Wednesday, March 21, 2007

MYTH XV - EVERYTHING IS

::::::: EVERYTHING IS :::::::by Pratapaditya

::::::: Part I :::::::


Then there’s the sun, beating down on our mother earth, Mr. Big Fireball Sunshine shining down on the earth in all his orange-fireball glory. And he’s much bigger than the earth; but is only a tiny (.) of fire in the MUCH BIGGER galaxy he dwells in, which is only a tiny (.) of swirling white in a MUCH BIGGER universe it is in, which, in turn, is as big as a molecular structure when brought in context to Bonsai’s fingernail.
Bonsai is a dwarf. Not like dwarves we might have seen on our planet, no: this one, if he were an inhabitant of our world, if it is possible for us little human beings to even fathom such sheer size, would’ve reached the sky so we would only see his ankles. But in the world in which he lives, he is a dwarf. He works at the Exhaustive Scientific Research Organization. That’s Bonsai for you, nice and easy, very brainy, a scientist and visionary, Bonsai our creator. Our accidental creator to be specific, and he doesn’t even know of the impeccable microscopic universe and mini-microscopic systems he creates without his knowledge, all thanks to a wave of his frivolous hands that mixes a tad bit too much ascorbic acid into his test tube while attempting to make an ideal Bonsai-Grows-Taller-Overnight potion.
At this point, to help us better grasp the concept of two different operating scales in two different worlds; it is necessary to point out the difference in the idea of time and space in both worlds. If we, i.e. humans from our world, were to be in Bonsai’s world, things would look really big; REALLY BIG; much bigger than Mr. Fireball Sunshine himself, back home; and so dreadfully slow we would see very little or nothing move. This is because our idea of passage of time is faster than theirs, similar to how an ant’s idea of passage of time is faster than ours. So, it’s quite probable that in a wave of Bonsai’s frivolous hands that mixed a tad bit too much ascorbic acid into his test tube, we would be born and dead, have grandchildren; yes, live happily ever after and beyond thereafter, too, if looked at from a certain point of view.
Coming back to the point, as the extra drops of the god-blessed ascorbic acid fall into the test tube, mixed with his other ingredients, it creates a vacuum for one fraction of a second, which is enough in terms of relative time for it to start making the first combinations of gases, which will be compressed over time to become our universe, galaxies, stars and planets; thank you, awfully kind of you to have thrown in the extra acid to propagate our existence.
Now, Bonsai needs the Bonsai-Grows-Taller-Overnight potion to grow as tall as his colleagues from Exhaustive Scientific Research Organization who consider him a lower intelligence; “since he hasn’t grown physically, he couldn’t have gone too far mentally.”
Bonsai-Grows-Taller-Overnight potion.
To earn respect at work, to stop them mocking him, perhaps to someday be able to run for president of the organization; think big, show them what you’re really worth.
Bonsai-Grows-Taller-Overnight potion.
Almost ready, now. Will it work? Tomorrow tells, as the two suns of Bonsai’s world rise, dazzling brilliant golden bright, two great balls of fire suspended in the sky, bursting with overwhelming energy; which are reduced to two tiny (..) of fire in the MUCH BIGGER galaxy they dwell in, which is only a tiny (.) of swirling white in a MUCH BIGGER universe it is in, which, in turn, is as big as a molecular structure when brought in context to your fingernail.
*****
::::::: Part II :::::::
In the beginning there was only fire. A huge ball of burning, scorching fire; a gigantic planet of swirling fiery liquid swimming in its death. Whatever was there on the planet was destroyed, scorched and melted and then drowned in it, the unity of all good and evil, north and south, east and west, black and white, now and then, yesterday and today. All that was left was Plastic. The problem with plastic is that it is non-biodegradable: also there was a lot of it around, somehow there seems to always have been; before the fire, that is. So, with the molten inferno of fire all the plastic that was around was churned well into it: mixer-grinder-juiced till it was a seething fireball of molten plastic.
Now, nature finds hope of life in any situation she is put in, optimism of a mother. So after a long, loooooooooong passage of time, after the molten fire had sloooooooowly settled down to form a hard crust on the outside, and a warm core on the inside; after the immense clouds of black created by the phenomenally catastrophic fire had escaped outside the planet’s atmosphere, a tiny black and charred pod of plastic emerged from the plastic ground.
That’s where it began; life on Plastique, home to the plastic man, plastic dog, plastic cat, plastic trees, plastic flowers; home of plastic houses, plastic roads, plastic buildings, plastic cars;
Home to Bonsai.
The tiny black plastic pod evolved like all creatures of nature; into (multi-celled) [more complex] organisms- plastic dogs, plastic cats, and plastic man- a not so good example of which is Bonsai- our friend here, the scientist.
Evolution in Plastiqe is a serious matter, yes sir. All are divided into grades according to their stages of evolution. So the most evolved person would be a Grade A; a tall, well-built man with orange, translucent plastic skin and an orange, translucent plastic body, dazzling in the light of their two suns, tall and proud, the finest species of nature, on top of the food chain. One lower than that is Grade B and so on and so forth. The ones at the bottom of the pile are Grade J; not far evolved from the first black charred plastic pod, they are short, black, scrawny and their bodies look as if they are shriveled from dehydration. Everyone’s status in society and their professions depend entirely on their stages of evolution; for example, Grade A plastic men are scientists, Grade J the beggars that haunt all the traffic lights of the cities of Plastique. Now Bonsai is a Grade A but sometime early in his life he stopped gaining height, stayed low. As a result, his colleagues- who also believe evolution in Plastiqe is a serious matter, yes sir- look upon him as inferior,
“since he hasn’t grown physically, he can’t have gone too far mentally.”
“A stunted growth in Grade A, what a horrible disaster!”
Hence the Bonsai-Grows-Taller-Overnight potion.
A few extra drops of acid while making the Bonsai-Grows-Taller-Overnight potion and our universe is born. Then, over time, we have evolved from a single celled organism to apes to human beings, homo sapiens, walking with our backs straight, tall and proud, the finest species of nature; over more time, we are living our lives today, tomorrow, day after; then we are exploiting our mother earth, creating materials that cannot be decomposed by the earth with our advanced technology, we are making plastic, PET bottles, Polythene Pam, plastic chairs, tables, beds, houses, plastic surgery. Plastic, plastic, plastic; plastic here, plastic there, plastic everywhere. It looks like the whole world’s turning plastic. As time moves further, we are fighting wars, atom bombing and man-made nuclear fission reactioning ourselves; and each other, everywhere, anywhere. Missiles and warheads going back and forth, not sparing anything living or man made. Moving further still, we have destroyed our world, put it to fire with our very own hands in a final act of cleansing; the unity of all good and evil, north and south, east and west, black and white, now and then, yesterday and today. Everything scorched and melted and then drowned in the swirling rage of fire, reduced to a planet of swirling fiery liquid swimming in its death.
And all that now remains on dear mother Earth is plastic; technologically advanced non-biodegradable long shelf-life plastic.
*****

::::::: Part I :::::::
First there was only fire. One great big ball of fire, swirling and whirling in its own death, enormous clouds of black smoke rising up into the skies, hiding the two suns, making the planet incredibly dark, near black. From this fire emerges Alpha Plus- ever so wise, the finest specimen that ever was or will be; with his fiery perfect orange, glowing plastic body still simmering in the darkness as he emerges from the depths of the greatest fires that ever was.
After a long long time, the planet cools down, forms a plastic crust outside and a boiling-hot-liquid-plastic-fire-core inside.
From his two fiery palms Alpha Plus brings to life his sons, two brothers born equal in the eyes of their great father; and his daughter, the finest maiden of all.
Alpha Plus speaks to them in his pure, wise plastic voice, “You are the finest mortals created by the finest specimen that ever was or will be, I, Alpha One. This is your world and you are its rulers. Live in it with each other, in peace and harmony; for you are all of my own plastic-flesh and plastic-blood.”
With that he flies up into the dark skies, his smooth, perfect plastic build glowing in the dark skies; and disappears into it leaving these brand new plastic-souls amongst themselves. They look around, trying hard to see and spot things in the darkness. They walk about with uncertainty for their plastic-feet tread on a ground that has never been walked on by any plastic-mortal; even if they be the children of Alpha Plus himself.
“What is this place?”
“Who am I?”
“Where am I? Who are these two with similar bodies yet so different from mine?”
“Why do our bodies glow with orange color?”
One of the sons notices a small rectangle on the upper left side of the other’s orange glow back; it spells Beta One-Underminde. He looks over his own plastic shoulder and sees the same orange glowing rectangle embossed into his back that reads Beta One-Levelheade. The girl’s has Beta One-Extraslinky written in her orange glowing box. Creations of Alpha One; with the mark of Alpha One on their backs.
“You are my brother and you are my sister. We have been forged by the same hands, molded by one soul. Don’t be scared of the darkness; the glow of our bodies together will give us enough light. Just stick together.”
So, in the darkness of the perpetual night, save the dull orange glow that seems to emerge right from the center of the planet, they walk around huddled together. After a few hours of walking Underminde decides to be brave, goes up ahead of Levelheade and Extraslinky. Levelheade and Extraslinky stop to rest a while and Levelheade looks at Extraslinky’s glowing pretty plastic face and legs and Extraslinky sees Levelheade’s glow-lined square jaw and strong plastic chest. They start exploring each other, groping each other, he enters her, and it’s agony and ecstasy and that’s where the word ‘sex’ is born.
But that’s as far as it goes for them, for Levelheade’s seeds are not fertile. There is too much naphtha, which is poison for the seeds, in his plastic-semen. Naphtha is a dark brown, smooth, slippery, volatile liquid that makes up all the naphtha ponds, lakes, rivers, seas, oceans and in Plastique, is the most essential fluid for plastic-man, who have to maintain the required naphtha levels for them to stay alive.
Underminde goes a little too far, realizes he shouldn’t venture alone and starts walking back to where Levelheade and Extraslinky are and finds them tangled with each other; in each other’s arms. He feels a burning sensation and an inexplicable desire to be in Levelheade’s place but he knows he can’t; he can sense it. He looks at them and they look back at him as if saying, get away from here; leave us alone.
But where does he go? What does he do? He is scared to go alone in a darkness that reveals nothing. “Let me stay brother, you have nothing to worry about me. We cannot see without the glow from all three of our bodies and I am scared to go on all alone.”
“We must go in individual directions and explore this place that has been given to us by Alpha Plus; walking in a bunch is not going to serve any purpose. We have to get used to the darkness, we must be in control of the situation if we are to fulfill what Alpha Plus desires of us.”
“Why do we need to explore? Do you know where this place begins or ends? Do you know how vast this space is? Because I don’t: everywhere I look, it all looks the same, total darkness all around us; and a dull orange glow under the black charred surface of the ground. How do we explore this place when we can’t see anything?”
“That is what Alpha Plus desires of us; to rule this land. How will we rule this land if we don’t know what it holds? What will we rule over if we don’t know what kinds of beings dwell here? So go on and explore what this land holds. We will all go in different directions.”
So Underminde walks in the darkness, alone. There’s no light and the glow from his body is not strong enough for him to be able to see clearly but he can vaguely make out an undulating terrain. “What kinds of things lurk in the shadows of this planet?” Scared, Underminde cannot see anything. Cannot see anything save the dull orange glow that seems to emerge right from the center of the planet.
“I’m sure Levelheade and Extraslinky are walking together; I could see it in their eyes, they couldn’t stay away from each other for a single moment”, he says to himself while climbing down a little dark plastic hillock.
He turns around, decides to trace back his steps to see if he is right, hesitates, “He is my brother, after all, why would he trick me?”
He turns around in the direction he was walking in, hesitates again, curiosity gets the better of him this time; he turns around yet again, traces back his steps to the point where the three of them had parted ways. He walks beyond the point of parting towards the direction Levelheade had gone in. He starts running, afraid he won’t be able to catch up, over one hillock and another and another. After he reaches the top of the third hillock, he looks down to see two dull orange glowing bodies intertwined with each other.
Underminde is on fire, something burns inside him, a mixture of anger and desire. He runs down the side of the hillock and shouts at Levelheade, “How can you be so inconsiderate? Am I not your brother? Shouldn’t you stick with me, shouldn’t we look out for each other? Just for the sake of being with this woman here!” With that he slaps Extraslinky across the face and she falls to the ground.
There is a momentary pause, no one knows what to do. Levelheade looks at Extraslinky who is looking back at him with an expression of longing for help. He lunges forward at Underminde and lands him a punch square on his jaw sending him crashing into the ground. A fight ensues between them by the end of which Underminde is lying on his stomach on the ground half conscious, his gills opening and closing slowly as he takes slow and measured breaths to stop his pain from becoming unbearable. The victorious Levelheade staggers away from Underminde, clutching his side with one hand and holding on to Extraslinky for support with the other.
Underminde slowly rolls over on his side and onto his back, wincing with each movement; he looks up into the sky, at the blackness; he looks to his side, “How could they leave me alone? How could they leave me to walk alone in this complete darkness? Well, almost complete darkness… there’s this strange dull orange glow that seems to be coming from the inside of the planet, so strong and powerful that it seeps through the outer crust and dissolves into the black sky; so strong and powerful that it seems to pull me right into its vortex; into the core of the planet, where the fiery liquid molten plastic is still swirling and whirling in its frustration and fury.”

*****

::::::: Part III :::::::
Bonsai drops the plastic test tube down on the plastic table; it falls with a chink onto it and rolls up beside his plastic growth hormone pills- little blue and red evil pills. He takes a deep sigh, sits on his plastic chair.
Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip.
His plastic table clock shows 23.6520.03 hours. He sighs again.
“Sometimes you’re so caught up in things you do that you forget how long you’ve been alive. So many events, occurrences, moments all taking place in one line, one after the other; just like you here, doing your research and experiments with polyethylene, PVC, nylon; and on the sly, this potion of yours which we don’t know will work or not. Twenty three annum-hours old, Grade A/Bonsai with your clock blip blipping, your heart beating, your timeline coming closer to its grand finale of your death, where are we going with all this?”
Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip.
Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip.
“I don’t know...
… I don’t know where I am, I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know why I am the way I am, I don’t know why I need to look like a molded art-piece to be able to walk without having a hundred eyes staring into the back of my head; I don’t know why I must feel ashamed of my evolution to the point that I have actually tried to make a potion that’ll make me look like them. I don’t know anything…”
He pours himself a glass of naphtha from the electric-naphtha-jug, gulps down the warm liquid and looks at his hands- charred plastic with the orange glow of his plastic body under it.
“Curiosity kills the cat and it’ll kill you, if it doesn’t make you realize what you’re doing here is useless.”
“It looks like it’s going to kill me; and you too, actually. Look at me, I’m finally going mad. All these days I was talking to myself it never felt like I was speaking with another person- another me, another you, whatever you’re supposed to be. Look at me now; you’re beginning to twist my head around and churn everything inside it.”
“I am you and what I see is me… meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggghhhh….”
Bonsai looks up. “What’s going on? Am I actually going insane?” He looks up at the bulb over his head, hanging low from the high ceiling of his laboratory, swaying with the gusts of wind, flickering as it sways back and forth in the quiet late night air.
“The whole world’s asleep and you’re up here going insane.”
“Wait a minute, who’s going insane? You or me? Me or you? Us or them?”
He stands up with a start-“what are you saying?”- his chair falls and clatters to the ground. He holds onto the table to stabilize himself, looks up at the bulb above him, it’s swaying back and forth in the quiet night air and its…; wait a minute, take a look at this bulb here; it seems to be pulsating slowly and steadily, like a living organism, a little glow-bulb, pulsating slow and steady like a luminous heart, “in fact it’s beating to your heart!”
So it was! And the light from the bulb was coming out in perfect circles, shimmering with their electric energy, fading away and disappearing into thin air- “the pattern emerges in a circle, energy flowing out of the bulb in circles going round and round in an endless cycle- each circle of light in an infinite time and space, it begins where it ends and ends where it begins, dead and living at the same instant, traveling here at this moment, transcending to another universe at the next, and another, and another, till it’s back here, in the exact moment it left, in the same room you’re in.”
“What rubbish! Everything begins and ends, me, you-if you actually exist, this bulb, the world. Our lives begin at a certain point and end after its stipulated time. There are no cycles.”
“You mean you can’t see any circles; you can’t perceive anything that does not represent a line. That’s how you’ve been conditioned, that’s the chip in your head planted by The Factory to ensure you fit into the perfect society you’ve spent so many annum-hours in, to ensure your clockwork function in the perfect clockwork motion of your perfect society. Get up- go to work- go back home- go to sleep- get up. Do some good for the society, be a good samaritan and WAKE UP!!”
“Stop this madness Bonsai, get a grip on yourself, this is getting out of hand, what chip are we speaking of here? Aren’t we all descendants of Levelheade and Extraslinky, son and daughter of Alpha Plus himself? None of this gibberish makes any sense, listen to what you’re saying…”
“Yes, listen to yourself, open your eyes, your ears, your mind. Transcend above your conditioning because otherwise you’re just another perfect plastic-man being manufactured by the Factory for the perfect plastic society- where there are no freaks, no savages, no criminals, no problems, no qualms, all smooth flowing naphtha in the system contained in a chip inserted into your head at birth, a seamless and fluid voice inside your head that you imagine to be your own, guiding you, urging you to make all the right decisions, making all the decisions for you while you sit through twenty three annum-hours of your life thinking what a fine specimen you are, top of the food chain and things like that.”
Bonsai picks up his chair and sits on it. He puts his elbows on the table and sinks his eyes into the palms of his hand. His deep breathing makes his gills flare up and deflate.
“Could this be true? How do I know whether its true or I’m going insane? And if it is true how come no one has raised these questions before me? If there are any such people where are they? Is there anything they’re doing about it? What are they doing?” Little green spots emerge in the blackness of his shut eyes, turning to green circles, concentric circles, circles connected to each other at a single point, circles intertwined with each other in random positions, circles forming greater complex patterns through seemingly unconnected images in his head, all falling into place, each in the place it is supposed to be in, each doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing at that time and in that space, the unity of all. He falls asleep in the maze of these green circles, his mind tired with the innumerable questions and the endless questioning.
*****
::::::: Part II :::::::
Levelheade and Extraslinky walk together for a long time. Finally, not having been able to see anything in the darkness, they settle in one place, no point groping about in the darkness. After a while they hear Alpha Plus’s wise plastic voice deep and resonant coming from no particular direction and coming from everywhere.
“You must create an engine that will create self-sustainable beings, beings that will be born, reproduce to create their offspring, beings that will eat the other so there is no excess of any certain species. Create these different species where they live symbiotically with each other, give and take in equal amounts, to maintain the universal balance and to sustain themselves through the eternal journey that never ends, never starts.”
Levelheaded and Extraslinky sit in the darkness together, listening intently.
“You are mortals, living now, you will die one day and you don’t have the seeds in you to produce offspring to continue your lineage. I have seen the long walk, been on the long walk. I have walked in a line, forward and I have come back to the place that I started from. You must create beings that will survive and sustain itself over this long walk.”
They pondered over Alpha Plus’s words for a long time, sitting in the darkness, huddled together. After a considerable amount of time, the black clouds of smoke finally start clearing,
v e r y s l o w l y,
to reveal two brilliant suns fiery bright, pouring the first penetrating rays of light upon them. As they gaze around in this new found light, they look in awe at the little charred plastic pods all around them, everywhere; little pods of hope, facing up towards the sun, hungrily taking in all the newfound light and warmth upon a barren undulating land. Time passes by, night and day, day and night, some of the pods start growing bigger, heavier, their tops drooping to the ground. From these grown pods emerges a charred plastic egg with its charred plastic shell. It emerges out of the pod,
v e r y s l o w l y,
little by little till it falls out of the pod and onto the ground and cracks open revealing a soft and supple and raw and charred little creature with a thin plastic coating around it. In a few moments the creature breaks out of the plastic coating, stands up on its four legs and starts walking in no particular direction.
As Levelheade and Extraslinky watch the creature walk away, they see this process taking place with almost all the pods, everywhere you look, there are creatures coming out of their eggs; some with four legs, two legs, others with hands disproportionately large for their bodies which can be folded and unfolded; when unfolded, these creatures can leap into the air and fly away into the sky.
“Everything here is ready for us”, says Levelheade, “the sunlight has brought the whole planet to life, this is a moment of ecstasy, all creatures alive for the first time on this planet, exploring the space they have so suddenly been born in.”
“We need to make the perfect ruler to rule over these beings. They will have superior intelligence; will sustain themselves and these creatures that roam this planet. They will look like us, since after all we were created by Alpha Plus, the finest specimen that ever was or will be.”
So they got working on it, first a place to work in, they build The Engine, then designs for the brain, the body, studying the pods emerging from the ground, taking pods and animals back to the Factory to conduct experiments to make the ideal plastic-man, designing the right kind of semen with low naphtha content so the seeds can survive. Eventually, they make their first mix using plastic from the ground, tissue from the plastic pods and replication of their own DNA. This is their first attempt and their worst- these products evolve very little, not too far from the black charred pods and are what we know as Grade-J today.
They work on their products patiently, diligently; and after a long time, after millions of tries, failures; after millions of plastic-men- Grades I, H, G up to B are produced comes Grade A, the finest mortals ever built by a mortal.
Now, the process of creating a plastic-man is a highly complex process as one can see above, plastic from the ground, tissues from plastic pods, DNA replication and what not. This process leaves a certain kind of residue, what we on earth would call soil. Different kinds of soil, depending on the Grade of plastic-men being created; grade A leaves behind what we know as sand and Grade J, alluvial soil. This multivariate residue does not decompose very easily in Plastique’s environment. It takes a long long time for the plastic micro organisms to be able to work on it; synthetic garbage that couldn’t do anything but harm the perfect Plastique environment. This residue disintegrates
v e r y s l o w l y,
which is why it gets tucked away, snugly packed into weatherproof, waterproof canisters and dumped into the naphtha-seas. The Engine keeps creating more and more plastic men; one by one the canisters keep piling up, one by one the naphtha seas start getting filled up,
v e r y s l o w l y.
*****
::::::: Part IV :::::::
Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip.
Bonsai wakes up from his overnight slumber, his eyes open slightly, close, open again and he finds himself curled up on the floor. He shivers,
“Its cold in here…”
“Go back to sleep, its too early.”
“Remember last night?”
Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip.
Bonsai takes a deep breath, slowly gets up to sit on the floor. “Yes I do, and why haven’t you gone away yet? I thought you wouldn’t be around when I woke up.”
“I told you,
I am you and what I see is me…
meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggghhhh….”
In short, Bonsai’s other half becomes another Bonsai, his split personality, his alter ego, his different side. People around him start noticing his odd behavior; Bonsai talking to himself, looking at mundane things in awe, lost in them, as if seeing them for the first time, suddenly snapping back to reality, hurriedly walking off and murmuring things to himself in anger.
One day a letter arrives on his desk; it’s a promotion letter,
_____
Timed: 23.7190.02 hours
Exhaustive Scientific Research Organization
Dear Bonsai Grade A,
It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been promoted to the level of Senior Research Executive. Your posting has been shifted to Lomka where there is work that requires your immediate attention. Please find enclosed your air tickets to Lomka, pocket money for the journey. Wishing you good luck,
Koroflot,
Managing Director,
Exhaustive Scientific Research Organization.
______
So Bonsai goes to the airport and catches the flight to Lomka.
Bonsai’s flight reaches Lomka, perfectly on time, smooth and silent, it lands on the plastic airport, a safe and perfect landing. He steps out of the cool interior of the aircraft and is greeted by a hot blast of Lomka heat. He steps on the deboarder and it carries him and other passengers to the airport, coming to a stop at the door. He walks through and sees a man holding up a placard bearing his name. He goes up to him and tells him that he’s the person they’re looking for. He is taken to a car and ushered inside, sweet courteous chaps being chivalrous to their new boss.
The car pulls out of the airport, which is in the outskirts and goes towards the city of Lomka. It goes through the city and on to the other side, the outskirts on the other side. They eventually reach their destination- but wait, something seems amiss. Large heavy plastic gates let them in and shut with a click behind them.
He steps out of the car and he is ushered in by more courteous sweet chaps into the main office of the building- but wait, something seems amiss. Here he meets Sweetlime, the chief operating officer of Exhaustive Scientific Research Organization Laboratories where Bonsai has been recruited to study and cure his anti-progressive behaviour.
“What?? What do you mean ‘recruited into ESRO Labs’?? Since when did ESRO Labs conduct experiments on people and who gave them the authority to?? And what in Alpha’s name is anti-progressive behavior?? I’m not wasting anymore time in this rubbish!”
He makes for the door but four great big monsters emerge from the shadows of the innards of the room, slow but deliberate, making their way across the floor; and Bonsai looks at them in horror and bewilderment, the poor devils. Red eyes, sunken eyes, physically stronger than the strongest plastic-man Bonsai had ever seen, but at the same time so weak, so frail, no life in them, only following orders and doing what they’re told by their superior.
One of the monsters takes an iron grip on his arm and he is taken out of the office, through the dark, tall, echoing corridors, into an even darker, gloomier elevator. The elevator glides unexpectedly smoothly, down, down, down till it comes to a halt at practically the very bottom of the planet. He is put into a cell, clear plastic, lit by a single bulb, dirty and dingy.
This is the area where the potentially dangerous are kept- at the bottom most floor of the building, way into the innards of the planet. Bonsai loses track of time, countless hours go by, once in a while the cell fills up with smoke, gushing in from an outlet in the top of the room, hidden in the shadows, every time this happens, he loses consciousness. When he comes to he finds himself lying on his bed, the smoke is gone, the light is on, flickering and he has a terrible headache, his head feels like lead, somebody put the light off, it’s killing me. He has nightmares of waking up in the middle of some kind of operation or experiment or study being done on him- he opens his eyes and always finds himself on an operating table, cold plastic operating table, looking up at the blurry shadows of the people operating or studying or experimenting on him, blinded by the focus lights above him, hi head feeling like it’s about to burst open. He tries with all his might to get up and off the table but he can’t move a muscle and his head is killing him. . “He’s woken up. Naphthalene please.” He feels a jab on the left side of his neck and everything fades out slowly, the shadows engulfing everything else, the light, the room, the people, the sound, everything fades to black. But these dreams are too real, Bonsai doesn’t know if these things actually happened or if he was actually dreaming. But the throbbing in his head is for real, getting unbearable by the day, threatening to burst out onto the walls and floor of his cell.
Eventually, his brain feels more and more numb, he stops thinking of all the things he did with his other half. His other half is subdued too till Bonsai is “cured” and there is no other half, no questions, no problems, no qualms, everything is running smooth as warm naphtha from a naphtha jug.
He is taken out of his shell and shifted to the top floor, which is the ground floor of the building. Here he is given a sparkling clean cell, well lit, with the switch for his cell inside, transparent plastic doors, clean bed etc. there are other cells next to his which hold more people of his grade. None of them look anywhere close to the ideal Grade A, some are in higher stages of evolution, but not too far evolved from him. Others in lower stages and some such low stages that it would be impossible to tell had they not had their identity boxes. Everyone follows the schedule given to them, doors open in the morning, you can step out or stay in till breakfast. Everyone comes for all meals, there are sessions with Sweetlime and other personnel everyday, recreation time where you can go out into the park of the compound, sit and talk with friends and everybody is happy in this mini-perfect society that the wonderful Sweetlime has organized for them, it’s all for them, everything is being done to keep you comfortable and happy.
Days pass in this fashion, he makes friends, and everything is going well. One night he has a dream, he dreams of himself and a handful of his friends going to the center of the earth, they step into the core and there they see green circles emerging from the darkness, concentric circles, circles connected to each other at a single point, circles intertwined with each other in random positions, circles forming greater complex patterns through seemingly unconnected images in his head, all falling into place, each in the place it is supposed to be in, each doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing at that time and in that space, the unity of all. He wakes up with a start and things start coming back to him, Bonsai-Grows-Taller-Overnight potion, his other half, green circles. He tells his friends of this, “Why have we been put here in this laboratory? Just because we think with our own minds? Because we are less evolved? Haven’t we evolved beyond all the pretty plastic Grade A’s, seeing the connection they haven’t? Don’t they see they are stuck in their daily rut of going about doing what they do, stuck in their own little cycles?
They decide to break out of prison. They make a carefully planned and well executed getaway, down to the bottom most floor where they dig their way out through the wall, dig their way through the plastic earth to find themselves in stalagmite and stalactite caves. The caves are in the depths of the planet, right at the bottom, much further down than the bottom most floor of the Laboratory. They travel through the passageways of the caves, its boiling hot here, and come to a wall of molten plastic fire, slowly swirling and giving off so much heat, it is impossible to even go near it.
“Where are the green circles that will show us everything, that will give us the answers to all our questions?”
“Your answer lies beyond this wall, we must penetrate it, break through on to the other side.”
“What?? Penetrate through this wall of swirling fiery death? That will surely be the end of us all!”
“I cannot promise you it won’t. But what I can say is that you must trust me, I know our answers lie beyond the wall. I will not coax anyone into joining me. If you do it will be of your own accord. You are free to accept or decline.”
“Don’t do this Bonsai, we have come all this way in search of answers. Don’t squander your life and your opportunity on heroic attempts.”
Bonsai smiles, “I repeat, your answer lies beyond this wall.”
With that he turns around and runs towards the firewall as fast as he can. His companions look at him helplessly, thinking to themselves, “His brain has finally been wrecked.” They watch in horror as Bonsai runs to the wall, screaming in pain as he gets closer and closer, his body on fire, till he finally jumps into the wall screaming his last sickening scream as his body burns up in the molten swirling wall of fire.
*****
::::::: Part III :::::::
Underminde is drawn by the dull orange glow that seems to be coming from the inside of the planet, so strong and powerful that it seeps through the outer crust and dissolves into the black sky; so strong and powerful that it seems to pull him right into its vortex; into the core of the planet, where the fiery liquid molten plastic is still swirling and whirling in its frustration and fury. He goes through a cave on the surface that leads him to stalagmite and stalactite caves. He walks through these caves to reach the center of the planet, the glow gets brighter and brighter with each step that he takes but there is no fiery liquid molten plastic swirling and whirling in its frustration and fury. Instead there is Alpha Plus, sitting cross legged on a plastic rock and the brilliant glow is emanating from him. Underminde asks him,
“What are you doing here? I thought you’d flown into the skies never to return?”
Alpha Plus speaks with his eyes closed, “So did I, but that is not how it is meant to be. I have traveled in one direction- forward, in a line, only to come back to where I started. I have traveled in time from now to tomorrow to the next day only to come back to the exact moment I left.”
“What does that mean?”
Alpha Plus gets up, and from somewhere inside his robe takes out a plastic vial containing a clear liquid in it. “This is the closest you can get to understanding what I speak. It has been made by someone from your future, one of the creatures that will be created. Make sure you take one drop only.”
“Has been made by someone from my future? How is it possible for him to have already created it if he is my future?”
“Go ahead and have a drop.”
Underminde does so. After some time his mind opens up, he begins to see what Alpha Plus is trying to say. Alpha Plus speaks to him about his experience, what he saw, where it took him.
“All things are meant to be as they are. If something has to happen it will happen. And I have seen that there has to be life on this planet, created from this planet, that which will be able to sustain itself and survive this eternal journey that never ends, never starts, but starts and ends at the same time.”
Alpha Plus’s voice takes on a deep resonance that seems to be coming from no particular direction and at the same time coming from everywhere. His voice seems to come from all sides of the cave.
“You must create an engine that will create self-sustainable beings, beings that will be born, reproduce to create their offspring, beings that will eat the other so there is no excess of any certain species. Create these different species where they live symbiotically with each other, give and take in equal amounts, to maintain the universal balance and to sustain themselves through the eternal journey that never ends, never starts.”
“You are mortals, living now, you will die one day and you don’t have the seeds in you to produce offspring to continue your lineage. I have seen the long walk, been on the long walk. I have walked in a line, forward and I have come back to the place that I started from. You must create beings that will survive and sustain itself over this long walk.”
Underminde understands what he means so he immediately starts working on the engine that is required. He creates an engine in the core of the planet, a perfect mechanism that creates life on Plastique, starting from the first plastic pod that emerges from the plastic ground to all plastic birds and all plastic animals, each designed carefully, intricately, deliberately to be able to survive and sustain themselves and all the species as a whole, through the eternal journey that never ends, never starts.
Thus life is born on Plastique.
*****
::::::: Part V :::::::
Bonsai’s comrades are helpless. There is nowhere to go but back to the perfect society they came from; and the Laboratory will find them and it will be back to the bottom most floor for the “potentially dangerous”. They turn around to go back and see Bonsai coming in from the outside. They stare at him an amazement and bewilderment.
He smiles at them and says, “I have traveled in one direction- forward, in a line, only to come back to where I started. I have traveled in time from now to tomorrow to the next day only to come back to the exact moment I left. I have met Alpha Plus himself while he was on his journey similar to mine, at the same time different.”
“What does that mean?”
Bonsai gets up, and from somewhere inside his clothes takes out a plastic vial containing a clear liquid in it. “This is the closest you can get to understanding what I speak. It has been made by someone from your future, someone that is yet to be born. Make sure you take one drop only.”
“Has been made by someone from our future? How is it possible for him to have already created it if he is my future?”
“Go ahead and have a drop. I know you are speculating on it, but you have already made the decision, you have already taken it because I was supposed to give it to you and you were supposed to take it. Go ahead.”
Upon taking the drop all of them see the connection, see the truth, see the real pattern, they see how society need not be made perfect because it has always been perfect in the first place. They see how they are not less evolved, because they were meant to be there to question, to penetrate the system, the perfect society, and to break through to the other side.
They go back to the surface to spread this knowledge, this understanding of the universe. They face tremendous opposition from the people, they are taken back to the ESRO Laboratory, back to the very bottom floor for the “potentially dangerous”. They cannot stop the production of men at The Engine as a result of which more and more residue gets tucked away, snugly packed into weatherproof, waterproof canisters and dumped into the naphtha-seas; which is why one by one the canisters keep piling up, one by one the naphtha seas keep getting filled up,
v e r y s l o w l y.

(THE END)


 

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