In the mythical mirage city, Hercules carried the sky on his shoulders, Philip and Alexander were warrior princes, Octavian guarded the Achilles’ heel, piety Helen, Cleopatra’s beauty and unruly imagination led by Darius built yet another Babylon at a distant shore_ he grand design of honour and chastity, and Nefertiti’s power was never left behind.
Clytemstra flipped another page in time, summoning black hole and King NebuchadnezzarII as she sighed.
John Keats once said, “Fanatics have their dreams, with which they build a paradise for a sect.”
Saima thought to herself_ even in these games of imagination, it pays to impose a little order, and wander through the infinite wilderness of stories. She collected segments from history and mythology to sketch her own version of anecdote referring to hypothetical personalities. It was as though they were exchanging views on some arbitration.
Just when she was about to come up with a very intense thought that could be deeply controversial_ she heard someone calling her. It always happened like this_ whenever her hypothetical debates were conversing on a very interesting state of affairs; she had to return to reality. Her watch showed 10:30 AM, who could it be?
She was a software developer by profession. Writing was just one of her passions. She loved contemplating about reasons behind the manners in which different people behaved. Honestly, she wanted to be a counselor earnestly but ended up being a programmer. Though now, she is debating with herself whether she should switch her career.
The young boy looked fifteen or sixteen. He seemed to be from a well-off family_ clean and smartly dressed. He was alone and Saima wondered why? Little was she aware of the enthusiastic mind filled with fervent questions infront of her.
As soon as he finished with the introductory round, he amazed Saima with a very insightful question_
“If you filled up the gaps between the stars in the sky at night, would they still be as beautiful!”
Saima was taken aback for a while. The teenager infront of her was too young to realize the romantic depth of his question. She didn’t know how to put her answer in words. So she gave him contemplation to study_
“When all wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.”
This kept Ovi occupied for sometime. Saima thought to herself whether he was trying to portray an image and impress her? He was only a student who had come to her to learn the basics of computer.
Without wasting any further time, they began their studies. She would teach him about GATES and TRUTH TABLES as he was already familiar with Binary Digits.
GATES: In simple language, gates are circuits in a computer’s hardware. For different combinations of zeros and ones (Binary Digits), i.e. on and off of the electricity, different gates gave different results. This is how calculations are done electronically.
The AND gate got Ovi very intrigued. He exclaimed at his own intelligence when he realized that this gate acted like Multiplication. Or else how the hell could 1 + 1 be still equal to 1.
Saima was pleased at her student’s enthusiasm. She thought to herself that one day Ovi would probably be a famous programmer. She was sure the he would find programming softwares very interesting.
Moments when her student was busy solving algorithms, she wondered why did he begin with a remark like that. His comment definitely concluded that he was optimistic, but something was definitely bothering his head and she wondered what. His reason for being there and his annotations had no connection, or atleast Saima failed to find any.
It happened to be so_ Ovi read a lot of science fiction. The fact that machines which worked on switching on and switching off of electricity could possibly fight a war to rule their planet was breathtaking. Books say computers are not intelligent as they cannot think by themselves. They can only operate on commands. Only, he couldn’t appreciate that those computers could themselves create programmes where every possibility of any probable occurrence what so ever could be calculated and taken required measures for. This made Saima remember a quotation of A.E.Housman_
“But oh, the two troubles in my life that reaves me of rest. The brains in my head and the heart in my chest.”
That seemed to settle his state of mind, atleast it made sense to the teacher. Suddenly Ovi dropped his pen and asked Saima,
“What is the connection between science and religion?”
This caught her by surprise, it took her a few moments to gather herself and then she composed her reply:
“Why don’t you know? In the Quran, it is written that there is a particular mark on the moon. When astronomers actually stepped on the moon, they discovered the mark exactly the way it was mentioned in the Quran.”
The fact seemed to irritate Ovi a little. He was expecting something more poetic. Before he could argue any further, his tutor gave him a new problem to solve. He thought to himself, nobody could match his idiosyncratic level while having conversations. Though his new teacher did please him with her first reply, her second one was very bland. He was definitely not satisfied. She just shut him up with a fact, why not something more imaginary. May be something like_ prayers are a form of meditation. Or human psychology tends to find relief in trusting a higher power and obeying instructions. To him, decision making is as troublesome for human as for computers. He finally refused to work on the assigned task and voiced his views on the topic. He added that responsibility is the hardest obligation one has to overcome to gain trust and respect. And then contently he returned to his studies.
Saima liked her new student. He was inquisitive and at the same time quite logical for his age. She smirked a little and picked up a book from the shelf, Geeta Hariharan’s “WhenDreams Travell”
She read out a line and handed the book to Ovi for reading.
“The sky isn’t big enough for both sunrise and sunset.”
Saima turned to her theoretical depictions and announced silently; an ancient mirror glinted obediently revealing impatience_ reassuring there is nothing in the world_ real or imaginary_ which it cannot reflect in its glassy depths, or which it cannot stretch, enlarge or distort.
Even in this generation of the 21st century, a black cat crossing your path is considered to be an omen. If you ever come across such a situation, just take three steps back, and then carry on with your destination without any hesitation!
©Mehjabin Shahed
Mehjabin Shahed 