Time's Up: Every Moment Counts

by Vasu Velamur

  “No, hold on a minute” replied Vashist, flipped the papers from front to back.

  “What are you looking for? At least tell me na”

  “What happened yesterday?”

  “Nothing. We went for a trek. Found a device and came back drenched”

  “How did we get this device?”

  “Ranga went into a bush and got it”

  “Tell me, where did that come from?” Vashist asked, a little annoyed.

  “Oh!!! From the helicopter crash”

  “That’s what I am searching for. It is not reported anywhere in these papers. Such as gigantic explosion and no coverage”

  “Might be it happens here often. Some airbase nearby could be.”

  “Airbase—where near Munnar? Only forests are here”

  “So what, let’s head to the room” said Vindhya with her hands pointed to the higher floor

  “I find something fishy about this device,'' murmured Vashist. He hiked up the stairs. Ranga followed him but thought about something else. Both of them did not open their mouths which troubled her.

  Once they reached their room, they closed all the windows and all jumped into the cot. Vashist was the first to grab the device. He then entered the password, and they saw the splash screen. It was a Golden Trophy and then the screen went blank. Vashist swiped the screen frantically. Dragging his fingers across the screen from left to right and nothing happened.

  “How do we use this device?” Vashist scratched his head “there are no icons or buttons again.”

  “We are back to square one” remarked Vindhya, quiet bewildered

  All this while Ranga was silent and deep in thought about something. The other two scratched the screen and their heads alternately. In concurrence. Vindhya was about to throw the device on the pillow when Ranga screamed “I got it.” and he reached out for the device.

  He then took the device, kept it straight to his face, stared at it for a minute. Then something changed on the screen. A beautiful beachside photo came up with a hammock in the middle. Ranga expanded the image by the hand swipe and there on the hammock they all could see him relaxing inside it.

  “How did you do it?” shouted Vindhya in total enthusiasm

  “Elementary, my dear Watson. It’s all in the brain” replied a calm Ranga “this device works on our thoughts of the person holding it”

  Then Vindhya pulled it towards her and stared at it for a minute and the wallpaper changed. It was a big plate full of Rajasthani dishes—roughly 48 dishes in colorful rotating plates in a cozy bamboo hut. They laughed when she threw the device and claimed “I don’t believe it, it is plain random”

  Vashist then took a piece of paper and wrote something on it, then pulled the device from Vindhya and stared at it for a minute. The wallpaper changed and everyone wanted to see what appeared. It ranged from Bugs Bunny & Daffy Duck to Tom & Jerry to Toy Story to Minions. They were all from a fantasy landscape. Then Vashist opened the piece of paper and showed it to Vindhya. He had written “Animation characters that I like”.

  “So what?” claimed Vindhya “now that you know what I had in mind, tell us how to proceed?”

  Ranga got up slowly and said that they needed to think only of one thing. How do they use this device? “Let us all think for some time and then stare at it for 1 min and see what comes”.

  “Ya, let’s try that” said Vindhya as she pulled a reluctant Vashist into a huddle.

  They were silent for some time, tried to put the message into their brains on how to use this device. Then Ranga waved his hands, showing that he was ready. The rest followed, and they all started at the device. They waited for a minute and nothing happened.

  A frustrated Vindhya said, “let one of us do it. Might be it is getting confused if 3 thoughts work in tandem”. She pulled the device off and glanced at the screen in desperation. As a minute passed, there was a sudden flicker on the screen and went blank.

  Ranga pulled it towards him and checked if there was any mistake with the display. The moment he snatched it from Vindhya’s hands, the device flashed numbers.

  “Oh No, not again” said Vindhya with her hands on her head.

  The boys were up with energy. Ranga cried out loud, “Hey Vashist, take a pencil and note down these numbers. We are back in the game.” He then tapped Vindhya on the back and said, “Thanks pal, for getting us through again”.

  Ranga started shouting the numbers “10” and followed by 2 seconds of pause “06”

  Vashist asked, “is it 06 or plain 6”

  Ranga in quick succession “0-6” and continued “09.”

  Then a long pause occurred, and Ranga expected some numbers to come up. To his surprise, another set appeared. So he shouted again “Hey write these numbers also 78” paused for 2 seconds “56” and another long pause and finally “03”

  They waited for some time and the same pattern came: 10-06-09 and 78-56-03.

  Vindhya said that she would wait there till these guys figured out what this cryptic message was. “I am sure you are going to be busy with this, so I am going to watch some movie” and she took the remote and switched on the TV. These guys, excited with a problem in hand, went for their scratch pads. Both of them took two different notebooks and a pencil each and started on their journey to solve the case.

  Vashist thought it may be some calendar dates and searched for some events. Some events may have occurred during that time frame. He looked at June 10th across the century from 1009—till 2009. Each year he tried to google some important event. On 48BC 10th July, Julius Caesar avoided a probable defeat to Pompey. No, this would have no significance to the device in hand. So he moved to the next 552, which was the origin of the American Calendar. He took notice of it but then moved on to 1040 on 10th July. It was when Lady Godiva rode naked on a horse so that her husband, Earl of Mercia, would lower the taxes.

  He got fed up and moved on. In 1629, the 1st non-separatist congregational church in the US was founded in Salem. Then in 1778 where Louis XVI of France declared war on Great Britain. ‘Oh no’ cried Vashist and his inability to crack it. So he moved on to the next one. In 1796 Friedrich Gauss discovered a new correlation. It was that every positive integer could be the sum of 3 triangular numbers. He skipped straight to 1884. It was the first test match in history played in Old Trafford (the 1st day got washed out)

  Gone this far in history, Vashist concluded it is not the path to decode the numbers. He got back to the drawing board again. Meanwhile Ranga tried to fit some series in these numbers. He tried many ways to connect these numbers. Both of them were busy for the first 15 minutes with no sound in the room except the movie dialogues of DDLJ.

  It was Vindhya who hummed the song “Mere Khwabon Mein Jo” along with the movie. This made Vashist get frustrated and shouted back, “Stop that braying, please Vin”. Irritated at this attitude, Vindhya snapped back, “What’s wrong with me singing the song that I know?”

  “It’s disturbing me, don’t you know?”

  “Why should I suffer when you guys do not even know what to do, like a pair of blind guys with a map in hand?”

  Vashist jumped up and congratulated her. “Hey Vin, you are fantastic.”

  No one had a clue what had happened. Vashist ran outside the room hurriedly. The other two were staring at the door, not knowing what had struck him. Four minutes passed and nothing but DDLJ dialogues was the only sound heard in the room. Then without warning, they heard the sound of slippers flying. Vashist ran in with a big paper in hand. He gestured to the other two to move out of the way and clear the center place of the room.

  Vindhya, still curious and wondered, “What the hell has happened to him. He was normal a few minutes back”

  Vashist howled, “Stop what you are doing, and help me out with this.” He passed the paper, which unfolded into a big A0 size wall poster. It had the political map of India. This was present at the reception area of the hotel.

  Vashist still shouting “Hey Vin
, catch the ends here, Ranga read the first 6 digits of the series now”.

  Ranga started reading the numbers from the paper “10–06–09”.

  Vashist said, “Stop, let me navigate it there”. Then he used the pencil from his ears and marked a line across the map. “Now Ranga, tell me the remaining numbers”

  Ranga, still clueless, read the numbers “78–56–03”

  Now Vashist drew a horizontal line and both the lines met at a place. The map marker was ready for Sowmya Narayana Perumal Temple.

  They were clueless. What should they do now with this location?

  Vindhya had a curious question in her mind, and after some time asked. “Hey Vashist, how the hell did you locate this place with no reference to Latitude and Longitude?’

  Vashist gave a quarter of a smile and replied. “Vin, use the ‘haversine’ formula** the distance between 2 points. I already knew the Lat/Long of Delhi and then used the formula to find the distance and got the result.”

  Vindhya and Ranga were in a state of shock. They wondered what to do next when they found what the number on the screen meant. Next in the line was Vindhya, while Vashist was still savouring the moment of glory between the three.

  **: The haversine formula ‘remains particularly well-conditioned for numerical computation. Even at small distances–unlike calculations based on the spherical law of cosines.

  Sunday 9:39 AM

  Half an hour had passed, and no one talked about anything except the dialogue of DDLJ that ran in the background. Currently, Shahrukh has come back to India to take Kajol back. In this setting, it was Vindhya who first stood up and said “Ranga, pass that device to me. I have the way out”

  Ranga, skeptical, passed it and glanced at her “Don’t give it back unless you can open it”. Vindhya snatched it from him and got the numbers on the screen. She touched the numbers with her index finger. Then the next instant she shouted out “Tirukoshtiyur Sowmya Narayana Perumal kovil.”

  And lo!!! The device started working. There were fractals of the 3D equivalent of an Apollonian sphere packing. It rotated slowly and gathered speed. This excited everyone and they came close to the screen. Their eyes got fixed on the marvelous picture, which changed colours as it rotated.

  Soon everyone’s eyes lost their focus and all the colours disappeared. It was plain white all around them. Something was about to happen, and no one knew what it was. Without warning, they all felt light. There was no mass for them, no sound could travel even when they tried to speak.

  In fear, they closed their eyes and waited for some time to get back to normal. They opened their eyes and nothing changed.

  Random thoughts ran through their minds. What was about to happen? Where are they? In a sudden moment, the white became black. They regained their weight, and it was difficult for them to open their eyes. They tried for some time but after a few minutes, it opened. It was Vashist who screamed first, “Guys, we are all safe and still on earth”.

  ∞∞∞

  Chapter-4

  Confused At Ground Zero

  Sunday 9:44 AM

  They were safe on earth fine but the next thing that Vindhya shouted after opening her eyes was “Where is the roof? Why am I sleeping in the open? What happened guys?”

  Ranga, the cool one of the three, was also perturbed. He wondered how they were in the open when the last he remembered was to look into the fractal image in the device. So immediately he got up and looked into his pocket and felt the device. He then took the device outside and touched it. It ran, and he saw a counter running backward. It showed 08:59:59 and counting down.

  Vashist, who was wide awake, stretched his legs and hands as though ready for a marathon. They all had the same thought. Where are we currently? And how did we end up in this place?

  Vashist called out first, “Guys, let’s move around and see where the hell we are currently?”

  Vindhya agreed and got up dusting her pants “Yeah. Let’s move”

  Ranga stayed at the same place and said “Wait, we need to navigate with this device only. We do not have our phones with us”

  “Mr. Perfect is not always correct” snapped back Vindhya. “I still have mine here but there is no signal here”

  Ranga then showed the device to them and said “Look there is a timer going on. What do we do?”

  “How should I know, you are the geeks here? I am mere moral support for you guys. Come on, figure something out”

  “Well, at least you are the one who spoke it the last time. Here, try it again”.

  “OK give it, will try again” She got the device and then asked it “What should we do now?”

  Nothing happened to the device, but it displayed a name. It was “Pitchamma” on the screen and flashed. Vindhya then said, “I do not know anyone by this name. Do you guys know anything about it?”

  Vashist, who was searching for clues, now said “Guys I’m certain that we are not there in Munnar. Look at the pin code on that tea stall, it’s 609311”

  “So what does that mean?”.

  “Well, as far as I can remember our hotel address pin code read 685612”

  “How do you know that?”

  “In yesterday’s match, Sehwag scored 68, Sachin scored 56 and MS scored only 12. Then I looked at our hotel’s menu card and saw the pin code in the same sequence. I still remember it vividly now as well.”

  “So now if this is not Munnar then tell me where are we?”

  “Let me look around and see if we can find some address,” said Vashist as he wandered towards the tea shop. There was not much traffic and only a few bullock carts plied, and the place was very fresh. It showed no traces of modern civilisation in any item. Vashist, in anxiety, started trotting towards the shop, but when he got there, he found it empty. There was no sign of life inside the shop.

  He looked around and saw no one and nothing suggested that there was any activity there. Panic set into Vashist, and he waved to the rest to come to him. The others looked at him, waved, and scampered towards him.

  They saw a big tank and a big Gopuram (Vimana). This made them sure that it was not Munnar. They were dumbstruck by the scenic beauty of the place. A tea vendor in a cycle came by and stared at them in shock. He dropped his cycle and ran away from them in an alarming mode.

  The sound of the cycle hitting the ground startled them. Before they realized it, the tea vendor was out of their sight. Still wondering where they are, they strode towards the temple. Then on the way, they saw another couple of grown-up men, and Vindhya approached them with discretion.

  She went near and asked “Sir what is this place called”

  One of them answered “Thirukostiyur, why it is famous only”

  “How far is this from Munnar?”

  “We have never heard of that place, girl,” the man said and moved away from her. Both the men murmured to each other “Munnar, what is it–not even heard of it. Must be some prank they are playing with us” and they left hurriedly from the scene.

  Vindhya reached to Vashist and said, “this place’s name is Thirukostiyur. This is what I get from them, but why are they all running away from us?”

  “I do not know, but something tells me we are not gelling in this place”.

  “Why?”

  “See them all, their dress, their dialects–they seem very different to me”

  “Let's leave that and see how to find this Pitchamma first.”

  “Yeah, let’s get to the front of the temple and enquire with someone”

  Ranga sprang from his shock and asked, “Hey Vin, give me your phone. Let me see if we can connect to the internet and get little information”. Vindhya dug into her pants and took the phone and gave it to him. Both saw the signal and none was there.

  “So what do we do now?” asked Vindhya

  “Let’s go to the temple and find out,” said Ranga, and they walked towards the temple. No sooner had they come near the tank than everyone around the place stared at them. They studied
this group strangely. Everyone, young and old, had a bewildered look on their face and was dumbstruck. It was like they had seen some kind of meteor fall near them and had a lucky escape. Looking at their strange expressions, Vashist tapped on Vindhya’s shoulder. He said “Hey Vin! Can you go near one of them and ask about this old lady please.”

  “Why can’t you go? Why should I risk my life”

  “There is no risk involved, Vin, it’s only that they would be more polite to women. That’s all”

  “Say this and get away all the time, cunning fox you are”.

  She went towards the group of young kids, though without willingness. She did not know how to start the conversation and thought to ask for help about the phone network. Both parties had a worried look on them. Vindhya did not know what she was entering. The group had not seen such a person before and hence looked concerned. Vindhya moved closer to the group and stammered a little, “Ex… Excu… Excuse me, boy”