for a change...fiction!

What follows is a little bit of many things, but if i were to reveal all of that, there would be no point in making this post. I hope atleast one out of the few readers (if at all any) could make sense out of what i wrote a while ago.


The Visit



I


A million years before human beings inhabited the earth, there was born, on a distant planet, a species that called themselves the Ooks. They called their home Ookagaryum, and this planet is known as Pluto, among the species that consider themselves the most intelligent creatures that walked on earth, if not the entire universe. The Ooks would beg to differ no doubt. The Ooks were so well advanced in their thought processes, that within half a million years of their inception, they evolved into a race that could communicate by a network more advanced than the internet that the humans designed for themselves --- a network of their mutual thoughts. They did not have to “talk” among themselves in the “traditional” way, they merely had to concentrate on focusing their thought processes to match that of other Ooks, and voila, the communication channel was open. There was never any chaos or noise like in human communication, and if there was a difference of opinion, the Ookageppo or the chief of Ooks got a thought signal to make him aware of it, and he would then cancel out the negative energy arising out of the difference in opinion of two Ooks. Indeed, such was the efficiency of their system and their lifestyle, that one would wonder why the Ooks decided to make a foray into human land. But they did make a trip to earth, and what a trip that was!

The Ookageppo had been skeptical about the trip, but when he felt so many thought signals from fellow Ooks indicating to the contrary, he gave in and agreed to send two Ooks to human land. He summoned the two Ooks that were closest to each other in terms of thought bonding, and instructed them on the specifics of the travel. Of course, all this happened, not in a conference room as in the case of humans, but in the respective shells (equivalent of human homes) of the three Ooks. Such was the beauty of the system that the two chosen Ooks simply had to roll out of their individual shells and onto the rocks that would carry them to human land. There was no elaborate preparation required, no rockets, no space ships, and no expensive fuel. A meteoric shower was scheduled to happen at that time, and the Ooks vehicle would be a part of the shower. The Ooks can survive in any composition of the atmosphere, and they can also manage in a total lack of it, for a few Ook days. So they did not need any heavy gas tanks either.

As they clung on to the rock, both the Ooks felt a mixture of excitement and anxiety. Humans would recognize the emotions as excitement and anxiety, but the Ooks who do not know what emotions are, had no means of understanding why their mutual thought waves reached a crescendo at times, and at times sunk to abysmal depths. Though they wondered about it, they did not give it too much extra thought because they were traveling through vacuum and they would need to conserve all the energy they had, if they were to survive.

Three Ook days after they started their journey, the two Ooks found their vehicle plummeting into the earth’s atmosphere.

When the Ooks finally landed in human land or the earth, they had reached a state of thought fatigue. All the highs and lows of their cumulative thought processes had taken its toll, and for a while, there was absolute thought-silence, the state where Ooks pass into slumber. Humans have tried to achieve this state of mind for a very long time, and they have tried using scientific as well as traditional methods like meditation et al. But whereas they never found success, for the Ooks, a state of absolute mental slumber is a way of life. They do it every day and they would perish without it. Thus it was, that our Ook friends retreated into this state of slumber, to rest after their arduous journey to human land, not just because of the huge distance, but also because of the sheer amount of thoughts that they had communicated with each other.


When the elder Ook woke up, he looked around with his tiny eyes. He could see a vast stretch of emptiness, and for a while, he wondered if the thought direction that the Ookageppo had used to propel the rock, had been miscalculated. Presently however, he heard a sound that confused him and set him thinking about the possible source of the sound. The younger Ook was awakened when he sensed that the elder Ook had risen, and was in deep thought. He joined the elder, and together they looked around them. All around them was a colour they had never seen in the Ookagaryum, and it looked very refreshing. They agreed that it had to be the best hue that could adorn any place, and they found the same colour adorning more of the soft, flattened things on tops of column like structures. What are these? How do they grow on the ground as well as on poles? The similarity of their thinking at the same time, caused a positive energy source that gave them an instant answer. They “knew” instantly, that these were grass on the ground and leaves on the trees, and that the grass and trees were all basically the same, just like they were both Ooks. Having learnt that, they were more at ease, and they both agreed that these plants would be very good ornaments for their Ookagaryum. The next bout of positive energy wave taught them about animals and brought them in close vicinity of a human. Both Ooks were extremely happy, though they did not realize it ofcourse…they experienced a heightened mutual thought processing, leading to another positive energy beam and this time, the beam caused a strange tingling in their bodies and they did not know what it was at first, but the beam taught them that since they were in human land, they had started experiencing human emotions too, albeit in a very subdued fashion. The ooks joy knew no bounds. Ookageppo had told them that all emotions were bad and to be shirked, but if this is what it felt like to be happy, the Ooks could not wait to experience more. They came out of their hiding place behind their vehicle from Ookagaryum, and rolled along the grass. The grass was soft and they enjoyed the warmth of the sun rays on their small bodies, as they rolled along merrily on the grass. It was surprising how well they enjoyed these human emotions and they both thought it was an injustice on the part of the Ookageppo to have restrained the ooks from making a trip to human land before. The next positive energy wave lifted them from the grass and hurled them through the air, and they felt exactly as if they were passing through space. For a while they thought that the chief would have summoned them back using a backward bound thought direction, but they were relieved to find that that was not the case, when the waning energy wave deposited them on a soft surface that they enjoyed very much. They soon learnt that it was a couch in the living room of a medical practitioner. Ookageppo’s thoughts synched with theirs at that precise moment, and it was instructing them to leech onto some human minds to find out more about the planet. They had to do more than just think the same thoughts at the same time, if they were to learn about this beautiful planet, and both Ooks realized the wisdom of their chief’s thoughts. The elder Ook leeched onto the doctor’s mind as soon as he had created a channel into it, and at that precise instant, the good doctor felt a jab of pain in his temple that he attributed to the screaming child in his waiting room.
“Nurse, ask the good lady with the crying child to come in now. I want that child to leave here as soon as possible.”
The nurse did not miss the sarcasm in her boss’s tone and gave an understanding nod, before summoning the mother and her sick child. The doctor took the child’s temperature and gave him a shot to take care of the fever. In the meantime, the elder Ook winced as the doctor started getting impatient with the mother and child duo, and started uttering profanities against them in his mind. This was the ook’s first experience with a negative human emotion, and the elder did not like it. But the damage had been done, though he did not realize it at that time. The next time he saw the younger however, and they were baffled by a sight that they did not quite understand, he felt irritated with the younger at not having synched his thoughts with the elder.
“That’s a sheer wastage of useful thought energy, you little idiot, “thought the elder.
“Oh really, what do you know, you old fool? Isn’t it much easier to leech onto a human’s mind and see what they see and hear what they hear and thus learn, instead of going through this rigmarole of thinking alike and at the same time? I am tired of that anyway. It takes a lot of energy to do that, and a lot of concentration too, and I don’t think it’s worth it.”
Ookageppo felt a definite ebb in the energy levels he had been receiving steadily from the earth bound Ooks, and he felt troubled. Though he did not realize that he was worried, he experienced an overall ebb in his communicating faculty, and he was being forced to enter the state of slumber more often than he usually did. He started thinking that it had been a wrong decision to send the elder and younger ooks to human land, and he wanted to get them back. Ofcourse, the other ooks were against such a thought, and the result was a disastrous ebb of energy in the ookagaryum. All the Ooks’ shells lost their lighting, and they were forced to take shelter in the ookageppo’s council chamber. The gathering of a hundred ooks in the council chamber was more than the already tired ookageppo could handle and he retreated once again, to a state of slumber.
While things were going awry in ookagaryum, the ooks on earth were having a happy time, and they had strayed from their original mission. They had no interest in finding out about humans for the sake of knowledge and understanding, but they did want to know more about how humans managed to look beautiful, whereas they ooks resembled the tennis balls that humans played with. They also wondered about how humans managed to lead independent lives, outside the control of chiefs and kings. Upon further leeching they discovered that the humans had shirked the evils of such control and managed to become free and lead meaningful and happy lives. The elder and younger wanted nothing more than to explore a way out of their chief’s control, and after many days, their synchronized thoughts produced another powerful burst of positive energy. They found themselves hurled into the air, but this time they did not think that they were being summoned back to ookagaryum. They decided to snatch a few moments of slumber. When they opened their eyes, it was dark outside. “Nightfall”, they thought. The ensuing blast of positive energy produced light around them instantly, and they knew at once that they were in ookagaryum. Both felt terribly sad, and furious at their ookageppo. How dare he control their lives? Just when they thought they had the mantra to be free from his control, he had summoned them back and showed them that he was king. However, they would not take it any longer. They had to show him that they knew he was being a tyrant. They rolled toward the council head purposefully. Instead of the ookageppo however, they found a group of Ooks scattered around the throne. “Thank god you are back, and you brought back the light”.
“That’s fine, but where’s the sly old Ookageppo?”
“He has lost his mind. He is no longer capable of opening his eyes. He is in a state of perpetual slumber.”
“Oh, he is dead”, thought the erstwhile visitors to the earth.
“So who becomes chief now?”
“There is no need of a chief. Let us have an election”, that was what the elder and younger Ooks thought. They went on to explain the process and the other Ooks felt it was a great idea too.


II

It has been two years since the Ooks made that fateful trip to earth. They had their elections and they elected a leader. But the leader was never really in power, and all his thoughts were trounced by the other ooks. There were three factions and that is a huge number, considering that there are only ninety nine ooks in Ookagaryum. With the factions came lots of thought clashes, and each thought clash brought with it a fresh burst of negative energy. The ooks seemed oblivious to their depreciating resources, hooked up as they were, in trying to control their lives themselves and be free of tyranny. They all had feelings now, and each bad feeling brought with it a fresh wave of destruction of resources. By the end of a year, half of the older Ook population had entered a state of perpetual slumber, and there were no new ooks, because the existing ooks could not agree among themselves upon the number of new Ooks they wanted.
Two years after they returned from earth, the elder and the younger Ooks were the only surviving Ooks.
“What went wrong? Where did we fail?” there appeared a faint light in the horizon.
“Perhaps we should not have suggested the elections” the light became brighter.
“Why do the humans seem happy with that scheme then?”
“Have you seen their numbers? Besides, they are not annihilated like us.”
“Look, there is a lot more light now. Maybe everything is not lost.”
“Why don’t we have another Ook among us? Three is better company than two after all”
The strong burst of positive energy brought with it a new Ook. The two elder Ooks were happy now. They realized that all was not lost. They still had hope, so long as they protected their race from the human land.
“This is our new ookageppo”, the younger ook directed a thought at his new companion, introducing the elder ook to him.
“Hail the new ookageppo” they thought in unison. At this, the Ookagaryum was once again lit up like the olden days.
“May peace prevail in our land, and may we never want to venture to human land”, thought the two original Ooks. Their joy knew no bounds when they spotted the numerous shells around light up at their collected thought.