मुझे बहुत खुशी है कि रेडिफ पर अब हिन्दी मे भी लिखा जासकता है .मैने यह आज ही देखा है .अपनी मातृ भाषा मे लिखना पढ़ना कितना मजेदार है .जहाँ आप को सटीक अभिव्यक्ति के लिए शब्दों के खोज की बेचारगी नही रहती ,जो कुच्छ मन मे आया जस का तस कह दिया लिख दिया .मेरा यह ब्लाग विग्यान कथा को समर्पित है .अब जल्दी ही मैं हिन्दी मे विग्यान कथा पर अपने विचार यहाँ व्यक्त करसकूँगा .आज तो बस इतना ही .

Could an individualistic persuit like writing of a story be made a group activity?We have done it on indiansciencefiction.yahoogroups.co.in with great fun and frolocking,the partcipant starrings being Air Vice Marshal [retd] Viswa Mohan Tiwari ji,a Paleontologist Dr.C.M.Nautiyal,an English litterateur and reserach fellow Ms.Reema Sarwal,Mr.Zeashan Haider Zaidy and Mr.Manish Mohan Gore being young and talented science communiators and of course me as a moderator and participant .Initially I was hesitant to put the story on this blog simply beause these are long pieces of writings and we people on net do not have that leisure and linberty to enjoy such long creativities.But I am giving way to the persitent appeals made by my dearest Ilander friends like Mr. Aravind and Mr .Mainak and the story is here for your reading/perusal and critial comments.                                                             

A Mission to Maya

Kim was dazed. He tried to look hard- deep into the space. Nothing was
visible. He turned his eyes to look at his control watch on
his left hand. Everything looked normal, the BP, heart beat,
temperature. Then why was he feeling uneasy? May be it was not
functioning properly. Rita was sitting in the chair in front with her
eyes closed.

“Why don”t you drop more hints, kindly?”, Rita said somewhat
sarcastically.
There was no answer from Kim. This seemed to irritate Rita even more,
“I am addressing you, Kim. When you say something is amiss, why do
you say so? We can not abort the whole mission just because of your
god damn gut feeling. Do you know how much has been invested in this
mission?”

Kim raised his face to look into her eyes straight, “Rita, I told you.
It”s my gut feeling. I can” explain it. If I could explain it, I
wouldn”t have termed it so.”

“Stop being vague. It”s a serious issue. You seem to be imagining
too much. May be you should take a break. That will do you good.”

Hot discussions were nothing new between the two. But they made a
perfect team, these frequent exchanges notwithstanding. The two were as much
apart in temperament as one can imagine. But they complimented
each other. Kim with his astonishing intuitive capability which he
referred to his gut feeling and Rita with her
extraordinary logical power, photographic memory, and capability of
thinking on toes.

“I tell you, this mission is no good. We can”t make it”, Kim said
with an air of finality.

“But why”, Rita wouldn”t leave.

“You know the distance? You know they are advanced. You know they
hate us and then deuterium is not the only way to fusion”.

“Fusion is not the real thing, you know it.”

“Then what is it?”

Rita remained silent. They had been asked to approach a far- away
planet.
The mission had a noble sounding mission to make friends with the
inhabitants of the planets. Somehow convince them to agree to
share natural resources with them. The motive being extracting deuterium to
fuel the fusion reactors. But now there was no need to use
deuterium for fusion. Much heavier elements had been found which
would suit better. There must be some other motive, the hidden
agenda.
Why travel all the way to Earth for this?
(CMN)

Why do they treat us like those damn robots ? In any case robots
are doing everything, then why have they chosen us for this mission?
Obviously they estimate that risks are far greater than we would
take. This chicanery is what is bothering me. I love taking risks, but I
want to know is it worth it”. Kim suddenly burst.

“I am sure they know what they are doing, and I have faith in their
judgment”,suggested Rita.

“Is it logical to have blind faith”? Questioned Kim.

Suddenly, the Intergalactic phone rang, the screen became alive and
both looked at it keenly, Rita was relieved for she didn”t have to answer
the awkward question. (VMT)

The monitor illuminated and the message, which followed, was very
conspicuous and both were instantly glued to the screen. “”We can understand the
apprehensions of Kim. It”s true that aliens have
sometimes behaved like barbarians but such behavior is notexpected
from earthlings. You have to change your negative attitude
towards earth dwellers and behave like a sensible creature. Humans are
no more like barbarians who once definitely exhibited strange and
disgusting customs with ridiculous beliefs and yes their manners were
also very appalling. But this is a description of forgone days. Now
there is a breed of friendly people inhabiting the earth and rest
assure this time our voyage awaits a grand reception on earth….”"Kim
took a sigh of relief and glanced over to Rita who had some queer
ex-pression on her face. (Arvind Mishra)
Kim always thought whether there was any solution of the existing
problems on the planet Earth. Rita also being like minded always echoed the
feelings of Kim. They always conjectured that space on the Earth was
limited but the human need was growing in leaps and bounds.
Population growth, extinction of valuable plant species, ozone layer
depletion, global warming etc.., were like great challenges before the
planet Earth, birth place of all human civilizations in their galaxy.
Rita was serious on the issue and sincere enough to search out the
solutions through the referendum among the scientists of the planet
earth.
(MANISH MOHAN GORE)
Rita asked in a raised voice, “Are you satisfied, Kim?”
Kim asked back, “Are you?”
"I am glad", said Rita. And she wrote a few lines on a peace of
paper, and passed it to Kim.
Kim read it “The message confirms your doubts. They are hiding the
reality from us.”
Kim wrote back, “We have to form a new language between us, and
always appear to obey the Bosses.”

Rita looked worried, she had to, for she had a daughter back home
though twenty years now, independent of her, but her own biological
daughter, in these days of custom made test tube babies, her daughter,
her flesh and blood.
Kim said, “We have nothing to worry now. Our mission is straight, to
meet the friendly people on earth, get the material and return fast.
OK Rita.”
(VMT)
Rita took a deep breath and decided to go over the official
instructions once again as stored in her mind. They had been told that
the earthlings had divided their living space into what they termed
“nations” but were referred to as Slots for convenience. The mission was
to go to Slot No. 91 at a place called “larkspur” in a high
altitude area known as the ” Himalayas ” (she often wondered how the
earthlings pronounced these difficult words). Contact had already been
established with a group of friendly earthlings at this place whom
they would meet. According to general policy, they were not to do
anything as foolhardy as to step out of their vessel on an alien
planet.
Two earthlings had been selected to come aboard their vessel.
Rita and Kim were to provide them with the suitable containers and
machinery for collecting samples of the materials that they needed
from Earth to study it in full detail. Instruction manuals to operate
these had already been prepared in the earthling form of
communication.
And this is where the cause for worry came in. How far
could these two Earthlings be trusted? Kim was right about having his
reservations after all.
(Reema)
As specially designed fully automated space shuttle hurtled towards
earth the frightening possibility of some foul game by earthlings still
stirred the minds of Rita and Kim. What if they don”t behave in
the manner they are supposed to do? In that case what and how they
could do to protect themselves? As the mission control has
categorically denied any such eventuality there is no foolproof
defense system inbuilt in the spaceship or a defined strategy to cope
up with any such event. Both were silent as such thoughts kept on
piercing their minds.
Kim looked pale and glanced shyly at Rita and lowered his eyes. The
spaceship was gathering speed as it moved away further from their home
land in the galaxy Nalco. Kimb and Rita both stared at the planet beneath
and were stupefied to behold the beauty of the planet earth.
The lush green plains, snow White Mountains and turbulent seas all
kept them mesmerized for the moment.
The time of landing was approaching fast. They positioned their ship
towards the site of landing, the non nondescript larkspur area of the
valleys of Himalaya . (ARVIND)

After the few tense moments during touchdown, Kim and Rita were too
relieved to notice the alarming message on their screen for a minute.
Then they both saw it together and stared at each other, motionless.
“ATTENTION: No earthlings detected at their designated centre. No
earthlings around the shuttle within a diameter of 10 kilometers.”
Before they could react, the phone monitor lit up brightly and they
listened carefully, “Do not panic. We know that this is unexpected.
However,  we have already established the cause — the earthlings were
prevented from arriving due to a landslide which blocked their land
route.
We are sure they will arrive shortly. Please be patient.”
Kim and Rita had no choice but to resign themselves to this suspense
of indefinite waiting. The enormity of the dangers involved made them
both silent and thoughtful. Kim”s original suspicion of a hidden
agenda behind this trip to Earth resurfaced with double the conviction.
Would they even know if some robot from the shuttle detached
itself and began whatever secret mission it was supposed to
carry out?Meanwhile,Rita”s thoughts were back on her daughter. Would they ever meet
again? Obtaining deuterium from this planet seemed more and more
impossibility with each passing moment.Time
passed rather slowly…
(reema)
“What are you doing here?” a sound echoed suddenly in the environment,
and they were astonished. They both turned up to the source of voice.
There was a very old man who stood up in front of the spacecraft. But
the miraculous thing was that he was wearing only a piece of cloth. Kim
and Rita wondered that being a very cold area, how the old man was
alive without warm clothes?”Iam going to meet him.” Kim said. He stood up, but suddenly the
old man disappeared.
(Zeashan
Zaidi)
An SOS traveling through the huge vastness of the Nalco Galaxy
flashed on the monitor of “voyage earth” control unit on the planet Maya and
read as follows- Hello! this is an update from
earth…base/slot no.91… Our first attempt to lure your astronauts to step out
is aborted. They seem genuinely suspicious and you know
we were skeptical about this to happen and already warned you about
this.. .we even beamed the false message to mislead them about our
presence through our synergy communication system and then we even
used human bait, an aboriginal to lure them come out of the ship. You
know we are helpless to do anything so far they are inside the
secured environs of the spaceship. Our success depends only on their exit from the
closet and for that we are working out at some other strategies.
Let”s see if that works!
(arvind)
Rita though got scared a little, said,” Look here Kim, I am
totally confused, Nothing is making sense. It is all illogical. Why are the
earthlings warning us if they want to harm us? Are we
suffering from hallucination or something?
Kim said,” I have no logical explanation, but I think it is our own
control at Galaxy Nalco which is trying to traumatize us, at least confuse
us.”
” Or warn us?”, said Rita. “May be our bosses have now
realized that Earthlings may harm us, and may be earthlings are monitoring our communication,
so …..Suddenly the phone console lit up, and both immediately looked at it.
(VMT)
Message was loud and clear and in both audible and visual forms. While liquid
crystal display put the words shining on the Visio phone screen, its
speaker played the same message aloud.
“”You shall be approached shortly by a group of human delegation who
shall take you both to their local base camp to hand over the required
bonanza i.e. the first consignment of deuterium as friendly
gesture…PLEASE accept it… come back and your job is finished. And for galactic
sake don”t be argumentative with the delegation. They
may not like to answer your all impatient queries. And it may be just
that you may put some silly questions which may affect our newly
hatched diplomatic relations… be cautious and careful… all and
over. THE MISSION CONTROL…” Message ended abruptly…
“We are cautious and careful you goons, now I can sense something odd is
definitely going on and we must resist it…do you follow me Rita?”

Kim uttered in a whispering sound which could barely be heard by Rita.
“Cool down Kim, don”t be panic and exaggerate the things…let”
s solve it carefully …”Rita also whispered…
Soon they were engrossed in making some secret plan and of course a
little bit of love which they were deprived of since they left
Maya… [arvind]
Only minutes later they indulged in hot verbal exchanges again .
.”Of course I will be calm if you would remain calm when I tell
you what is going to happen. Rita they have found out our secret
Societies. One that I have formed viz, The Society of Intuitive
Humans” and the one that you have formed The Society of Naturo- Humans”. And
they are going to punish us. “How to punish” is the question.”
” Kim you are illogical. They have just informed us that a delegation
is expected any time, and we return after taking the deuterium. And of
course I am calm,” said Rita as calmly as a radio announcer.
Kim argued,” This calm of yours is deceptive, don”t you see! Where
was the need to tell us that we have to wait? I have not seen any human
habitation in a radius of 30 - 40 kilometers. We are at an altitude
of 18000 feet. Is such an area suitable for reception of a galactic delegation
from a powerful galaxy? Are Earthlings so uncivilized? “
Rita was now upset not with Kim but with herself. She is proud of her
logical prowess, and she has missed the point totally. She said,” But
Kim then let me repeat your question to you. “Where was the need to tell
us to wait? Couldn”t they have just announced the punishment?”
Kim, “That is what I want you to logically deduce, as Robots have
the most logical mind.”
Rita, “But why is my logic failing to deduce the conclusion.”
“Because your own natural daughter is there in the hands of our
enemies” Kim burst out impatiently.
(-VMT)
A secret meeting was underway at a location inaccessible to humans of
Maya planet in the Nalco galaxy;
“Just see how shamelessly these creatures are indulged in the kind of
activity they call love….oh shit…a totally foolish and an unproductive
activity …this should be brought to the notice of our
Boss supreme…we must take some concrete step to throw away them out
of the ship immediately lest they may produce their own kind on earth
too….”" 
“”The
incidence has already been brought to the notice of Boss supreme…
and we are expecting his commands any time now.. “”
The  communication system operated by AI”s[artificial intelligence] of
Maya was silenced for a moment…..
(-Arvind)
Kim was thoughtful. He turned to Rita,” Any idea what it”d be like
on Earth?”  Rita looked up,” Why, I believe you are supposed to have done the home
work.
Am I right?”
Kim paused to think before replying. The orders to rush to Earth came so
fast and he had been so unwilling that he took it all too casually.
Space travel was very common- a very routine drill. But to travel
Earth was a different thing. They had never been to a planet like
that before. Would there be atmosphere? It would mean their ship
would have to considerably slow down before landing. All other places they had
visited had no atmosphere or very thin atmosphere. Would there also
be ammonia there- as on some other body he had read about. Like
on Titan. They had never been to Titan, a satellite of Saturn another
planet of the Solar system in another Galaxy. He was not sure if others
also called them by the same name.
“Is Earth bigger than Saturn and Titan?” he suddenly asked Rita. “It”s
bigger than Titan but much smaller than Saturn”; she seemed
sure.”Those on Saturn must be lucky guys, we are so cramped on our
planet, and it”s so small.” 
“Come on, it”s not so small either”, Rita said as if to pep up his mood.
“Why I am thinking about ammonia is, after all why should there be water
so essential to life? May be on Earth life is not carbon based at
all. Ammonia can dissolve chemicals for reactions like water. So I am
worried how we shall survive on Earth?”
Rita gazed at Kim,” You can”t be serious. Don”t tell me you have
really not looked at the planet data”, even as she played with the touch
board feeding some key words for details on Earth.
Kim just kept mum. He couldn”t explain but he had not been normal. Never
before he felt so withdrawn before any mission. It was routine to
check up galactic, stellar or planetary data before the mission. Of
course it only took a few seconds and everything was literally at
finger tips. It could be done before the boarding or during the
journey. But why did he not do it this time? May he have missed on
some of the doses in the previous week leading to behavioral change,
he was not sure. But he always had his medic- belt strapped which
continuously monitored all parameters and injected appropriate biochemicals. It is
so crude, he muttered to himself. Robots don”t need it. Of course,
occasionally, while going to unfamiliar places, he would usually
switch off the auto mode. He was proud of his instincts and would
depend on them to face the sudden developments. This had
saved him several times.
“Rita, can you check the Earth- data for me?”, he requested.
Rita found this unusual politeness surprising. But she quietly thumped on
the touch board and directed her mind. Normally she didn”t have to
touch the board physically but this time she did it as if to will it
to function better. She didn”t want to take any chances. What would be
Earth like? Kim could well be right. May be there would be air on Earth
so the ship would slow down on sensing the friction- caused heating.
May be there would be lot of dust or minor bodies around earth though
the info bank indicated otherwise. What if Earth had no hydrogen
needed to run their energy units? This last thought was frightening.
Robots used much more advanced energy systems for
themselves but to others they only gave primitive units. Without hydrogen, they
would have to use their chemical reserves which couldn”t last them
enough. She faintly remembered that the carbon on earth
was also very small in concentration in the atmosphere. They couldn”t
use it to produce energy. “Why not check it”, she thought.
Within a second the screen flashed “2 percent”! Kim had been intently
looking at the screen. he looked questioningly at Rita, “Check again.
It was supposed to be a few hundred micro mole per mole, a few hundred
parts per million. Isn”t that so?”. Rita nodded still gaping at the
screen. But if it was right, they wouldn”t have fuel problem.
(-CMN)
“Kim sounded as if he had not heard what Rita had said. You know
Rita,” Kim began softly, ” I had taken for granted that the Earth would
have atmosphere, would have people like us, along with robots
but not being ruled by robots. That is why the Boss took a long time
to decide on this mission.”
Rita looked perplexed. She didn”t understand the logic of Kim”s
statement.
And she always became more attentive when Kim would talk softly. She
didn”t want to disturb him.
Kim continued,” They call us earthlings, for we are the descendants
of great earthlings who were brought here as pathfinders, the glamorous name
given to “adventure laborures”, for earth at that time was teeming
with billions of humans. So the Earth was glad to send an adventure
team to discover places that no humans had seen till then. They  were,
however mistaken. Our forefathers were actually used as cheap labour
in a “foreign” land, foreign in every respect. They had no “human
rights. We survived and progressed and made this land of robots a
prosperous and advanced country. But we do not yet have “human rights” on planet Maya
And you know that I have started a “Society for intuitives”. I only hope
in our absence these robots or even before our departure, have not
“unearthed” it. And so is the case for your “Society of Biohumans”. They abhor
both these terms. Reetaa was amazed at this knowledge, for the history that she was thought was
entirely different. She, like every other earthling, was taught that
our forefathers were saved by the Robots from a catastrophe like a
“Pralaya” or Deluge on earth. And therefore we ought to be grateful to the
Robotzens. She suddenly realized that the mission is more complex
than she had been imagining, no not imagining, but logically thinking
it to be. Suddenly she realized how logic though wonderful as a tool,
is so miserably dependent upon the “data in” .
There  on the planet Maya another secret meeting of the commanders had
been called. The Boss had admonished the Commanders,” You fellows
have not yet learned to understand the priorities. To you the stupid
act of these  slaves is more important rather than what they are planning right
now on the mission. I am afraid you all have to undergo a “Cleansing
Operation”. Obviously a human bug has entered in your system.” There was pin drop
silence in the hall and a haze of gloom had suddenly spread. No robot liked
the act of “Cleansing” (-VMT)
Robots indeed hated cleansing; it would remove their pet memories
saved with caution. New instructions would be planted in. They would have
learned again many a thing. But the boss had ordered and had to be
obeyed. Yet they clarified to Him that they had not been negligent in
dealing with earthlings.
They have detailed a woman who believes in logical thinking and the
man believes in intuitive thinking, and the two would not
agree on another matter except the JOB given to them. Therefore there
was nothing to fear, no chance of rebellion.

Kim continued with his soft voice on the subject that was bothering
him. His aim in the mission is to find a way to get Human Rights in the
planet Maya. Rita immediately added and instead of having custom
made  babies, natural biological babies.

Kim said,” Of course it is one important right under Human rights.'
But the problem is what helps can the earth men give to us.” Suddenly
they realized that the anti boosters had fired and the spacecraft was
entering the earth”s atmosphere. There was very little time to think.
(-VMT)
“You seem now too much obsessed with Maya only and not thinking
what shall be our fate on earth in a case the earthlings get hostile
against us… and if your apprehensions are right we can”t take
things for granted and we don”t know what has transpired in between
AIs”[artificial intelligent people]of our planet and earthlings and
the possibility of any hidden agenda of this mission could also not be
completely ruled out…” Rita uttered in a whispering tone
though the outgoing message delivery system was inactivated by Kim
long ago.
“Now you seem to be on right track and we should immediately work on
the strategy to deal with earthlings if in any case we are forced to step
out of the ship” Kim looked nervous. Even before Rita could say
anything the special astronaut”s cabin got ejected with a bang and
landed on planet earth safely though with a jerk which suddenly
caused both the astronauts to loose their balance and stunned for a while. As
if this was not enough the doors of the cabin also opened consequently
leaving the poor duo further dismayed and stupefied. And before the
duo could recover from the sudden trauma two earthlings entered their
cabin.
(-Arvind)
The unexpected development was too much for Rita and Kim. Suddenly
they felt very vulnerable. They were now completely at the mercy of
Earthlings! It was quite a scene where gentry of four persons from
different cultures and star systems gazed at each other, speechless
and stunned.
Kim broke the ice. He brought a smile on his face with an effort with
a view that it might carry the same meaning of welcome in both cultures
which they represented. Rita was intelligent enough to copy
the gesture and smiled in pursuance and wished that this could ease the
tension which prevailed in the atmosphere. Representatives of
both the cultures instantly realized that they were just humanoid having
the similar anatomical features - two arms, two legs, two eyes, one
nose, and just one head so on and so forth.
But still there prevailed a long and an eerie silence. Kim sniffed the
air and found it very refreshing which in turn boasted his morale
immensely but before he could muster the courage to speak something
he heard something in a very pleasing tone.
“Welcome! Welcome to earth, trust you understand our language .thanks
to our computer generated language programmer .” One of the
earth man, the tall one uttered with a professional tone in his voice
and without a pause he introduced him and his companion, “I am Guru and he is
Rudra.” walked a few steps,
“I Kim and she is Rita” words flew spontaneously from Kim.
“Please follow us and hurry up your ship is poised to take off now at
any moment” there was an urgency in the voice of Guru. Rita and Kim
followed them like obedient servants without uttering a word of
protest and showing of any resistance. They felt as if they were hijacked and
there was hardly any alternative left but to follow those
earth men  without protest. No sooner did they all step out of the ship
it just took off with a thunderous bang and was engulfed by the vastness
of the sky overhead.
(-Arvind)
Rudra began in a very serious tone, “We are not surprised as to why
your space ship has taken off. As per your computer, which we have
studied in depth, you were not planned to get out of the ship. We
thought it to be weird, indeed highly or shall I say embarrassingly weird,
for a visitor to come to us and not even come out and feel the
“Earth”, I had a suspicion on the purpose of your mission.” Guru then
asked me to study more of the contents of your computer, and then he
decided to give you a bad landing, bad enough to break open the door,
so that you could come out, but safely.” The computers were
translating their languages almost instantaneously.”But
how shall we return “, asked Rita, still worried.
Gurum said in a friendly tone, “You decide and we provide you a space
ship.”
Rita looked at Kim more puzzled.
Kim looking at Guru, said in a pleasant voice, “Thank you Sirs, Guru
and Rudra, for bailing us out. Our decision to return will now depend
upon your hospitality. ” “We understand your dilemma, dear Kim and Rita”, said Guru.
“May I ask as to how do you understand our plight?, asked Rita who
was getting more and more puzzled, as her logic was failing her.
“Oh, everything is there in your data, though not explicitly or clearly,
but we can add two and two as four, even when hidden ai a haystack.
However this is not to say that the problems you are facing have
a simple solution, indeed it is very difficult.”

(-VMT)
At the planet “Maya” a very important meeting was convened and words were coming directly from the horse mouth -the supreme of artificial intelligence network of the planet. “So far our mission earth is progressing the way we desired and now our astronauts are in custody of the earthlings and let”s see

what comes next.”
“We have not understood instead of anyone of us why those humanoids were
selected to visit earth. The opportunity should have given to anyone
of us or a group of ai”s. A voice came in protest. “I can very
well understand your concern X 326,but I could not risk ending anyone of you to the earth and
endangering your life. Is that clear or you gonna ask more
questions … "The voice of Supremo was crisp and loud. There was a pin
drop silence….. .
(-MANISH
MOHAN GORE)
“OK…Let us begin from beginning! Only decade ago we got first definite signal
that life existed elsewhere also in our galaxy and the message was
from the Earth, a planet in the sun-star system as you all
know very well now .the message of life was beamed by them only
they showed their location in the galaxy and our curiosity
about this `out of our star” planet grew immensely” Maya supremo
took a brief pause and began again ”Our initial surveys reveal that both the
civilizations were almost identical! Might be just a coincidence
only!
Evolution at earth and at our planet progressed in almost the identical manner.
We had our first aquatic creatures exactly as on the earth, then
amphibians, reptiles and mammals and an off shoot of avian
fauna off course all in the same manner as on earth. And the biological
evolution culminated ultimately into the emergence of
humanoid first on earth and then at our planet though much later. Humanoids
being very intelligent and imaginative flourished at earth and later
at Maya too. But they had as you know very well their own weaknesses
and were supplanted by a breed of more intelligent and superior
people at both the planets and we are the descendants of the same
great people though much evolved and progressed now .though ours is
a civilization much younger than earthling androids but we are no
less in any achievements than theirs..
Yet  we can”t take any chances We can”t trust them blindly ”
“It's all very interesting like some fairy tale …please
go ahead” a voice echoed suddenly from no where and silence mounted
again.
“To cut a long story short we both I mean the earth men and we androids
of MAYA decided to establish some sort of diplomatic relations between
us and we took the initiative We invited a delegation from
Earth though hastily accepted but not finalized as yet and meanwhile we took
the lead as you know we have sent our two humanoids 'RITA
and KIM on earth and thus a new era of diplomatic relations in
between both the civilizations have now begun ”the statement was followed by a commotion and
a voice emerged again from the audience- “Why not any one
from amongst us why those humanoids?”
“Have patience! I am going to tell you every details point by point
don”t panic and no nuisance please we are civilized people! Yes we were
initially skeptical! Suppose they do some harm to our astronauts
then.
And we can”t risk even a single android of our planet and why should
we for seemingly no big return so we finally decided to send
our two humanoids first just to see how the earthlings really behave
with
our people ”
“Great
decision!” a thunderous applause greeted the narration.
“Let us see how they treat with our representatives and that will decide
the fate of our further relations and if they are treated in
bad way it would be the end of our relations …” ” But is
it proper to risk the lives of our humanoids like that?
After all they belong to our earlier civilization of humans and
possess an antique value ”the pun in the statement was more than
obvious ”We could withstand the loss of humanoids and
their lot but not a single android of our clan .You know it
very well ”Supremo” s voice was suddenly very emphatic. “You
are great Supremo!! We are well protected in your mighty hands.
There was a thunderous applause again and the meeting came to an end.
(-Arvind)
They were walking through a very narrow corridor. There were
escalator but they were still. Rita couldn”t miss the smile on Kim”s face. Kim
looked questioningly. Rita whispered, “What”s the matter? I am, anyway, happy to find you smiling
in these circumstances. “
“Oh nothing. But did you notice that these people don”t part their
hair in the middle? Isn”t it strange? Then look at the hair length, there
seems to be more or less two well defined groups. The male have
very short hair like us while female have only shoulder- length hair.Look
at those lower rung females, most of them have much longer hair.
Do they wear some kind of wig?”
Rita also couldn”t help smiling at the observation. Symmetry should
be the choice by default. So unless there is some special reason, why
should anybody part hair on the side? In fact at Maya, they kept
little no hair at all. They had to wear head gear outside, and there was
radiation protection indoor so there was no need for any
protective wig or anything. In any case , the growth rate was so
small. Kim”s amusement seemed justified.Kim asked, “Rita, don”t you find it funny?”
Before Rita could answer, one of the accompanists beckoned them to the
left.
Rita, turning sharply to the left and pulling Kim by hand along, said
,”Something to do with evolution? May be they require
hair, as you hinted, for protection from UV? May be this parting of hair
has something to do with hierarchy. See, one of them has parted
on the other side of head?” She was happy that she had found a flaw
in Kim”s observation.
Kim”s forehead furrowed. Rita wasn”t sure if it had something to dowith her statement but she caught Kim”s line of sight. He was
looking
at the hall in front.
It was a huge conference hall, oval in shape. The back panels were
actually continuously running screen. They projected the whole hall in every
alternate segment so that anybody could see everybody. There
were already some people sitting. All looked grave.

The
whole event was being telecast all over the Earth ..
The
whole day was just terrific for the aliens and even descending
night
could not favour them to have even a moment of rest. Now a big party
was in full swings and choicest intergalactic dishes were served to
alien guests.

Rita couldn”t control her ecstasy when she enjoyed the food. There was a large gathering at the party hosted in their honour. Rudra introduced Kim and Rita to two bright maidens Kalpanaa Kiran and Usha

Williams.
:”Kalpanaa
Kiran is a very imaginative name”, exclaimed Rita. “Perhaps
it has something to do with imagination and rays” she politely
extended the conversation, for she very much wanted to talk to them.
Kalpanaa almost blushed as she wanted to be known in this sense of the word,
and which her real personality was, and not what others implied, and
to her dismay Rudra explained the popularly understood meaning.
Rudra trying to help making a bridge, said, ” This name has a history
and biology behind it .Long ago There was Kalpanaa Chaawalaa, the first
Indian born astronaut, and Kiran Bedi, the first Indian woman
police officer. KK with chosen characteristics of these two great women is
one of the few successful custom produced human beings. And Usha
Williams is another. She has the best traits of P. T. Usha, the first
Indian woman to win gold in world Olympics, and Suneetaa Williams, the Indian born
cosmonaut who held three world record for woman astronauts, viz.
longest space flight, and maximum number and hours of “space walks”.
Usha Williams also blushed although both were thirty plus, but somehow had this trait of
childlike simplicity in them.
“Oh how lucky I am”, said Rita enthusiastically. “How fortunate
are you both to have inherited the wonderful characteristics of the Two great
women, but both of you are biological humans, and you are
respected for what you are here. I believe you have what is known as Human
Rights. How envious I am of you both. Great moment in my life.”
Kalpana said sharing the enthusiasm, “How lucky are we to be the first
woman on earth to meet astronauts from a far off star. Please tell me about
your planet.”
“Then she noticed Kim who was watching and listening
quietly, a trait she appreciated and which she herself had inherited from
Kiran Bedi.”
Kim  asked both of them their specialties in their work. It was Rudra
who answered, “They are the best program creators on Earth. They can
enter in to the machine language and the digital language of the
machine and create programs or modify them as deemed fit.” Before Kim
could ask another question, Rudra continued,” They are also the best
security builder, what we call “zafing” the entire software, and so
the best  hackers”.
“How wonderful, our Rita does the same on planet Maya”, enthused
Kim.Guru also came searching for them. Guru, looking at Rudra, said
let us all meet the next morning, no I do not mean to spoil the
party. Enjoy yourselves. But I have to leave.”
Guru announced that Rita, KK and Usha should learn from each other. And he
took Kim away into his office. Kim explained to him how they were
being ill treated by the Robots as they controlled all the resources
through the programming. On Maya they , the humans, had
committed the blunder of developing robots so much that the robots had started
programming themselves.
And humans had started enjoying life, as per the adage,' eat,
drink and be merry”, leaving all the work to robots Then suddenly one
day when humans awoke late morning, they found that the control
of Maya was taken over by the robots. And since then humans were
treated as slaves, and Robots as masters.
Guru offered “Here is the most fundamental code of conduct for
robots. Go through it in your sweet time.”
Kim was mighty impressed by the
fast speed with which Guru would respond to situations.
Guru said seriously, “We on earth here were to fall in the same pit,
when an Indian Guru, my direct ancestor, warned us. He explained the
purpose of life, and he first gave us a code of conduct which we are
following religiously.”
Guru smiled as he pronounced the word 'religiously'. Guru
continued, “Our religion is very secular. He, the original Guru, predicted that” eat,
drink and be merry” cannot give us lasting happiness. The font of
happiness is inside us and that is what we have to discover or rather realize.
Then the old history suffered “death”, and a new history of earth has
dawned, environment, both human and natural, has improved. You can
see for yourself where do we stand today.
Kim  was puzzled,” This is the code of conduct, given by the original Guru,
our robots are following, and they let us “eat, drink and be merry”.
Guru said softly, “So you are slaves, not because of the programming
but because of your philosophy. So you observe us and see our lives, as
to how happy we are living with our motto of life — “Enjoy,
remaining detached”. Decide to continue with your way of life or
follow ours.”
“No, no, I have no doubt in my mind, I wish to follow what you
call “detached”, though I have not understood what it means. I want humans
not to be any type of slaves. But the question is not “Why” but “how”.” Guru
continued, “Once you are free from your chosen slavery of your
way of life, you will be able to control the Robots as you would be
able to control your own senses.”
“But how about the programs already in our computers and in Robots
themselves?” , Kim sounded desperate.
“Leave those minor details to KK, Usha and Rita. By the way do you
know what does “Rita” mean?”
Kim said, “Well it is a sweet sounding name.”
“Well, sweet is what sweet does. “Rit” in Sanskrit, the oldest living
language, rit means “eternal laws of cosmos. “Rita is actually short form of
“Ritambharaa” , meaning follower of those cosmic laws. But you all have forgotten all that.
Now live here as long as you feel necessary, and then we will organize
a spaceship for you.”
Kim thought that the solution is easy and heartily agreed to follow
Guru”s advice.
The global space travels headquarters in New Delhi was teeming
with activities of its base staff who were concerned with voyage, “Mission
Earth” of planet Maya. Minute to minute details of the mission
were being transmitted to impatient public who were watching the high
pitched drama. Public Relation Officer Ms. Mina was on the screen
presenting the live coverage entitled, “Encounter with the aliens”.
She was in midst of her maiden speech," Thank God Planets
Maya”s representatives appear to be harmless and
our team members Rudra, Guru, Kalpana and Williams look
very pleased with them. Alien representatives are named Rita and Kim and
are humanoids like us . Just see Maya”s people do not trust on
us and that is why they have restrained sending their any one of androids on
the Earth… they perhaps don”t want to take any risk. They perhaps
don”t understand that Humanity at Earth is still not overtaken and
overridden by the overtures of our androids and great human values
still abound on the Earth. Maya”s people perhaps don”t understand
this and that is why they have sent two poor souls in their Mission Earth .
Aliens seem to be husband and wife who have been mercilessly thrust
upon us but by all means they are our guests .Atithi devo
bhav thus goes an oft repeated saying of Sanskrit language .
”

There was sudden pause and appearance of some advertisements on the

screen. Live coverage was being watched by millions across the globe. Seconds
later Ms. Mina appeared again on the screen and camera focused
the place where aliens were receiving the grand hospitality. Mina
continued speaking in full enthusiasm, “See, the Mayans did not
trust us and tried to trick us in having not sent their so called
best brains .
I mean androids but see our greatness . the way we are
treating our alien friends…its courtesy of our people and the
protocol department! Let Maya people appreciate this and learn a lesson from
this great humanitarian gesture….. We are summing up
right
now… But please stand by for our next bulletin.” The screen
went off again with showing of certain advertisements.
The “Mission Earth” Control at Maya was perhaps unaware of the
happenings which were currently in vogue at Earth and was quite oblivious of the
fact that something very hectic was going on earth.
.And it was now the turn of earth men to visit the planet Maya. A
mission to Maya was in offing…

(-Arvind) THE END

 Hi Everyone!
I know many of my Ilander friends are very good story
writers .Chaitali and Aravind Das for example. Therefore I find it hard to
resist my temptation to invite them and my other Ilander friends who are
equally talented but have not exhibited their talent of a story writer as yet.]

      They are all invited to the wonderful world of science fiction [sf] writing.
Believe me friends, it's a very joyful activity and let me convince you I am
not just joking. Like many other stories sf also contains all the elements of a
typical story but it is usually set against future not against our own societal
backgrounds. It's anachronous in nature! For example, if you are watching a
film depicting Gandhi ji as its main  protagonist and find that he is working at a
computer with fingers moving fast on the keyboard or for that matter Lord Rama
is seen driving a Mercedes!. Both scenes are anachronous in nature, out of
time! An sf is just that known more for its background than the content. And it
is that characteristic of sf which makes it damn easy for a beginner sf writer!

You write any story and give it an anachronous setting and
it shall be an sf! You imagine a sport in zero gravity of space in a picnic
party it would be a sf. Or something of a routine husband wife tiff in an environment
not familiar to us today it would be again an sf. Yes you have to weave a plot
usual to stories but in a setting against a non familiar background! And of
course a little bit understanding of basic science would enhance the joy of the
game. Like playing in zero gravity would require a specially designed space suite
and some rules and regulations so that the football is not lost during the game
as mere a jerk/kick in a wrong direction[ if there is sense of direction at all
]would throw the ball to the brim of universe!

Let me recapitulate that any mystery, murder, suspense,
detective and jungle stories could be altered in sf provided you change its
background from a familiar to non familiar one keeping the characters and other
many elements of the story known and familiar to us.
Why not try your hand at an sf story  yourself?

See how simple is
it! Do not hesitateto write your  maiden sf and contribute to the enrichment of the
genre which remains very much neglected in India.

Good Wishes,

arvind