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I WANT TO DIE! |
BHARADHWAJAN … ARE YOU ASLEEP? SNAP OUT OF THIS…. YOU HAVE BEEN SILENT FOR THE PAST TEN MINUTES. ARE YOU NOT WELL OR BORED? “There is absolutely nothing wrong with me. Will you please keep quiet?”. Bharadhwajan yelled and the home-computer fell silent. Speaking, walking, eating, sleeping, whatever he did when at home was constantly monitored by the sensors and the scanner beams on the wall and passed on to the central computer which kept track of his activities nonstop. When it came hard to killing time there was cinema on the wall-screen music traveling through the air to fill his ears and Electro-wave therapy if he fell ill, etc., etc., Bharadhwajan shook his mind away from the enveloping thoughts and said: “I have a request”. MAKE IT. I AM READY TO ACCEDE TO --- Answered the computer. He said:”I want to die”. NOT UNDERSTANDABLE “What is not understandable?” THE FOURTH WORD YOU HAVE SAID “What is that?” DIE. D-I-E. “Don’t you know what is dying? Eh?” “ THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT IT IN MY PROGRAMME” “Who programmed you?” THE CHIEF COMPUTER “O.K. Show me your memory” Instantly the wall-screen came to life with letters. THE SELF-LOCKING ELECTRO-MAGNETIC LOCK WHICH CLOSES THE DOOR AND LOCKS ITSELF WHEN THE MASTER GOES OUTSIDE. THE DOOR UPON HIS RETURN. THE SENSORS WHICH WHICH CARRY OUT THE TASKS GIVEN BY THE MASTER. WATCHING ALL THOSE -----Hence listed it tasks on the screen. “What I have to do to know about you?” PRESS THE BUTTON CONNECTING COMPUTER Bharadhwajan operated the terminal switch on, sat before the keyboard and started typing. As he typed: TERMINAL SYSTEM ZYX….. TERMINAL PLEASE a voice crackled with letters glowing on the keyboard screen. THIS IS BHARADHWAJAN. MY COMPUTER HAS GONE WRONG. YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN CHECKED OUT THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT TOO SOON? SINCE THE COMPUTER COMES UNDER MY CONTROL THE MOMENT IT IS OPERATED ON IT IS NOT GREAT TO SAY. ALL ITS CIRCUITS ARE IN ORDER ALL RIGHT. I WANT ONE INFORMATION MY COMPUTER DOESN’T KNOW WHAT IS MEANT BY ‘DYING’. WHAT DID YOU SAY? I DON’T KNOW TOO. PRAY WHY DO YOU ASK THIS? I JUST WANT TO KNOW ONE MOMENT Silence for some time. I HAVE NO WORD LIKE THAT IN MY MEMORY__ The chief computer broke the silence. Sshrrring’. Suddenly the door bell rang. Who at this time? Bharadhwajan got up from the keyboard with a frown on his face, went to the door and applied his eyes to the peep-hole- The Security People! The security people who came in saw Bharadhwajan’s restlessness. “Come with us to the Security Centre” They said. “Why? What is the matter?” “You are asking the Chief computer hell of a lot of questions. We suspect you.” They showed him the order printed on the electro-magnetic paper:- “BRING BHARADHWAJAN TO THE SECURITY CENTER IMMEDIATELY.” H’mm. That is the work of the spy-computer connected to the chief computer. It overhears the conversation between him and the chief computer. It overhears the conversation between him and the chief computer, flashes a message to the security centre- BLOCK 3, RANDY STREET GUY ASKING UNKNOWNS ------and a fleet of security men dispatched to his home. Too simple a fact. Why this has not occurred to his foolish brain! He cursed himself. After protracted interrogations at the security centre no one knew what is meant by his ‘I want to Die’! Immediately there was commotion in the security centre. The security men consulted amongst themselves the problem which seemed an ordinary exercise at first now turning into a mind-boggling riddle. As usual they relied on the learned security-computer. TURN HIM OVER TO THE CITY’S SCIENTISTS----the security computer suggested. They accepted the obvious choice, after all the scientists are the geniuses whom anyone can turn to for solution. “We don’t know what this is. But we have one more computer. Damn old one. Information regarding the city’s origin will be available only from it. We’ll enquire with it and see what it has to say. With lengthy, time consuming questions and counter questions and answers when the computer traveled to its past…. Names hitherto unheard of appearing on the screen left them spellbound. BIRTH, YOUTH, DISEASE, OLD AGE, DEATH ----What are these? When the computer continued its journey back in time, the matter became clear at last. In those olden days of yore, a man took birth, grew through childhood to bloom into a youth, gradually turned into a senile old man and then BINGO! He ceased to exist. This was what was known as the so-called ‘DYING’ and the act of dying termed as the so-called ‘DYING’. Disease severely hampered his body and old age enveloped on him on the way to sending him crashing to death. Thus lived the poor man of olden days. Then the golden days came when the breath-taking advances in the medical field brought him to the present state: THE STATE OF IMMORTALITY. How so? New births had been completely stopped, and the already existing ones were guarded against old age by preserving youth after attaining certain level and the city now existent had been formed: It’s secret: Bio-cosmic energy. As electrodes planted kindled the invisible energy body manifest as emanations around everyone’s physical body, the mild electric current harnessed the bio-cosmic energy which saved them from death. All their memories about death had been wiped clean out., all which required some genetic tinkering and the ‘Death’ ceased to exist in the city forever. Great! That ‘s a hell of a story to learn. But when the memories were wiped clean out as far as the ‘Death’ went, how could this unlikely thought occur so forcefully to him? The scientists examined the sensors in Bharadhwajan’s body----blood, vitamins, enzymes, proteins, nerves everything was searched inside out. The search led them to nowhere. Then it occurred to them. The city’s present state owed itself to a miraculous material amongst a host of other factors. The material? Answer came running: a GENE. They must now probe the cells wherein lay centered the wondrous gene. Which cell? Definitely the BRAIN CELLS. Before plunging head-long into the probe for the gene into the enigmatic brain they halted themselves. For the brain was still a delicate thing to play with, it would be utterly un-humanistic to play with a human one. After a thorough scanning of Bharadhwajan‘s brain cells, cells similar to his brain cells were cultured into the laboratory. Then they resumed their work. The cultured brain cells were placed in a sophisticated DNA analyzer which dispensed with the obsolete restriction enzymes mixing and genetic mapping techniques and gave the genetic sequence straightaway. The DNA analyzer spewed out the sequence. What would be its content? It had to be decoded. So that was about all. While all genes carrying the death message were effectively done away with when the city was formed his genes must have escaped unhurt. Bharadhwajan’s entire hidstory was sifted. Now came the shocking revelation. He is not at all the citizen of the city, the computer adamantly said. Then who is he? THIS MAN HAS BEEN CAPTURED Only after hearing this the thought dawned upon them. The computer was right! He had indeed been captured from the planet cinderalla during a space-flight to it. His death gene could not be rooted out at the city. This was somehow forgotten and lost forever by the bloody network of computers. But the gene has turned back squarely on them! What to do with him? He was put in an isolation chamber and re-examined. The conventional gene tinkering technique failed to disturb his gene. Even U-V ray, X-ray, radiation ….his gene responded and buckled to nothing. The scientists conferred. They came to a conclusion. It is not possible to let a man die on this planet and also if he is let to stay he will still want to die. Not only that but also he will spread the ‘Gospel of Death’ amongst the citizens of the city. Then it will not be astonishing to witness chaos and turmoil every-where. Taking all these into consideration they decided: To send him back to cinderalla. Some days later, Bharadhwajan started his journey back in a space-craft. The scientists radioed the ship to have a last chat with the I-want-Die-Syndrome guy. “Bharadhwajan what are your last words to this City” “I want to die” He laughed aloud. “No Bharadhwajan you wanted to die because you didn’t like your captivity. Now that you are free you will not really want to die. As the guy who gave us back the wonderful concept of death we very much want you to live. You still want to die?” “Even if I don’t want there is death still in our planet and I have to. Anyway I am happy to be free. My last words to city: I want to die” The space-craft carrying him continued its journey to cinderalla into the cosmic ocean. |
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