Life in a metro

THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION

I never associated myself with a metropolis. I come from a small town in central India, where you could sweep the entire ambit with just a bicycle. Usually such small towns are remote and devoid of many privileges that a nearby city offers. But ours was more fortunate. Due to the presence of army cant, our town could afford to have fancy stores, nice restaurants, and big brands. At the same time it was peaceful and tranquil.

The southern outskirts of the town, beyond the Army War College, were enveloped in lush greenery. The woods used to flourish in full bloom in the month of August, which was when monsoon drenched the town with showers. The air was damp and environment tranquil, it was nothing short of paradise. It was in some of the sporadically scattered ghettos in these woods on which our family business thrived. We used to offer consultancy and help to illiterate villagers who wanted to apply for various rural development schemes of the government.

My father was always short of hands and I used to offer one, I filled up forms in lieu of a hefty pocket money. I knew nothing beyond this town, I didn’t need to, it offered everything one could ask for. But after high school I was confronted with the prospect of making a career. Everyone around me was studying something extra apart from school books. They joined various coaching institutes and read bulky books. There was enormous pressure on me and I conformed. I too joined a good coaching. I was not more than an average student. With whatever I had, I managed to get admission in a reputed college in nearby city.

And finally my average academics landed me a job in this metropolitan. It had its own pace, which was very fast for a rustic like me. Huge vehicles moved with incredible pace; people walked around in a hasty manner and usually treated each other as inanimate objects which was the only option given the crowded streets and public transports; you couldn’t see many stores, people usually bought from malls; trains were the veins of this city, they were fast and had an elaborate network.

In fact trains were the only option for large distances since roads were frequently blocked due to traffic jams. Railway stations were built every two kilometers or so. Typically on a railway station a train would come every five minutes. On larger junctions, the frequency could be double or even triple. As soon as a train halted, cohort of people will alight and board in a very small window of time since a train would halt for not more than thirty seconds. Needless to say they were overly crowded, working class commuters filled every inch of it. And it ran with unrelenting pace, in fact no one was allowed to walk near railway lines because speed of these trains tested quickest of reflexes.

I had no qualms about this metropolis. I had adjusted to its idiosyncrasies in my own way. I rented an apartment in suburbs which was at a distance from bustle of the city, I would rise early in the morning and stay in the office till late, that saved me from burgeoning crowd. The suburb was actually a small village around which I had built pretty much of my metropolitan life.

One frosty night, one of the trains, which enormously contributed to the identity of this metropolis, ran over four pedestrians trying to make their way across the railway line. Before they could get out of the way, the magnitude and intensity of this beast unnerved them.

The metropolis somehow lived with the loss of few of its inhabitants. Its daily chores resumed next day. It couldn’t stop; it was carrying too much responsibility for that matter. But in its heart, it must’ve felt grief for such a loss, for a brief moment though. 

The Story Behind Missing Shoes

Suhana waited for her childhood friend in the coffee shop. Youths, college students, young couples swarmed the place and created a naïve ambience. Suhana hadn’t seen Madhvi for almost two years now. Madhvi was forced into a marriage by her parents a month ago. She wanted to marry her college boyfriend Nikhil but her orthodox parents denied her that luxury and made her tie the knot with some suburban software programmer. The absence of Nikhil only exacerbated her predicament. Nikhil had gone abroad on a trip sponsored by his company’s.

Suhana knew that much from their telephonic conversation and was eager to listen how it all happened. She was earnestly waiting to hear the story of her friend’s journey from forced marriage to coming together with the love of her life.

Madhvi arrived, in gray jeans and a skin-tight, purple, silk top which revealed her chubby figure and outlined her round bosoms. Suhana felt that her friend had put on a little weight over the last couple of years, nonetheless she looked appealing. She noticed that Madhvi had improved her dressing sense immensely, except for one thing. She was looking such an adorable darling this evening, but one important thing in her attire was missing; she had no footwear. She arrived barefoot in Barista, which was more than just a coffee shop.

As Madhvi came near to embrace her, Suhana enquired intuitively, “Where in world are your shoes?”    “Oh it’s a long story, lets order some coffee first” said Madhvi rolling her eyes. Broad grin on Madhvi’s face exuded an ecstatic delight she felt after the ride on emotional roller coaster was over.

“Where is he?” Suhana asked while looking over at the door if her friend’s lover was coming after her, probably after parking his vehicle.

“We were coming together to see you when we got the news that his boss had a minor attack this morning. He went to see him while I took a cab to reach here. He’ll be with us in a couple of hours” Madhvi said transmogrifying expression on her face as if blaming her misfortune.

“So tell me how it all happened” Suhana was earnest now. Both sipped cappuccino while Madhvi began narrating the events of the month that passed:

On the night of our marriage a month ago, I told Jay that I didn’t love him.

“You did, right on the first night? Poor guy must’ve been drowned into sorrow. What did he say?

He rubbed his forehead with his hand and gave out a forlorn cry “Madhvi, what have you done! You should’ve told this to me before marriage.”

“I wanted to” I said “but I never got a chance. You know everything happened so quickly and it was this archaic tradition of disbarring the couple from any kind of conversation before wedding. I am really sorry Jay, I should have told you before.” I started sobbing before him. “I don’t know what to do” I lamented.

“Anyways, better late than never, who is he?” Jay asked blatantly, he made out that my only reason of not loving him was probably that I was in love with someone else.

I said “We did our MBAs from the same college. It was only at the end of our two year term that he gathered enough courage to propose to me. We were together for some eight months during which we decided to tie the knot as soon as he returns from his three month company trip to Singapore. And you know what happened thereafter.” He was listening intently to whatever I said. I got scared of the way he was staring at me.

“I am sorry Jay I should’ve told you” I started wailing and wheezing. “I don’t know what to do!” I cried.

“Where is he right now?” Jay asked. I was afraid as I had no idea whatsoever what his intentions were.

“He hasn’t returned from Singapore yet.”

“When will he come back?”

“In one month or so” I was petrified.

“You must understand Madhvi that you have no other option left…” my heart sank after hearing this. May be I should accept my fate I thought, he gave a small pause and finally informed me of his intent “…except to wait for him.”

As soon as I heard this from Jay tears began falling from my eyes. I just couldn’t believe my luck. It was surreal, is it happening to me! I thought I was dreaming.

Suhana interrupted her “Ohhh! Poor Jay, he was such a darling.” She empathized with him.

But my happiness was short lived. I realized Jay could not have pulled it off on his own. What would he say to his parents, to my parents, to everyone? This was no child’s play, we were talking business here. Jay seemed to have read my mind “Don’t worry about tomorrow Madhvi, sleep well, we’ll work something out”. He tried to soothe my anxieties. I went to sleep with mixed feelings of delight and apprehensions.

We spent next few days under the pretense of a married couple. I made friends with his younger sister-Mitali. And his five year old niece Kapila was such a sweet heart. I had fun spending those days with them.

One evening Mitali found an old album of their family pictures. Mitali, Kapila, and I spent that evening watching those pictures. Kapila showed me snaps of her and her brother getting their clothes dirty in the garden when they were five year olds, their family trip to an amusement park. In one picture Jay was sitting on a heap of raw cotton; he must’ve been a couple of years old then, in another he stood with his right hand on that part of his body where it hurts the most.

Suhana laughed.

As we were enjoying ourselves in the drawing room Jay came back from office. I showed him his childhood pics. “You were cute” I remarked.

“Yes, I was” he put too much stress on ‘was’ while looking intently at one of the pictures. I was grinning as I noticed where it was going.

“You still are” I said such that he could barely hear it, looking at him with an awry head.

“You think so?” He asked me wearily. We both laughed.

“Jay was a passive guy wasn’t he?” asked Suhana.

“He was shy. And introverted,” Madhvi replied.

Jay and I became friends. I started sharing a lot of things with him. I told him about the incidence when Nikhil and I fell off the bike as he was trying to make an impression on me by displaying how well he skidded. He laughed out loud when he heard that Nikhil had to get his broken hand plastered after the incident and flunk mid-sems due to that. I got a little too carried away when I talked about Nikhil. I began to weep silently, or as less noisily as I could. He tried to commiserate with me.

“its okay its okay! It’s just a matter of few days” he said while striking my hairs.

“He was kind of…” Suhana was looking for the word. Madhvi found it for her

“…Selfless. But he tried to flirt with me on one occasion.”

“Tell me about it.” Suhana was surprised to learn the other side of her friend’s ex-husband.

On Easter holiday Jay’s father asked us to visit his uncle’s farms for the weekend. Jay didn’t want to go. We had developed a deep friendship and he didn’t want to give the false impression that we were happily married. “What will I tell them, ‘what happened’ after you leave” he would tell me. But his father insisted and finally Jay gave in. When we were coming back from Uncle’s farm on Sunday, Jay had grown very tired of travelling in the bus. It seemed like his head was suspended and was oscillating under gravity. I would admit that I am guilty of enjoying him banging his head twice on the windowpanes but I suggested him- although laughingly as I couldn’t contain myself- that he can rest his head on my shoulder if he wants to sleep.

An impish chortle appeared on his face, he said “If I keep my head on your shoulders, I won’t be able to sleep.”

“Wo-Ho! He wasn’t a cow” said Suhana admiring her Madhvi’s ex-husband’s sense of humor.

“Don’t you think he was” Madhvi said playfully.

In fact several such incidences occurred after that day. Many a times when we watched cricket with his family our hands would touch and we will smile at each other. He was so shy that once Mitali asked to take picture of just two of us. Mitali repeatedly asked him to come near me. He would move just an inch. And finally when Mitali thought we were close enough, she commanded him- rather obtrusively- to put his hand on my waist, and he lifted his hand, put it around my waist, but kept it away ever so slightly so as not to make a contact and still make it appear that he had me in his arm.

“You gave a lot of pain to that poor chap.”

“Yeah sometimes I feel guilty about that. May be he would remember those days for a long time. But eventually he will forgive me or maybe he already has, I can tell that much as far as I know him.”

“Okay enough of Jay now! Tell me how did you came to meet Nikhil” said Suhana finishing her final sip of the coffee.

To be continued...

Souvenir

M

onsoon always brings the sweet fragrance of wet soil, and nostalgia along with, for him at least. It always beat him why, until today. Today was an overcast day, just like the day of his convocation. He could remember the day vividly. He remembered all the fine details. He had mixed feelings that day, that of overwhelming happiness and the pain of knowing that this was probably the last he was seeing her for a long time. He was one of the brighter students of his class; president of student’s association and editor-in-chief of the college magazine. That’s why he would be receiving the gold medal, more popularly known as The Medal of Honor, this evening.

It was right from the first semester that he began to fall for her. Not love on the first sight, but something more gradual. He saw her dating a few pupils, change a few boyfriends, but there was nothing serious. He had his reasons of not letting her know about the soft corner he had in his heart for her, they were beyond the fear of rejection and need not be mentioned here.

The dean felicitated him with the Medal of Honor, with fifty four percent of gold in the 10 gram coin and a red ribbon hanging around it, around his neck and complete batch applauded for the man of the evening. Everybody knew him not only for his brilliant intellect, but for the compassionate compatriot he was. He was always there for close friends, and also for not so close ones. He ranked second in most of the academics, but would still receive the Medal of Honor, no surprises for the entertainer he was. His stories in the college magazine moved even the sternest of faculties.

The evening was nearing an end. People started leaving- his eyes were involuntary searching for the face.

She was with her friends; schmoozing, laughing, bantering. He was looking for a private moment and finally got one. This was the moment; he was there, standing in front of her, looking in her eyes. He had played this tape so many times in his head. He never took off his eyes from her. He gently expressed himself, in a hushed tone, “May be you know but may be you don’t, that ever since I saw you I have been falling for you. I just wanted to let you know, I have a small corner in my heart, soft like a feather, where you reside.”

She frowned and transmuted the expression of her face as if she was completely taken by surprise, but the frown was a lie, he always believed she knew. She spoke “Umm, I never saw that coming” another lie, “don’t you think it’s a little late?”

The ballroom was almost empty now except for few boys bantering around the corners. “On the contrary I feel it’s just about the right time, and you know precisely why. I just want you to keep this, as a souvenir” he gently tucked the gold coin with red ribbon hanging around it in her right hand. He began retreating, his eyes locked in hers and at last he muttered “Goodbye!”

Five years down the line…

Today was the get-together of his batch. It was an overcast day, just like the day of his convocation. Monsoon always brought the sweet fragrance of wet soil, and nostalgia along with, for him at least. It always beat him why, until today. He was early; his eyes were involuntarily searching for the face. Finally it appeared. It felt like it was same as it was back then. All those years hadn’t affected her in the least. Mauve and beautiful, it felt like those years of college had just passed by. He was still the editor-in-chief and president of the student's association. He looked for the souvenir, did she preserve it? If she did, is she carrying it today? He scanned her all over; it was there—entwined in her purse chain. An involuntary smile appeared on his face. She was coming to him. His heart was pounding, it was a magical moment. She sat next to him on a bar chair. Quickly they were engaged in a conversation. After few trivial topics came the inevitable. “So, did you get married?” he asked. “Yes as a matter of fact I did, and just a few days have passed when I got the news that I am carrying a baby inside me.” She had a look of amazement in her eyes as she revealed, goose bumps on her sleeveless arms were palpable.

“Did you?” she asked.

“No, not yet but soon I will be. I am engaged for over a couple of years now.” After a few minutes of badinage they bade goodbye to each other, for one last time. They went on to pursue different goals and never met after the get-together. He watched pictures of her and her family few times, on orkut perhaps.

He never understood what she felt for him. Why did she preserve the souvenir for so long and why did she carry it that day? Out of love, reverence, or just courtesy? But for him it always remained a College Love, not forgotten.

Escapism: Hiding from Oneself

“No man is born without any ability with which he cannot change the world”, Osho.

Every one of us is special, for the simple reason that no one is devoid of any capability at all. Then why some of us achieve well beyond limitations while others spend their lives in oblivion. Psychology can help us understand some human traits here. A child is innocent; he has neither apprehensions nor malice. But we are here for some purpose and tragedies are part of the process of growing up. No one grows (both physically and metaphorically) without experiencing them, first of them being; being born itself. Then there are others like Oedipus complex which Sigmund Freud explained as “first sexual impulses of a child are directed towards his mother.” It stems mainly due to adverse climactic conditions faced by the child after birth, which is very different from the pre birth conditions when child is safe and secure in his mother’s womb “it is this desire of becoming one with body and soul”. Freud adds “the child wants to have his mother but realizes that he cannot, as she belongs to his father”. It might seem taboo to some, but as Freud remarked “because the oracle laid the same curse upon us before our birth…”

Thomas A. Harris in his book I am Ok You are OK points out that every child feels- after looking up to the adults around him- that he is “little, incompetent, and often makes mistakes”. Harris also points out that “fortunate are those children, who, early in their lives gets an opportunity to prove to others, and mainly to themselves, that they are worthwhile and competent”. For lesser fortunate children, however, repetitive limiting commands such as “You are worthless”, “You are incompetent”, “You can’t do it”, are found to be playing like a tape in their heads well into their adulthood. This condition has been termed as contamination of Adult by Harris. This is not just one form of contamination of adult as described by Harris; many abnormal human traits come under this head, ranging from masochistic and psychopathic to self defeating tendencies. But the former are much less common in comparison to the latter and in this text we shall deal with the latter only.

Most children grow up feeling feeble and petite. If they are not backed up with enough love and care they might develop an abnormal perception through false learning. Sure, a setback makes us grow out of our cocoon, but it might also do so in a negative way. If a child, during his developmental phase where he encounters a tragedy, is not reconciled with love, he might develop a pervasive view of himself and the world around him. Having abusive parents makes the matters worse. If a child is abused during early years of his life there is a hundred percent chance that he will associate so much pain to being himself that he will hide under delusions, projections, and other defence mechanisms. This is what is called hiding from oneself or ‘Escapism’. If these issues are not dealt with, a person can spend his entire life under their influence.

This condition is not limited to abused children. Children, who have faced domestic violence, had broken homes, poor nutrition, or even- as Thomas Harris points out- ‘didn’t have the opportunity of proving their worth to themselves’ may develop these tendencies. They are ridden by low self esteem.

There are a lot of manifestations of poor self-image or low self-esteem, primary of them being lack of concentration. Intense moments that requires focussed attention brings us to our True Self; this is the concept of meditation. Since the one ridden by low self esteem wants to hide from himself he avoids intense moments and lacks concentration. He lacks confidence, avoids confrontations, and also avoids silence as silence, like meditation, also helps us find our True Self. People having this obliquity can be broadly classified in two categories.

Those belonging to the first one (the primary) are trepid, emotionally insecure and afraid of taking risks. They never see dreams, because a long shot often involves a risk of failure. For them failure is the cardinal sin, they can’t take the risk of coming around as one. Their energies are diverted to addictions and obsessions. They might be galvanized into action by ‘ennui’, or in case they associate a lot of pain to their former self as pointed out by Harris. But if the underlying disorders in schema are not dealt with, they might develop a secondary condition described below.

The secondary condition is quite opposite to the primary in that that the person in concern does not underestimate himself but does the opposite, he overestimates, yet they are very much alike since the pain and sufferings are all the same. Quite notably primary condition is prerequisite of the secondary one. The secondary condition, where the subject overestimates his capabilities and considers himself the centre of universe, cannot develop on its own, an underlying inferiority is always there.

The person having any of the above described disorders eventually undertakes hollow or borrowed dreams.

This brings us to the question of whether dreams can be misleading. Yes! If one pursues goals which are inconsistent with his inherent values and gifted talents, one cannot find peace even after realization of the dream. Such individuals either comes through as a thorough failure or conversely might keep climbing ladders of success one after another, but never finding any satisfaction or sense of value addition in them. They keep asking the same question over and over again, after every achievement, ‘is that all to it?’

Can this condition be revived? This is the question on which psychology, religion, and philosophy offers a coherent view. Thomas Harris calls it emancipation of Adult; Carl Jung, disciple of Freud, called it self-actualization; religion named it apotheosis; while there is no one word for it in philosophy, it can be well assumed that philosophy do advertise that there is a way out or how else would you explain the existence of so many philosophical teachings, they ought to have some purpose.

This process of revival can be understood by the ancient principle of karma. According to this principle every individual has some duties to fulfil, whether of patrician or of petty nature. These duties are his dharma. Karma is the action one performs. One’s karma ought to be consistent with his dharma. A soul’s next incarnation depends on the nature of karma he performed in its previous birth. Duties here does not mean obligations in general, as many writers have time and again reminded us that it is the duty of each one of us to realize our true potentials and share them with others.

Osho in his book Freedom, Courage to be yourself says “if you are a painter, you’ll have to paint; if you are a dancer, you’ll have to dance; there is no other way to achieve fulfilment and come at peace with yourself”.

It can also be understood through science of psychology. Jung laid the principle of Self-actualization. According to him each individual is born with some unique set of skills. Self-actualization is the process of reaching a stage where all the faculties and inherent talents are optimally utilized and works coherently. It is obvious how closely this principal is related to the ones mentioned above.

Realizing our true Self is the key to achieving eternal bliss. That is how we can come at peace with ourselves and to the world around us. Silence is a good starting point. Spending time in silence can reveal to us our true nature. But ultimately we shall engage ourselves in the pursuit of our true calling. We’ll have to ask ‘what are we born to do after all?’ Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, said in his speech to the Harvard grads “find out what you are born to do, till then don’t rest, don’t settle”. That is where our hope lies.

Apocalypse II- Awestruck

Read Apocalypse I- Expedition in the dark

Essar was ready. He and Dominic will board on the most ambitious project witnessed ever by the humankind. Mission Swarthy, an attempt to unravel the mystery of the dark planet. Essar couldn’t help but admit that he was being nervous. After all this was a ‘dream come true’ for him.

Five days before landing

The space ship has come close enough to penetrate the sight of its built in telescope through the dark envelope. Essar takes a look at their landing spot on one of the many screens. At the moment it was bamboozled by a cyclone passing by. The atmosphere is turbulent, it’s a frivolous storm. But such storm gets settled or passes by in a matter of a few hours or a couple of days at max. This too shall pass.

At present

Essar and Dominic returned from a hectic day. It wasn’t just another day at work. They’d seen both hope and disappointment on the same day. The discovery of that forsaken log had given them immense hope. They dug and dug hard, only to find themselves in a deep abyss. They found nothing except dirt beneath. It made no sense. No sign of life or water whatsoever in near proximity. Then where did that log came from and the skull. It seemed completely incongruous to the surroundings. Dominic was still driving and Essar was looking for an explanation. He could find none.

Dominic followed the marker he’d been placing throughout the errand. It was very easy for someone to get lost in such a hazy and dark planet. It was a good idea to put some marker. It was this system in the wagon. It will drop a minuscule of used oil, stored in a special tanker intentionally built for this purpose, every half a kilometer that will keep track of their trail. They were almost there. Tired and exhausted, both wished to have some sleep in the spaceship, their home for last two and a half months, and also for the next.

They’d landed during the daytime. Almost fifteen hours have passed and night is in its full bloom, except that there is no light, apart from the two headlight lamps from their wagon. Dominic could barely make out the spaceship. He’s not sure: is the ship a little tilted. No it can’t be. May be it’s just the darkness or the tiredness taking a toll on him. A closer view might give a better picture. No, may be he’s hallucinating. How a spaceship can be tilted on a dry and arid land. There might be water present but not in this part of the planet. There are no swamps; they’d chosen the landing spot well. Dominic was sure that now he needed some sleep.

Concluded: Apocalypse III- The Revelation

The Lost Symbol, Awesome!

No Spoilers, honestly

For those who thought The Da Vinci Code was the book of the century, get yourself a copy of The Lost Symbol. Just when I thought I was getting used to Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol awed me with its twists and turns. Dan Brown just emulated himself with this work. Sure he has a particular theme to which he always sticks to; the story occurs in a time span of few hours- twenty four at most, the story has a psychotic killer, a nymph, lots of facts, conspiracy theories, and there is always a father figure. The Lost Symbol is no different, but it's far from monotonous. Those who loved The Da Vinci Code will go crazy after this one.

Through Robert Langdon, Dan Brown gives us a sneak peek into the world of Freemasons. He gives a detailed picture of their ideologies and rituals, some of them esoteric as they may seem, nonetheless a picturesque representation of their diversity in terms of subscription from the members of a number of different religions. He claims, in his book, that all the religions of the world (and also science) more or less teaches the same philosophy and although through diverse metaphors and allegories, converges to offer the same wisdom. Dan Brown has integrated the preaching of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Freemasonry, Science, Hinduism, Alchemy, Egypt, Rosicrucian, and-as it seems -every other discipline that ever existed on this earth. According to what Robert Langdon discovers, all of the above mentioned disciplines are trying to guide mankind to a path where the man can realize his true potential. 'Apotheosis' as has been called in the book.

Among this sacred wisdom is the enigmatic figure of Mal'akh, who although is after the same knowledge- seeks it for ignoble purpose. There's a lot of mystery throughout the text regarding this idiosyncratic entity. But what awed me most was the shocking revelation that Dan Brown has placed adroitly as the book nears the end. I was awestruck when I came to know the reality about Mal'akh.

I can only say that Dan Brown has done justice to this work. After The Da Vinci Code one can be inclined to assume 'can something as good as this could occur in a matter of few years?' With Dan Brown, the answer is yes. Do get yourself a copy of this one. You won't regret, that I can assure.

Apocalypse I - Expedition in the dark

The black orb - oblivious to the tiny metallic bullet closing down on it - continued on its elliptical path. Inside the metallic bullet, two figures chattered continuously on the radio, informing about their whereabouts to the home base. "The distance is now forty six thousand kilometers, we'll land on this planet in about thirty hours" said Dominic Wilde. "We'll enter the atmosphere in about twenty five and a half hours approx" said Claudio Essar, proud of his recent achievement. He had been pioneer of this project. Essar was a strong supporter of the view of existence of life on this dark planet. Although the planet had been enveloped by CO2 and a handful of other toxic gases, it was still highly likely that life existed at some point of time here due to the presence of life saving nectar around its poles- water.

Although skeptics ruled out the presence of any form of life on this planet owing to its black sulphur-di-oxide envelope that prevented sunlight entering its atmosphere, other possibilities allowed this voyage to get manifested. One corner of Essar fantasized about finding living things on this misty planet. He recalled stories from his benign nanny 'We do not belong to this world son, we used to live in a beautiful paradise, heaven. Then some of us committed a sin and we were sent in this ugly world to suffer.' Little did his granny knew about Panspermia.

Twenty five hours later.

Dominic pressed the radio button "We are about to enter the atmosphere, a mild radioactive radiation has been detected. The intensity of the radiation is harmless."
Essar, concurring to Dominic, raised his brow in amazement. A mild radioactive radiation implied a larger radioactive reaction in recent history of this planet. He wondered why this radiation wasn’t detected by their ultra-modern microwave telescope back home, or by the inhuman spaceship they’d been sending here over last ten years. Perhaps the low intensity of the radiation allowed it to get masked by other toxic gases. Or may be the telescope didn’t have enough resolution to detect such a mild occurrence. Whatever the cause, for Essar, the hope of finding life at this point of time vanished. Dominic continued “high density of CO2 and sulphur-di-oxide confirmed. We are preparing to land on the surface.”

Five hours later.

"Five, four, three, two, one, zero. We have landed on the ground, preparing to set out of the spaceship." Dominic informed and terminated the connection. Both the astronauts readied their space suits and prepared to set their foot on this mysterious planet, an event that the whole world was looking forward to. Essar was the first one to set out on this mysterious planet. Dominic had the camera and he took the video. The camera was connected with an instrument on the spaceship, which would not only save it but will also send a copy to the home base without any of the astronauts having to press a button. This video would be released to the press so that whole world could witness this magnificent site. Although there was a petite group who considered such a voyage a complete waste of money and time- that the money spent on such an ambitious and obsolete project should have been used to elate the living standards of some lesser fortunate instead, the people who didn't had access even to basic amenities and health care- but chances were good that even those people would be looking at this video for its sheer enormity.

They landed on an arid land and started looking around. The idea was to thoroughly examine the place in the proximity of the spaceship. The two had at max one week before the return journey. Both of them wore a spacesuit which insulated them from the outside environment, especially from the toxic gases. The variations in temperature and pressure were of little concern as this planet had an environment highly conducive to life. Or at least Essar thought so. They had a backpack that carried oxygen supply and a small wagon, armed with equipments, for carrying out errands during their brief stay. They both carried torches as light was scarce. After traveling an hour or so they encountered, for what it seemed like, a forsaken log. Both alighted from the wagon and started speculating. Essar sneaked through a small hole. Dominic watched him gasp. "Roaches" Essar blurted as he tried to comprehend. It made perfect sense. Roaches are known to survive the greatest catastrophes. Its hard to eliminate them by any natural phenomenon, even nuclear reactions as it was known to Essar. Dominic had a quick look and he too looked equally startled.

They took a sample of a roach. This confirmed the presence of both flora and fauna on this planet. Both astronaut studied that log for a few hours and then decided to roll it over to see what lies beneath. A look of amazement, if not horror, ran through their faces as they gaped at the calcium composite lying before them- a human skull. "We need a driller" exclaimed Dominic his eyes still fixed on the skull.

Continued...
(Apocalypse II - The Revelation)