By Ajay Sachdev, midasinvone@yahoo.co.in
What was the best way to relax? Lalbagh! I would go for a walk through that evergreen patch of virgin forest in the heart of Bangalore, followed by a delicious dosa at the famous and adjacent Mavalli Tiffin Rooms. What could be a better way than that to relax? So, I got into my Suzuki 800, drove to Lalbagh, and strolled to my favorite spot, the Lotus Pond. It was late afternoon, and the walkway around the pond was surprisingly deserted; there wasn’t a soul in sight. I ambled around the walkway, inhaling the deliciously fresh air. Ummmm....... That felt good.
Suddenly, I felt a familiar tingle of static electricity in the air, and the familiar warm glow enveloped me. Wow! I told myself. The angel! He was near! ..... I could sense him! I looked around expectantly, eager for another incredible, out of this world adventure.
As if on cue, the air around me began to vibrate. The waters of the Lotus Pond began swirling round and round, faster and faster. Fascinated, I watched. Suddenly, the center of the pond parted and the time warp appeared right in its middle.
Gosh! I told myself. How on earth was I to walk to the middle of the pond - I would sink like a stone in the water. I stood there confused.
A soft voice caressed my ear “Go in, Ajay, you can do it. I am with you.”
Wow! I told myself. Walk on water? It wasn’t humanly possible, but I developed a strange indefinable sense of confidence. I knew I would do it. I remembered Jesus’ words, “Where is thy faith?”
Faith! That was the key, I realized. Not to doubt but, believing, to do. Boldly, though inwardly a small part of me was quavering, I took the first small step on the still waters. Whhh....aaaa?? What was happening? I was actually walking on the water!
Exuberant, I took another three steps on the water, neatly sidestepping a lotus that drifted into my path. I was but one step away from the time warp when I shook my head, and looked down. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t, just couldn’t be walking on water. The laws of mass, density and up-thrust and physics floated through my mind. Suddenly, I felt myself sinking, slipping into the water. I panicked.... the pond was pretty deep at this point and I just remembered that I couldn’t swim. As if from nowhere, I felt the most amazingly strong pair of arms lift me from under my armpits, and literally carry me on the water to the time warp.The touch of the Angel was, as before, the most amazing touch.... softer then the softest feather, yet strong and firm....words couldn’t describe it. I heard the angel’s voice gently chiding me again..... “Where is thy faith?”
Once I was inside, the time warp promptly closed up. I stood uncertainly, waiting, watching, wondering what lay in store for me. It couldn’t be a horse and a chariot, perhaps I would see another sleek, jazzy car? With barely a whisper, a sleek transparent bubble drifted down in front of me, inside the warp. The translucent door swung open, and I climbed inside, settling among the comfiest cushioned chair I’d ever experienced. The door swung shut. I was completely at ease, no panic this time, fully reassured that the angel would take care of me.
The bubble was oval in shape. In front of me was a convex transparent screen. A small piece of lettering in the left corner of the screen caught my eye. It read:
“Time Travels Inc.
3020 AD”
WOW! So I was in an official time traveling machine from the future! As if on cue, the by now familiar digital screen popped up in front of me.
The Ghost of Bangalore Future
Umm.... where would I like to go? The screen remained blank. How about 2050? It would be interesting to see how Bangalore looked then. The numbers on the screen began spinning, until they came to a stop at 2050. Gosh! A mind-reading digital screen!
The bubble lifted up and began hurtling through the time barrier. I could see the years floating past.....2021....2035....2044....2050. The bubble spun out of the vortex of time, and emerged into bright sunshine. I looked around excitedly. Where was I? That was Bangalore below me. I recognized M..G. Road below, but it looked different! The sleek and neat metro rail was up and running, winding its way all around the city, carrying passengers across its length and breadth. Bangalore looked so very different. It was neater....cleaner....greener....much less polluted. Most of the ancient petrol and diesel engines of 2011 had been replaced by ultra efficient new engines making emissions few and far between. And cars! There are far fewer cars in Bangalore. Everyone seemed to be taking the sleek new buses and the metro-rail. And cycles! There are so many bicycles all around! I guess folk have been encouraged to take up bicycling again leading to healthier citizens and lesser pollution. What’s that? There are dedicated bicycle lanes on all the roads! How I wish city planners had thought of this in our era. The time capsule moved around Bangalore taking me to the different landmarks. Everything seemed to be as it was in 2011....there are the Bishop Cotton schools in the heart of Bangalore swarming with enthusiastic children in their neat school uniforms. I guess some things never change! There’s the Bangalore Club, resplendent in its British style architecture; and there’s Koshy’s Café still proudly standing on St. Mark’s Road. Things certainly have improved in Bangalore forty years into the future....my mind drifted, wondering how Bangalore would look a hundred years later.
Once again reading my thoughts, the digital meter spun,changing to 2150. The time capsule reentered the space-time continuum, spinning though the decades, emerging over Bangalore 2150 AD.
Wow! The air over Bangalore was so pure, so crisp, and so crystal clear that it literally sparkled. Pollution had been vanquished - there wasn’t a wisp of smoke to be seen anywhere on the horizon. As the capsule took me around Bangalore, there was something different about the vehicles on the road. Looking closely, I realized they were all electric!
The buses below were amazingly futuristic, shaped like bullet trains. The cars too were mini bullet trains in themselves, but around the same sizes as today’s sedans. They all moved noiselessly, seamlessly, so there was no noise pollution. And, wow! Electric bicycles whizzed about M..G. Road in their separate lane, alongside their traditional pedalled cousins....only the pedaled bicycles were speedier and jazzier compared to 2011 and seemed to be made of some type of new carbon composite material. Brigade Road and Commercial Street, the evergreen shopping paradises looked unbelievably sophisticated, unbelievably futuristic. There were elevated walkways everywhere with options for pedestrians to walk or be moved along escalators. There were small colored fountains every few yards with benches beside them for those who wanted to relax and take in the cool ambiance of a rejuvenated Bangalore. Separate escalators led off from the elevated walkway to the main road every few yards.
The movie theater ‘Rex’ had been torn down. Memories came flashing back. ‘Rex’ was where I had seen Charlie Chaplin’s fabulous ‘The Great Dictator’ and the Bud Spencer / Terence Hill hugely entertaining ‘Watch Out We’re Mad’. In place of ‘Rex’, stood a futuristic multiplex!
Movies! How were the movies of 2150 AD? As if in answer to my thoughts, the time capsule glided towards the walls of the ‘Rex Multiplex’! GASP! It’s seamlessly slipping through the walls and into one of the theaters. This couldn’t be happening..... I told myself.... I wasn’t a ghost.... I did have a physical body.... Confused, I looked around, unable to focus on the theater or the surroundings.
The angel’s voice caressed my ear again, “It’s the time capsule, Ajay....... It causes a temporary alteration in the state of matter! Do not be afraid.... you are as before!”
Reassured, I brought my focus back to the theater. Where was the screen? I couldn’t see it anywhere, but a deep stage stood where the screen should have been and everything seemed to be happening in 3D upon it.
The characters came alive in real 3D, and the theater was equipped with the most amazing surround sound which was like no sound I had ever heard before.
WHOOSH ! It was an action movie. A character leapt from the projection room onto to the stage and took on five enemy soldiers simultaneously in glorious 3D Technicolor. A stream flowed across the stage with the French Alps in the background. I shook my head in disbelief at the stunning realism of it all.
Abruptly the time capsule whizzed out from the theater and hovered far above Bangalore’s 2150 skyline as if to ask me, “Where to now?”
While I was thinking, the capsule began drifting as if to help me make up my mind. The capsule hovered over the Bishop Cotton Schools’ sprawling campuses below....they hadn’t changed a bit. The children still wore the same neat uniforms. Umm.... I thought, how about Koshy’s? Should I check it out? A fraction of a second later, the time capsule hovered to stop above the elevated walkway in front of ‘Koshy’s’ and the door swung open....Gosh! Was I meant to actually walk through the capsule and into the twenty-second century? The door remained open, so with a sense of exhilaration I stepped out into the walkway and onto the ramp leading to Koshy’s.
I pushed the familiar wood and glass door open, and walked into my favorite café. It looked just the same inside. Even the waiters and their uniforms remained the same. Was this one thing that had not changed in 2150? I asked for a menu card and a waiter smilingly indicated a few push buttons on one side of the table. Curious, I pressed the ‘Start Menu’ button. The same authentic menu appeared on a display screen that flashed onto the top of a side-table. I scrolled down and selected my favorite, a plate of scrambled eggs on toast and a milk shake.
“Please wait for ten minutes,” flashed the reply on the screen.
Precisely ten minutes later, scrambled eggs on toast and a milkshake magically materialized on my table. Wow! I told myself. Technology certainly had advanced. But, where was the water? I summoned a waiter and asked for water. He smilingly indicated another button on the side table which I pressed. And hey presto! A glass of the purest, clearest, sweetest water appeared alongside the food. Wow! The quality of water had improved to an unimaginable degree.
“Very sweet water,” I told the waiter.
“Yes sir. Our own mineral water plant in the kitchen,” he said smilingly. “The latest nano plasma filtration technology.”
After a quarter of an hour, I told myself, “Ah.... a satisfying meal. Now to leave....” I got up to leave.
“The bill, sir,” said the waiter coldly, showing me a bill of three hundred and fifty rupees.
“Sorry....sorry”, I said apologetically, and gave him a five hundred rupee note.
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the waiter even more coldly, returning the note. “This currency is outdated.”
Oops! I broke out in a cold sweat. Whatever was I going to do now? I was truly in a jam. Visions of twenty – second century cops hauling me off to a futuristic jail cell flashed before my eyes.
“Fear not, Ajay.” The angel’s soft voice whispered, “Look in your shirt pocket.”
Grinning sheepishly at the waiter, I put my hand into my pocket and came up with some crisp new currency notes; I proffered one to the waiter.
The waiter bowed and returned with the change. Leaving a generous tip, I left Koshy’s......but where was the time capsule? Worried, I looked around… I felt a strong urge to go to around to the back, so I hurried there, looking, searching .... and there it was, nestling in the compound of the St. Mark’s Cathedral, hovering in a quiet corner. I hurried there and climbed in hastily.....I didn’t want to be left behind in the future!* The capsule whizzed up again, high into the sky.
Ummm..... now which year would I like to see? How about 2250 AD. The time capsule re-entered the space - time continuum, spinning through the decades and emerged once again over where else, but M.G. Road! The digital meter read 2250 A.D. The same crisp, cold, pure air surrounded me. The elevated walls walkways with the sparkling multicolored, fountains were still there and the separate bicycle paths too. The elevated metro rail also. But, what was different was that there were hardly any people on the roads. Where were they all? Whatever had happened to the people of Bangalore? I looked out from the time capsule anxiously.
Ooops? The capsule swerved to one side, rocking on its axis, as a large unidentified flying object whizzed past. I tentatively opened the door of the capsule, peering out cautiously to see what it was....and was almost hit by what seemed like another UFO. Blinking rapidly to clear my eyes, I tried to see what had almost run me down.
* Pun intended
The twenty – third century.... If that had happened, it would have caused a ‘Time Anomaly’ disrupting the very fabric of time, because you see, I wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.
There was no way I could afford to have an accident in the twenty third century. The onerous responsibility of ensuring the continuity of ‘Space - Time’ rested squarely on my shoulders.
With trepidation, I peeked out once more, and what a sight greeted my eyes.
People with jet packs strapped on their backs whizzed around the sky. So that was the mode of transportation in the twenty - third century! And that’s why there were so few cars, two-wheelers and bicycles on the roads. It was far more convenient to just strap on a jet pack and fly to your destination!
Breathless, I wondered what the rest of Bangalore looked like, but the time capsule remained stationary.... It refused to budge. I looked at it with consternation, why had it stopped responding to my thoughts?
Just then, the silky soft voice of the angel spoke “You’ll have to go back, Ajay. Minoo, your editor, is worried and waiting for your article....besides, you’ve used up much more than your allotted quota of space... any further delay and she’ll blow a gasket.”
“Ok....ok,” I thought fast, “How about a sneak – peek into the twenty fourth century? Please....I pleaded with the angel. Please.... Just a peek ….”
“Another time, Ajay” .... said the angel gently. “You’ve used up almost all the ‘Time – Currency’ allotted to you ........you’ve got to go back now”.
“Just a peek....” I pleaded, “Pretty please....”
“Very well, Ajay,” said the angel, “But only a peek.... nothing more.”
“Oh, thank you,” I said gratefully.
The digital meter spun to 2350 AD and we made that incredible journey through space-time, emerging over M.G. Road with a soft rocking motion. The vision that greeted me was beyond amazing. There were five ‘Mag - Lev’ trains on different levels, one above the other. What was fascinating was that there were no tracks at all- the trains ran solely on magnetic levitation. Twenty - fourth century technology was truly mind blowing. There were no vehicles on the road at all, only the cycle tracks remained. What was that? People were disappearing from the walkways, at random all over that place....how could that be? I looked more closely....the people wore some kind of control panels on their waists.They seemed to be pressing buttons on the panels, after which they disappeared....but....... but.... the trains seemed to be filling up with people at random too.
How? There were no stations and the doors remained shut. Then I got it.... the people were teleporting into the trains!
But why, I asked myself, if they could teleport, were trains required at all? Perhaps, twenty – fourth century technology had only a capability of short range teleportation.... and long range transportation required trains. One of the trains began to move....Fascinated, I watched. There was a humm and a blur.... and the train vanished from view! Wow! and double wow! The Mag – Lev trains seemed to be moving at incredible speeds, far beyond the visual range.
“Enough Ajay, you’ve got to go back, “said the angel.
“No.... Please.... I like it so much here,” I protested.
“Another time, Ajay, and perhaps another story,” said the angel.
Abruptly a vision of Minoo flashed in front of me. She had stuck my photo on the wall and was the throwing darts at it. Her hair was straggled, and she had a hunted look in her eyes.
“Two timer,” she was saying, “Where’s his piece. He promised me..... Benedict Arnold........ double crosser....”
I felt the capsule swirling back through space-time until the meter read 2011AD. It stopped exactly in the middle of the Lotus Pond on the still waters. Gingerly, I stepped out, walking on the water nonchalantly, and with complete faith this time. A couple of lone spectators near the pond looked at me with disbelief. One rubbed his eyes and took a quick double –take at the empty beer bottle he held in his hand. The other walked away from there hurriedly, a sickly – sweet smile on his face and a hunted look in his eyes.
I climbed onto the walkway and strolled back to my parked car. The time warp closed up behind me and vanished out of my sight.
Soon, I was back in my study. My computer and printer beckoned....
CONCLUDED
P.S. Thanks, Ajay....for an absolutely fantastic concluding piece to your three-part series on Bangalore – This was such a fun series and I enjoyed all 3 Parts – you managed to pack in a lot of information in a lively, interesting way (Nostradamus meets Al Gore meets Arthur C Clarke). Indeed, the Spirit of Bangalore must be beaming for all the wonderfully enthusiastic homage you've paid to it. Uday, Aarathi and other Bangalore devotees and residents, what say you?
P.S. 2: By 2150, it can be predicted we will have a cashless society worldwide. So the Koshy's waiter will be totally flummoxed by your outdated currency :) :) Anyone else care to make other predictions?
