2

I had just had lunch at home. Something with rice in it. The world was behaving very wavily, as it tends to do after lunchtimes. But this wasn't just your regular full-stomach induced waviness; it was real, if you can call it that.

It seemed as if the fabric of reality itself had been rippled. As I looked at the world around me from the terrace of my home, I could see the sky bulge and recede in places. I tried to look for a closer object to have a better point of reference and looked at the building across the street. It was a large building made of three vertical sections, the middle one of which looked as if it were made of rubber and filled with water, ready to burst right down the middle. I looked at the road below. There were hills and troughs in the ground which could go up to ten metres and then go twenty below just after.

I decided not to panic and instead, ran back inside to get my telescope in a sudden burst of inquisitiveness. I wanted to see how far all this went and find out why it was happening, if I could. While I was busy setting up my telescope on the terrace, I became aware of a very subtle buzz in the air. It was as if every mobile phone in the world was vibrating at the same time. It was very faint but I could feel the harmonic unison of their vibrations around. It was only four o' clock on a spring afternoon, but the sun was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't dark though, just felt like one of those days when you're just not sure what time of the day it is until its not daytime any more.

As I pointed the telescope skyward, I wasn't really sure what I expected to see. I peered inside and saw only darkness. Not complete, pitch darkness, but a more glossy, polished and shiny kind of darkness. Feeling proud of my telescope-lens-polishing skills, I decreased its magnification and changed its position to see if I could find something to look at. Darkness. Again, the shiny darkness. I had never used the telescope in the day-time before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I decreased the magnification to its minimum and looked in.

I didn't know if I was imagining things, or the telescope had decided to not take the abuse of being locked up in a cupboard any more (The last time it had seen the light of day(so to speak) was when I had failed to spot Saturn in the night sky) and play tricks on me. It showed me something that was curved and bluish white in colour. At first sight, the crazy idea that I was looking at planet Earth struck me and I dismissed it like I dismissed dubstep as a form of music. But as my mind turned its office upside down, throwing out drawers of thoughts which had been carefully arranged in alphabetical order, to try and find a suitable explanation of what the eyes were reporting to be seeing, it was boggled. In order to retain some form of sanity, it decided to accept the only hypothesis it could conjure up. That I was, indeed, looking at another planet which was this close to The Earth. Another planet which looked completely identical and had somehow appeared next to it's twin.

At that point, my mind decided to leave its office and take an adventurous vacation. It raced along and while jumping from thought to thought, each thought acting like a crocodile: with an irregular and hard surface, ready to throw you off and consume you whole. Where had this planet come from? A parallel universe? A wormhole? Was it the other way round? Was it Earth that had somehow been transported to this new location? Could there be people living on that planet like us? Could there be another one of me on this other planet if it was from a parallel universe? Could I meet myself? How would I react if I saw myself?

As I kept looking, I could, barely so, make out the coastal outlines on this planet. I saw an inverted triangular piece of land. I increased the magnification as the coastlines came into focus, I realised I was looking at the Indian peninsula! Not only was this planet similar to the Earth, it was oriented in such a way that, at this time at least, I could see the same geographical region I was standing in! I tried to zoom in further and see what more similarities there were. Panning up and then down, I could see the most obvious geographical features mirrored: The Himalayas, The Thar Desert, The Plains, The Coasts, Sri Lanka! I gave myself (Mk2, or was it I who was Mk2?) a wave just in case I was watching me.
As I panned over the scene, I was interrupted by a bright, white flash of light. I had to quickly zoom out and see where it had come from, but I needn't have bothered. I could see the flash had now become a smaller ball of light and was growing smaller as time went on. It was located somewhere in the middle of the mainland and steadily diminishing in brilliance and diameter. I felt the buzzing in the air grow louder and louder until the air itself began to vibrate around me. It made the telescope fall out of its tripod stand but I caught it just before it hit the ground. Everything was vibrating now, with decreasing frequency and increasing amplitude. The vibration came to become shaking after then until the shaking became quake-ing. The building I was standing on shook madly and I was thrown off my feet, telescope in hand. I didn't know what was happening and felt that the answer lay somewhere up there. With everything quaking and falling apart around me I put the telescope to my eye once again, and looked.

My mind came back from its vacation and decided that it was too late to panic. It put in it's papers and cleared it's desk before jumping off the office building. That was when it hit me.
- - -
Thus ends the story of how Planet Earth was destroyed by the Silastic Armorfiends of Striterax whose maintenance workers took their instructions a little too seriously when they were told,"The outer hull should be polished so well that I can see my reflection in it!"

1

He was excited. He was an excited little boy. Even at a quarter of a century old, he remained a little boy however much his oft-practiced apparent demeanor betrayed his actual age and experience. He was old enough to drink in any country where they served alcohol, he had been old enough to vote longer than he knew whom to vote for, which was something he was still waiting to understand. He was old enough to be tried for crimes as an adult which he wasn't bold enough to commit. He was old enough to legally produce a child, but still not old enough to be a father. He was old enough to travel to countries, fly across seas and oceans, to places that still filled his mind's eye with a sparkle and a wonder which only a ten year old can possess. He was old enough to be heartbroken, although his life had been too easily navigated to be.

He was old enough to be interrupted by a phone call, but its hard for a ten year old to tell the caller that he is busy.

He was old enough to own his own house, but what would a twelve year old fill his house with: cartoon memorabilia, sports team posters, music idols CDs? He was old enough to have a discriminating taste in cinema, but a 10 year old would always find cheap comedy funny. He was old enough to be allowed on any ride he wanted, but a twelve year old can't appreciate the ride of his lifetime. He was old enough to be told by older people to enjoy his time, that these were the best days of his life, but a ten year old cannot really comprehend the concept of death, of being old and weary, of being unable to complete the most mundane of tasks. He was old enough to shave, but he still managed to cut his nose somehow while doing it. He was old enough to be employed, but he still felt odd saying that he was going to "office": Thats where dads go!

He was too young to be unhappy. He was too young to be depressed. He was too young to not look forward to a long ride. He was too young to not feel sad for people who were sad. He was too young to let himself be tied down and do what others wanted of him. He was too young to not obey his own heart. He was too young to not look forward to the rest of his life. He was excited.