One fine morning Michael was walking on the beach when he spotted a disc half buried in the sand, Not sure what it was, he gingerly touched it with his shoes. It buzzed, and slowly lifted itself out of the sand, Michael stepped back. He could see now that it was deep purple coloured disc. He couldn't make out what it was but it looked harmless. By nature and by profession, Michael was a mathematician and a scientist. Taking a deep breath he picked it up, It was damp and cold, It buzzed again and Michael dropped it, He was curious enough but not bold enough yet. It landed on the sand but flew back again in his hands. This time Michael hesitatingly held it. Michael looked around as if it could be someone's plaything and had lost it. What a lame thought! Seeing no one to claim it, he put it in his pocket and walked back to his house to examine it more closely.
Michael put the disc on his work table and stared at it. Now, he wasn't sure what to do with it so he kept staring at it, half expecting the disc to talk to him. And sure enough the disc buzzed, lifted itself a bit and sat back. Michael blinked and went closer. He saw a few blurred red and green lights blinking. He picked up the disc. The disc sat nicely in his hands, almost too cozily. When he looked more closely, his mathematical brain now working, he realised that the lights weren’t blinking randomly. In fact, the red light blinked thrice, then the green light blinked four times, then there was a very light beep, almost inaudible at first, then there was a pause and then the same pattern continued. The purple disc was telling him something. Michael thought for a while and then tapped the pattern he had observed on the disc with his fingers. To his excitement but not much to his surprise, the disc buzzed and slowly opened its mouth making a sound as if an old cave door was opening after ages. The oyster was about to reveal his pearl.
Two jaguar-eyes opened from its mouth, and seemed to stare at Michael. Scary but interesting. Even the eyes appeared to be talking to him. The eyes rotated and slowly came closer to each other. Then they flashed a beam which fell on Michael’s shirt - a kind of blue image. Michael bent his head to see but couldn’t make out. He slowly moved aside and the image splashed its details on the wall behind him. Michael turned and looked at it.
It looked like an old film rolling. Some hazy characters in the film were moving about haphazardly. But they were carrying something that looked like a rock or a boulder. Suddenly Michael realised it wasn’t a movie he was watching. They were real life people. Michael scratched his head but couldn’t understand why the purple disk was showing such a film or whatever it was. He scratched even more as if the scratching would have some effect on his brain and a jinn would appear. Wow! This will do some thinking. And he loved it. He was born for it. Hmmm.
People carrying those rocks or boulders were strongly built. They had dun coloured skin and were wearing similar colour outfits like skirts, but looking closely resembled animal skin. Yes, they were. On instinct, Michael, so used to touching a screen for zooming, tapped on the wall. And to his surprise the screen zoomed out. The film paused. Michael went closer and tapped again and the film began rolling again. Wow! So the technology was new too. For a moment Michael blocked his mind to the technical aspect and concentrated on what was in the film. These people were not walking randomly. They were carrying big rocks or boulders of such size that even the bodybuilders would have a hard time lifting let alone carrying to a distance. And these guys were carrying it with ease. After walking a few steps they offloaded those rocks in a huge open crate like container. Michael moved his fingers on the screen to check what was attached to the crate. The crate had a pulley and one massive animal was waiting to drag it. This animal was a mix of elephant and a rhino. It had long ears, a tail, a trunk, and tusks. It also had a horn. It looked calm and threatening at the same time. The moment the crate was filled there sounded a conch and the animal moved almost as if obeying to the sound of conch. It moved with a good speed despite its size. People moved back and sat in a circle for some rest but they were not sweating or huffing. It was just a kind of custom. Michael followed the animal. The animal which Michael named Elno in his mind, picked up speed and after a while stopped and stood in front of a cave. It touched the cave with his trunks and the cave opened. Elno got in and the cave closed. Michael noticed some numbers written on the wall which were not part of the film. The numbers read- 2MBC. When Michael touched on those numbers, the purple disc sighed.
He saw a street loaded with buildings. The Buildings were tall and circular. All the widows of the buildings were solar powered. The buildings had flat rooftops. On each of those rooftops there was a huge bird statue. It occupied the whole area. Michael tapped on the bird. It zoomed out. It had the face of an owl and long wings of an eagle. Michael couldn’t resist naming it and called it Ogle. Very funny.
There were long, narrow structures on street corners. These structures had four sides and neon lights of different colours. The top of the structure rotated every minute. Like a street sign. But Michael noticed that there were no cars or people on the road. It was just an empty street without vehicles or people. Michael waited as if he was crossing a road. A two wheeler appeared and paused at the structure. There was no one riding it. The top of the structure rotated and turned green. The scooter moved forward and Michael followed the scooter. He noticed that the scooter was closed from all sides like a rope-way trolley. It stopped at a shop selling groceries. There were three more similar scooters in front so this one waited in the queue. In a few moments when its turn came, two steel hands carrying a carton stretched out of the shop and loaded its content on the scooter. The scooter was small so the hands paused. There was a beep and the doors of the scooter opened. Now, two steel hands stretched out from the scooter, lifted the carton offered by the shop. It made space inside so it fit the carton. All done, the scooter's door closed, the shop's door closed, and the scooter sped away. The film stopped and instinctively Michael looked at the bottom of the film. It read - 2050!
Now, one doesn’t have to be a scientist or an intellectual to know that the writing on the wall was a date. 2050 was of course the year. But 2MBC? Wow! Could it be 2 million BC? Mind boggling if true, thought Michael. He turned, putting his hands on his hips, staring hard at the purple disc. Hello PD, he mumbled. What are you? Who are you? Why are you? Welcome to the present from wherever you have come. The disc closed its eyes and shut itself. Whatever man! Michael scratched his head. Thank you.
Michael needed to take a long walk to clear his head. And anyways the disc was sleeping. He decided to go to the beach again. What if the disc had left any clues as to its origin. It was a short walk to the beach, and Michael was soon walking on the familiar sand. Or was it? It was drizzling a bit. Michael let the rain drops splatter on his face. Soon he was at the spot where he had found the disc. Nothing had changed. What did he expect? He shifted the sand around a bit for any telltale. Nothing. He walked some more. The beach sometimes gave him some ideas. But this time it was not to be. So he returned home.
He opened the door and looked at the desk but the disk could not be seen. Michael whistled as if he was calling his pet dog, and expecting it to come to him wagging his tail. There was a buzz and suddenly he saw that the disc was flying around in his house. It was as if inspecting his house. And every few minutes there was a flash. The disc was recording and taking pictures.
Finally, the two pale eyes of the disk settled on Michael. It returned to the desk and hummed as if a naughty boy was caught, and was trying to make up. Michael went to the disk and tapped the now familiar combination to open it. It opened and threw a light on the wall as if a new film was starting. It was blank. Michael had a vague thought. He went to the disk and looked closely. And there it was. The disk had a very tiny keyboard with numbers and alphabets. Michael could now see it because the disk was radiating. It had charged itself. Michael scratched his head. How?
Michael looked at the keyboard on the disk. Surely it had a purpose. He thought for a while, and then gingerly typed in the current date. The disc beeped and threw a light on the wall. Michael turned and saw the disc was showing his house in the film. It was recorded while he was away on the beach. Disc had flown around his house and filmed and clicked pictures. Wow! That meant…..
Michael couldn’t digest what he was imagining. If that was the case. Wait…Could it be that this disc had recorded all the events it had been through - Or rather travelled through or flown through? That meant that if he typed in a date on the keyboard, and if this disc had travelled through that period and recorded those events, it would show them in a film form - in this case on his wall.
How had the disc managed to charge itself to show all these events? But realising the disc to be so advanced he didn’t bother to search for that answer. Now - What would he want to see? His hands started shaking. World war 1 If the disc had travelled? Holocaust? Making of an atomic bomb? Or something more constructive like building of pyramids which probably the film would have stored. Or those crazy looking tamed animals Elno and Ogle which the disc had already displayed on the wall, God knows doing what? Great works of Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Leonardo, Shakespeare? Imagine seeing them live as they were painting or sculpting, provided, of course, the disc had travelled through that period. The list was endless. A murder? An unsolved mystery?....
Suddenly Michael thought of something which he had completely forgotten. Who had made this disc? And in which year? Had the disc travelled through time and landed in its past? If the disc was made in the future then it had gone back to the past to record all the events. And if the disc was made in the past, say pre- dinosaur age, then it is travelling with the time and recording all the present events. But then the disc had already shown a film of 2050. It meant that when the disc was made - it could travel in time.
For the time being, Michael thought, let me see what the disc had stored. Who made the disc ? Well. May be God. Thank you God. Does the disc answer questions too? No harm in trying, thought Michael so he just typed - WHO MADE YOU ? - and waited for its response. Few blinks, few beeps and the disc threw an image on the wall. The image was blurred, Michael squinted and went closer to the wall. The disc was showing a man wearing a cowboy hat. Something was familiar, thought Michael. He tapped on the wall and the image zoomed out. Michael was staring at his own image.
Michael's hands started shaking. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. Which year should he type in? To the future or back to the past?,,,,,,
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