Short science fiction novel

 

Short science fiction novel - The walnut tree leaves

“Special and quite unique. Aren't they?”

Asked my friend as we were approaching a beautiful valley in Kashmir. With views that remind you of your astral ancestry. A visual reminder that we are from a distant land, somewhere hidden in the universe. And it's subconscious memory reminds us of our origin and makes me believe that the garden of Eden is there somewhere. 

Valley of kashmir

Certainly it is somewhere!

Because the human mind does not imagine anything which is not possible or does not exist. Its imagination arises from the latent infinity of genetic possibilities, where actually lies the secret to the memory able to see beyond the boundaries of the human mind. 

And noticing the walnut tree shining in a differently bright and sparkling shade of green, with prominent veins and thickness that was different from any form of foliage in this area. Was simply spectacular!

Then as we stopped, a walnut leaf spinning in the air, fell right before my feet and it was about to get trampled, with just one moaning sound. That of the moist mud, squelching under my feet. Covering the walnut leaf under this wet lump of mud. 

But I believe, sometimes destiny acts upon the will of chance and it did not prove me wrong this time either. It acted once again, and this time in favour of the walnut leaf. As I was about to bury it under the puddle of moist mud, somehow I tripped slightly and my heel of the shoe sank deeper into the mud, holding the front part of my shoe upwards. 

Walnut tree leaf

It was like the mating ritual of two dragonflies, where the dragonfly on top, often turns the end of its tail upwards. 

Right now, at this very moment, I was not sure about the secret romance between my shoe and the mud. Because, my shoe acted beyond my will, and positioned itself almost like the dragon on the top, sinking its heels down, as if it wanted to kiss the soil somewhere in its soul and then romance the wet mud, where every squelching sound was actually the echo of the kiss. The kiss of love!

Anyway, the walnut leaf did not get buried, and it started floating in the dark ash coloured, silty water pool that got created every time my foot sank into the mud. As it was being played with tenderly by the breeze, almost like a small boat in the middle of the sea, moving to and fro with the waves. 

I looked at my foot, and with some effort managed to extract the heel from the backward suction of the mud, similar to a syringe. Ah the relieved foot, the much relieved me, and the triumph of destiny. Perhaps, it overpowers every force of the universe eventually. And its proof lay right there, present before my very eyes, in the form of the intact walnut leaf- Unscathed, untrampled, still unburied walnut leaf, that now was within the reach of my right hand, as I bent a bit to rescue it from the silty and muddy puddle of water.

The fallen walnut leaf was now in my hand. Though it had fallen in the pool of mud, its wax coat had prevented it from getting stained. I held its tiny stalk, and gave it a tender flip, and every black droplet vanished into thin air. I now was holding and looking at a clean, green, bearing that pure sheen of light, walnut leaf in my hand. As I looked at it, and stood there for a moment, my friend turned back, and said, “Hey, let gravity have what belongs to it!”

I looked at him, smiled, and said, “Well for now, I shall let gravity invest some efforts to claim what belongs to it. For now it belongs to me and prior to me, it belonged to the walnut tree. Gravity that had got its chance, has failed. Although, eventually everything belongs to gravity, because it is the ultimate master. So formidable and profound a force that one day even the forces of death ( or if I may say, angels of death ) shall yield before its potency. When the universe will collapse into itself and be reduced to a grain of sand. 

That is what gravity can do. And I am sure my friend, that time you, me, my girlfriend too, along with this walnut leaf, will be held captives in that grain of sand, where gravity will be infinitely dense.

I call it God holding the fist so tight that no matter how hard one tries, nothing can open it. Only the will of God. The will of the divine. And I believe God that dwells in the highest realm, is very much like mathematics. All proving, all accepting, all willing to be proven, only if one has the right equation and mind to equate the God like power of the Universe. The true mathematics, where everything is in perfect balance. There, none of our known mathematical formulae work, and in that realm there is no scope for facts like : LHS = RHS ( Left hand side = Right hand side )

Do you know why?

Because in that dimension, there is left, there is right, there is up, there is down. Then the sum total of all these directions/dimensions gets compounded further, till it achieves a dimension of clear visibility. That is unlike a 3D or 4D view.

That is where advanced mathematics only known to the universe ( At least for now ) works to understand that true dimension, dimension of the universe, where you can create a  wormhole to travel into different parts of the universe and cover a distance of millions of light years in a matter of days. 

That is where the leaf, you, me, my girlfriend and yes not to forget, her Japanese Lilies, her beautiful orchids, everything that you see here on Earth, shall eventually lie.

Just like right now, in my hand lies this walnut leaf!”

On hearing this, my friend paused for a while, looked at me and reacted, “Ufffhhh you and your obsession with AstroPhysics, Biology, English Literature and not to forget mentioning about your Paintings. 

My God, we are here to enjoy the views of the valley. And you are busy applying your physics and philosophy to everything. Please hold the walnut leaf well and make sure gravity that consumes everything eventually, does not consume it too soon!”

I smiled, and we continued walking. 

As we continued walking past this long stretch of muddy path, we reached a low lying land, covered with green and very short grass. It was like a hedge hog that was green in colour and had spread itself across this patch. The grass blades were thicker than usual varieties of grass, stouter, shorter, and for some reason they seemed to hate water. As if these blades of grass were hydrophobic. While my friend admired the mountain peaks, I lowered my head and tried to shift free grass blades with a dry twig that I retrieved from a nearby bush. And it indeed was strange. The grass was not hydrophobic, it in fact was obsessed with water, to the extent that it had sucked in every drop of water from the vicinity, even the drops of rain that had rested on these grass blades from the recent shower. This is what made the grass blades to swell more than usual, they looked stiff and tough, but when I felt them with my finger. I realised that by exerting too much pressure they would explode like sacks of water. 

So I tread a different path, to join my friend. Leaving these grass blades and this dry patch in the peace of the moment and the surroundings that they were a part of.

And I continued running my fingers across the walnut leaf and feeling its bulging veins and thickness, which I have always found unusually pleasing and very perfect. I do not know why, but there is something about this leaf. But for now, I was its resting place and its only favourable force that could prevent it from being consumed by gravity, gradually shrouded by time, and finally as the least admired and the humblest cleaners of the world ( microbes ) acted upon it, it would be reduced to nothing. Just a memory hanging somewhere on the walnut branch, in this valley, whenever a traveler like me passed this stretch of land. 

Yet in its state of nothingness, the walnut tree would have made its contribution to the perpetuation of Earth's longevity, in the form of humus or decayed organic matter, that contributes to the enrichment of soil. For me, this is the humblest and greatest of all contributions. And the final act of selflessness for all living beings that exist in the universe.

With this thought, I began thinking about the microbes, the need for soil to maintain its layer of humus, the waiting moment of time, and most of all, the keenly expecting gravity. All waiting for this walnut leaf to be consumed and then live forever. By offering continuity to the cycle of life. 

So, I let it fall, slowly, spinning at its stalk. Finally it rested on a patch of loose soil. And the wind as if it were secretly following me from behind, in its unrecognisable and silent tip-toeing steps. The moment it fell to the ground, a gust of wind carrying a few grass blades and some dust from that dry patch of the hedgehog like grass patch, buried it partially. And it lay there, without any sign of struggle, and then it shrivelled its green tip. Bending it like a dragon fly on the top, and it went silent and motionless, caught in this final act of pleasure. Eternal pleasure. And I realised, the walnut leaf had finally found the one it really loved and wanted to be with. 

I smiled and walked forward, only to notice that my friend was nowhere. There was no trace of him. Because, like I mentioned, when it comes to determining principles of advanced mathematics, one has to deal with the equation that will establish all dimensions of the universe.

Which I believe is not that difficult if one uses the knowledge of known dimensions, and then constructs them into a single mathematical equation. Then one will be able to derive what I call the equation that shall reveal the infinite dimensions of the universe. 

And my friend was walking in the physical dimension, where there were walnut trees, the mud, the mountain, the peaks, the grass, a lot actually. But he missed to realise why the hedgehog-like grass was so different, he did not even realise that as travellers in the wilderness, enjoying the beauty that surrounds us, is actually a veil to keep you from seeing the reality that exists beyond it. 

And I was there, in that dimension, where I was with gravity, I was with microbes, I was with mathematics, in brief, I was with the Gods of the universe. And to enter this dimension, you need sufficient curiosity and feelings that first help you to notice this leaf and then enable you to hold a leaf as a beautiful asset of the universe and admire it like your girlfriend; while not forgetting that it cannot be your girlfriend in reality. 

That is the balance we all need in life, when seeking science beyond the known dimensions and probabilities. Because the mind of the Universe is not based on the factors or principles of probability, it is pure mathematics that has laws and rules which work based on a certain logic. And to know this logic, sometimes it is good to hold a blade of grass and realise the sheer wonder that lies right there, in this simple blade of grass. Because it is not just a green thing or green matter, it is BOTANY right there waiting to reveal itself.

I call it the dimension of curiosity. You either have it or you do not have it! 

Nevertheless, do not feel worried about my friend. Because the thoughts of my girlfriend always transport me back to the dimension of this world, and I always find my friend there, still walking and squelching the muddy puddles and looking at the peaks. And when it comes to him, I just have this to say, “his dimension of joy lies here. And as long as he is happy and he knows this is the dimension that fulfils his purpose of existence/life. I am happy for him. And whenever I shall return to this dimension, we shall always crack jokes. And I am certain he would often ask me, “So what happened to the walnut leaf?”

Then, I shall smile and we both would understand that in that moment he was here, whereas I was somewhere else. Somewhere far away, at times too far away, in the world of stars, trying to know the secret equation that will reveal the sum total of all dimensions of the Universe. And my interaction with the walnut leaf has certainly taken me closer to this secret.

And for this I thank the valley of Kashmir, my friend, and most important of all my girl friend who always transports me back into this mortal world, where I can always tell her, “I love you even in my moments of immortal existence!”

And that is one of the greatest joys, of being in this dimension, and being a human being. And I will not forsake this joy for any dimension of the Universe. It is something I discovered when I held the walnut leaf.

But in 2023, it worries me. Because I visited the valley recently, the walnut leaf had disappeared, the hedgehog-like grass was nowhere, and I was struggling to establish my communion with the dimension which lies beyond this mortal one. 

And I failed to travel into that dimension.

And there were obvious reasons for it:

• Incessant and untimely rainfall

• As soon as the rainfall ends extreme spells of heat

• Water with unfamiliar taste

All these factors had contributed to their mysterious disappearance. But for a mind with reasoning, the reasons were obvious. And my girlfriend who loves nature a lot, I tried to hold her finger. The finger-like form appeared before my eyes, but it did not possess a matter like feel or form, it was like a phantom I could never touch. And this worried me a lot. I had sleepless nights, because I was disturbed by their sudden disappearance.

And I knew, if it would be so for a few years more, then nothing will be left. Because when this mortal dimension will not exist, it will be impossible to transport into the dimensions that lie beyond this one.

This is why I wrote the science fiction novel They Loved in 2075, which actually is a science fiction romance, set in 2075. But it introduces the reader to the hardships of life in 2075, when there is dangerously low concentration of oxygen in the air and humans are finding it hard to breathe naturally. And the heat waves have become so common that nothing grows. It is a barren and deserted landscape. 

Yet there is life, and few people have developed new adaptations that enable them to cope with the changing climate of Earth. And there is one clan of humans that is excessively reliant on technology and is responsible for polluting the Earth. And their reckless actions are making it inhabitable for the clans with special adaptations that help them survive the harsh and inhospitable climate of Earth.

In the midst of all this, and with excessive exposure to machines, most of the humans are unable to emote or express human-like emotions. But the main character in the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075, falls in love with a beautiful woman from another clan. And she is unable to express her feelings to Saabir ( the protagonist ) in this science fiction novel. 

This science fiction novel has moments of extreme emotional highs, and at times it forces the reader to evaluate the vividness of human emotions. Because few humans in 2075 are dangerously stern and emotionless. And this emotional numbness of humans is further deepened, by their excessive interaction with self aware and intelligent machines.

That is where the main battle ground lies: human emotions, versus machines, and the determination of good hearted humans to reclaim their planet and oust the avaricious men and women who are recklessly polluting the Earth for their profits and economic gains.

Moreover, the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075, also takes the reader on a thinking journey. Thinking, because it introduces the reader to many new concepts, which can become scientific achievements and a bane for humanity in 2023 and beyond. If these ideas are tackled in the light of science and logic.

I wrote the science fiction novel, for my love for the walnut leaf, the valley, the muddy stretch, the mountains, the hedgehog like grass patch, my girlfriend, my friend. And for my need to sometimes wander into the dimension that lies beyond this one. I am sure, now you have sufficient reasons to read this science fiction novel.

If you are still unable to find any reason, you can read it for the good and secure future of the future generations. Because it is only through this act we cast the seed of hope in the soil of reality, where wind of change tends to it, while rain of wisdom nourishes it, and our selfless and timely acts allow it to bear fruit.  That your children and grandchildren can savour, no matter which dimension they prefer to be in. 

I think that is a good enough reason.

Please allow the walnut leaf, that gets tired from hanging on the branch, to fall to the ground, and twitch its tip a bit, and rest on its floor of love, just like the dragonfly on top. 

Since I referred to pools of silty water and muddy stretch and muck. I am reminded of one of the giants of Global politics, Mr. Franklin Roosevelt, who once said, “ Then men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.”

So, I conclude this blog post here, because my shoe that got stuck in the mud several times, while I was walking through the muddy stretch, has raked enough muck. Now it is your turn, I hope you will be brave enough and you will not mind raking up some muck. Because here the cause and intention are noble. And I have made it easy for you, I have already left a trail for you to follow. So tread well, and keep raking mud. Only to stop when you are sure it is enough. Then, take some rest and breathe a little easy.

See you at the trail, you will find me there. Just be my friend and please do not get worried if you do not see me there. I will be in the next dimension, and as it has always been, it will be so in this case too. My girlfriend’s thoughts will always bring me back to this mortal dimension, and then we can walk together. Until then take a trial walk on the trail of hope. Good hope!

Best of luck!