Saturday, April 3, 2010

Of Vision and Illusion

VJXKM Sukumar was an astronaut. We'll call him Jack. Why? Well why not? He is a decent guy. Of course we can call him Jack. Ok jokes apart,we'll call him Jack beacuse he looks a lot he looks a lot like Jack Nicholson. The famous hollywood actor. Only Sukumar was darker in complexion, coming from the southern parts of Inda, his face was different, and he was thin, very thin. But otherwise he was exactly a Jack nicholson look alike. On the IGS(International Global Spaceship) he was testing the new american discovery, the USITC(Ultra spectacular inch telescopic camera). This camera could take pictures of stuff that were of an inch size from the space.


He was an extremely patriotic guy. He had decided never to forget his roots when he left his small village of kapapideru...

When told to test the camera, he decided that the first picture he would take would be of his very own coutry, the country that he came from. India. He would use photoshop to write 'I Love India' below the picture. He would take the picture and send it home to his parents. They would laminate it and hang it on the wall. And be proud of his sons achievements.

He started humming 'jana gana mana..'as he fixed the camera on the octapod. 'Damn it what was the 3rd line? Why do they write national anthems in local languages? They should have written it in engish. It's damn hard to remember something without understanding a word of it. Bloody India, nothing but stuffed with hypocrisy.'

'You lift my spirit, take me higher, make me fly,

Touch the moon up in the sky, when you are mine

You lift me higher, take my spirit, make it fly,

Where all new wonders will appear'....

he started humming...



What the hell, I am is going to take a picture of something 1 inch in size. Who is gonna care whether it is of indian soil or soil of sahara desert. Lets pick something from US. After all, that is the soil that gave some meaning to my life.

Lets see...USA, District of columbia, Washington DC, there is the NASA HQ...well lets move a bit awy towards MT Rainier. Zoom in more....there it is...wow its a stream of ants...very symbolic thought jack..he was not sure of what but he knew it was symbolic....he took the picture...picture of a proud ant red with passion..why should it not be red? after all it is a plump and posh american ant...not the poor hungry ants back in india....he makes a crooked face as he looks out of the SHMG(Special hardened magnifying glass) towards india...the sun was rising on INdia...yuck, people will by now start looking for a suitable place beside the railway track to shit..disgusting...he looked with forlorn eyes towards US. He could see the other side of the earth too with his SRP(Satellite refracto panograph). NIght in america...the people are kissing and partying and drintgin beer...what a life...



He opened the letter from his parents about a week frm the time, he had returned from space.. Its about 8 months from the day he took that picture of that ant. He had seen the letter last week, but he had a very busy week. He had just returned from IGS and the successful testing of USITC was among the many feathers in his cap.



Son,

We are so happy for you. We have not heard your voice for a long time. But we see your pictures. In magazines, newspapers. You have become thin. We are very proud of you. When sugandha showed us the picture u had taken from up there, it came in all the newspapers here, we were really very surprised. It was written that it was a picture of something in america, but though the picture was not very clear, we could understand that it was the picture of our small red house. We knew the first picture u take cannot be anything other than your house. And u proved us right. U so loved your house in clidhood. We still remember that day when u creid u r eyes out when u r father got a transfer and u would not go anywhere leaving the house. And then the transfer got cancelled. We expalined to sugandha that u had to tell them that it was something american becuase u work for them. Then everyone saw the picture carefully and agreed that it was the picture of our house alright. But u made a good joke of them. U know u r bravery have become famous here for how u took u r house's foto and passed it for something american. The young people one day took out a procession in your name. The local communist leader has also said that he would donate 4 lakh rs to us in your name for u r patriotism and anti-american stance. God bless u son.
Mom and Dad.

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