I was in no mood to participate in this endeavor of Ramesh. But it looked like Ramesh had already scripted the entire play.
‘It is unethical’, I rose up with my orthodox humanitarian face sketched with expressions of frustration.
‘Don’t worry chap! It is just an experiment. It may pass or it may fail also. Each and every scientist in the past has undergone pains to prove their concepts on science. Remember, JC Bose?’, Ramesh literally forced me into it and I was sure that again I have to be a party to his ambitious project.
He had called this project as ‘Project Teleportation’. It was literally an unbelievable experiment which was designed to transport a human being with the help of a gadget from one place to another as per the choice.
Though Ramesh had explained me all the details what he could, it was beyond my layman understanding levels. What I could understand from his day-in day-out speech was that there are some sort of optic trans-receiver involved in this process. These are installed in two selected places between which the teleportation has to be carried out. The person under teleportation has to wear a bracelet sort of gadget. This gadget has a ‘Go’ button. After wearing, once the ‘Go’ button is pressed, the process of teleportation starts. It takes 10 seconds for the trans-receiver to complete its job. The trans-receiver at one end absorbs all the light falling on that person with his complete profile so that the person becomes invisible. This stored data is then transmitted with some secured protocol to other trans-receiver kept in an identified location with a code. The trans-receiver at other location receives that data decodes it and projects the profile data back in some designated fashion that makes the human being appear at that location.
‘Ah… lots of science stuff’. I was always weak in this.
He also told many other complicated things such as mass energy conversion and some famous equation and theorem of Einstein but they were very much out of reach of my unscientific mind.
Though the proposal looked interesting, I had all sorts of confidence on the failure of the project. After all, human beings are not that mighty to compete with Almighty, which I had read, appeared anywhere, anytime at the call of the devotees. So, what big deal?
Though I was dead sure from the bottom of my heart that this proposal is not going to work, an element of doubt for the success was always there at the corner. Also, I didn’t want to discourage the extraordinary scientific obsession Ramesh had in his mind. If this was possible, our great scientists would have long ago discovered it for the benefit of humankind.
Deeply immersed in the self-confidence, Ramesh had already installed the other trans-receiver in his house which was close to 12 miles from my place. All the programming stuff and other preparation were completed. And, today he wanted to have the actual run performed. He had not informed anyone in his house and had forced me to choose this isolated farm house so that no one gets to know about the experiment in general and its outcome in particular.
I generally never had any interest in his experiments but he always used to approach me for conducting his experiments. I was not sure if I was a good omen for him? Many a times, I used to feel confused, if I was a man or a specimen! But this time, the magnitude of the seriousness of the experiment was quite high. Any type of failure at any level can be catastrophic.
Ramesh opened the social networking site on the laptop on which we used to chat regularly. He checked the net connection twice, the trans-receiver, the bracelet gadget. All were functioning as desired.
He wore the bracelet and turned towards me.
‘Ready?’ He asked with confidence.
‘Oh, Yes’, I replied but my heart started drumming fast.
‘I need to walk for the profile to be captured in 3D visuals and motion after pressing the ‘Go’ button. Then it will take 10 seconds to complete the process. OK?’ He said with each word completely dipped in self-confidence.
‘OK’, I murmured as if I was launching a satellite to the Mars.
‘Let’s start’, and then he pressed the ‘Go’ button and started walking.
I started the countdown silently. “Ten…five…two” Before I could complete the countdown, he was out of the room. ‘Bang!’ the door was closed. I ran towards the door as I wanted to witness that spectacular and heavenly trick. I opened the door as quickly as I could, but he was not there.
‘Where could he go?’, ‘Was he right?’ ‘Is it possible in reality?’ All such questions started circling my mind as I stood blank with my mouth wide open and face flat with disbelief.
I asked myself, ‘Is he really transported?’, ‘Are his claims right?’, ‘If yes, then this phenomenon may change the entire outlook of the life’.
I came out in the porch and started searching for him in all the nook and corners possible. My farmhouse was the lone house in that locality, sitting at the end of huge field which was neither used for cultivation nor for the industrial applications. A person escaping out of the boundary in few seconds was not possible. That means, Ramesh must be somewhere around. ‘How shall I make that sure?’
Suddenly I got a nice idea. Sometimes what humans fail to achieve, the animals do it. At times animals are more humane than the human beings. I whistled and like the fastest internet data byte arrived my pet dog Lucy.
Her nose was the most used part of her body, I guess, as I keep seeing her poking that black dotted stuff everywhere. Now, this was the real on-the-job training for her.
I took her inside picked up the handkerchief Ramesh had left on the table and made Lucy smell it. She did that with pride.
‘OK Lucy, now go and catch him.’
She ran past the door yelling his name in her animal language called barking. And then she stopped. The barking turned into a non-musical beat with only ‘koon…koon….koon…’ being audible. She was turning her head round and round trying to grasp more and more clues from the smell that existed but to no avail.
I wondered, ‘what happened to her? Why is she not running from this to that corner of the field in search of Ramesh? Has he really vanished?
‘Oh my God! Is this really true?’
I rushed inside banged on to the laptop and refreshed the webcam. Ramesh wasn’t online.
‘Oh God!!! Where has he gone? Is his experiment a success?’
I stood up with emotions deeply immersed in the joy mixed with surprise rushing out of my mind, but my shaking legs did not allow me to stand. My heart started pouncing with the fear of last minute failure.
‘What, if he doesn’t re-appear? Where will he go? What will I tell to his wife and children? How will they react?’
All such questions started queuing up in front of my mind to which it was still discovering answers. I was desperately waiting for that disabled dot in front of the Ramesh account on the social networking site to turn green. This wait period looked to the most dreaded time in my entire lifetime.
Again those dreaded questions started revisiting with increased caliber.
‘What if Ramesh did not appear? Will it be a murder? How will the counsel prove that Ramesh is dead? How will I prove that he is alive? Had I committed a mistake being a party to such a project with the risk of a human life involved? What will people think of this project? Am I a killer?
My mind started boiling. At one time it seemed that the mind will burst with such a huge pressure inside. I ran towards the bathroom, stood under the shower and fast opened the knob. The cold water thus appeared, seemed like a real fire extinguisher.
I stood still like a statue underneath the water with the water flowing through all parts of my body. My clothes were completely drenched. I just wanted to continue in the same position for long, forever. The mind started cooling down and the questions disappearing.
Suddenly I heard the sound of telephone ring. I checked from outside my pockets for the mobile and took it out.
‘Oh! The bathing beauty’. But it was silent, though alive.
Then, from where on the earth this ring is originating?
I rushed to the room like a watery loaf of bread. The sound was emanating from the laptop’s speaker. And the laptop screen was displaying the message, ‘Ramesh calling’.
‘Yaaaaa…’, I shouted with joy, ‘He has reappeared’. I was totally flabbergasted with the sound of the ring. His experiment is a success. That means teleportation of humans is possible with the help of a gadget. No more travelling now. No traffic woes, no burning of fuel, no passenger trains, no passenger planes, no ticket booking. Human can be omnipresent now. What a breathtaking discovery!
Nobel Prize? It is too small an award to ask for. All the known inventions seemed to be minuscule in front if this one.
‘Ramesh! You have done it!
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