till you kiss me, you won’t get any answers from me and, officially, you wouldn’t have forgiven me, unless you know the reason why we came here, so we’d still be broken up. Hence, during our break, if the pretty Kumkum over here, makes any moves on me, I shall not be held responsible for by actions!”

“You compressed decaying organic waste!”

“Ah! More picturesque words! I’m signing off! Bye!”

“Fine! Then I’m resetting the co-ordinates to 2785 AD! The TimeBuses are all linked, so we’ll all travel back to where we belong!” she said.

“You can’t change the time co-ordinates. The FoS made some changes before our travel. Only the Tourister can change the co-ordinates- and that’s me! So, signing off!”

“Wait! Wait! Vibi, I’m sorry! You won’t let your Rangoli die here in 10,000 BC, would you?”

“So we’re back to calling ourselves Rangoli and Vibi?”

“Yes! We’ll always be Rangoli and Vibi!”

“Excellent! So I’ll fill you on some details- let’s see- we were supposed to travel from 2785 AD to 2781 AD, in the three interconnected TimeBuses- one is Tourister, captained by yours truly, with two crew members, Chandan & Kumkum.  The second is TimeBus 36, aka, the Chatterer, called thus on account of three women onboard, captained by Lavanam, with two crew members, Rangoli and Haladi. The third is TimeBus 90, aka the Pepper, captained by Red, with two crew members, Green and Black. You’re able to follow so far?”

“You’re nicknaming everybody on this project now? We women are not Chatterers! And it’s Lavanya, not Lavanam. Also, Vasanti is not Haladi. I didn’t even get your joke of Red, Green and Black!” said Ila.

“You didn’t get Red, Green and Black? They’re all Peppers, silly, hence, they’re the Peppers!” said Vibhuti.

Ila started laughing, “Those three will kill you if they heard this!”

“Ah, they are already listening to us! And all the nicknames make us all a form of Old Indian powders!”

“Powder? Don’t even bother explaining! Just tell me, how the hell we came in 10,000 BC!”

“Hmmm, we were in these TimeBuses, which are interconnected, so if one TimeBus gives the co-ordinates of 1,000 AD, then all the three TimeBus go to the same time of 1,000 AD, right?”

“Yes! I know all that! It’s my freaking job to know that! But we can’t go to any other time, other than 2781 AD! Because only in 2781 AD, the other end of the Time Tunnel is there!”

“Nope! The FoS pulled the biggest con on the world! They made many Time Tunnels all across the Timeline, and displayed only one Time Tunnel to the world, in 2781 AD. And the FoS chose us Touristers to conduct the biggest Science Experiment in the history of mankind and sent me as a Time Tourist on this Tourister. They disabled the co-ordinates in your TimeBuses and allowed the configuration of time co-ordinates only in this Tourister. They couldn’t disable the Time Travel Functionality in your TimeBuses because UCSA kept strict vigil. Otherwise you guys would have still been in 2785 AD. Get it?”

“What? FoS fooled UCSA! And they chose you to conduct the biggest Science Experiment? But you’re not even a proper Scientist!”

“I am a Scientist, you baboon! Also, the nature of the experiment requires my expertise…”

“So what’s the experiment?”

“That I’ll tell you after one big Kiss!”

“Vibi! You are not supposed to do anything when you go back in time! You are supposed to just observe keeping your presence hidden! I hope the experiment is just about observing?”

“Totally!”

“And what are we supposed to do, in the mean time? How long will this experiment last?”

“A day, or two at max. I advise you to stay in your TimeBus. Don’t go out- all the TimeBuses are parked thousands of kilometers from each other. So I’m not nearby, don’t go out looking for me- 10,000 BC men are no gentlemen like me!”

“We’re your bloody escorts! After time-travel, we’re supposed to be in the same location!”

“FoS, baby! They put bugs- all very special bugs in the system!”

“And what about food?”

“I’ve kept food pills and paste and Medical Kit in your Weapons Locker, that’ll last you a hundred years”

“Ration for 100 years?”

“Well you know how science experiments can be, sometimes, right?”

“Yes, yes! And where did you keep the weapons?”

“Back in 2785 AD!”

“We have no weapons? How are we supposed to defend ourselves in 10,000 BC!”

“You don’t need to! The TimeBuses are parked in safe locations and none of us have weapons, because we don’t need them”

“No, I won’t sit inside the TimeBus for a whole day! I want to come with you… ”

“You can’t!”

“Well, I’ll use the T tracker and find you!”

“Honey! They require Satellites. And we’re in 10,000 BC. Unless you believe in miracles, you can’t find me while I work here.  So stay put in your TimeBuses, while I finish up my work here…”

“And then we can return to 2785 AD?” Ila asked.

“Yes” Vibhuti replied, “And stay put in your TimeBus. Don’t go out. You never know when Tourister will time travel- and if you are not in your TimeBus, when Tourister time travels, then you’ll be left behind in 10,000 BC, forever…”

“You Colonoscope in the Hospital for the elderly!”

*************************************************************

“You lied to your girl friend!” said Kumkum.

“Well, that’s what boyfriends generally do!” Vibhuti joked, “Everything’s working as it should?”

“Yes, no abnormality is noticed in our vitals and the equipments are all functioning!”

“Good! You heard that I and Rangoli are broken up?”

“Yes” replied Kumkum.

“So you shouldn’t have any issues, when we need to have issues to repopulate the Earth?”

“What? That’s not we’re supposed to do!”

“Well, sorry to break your bubble. I am the captain of the Tourister and I have access to privileged information!”

“But 10,000 BC has a human population of 5 million. Why would we need to repopulate the Earth?”

“Well our experiment may go wrong, and we may be the last people on Earth. Think about it! Our experiment was tested only by Simulators! And who codes Simulators? If Simulators were good enough, then nobody would do experiments in field! And look at Chandan, he’s an old man of 33, do you really think he’ll be able to take up this herculean task of repopulating Earth?”

“But there are other women! TimeBus 36 has three women!”

“Do you think they’ll help me to do anything good in this world? If they were the good guys, we would have recruited them at FoS. But they are the dogs of the UCSA Elite Military. They’re not to be trusted…”

“So that’s why you lied to your girl friend, and didn’t disclose the exact nature of our experiment?”

“Well, that makes sense to you?” asked Vibhuti.

“Yes, it does.”

“Then that’s why I lied to my girl friend! So you will help me, in any endeavor we might have to undertake?”

“With pleasure, Sir!” replied Kumkum.

“Oh God,” groaned Chandan “Kill me now! I don’t care about the planet Earth anymore!”

“Awesome vibrations in this Tourister! Let’s get started on our mission!” said Vibhuti as he opened the weapons box. The box was filled with small balls, known popularly as Bouncies. He took one of the Bouncies, placed it between his palms- as if he was holding holy water.

He looked at the Bouncy and said, “The future of Earth is in our hands” and the Bouncy started looking more like a globe- more like the blue-green Earth.

**************************************************************************

“So what should we do now, Captain? Wear our standard safety suit and step out in 10,000 BC?” asked Chandan.

“Nope. We stay on the TimeBus and do a drive-by around the planet,” said Vibhuti, “and wherever Human population is visible, we’ll drop one Bouncy towards them…”

“Sir, that’s not according to the plan—the plan was to interact with each human community and teach them how to use the ball before giving it to them…”

“It’s Christmas! I’m feeling like Santa! I’ll fly around the planet and give gifts to good little boys! Ho ho ho!”

“Captain!!!”

“Ah, the mad scientist has no sense of humor. Well, a drive-by is quick. It’ll take years to interact with so many communities. Even if I figure out what languages they’re using, the other TimeBuses- Chatterer and Pepper won’t be idly sitting around. I want to give these guys as little time as possible. At least till phase 3, these guys should not be able to figure out what’s going on, let alone, interfere in any way with us… ”

“These factors were already discussed by FoS in detail! And they thought that spending more time with the people was a better idea than your drive-by idea! And you had agreed to it in the meetings!”

“That was just to get things rolling along on more important issues- like the ‘Hello Universe’ program… Even if I figure out which version of proto-Indo-European language or some other linguistically reconstructed language, the natives are using, the data that we have may not truly reconstruct a language in 10,000 BC. That is why the Bouncy was made. I am confident of the Bouncy’s ability to interact with the 10,000 BC man…  What do you think, Kumkum?”

“Bouncy’s good enough!” said Kumkum, “Let’s just drop them like rain-drops on a desert!”

“Good. We’ll drop the Bouncies- one per community, throughout the planet. And observe from a distance their impact, and take further decisions based on the success of the Bouncies…”

As the Tourister dropped the small Bouncies throughout the planet, Vibhuti thought that they were in fact, sowing the seeds of a new future. What will the Touristers reap? Only time could tell. Vibhuti seemed to tell to Earth- “I control time, so I decide what I reap”

*****************************************************************

“That was a good plan,” said Kumkum, “the other TimeBuses are still parked in their original points, and we have delivered the Bouncies to most communities in the planet. But looks like more communities were present than the number of Bouncies we brought along with us… ”

“The communities without the Bouncies will soon be replaced, like the Neanderthals were replaced by the early modern man…” replied Vibhuti.

“You think the Bouncies will have that big of an impact?”

“Yes! And also within each community there’ll be the struggle for the ownership of the Bouncy and the strongest and smartest male- the alpha male will finally get the Bouncy… Our experiment for a long-lasting peace will have its bloody moments…”

“Hey that’s sexist! Now why do you think only males will own the Bouncies- a female may as well be the alpha-male- I mean alpha-female of some community…”

“Ah the Bouncy is basically the world’s most fun video game- and boys love video games! It’s in their genes!”

“Sir, I’m ready!” came Chandan’s voice over the Digi-Walkie.

**********************************************************************

The next few days the Touristers would split up and observe the alpha-males of different communities in possession of the Bouncies.

“Status?” asked Vibhuti over the Digi-Walkie. He was perched alone on a hill with his surveillance gear observing the human community some distance away.

“The alpha here seems to have understood the various interfaces of the Bouncy. He has reached the level of agriculture video projections. He’s been watching the wheat videos for a while now…” said Chandan.

“That’s good! Chandan,” said Vibhuti, “Carry on towards the next community”

“Sir, the alpha here also seems to have figured out many functionalities of the Bouncy,” said Kumkum over the Digi-Walkie, “the whole community is sitting with him enjoying the projection of, what I think is Disney’s  version of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’!”

“Jungle Book? Already?” smiled Vibhuti, “That alpha must have finished the basics of agricultural and alphabet videos! He’s pretty fast!”

“Sir, I didn’t know Bouncy had Jungle Book! That’s an awful lot of memory wasted on just Entertainment” said Kumkum.

“Well, it’s a reward for watching boring informative videos on the Bouncy. After a few hours of lecture, Bouncy is designed to show one episode of Jungle Book”

“Looks like you are telling from personal experiences, Sir” joked Kumkum.

“It was worse than you think! They made me test it! So I put Jungle Book in between for my sanity! ‘Tom & Jerry’ was too violent!” said Vibhuti, “Chandan you reached the next community?”

There was an ominous silence.

“Chandan,” Kumkum asked, “You there?”

Chandan didn’t reply.

“Vibhuti! Your game is up!” came the voice of Lavanya over the Digi-Walkie.

“Lavanya!” said a shocked Vibhuti, “We missed you! We were just on our way to catch up with you!”

“Like hell you were!” yelled Lavanya, “It’s been a month here in this rotten world!”

“We too were stuck, like you, due to a technical error,” said Vibhuti, “I hope you’re not taking out your frustrations on poor Chandan?”

“He’s fine so far… But it all depends on how you… Take us back to where we belong!”

“Of course, I’m on my way to catch up with you. Hang on” said Vibhuti.

“No games, Vibhuti. I know you, if you do anything stupid, Chandan here might not enjoy your theatrics…”

Vibhuti was going crazy. True, he had went through situations like these in the war before. But the criticality of the current mission scared him. His immediate instinct was to leave Chandan behind and time-travel to next phase of the plan. The 10,000 BC man was doing amazingly well with the Bouncy. There was no need to teach him how to operate a sophisticated video game. But should he really give up his friend, without even a fight?

“Kumkum, watch your back! Rangoli & Haladi are looking for us” said Vibhuti to Kumkum, one-to-one, over the Digi-Walkie ”Chandan’s target community is nearer to me. So I’ll quickly check out the situation. You ensure that you don’t get caught, & hide until your next orders, and do not run towards the Tourister, OK? We cannot disclose its location!”

“Yes Sir” replied Kumkum.

As Vibhuti turned around, he found Ila with a club, swinging it at him. He managed to dodge just in time. He tackled her, by ramming his shoulder into her abdomen. Ila coughed blood and dropped the club. The same hands that were ever-desperate to caress her skin and soft lips, now wanted to choke her. He was on a mission. And Ila was not an ally. Right now, she was in between him and his destiny. He swung his left arm, but she dodged it. But the right hook from him surprised her and found its mark on her jaw and she was knocked down. He checked her. She was knocked unconscious.

“Kumkum,” said Vibhuti over the Digi-Walkie, “Change of plans, head towards the TimeBus. Ensure nobody follows you. I’ll be there in 15 minutes.”

“You got Chandan?” asked Kumkum.

“No, I’m bringing Rangoli… We’re leaving 10,000 BC… I was too close to fail our mission”

******************************************************************

“Tie her up!” said Vibhuti, “We’ll be time travelling to 7000 BC. This is our chance. The Chatterers, at least are out of their TimeBus, and when we travel, they’ll be left behind in 10,000 BC…”

“But Chandan is out there with them!” said Kumkum.

“That’s even better,” said Vibhuti, “He’ll ensure that those two girls won’t do anything that jeopardizes our mission… He knew the risks involved. So he’ll understand why we left him behind…”

“Ok” said Kumkum slowly.

Vibhuti changed the time-coordinates to 7000 BC.

“Phase 1 complete!” smiled Vibhuti.

*****************************************************************

Timeline 3:

Going through Hyper-time still amazed him. It was a shame that he won’t be able to infinitely time-travel…

“Everybody alright?” asked Vibhuti.

“Yes sir!” replied Kumkum.

“I’ll go check on the Peppers and Chatterers over the Holocomm”

When he turned on the Holocomm, to his horror, Lavanya’s hologram was smiling at him.

“Always with your dirty tricks and lies, Vibhuti,” said the grainy hologram of Lavanya, “You’d have made a great Senator!”

“Thank God, you’re alright Lavanam, the TimeBus is having some issues. You’re all safe and sound there?” said Vibhuti.

“We still have Chandan. And Vasanti also. I’m assuming you have Ila? ”

“Oh yes, we have her. I guess, she’ll be in the same condition as Chandan for a while”

“Is that a threat?”

“I’m just telling…”

“No matter what kind of an ass you are, I don’t think that you would hurt your girl friend!”

“I’d have killed her if you didn’t have Chandan. I don’t care about Rangoli or Chandan, as much as I care for this mission. This mission is everything to me, so get it to your head, do not screw with me and just tag along, and you’ll be fine, Lavanam!”

“It’s Lavanya, Goddammit!” yelled Lavanya.

Vibhuti turned off the holocomm, and said, “Both Chatterers and Peppers are safe and sound and are in 7000 BC with us, Kumkum.”

“I heard that, Sir,” said Kumkum, “and so did Ila”

Vibhuti choked on this thought & turned, to find a tear in Ila’s eye.

“Don’t cry!” Vibhuti said, as he stepped towards Ila to wipe her tear.

“Don’t you dare touch me, you non-bio-degradable greenhouse fart!”

“Rangoli, that’s just how Captains’ talk! This mission is very important and I didn’t want her to hurt Chandan! I was just threatening; you know I wouldn’t hurt you!”

“Then free me. Untie me, if you love me!”

“Hey! I’ll untie you when I believe n my heart that you won’t jeopardize this experiment…”

“What is this freaking experiment, you have been talking about huh?  We got hold of your Bouncy device, which you were giving to those people… You changed the past! You changed it… So now 2785 AD won’t be the same again. The time we belonged to, is gone!”

“That’s exactly the point, honey! I want to change the world. The world in 2785 AD was heading towards a disaster. After the wars and global warming, oceanic acidification and the desertification of Earth, the people still didn’t give up their lifestyle. Man was always greedy. He always took more and more and more, till we reached a point where Earth had nothing else to give- Earth couldn’t sustain us, and we had nowhere else to go…”

“So, there were plans to make things right! What were you doing back in 10,000 BC? That Bouncy thing was showing videos of alphabets! You were teaching people how to read & write English?”

“Yes. I’m guiding the humanity now. I’m acting like a nanny of the naughty man.  In the first timeline, our timeline, man ended up almost destroying the planet. So now with this new power, I have the chance of changing it all- in the new timeline, man will learn many things- better ways to do agriculture, maintaining fertility of the land, protect the forests and love Mother Earth”

“How are you teaching all these things, Vibi? You were teaching these people all Science tricks… You were not teaching about Love of Earth…”

“There’s the catch. I’m not teaching them Science tricks exactly. What I’m doing is the world’s last Science Experiment- an experiment that’ll kill Science itself…”

“An experiment that’ll kill Science? Are you kidding? You’re a Scientist yourself and you love Science! You always believed that Science will solve all problems! Now how can you kill it- huh? How can you kill Science?”

“Yes, I do believe Science can solve all problems- except one. The greed of man. Man always wants more power, more money, more fame. Whenever a scientist made any great scientific discovery, later on others would add economy to it and sell it. Dynamites, Industries, Space travel, Time Travel! The power of Economics, the greed for power blinds man from the truth. He cannot see it. He’s destroying the planet and he won’t even accept the fact that he’s destroying it. All he cares about is money and leaves the cleaning up for the next generation. But the next generation does the exact same thing. Global warming has been debated since ages, but nothing happened. With the launch of ‘Hello Universe’ program, the FoS had to take drastic measures. So it decided to kill Science!”

“But how can you kill Science? The Bouncy will kill Science? Science is not some bug that you can squish- it’s a result of natural curiosity of man, it’s in his sprit!”

“Oh we can kill Science. If everybody was made to believe that he was truly happy and content, and not curious, or were conditioned to be not curious, then the spirit of Science is killed… Science was a means to satisfy curiosity, or gain fame, power or make money. If we kill the ends, then there would no need to explore the means! If everything was answered for man, then he won’t be curious. If nobody cared for fame or money or power, then man could be finally content.”

“Can you really turn man into some… some sage?”

“We’ll create a new world order- the whole world having one belief, one language, one faith, one Religion, one name of God, one God,  and one thought, then…”

“That’s not possible!”

“It is possible. I’m creating a new religion- the world religion- and already the 10,000 BC man is following it, without even realizing it- he’s been inadvertently brain-washed- the prosperity he’ll be enjoying for the past 3,000 years would be enough, for him to completely trust the Bouncy—which actually is a small indestructible robot, designed to give flowery fragrance. Act like a mosquito repellant. An alarm system.  Warn about predators. Show educational videos on agriculture, irrigation, canals, granaries. Teach him the alphabet and numbers. Entertain him. Give him true luxury, which was hitherto unheard of! Give him subtle messages of the religion created by FoS. Give him ways to create surplus food- which in effect, will give him time to explore art. Give him time to build defenses. Give him to build a society. Give him time to pray to a God- the same God being followed by the 5 million people of 10,000 BC… He’ll never need to look for answers elsewhere- the Bouncies have all the answers…”

“You’re creating a religion? You don’t even believe in God! How can you say such things to me, you Hypocrite?”

“That’s the beauty of it isn’t it? I may not believe in God, but I believe in the Good. I believe that man will destroy our Home planet, our Mother Earth- and to prevent this, killing Science is the only solution.  The Bouncy isn’t the whole plan, honey. There’s a HOLY BOOK which I’ll be distributing now- which is indestructible- which has all human knowledge, all gifts of Science like medicine, techniques for better food production, recipes, clothing, housing and architecture, sanitary techniques- all human knowledge- all of the scientific truth abstracted into religious habits. Man will follow this HOLY BOOK with true belief and conviction. Any thought which is outside of the HOLY BOOK is a sin, any rational reasoning is a sin, any enquiry is a sin, any question is a sin, anything that is even remotely related to scientific process is a sin- and according to HOLY BOOK, punishable by death. Thus world benefits from both Science and Religion- and man can be finally content… he can be truly happy for the first time! And he won’t have the scientific tools or means that will destroy Earth. He’ll get only the things that he truly needs and deserves. Not all men need Nuclear Power or motor vehicles breaking the Sound barrier!”

“Have you gone mad, Vibi? Did FoS really think that this would work? Do you truly believe this? What you are doing is not just kill Science, but also you are killing Religion… You are attempting to defeat their very spirits; will you be successful in doing this? I don’t think so… When did you become this monster?”

“You know why I love your name so much? You know what ‘Ila’ means? It means Earth! As I said, Rangoli, you just watch me, there’s no force in the world that can stop me from the saving my Ila- my Earth!”

— To be continued in next Chapter

For a detailed treatment to the Time Travel in the “The Time Tourists Universe” please read the appendix 1:

The Fundamentals of Time Travel

Credits:

I’d like to thank Srikanth (Terrible Shrek) for the beautiful photos above,  discussions (sometimes hours at a stretch), the enthusiasm and support he has  given for this particular story.  I also like to thank him for the dialogue- “I don’t believe in God, but believe in Good” meant for the character Vibhuti.

For the initial discussion of the idea presented in this chapter, I’d like to thank the following lovely friends -

Vikram, Pavan, Aravind , Raghu, Pradeep, Sarvesha, Varun, Krishnan, Nakul, Rupa , Abhay, Sharukh, Guruprasad, Suhas, Hemantha, Swarag, Anukthi, Laxmi, Prasad Chubachi, Prasad S, Sriram,Pavithra, Aakshatha, Sai, Vardhini, Vinay M.N & Thilak

Thanks Guys! Hope it came out, the way it was expected

This post I’m submitting  for BLOGESHWAR (http://www.facebook.com/pages/BLOGESHWAR/111091628943297 ) and http://www.anubhooti.com )

Hi All!

It’s a pleasure to announce my latest ambitious project, titled “The Time Tourists“

The story is about a man’s struggle to save planet Earth from impending doom in 2785 AD- and his extreme solution- and implementations, of ideas like, “Killing Science” to ensure that man has no tool which could, in principle, destroy Earth.

The genre is basically Sci-fi with my usual Humor, Romance and thriller.

Each week (or fortnight) i’ll update a new chapter/bonus extras.  This Main Post will contain ALL Links to latest Chapters/Extras in this crazy fun saga

Chapter 1:

How to Kill Science

Appendix 1:

The Fundamentals of Time Travel

Happy Reading!

Love,

Sury

Credits:

Awesome Photo by Srikanth

After women, if there was one thing that puzzled man witless, it’s time. For thousands of years, man could feel time. Its effects and profound limitations. Measure it. Define the behavior in relativity. And yet, time truly eluded him. All of that changed in the 24^th century, when Time was compared to an ocean in a very cold weather.

An excerpt from the Class 5 (in 2700 AD, in UCSA) Science Book on time travel: “Time is much more like Ice on ocean. Picture an unfortunate, handicapped Penguin, unfortunately stuck between the thick sheets of ice in the Arctic ocean after an unfortunate accident, as shown in the unfortunate 3D picture. No Penguin can swim in this thick Ice. But the Penguin can dig a tunnel, so to speak, to travel. To the dig the tunnel the Penguin can only use its beak.  From the figure, a tunnel in Path A is the worst choice for freedom and Path B is the best Choice.

Notice that Path A has one dimensional transport and path B has the potential of travelling in any direction. However an alternate Path C, 180 degrees to path B also exists.

Unfortunately for man, he has been choosing the path A, since the beginning of time. He just didn’t know how to dig in path B.  With advancements in technology, now man can take path B and swim in that Arctic Ocean of time, in any direction. The water in this ocean belongs to another dimension, and this water is just another form of ice- the time in this ocean has a multitude of crazy properties, which are quite essential for all the stability of the other dimensions.”

So let’s look at how time travel was possible. In 2781 AD, they made a tunnel- generally known as the Time-Tunnel, into this new dimension of time. In this dimension, time flows in both direction- thanks to the Time-Emit Pair, which makes travel in any direction at a speed greater than light. The medium in this dimension is also known as Hyper-Time in popular media.

But the problem with this Time-Tunnel was that it was one ended to the outer world (or Universe), which means, that if you entered the tunnel, you’d have the same exit point as the entrance, and come out of the tunnel at the same time. It had its own very peculiar scientific significance- let’s say, a man of 30, enters the Time Tunnel of 2781 AD. He spends 10 years in this Hyper-Time looking for an exit. He doesn’t find one, and he returns back to Earth through the same Time-Tunnel. In Earth it’d be still 2781 AD, but now the man would have aged 10 more years- and hence he’d be 40 years old, but the rest of his friends would be exactly the same, as he left them 10 years ago. However this results in a host of paradoxes, which we’ll take up as an advanced topic later.

The Time Tunnel of 2781 AD was practically useless (but scientifically priceless), till the Time Tunnel of 2785 AD was built by theUCSA.

Now things are getting interesting. A man entering through Time Tunnel of 2781 AD can come out of the Time Tunnel of 2785 AD. Hence now he can travel in future. The same holds good for a man entering 2785 AD, he can travel in time to past- to 2781 AD.

However there’s an important catch. The man entering the Time Tunnel of 2781 AD, actually “waited” for 4 years for the Time Tunnel of 2785 AD to be built, only then he could exit, into the world of 2785 AD. But, the time that we know has no meaning, in this Hyper-Time Dimension. So the time of 4 years that took to build the Time Tunnel 2785 AD in outside Universe, was spent as a mere 2 seconds in the Hyper-Time Dimension.

The contrast of time in the Hyper-Time, must now be slowly intoxicating you. On one hand, it ages you, while nobody else is aging. And on the other, the whole Universe has moved ahead and became years older, but you wouldn’t have aged more than a few seconds.

Now what about the naughty little man travelling from 2785 AD, coming to 2781 AD, and somehow manages to  prevent the building of the Time Tunnel of 2785 AD. This problem is classically known as The Grandfather Paradox. However, the apparent paradox is no more than an illusion created by the different timelines.

The Hyper-Time has many anomalies. One of its properties, which you already understood- travelling ahead in time, 4 years, in mere 2 seconds, is an anomaly of lesser significance. The other significant properties include maintaining the stability of the whole system- the Universe. It maintains the state of everything, in its tiny dimension. In other words, it has a vast memory of everything, every particle- its composition, its electrical, chemical, behavioral, every state is stored in this Hyper-Time. Even more significant, is the ability of the Hyper-time to restore the state of everything. Thus when the man from 2785 AD comes to 2781 AD, the Universe is restored back to it state in 2781 AD. The time from 2785 AD ceases to exist. And time (and the whole Universe) resumes from its previous state as in 2781 AD.

This leads to the theoretical “ghost” period, from 2781 AD to 2785 AD. This ghost period is meaningful to the time traveler from 2785 AD, but for the rest of the Universe in 2781 AD, the ghost period has not happened. This ghost period ran in timeline 1. But in timeline 2, the ghost period is yet to run. This leads to the famous side-effect of time travelling- “Rewriting History”.  The traveler knows in advance, what sequence of events would most likely happen in this ghost period. So he may take necessary steps to prevent or benefit or accelerate it, depending on his need. Theoretically this is a possibility- however practically this is yet to be affirmed.

Apart from the implications of ghost period, there are inherent difficulties and apparent paradoxes that need to be answered. The traveler from 2785 AD, in essence came out of thin air, in 2781 AD. If you were an observer in 2781 AD, and saw a man time-travel next to you, then he’d look like he came out of nowhere. But in reality- this time traveler has his existential declaration from 2785 AD, in the Timeline 1 before his time travel, and must therefore be defined again in 2781 AD, meaning, the particles that his body is made up of, the things he’s carrying, all need to be accounted for. This is a requirement straight from the law of conservation of mass and energy.

When the Time traveler travels back in time to 2781 AD, the Universe is sort of restored to its state in 2781 AD. All its mass and energy remains the same as in 2781 AD – except for the time traveler himself and his stuff. It may seem that the time traveler’s existence is from a future which no longer exists. But this too is a mirage. The timeline 1 existed, it ran. Time ticked from 2781 AD to 2785 AD. The time traveler existed there- and when he travelled to 2781 AD, he created a new timeline, called Timeline 2. All his stuff and himself is a product of Timeline 1, who are now in Timeline 2. Timeline 1 now ceases to exist.

The problem is similar argumentatively to a man traveling from Moon to Earth. Let’s assume that a consequence of his travel from the moon towards earth, the moon explodes into a ball of dust. The people of Earth may ask the traveler, how he could be in Earth when he’s from Moon and Moon no longer exists. The fact remains, that moon existed, and he travelled from there to Earth- and his existence abides the law of conservation of mass and energy and other known Scientific Laws.

However, the sudden increase in mass and energy of state of Universe in 2781 AD, by the presence of time traveler is not quite explained by the earlier explanation.  This remains an unsolved scientific mystery till 2785 AD. Most Scientists in 2785 AD believed that the Hyper-Time in essence has the property of restoring the Universe back to its original state, and while doing so, the Hyper-Time cheats or compensates for the presence of the Time Traveler, by not restoring equivalent amount in the Universe, to account for the time traveler and his stuff, either in energy or mass or both.

It was also proved that to restore the Universe to its older state it takes a lot of energy. So, how much this very capable and powerful Hyper-Time Dimension was able to cheat while restoring is a matter of debate…

So this means that a Star/Planet/Satellite/asteroid/mountain/tree/human may end up having lesser mass or energy, due to the presence of a time traveler in the system & the restoring of the Universe itself. Increased use of Hyper-Time to restore Universe may lead to an unstable system, eventually. That’s the reason why UCSA prevents the Time-Tourists from doing anything during their Time Travel- including the fart is sealed within the TimeBus and recycled back. However this theory is yet to be proved and no data was available to the Scientists to truly affirm as to how the extra mass and energy in the system is taken care of, by the Hyper-Time.

Thus a man travelling from 2785 AD to 2781 AD can theoretically change anything in 2781 AD, as the timeline he came from no longer exists, and he himself is now a part of a new timeline. Thus in effect, if he travelled back to 2781 AD and prevents the building of the Time Tunnel of 2785 AD, then he’d still be in the new timeline without any consequences for him, personally, and so he’ll not magically “poof” to oblivion as he “poof”ed into 2781 AD.  But the consequences for the timeline 2 is huge, as a new set of events are occurring as against what had happened in timeline 1.

The concept of Time Tourism:

A time traveler needs Time Tunnels to travel. And to build Time Tunnels, extremely complex and expensive equipment and expertise is required. Once such Time Tunnels are built, then specialized vehicles were built in 2785 AD to facilitate people travelling to 2781 AD. The vehicle, called the TimeBus, has a configurable field for changing the co-ordinates of time. However only 2 Time Tunnels exist in the world till 2785 AD, and hence people could travel from time 2781 AD to 2785 AD and vice versa. The UCSA with the help of FoS, had built foolproof Tourist TimeBuses to facilitate research groups, celebrities, rich & influential people to travel through time- just for heck of it and that, they can do it, without any consequences, and ending up with a lot of money. Extreme care was taken that the system of time travel did not lead to situations like the known paradoxes. This particularly pissed off a few research scientists as they couldn’t prove or disprove most the causal paradoxes involving time travel, despite the technology being available.