The System

He clenched the steering and shook his legs in irritation as vehicles squeezed into every available space in front of him at the red signal. The overcrowded bus spew dark smoke through its rusted exhaust as the passengers clung to whatever they could as if stuck to giant magnet. Two wheeler rider stuff handkerchief through helmet so as to not inhale the poison. The woman dangled the baby on one hand as she clutched the man. The baby with watery eyes and festering wounds on its legs try to catch the floating soot from the fire burning in the roadside dump. He was repulsed. He jabbed the radio and tuned in. It was loud. A screaming man was trying to create excitement through his voice, he screeched “We are today celebrating our lyricist. He gave us so much without taking back anything in return. What a true artist”. A woman joined in with high pitch giggle “we are blessed with so much talent. Mind blowing”. The man repeated after her “blowing blowing” in a fading tone and hit a drum. They chuckled. “So listeners lets listen to one of his gems. Don’t forget we are the only radio station that truly care about our icons, and and and don’t forget our sponsors”. As abruptly a loud song shot out “Yaar masti me gaa taal uchi laga” the man and woman joined emphasizing “taal uchi laga” He hit the drum “gulgule hai bade gulgule…”  The song continued. The only intention seems to be to create as much noise as possible so as to not loose the audience. He felt disgusted that people are even paid for such assault on language. He switched it off. There was chill in the air that swept from the northern mountain. The song was still reverberating in his mind. He thought about it. Maybe that is what this was all about to barge into thoughts of undiscerning audience. Once it got into the mind they can be manipulated. He was appreciative of the effort. He need to learn the subtleties of working into minds of mindless consumers, he reminded himself, even if these were loud uncouths with appalling sense for music. Just before the signal turned green vehicles began to get restive they sneer and hiss, each one was yelling to the one in front while some threatened with power horns. They didn’t cross the white line. Aware of the wide eyed cctv dangling up above the street that snapped as also recognized the faces. Punishment was swift. As the signal turned green like a clog that ruptured the traffic oozed out then it burst. He pressed the accelerator. The SUV surged ahead of other vehicles. He liked it when he overtake. It gave him a sense of achievement and fuelled his purpose in life. It was a moment of clarity. An essential meaning that very few understood. He deserved to be ahead. He took a sharp turn. The security personnel made an attempt to smile as he stood up. The SUV vanished into the basement of the multistoried dark glassed cuboid. You could see from outside that some cubicles were lit with computer screens. Silhouettes of employees could be seen moving inside. On the top corner of the cuboid was a huge cut out of carbonated soda bottle. Dance of light gave the impression of bubbles inside the soda even in the broad day light. During night it could be seen from kilometers away. So much so that it has become a major landmark in the city. Youngsters took pride in taking selfies from different part of the city with the giant bottle in the background. They posted these in social media which was vigorously commented upon and appreciated. Some sites even had forums where people posted their emotional attachment with the city and how the giant bottle was always a constant presence in their experiences. These comments and pictures evoked nostalgia among expatriates. Some even commented that the sight of giant bottle was what reminded them how much they loved the city. 

        

“Good morning Sam. Ready for the presentation?” the senior manager peered from his cubicle as he passed. “Sure Deep” he smiled and waved back. Inside the cuboid he was called Sam. Everybody had two syllable name. It saved time. He swiftly paced to his cubicle. He surveyed the scene before he settled down as he placed his laptop and lunch box. Array of cubicles stretched before him from all sides. If you happen to look from the top it gave the impression of puzzle maze. Sam was like an insect which negotiated these maze every day. The maze had its own mind that kept changing every few days. So you are never too sure. What was an exit becomes a trap while the next day the trap becomes an easy exit. It kept the employees guessing. The only surety, the constant, was each employee’s commitment to the goals of the system. Nothing else was certain.    

It was last Friday of the month. The monthly meeting was to start in an hour. Unlike daily meetings today all the senior managers will be present. Sam was to do the monthly sales presentation of all the region in the country. He was tensed. The figures were dipping in southern region. He called up the regional branch to reconfirm the figures. The regional branch manager in turn called up the subsidiaries and rechecked the figures. The trends were negative. Sam slanted on his chair and observed the tastefully done Rorschach like pattern on the ceiling. He cared for the moment. He need to be present in the moment. “Live the moment” he was told. He liked it. It was simple and profound. He reminded himself of what his father said “The fact that you are getting so much salary is the clear indication that you are blessed. There is no other validation needed. You look at the millions and millions of miserable people in this country. They go hungry. They live in dirt. The reason you are chosen, you are blessed, is because we are blessed. It’s in our blood. It is not accident. It is all fated. We are entitled. Now you have to take responsibility of the miserable. You are their savior. You have to control them and guide them. It is your duty. Understand your place. Realize”. He clenched his fist. Yes I can handle this. He walked into the meeting energized with a thought of his entitlement that he owes to no one.

The board room, which was more of a hall, was already full when he entered to find his place. “Hi Sam” “Hi Sher” “Hello Sal” “Hello Dil”. They shook hands, as they settled down somewhere in the middle of the rows. You shook his hand and realize the cold purposeful grip has send chill through the bone. His smile spread the warmth in awkward way as his gaze fixed like that of dead fish. The vacant gaze ripped open the window to let in icy wind that freeze your sense. It moved from you to the next person without any acknowledgement. It was as if it has habituated to detach from the scene. You are left mystified and frightened by the possibility of malevolence it held. These thoughts were however held back by the ordinariness of his presence. A faceless earnest manager at the cuboid apprehensive about the sales graph. He fit in excellently to the scene. He was so unobtrusive that he was admired for it as if he was predisposed to become this. Colleagues who admired him also knew that they too were predisposed to become him –the unassuming honest hardworking manager putting in everything for the system. It was an achievement to hasten this into perfection. 

Everyone wore identical black suits with wide peak lapel and chocolate brown shirt. They were jovial and moved around energetically in confident gait. Some stood around in small groups. Their discussion had no depth or content, and that wasn’t a concern at all. These were about who said to whom what, which were necessarily meant to seek allegiance and cement relations. It was the defining dynamics of competence in a system: The small talks. There was nothing really to discuss when you are sure about what the system needed. You just work for the system. Only juvenile premise, pubescent thoughts and adolescent ambitions could understand the needs of system. It was necessary that we become pure souls to understand system better.

The senior managers occupied the front rows while the middle level the middle row, and the junior the last rows. The screens on the wall connected the regional centers. Each center was likewise arranged with employees wearing same type of attire and arranged in similar manner so that they looked like reflections, as if in an infinite extension. The rows established the seniority within the levels too. So you could tell who was doing better or was favored by the top management. Moving to the front row was how achievement tabulated. Since relations were temporary it introduced new set of equals. There were thirty rows and each row took on an average about a year to reach. Some took more than a year while others covered it in few months depending on their competence that was deeply meaningful in the system. Each milestone was celebrated by family and friends. They thanked the system profusely for their good fortune on such occasions. Some had deity as representing the system while others were deityless. To get the “senior” tag was the only plausible reason for existence. It was a definite milestone in their life on which they anchored all their ambitions. It assured status and respectability, and semblance of meaning. The first row had only two chairs. One of them, the senior-most manager stood up and took the small elevated podium. He got into the matter without much ado “Hello everyone. This is a weekly meeting but since this is month end it’s also the monthly round up”.  He took a deep breath and informed “Today we will also launch our new campaign”. This was met with enthusiastic applause. He sat down. A lady referred to as “Prab” –the HR manager took the mike to update the individual achievements of the month. Names were called and acknowledged.  Finally it was time for Sam to present his report. He could feel his heart beat and palms sweat. There were speculation about the bad performance of the soft drink giant in the media. His report was much anticipated. The big screen brightened with his slides. He skipped the initial mandatory slides to reach the data. The north region showed impressive growth while the west and east were catching up. Central region had some hiccups but it was manageable. The south region slide was met with a gasp. The negative trends were unbelievable. There was a tense silence in the room. The senior most manager cleared his throat “We need to discuss”. As if on a cue the first few rows rotated their chairs so that senior managers faced the others. “Ok so what are the reasons?” Sam was ready with the slide that flashed all across the hall. It showed pictures of protest by local population against exploitation of ground water by the cuboid. What the local population didn’t know, and indeed could never know, was that cuboid was only a minor extension of the system which had much longer tentacles. They were on hunger strike, this was tacitly supported by large sections across the region. Meanwhile the anarchist activists from different part of the world had started to take it up to instigate a movement against the system. The online forums were growing in numbers. Very soon they extended the issue of ground water exploitation as system’s strategy to exploit and deny poor people their basic needs, so as to alienate and eliminate them. Examples of different incidents and criminal acts of intimidation by the system were accumulating from across the region, and consolidating resentment against the system in the public space. Some even pointed that the system was not only against local population but against humanity too. The sweetened carbonated soda didn’t carry any nutrition, it was empty calories, and it was compromising the health of large population. It was reducing the immunity of children at very young age. It compromised the health of society and reduced life expectancy. Since this region was more literate than other part of the country they could understand these better. They had developed their critical thinking faculties.   

Sam had merged these allegation into the slides with appropriate picture, and supporting videos too. As he neared the last slide, he paused, cleared his throat and said “This bunch of misguided miserable people are an assault on our revered system” and spoke briefly about the value of the system and their role in it. Most of his statements were cliché’s and quotes that were wrongly worded or attributed. It seems he was quoting what seem appropriate to the context from what he was taught or tutored, or else it was meant to please the system. He covered his lack of substance with melodramatic gestures and emotional appeal. Finally he raised his fist “We must deal with them. We must fight with them on every street corner. And we will”. There was instant applause. It was deafening. Managers stood on their feet. It was an emotional moment. It was show of strength. A resolve to be united against any threat. Sam was pleased with his performance. He expertised in converting any matter or happening into event that asserted the omnipotence of the system. It was meant to awestruck the audience and realize the grand nature of system that they were fortunate to be part of. Words were used as glitters intended to mesmerize the mind. He was immensely satisfied that he was able to put on a show as a resolute member of the system. He had a duty to perform, and with this presentation he was assured that he had positioned himself as a frontline soldier of system’s righteousness. He was warrior he knew it. It was in his blood. He didn’t want to take the limelight. He humbly submitted himself to the  higher call for the system. He maybe a cog in the cuboid but was ready to defend the system when the need arise. Unlike the teeming millions who clog the streets, dirty the city and protest at every nook and corner to hide their incompetence and laziness he was blessed. This was the time to show it. The senior manager patted him as the applause died and turned to the enthusiastic gathering while pointing to Sam “The system will thrive because of fighters like you Sam. You are a blessing to the system”. As Sam took his seat he was immensely satisfied that he was being acknowledged. There was no escaping from reality. He will be shifting to the front row in few days, he knew it. It was fated. He looked patronizingly at his competitors. Some of them returned his brilliantly shining feline gaze. They knew his thoughts. They were alert and intensely attuned to immediate threat. Like foragers they use instinctive strategies to search and optimize data, and moved from one data patch to another. Like the cave men sniffing the air, alert on snapping twigs, they discern patterns of threat and were vigilant for any aberrations, any transgression of norms. They were incapacitated to perceive anything beyond present. So if you talk to them about climate they mistake it for weather. If you tell them about extinction of species they will think it’s a conspiracy by aliens. Incapacitated to comprehend complexities they seek simplistic binaries.  

The senior manager meanwhile shifted to a serious tone as he addressed the falling sales graph. “This is a threat on the system. It’s the failure of education that instead of seeking harmony it is producing people who are questioning the system and seek to create chaos. What is happening to the world?” He asked and continued without a pause. “Education has taught us to obey and seek solace in loyalty. We are so fortunate that we are conditioned to obey orders. We don’t ask questions. We are never confused about our faithfulness to the system. We need to really deal with these people once and for all”. Sam nodded in enthusiastic support as did others. The senior manager acquired rather grievous tone “We are here to promote peace and prosperity. We stand for equal right and opportunity. We are strongly with those fighting for human rights and liberty. We want to fight poverty and make the world a better place. We want to help people reach their potential and contribute to the system. That is all we want. We are part of the solution”. Every member of the system was moved by the speech. Sam knew what he was talking about. He was proud alumni of best schools in the country. They knew how to inculcate discipline and sense of duty for the system. Classes were always conducted in strict orderly manner, questions in exams were never asked from outside the syllabus and it took special care to evaluate their memory and their capacity to recall. There were pattern for answers that pleased the examiner. Those who followed these were awarded maximum scores. They produced perfect people who added value to the society. They were courteous and humble. He was trained quite early in life to follow orders without hesitation. No thoughts that were dangerous to the system ever entered his mind, on the contrary he became vigilant to any such thoughts not only in him but also in his surroundings. He was duly appreciated and paid by the system. His defining state of mind on any occasion was gratefulness. Gratefulness to the almighty that runs the system. Sometimes he was so overwhelmed by the power and grandeur the system that he would utter “Peace be with the almighty. The creator and destroyer of the system”.

 The senior manager pointed to the legal team. A woman in short hair stood up and declared “These people are doing an illegal act. It is against the law. There are different provision of the law that safeguards the system against such transgressions. We will easily win the case and we will seek compensation”.

Senior manager nodded “That would be appropriate. They need to understand that the system exist for the benefit of the people. If they have the patience it will trickled down to them. The problem is that these people don’t have patience. They are so lazy that they want everything now and free”.

The audience laughed. Sam joined in complete agreement like everyone else. He just couldn’t understand why some people don’t want good life. Why don’t they understand that the system was here to provide good life? He shrugged in bewilderment. Next few minutes the senior manager tried to motivate the audience that span the country. Later many other managers spoke about their experience with the system and indebtedness to the system. Some even began their sentence by fawning to the system “Peace and harmony be with the system” while others elevated it to mysterious forces that need to be kept satiated by our constant effort and vigil.

During the break informal links were sought to be strengthened though extreme care was taken that it never undermine the hierarchy. They were informal but they must show deep deference to the structure. The structure defined the system so any insubordination of the structure was an affront on the system. Informal talks were meant to bind them to sustain and strengthen the system. They spoke about families and holiday plans, and quietly listened to others once they were done. They spoke and listened, and felt a deep connection towards the system that they were grateful to. Though they were colleagues for years they knew each other only superficially. They knew likes and dislikes of each other and negotiated their work carefully sidestepping these personal quirks. On jovial occasion they made fun of it while on other instances found some meaning to it. They were not meant to be friends. Even if they pretend that they were they also were acutely aware of their competitive status for the front rows. Though they had complete allegiance to the system and were compliant to all its orders they didn’t trust each other. There was always an eerie veil between them which they were too scare to probe or even consider. His colleague had an idea of Sam but they were never able to pinpoint him. Like them he too was an abstraction of the moment without any lasting impact. He gave the impression of illusionary aspect of life. He reflected the cheerfulness of the occasion and concerns of a bad sale data. That seem to be the extreme of emotion he displayed. In short he was, like his colleagues, a nice person who cared for his team, and was a value addition to the cuboid and an asset to the system. They were shallow. They were superficial. They though weren’t stupid but they were simply never there. Completely adrift in the blissful realization of the system that they were incapable to hold on to any truth. The system persistently created bottom-up stimuli to keep their attention firmly on immediate, the present. HR managers regularly congregated to conceive new ways and tempting agendas to keep the herd active. Miming leaders, actors and such entertainments like throwing water balloons while on one foot, these were fun filled activities to inculcate values of multitasking, light quizzes on movies and cricket assured them that limited knowledge on superficial things are quite enough to have a good successful life. Meanwhile awards were distributed for their adherence to the system, the incentive response encouraged them to improve further. These informal get-togethers were also meant to inculcate camaraderie as a nomadic herd, it made each competing member understand other better as also was a reiteration of their complete dependence on the system. It helped to consolidate brain circuit that seek immediate reward. A sense of wellbeing was triggered when these brain circuits were activated, these then merged into the system.   

After tea and snacks they were back. Prab, the HR manager, was on the stage again. She said “Before we get into the proceedings I need to announce the “Honest employee of the month”. A junior manager named Abhi was the winner. He stood up humbly to receive thundering applause and some whistling. “Abhi reflects all the values we stand for. He is the true representative of the system and a pride of our cuboid” said the senior manager as he joined the applause. He added “Honesty is the best policy. System thrives with honest people. We will check his past performance and see if we can recommend him a row promotion.”

Every act was measured, evaluated and justified in context to the system. There was nothing good or bad, ethical or unethical. There was no conscience. Since there was no conscience there was no question of prejudices or complexities. Lacking any references they considered themselves evolved and brilliant. The system too reciprocated by fulfilling all their needs and wants. They were happy and satisfied with life. They were duly recognized as successful people by the society. Since they were successful their opinion mattered. Their opinions were confirmation of their immense gratitude to the system. Some of them became emotional and even cried when they described their “moment” with the system, when they realized “true meaning of life”.  This then worked to consolidate the system for those in the audience who were in doubt. “Obviously he knows a thing or two about life. He has so much money. He is blessed. It’s our good fortune to listen to him” while some mused “By following her we could replicate her success and meaning of life”. They became source for inspiration and constant reference for youngsters. Their personal life mattered too it made them immediate and achievable, if only we follow them. A better life was already demarcated and was attainable for everyone who is ready to put in more effort.   

System evaluated individuals as threat. Individuals possess complex depth that was dangerous.  They were to be kept busy. Being in a team and a member of the group was the pinnacle of attributes, these then were elevated into peaceful community which then worked on nation building. They shared their feelings and encouraged each other. There was never any doubt. There was never any uncertainty. This therefore made individuals happy. They were optimistic. They viewed their fate as the fate of the group and not of themselves. Many therefore were ready to die for the system. These suicidal people were essential templates for brave warriors that helped the system to perpetuate with their sacrifice. Though they were fearless they were mortally afraid of loosing approval of the system. They were eternally reliant on the system. It was the sole banister of their life without which they couldn’t even stand up. It was as much their backbone. Their beliefs, values and meanings were derived from the system. It nurtured and regulated their fallible drives. Life was meaningless without the system. It was the organizing idea that drove them into a never ending cycle of fortune. It was their master plan that blessed them from time immemorial. It was their meaning to life. They had no doubts about anything. They were the perfect productive human beings. System was the harmonious totality that was ever to be achieved. It was a miracle. 

The senior manager cleared his throat and reminded the audience about the new ad campaign. The ad manager, who was referred to as ‘Jog’ briskly entered the scene. Jog was matter of fact and to the point. He was acutely aware of the needs and demands of the system. The soft drink was to represent all the goodness and promise of the system. Without any wasting of time he proceeded to play the video. All the employees knew what to expect. System provided general framework, and articulated itself as benign guide. It gently suggested itself as the only viable option and solution to all the problems. They were coopted and adapted to the system in its little steps as they grew. All the splendors of the world and daily miracles didn’t attract their attention unless ofcourse it could be factored in and understood through the system or is monetized for its benefits. Everything else was waste of time indeed against common sense. The male model for the product was a muscular fellow with an effeminate face and gestures. He had a huge fan following in social media, and was quite suited for the oedipal afflicted society. The female model wasn’t famous, nor she need to be, it was easily compensated by her large breasts. She held the bubbling soft drink bottle in a phallic grip with her lips pouting. It evoked immediate desire to possess the product. They discussed various angles of the shot, and optimal placement of product. Impressionable youth were easy target. Young minds are fertile searching for essences to associate its primal drives into experiences. These experiences were encouraged but inquiries into contradictory meanings, hypocrisies and glaring lacunas were dealt without questioning the futility of the system. Knowledge was sought to understand the system which was then used to gain from the system, to make a living and buy luxuries. More system was justified more the participants stand to gain.

Impulses, the archaic remnants of evolutionary drives, sometimes startled with questions like “Why do we have to follow this nonsense?” or “Cannot we work something better?” These needed depth of thinking hence were agreed upon as waste of time and had the potential for turmoil that threatened the order and harmony which was a criminal act. The attempt was always to harmonize these impulses and drives into the need of the system. Or else the individual was ask to spend more time to understand the system better. The system was benign and all knowing. It was also ready to forgive.  They discussed as to how effectively portray product as representing the values of the system. Since the male model had branded himself as favorite son of the system through positioning himself in patriotic events, had pictured himself paying obeisance in popular religious systems and had well quoted views on need to be always in service of the system therefore by associating him with the product meant that we stand for the same patriotic zeal for the system, Jog assured. He knew his job, and was proud for his contribution to the system.

Stripped of any instinct of decency that was ingrained as being part of millions of years of evolution as members of civilized society they were not even aware that they were committing any crime by denying the poor their basic access to life or that there is any gross violation of collective conscience by exploiting the natural resource for products that were essentially harmful. The system had assured them that their reptilian brain was most opportunely suited for handling the situation. Thinking was dangerous. Thinking therefore was removed from every aspect of work. Thinking was unproductive as it made the mind wander and encounter difficult questions. It was explained that all these difficult questions were already answered by the almighty who created the system. The miracle book contained all the answers in simple language with clear instructions. There was never any doubt. So why think? Have faith. Feel. Feel the system. 

There was an inner void in each one of them that held no malice or madness against anyone. They could never think of harming anyone. They had nothing against common people nor anyone protesting against them. They have their rights, so do we. But we shouldn’t forget our fate. We have to work for the system. In this struggle of greater good of the system somebody will have to pay the price. They never had any insatiable urge to kill anyone but for the higher calling of the system they were ready to kill and die as martyr. This was not seen as a radical act nor atrocious but just the need of the hour. There was nothing nuanced about it. Nuance complicate things. It wasted time and energy that could be channelized for the enhancing the system. System had erased their capacity to be humans. But they were pleasant people with families who enjoyed simple things in life like playing computer games with their children or going for walks in gardens and exchanging pleasantries with others. Questions like who controls the system, what is it doing to us, shouldn’t we resist and reclaim our humanity back were never asked. It is not that questions were discouraged, it is just that these never came into their mind. They were too habituated and seemingly trapped that even though sometimes in the moments of clarity they sensed the futility of it they suppressed it with easily available entertainment which instantly snuffed any doubt as also made them feel exhilarated and invigorated as proud participant in the system.

They were all human beings. They look like human beings. They could talk, hear, talk back, and smile like human being but something was horribly wrong with them. Their emotion could register only extremes, either it was immense gratitude or intense revulsion. This binary defined their behavior and created template for their interactions. Order Follow. Right Wrong. Profit Loss. National Anti-national. Kill Not kill. Us Them. These made life easy and help focus on what really mattered. This was what system preferred. Extremities brought clarity and removed confusion. Subtleties created doubt. It forced them to think. Which was indeed waste of time. System knew what was there to be known. Truth was already revealed. They had to simply work for the system to make their life better. This is what systems of education taught them. It is what systems of religion ingrained in them. This is what systems of entertainment suggested to them. This is what society appreciated in them. They had to believe in supreme order of the system. They had to conform to the higher forces. Faith. Money. Power.  

They gave the impression of illusionary aspect of life. You know the meditative thought? A stray moment of insight, which afflicts some eager souls, as they negotiate the vagaries of life. A spark that asserts the presence of sentient individual in a human. That has capacity to spread wildfires of proclamation of humanity. They represented that brief glimpse but in its utter neglect of any conviction or even fixed thoughts. Their mind was suited to what served the purpose of the moment. Then set to stitch the logic around it. This is where years of discipline in education was a help and a guide.

By late evening Sam was back in his apartment, located in the luxurious part of the city it was a prime property worth a fortune. He was immensely satisfied with his achievement so were everyone else who knew him. They say that he is blessed. He humbly attributed it to the benevolence of the system. His children were busy with their digital gadgets. Their faces glow in blue as they dully scroll the screen. His wife was watching TV, she purposelessly surfed the channels as he sat down to take off his shoes. Public intellectuals in colorful cloths discuss issue for the day. While they differ on everything that was being said they made it sure among themselves that they agree upon the need to protect the system. “Whatever may be the case the system is supreme” “…maybe but you cannot speak against the system. That is not acceptable” “….yes yes you are right but system cannot be compromised in any way” “It is our sacred duty to inculcate and nurture the values of system to our youngsters” they said these lines as final contribution to the discussion. While on another channel businessmen vouched that their profit was meant to help and perpetuate the system. Artists created various conceptions of entertainment to ingrain values of system through stories that had protagonists fighting all the odds to emerge victorious to celebrate and thank the system. Social activists came together to pay tribute to the mahatma of the system and vowed to follow his path to bring glory to the system. She stuck to one channel. The anchor of the show sneered into the camera and shouted in dismay “What should we do with these people? I mean seriously what should be done with them?” He was exasperated. The panel for the discussion flashed on the screen in small grids. It was as if they sat in their comfortable home occasionally opened their virtual window to shout and abuse at the unsuspecting passerby. They yelled simultaneously. The cacophony of gesticulating haranguing bunch made the show riveting. It promised to explode any moment, they would get up and thrash each other or break the furniture. But they did not. This very fact kept the audience fascinated. In the melee the loudest was heard. “These people have spoiled the city. They come from outside, dirty our place and spread the disease. There must be some solution to this”. While a woman in bright color outfit with high pitch voice argued that it was the population “They reproduce like pigs. They are threat to our resources. They take more than they give. These people are parasites. They are the virus that is infecting our system”. On the screen collage of poor and impoverished humans in various images of deprivation and disease floated portending ominous future for the audience. Meanwhile the anchor pitched in to remind the panelists that they have to be civilized in their interaction “This is a national TV”. 

Late into night Sam tossed on his bed. He had a nightmare that he was banished from the system. He couldn’t tolerate the meaninglessness of it. He sat down vacant and confused. He stumbled his way through the dark and reached for the icy water bottle in the fridge. He saw his shadow go larger against the wall. The leftover fruit jelly pudding wobbled in shiny red like a lump of clotted blood. He observed it till his eyes hurt. He couldn’t sleep that night. The very thought that a system that had given him everything to look forward to, a system that was benign and all caring was being threatened kept him restless. What will be the world be without faith in an all-knowing all-forgiving system? He couldn’t think of any sane productive life in the world without the system. It was the most efficient way of living. It removed all confusion. Faith assured return on every effort that was made. It was a sacred deal with almighty. He closed his eyes. He heard voices of managers, of TV anchors, of entertainers “They spread like virus” “They have spoiled our city” “What is wrong with these people?” “Lazy and useless”. He saw himself trapped and surrounded in a surging crowd that was menacingly howling into his ears “Save the system”.

Next day late into the afternoon he drove slowly into the sparsely populated outskirt of the city where the construction work were in progress. The city was expanding fast and he was proud that his contribution to the system was helping this growth. The system of economy was run with money, faith and wishful thinking. He embodied the animal spirit that sought efficiency and productivity. He was selfish for the system. His selfishness helps the system to find its best motive.  

An unassuming man walked on the pavement. Sam slowed his vehicle, lowered the side window and addressed to the man in heavily accented local language “I can drop you”. The man was startled and took some moment to gather himself. He was the intimidated by the menacingly neat colored SUV. He gathered all his politeness and refused the offer “No thank you I will walk”. Sam was taken aback by the politeness. It was least expected. Where do these people learn politeness from? He smiled. “No it’s all right I am going that way. I will drop you”. He opened the front door to let him in. Sudden gush of cool air in the sultry heat was inviting. The man gawked at the posh interior of the vehicle. He had never sat on one. He was ambivalent. All his street instincts were warning him against. He was extremely tired of the day’s work. He must have carried not less than few thousand bricks today. His body ached. He really couldn’t resist the offer. Afterall it’s only ten km, it was getting dark, he will reach home early and will be able to sleep more today, he really needed to sleep. He convinced himself.

The man carried the stench that wafted in all the ugliness of the city, all the problems of the city. It was the smell of the outsiders, and it was spreading into every nook and corner of his beloved city, his home. It was the smell that enveloped everything outside the confines of air-conditioned cubicles, cars and homes. It was the smell of the poverty, of disease, of desperation. It was the smell that evoked pandemic. Sam had experienced the stench when he occasionally lower the window while driving, the sudden gush of street carried the unmistakable disgusting odor of sweat, fume and dust mixed into repulsive nauseating concoction. He avoided filthy surrounding and mostly did all the shopping online or at the sanitized malls. But this human stench made him deeply insecure and frightened as if an ominous apparition in the dark is about to appear and swallow his perfect world. It portent everything sinister that he was aware of. It brought all the miseries he could think of.

The man was looking out at the passing scene. He was riveted to the occasional sights of crowd, maybe he sensed opportunity. He sat erect so as to not incline his body on the seat. He wanted to occupy least space. It was as if he wished he was invisible. So that he was left alone without being violated. With his humanity intact. That is the least he expected from the city. Sam casually studied the thin short taut man in modest attire. The rubber outsoles of his dirty slippers were flayed and worn out. The nails of his filthy toes were covered in work site mud. Against the creamy luxury of ultrasuede interior he was a gross presence, a violation. He didn’t dislike him personally but his presence was defiling. It went against every need of the system. The man was given the freedom to participate in the system. But he refused and choose to exist in the fringes. He is a failure. Failure is a blemish. It weakens the system. He is an infection on the system. He is a burden. He can only redeem himself through sacrifice. Bad genes will have to go. Weaklings will have to be culled from the herd.      

 The man’s phone rang. The cracked screen lit in blurry lines. He was confused as to whether to take it or not. He was intimidated by the sudden luxury that accosted. He knew he was easily evaluated and relegated. He felt suffocated. It rang again he picked it up and in an attempt to hide his voice he covered his mouth and whispered “I am on the way. I will be home very soon”. His language was heavily accented and indicated of poorest region of the country. It sounded strange since he was attempting to hide it. It was futile. Sam was smart, he could sniff people out of their deepest burrow and effortlessly placed them to where they belong and evaluate their value. It is for a reason that he is paid a ransom by the system. System was self-perpetuating but reasonable. It treated you well if you synergized with it and help it to grow. Any threat was severely dealt. Sam took it as his life’s mission to identify and dilute the threat. He was experienced enough to place an idea, a thought or a man on the scale of impending threat the moment it came into his notice. When praised for his intelligence and amazing level of competence he was always humble and attributed these to system’s blessing. He also thanked high level of system’s culture that was foundation of his family. He was particularly indebted to his parents for inheriting this hallowed tradition and passing it down to him. All the followers of the system were instinctively aware of this deep connection and were extremely emotional about it.  

Sam considered himself as a nice man, infact he knew he was nice. He was always on the verge of tears when he saw sights like stray puppy whimpering in the street of hunger and neglect particularly during rainy days. The sight of these god’s creation wet and abandoned to die filled him with intense sense of remorse. He would stop his vehicle, and even risking getting wet and all sorts of infections lurking in dirty street, he would pluck the hapless creature and put it in safe shade. He would drop some biscuits to the grateful puppy that he always carried anticipating such situation. He had some blemishes but then who doesn’t? These doesn’t make him a bad man. He can always atone for this sins. He can always purify himself and get back to his true self. System was always ready to forgive transgression for the sake of its preservation. He had a responsibility towards the system, towards the almighty. He had the historic sense of his calling. He had to set things right. There was too much imbalance. The beauty of god’s creation need to be restored. It was his duty. He shouldn’t be bothered about the result but must focus on his duty. He had a responsibility. He assumed himself as an immediate force of morality against rising immorality. He was descendant of the sun, the fireball of life. He had to vanquish the Satan, the devil, the doubts. He is the faithful. He is the solution. This was his calling. His path to heaven as revealed by the miracle book. Where all goodness exist. Where evil is banished. The system at its very purity. The almighty.       

He felt a sudden surge of energy through his body. Blood throbbed in his arteries. He sensed a metallic taste in his dry mouth. He fancied himself as fierce multi-limbed goddess riding a ferocious tiger spearing the devil. He was the warrior for the righteous. He was the instrument of the god to punish. He took this tongue out and flicked it. His eyes brightened. He was a pure soul. The gibbous moon sprayed its faint silvery rays on the serpentine path that led through the thick forested ghats. It was rarely frequented. He dimmed the headlights, and tightened the grip on the sledgehammer. The nightjar call pulsated the horror of the dark.   

Specie zero

The probability that I am alive depends upon whether I am noticed. This act of observation makes reality fundamentally different than everything else in the universe. Even the universe doesn’t know what is real until someone observes. Observation makes life distinguish itself from inanimate. It is late noon in the seething Indian summer of the malabar coast, the steely sky is merciless without any clouds. The humid stillness is accentuated by the harsh calls of rufous treepie perched on the bright yellow cascade of cassia. A long deep snort of snowy crystal meth crease stew the brain. Intuition thinking is woefully limited to take the abstraction of life’s challenges. It’s a myth spread by well-meaning doctors that dopamine can cause insignificant things to take to an unwarranted significance. On the contrary it is the significance of insignificant that really matters. In this realm hallucination is awakening from the mundane. It is questioning the reality as we know it. I am looking at myself. I am made up of atoms. 65% of me is Oxygen. 18.5% Carbon. 9.5%Hydrogen. 3.2%Nitrogen. 1.5%Calicum. 1%Phosphorus. 19more essential elements found in traces tangle with these star dust into molecules to give me life at this particular coordinates in spacetime. Scattered light from the sun lit the electrical impulse through dendrites that fuel the most complex structure in the universe the brain. I am appropriation of spinning particles on a spinning planet that is spinning around a star in a spinning galaxy in an ever expanding cosmos. The dopamine hit the highest note. It better, I had paid a ransom. Unlike cocaine it has a longer rush and highest high. I observe myself get up from the cot, open the door, and the probability wave collapse to pinpoint me on the middle of the street and the coffee shop. I am at two places. Our intuitions have evolved in the classical world. What is the cause and what is the effect is difficult to know when it is dependent on observer’s viewpoint. I immediately accept this as the new normal. I embrace multiple possibilities. I can see myself here and there. Me and anti-Me.

Me: The streets are empty. It seems a higher intelligence was guiding the course of action. People only went out when there was any need otherwise they spent much of their time to improve themselves. They avoided unnecessary crowds in street corners and small talks in the shops. They read thought provoking ideas, watch caring shows and generally were considerate to each other. They used resources with much care. Mostly they sat in the balcony silently watching the passing birds, listening to the breeze caressing the fronds and occasionally dropping crumbs to howling stray dogs. The streets had more animals than humans. Street dogs, feral cats, abandoned cows, donkeys, squirrels, monkeys so on congregated and moved around in leisure while humans gave wide space to these as if resigned to their fate or else they were waiting for a calamity which they sense was just about to strike. On the outskirts of the city wild elephants, leopards and tigers had taken back much of the encroached habitat. Humans here have locked themselves in apartments and housing colonies barricading themselves against the wild. Groceries were distributed once in a month through the agency as people hid behind masks and gloves. All that humans had subjugated and destroyed was freeing itself and rejuvenating. The air was much fresher, water sparkling in its flow and earth calmer. 

I observe Me working his way through the empty streets in amazement. There at the city junction which used to teem with humans few days back had a recently constructed shelter. It was more of a cyclopean primitive structure that seem like haphazardly conceived. Me peered in. It took him few moments to adjust his mote filled eyes to the darkness. Inside there was something that didn’t look like a human but was dressed like one in jungle boots. It was rotund with many eyes and hands like many limbed giant football on two legs. It looked at Me in amusement. No human ever ventured to be near it.

“Hello why don’t you come in” it said, waving all its hands in a gesture of invitation.

“Sure, why not” Me was already inside the squalid makeshift dwelling.

“Haven’t seen you before? Are you a mutant? An alien…maybe” Me let it be tentative. He had good sense to realize what may hurt someone’s sensibilities that too when one wasn’t sure what it is, importantly, what kind of reaction was anticipated.  

“Strange that you don’t know about us” It held an amused expression as if it is what defined its existence. “We are virus. We have taken over the city. This city is now in our control” It relished to Me “We intend to dominate the planet”.

“No wonder humans have suddenly acquired objective sense about themselves and their vulnerabilities. I was wondering…” Me mused loudly.

“That is not our concern” It was pleased to elaborate. Me noticed it had winsome personality and could latch on to anyone with minimal effort. “But yes if you find better selves it may be good for you. But I doubt it. Humans are too self-obsessed in their fictions to have any sense of reality. You lost the evolutionary game when you shifted from hunter gatherers to agriculture. Some of you did develop your intellect and helped the progress of sapiens but individually and physically most of you are weak”. 

“But collectively we are strong” Me asserted.

“That is surely what we want. For you to be together. We spread well in crowd”. It smiled. “Your strength is your weakness”. Me didn’t like the tone of the virus. It was menacing and mocking.    

“Also, you never really had any sense of collective. With all kinds of divisions from nations to religions to what not you were already doomed. You survive on fantastic fictions. We viruses are always viruses. There is no mistake in our identity. Humans know that too very well. There is no confusion here”. It smiled and all its eyes rolled over. It raised its suction pad like hands for Me to clasp, to share the delight and spread itself. Me didn’t move. It was disappointed but didn’t show and continued “Fiction will fix you anyway. If pandemic doesn’t climate change will deal with you. You are too many and with all fancy notions of omnipotence. A burden on the planet. You really cannot handle the reality. You are incapacitated to sense. Fiction will fix you. We know your weakness” It snarled “Mark my word fiction will fix you”. And with that it sneezed and self-destruct into pieces like a radicalized suicide bomber in a crowd. Smaller versions of it slithered out from splattered mucous and moved towards Me to infect. Me ran.  

Anti-me: The coffee shop wasn’t a coffee shop. It was some kind of religious site. Anti-me found himself in the midst of people in fancy dress. They wore long rug in yellow and saffron. They jostled to pray and bow towards mysterious garlanded monoliths without any shape or contour that were arranged in semi-circle. A woman held a lighted lamp and oscillated a metal bell to create earth shattering noise. Meanwhile few hung around in the sidelines praising the whole scene, writing commentary and recording for posterity. The virus was on prowl and these were fertile hunting grounds. An elderly man with grimy thread around his belly gyrated on the stage, some called him prophet while others son of the god. He is son of a virgin hence a pure soul, they said. “Lord is our savior” he said “There is nothing virus can do to us”. He raised his voice while his body trembled in frenzy, others echoed him “We are all protected by the ring of faith. We cover ourself with the blood of lord. Faith in our lord give us the immunity. We must hug each other and thank the lord. It will kill the satan”. They hug and they kissed, and spread the word of the god. In between they did some orchestrated acts meant to show reverence to their creator. They arranged in rows and did their scripted moves as if remote controlled by an imaginary leash. Some moved around dressed as post boxes to remind nuances of modesty to lecherous among them. It was a pitiable sight but some people on the sidelines cheered these and excitedly broadcast to the world as expressions of freedom that humanity must cherish. “These people have wisdom that is beyond our understanding hence they are different from us” “They look like human being but must be some superior race” some postulated. Every insane acts was concocted into compelling stories of miracle and drilled deep into the recess of mind. They distributed miracle books which was meant to reveal the marvel of creator to the select few who followed these orchestrated moves diligently. One young fellow with unkempt beard wearing rainbow colored skull cap clutched Anti-me in a maniacal grip and shouted into his ears “Do you want to be saved?”

“No” shouted Anti-me back to no one in particular.

He pursued him despite his disinterest “My god will save you. You want protection from virus?” he didn’t wait for the reply and grabbed his shoulders “Close your eyes imagine there is no virus. Submit to god”.

“That is difficult to imagine” retorted Anti-me.

“Sure it is. That is why you need to believe. Life becomes easier if you have belief”.

“Life is easier if you face the reality”

“It helps when god is watching you. The will of god will bless you. You will be blessed”

“I don’t want to be blessed”

“Reality will kill you” he said.

“If you look away from reality anything can happen, anything justified" Anti-me was exasperated "God is a fiction. Fiction will kill you" 

“That is blasphemy” he shouted at the top of his voice. The commune froze. “Kill him” the elderly fellow with grimy thread, the son of god, yelled “We need a sacrifice or tragedy will befall on us”. They moved towards Anti-me in unison. They coalesced into a virus that grew bigger and bigger with longer tentacles. Anti-me ran.  

Me and Anti-me ran onto each other at the street corner in front of Indian coffee house. They collide. There is a blinding flash of light. They annihilate one another. I am being created from this high improbability.   

Celestial snapshots

Life is honored in the periphery

Where the light dims

Gust of air eddies into itself

Words halt in jagged fractals

You look at the streaming feathers of peregrine

Very much aware of the beetle dancing on the dung

Seeking guidance from the heaven    

Ants

They come out of the depth of mind

to patrol the scene.

Sniff the landscape for new thoughts, overturn the old ones

Dig out reminisces, take note of the forgotten.

Gives all clear to foragers.

Who spread out from recess in three four files, cautious and eager.

And set about to search words where thoughts can reach.

Word midden piles up and rots with half masticated sentences  

The foraged work out a tale that it fancy.

These are carried back to feed the queen memory.

To reset.

To reassure that words can make a better world.

And redeem the day.

        

The line.

She cannot see the line that demarcates. The line that passes through the land, the rivers, the forest and her soul. She longed to break free and run naked across the field and into the sky. He doesn’t see it too. He was alien in this land plucked from his native village, hoisted in army fatigue and battle guards. He found the terrain challenging despite rigorous training. It was cold and grey here. He longed for mango trees in his village. The warm musky air that brought memories. She wanted to forget her memories. She was dealing with the nightmare. Sometimes she created her own reality to escape the constant dread. Her mind was working a picture. It had roses in it. He was always tense. He dread each passing human. He had no luxury to work a new reality. There was no escape. He kept his eyes open and blank, ears alert for any movement. His body had become his eyes and ears. He was tired but he had his duties. The line had to be defended. The orders were clear. Enemies were vicious brutes assured of god’s blessing.

She passed him on the street. He stopped her at the barricade. He gazed her in a mix of apprehension and boredom. She avoided him and fixed herself on the ground. The dry cold air played between them before moving onto the sidewalk and settling with the dry leaf. He asked her what she carried. She said its vegetables and condiments. He poked the barrel into her bag while fingers playing on the trigger. She looked wary and resigned. She was tired. They paused. The blast from the building carried the sonic waves and blew her and him with it. Frozen in the moment they began to dismember. His limbs broke free and fell on her so as to protect. Her head was aghast and fell with his in the nearby playground that were ransacked by weeds. It caught fire, the black smoke bellowed into huge ball signaling the carnage to faraway. Birds flew disoriented and created a great ruckus to protest the misfortune. Through this tragic scene two souls in pristine white emerge holding tight crossing the land, the river and the forests. They knew their path back home, and they were in a hurry. There was lot to share.       

A case of anomalous behavior

Now this is something that I find quite irritating, to be referred to as having an anomalous behavior. As if there is some kind of strangeness that I possess, an anomaly that I need to be embarrassed about. And to add to the ignominy every child is taught these in school. It is as they call the basic science. But here I am controlling my warring protons to give living the life. The polarity of my molecules igniting life in each cell while hydrogen bond bind the rest into adhesion and cohesion. To further my case I am always at service in all the three forms, liquid, solid and gaseous. No other molecule does that. I work overtime to spruce my weak bonds while the covalent shrinks with falling temperature so that I lighten my weight to trap the heat to prevent the icy deaths. Life survives in the depths of rivers and lakes. They call me universal solvent but I just do my do without any bother whether it’s cleaning or filling strength into matter. With time and patience I work out strongest enamel for you to bite into your favorite food and even chisel that obstinate granite to shape. So you tell me readers is it fair to question my behavior? Here I am shaping the environment for a thankless service while you hold that behavior is an environmental stimuli, and then the accusation. The banality of it.

What really bothered me, and the reason for this rage, is that I am now an accomplice to murder. I who have seen life through Cambrian soup and guided all its evolutionary efforts for 3.8 billion odd years. It’s no mean achievement, I tell you. I have seen lives extinguish in mass extinctions while I clear the murkiness and went about removing the toxic. My problem started with Homo sapiens, the wise one they call themselves but you ask me. I had no problem with other humans, they lived, tried and died –Neanderthals were my favorite, but I haven’t seen such an arrogant and self-obsessed specie. The moment they settled from hunter gatherers the time had started to tick for them. They called it development dear readers but what they gave was brutalities beyond measure. I haven’t seen such a greedy and suicidal species in all my existence -and believe me when I say this as I have been here for quite a long time. Everything they touched have gone against them, the air, the environment, the climate, and yes I the water. They kill me with heavy metals, plastics and nitrogen. And I, like a perennial optimist, keep extending them the chance to mend while I absorb all their sins that comes out as CO2 at the expense of acidifying the homes of millions of other species. I even take the heat, more than any other molecule can, and try keep the climate settled. But this onus is truly becoming beyond me now. What really upset me the other day was that I was made accomplice of murder, a conduit to the ongoing cannibalism of Homo sapiens. So this fellow conceives a plan for perfect murder to get rid of his nagging wife. He creates this knife from ice mold and slid into her throat. There she lay lifeless after much gasping, and I promptly ooze through the warm blood ebbing her life and evaporate to escape the guilt. I had no choice dear reader I was bound by nature’s law, the one that Spinoza so very aptly referred to as god. It is in my nature to help, to nurture and to spread life in its affirming feedback loop into the genetic codes as elegant life forms. You may call it natural selection or evolutionary pressure but one thing is clear Homo sapiens have a destructive code entering into the system and their time is running out. It’s nature’s law to remove the anomaly that is a threat to itself.                                         

Do the arthropod dream?

The heat wave was spreading. Biting wind scrapped the skin dry extorting moisture and spiraling into nothing. This was climate of no mercy. A dog panted in the shade of lone tree next to barracks of single room homes along the lone railway track. The dust storms assaulted the homes every now and then, increasing its frequency and intensity as the glassy sun climbed to the top. The light blue weathered plastic barricades in the courtyards fluttered and fought vainly. With each gust of untiring wind the women in the homes groaned their curses “Hell be with you” “It’s better to die” “The day is hottest hell”. Children wailed. By afternoon homes have quietened in its own exhaustion. They slept lulled in the drone of water cooler and buzzing houseflies. The boy was awake and he caught a fly. He cusped it in his little fingers, the fly pounding on his flesh as if to tell him that this is a mistake. He netted his fingers to dexterously grab the fly on its belly. The two large compound eyes and three small simple eyes stared him in waves of perplexed purple yellow tinge. He took out the broken blade hid under his tongue while held the fly on to the floor, and with a little jerk behead it. The proboscis flickered before stilling. He collected the head in a match box. The boy barely into his teens squeezed his tiny body through the pliable bars of half opened window. The sun was relentless but that didn’t dissuade him. The dog attempted to sway its tail but on being ignored it went back on its chin and was mildly aware. The boy climbed the tree, he knew where the moths blend into the bark. He knew when the butterflies flicked the flowers and bees waggle its secret. He knew the pattern that held them enchanted. The world was mysterious. So he drilled the eyes to search for the sight and the brains for the thoughts. What he found left him disappointed. It was always some inexplicable sticky gel. Not even the smell carry any memory or recognition of past. He searched for the blister beetles and the lady birds. The dragon flies were of special interest as he dissected them with renewed vigor. The mantis eyes pendulate its dark spot like a dying cathode screen. The arthropod heads hurtled against each other as the boy buoyant in his search climbed the fencing onto the open field across the railway track. The heat wave had sedated the little lives, they desperately clung on to some shade and try lull their senses. The boy liked the summer. The earth burned, the trees burst and the air carried the scent of soot. He looked at the dog that had followed him, it squirmed and tucked its tail. He patted it. “Nice boy” he said as he felt it’s skull under the skin while the dog licked his fingers. Later that day he told his parents that he loved dogs and would like to have them as pet.

Late into the night, he got under the bed and opened the match box. The decapitated heads have come alive, they float and make soft buzzing noise as if taking care not to awaken anyone, flickered into little ember and wisped into the darkness.  

                                                                    Event breakdown

This was the only world he knew about, the home, the neighbourhood, his school, the playground and all the memories. Then the event happened. They called it Event Breakdown. Mega cumulonimbus clouds, stretching across miles opened up, it rained for days and months. It swept away everything. Water didn’t know where to go, land didn’t know what to hold. Eventually everything gave away. All the walls were broken.  He found himself clinging to a drifting wood for days and weeks. Then there were months of burning inferno that left piles of soot and smoking embers of whatever was left. That was almost a century back, and it is as fresh in his mind as if it was yesterday. There was nothing left of the city, of the country, of the world, except some partly collapsed concrete of a high rise in the horizon that had become vantage point as makeshift piers to dock the rudimentary rafts. Eventually the world was collection of floating islands anchored in its own debris that spread like rising edges on the vast stagnant brackish water. Made up of bundles of buoyant waste, plastics and bottles tied into platforms, that bobbed in stinking soup of rotting wastes, putrefying lives, rusting vehicles, and churning leachate that held no life. Humans lived on these islands.

Now you may think that the event breakdown was abrupt, on the contrary there were persistent warning for decades. But the world about a century back was quite a different place, not precarious and exposed but self-assured and obsessed in its invincibility. Fossil carbon increase in the atmosphere continued unabated. Consumption was a sign of progress while GDP articulated development. Its seems that humans were in some self-induced trance to cannibalise itself. They carried on least bothered while the crack started to appear, first the cities became unliveable as water began to deplete, air quality deteriorated from lightly polluted to severe and hazardous level in matter of few years, and was stuck at that for days, then months, eventually it become the new normal while species migrated and eventually started to vanish at alarming rate. Meanwhile humans arranged for water tankers, put on pollution mask and settled for inane entertainment while the system churned con artists as success stories to defend itself. In the earlier part of the 21^st century one regrettable con artist even became the President of powerful nation –which incidentally doesn’t exist now but for collection of handful islands inhabited by few hundred desperate humans bobbing in Pacific-Atlantic super ocean. Media controlled by the system initially placed itself as bipartisan arbitrator of debate, later realising that it isn’t debatable after all but doesn’t hold the viewer’s attention nor gave them something to feel good about and celebrate, it just didn’t make any business sense therefore they downplayed it, eventually ignored it altogether, only some occasional compelling viral videos of new reality –the disasters, as unique source of entertainment. The CO2 meanwhile moved up steadily from 410ppm to 450ppm to 500ppm in matter of decades. To put it in perspective CO2 level were never above 300ppm in last 800,000 years, and Homo sapiens have been around for 200,000 years. The situation was dire with all sorts of warnings –record breaking heat and precipitation initiated its own cycle of extreme local weather, eventually leading to cascading collapse of climate system. Benchmark of natural disaster shifted rapidly while humans coped by shortening their time scale of memory. The tell-tale signs of breakdown began during mid-2020s, by then it was too late, earth was well past its tipping point. The climate system propelled into unknown dynamics, cold waves, then heat waves, followed by cloud bombs instead of rains, super cyclones and surges assisted by polar ice melt swallowed the land and destroyed everything on its way. It was as if abruptly the planet knew only extremes and became a violent untameable beast. Myriad life forms, plants, birds, animals, insects, almost all of biodiversity that evolved for millions of years in the subtleties of life’s principles and elegant life affirming strategies were not equipped to take on the human generated onslaught, their brilliance vanished like dry tendrils in raging fire without even a wisp. There were no condolences to such soul shuddering losses.  

 Clearly, humans couldn’t learn to share the earth with other species. They were too arrogant and saw biodiversity as god’s gift to them to be exploited and manipulated at will. Ironically the same divine force cared two hoots for humans as they now desperately cling to their dear lives in islands. Finally, when the earth shook of its burden and cleared for humans to make sense only few thousand of them had survived in stray islands accompanied by host of rats and cockroaches. Human as the only large surviving life form became precious, from 15billion to few thousands left stranded in isolated islands was almost extinction. Instinctively they formed cooperative groups to enhance their chance of survival. All systems that humans operated to maximise profits, reaffirm acquisitive mindset, exalt competitive spirit and celebrated individual achievements collapsed and became meaningless overnight.   

The species that showed least concern for amazing biodiversity and limited resources of stunning home planet was now acutely aware of the bleak surrounding as they searched desperately for survival. Attempts to resurrect life became the prime motive than greed and material accumulation. Distribution of meagre nutrients to safe each life, sharing of skills to optimise limited resources, became the only concern. All ideas of life, moral being and ethical choices and systems started to evolve to affirm these. There was no hierarchy or order since life was uncertain, earth’s systems had broken down and spiralled in ever reckless entropy, there was no new normal or stable reference to hinge experience on, everything changed every moment. Hence the demands and limitations of situation created the structure and hierarchy for interactive evolving heuristic approach. Each one immediately assigning themselves a role that insured the best outcome. Age and gender became the only distinguishing marker since all the segregatory human conceptions like nation, religion, culture so on couldn’t stand objective fierceness of the reality and had long since become obsolete. Even these didn’t really matter since references of experience and skills had to deal with new realities all the while. After thousands of years’ human beings were exposed to their bare essence and essentials that were for long hidden in models of society and systems of development. It was shocking to discover how vulnerable and alienated the system had made each one. It took decades to awaken the numbed senses to probe the true nature of self. Life starts to adapt much before the trapped mind is able to free itself of self-defeating habits and obsolete value systems.

All the gains of human civilisation was lost, and to make it worse as individuals they didn’t even match the skills of their hunter gatherers ancestors. Decades of watching and swapping screens while gorging on high calorie food and chatting inanities had made them dysfunctional humans with clumsy body and a mind lacking critical faculties, almost all of them who had providential escape perished within few days incapable to face the extremities and hardship. In this reality only physical fit and sharp minded with critical thinking and collaborative mindset could survive, that was the law of the nature. And in the fast changing cruel realities there was no space for afterthought or ruminations, hence ideas of benign omniscient omnipotent overseer didn’t make sense. God had no place, nor for any ego driven conceptions of special place in universe, that consumed irresponsible pre-breakdown humans. The brutal altering reality scythed the fantastic notions of sacred, superstition, illusions and rituals, all the illusions of grandeur and fantastic myths about special place on earth were chopped down while grand deviations from laws of nature hacked into place. The burden on earth was cut down to bare minimum, physically and metaphorically. Only that which functions in this reality was valued. Needless to say all communication towers vanished, digital data erased and all the fancy gadgets now lay buried deep in muck. Some instinctive genetic strategy –a remnance of what helped humanity succeed in earlier part of evolution, brought them together more as a survival response and very soon established as an adaptation and valued inheritance to the immense tragedies that kept unfolding everyday in ongoing struggle to survive as humans. Very soon successful traits of thousands of years of cohabitation like cooperation, empathy, care so on started to affirm itself.  

Over the decades they developed deep tanned skinned, bleached white hair and became thin as stick. They drank contaminated water, many perished but some eventually got adapted to it. Once in a while they fell sick and skin turned purple, they had to then take the pills. It cleansed their body, the skin would get its colour back. Someone or other in some island kept up the supply, the essential needs were bartered with stories, thoughts and love. There was much sincerity in interaction, that they realise was only way to survive. When there is nothing to gain or loose trusting becomes easier, islanders therefore became freer in meaningless brutality of their existence. Each enhanced their senses, as they tried extricate as much details from the surrounding as possible, in the process acquiring unique ability and skills to survive. They created memorial for all the dead by stacking muck and it grew tall, and became the place of gathering. Since life was the only precious thing left in the absurdity of living they worshipped each other. Every now and then someone would play symbolic god –that represented all the alive, while everyone gathered in their rafts in the septic filled water to celebrate life and to search some meaning in existence. At night they lay in cramped spaces on waterlogged wood looking into blue hazy smoking amber night with occasional burst of flame in the sludge They shared stories of collapsing islands. Everyday somewhere or other an island collapsed sucking in people and all the muck into its whirlpool. At the far distance, in the horizon, a huge dome lit bright like a rising sun, and from here large flying cyborgs and their bots surveillance the islanders.

***

Beyond the dark filthy islands was Bardo, a city of lighted domes that rose high into the sky. The high land where water didn’t breach, vast desert so hot that it supports no lifeforms. It was inhabited by intelligent clever humans who saw what was coming and prepared for it, they saw it as an opportunity. So, when the Event Breakdown wiped out life around the world, they quietly moved into the domes in the deserts. They built a self-sustaining city, that was run with the help of humanoids and bots. These humans gradually became cyborgs having superhuman attributes. Bardo was under control of cyborgs who ruled the mega city dome and the human inhabitants –who were constantly monitored for extra capacity to be promoted as cyborgs. It was greatest ambition of every human in the dome to be a cyborg. Once selected, after intense competition, the carbon in the body was actively replaced with silicon so that the vital functions were taken over. Artificial is integrated into the specific nature of the individual in constant reinforced learning loop so that the nervous system and neural network integrate into one, significantly augmenting human cognitive, emotional and physical capacity. Later after performance evaluation the nervous system of selected few were further extended to power exoskeleton that they can feel and control. Muscles reconfigured to control powerful motors on to which wings unfolded to fly. They were apex humans. Over the century the humans in the dome had become much different from islanders, showing distinct signs of speciation; eight feet tall and well-built, they hunted the islanders ruthlessly for data, these were then used for simulations. Biochemical algorithm decoded their emotions and stored them in data bank, later used as templates for enhanced cooperation among humanoids for multiple mission into space and colonising other planets.

There was a large map on the interface screen that had real time mother drone coordinates of all the islands, the algorithm fed these to cyborgs on emergency basis. There were hundreds of islands dangling precariously in the murky water. They kept tab on each one of them, and had DNA details of every human inhabitants and any other specie. Every new lifeform was immediately tagged with sensors; these sensors reached the host through flavour blobs, which came in different sizes, that was released into the drainage daily for any lifeform –from microscopic to multicellular, to ingest. After the Event Breakdown led sixth mass extinction that wiped out 99.99% of all known lifeforms every specie became precious for DNA material while individuals were markers of genetic diversity. There was high alert on discovering new specie and the bot with sensors went to the depths of muck to search. Flavour blob being particularly aromatic and delicious attracted any lifeform in the bleak landscape. Once inside an undocumented host the sensors send the DNA details that was simultaneously 3D printed into synthetic sample and stored in a vial, meanwhile the location coordinates were tagged. They also injected steroids that clipped the telomeres permanently that enhanced the age of the individual specie by three folds. So the average life expectancy of humans increased to hundred and eighty years. While the cyborgs never aged they were eternal only disruption in energy source weakened and eventually terminated them to be replaced by newer better model.  

Before the event breakdown they systemically collected the DNA of all the 10million known species and created seed bank of every flora. Apart from the genetic details they carefully studied, understood and documented the biological strategies of each specie that helped it survive in the ecosystem for millions of years. Like for instance, biomimetic membrane emulated the way fish desalinated water in their body, thus toxic molecules from the sludge were siphoned off from water providing a continuous source of pristine water 24x7 to every hive in the dome. They spliced and rearranged gene to enhance and add new characteristics, like the genetically modified bioluminant fish that illuminated on finding precious metals in the toxic water. Giant solar panels in the space above exosphere send the power signals onto the dome, this then got distributed. There was never any power shortage. The dome always lit like a sun.

***

As they lay looking into the hazy night after an exhausting day, the dome shimmered in the horizon, the islander in one of the island took out a long stick to probe the water for flavour blobs for dinner.

“Don’t we have anything else to eat?” the lad asked the elder. They had very few option but flavour blob was a must, without flavour the fibre didn’t taste anything at all. While they hunted for rats, it mostly initiated reprisal from the harukas. Heruka, the data hunting dronebots circled the islands every day to collect new data. The unpredictable nature of earth’s climate was an exciting data source, islander’s response to these were of particular interest.  Apart from these herukas conceived new methods to accentuate disaster or create crisis, like dropping bombs that released toxic air or excessive light reflected on target island to stun the residence, the data of response were collected for optimising deep learning for the humanoids. But there always was a problem, the islanders settled these disturbances in remarkable cadence and cooperation making the data ineffectual for bardoians. Some clever dome humans used the data to create 3D games so on.  Heruka were programmed against killing of any lifeforms since loss of data source was a serious crime, punishment to the programmer was severe. They constantly targeted the islanders with intense pain causing mildly burning rubber darts for new data. Later they dropped biomass and flavour blobs as compensation. The dome expected strict discipline from the islanders.

The lad was atleast few hundred rainstorm old, flavour blobs had consolidated his telomeres against gene degrading surroundings but he looked much shorter and younger than his age. About three feet stick like body with luxurious mop of white hair. The tanned skin still sensitive to noxious air that he constantly got blisters. The elder couldn’t understand this, and he told the woman “Well, he should have adapted by now. This doesn’t augur good for him”. The neighbouring islanders had various suggestions nothing really worked but one of them held some promise. “Take the mud from deep side of the pit where the drain ends into dead wood and put it all over the body. It should help. I tried it once when the sun burned my skin”. Though the days were mostly soot filled grey, and sometimes pitch dark and cold with no sun for weeks, but after the rainstorm the sky cleared and searing sun hit the island, igniting the sludge and boiling the muck that gave obnoxious stench. Next day the elder and lad paddled their raft into the dead wood. They carried long spears as protection against saw tooth creatures that lived in the depths here and was attracted by metal accumulated in their body –through the water they drank, whether it was myth or not was not clear. They haven’t seen one but they didn’t want to take the risk. The rotting hard wood sank under the sludge, the lad held his breath, closed his eyes and jumped into the pit. He walked on the bottom sensing the surrounding intensely, where the mud was deep and clayey feel to it he scooped it into the shells. After few moments he was on the surface. The elder examined the fresh mud, and nodded “This should do lad. Let’s go back its nutrition time”. As they headed back he tried it on his tanned leathery skin, it immediately dried and stuck to his sensitive raw skin in a permanent bond, and turned it into rainbow colour that shimmered in the sun. The elder laughed. Unknown to them the metal in the mud had turned him invisible to the Dome. The sensors were blocked from inside while the ones from drones were reflected back. He had vanished from the data. He was walking dead. The data loss was immediately felt at the Dome, alert sounded. Herukas were out, it circled the dead wood where the data had terminated. They headed to the host island of the data. Affirmative, one lifeform was missing. As is the standard procedure heruka shot intense pain inducing chemical spiked darts into the target island. Elder, and the neighbour islanders, were indeed quite confused. There was no provocation, no rat skewered. After an hour of pestering the herukas left.

It took some time and some glaring miss by herukas for lad to realise that he is not being monitored. He was excited about this discovery and told the elder, so he too tried the mud on him but it didn’t seem to work on him. There was something in lad’s skin that the metals bond with. It gave a new confidence to the lad he became much bold in his outings, and very soon was seen rafting outside the islands zone into deeper vast muck.  The mud was also therapeutic to the lad, it clearly supplied some unknown minerals into his body. He gained much in his vigour. It was during one of the rainstorm, this time around it hit from south and north simultaneously with ghastly wind that tossed the anchored islands into air, that he had fine view of the bright lit dome. He conceived a plan to visit it. It was considered impossible, indeed futile, because of the sensors but he was sure to duck it. So next day he started when the dark mist turned blue, he rafted till the muck water was coal black soup. From there he could see the shimmering white sand, further up was the dome. By the time his raft touched the desert shore the blue mist had turned black and much cooler so he continued his journey hiking the white mountain in the darkness, soon he could see the dome quite clearly.

As he neared the dome he realised that it was much bigger than he saw from the island. So big that it touched the sky. It was surrounded by huge walls made up of protein templates connected in murky acidic water suck in the excess co2 from all around, growing and getting bigger by the day. He could see the mother bot hovering at a distance while few herukas flew briskly to and fro as if on a mission. It was much easier for the lad to enter the dome than he anticipated. The humanoid guards and bots perceived the sensor input of all lifeforms and maintained clear coordinates of all the human islanders and other lurking lifeforms. They were alive in data matrix. Lad was a dead data, dead for real world and did not exist in virtual world. He was free from the matrix, nobody to care, nobody to bother. He was invisible, the metal in the mud covered his skin in rainbow colour that shimmered like an extinct cuttle fish reflecting his excitement. He sneaked into the dome as the patrolling humanoid went about their business. Few more steps and he was well in the dome matrix. It was vast space, he felt as if he had entered the belly of enormous extinct blue whale that elders talked about, except that it was spotlessly clean and had soothing bright lit controlled environment. The nature was completely dominated and all its ferocity just brushed the dome, in case of rare damage due to close recurrent super cyclone or rainstorm the dome regulated itself within minutes while swarm of bacteria bots set about to repair the damage. Lad marvelled at this enormous salubrious world and felt a quiet chill passing through his body. His tiny body had never experienced such warmth and care, it was as if he was in womb, safe, secure and nourished.  

He passed through arcades of vertical gardens that held hundreds of red coloured ripe fruits dangling from the end. He hadn’t seen a real fruit before, in the islands they were delivered solvents and essence that they mixed with edible fibres and boiled to create their own flavour. There were so many of them, trays stacked in vertical layers, so tall it could be touching the brown sky through the mist. Hanging from hydroponic tubes taking in nutrient rich fluid, growing into succulent perfectly shaped multi-coloured berries to enamour the senses and please the sophisticated palate. Plants had gone extinct after the breakdown event that glut the planet, swept away the top soil and anoxic muck filled with toxic chemicals except some sturdy floating weeds. Genetic details and data related to all the plants were already fed into reinforced learning of each bot for better care of specific specie as they are sown and harvested, feedback data were collected for new hybrids. Bots moved around in well laid coordinates interacting with each plant, sensing their needs, increasing nitrogen for some while boron for others, a little bit of molybdenum here and magnesium there.  While other bots worked in tandem monitoring each plant through transparent interface screens that came alive on plant instruction for complex temperature, humidity and CO2 level optimal growing conditions. There is only one season, the growing season.  

He didn’t see the extended bar on the playground, stumbled on it and fell. His hand hurt, there was a bleeding cut. The boy in the last row of the classroom noticed the miniature figure lurking in the school astro ground, falling and hurting himself. It is not a bot but a human, much smaller, a dwarf. He hadn’t seen such a human before. The lad had hidden himself under the carbon sequestering rocks. The boy sneaked out of the class, and confronted the lad. Lad was pleasantly surprised to finally meet a bardoian human. They looked similar but much taller and healthier. The boy could be his age but was more than double his size.  For the bardoians islands were data colony, nothing else, and all the lifeforms were live data feed. The boy had played enough VR games to recognise islanders, and was immediately aware of the risk that the lad faced. He would be terminated. Killed. He was immensely lucky to be not spotted by any human so far. It would be immediately reported and humanoids alerted.   

“Good that nobody has seen you so far”. Lad couldn’t understand what he was saying but he realised he was no longer concealed.

Lad said in all earnest and much enthusiasm “Hello how are you? I am from the islands”.

The boy could neither understand what was being said. For almost a century the Bardoians and Islanders have lived as isolated groups without any contact, though the dome kept track on islanders they didn’t try to learn or understand their language, nor took much interest. Their attention was focussed only on data and nothing else. They valued bio-chemical response data as accurate measure of thoughts than language. Language was superficial form of expression and could easily hide emotions.    The boy activated his wrist band to translate the auto record. With no database of the language the algorithm failed to translate. He reset to replay this time with the video recording of the boy. The face reading and language was matched with common introductory pleasantries or enquiries in languages stored in database. Since the roots of bardoian and islander language was somewhat similar the algorithm could find the pattern, and could translate rather accurately. The boy repeated his earlier statement. Lad was surprised that he was spotted “But this mud camouflages, no sensor could detect me”

“That may be true but you could easily be detected by human eyes unlike humanoids and bots who can only perceive sensors. You are lucky that you were spotted by me”. The boy was relieved, his eyes scanned the lad and saw the wound. The injury was his next concern; the bleeding could radiate out data. Any exposure from lad to the dome matrix would be cataclysmic. The dead data that too from the islands showing up inside the dome will trigger code red alerting even the satellite sensors. He instructed his tag along bot attached to his thigh pocket for some bio-cream. After few swift movements the bot opened itself and from within its recess took out a green coloured cream tube. The boy took out some and applied it on the cut that released nano bacteria bots who set about sanitising and suturing the blood vessels, and then carefully working its way through subcutis, dermis and finally epidermis, simultaneously releasing collagen polymer molecules that polymerised into the tissue template. Within minutes the wound was as good as healed. To make completely sure that no data radiation leak enters or leave his skin the boy covered it with v-tapes, the vertically aligned carbon nanotubes will trap any radiation and continually deflect within its tubes to dissipate it. He didn’t know why he was doing this. This is not how he was being programmed. Cooperation was matter of rapidly iterating input from swarm intelligence data base into a highly evolved winning strategy specific to the situation. Humans were meant to be cyborgs, to expand the dome, to rule and control. Probably they didn’t factor in the hormones, the things it can make people do! Or maybe it was remnants of altruistic gene that was awakened while he came in contact with the lad.

As was the way in islands lad had no problem trusting another human. He told him everything about islands, their life and his experiences in the dome. The boy listened to him keenly. He said “Now you have to be careful not to be seen by humans. Don’t trust anyone. They will report you”. The boy repeated with much emphasis “Do. Not. Trust. Anyone”. Lad nodded gravely affirming the gravity of the situation. He wasn’t comfortable with the way things were developing, it was not the way life was dealt among humans in islands. The boy told him to hide behind the moebius loop gravity slide while he goes and get his sport kit. “Alright we go home now, and then talk” said the boy. The self-assembled sturdy chitosan bag expanded to accommodate lad, he created small holes for him to see outside and secured it around his stomach like an extinct marsupial from an island once named Australia.

They walked out of the school and entered the subway. Lattice screens displayed heroic deeds of cyborgs. Metallic butterflies flew and sat on the wall and reflected light in rainbow colours along the veins on z-way map that formed its wing, each colour indicating available routes of z-cars. The autonomous z-cars sensed their need and stopped right in front of them, “Hello there where can I take you today? “280^th coordinate, 94^th floor” instructed the boy as they settled, z-car crisscrossed the lanes communicating with other z-cars like extinct bees into an optimising pattern in high speed as it climbed various high rise multi-storeyed hexagons arranged in a hive. The z-car zeroed into a hexa –the primary cubicle of dome humans, and latched to the opening port. The very moment hexa lit up, welcomed him and played boy’s favourite rock band. As they entered the hologram of his father appeared instructing him on food and lessons to study “You need to study hard if you want to be like your mom. Don’t you?”. A moment later hologram of his mother –not distinguishable from any other cyborg, appeared and asked him what he studied in school so on. The boy wasn’t keen on much interaction, so blabbered few words here and there as he unloaded himself meanwhile his cloths changed shape and colours from school uniform to loose outfits while self-cleaning itself. The hologram vanished with “love you, and eat well”.  The room arranged itself for his comfort. The walls became transparent to let in the light of sun dome. Lad made himself comfortable on the chair that sensed his dimensions to ideal coziness. He was mesmerised by the luxurious surrounding. Framed picture of boy with his parents hung on the aisle, the retina triggered picture came alive when he looked at it, the video showed them laughing and hugging while a bot shaped in extinct dog try to squiggle in. The moment he took his eyes off the picture settled back to previous state. The entertainment screen was on. While the boy went to toilet lad was hooked on to the screen. Very soon lad gathered a very peculiar behaviour of dome humans in their obsessive concern about body shape. Though they got ample nutrition and were healthy but they were preoccupied by “How do I look?” “Mine, I am so fat and ugly”. There were arrays of beauty products to choose from, body parts replaceable with better looking ones, personalised organ cultivation, xenobartering for fresh, options to chisel and cleave their body. They all look almost the same. He couldn’t really distinguish one from another, except maybe on a closer look or the attire –that were always flamboyant and try copy extinct species. Separateness therefore was confined to style statement or choice of products. These interface screens were everywhere to entertain –lest they get bored and start to think, and always exalted for better body shape, offers of comfort and allegiance to the glory of the dome. This was hilarious considering down in islands they never had time for these. Meanwhile the boy had joined him, he gave him VR goggles to wear while offering fried liver chips in tomato cream “let’s play some game”. It so happened that this game was prepared from the sensor matrix of the islanders wherein you could ride the heruka in cowboy hat and shoot the islanders. Other options included array of disasters to choose from including rainstorm, tsunami, cloud bursts so on all these promised unforgettable virtual gaming experience. Little thin humans with white mop hair ran helter-skelter, terrified they jumped into black water. It made a plop noise indicating winning score. With ‘added feature of teleporting device’ you could now enter underwater to track them down...the lad was repulsed by it and a deep revulsion took over him, an emotion he had never experienced anywhere in islands. It was an entirely different feeling which his tiny body was unequipped to handle. He passed out. Even the boy didn’t anticipate the choice of game, he felt immensely guilty as the tag on bot sprayed refreshing lemon scented jelly nano balls onto lad’s face. The jelly balls burst on hitting his face, spreading a wave of resurgence, lad was awake and smiling, forgetting the trauma he suffered recently. It was only when the boy apologised profusely that he recalled, it upset him but the overwhelming vigour of jelly splash was too much to hold any adverse feeling. Boy got up and said “I will work out an energy drink for you” and vanished into the kitchen. Lad lay their staring at the blank screen, outside giant eagle shaped bots circled the enclosed domes and kept an eye on humans.

In a controlled ecosystem, not impacted by the unfolding everyday calamities, life had significantly moved away from reality so much so that dome humans preferred living in virtual space all the time, or the least there was persistent effort to augment the reality to suit their fancy. The reality that already took care for all the luxuries was never satisfying for the senses. Lad recalled, back in islands they were so attuned to reality that they read the signs of storm hours before, each and every item in the island had value and every moment was spent to keen the senses so as to get insight into the changing reality that they faced. In the islands every understanding was shared and discussed for inputs, every opinion valued. Since dome humans were less and less hinged to facts and were losing their critical thinking faculty it became much easier for cyborgs to run behaviour modifying algorithms. Schools were told to focus on outcome based education. Education was a mean to adjust oneself in the dome. Juvenile humans were constantly tested so that they were perpetually anxious “Am I good enough?” “I need to do well in tests to show I am smarter than others”. Event breakdown was tutored to be an act of god that was very much predicted in the scriptures, and a punishment for straying. Cyborgs clearly understood the use of god, and unlike pre-breakdown gods, this one was much sanitised and worked on algorithm that took bio-chemical response of the dome populace and searched for visceral connections to create a narration of faith. The operating system could be easily modified for any aberrations with the specific intention to keep the stock in control. The Dome was essentially one giant energy farm of the cyborg into which humans have happily acquiesced their liberty and freedom. So, while humans were fed with narrations of cyborg valour the humanoids worked with algorithm. Both saw cyborg as saviour, epitomising best of values hence strived to be like them. While humanoids haven’t really evolved yet but humans had chance to be cyborg. What Lad couldn’t really comprehend was that despite their high intelligence, learning and wonderful gadgets they couldn’t see that they were being fooled. Everything seemed participatory and beneficial for humans but the algorithm was reinforcing compliance in an elaborate pavlovian set up. Data base from islands was being iterated on dome humans to evolve them into obedient citizens who fully acquiesced to authority of cyborg for the gory of dome. It is very likely that the luxuries have lulled them into false sense of security in the excess of choice, the same that afflicted pre-breakdown humans. History seems to be repeating itself, atleast for dome humans. This was definitely not true for the cyborgs, though their life was hinged on algorithm of allegiance with the dome they were given all the opportunity to achieve criticality of mind. They had all the facts implanted, like a spiralling arc of history, with each scale expanding as is observed or is thought about, each fact opening a new space for better understanding and speculative narration. So given a situation all facts get arranged in demand driven priority for an interactive heuristic learning. Mind is constantly prodded for critical valuations and logical assemblage of conceivable ideas, to organise data so as to optimise the context in which the individual was situated in time-space fabric and extrapolate into future unknown space. Their minds formed the super mind cordon of the dome.        

As they sat down to sip the energy drink –a sugary concoction in a refreshing flavour, the boy said his father understood the fate of humans “But they were happy in the way things are and didn’t want to be seen as separate from others”. They were too sedated in the happiness and entertainment matrix to have the eagerness to escape. Besides, the boy also had the ambition of becoming a cyborg like his mother. A hero for the society, respected and feared by all. Lad couldn’t understand the concept of hero. Islanders faced the crisis and everyone worked to survive, later each experience shared as they prepared for the next crisis. They didn’t understand individual glory. They understood value of each individual.

Later in the evening lad mentioned that he has seen very few lifeforms other than humans, like rats and cockroaches. While his elders mention about abundance of species before breakdown.

“So is it true? Have you seen anything else here other than plants?”

The boy said “I will take you to Genome colosseum tomorrow. You can see all that you can” Next day when sun dome lit its rays into the homes of bardoians and extinct rooster clock called out seven times. The boy was ready, his father had fried the vegetarian meat balls with tomatoes and red fruit sliced. Lad as always overeat, his taste buds were quickly evolving for new flavour and the colours on his skin were going crazy psychedelic. Genome was another large dome within the super dome, it had all the animals of pre-breakdown era in miniature size, almost the size of extinct housecat. In separate miniature enclosures there were cat sized elephants, tigers, lions, giraffe so on. A projection of their actual size was done onto the big screen, so you could see them live streaming in pre-breakdown setting with extinct animals. Lad hadn’t seen so many different type of animals, he was overwhelmed, and to see them in videos of live setting was special. He wondered why the humans in pre-breakdown era couldn’t save these beautiful creatures and all the lifeform that have gone extinct? What prevented them from being responsible? Didn’t they realise how unique and fragile life on blue planet was? They had all the evidences of impending catastrophe didn’t they?

Boy concurred to this thought “We have spread our humanoid probes outside our galaxy, very soon cyborg will travel outside the solar system to search for new colonies. We have destroyed earth, its uninhabitable. Unless ofcourse you islanders create miracle and evolve within few generations. Here in dome we have isolated ourselves from realities of life to repeat the follies of pre-breakdown humans. We take ourselves as invincible. We could defeat the event breakdown and create this dome. Next year most humans will shift to earth’s moon, and then Mars. But we still haven’t detected any intelligent civilisation so far in our milky way. Life is too precious and sprouts in rarest of rare alchemy. It’s a miracle”. Lad ruminated on the stream of thought for some time. Yes, they are making the same mistakes. The cataclysmic events of a century ago was forgotten while everyday breakdown of life that islanders face –which will take few more centuries to stabilise for any chance for humans to bounce back, is too remote for them. They are safe in their bubble of comfort, nevertheless a very efficient marvel and sustainable splendour that has quite incredibly worked on accumulated knowledge of pre-breakdown humans and deep life principles of lifeforms. Nonetheless the human ego never learns from the subtleties of life... These thoughts never occurred to him when he was in island. Life was tough but much simpler in its immediate challenges.

“But first we need freedom from data control. We are not data. We want to value ourselves and be free from the tyrannical control of dome for data”. Lad seems to have a purpose building into him, a vague meaning for his life that hang precariously in the destructive forces trouncing the islands. Boy agreed. They had to plan something. Boy commanded the locker to open, it scanned his face and read his face “Sure, here we go. Anything else?”. “No”. He searched for the device his mother had given him in case of an alien invasion. This was always a possibility if there were lifeforms outside earth, equally plausible was that these alien civilisation could be much advanced than even bardoians. Taking data from thousands of years of human history there was always recurring template of brutal decimation of weak. Massacres, genocides, colonisation…in whatever way you iterate the algorithm, the possibilities of these were highest. Cyborg syndicate had everything planned for the bardoians, particularly the precious human lifeform. Boy’s mother told him about these. The boy finally found what he was searching for: a spiral shaped palm sized device, that could be attached to wrist. When triggered by biometric authenticated individual the spiral grew and spread an umbrella of radiation neutralising space. In effect anyone in the umbrella became invisible, also these space could absorb intense heat and pressure thus formed an armoury against any forms of weaponry. The space could cover few meters to hundreds of kilometres. The boy worked into the program to include the biometric details of the lad, and handed the spiral to the lad “This spiral will give you and the islanders freedom”. Lad was overcome with emotion and he hugged the boy. “The spiral will save you” the boy said again to reiterate the immense possibilities the spiral held. Boy decided that it was no longer safer for the lad to be in the dome. Lad too was excited to go back home. He had the key to freedom from bardoians and their sinister harukas. The spiral need to be activated at the earliest. The boy started formulate plans for lad, he had to have a fool proof plan to escape. With lad’s sensors effectively neutralised by the mud it was going to be easy but still they had to take sufficient precaution. There was no room for complacency.  

The Boy took out rolled in screen from his vbox and spread it. It showed all the live coordinates of the dome, the humanoid guards and mother drone, or any active heruka. He was aware of few emergency exit that his mother had told him about that didn’t show in the coordinates. Avoiding the sensors in the school while they bunk the class had taught him some lessons on deceptive movement and an uncanny ability to locate sensors. He was aware of PIR, thermal, CO2 based, and the smart pavements that worked with face recogs so on. But it was entirely unchartered scenario for him now, his movements were being fed as he was crossing his home zone and predicted path, very soon he will be monitored. This in turn would alert the humanoids. He better has good alibi ready when Guardian humanoids knock his door. First and foremost, he decided to strip himself of any tracing device, so connected gadgets, he set to take each one out. His glasses that read the map and anticipated his path, recognised people and chose most likely points for interactions and read his brainwaves in case he was struggling to identify something, zeroed in the object with retina marker to float options. Then he took off his belt that had his body’s vital parameter readings which was being fed to home health data device that then suggested diet or an appointment with the doctor. The shoes that had all kind of movement related codes used from as simple as footstep counting (sending congratulating messages to all his personal devices on crossing milestone, so that when he came back home the lights would blink and the wall turn multicolour!) to recording the places he went to create a data record that gave input to his daily plans. He took off his cloths, it sensed the mood of the wearer and reflected that in colour codes for others to read and evaluate, meanwhile it also set thought altering music into their mind in case of stress or unhappiness. The cumulative data of set of people in square km was being analysed for behaviour pattern and discontent, thus alerting the security bots who are immediately able to gather data on individuals through facial recognition weeding out the probable trouble makers for close scrutiny, pre-empt the crime by analysing their brain waves and reading thoughts. The cloths also carried homeostatic sensors so that in the event of increased body temperature during exertions the device opened the pores of the cloths to let in more air, it also gave feedback on body functions so on. He slipped into cotton sewn pre-breakdown cloths and socks. Lad studied each one of his gadgets in amusement.

Soon they were on the street, with lad keenly observing the surroundings through the holes in the bag. He had to avoid dome humans at all cost. They passed through giant tubes extending into the sky and above. Cyborg core syndicate had well-placed plan to evict from earth. There already is a highway from exosphere to moon with capsule carrying payload moving to and fro every 24hours, while remote controlled fusion reactors are using moon mined helium-3 to fuel a megacity, a miniature earth in the moon. Miniature model in the dome is being replicated in multi scale into a controlled atmosphere 3D printed massive fortress. The modular block keep expanding as and when the building materials are mined from the shadow end of the moon. Humanoids work in unison to check the progress and rectify delay. Each movement closely monitored by cyborgs in the dome control room. They walked into virtual screens that advertised homes in LunaDome “with a spectacular view to Earth rise from the balcony”. For brief moment they were in bright lit fully furnished home in moon, that had robotic guppies and mollies in fish tank, starling shaped white drones effortlessly showcasing biological criticality with an astounding display of murmurations against the dark sky. The brief immersive ad ended with hydroponic vertical garden that carried fragrance enhanced real jasmines clustered in bouquet, it was an intoxicatingly inviting experience that would make anyone reach out to key in the favoured cryptocurrency biomarker slot. The boy said “We are almost there”.

Beyond the hives and on the outskirts humans were few, indeed it was out of bound for most of them, this was where humanoids worked with bots to extend the hive while some humanoids patrolled the zone from here to the exit. Most monitoring was done by humanoids themselves, cyborgs would be alerted in case of emergency. It was dangerous for the boy to proceed from here, already he was being cautioned through the speakers embedded in the pillars “Human identify yourself”. “Human you are being warned. Go back”. There was no time to waste, and he didn’t want to put lad’s life in risk. There was too much at stake for islanders here. It was much bigger than him. With a nudge the bag parted itself and lad was out, they hugged briefly. Boy ran back as fast he could. Lad stood there looking at his vanishing figure. Outside the dome blue haze spread into the horizon, the white desert sand contrasting with the black murky water. Lad whistled a tune he heard inside the dome. It is going to be a nice day he told himself. Beyond the blue haze cumulonimbus clouds were churning a sinister detail.  

In the chrome hemisphere of the omniscient dome where the memories of all the lifeforms ever to have lived was interned, bereft of their genetic code, they whispered their anguish, soon their terrifying voiceless wail rising into a crescendo and fell into deep silence. In that silence eons away somewhere in the darkness of the liminal cosmos a little blue dot suspended in hazy space, a carbon, a nitrogen, a hydrogen, and an oxygen take tentative steps towards one another for an unlikely tango.

In the beginning there was time. Then there was nothing.