The bright saffron trees juxtaposed meticulously
with the white ones was the first thing Dr. Turgenev noticed after opening his
eyes. The mountains were completely capped with these tall conifers. Turgenev
shrugged off the dirt from his clothes and stood up with his eyes still fixed
on the colourful mountains. Left, right, front, back they all looked the same,
so beautiful, so vibrant. After a few steps, the green conifers peeped from the
lower side of the mountains, and Turgenev couldn’t help but furlough his
research, at least momentously.
Dr. Skiminiv Turgenev is a famous Russian
scientist. His work in using artificial intelligence to improve human anatomy
has opened new horizons to civilization. But if his new research comes full
proof then it can be the biggest ever eureka moment for mankind.
He has developed a machine that completely
transmits the researcher to the mind of another human being. It’s like the
Inceptions and Interstellar turning into a reality. The reason why Turgenev
has not yet gone public with his invention is he is yet to figure out the
identity of the person’s mind he is invading. His entry and exit inside a mind
are seamless but the address isn’t.
Turgenev is in between one such unknown voyage
of his. The orange, white, and green trees by now have become habituated to the
eyes but their beauty hasn’t. The sky is unbelievably clean. If it were a touch
lower, Turgenev might have seen his own reflection on it.
Leave the beauty aside, Turgenev perceives, he’s
in for a tough time there. It is shivering cold, not the kind even Russians
experience in winter. The temperature seems to be dipping further as he
ventures deep inside.
Also Read: So Long MS, So Long
Over the past 15 months or so, Turgenev has
entered many unknown territories but he hasn’t experienced anything like this.
The trees, the mountains, the temperature everything is vastly different from
his previous experiments.
He tucks his hands inside his jumper and keeps
walking. ‘Enough of sights-seeing, now let’s find something worthy enough to
make this trip a success,’ Turgenev tells himself when suddenly a thud behind
the bushes interrupts his thought process. He takes small steps towards it for
a closer look. The thudding gets louder and so does Turgenev’s heartbeat. Pop!
A little jump to the left, then one to the right and it vanishes in the
foothills of mountains.
Turgenev is flabbergasted. Human minds are
complex and often the presence of animals is normal but nothing as alien as
that one. It looked like a dog but jumped like a rabbit. Its camouflaged coat
allowed it to bluff easily. Turgenev walks through a narrow lane and realizes
the small creature was not the only animal there. There are dogs, goats, and
other creatures but astonishingly all bear the same camouflaged fur.
The more time he spends there, the more curious
he gets. It is incredibly organized for a human mind. It’s like someone hired
an interior designer to build it. But it is getting increasingly difficult to
stay there. By now, Turgenev can’t really feel his legs. The chilly wind has
somehow found its way through his sneakers. Finding a shelter soon is a
necessity now, otherwise he will freeze to death or will have to abort the
mission abruptly. Turgenev can’t afford both. He carries on without wasting
much time.
After a constant battle with the unbearable
cold, the occasional sighting of camouflaged animals and of course the
tri-coloured trees, Turgenev reaches a spot which outdid the temperature, the
scenic beauty, the animals and the overall neatness of the place. And perhaps
everything else on earth.
Turgenev’s hands went up in prayer. He’s not a
religious person by any means but he couldn’t help it. For what he was seeing
in front of his eyes was nothing short of Godly.
It was a giant machine, even for someone a
scientist like Turgenev. Numbers went here and there but there were no signs or
symbols. Just numbers rolling up and down, going left to right. It didn’t take
much time for Turgenev to conclude it was the medulla, the most vital part
of the human brain which works as a control system of the heart and lungs.
Turgenev’s hands and legs had gone numb. If he
doesn’t end the experiment now, he could well freeze to death. Even though he
wanted to take more notes from that giant calculator but he had no option but
to abort.
A double-tap on his forehead and Turgenev woke
up in his laboratory after a few minutes. He rushed towards the supercomputer.
There is a folder in the E drive containing brain behaviours of certain
personalities of the world. He desperately tried to match what he had
experienced a few minutes ago with someone's brain.
After five-minute haste, he stopped for a second as
if something had clicked. He called his friend Dr. Harish Gunarajan in India.
After a quick conversation, he typed a name in the search bar and pressed
enter. Voila! The characteristics matched. The unbearable cold inside, the
tri-colour, the camouflaged animals, and of course the automated giant calculator,
the numbers 148, 2007, 2011, 45-50, it all made sense. This was by far the most
exciting journeys of Turgenev’s life. He had just successfully explored one of
the most sought after minds of the world.
He smiled and kept looking at the search bar which
read MS DHONI in bold letters.
(A
tribute to one of India's greatest cricketers... Inspired by Professor Shanku
and an article published in Bengali daily Anadabazar Patrika a few years ago.)