Mahapralay 2.0
Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden;
Without distinctive marks, this all was water;
---Nasadeeya Sooktam
Professor Maheshwaram Anjaneya Narasimha Umesh was all set to take the final step. He had the letter ready absolving all concerned from the consequences of his action. He had made his favorite drink, frozen daiquiri, just the way he liked – a little too tart! He slowly opened the bottle of tablets, looked at them, took a deep breath and poured them into his palm. He reached for his drink.
***
Umesh was born in a middle-class family. His father was a middle-level state government employee in Vijayawada. His mother was elegantly beautiful and was an embodiment of kindness. His two brothers and two sisters were feisty but loving. They had the usual squabbles but had each other’s back all the time. There was a consensus from the day he was born that he will be the one to go to America for higher studies. Born brilliant, his discipline and hard work landed him at a premier university in the States with a full scholarship. After completing his doctoral and post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology and genetics, he returned to India. Although he had handsome offers from multinational companies, he chose to work at the National Institute of Molecular Genetics, Raipur as Assistant Director.
In time, he was married to Shatavadanam Ruparekha as arranged by his family. Rupa was beautiful, had a doctorate in Education and was the principal of a prestigious boarding school. Umesh fell in love with her at first sight and this love grew exponentially with time. Years passed. Ironically, the molecular geneticist and his wife were childless. As both of them were crazy about children, they took the inevitable step of in vitro fertilization. Although the procedure was successful, due to her weak fallopian tubes, they were advised by their doctor to await implantation until Rupa’s problem was cured which would take awaiting year or two. A set of four embryos were kept frozen for future use at the right time.
In the meantime, both had advanced spectacularly in their respective careers. Umesh was honored with several prestigious national and international awards. Speculation was rife that sooner or later, he will get the ultimate award in science, the Nobel.
One day, Dr. Vinay Malhotra, chief scientist in his group rushed into his office without even knocking. He looked exactly like he had just seen a ghost at close quarters. Alarmed, Umesh rushed to him and asked him, “Vinay, what is the matter? Why are you so agitated?” Vinay wordlessly flopped into a chair and handed a journal open at a particular page to his mentor.
The unimaginable had happened. Their life’s work had been plagiarized and published in “Nature”. All their dreams have been shattered. Umesh was shell shocked. But the fates were not done with him yet. The director of the institute rushed in with the news that Rupa had had a terrible road traffic accident and was fighting for her life at the super specialty hospital.
The next few days passed off in a blur. Rupa could not be saved. Completely broken up, Umesh made up his mind. Life was not worth living anymore.
***
Mount Kailash was unusually silent. All the Ganas of Lord Shiva had made themselves scarce. Lord Shiva was seated on a rock covered with tiger skin. Devi Parvati sat close to him full of curiosity. Brahma was pacing restlessly. Vishnu was serenity itself and sat on another rock.
Brahma: “Mahadev, the time has come. We have to destroy the world and restart. It is in your hands now. No time to lose.”
Shiva: “My friend! No need to panic. I have been at it for some time now. Things are poised nicely. All I have to do is to press the red button. Vishnu and Brahma, you are ready with the plans for restart.”
Vishnu smiled enigmatically and exclaimed, “Action replay for me! I have my Matsyavatar ready, but with bells and whistles to suit modern times. And, Mr. Creator! Are you ready with your reboot protocol?”
Brahma restored to his habitual calmness reported, “all systems go, my Lordships.”
Parvati clapped her hands enthusiastically and chirped with an impish smile on her face, “that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
***
Walldorf Astoria, 301, Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York. Presidential Suite.
The suit was enormous and lavishly furnished. The present occupants wasted a valuable few minutes crowding around and ogling at JFK’s rocking chair. The obvious ring leader drew their attention and they placed themselves in the drawing room in the two sofas. There were five of them. No names were used. They were referred to by colors; Green, Red, Black, Brown and Blue. Each represented an organization located in Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Russia and Australia, respectively. They seriously believed that the present-day governments were inefficient and corrupt and were in fact but mere over ground workers of the Military-Industrial Complex which controlled world economics. Coincidentally, all of them had a recent out-of-the-world experience. They were urged by some power to give shape to the vague ideas simmering in their mind. Now they were all on the same page. Their mission: To destroy the world and let it rebuild itself from scratch. A factory reset, in fact.
All of them received detailed plans to destroy the world from some mysterious source. It went to microdetails, time targets to the seconds. This group had rounds of discussions for two days, discussing all scenarios threadbare. They found no fault in the plan. They unanimously agreed to implement it in their respective domains. Perfect synchronization was insisted upon and agreed to. They will retire to their organization and arrange for all the supply chain management and operations details. Excellent, fail-safe communication strategies were agreed upon. D-day and critical start times were already in the master plan. There was no provision for calling off at the last minute or postponing it. It was “Go, Go” all the way. As the leader muttered somberly,” You can’t make omelets without breaking eggs”, they dispersed quietly.
***
Just as Umesh was about to tip the pills in his palm into his mouth, a hand behind him grabbed his hand, took the pills. Startled, Umesh turned around. A spright little old man in a yellow, silky dressing gown carefully ground the pillsto powder with the rolling pin and flushed it down the garbage disposal in the kitchen sink.
Struggling to find his voice, Umesh muttered weakly, “Who are you? What are you doing?”
The old man said, “You are an indispensable part of a series of events that have already started. There is no stopping what is going to happen. There will be a snowball effect soon and then, Kapoot!
“I am Matsya Narayana Rao, your neighbor. You are chosen to carry out an important task. I know as part of your almost Nobel-winning research, you have collected genetic material of every known species in the world; animal, plan, etc. Fill them in a suitcase-sized, self-powered freezer, which will be sent to you within the next 24 hours. As far as the humans are concerned, you shall authorize me to collect the four frozen embryos, two of each sex, of you and your wife from the Cryogenics Centre. The entire world will see a deluge of classical proportions in exactly 29 days. I have programmed your phone with the precise timetable which you will follow to the second. Someone will call you and utter the codeword “Matsya” meaning Fish. Within an hour, you will board an ark the likes of which you have never seen. I will be with you all the way. You will follow instructions to the T and we can save mankind.
“Until then, stay safe, although your destiny will not allow you to skirt your duty. Not a word to anyone.”
With these words, the old man marched out military style.
Umesh stared at his retreating figure with his mouth open. Shaking his head in disbelief, he rushed to his daiquiri and tossed it down his throat in a single motion.
***
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, the deposed supremo of the Wagner Private Military Company was relaxing in his Dachau located in a remote resort area of Minsk, Belarus with a neat shot of Vodka in a tumbler glass. A svelte South American beauty was wrapped around him like a pepper creeper around a silver oak tree.
She inquired, "Viktor, are you not depressed that you are in exile under heavy guard? Don’t you feel choked?"
Viktor guffawed noisily. “Zaya, when I took up this life, I had resigned myself to the fact that my life expectancy was exactly one second. Anything else is a delusion. The Hindus had the right idea. They used to perform their own funeral rites before entering a tough battle.”
He felt the girl suddenly shudder from within his embrace. He looked back and found a giant of a black man standing with a grim smile on his face. Viktor nodded at the girl and let her unwrap herself and disappear into the innards of the sprawling bungalow. Showing no surprise or alarm on his face, he pressed a button on a remote lying on the coffee table in front of him. The living room sealed itself.
“I shall not ask you who you are or how you got in here. Just tell me in the next 10 seconds what you want or be prepared to die a slow, lingering death.”
The stranger nonchalantly replied in perfect Russian, “You are not in a position to threaten me or anybody, Moy Drug! I need five tactical nuclear weapons in an RPG launcher configuration. Have each one of them delivered to the addresses mentioned in the mail you just received. Your payment is already transferred to your Cayman Islands Bank."
“What if I refuse?”
“You won’t. Just Do it.”
The man noiselessly dematerialized right in front of Viktor’s eyes. With a sigh, he reached for his mobile and checked the notification from his bank. With no visible expression on his face, he speed-dialed a number. When it was answered, he spoke rapidly in a guttural voice non-stop for a few minutes and hung up with a satisfied grin on his face. He opened his chamber and shouted, “Come, my Mishka! We have some serious money to burn.”
***
Glaciers at: Mount Blank in Alps – K2 in the Himalayas – Mount Karpindky in Russia - Quelccaya Ice Cap in the Peruvian Andes – Transantarctic mountains (TAM).
Dressed like an onion, a group of five figures skied to their designated places at T-60 minutes. The leader of each group was carrying a rocket launcher. Precisely at T-10 seconds, a countdown issued forth from one of the mobiles. At the word “GO”, the respective launcher was triggered.
The entire world woke up in a panic. All sources of information were reporting unusual and alarming activity in the highest glaciers around the world. In time, there ensued a great flood on the scale of "Manvantara-sandhya" (the great flood), described in Satapatha Brahmana (ca. 6th century BCE).
***
There were incessant rains over the last 24 hours. Umesh woke up the day after his close encounter with Rao to find a suitcase-sized freezer in his bedroom. A pen drive loaded with operating instructions was found along with it. Umesh followed the instructions to the letter and over the next several days, loaded it with genetic material in his possession. Precisely on day 29, he received a call on his mobile. A cold voice began with the word, “Matsya” and instructed him to take the suitcase and leave his place in a Mercedes Car waiting for him at the parking lot of his housing society.
As he approached the electric blue car, the boot opened. He loaded his fridge into the boot and as instructed plugged it into the power outlet there. He marched towards the front of the car. The passenger side opened. He gingerly stepped in. Lo and behold, Matsaya Narayana Rao Esq. was sitting in the driver’s seat sporting an enigmatic smile on his lips.
The car took off at full speed. Even as he watched breathlessly, a pair of jet nozzles appeared from the rear bumper of the car and crimson fires issued forth. The car had transformed into a shark-shaped flying object, the like of which Umesh had never ever imagined in his wildest dreams.
“Relax, my child. It will be a little while before we reach our destination. Catch a quick forty winks. You will wake up when we arrive”, said Mr. Rao.
***
Umesh woke up with a start. The entire driver’s console had disappeared. He was staring at an accordion-type barrier one sees in the vestibules of Indian trains. MNR waved his right hand and the partition slid open noiselessly. He followed MNR striding through a glass tunnel. Staring outside, he found nothing, nada. He was reminded of the Nasadeeya Sooktam. “Nā́sad āsīn nó sád āsīt tadā́nīṃ, then even non-existence was not there, nor existence.”
In quick time they reached another barrier. MNR instructed Umesh to don what appeared to be a moon suit. Once again, a wave of hand from MNR revealed what appeared to be a reception area of a sterile multi-specialty corporate hospital, sans the milling crowd of patients and staff. Three men materialized sporting the costumes of Rishis, as we know them.
Umesh spluttered,” Mr. Rao, what place is this? Where are we? Who are these holy men?”
MNR said pointing towards them, “These are Charaka, Susruta and Jeevaka; known to you as the greatest Ayurvedacharyas. In point of fact, they are the three greatest scientists that ever lived. They will guide you in bringing your genetic material to life, ready to be introduced to the scorched earth, I mean the drowned earth, in forty days’ time, a mandala.
“The frozen embryos from you and Rupa are already reanimated and will be two Prajapatis, whose mates too are being incubated. The two female embryos will be paired with two other male incubates. That should kick start the repopulation of the earth.”
Joining them shortly was an old gentleman with four heads dressed in pure white.
“Meet the creator, Brahma. He is overseeing the recreation,” quipped MNR. Umesh realized MNR must be Mahavishnu in his Matsya avatar. He feverishly asked, “Don’t I get to see Mahadev, who must have unleashed all the destruction?” MNR smilingly replied, “Why not, why not? If He can grace Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin with his presence, how can he deny you?”
Presently, Umesh was treated to the divine presence of Mahadev with his consort Parvati.
Umesh was caught up in the scientific tasks of bringing to life the entire seed of the New Earth. He hardly had any time to reflect on the advanced scientific techniques and equipment on display. During his breaks for food and rest, he followed the devastating effects the FLOOD had on the earth as he knew it. He recalled the Chapters 6-10 in the Book of Genesis he had studied during his high school life in a Jesuit institution.
Just like the famous line, 'water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink', in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', water was all-pervading. He saw step-by-step destruction of all things natural as well as man-made. By a miraculous coincidence (or was it as ordained), the scientific work reached its conclusion on the 40th day, just as the flood had completely receded.
In short order, Umesh returned to the now dry, denuded earth. He blinked and there it was, “A Brave New World…!"
Glossary
Drug: my friend in Russian, addressed to a male.
Zaya: a little rabbit, a term of endearment addressed to a Russian girl
Misha: a little bear, again a term of endearment.
RPG: Rocket Propelled Granade launcher.
Cover photo: Jo-Anne McArthur on Unsplash
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