Revamping Room 101

24th April 2084

When I saw this date flashing on the huge plasma screen on the top of the Ministry of Gyaan complex, it sent a chill down my spine. It was like a sudden flashback. I'm pretty sure I saw this date before. I just can't remember when. It must be when I was a kid.... but then, I can't remember when I was a kid. Seems so long ago. Seems before the First-Age war. I don't know how old I am... I don't know how close to death I am. All I have to show for myself is this IDCHIP in my skin. And I know it shows Them some thing and shows me something else. I have seen it. I saw it 2 weeks back at work as I was leaving Angad's office. He switched his security-monitoring screen too soon. I got a glimpse of Narendran's Level-5 Profile. I did not see much... all I could make out was that his birth name was actually Vincent... But what difference does it make? What am I to do even if they told me the truth? Some day I will die of old age, or may be they will catch me sooner than that, and they will take the chip out of me, and erase me out of all memory. Better I don't have a clue when that happens. Better I make the most of what I have. Better I live as long as I do hoping the fool's hope that some day things will change. Some day the world will change. No more promises of eternal happiness... no more incarnations... no more Great Mother...

I hate Great Mother
I hate Great Mother
I hate Great Mother

I will hate her to my grave. I don't care if she is the redeemer the scriptures prophesied. I don't care if she is God. I hate her. She took away from me what is most precious to me. I am nothing. I have nothing. I hate her...

My office was moved today from MinGyaan complex to the new Project Third Eye building next to it. Apparently even MinGyaan doesn't have enough room for all its employees. Or may be the Higher Party officials needed more people and space in the forbidden top floors now that Third Eye is in the fourth phase and nearing completion, and needs more stringent close monitoring. Karma Police agents were supervising when about 70 of us cleared up and moved to our new office space reeking of fresh paint. The PTE building was dwarfed by the imposing MinGyaan next to it. And it did not have the huge dark glass exterior. It looked pretty dull for the profound power it was going to house. When I reached there, I saw my workstation was already in place. The Karma agents printed the new passwords on to our IDCHIPs and we stood at our places waiting for orders. I did not see Angad for a long time. I think he was still briefing other Party members back in MinGyaan about our project status and or may be about yesterday's incident in Govapuri. He finally came and convened the Ground Control, and we could finally sit. A new era started right there.

The new jobs immediately popped up on my screen and as I had expected, the top priority was the meeting with the reporter from GyaanVeda. Sure enough he came to my desk in a few minutes. I have never actually met anyone from there before, although they worked only two stories above my old office. Well, the Lower Party elevators never go up. He told me his name was Parashuram Saraswat. He was tall, lean and looked wasted. His eyes looked tired and cold and had dark circles beneath them. His whole demeanor had nothing that I could associate with anything human. No anger no frustration no joy no sorrow. He spoke like a machine taught to speak. You could almost hear the constant ringing of Great Mother in his head. He was dead from inside. He asked me for the pictures. I knew what exactly I had to tell him. Angad had briefed me last night before I left. But there was no need to talk at all. I knew what happened. Parashuram knew his version of what happened. All that was needed was pictures. Pictures to show the extent of damage done in Govapuri and the rest would be crafted. It was Islamia. They bombed us. And retaliation was required. It is to be shown in MinGyaan screen tomorrow night at the gathering and people will be mobilized to enlist. Although I knew Third Eye misfired... or was it a misfire? I was glad to get rid of those pictures. I could not bear to look at them anyway. Parashuram also said he needed hi-def pictures of the Christian Confederacy annual Redemption celebration in Washington D. C. we took day before... More public demonstrations of the capabilities of the Mother's Third Eye. We had real close-ups of King David IV looking over the fabled ritual of the burning of the old American Constitution. I had heard of it as a kid, never really believed it actually happened.

He took the pictures, chanted the name of Great Mother and coldly walked away. And as he did, I saw in him my future. Or at least one of the only two possible ends I will meet. The state of complete submission. The state of pure love for the Great Mother. To loose one's own sense of identity and being. To become one with everything else, as Great Mother calls it. Personally, I would rather go with the other option- brutal death at the hands of Karma agents.

Vishnu Varadharajan

PS: I know I know... he must be turning in his grave.

The ambiguity of tyranny

"The First Amendment does not protect a man who falsely shouts 'Fire' in a crowded theater and causes panic"

- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
Schenck v. United States
March 3, 1919

Caution: The ambiguity is not immediately apparent.

... Concluded.

The ambiguity of freedom

In short, the American Flag represents this- that I have the right to burn it.


So do I burn it, or protect it?


To be continued...

Tan Tan Tan-Dan-Dan-Dan!

"... and his work on the Declaration of Independence laid the ideals on which America was built. I hope you enjoyed my report on Thomas Jefferson"
"Ok, very nice Stan. You get a B. Now let's see who is next ... hmmm... who is next..."
"No, God please not me... Oh Jesus son of God, Oh Father in Heaven no..."
"... how about you Eric?"
"Aaw! Godd-ddd-dammit..."
"Eric Cartman"
"...Son-of-a-bbb*tch"
"What did you say!"
"Nothing"
"Don't you have the report on your favorite person from History ready?"
"Yes I have"
"Then why don't you come here and present it?"
"I'm gonna"
"Now Eric!"
"Godd-ddammit!... Good Morning. Today I'm going to talk about my favourite person in History, who is ... umm... eh... yeah I know, Adolf Hitler!"
"What?"
"Adolf Hitler was a great leader... umm... he was totally awesome... umm.. he was the leader of Germany and did many good things for the world... "
"This is full of crap! You can't like Adolf Hitler! He just mass-murdered people and started the World War. He din't do anything good!"
"Yes he did! He identified the Joo problem and solved it by killing them..."
"This is outrageous! This is a hate speech!"
"... Mrs. Garrison I'm really having a difficult time with all these interruptions"
"Kyle, let Eric present his report"
"You call this a report? How can you allow this kinda racist crap?"
"That's enough Kyle! Go on Eric"
"... ummm yeah... and so, Hitler killed the Joos and ... ummm, got the world rid of Hippies and Gingers! That was my report on Adolf Hitler which I prepared after extensive study and research. Thank you!"
"It's obvious you just made all that up right now. You get an F Eric, now go back to your seat"
"Aaw! Godd-dammit!"
"Hmm, now let's see... Kyle you are next"
"My favorite person from history is the Indian spiritual and national leader, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi"
"Mrs. Garrison, I seriously object to Kyle using the word 'Indian', its ignorant and racist. The correct term is 'Native Americans' "
"It's 'Indian' as in 'India', retard"
"Yeah, and besides, look who's talking- you are the one who is a racist assh*le, fat-ass!"
"KYLE BROFLOSKI WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE! ERIC CARTMAN STOP INTERRUPTING THE CLASS! STAN MARSH MIND YOUR MANNERS! KENNY MCKORMICK STOP STARING AT BEBE'S CHEST!... whew... Continue Kyle..."
"M. K. Gandhi was also called 'Mahatma' Gandhi or a great soul in India. He helped India get independence through non-violent and peaceful struggle, not by killing... "
"Fags!"
(Laughs)
"ALRIGHT EVERYONE JUST SHUT-THE-HELL-UP! Jesus-tap-dancing-Christ!"
"He was born in an affluent family in India. His family's good standing in the society enabled him to have good education after which, he moved to England to study law. He went to practice in South Africa, where he campaigned for the rights of Indians and the native people who faced racist discrimination at the hands of the administration run by the minority white population. Later he went back to India and started a mass-movement for freedom against the British administration. He also worked hard to bring dignity to the people of low caste in India, who were historically discriminated. His famous methods of peaceful resistance have been used by many leaders all over the world, including Martin Luther King. Thank you."
"Very Good Kyle, you get an A"
"What! Thats bull-crap!"
"Eric, for the love of God..."
"No seriously, Kyle gives this gay-little speech about some p*ssy-ass Joo and you give him an A, while I get an F!"
"Gandhi wasn't a Jew fat-ass, he was a Hindu"
"Hindoo, Joo they are all the same. And did you see the obvious holes in his report Mrs. Garrison? There were people in his own country who were discriminated and this guy goes about accusing government of being racist in South Africa. How is that discrimination any better than racism?"
"No, that's different"
"Different? People in India identify caste based on their parent's caste right? In other words, its their birth which defines the basis of their discrimination. Well, its the same with racism. Except here, you have an obvious indicator of your birth, which is the color of your skin"
"Eric you get an F and that's final"
"Fine, I don't want to sit in a class with people who live in denial. Screw you guys, I'm going home!"

I had intended to post this on Oct 2, but since I was about half-dead then, I decided to postpone it to Jan 30.

Taare Zameen Par

Poetry... using Paintbrush!

A Pilgrimage to Enlightenment

Just finished reading an epoch in popular science books. 'The Ancestor's Tale' by Richard Dawkins. No, this is not a tirade against religion, which by the way is getting a bit stale off late- 'The God Delusion' becomes painfully redundant from the middle through the end, especially if you have read some of his previous books or discourses. No, this is pure Science. And yes, Science in every sense.

The book is a journey in time. We start off from the present and march backward in time through hundreds, thousands and millions of years to the beginning of life on earth. On the way, we meet 'pilgrims'- organisms/group of organisms- who join us at a commonly shared ancestor. At each rendezvous point, selected pilgrims tell a tale of how they came about. The structure is inspired from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. A total of 40 Rendezvous points before we finally reach the Canterbury of life- the primordial replicating machine 4 billion years ago. 614 pages of an epic journey, and not one of them you would want to skip in haste. Dawkins, with his well known wit and clarity, forces the reader to see what he sees. Every distinctive piece of biology and every idea that's worth mentioning is given an thorough analysis that it deserves. And Dawkins does this with a judicious and brilliant use of all the tools of Science available under the sun- from Bio-Chemistry to Anthropology, from Quantum Mechanics to Computer Science. In short, this book is the biology-equivalent of Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time'. Its a Brief History of Life.

Toward the end of the last chapter, when the pilgrims return back to the present (and even that is not a simple retracing of steps forward in time, but a far more fascinating study of what kind of organisms would statistical reruns of evolution MIGHT produce in 4 billion years time!), Dawkins, in the voice of the host bidding farewell, expresses the exhilaration after having traversed the journey, which every avid reader would share, summarizing the spirit of the book-

If, as returning host, I reflect on the whole pilgrimage of which I have been a grateful part, my overwhelming reaction is one of amazement. Amazement not only at the extravaganza of details that we have seen; amazement, too, at the very fact that there are any such details to be had at all, on any planet. The universe could so easily have remained lifeless and simple- just physics and chemistry, just the scattered dust of the cosmic explosion that gave birth to time and space. The fact that it did not- the fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing- is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice. And even that is not the end of the matter. Not only did evolution happen: it eventually led to beings capable of comprehending the process, and even of comprehending the process by which they comprehend it. The very fact that we have evolved the brain power to understand our evolutionary genesis redoubles the amazement and compounds the satisfaction.