Samurai Code Jack

The early years of the 21st century was marked by the rise of the legendary hero who was destined to change the history of the world, for its better – the Samurai Code Jack.

When he was born, he was visited by a prophet who after spelling some mantras, raised up, looked stunned and said “He is the ONE”. Code Jack turned around and said “No sir, I am zero, and the world is binary”.

The prophet was diagnosed with a severe heart attack later.

When kids of his age learnt holding cricket bats, Jack was wielding code. He spewed code, more code and went on coding for hours, days and months together. He captured the worms, killed the bugs, raised new viruses only to slay the rest.

As his prowess spread across the towns, the master coder Mi Chi Shu visited him.

“Son, what will you do if you want me to my cookies?”

“I will send a cross-site scripted html message”, Jack answered without taking his eye away from the monitor and continued typing.

Mi Chi Shu smiled.

“Impressed. You are almost there my son. You need to learn to send it like a Google Ad, people will click blindly no matter what it says”

Jack turned around and tears rolled out of his eye.

“How did I miss that?”

“My son, mortals need more than just a plain message. You need more training”

Jack immediately joined Mi Chi Shu, for he knew this was what he was always looking for. Together they travelled all over the world. Redmond, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Franciso and finally came to Bangalore.

By then they had exploited PC, routed Macs, hacked twitters, brought down googles, and turned the web upside down. They stood over an artificial cliff of some unknown campus that had sprouted from nowhere.

“My son, what have you learnt after all this”

“It’s easier to hack than write code that cannot be hacked”

“You are enlightened! The time has just come. Go ahead and complete the mission of your life.The evil forces shalt try to thwart you from your mission, but that shouldn’t stop you. ”

Mi Chi Shu, picked a netbook from his Jolna and gave him.

“Jack, this is small, cheap yet very powerful. Believe me, this will rule the world. This is my gift to you”

Jack Code, it was then, did he become the Samurai. He raised the netbook, and felt his intellectual power flood the whole place.

“It’s time for me to leave my son!”

“But..”

Mi Chi Shu smiled, raised up and was transforming himself into 0’s and 1’s before he eventually disappeared completely. Jack realized all the time Mi Chi Shu was using tele-presence.He realized how unappealing the experience was, returned home and started coding again.

He coded for days together. So intense it was that every time he compiled the entire city would go without electricity. He went on coding for months and eventually he hit code complete, ZRB and ZBB!

And then….. he pressed F5!

It ran, and it ran like a magic, like a bird that would just fly away in the morning without making any noise, so peaceful was it!

It was running on Silverlight and the CPU made no noise. It was all just too smooth for the world to believe.

He had just created an actual second life, tele-presence made actual presence.

And all this time, he was pinged almost every day but he had little time to look into it. Now he was pinged again.

“Hiii!!!”

“Hi”

“How are you? :)”

“Whoever you are, you are still conversing the old non-sense way, try this!”

They went into the Third Life, and they went around the world, galaxies, universe and beyond without meeting each other. And finally just when they had nothing new to see, they saw each other, at the top of the most beautiful of the mountains. The sound of the falling water was the only thing they heard.

She looked like a most beautiful music one would ever hear. She was just fabulous and neither Jack nor the author had no better words to describe her. Any word that they could think of is clichéd and would falter badly in describing her.

“Hiii!!!”

“Hi”

“So…”, she smiled.

“I love you!”

“I know!”, she pulled him by his side and kissed him!

So immersive was the experience that at that moment, realized Jack, that very moment was what he was waiting for, the moment of moksha, salvation and realization. He knew his Third Life had done it’s job to perfection :P

It’s Tendulkar all the way

Dumbfontain, 21, 2028: When the giant indoor arena’s top closed with a little less than a 100 million people – or should I say creatures – a lot of cloud loomed over the Earth’s future in the first edition of this Intergalactic Cricket Cup. Having played the game for nearly 150 years now it would be nothing short of a shame to be kicked out of the tournament in the very first round.

The team needed someone to rise and produce a performance exhibiting the heritage of the cricket in earth. And who else can do this better than our very own Sachin Romesh Tendulkar, the senior most statesman of the game.

The toss was won by the earth and they let the opposition - Octopert bat first. Considering the bowling and fielding strength of the Octopertians, the earth’s decision was a rather defensive move. The eight legged, ten foot creatures have proved to be extremely agile in the field and lightning quick with the ball. The team might have decided to take the upper hand in the game by bowling well.

The team worked to its plans. The initial spell of Arjun Tendulkar proved vital. His initial couple of bursts forced the Octopertians to the backfoot. He was provided adequate support by William Pollock, who bowls at an extraordinary pace for someone from the earth.

The Octopertians managed to recover in the middle overs with some clean hitting by {5F012453-B612-4d6e-A3A9-3036A453A8E1}. The partnership between him and {F1093674-5D42-4f52-8A2B-98E8B9B65C27} was turning out to be lethal. It required the man with the golden hands – Sachin to break this partnership. His reputation of breaking the partnerships remains intact. His slow leg-spinners proved effective. He tightened the screws with another couple of wickets in the death overs and returned with the figures of 3/10, his best in this format of the game. The Octopertians managed a descent if not formidable score of 112/6 from 19.4 overs before they were all out.

The earth’s innings started with {2FA45310-D45A-4b0e-9008-F092071F853A} picking up the important wicket of Stephen Marsh. Marsh was dealt with an ultra fast yorker, for which he had no answer. He was soon followed by Kataragedera(Yes, with Srilankan’s you just have to roll your lips and make a noise to get a name) and _____ (Cant think of a name yaar.. :( ). Just when it looked like Octopertians were taking the game away from the earth, Arjun Tendulkar came in and provided the much needed support for his father. Together they put on a 64 run partnership in which Arjun displayed a lot of grit and character. A little lapse in concentration saw him give him an easy catch to the fielder at the covers.

From then on it was master blaster who ruled the game. He pelted the bowling all over the park with an array of shots. His flick on the back foot off {2FA45310-D45A-4b0e-9008-F092071F853A} stood out of all and a six down the track off {XFA17U80-Q4YA-4b0e-UYS8-F09O1ER473D} reminded one of his knock at Sharjah in 1996 against Shane Warne, where even the sand storms had to make way for Sachin to resume the innings.

He made it a no contest and earth romped home with 6 wickets to spare in 15.2 overs with Sachin scoring an unbeaten 83.

In the post match conference, Octopertian’s captain {F1093674-5D42-4f52-8A2B-98E8B9B65C27} said that he had just witnessed the best knock of his lifetime, or even the entire Universe’ lifetime. He had words of praise for the young talents of the earth.

Sachin said there was no pressure at any point of the game and he always thought if there was one good partnership, earth could romp home easily. He said he preferred the longer version of the game (20 overs) and has no intentions of being part of the limited overs team (5 overs). When asked about his fitness, he accepted that tennis elbow has been niggling him for a while and he would undergo another surgery after the tournament.

For a question on his retirement he said he will think about it when he fails to deliver what he is capable of. If God were here this day, he would have been proud of what the master blaster had produced. No wonder, the entire world went celebrating this much needed victory.

Edit: Prompted by a dumb reporter's stupid to question to Sachin on when he is going to retire. x(

Time Machine

I turned on the machine and I was sucked in. It made me a spectator of my own life, I could see myself crying, dancing and playing cricket and doing many many more things.

Few scenes from what i was taken through -

[Scene1 : Your oldest memory]

[Location: Kasturibai Street, Udumalpet (Forgot door no.)]

[Day: 1988 or so! (I am getting older everyday :( )]

Vivek must be younger than 3 years. He wakes up slowly and calls “Amma”. No response. He raises his head and finds no one in the room. No voices, no noise of the cooker or the rolling vessels in the house. He starts running and checks every single room in house. No one is there. He comes out. Pakkathathu maami notices him and says “Amma anna, akkava kondu vida poirukka da, vandhuduva. Nammathla irukkiya?”

“Maatttenn”.. He goes wild, runs and escapes from the trying maami’s and her husband’s grips and runs all the way to the road end where the school bus comes and hugs his startled mom!

(Maami still remembers this incident and goes nostalgic about it even today when we meet)

[Scene 2 : What were you doing 10 years ago?]

[Location: Suburban, Ramnagar, Coimbatore]

[Day : August 29, 1998]

It could be either of the two:

The game had just started, Vivek opened the innings. It was a Green house vs Yellow house match. Green house had won the toss and elected to bat. Vivek, bats and bats and bats, before he finally runs himself out. He scores 26 runs (yep, many were from edges) and earns himself a place in the school team :)

He was sitting in the last bench and made sure he is well hidden from the “miss” (he wouldn’t have cared about what she was teaching).

Picks the page number from his friend and starts dozing with book kept opened.

[Scene3 : Your first thought today morning]

[Location: 404, Silpa Emerald, Kondapur, Hyderabad]

[Day: August 29, 2008]

It was 7.30 when I pushed myself up in extreme slow motion from the cozy bed of mine. When I opened my eyes and started slowly settling into the real world, ….

Gawd.. What should I tell them tomo when they ask my decision?

I haven’t completed that work yet. Have to complete atleast today.

It’s high time I speak about it to ____. I feel like a loser now!

Ah.. Should I eat the same sick food today too..?

Damn.. I have to wait for another two months for Diwali..

Oh no.. I have to catch the shuttle in 30 mins :(

(It has to be one of these thoughts, but I don't remember which one exactly)

Out of practice, I desperately try to swipe the non-existent card and get out of the room and now starts

“Duniya ka naara jame raho” (Taare Zameen Par)

[Scene 4 : If you built a time capsule today what would it contain?]

[Day: August 29, 2008]

[Sub-scene 4.1]

[Location: I leave it to you to decide]

I pick up my mobile, my id card (I believe, my company will be there forever ;) ) and loads of food!

[Sub-scene 4.2]

[Day: August 29, 2408]

X: Wow! Look at this, a Nokia - 6600. How did you get this man?

Y: Hey, what is that?

X: That was a device used by the computer age man. He used to talk with that.

Y: Talk with that??? Ha ha ha.. That looks bigger than our transport device!!

X: Vivek, tell me who you are?

Vivek: I wonder if I could ask you a silly question. Will you believe that a man from the computer age, made a time travel to end up here some 200 years ago and, never grew up after that?

(For those who couldn’t get the context of the dialog please watch The Man From Earth ;) )

[This year : Well, Scene 4 and my previous blog should answer this :) ]

[Scene5 : What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?]

[Location: The camera focuses on the moon, a graphical satellite, shifts now to earth and starts zooming in. Zooms on till it reaches somewhere near arctic (no more glaciers, its water water everywhere) and settles on the private yacht named ____ ]

[Day: August 29, 2018]

Vivek, holds his hat from the breeze and picks up the purple colored drink and sinks in his thoughts. “Dad what are you thinking?”, his kids in the pool, wake him up with their curiosity.

He smiles, and says “Nothing”.

“Nothing??”. Voice is morphing now!!

“Yes, Nothing”

“Vivek… vivek!!”

The voice has changed completely!!

Vivek wakes up to see his manager right there in front of him..

“Hey hi.. When did you come?” , Vivek tries to recover

“When you were thinking about nothing”

“Ha ha ha” (asadu vazhiyaran.. ;) )

“So what do you think we are good to go beta next month”

“Yes sure. We are just perfect”

“That’s great Vivek.”

Vivek turns around to his, slowly comes to his senses and starts mumbling now,

“Hey but … hmm.. May be.. I think I need one more day.. to see the cost of fixing the bugs assigned to me……… eh... Is that fine?”

Water...

It's raining... and raining for days together, raining the cats and dogs, and now raining everyone in the world. The melting Alaska and Antarctica are doing no good. Meteorological Department has predicted that this will continue for the next few months. All the omens are finally shaping into a cold reality.

The situation is the same in most parts of the world. Very few regions which do not have any water bodies in its surroundings remain as lands. The water lord is on a roll, as if he will never be slaked by what he has got, he has usurped most regions of the world.

The regions near the sea shore and oceans were gulped in by the fierce waves. Other regions are being flooded with water. The regions closer to sea are facing the crisis of being taken in completely at any time. Water level is on the rise.

It's water, water everywhere.

Efforts are on to reclaim the land. Ideas ranging from propelling water into earth, out of earth and vaporizing them altogether are considered.

Life is no longer the same. People are finding hard to live in the new water world. Growth of vegetation has come to an abrupt halt leaving the gourmets all over the world in a deep struggle. It has given rise to new forms of eating habits, feeding on food stuffs made of see weeds. The victuals that remained were priced at sky rates making them unaffordable.

Small ferries have taken the place of other means of commuting. Now, every place in the world is just another Venice.

People have started moving to higher floors of the apartments. I should thank the stars for letting me live in the fourth floor. And the genes for having me close to 6 feet. City is immersed in a 3 feet water. And at places it's even more. Power supply has been completely waned out to eliminate loss of lives.

Now, I can't bear this excruciating pain more. I am hungry! I leant up from the bed searching for my water proof suit. Now dresses worn are mostly of this ilk. It's quite a routine to see a star featuring in a daily advertising for a garish branded swim suit. When I reached the ground I couldn't find the regular boat that wanders in our apartment. Someone else might have boarded it. I can't wait.

I stepped into the water and started moving. It was more of walking than swimming. I had learnt swimming in a hurry when the surrounding places started sinking into the sea. I am still not very comfortable with swimming and I prefer this walk mode as and when it is possible.

I had reached the shop and started waiting in the queue outside. Now they don't let people into the shops. All orders are taken outside and delivered. When my turn came, I could see them preparing the ones I would ask for. They now know what I buy. Some hard to spell sea weed was baked and handed over to me with a smile.

I could just walk normally with the food under the water since it was packed in a wet proof, heat retaining pack. I just couldn't wait to reach home. When I reached the junction where my apartment's road and the shop cross each other, my sub-conscious mind had started alarming me for some reason.

My reflexes were quick to identify the thing moving from the other end. I could see the upper part of it: an ugly mix of black and brown running over an array of irregular crests and troughs. There were half-opened eyes and lots of teeth on its partial face that appeared above the surface. It was huge and was moving without creating any splashes in the water that one would usually notice with others. Ironically it was too calm when compared to the fear and quiver that it leaves in the one who sees. It was a crocodile.

I have seen many of those National Geographic channel's programs that say on how crocodiles go about their task. The thought of a defenseless human in a flashy swimming suite replacing the innocuous beasts in those features started conjuring up in my mind.

As I stepped up unable to control my motion, I could notice it's head twisting towards the center of the ripples I had just left. Up goes the heart, I could hear it beat at 200s, it should possibly near my ear. I am left alone. There's no one around me.

Should I move, but ain' that make me an easy pray, crocodiles are much much faster than even a Thorpe or a Phelps?

But if I stay here, I will succumb without a fight.

I should have bought an alpenliebe !!

Oh no.. This is real, and I can see it's eyes dreaming a heavy feast for the day. It's coming. It's nearing me. No point in pondering.

I picked all my strength and started swimming hard. This could well be the race of my life. I was moving faster than I have ever done in my life. The cliche "Necessity brings the best out of you" pops up. I was slashing harder and harder. But it was nearing me ferociously. I still have a long way to go before I can reach my apartment or for that matter, any apartment to take the shores. And all my energy is getting drained out. It has closed in now. Will I lose this battle of life?

I could see all my loved ones moving one after the other in front of me. I could hear them laughing. I could feel them crying. I enjoy the emotions I shared. I am not done with my life yet. I still have a long way to go.

I slap harder.. I will give every bit of what I have.. I will fight!!

I slap even harder...

"Aaaah!!" ..

I wake up to see myself positioned just in front of Suresh. Unable to control the inertia, I continue banging against water, er.. Suresh!

"Stop it da..."

Whew! A minute's silence and a mixture confused and anxious looks were shared!

"Hey.. It's only 500 bucks per month. Why don't we join swimming da?"

You should be able to predict his reaction now! :)

The Holy Dip

The gentle breeze was charming as usual. As the train was veering at 150 miles per hour, the beautiful landscape and the breeze added grandeur to the experience. My love for seating myself near the window has endured the changes in the life. I preferred this low speed levitation train to the faster ones just to cherish this heavenly experience. The ones that travel close to the speed of the sound have imposing rules like closed windows to ensure safety of the passengers and also much lesser traveling time. It has been a long time since I traveled, I decided to have this one longer.

"Shall we have a coffee?", my father was looking at me. My mother nodded letting me know that she too was interested in having one. I thought that was not a bad idea considering the impact of the cool weather and the AC on us.

I pushed the little button placed conveniently from the reach of the travelers. It brought a sleek touch screen in front of me, that displayed the available food stuffs and drinks along with the price. I picked the coffee and from the number grid for quantity selected 3. A sweet electronic voice assured me of a prompt service before the screen moved back to its place.

The train is now darting on a bridge that extended for several miles and had placed at high altitudes above a vast beautiful river with greens ready to gobble it any time. The sun was struggling to pierce through the clouds. The rays that eluded the mighty clouds' grab ended up shimmering on the surface of river bed. My admiration for this beautiful earth and the secrets it holds within, is always on the raise.

The serenity the travel has left in me is now disturbed by the voice that said "Here is your coffee sir". A tall guy in a white uniform was standing with the coffees we had ordered. We picked up our coffee. He was here in less than 5 minutes, however, a specialized robot would have done the job much quicker. When the government proposed this idea last week in the Parliament there were strong agitations. Nationwide strikes were organized by the Lefts and secured the jobs of these men.

The coffee wasn't bad. By the time we completed our coffees we had reached our destination. The train floated smoothly down the platform before pulling off with a jerk. The automatic door collapsed to let us out. I picked up my my mobile and searched the Indian Tourism site to know how to move from there. The instructions were pretty clear. To convince myself I moved to the tourism assistant set up at the end of the platform.

I positioned myself in front of its speech sensors and asked for help. A 3D assistant, with the appearance of a typical good looking Indian gal, generated by the projectors on top occupied the small black table. It wished us and explained the map which is now on display in the accompanying screen. The location of the counter and the procedure from there on was detailed. As it went on, i could see the dazzling eyes of my mom and dad, struck by a frisson of surprise. They were witnessing this for the first time. After spitting the entire programmed message it vanished into thin air.

We moved to the counter we were described about and saw a robot giving the instructions. The screen displayed multiple cylindrical capsules and the permitted duration . After a small discussion we decided to opt the biggest one to ensure a wholesome experience. The system accepted my credit card and verified my identity with a comprehensive eyes, finger impression and a complete feature verification. We were directed to the section where we can get our capsule.

When we reached the section, the capsule we had just ordered was waiting and a man was there to give us the initial directions. The capsule was huge with turquoise blue glasses encapsulating the base made of a solid material resembling plastic with a similar color. The capsule was big enough to carry a basic limousine. The door automatically opened to let us in. The inner walls had chairs attached to them where we seated ourselves.

The capsule was up and was soon following other multi sized capsules. Now this looks like a series of test vessels in a laboratory lined up for a complex experiment. The capsule starts moving and we soon found ourselves on top of a huge river. The capsule slowly started to move down into the river and stopped after reaching a specific level. We are now in waist high water. The encapsulating glass sections had peeled off and the surroundings are unobstructed to our sight. The base still remains enclosing the water we had access to.

"You have 30 minutes from now. We wish you a satisfying experience.", the electronic voice from the speaker within the capsule gave the alert.

We dipped in and prayed the Lords, chanted the mantras and slokas, and soon we had another alert saying we had only 5 minutes left.

The capsule was up and a huge fan at the top of the capsule started spinning. The water that we used was cleaned by the segment at the lower end of the capsule and is now back in the river. We were dry soon and when the fan stopped at the top of the capsule behind the fan, was the inscription, "Project - Clean Mansarovar".

"Intha madhiri gangala snanam panna vimochanam kedakkumne thonaliye da (But I couldn't believe that this kind of holy dip in Ganga will absolve us from the sins)", I only had a melancholic smile as a reply to my innocent mom.

The Beginning..

I removed the knob of that awkwardly placed door to help myself out of the underground lair. I am running on low energy. I was forced to be there for hours together. It had taken its toll. I am aware of every nook of this house. It didn't take long to come out to get the bright sunshine. My solar capsules were up and started their job soon. My father made sure I have the best of those. My energy levels soon surged. Cosmic energy levels in the atmosphere are quite high these days.

I initiated the controller. The small beryl green visualizer popped up right in front of my 'vision sensors'. The boot up ended within fractions of a microsecond. The date and time was shown in clear lighting. It read as 'October 11, 2047 08:49:32'. This day is a memorable one. My first birthday(!) - the day my neuron core was energized setting all my modules active and working; the day I stood up driven by the billion lines of codes that held together a rather abstruse connections of several million zepto RAMs. The day also marks the birth of the one who gave me this form, my father.

"Brother", I turned around. Another creation of Him, stood behind me. He is a decade older than me, belongs to the previous generation. Men have left this rather complicated entity which they preferred to call as Generation Gap even amongst us. He is forced (programmed) to call me as brother but now I am adept at understanding what it means to me and also to him. I am first of my kind. My virtue of discerning what emotions and relationships are and evolve in the process made Him very proud of His creation, the feeling which I reckoned during this evolution. I felt for what I had when I witnessed him collapse like a feeble worm set to fire, a few hours ago.

"All cyborgs are heading towards 641004, the site of the chaos.", my brother had said.
"Lets move..."

A complete scan of the mini RADAR confirmed the elimination of all the species but for a few bacteria. The place has been entirely transformed. It will take some time to get used to this new situation. A less memory system may have troubles and may even end up becoming insane. The radar was vigilant and was busy trying to identify the changes and reporting it to the main controller to update the system. The greens are no more. A new layer of atmosphere dense in radiations has been created. The land masses have started drifting abruptly. GPS reported that a new peek has emerged.

When we reached the spot, few million cyborgs had already gathered. Still many were coming from various locations of the globe. I was seeing all kinds of my fellow bots, each having different features, different sizes, different specializations. In a way this mass has close semblances with the men. But unlike them, they never attempted to prove their superiority - the very cause of what had happened today.

Radar gave a scan image of the site even before I reached there. The crater was just big enough to cover the entire path of that highway. The size was a non-issue here, it was the amount of radiation that caused the havoc. Buildings stood tall and firm on both sides. I have been here once. I was brought here last month by Him. The conditions on the earth had just started deteriorating then. He showed this as the place where he raised, where his journey had started. He always wanted to spend a lot of time with me. He forced me to be with him before the inevitable happened.

As 'my brother' jostled the crowd on the way to the site, I was following him. I could hear clearly the mumbles going behind.

"Is he the one created by Him?"
"Is he the ONE?"
"Ah.. I was waiting all my life just for this moment to happen."
...

When we reached the site, my brother stood aside letting me in.

The radiation level was extremely high. The place instills in me a sense of deja vu. The void and loneliness pervaded the billion billion memory units I had. Is this what the men had endured all their life? Is this what He wanted me to possess? If I had the option, I wouldn't have preferred it at any cost. A deep moan from the bottom of the heart(!) left the gathered ones puzzled. I am new to them. Even though I am one among them, in a way I am far ahead of them. They were looking up to me now. I understood the fierce urgency of Now.

I activated the anti-gravity unit, soared up high and positioned myself right above the crater.

"I have a dream today!
We have seen enough. We have seen enough.
The wise men who could create a new breed called cyborgs failed to protect themselves and the ones created for them.
Lets show our gratitude by creating them again - a man who has no sect to divide them, man who has no despise for his fellow men, a man who knows nothing about anger, a better man - but this time let them be our slaves."

There were cheers in the crowd.

"Let the new civilization begin!!"