‘Rick, I am feeling very hot’ murmured Willie half-awake. There was no reply.
Willie thought Rick was still sleeping.
Willie Cash rubbed his eyes. He was feeling a little weak also. He tried to move but he could not. He was feeling extremely stiff. Even a little movement of hand required some extra effort. He then realized that his body was clasped with belts, one over his chest and the other one over just below his knees. His hands were free though. He moved his head around and what he observed was beyond his wildest imagination.
He was lying inside a cylindrical structure. It was basically a coffin with the only difference that it was shaped like a cylinder. Its top was open. Willie assumed that it was meant for letting him out of this hideous place.
He quietly unclasped both the belts and stepped outside the cylinder. With what he saw now again bewildered him beyond his wackiest imagination.
There were a lot of tiny antennae jutting out all over the cylinder. He considered himself lucky that all those little antennae hadn’t pierced inside and killed him.
Moreover, this was not where he had slept last night. How the hell did he come here?
He was in a big square room, and it was very quiet here. All the walls were dark green in color, and so were the roof and the floor. Even his sleeping-cylinder was also of the same shade of green with its little antennae of a still darker shade of this already dark shade of green.
He tried to locate the door now, and it was nowhere to be found.
The only way he was able to spot the door was by its door knob which was jet black in color. Otherwise the door was nicely camouflaged with the color scheme of the room.
He went to open the door. As soon as he was about to turn the door knob, it opened itself towards the inside. And in came a little robot.
For a brief moment that the door was open, there was a deafening noise from the outside. Willie thought that there was a battle going on outside the four walls of the room. He quickly shut the door.
The robot was still standing there.
‘Good’ said the robot in a mechanical voice.
‘But I am not good, and I am growing unhappy. What on earth I am doing here?’ asked Willie.
‘This is Fusterlok’ replied the robot.
Willie thought that this was some pub. The name was a little weird but then all pubs had weird names.
‘Why didn’t you tell me before? I could have come here myself’ said Willie matter of factly.
‘That was not possible’ added the robot.
‘Have you lost it? Of course I can go wherever I want to. I don’t want some rogue robot to take me to places and especially to some weird sounding pub,’ said Willie good humouredly.
‘Alright… enough of this! I can’t put my brain cells under too much pressure. Let’s go and have some beer’ suggested Willie.
‘Beer?’ asked the robot surprisingly questioningly. He rolled his eyes all over in their little circular sockets. He had never heard this word before.
‘What? You don’t know what a beer is? Are you living on Mars?’ Willie was equally surprised.
‘No’
‘Will you please tell me where have you come from?’ gently asked Willie.
‘Fusterlok’
‘And where the hell is this Fusterlok? And for God’s sake can you please add some words to your replies?’
The robot was getting onto his nerves now.
‘Fusterlok is a planet 892,324,633 kms from earth’ replied the robot. He was looking very bored of all this. After all he was designed not to speak too much. And this alien guy was forcing him to do exactly that i.e. speak too much.
‘Have you gone mad? Did your girl friend dump you before you came here?’ It was Willie’s turn to lose it now.
‘My female species doesn’t exist.’
‘Good for you. Anyways, you would have bored her to death.’
‘By the way who brought me here?’
‘I’
‘And how did you manage to do that?’
‘On a spaceship! You came in that green sleeping-cylinder. It took us forty-three nights and forty-two days to reach Fusterlok’
‘I can understand. A robot without a girl friend can go frikkin’ crazy sometimes. Is there any possibility of sneaking back to earth?’ asked Willie hoping to get a positive reply.
What was most surprising to Willie was that how come he hadn’t realized even once that he was being hijacked by… by a ROBOT! There was only way that this could have happened. He must have been sleeping the soundest sleep of his life.
‘I don’t know’ coolly replied the robot.
‘Do you have a name for yourself? Hmm… forget it! Why on earth would someone want to name you?’ Willie made a sarcastic remark. ‘By the way I know how to short-circuit an electrical system, and I particularly specialize in diffusing teeny-weeny robots just like you.’
The robot just stood there. It stood there for another fifteen seconds.
Another fifteen seconds.
And then he replied ‘Jupiter’.
© 2007 Ankur Shanker
Archives
Willie thought Rick was still sleeping.
Willie Cash rubbed his eyes. He was feeling a little weak also. He tried to move but he could not. He was feeling extremely stiff. Even a little movement of hand required some extra effort. He then realized that his body was clasped with belts, one over his chest and the other one over just below his knees. His hands were free though. He moved his head around and what he observed was beyond his wildest imagination.
He was lying inside a cylindrical structure. It was basically a coffin with the only difference that it was shaped like a cylinder. Its top was open. Willie assumed that it was meant for letting him out of this hideous place.
He quietly unclasped both the belts and stepped outside the cylinder. With what he saw now again bewildered him beyond his wackiest imagination.
There were a lot of tiny antennae jutting out all over the cylinder. He considered himself lucky that all those little antennae hadn’t pierced inside and killed him.
Moreover, this was not where he had slept last night. How the hell did he come here?
He was in a big square room, and it was very quiet here. All the walls were dark green in color, and so were the roof and the floor. Even his sleeping-cylinder was also of the same shade of green with its little antennae of a still darker shade of this already dark shade of green.
He tried to locate the door now, and it was nowhere to be found.
The only way he was able to spot the door was by its door knob which was jet black in color. Otherwise the door was nicely camouflaged with the color scheme of the room.
He went to open the door. As soon as he was about to turn the door knob, it opened itself towards the inside. And in came a little robot.
For a brief moment that the door was open, there was a deafening noise from the outside. Willie thought that there was a battle going on outside the four walls of the room. He quickly shut the door.
The robot was still standing there.
‘Good’ said the robot in a mechanical voice.
‘But I am not good, and I am growing unhappy. What on earth I am doing here?’ asked Willie.
‘This is Fusterlok’ replied the robot.
Willie thought that this was some pub. The name was a little weird but then all pubs had weird names.
‘Why didn’t you tell me before? I could have come here myself’ said Willie matter of factly.
‘That was not possible’ added the robot.
‘Have you lost it? Of course I can go wherever I want to. I don’t want some rogue robot to take me to places and especially to some weird sounding pub,’ said Willie good humouredly.
‘Alright… enough of this! I can’t put my brain cells under too much pressure. Let’s go and have some beer’ suggested Willie.
‘Beer?’ asked the robot surprisingly questioningly. He rolled his eyes all over in their little circular sockets. He had never heard this word before.
‘What? You don’t know what a beer is? Are you living on Mars?’ Willie was equally surprised.
‘No’
‘Will you please tell me where have you come from?’ gently asked Willie.
‘Fusterlok’
‘And where the hell is this Fusterlok? And for God’s sake can you please add some words to your replies?’
The robot was getting onto his nerves now.
‘Fusterlok is a planet 892,324,633 kms from earth’ replied the robot. He was looking very bored of all this. After all he was designed not to speak too much. And this alien guy was forcing him to do exactly that i.e. speak too much.
‘Have you gone mad? Did your girl friend dump you before you came here?’ It was Willie’s turn to lose it now.
‘My female species doesn’t exist.’
‘Good for you. Anyways, you would have bored her to death.’
‘By the way who brought me here?’
‘I’
‘And how did you manage to do that?’
‘On a spaceship! You came in that green sleeping-cylinder. It took us forty-three nights and forty-two days to reach Fusterlok’
‘I can understand. A robot without a girl friend can go frikkin’ crazy sometimes. Is there any possibility of sneaking back to earth?’ asked Willie hoping to get a positive reply.
What was most surprising to Willie was that how come he hadn’t realized even once that he was being hijacked by… by a ROBOT! There was only way that this could have happened. He must have been sleeping the soundest sleep of his life.
‘I don’t know’ coolly replied the robot.
‘Do you have a name for yourself? Hmm… forget it! Why on earth would someone want to name you?’ Willie made a sarcastic remark. ‘By the way I know how to short-circuit an electrical system, and I particularly specialize in diffusing teeny-weeny robots just like you.’
The robot just stood there. It stood there for another fifteen seconds.
Another fifteen seconds.
And then he replied ‘Jupiter’.
© 2007 Ankur Shanker
Archives
5 comments:
Hi Ankur,
I read about your quest to fund your education on a blog. This is a great effort and you will be far richer, not only by money, due to this.
My best wishes are with you.
Good going Amit. Wish you all success on the way.
Good try Comrade Shanker!
Ankur - love the idea and do hope that it works out.
Couple of suggestions - it maybe much more lucrative to sell banner ads directly to companies (similar to the million dollar web page) as adsense revenues are highly correlated to the number of visitors.
Second thing, my bschool (UChicago) gives low interest loans to students - LSE may have something similar...
Best of luck!
[Seeker] Thank you for your support.
[Rajesh Kumar, The Dryad] Thank you.
[Vivekp] Thank you. And yeah I will take your advice into account. No, LSE doesnt have any such scheme.
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