Science fiction. The bell

 

Science fiction. The bell

It has been hanging there for almost as long as I can remember, and now it can fall anytime. And when it falls, it will ring for one last time with a loud bang. The bell that has been waking us up every morning and it has been associated with our town for more than 2 centuries now. However, due to poor maintenance and lack of attention, its main holder that helps it cling to a long and strong metal pole, has become thin due to constant shaking of the bell by tourists who visit this spot. And now it is so thin that it is hanging on to the metal pole not by means of its own strength, but only due to some miracle the holder is still unwilling to give up its grasp on the metal pole.

And this miracle may not last forever. Maybe miracles do happen, but when it comes to the holder somehow clinging to the metal pole, I am forced to believe that the bell in itself is a miracle. And if that were not true the bell that weighs almost half a ton, should have fallen long ago. 

So, in my town nothing is as famous as the bell, it is so popular that our town is not known by its original name, but people only know it as, “the town with the bell!” And now our icon of the town shall fall any day and any time. And I wonder, what will become of the town without the bell!

Whatever becomes of the town on that fateful day will not be a secret to anybody, because the bell that has woken us up from our morning sleep, on that day it will wake us up from our ignorance. As it shall ring for one last time, not in the air but on the ground. And then the town will lose its identity and become silent forever. The bell with its size and metallic strength will be unscathed, but the town that is famous for its bell will be deeply bruised and scathed from every side.

And according to the older members of my family this is no ordinary bell. It was placed there by someone many centuries ago. In those days the town did not exist, it was a  valley with a lot of vegetation and wild animals. Then some people transformed the place completely. To such an extent that it became almost unrecognisable. They erected a huge cathedral and also hoisted this bell on the metal pole that dangles in the mid air at a staggering height of 250 metres.

Anyway, that is about the town, about the bell, about the town with the bell, about the brief history of the town and the bell. Here too if you would have noticed, the word “bell” is very common. The bell is a part of our everyday life. Nevertheless, it is very late now, and I must get some sleep. 

The night crawled into the town and as the moon appeared in the sky, the shadow of the bell covered many houses. And like always it cast its dark shadow over my window too, that I usually leave open on purpose. Just to see the shadow of the bell move gradually on the wall of my room, and miraculously disappear all together.

Tonight it did the same. Its dark shadow got cast on the wall, and I watched it from my bed. As I was watching it hang on my wall, it seemed to fall down. Whereas usually it always moved around the wall and then retreated via the window. The bell was no longer on the wall and its shadow had not taken the usual course tonight. I thought maybe it had left via the window and I was not able to see it tonight.

I was busy making my wildest guesses when I heard a loud noise. An enormously loud bang and then two loud rings, followed by complete silence. And from these sounds I knew the bell had finally fallen and the town had lost its only icon.

So, I set the alarm on my table clock. Because I knew in the morning there will be the man who rings the bell everyday at specific intervals of the day, but there shall be no bell to ring.

With these trepidations I tried to sleep and get whatever rest I could. But my mind was still with the bell and the town that had lost its only icon. In the morning I woke up before the alarm could set off. 

From my window I could clearly see the bell that now rested on the ground, surrounded by a huge crowd of men and women. Most of them were silent and many of them were still talking about the tales associated with the bell. The bell had fallen, it was no longer ringing, but its story and the incident of the bell’s fall was ringing everywhere. Like a national announcement that was loud enough to be heard by everyone individually and not collectively. Because few announcements carry a special wavelength that can only be traced by very few people although it is meant for everyone. 

In this case, these people with this ability to decipher the actual meaning of the announcement were the interested people. People who actually felt that the bell did not just ring at certain intervals of the day, but they believed it offered them a deep sense of association with the town. And these people heard this announcement very clearly- An announcement that was meant for everybody, but could only be understood by only those who actually cared. 

I too was thinking of joining the crowd and take a last look at the bell that I had always seen there, hanging on the metal pole. I was still thinking and looking at the bell, when I heard a very strange sound and the bell was swallowed by the ground.  Everyone who stood there around it, wondered what just happened!

Few of them began rubbing their eyes, and a few of them gazed at the hole in the ground with a stupefied look. Amazed and unable to understand what had happened and where had the bell vanished!

And vanished indeed it had. Swallowed by the ground into its depths by some unrecognisable force.

In few minutes the size of the crowd doubled, then it tripled, and in 45 minutes almost everyone who lived in this locality and heard the sound of the bell everyday, had gathered here. And everyone took turns to lie flat on the ground, and then slither like a cautious snake whose head is carefully sticking out to peep into the endless pit where the bell had disappeared.

I was watching all this from my window and I forgot my every morning routine, even brushing my teeth! Because I did not want to miss any of the excitement that was unfolding at the site of the bell’s miraculous disappearance.

The day advanced and everyone rushed to examine the site with one chief purpose. To develop his/her personal opinion about the bell and its disappearance. 

Just like any other day evening time approached and the day turned darker, and everyone retired home.

While the bell lay in its final resting place. Because extracting it from such a depth was impossible, and living without the bell was definitely not impossible. So with this comforting feeling everyone decided to let the bell rest in its final abode. But my thoughts still hung somewhere on the empty metal pole that was begging the moon to cast her light into the depths of the endless hole. So that it could take a look at the bell that it had known and been with for so many centuries. And the moon was in the mood to oblige. It drifted slowly until it focused its light into the hole. But the metal pole could not see anything. The hole was so deep that the moonlight got tired and returned defeated by the depths of the dark hole. It was at this moment I felt something like this cannot be denied as a new reality of light: The light that got tired!

The pole was empty, it looked sad, it seemed as if it wanted to fall too and disappear somewhere in the depths of the hole and rest finally with the bell.

The poor pole; and the poor bell that fell, and then was consumed by the depths of the hell, now where it rested, who could tell?

It began raining. Earlier when it used to rain. Watching the water drops beat against the metal surface of the bell that weighed half a ton was a spectacle like none other. 

After an hour it began raining heavily, and everyone in the locality began thinking of the bell and how it made the town gain its symbolic identity. But right now everything had plunged into a state of indignity. Without the bell it felt so!

In the morning, it was drizzling, and now there was nobody at the spot where the bell had been sucked in by the depths of the earth. A week passed by. The bell was forgotten, the hole was filled, and the pole was left all alone hanging at that staggering height. Still hoping the hole would somehow give up the bell one day, and then somehow, miraculously its holder will reattach with the pole, and the bell will ring again, and the metal pole will regain its purpose. To recommence its secret love affair with the bell with a renewed gusto.

But none of this happened. At least not for three coming weeks.

Then one day, in the first half of the afternoon, a boy who was not more than 12 years old, looked at the sadly hanging metal pole, then he looked at the spot where the bell had fallen and was now sealed with soil and sand. He took out something from the left pocket of his trouser, and placed it on the ground where the bell had fallen.

And my God! If Moses had cut the water of the mighty river Nile into two parts, this boy was about to accomplish something equally fabulous and unexpected. If not anything greater! 

The surface of this area began to tremble, then it shook violently, and then this device dispersed into thousands of particles that sank into the filling of the hole. But there was something unique about these particles. They were aligning themselves in a very unique orientation, where the upper particle pulled the lower one by means of some unknown force. Once they had aligned in this order. They began seeping into the area where the bell had fallen and disappeared.

And then the most amazing thing happened. When the particles had penetrated deep enough into the hole, the contents of the hole loosened a bit; the particles in the upper region began pulling the particles in the lower region in a spiral orientation, while forming 6 veins. Which kept casting out the contents of the hole. And in 2 hours, the hole had been opened once again, and we could hear the tingling sound of the bell, as these particles hit it.

Knowing that the bell had been detected. The boy made some adjustments in the device in his left hand; the 6 veins realigned once again in the form of a single vein, and the topmost end attached itself to the metal pole; while the lowest end tied itself around the bell. Like a belt. 

Then the particles that were next to the highest point of the pole began falling off, while the particles exactly under the fallen particles reattached themselves to the metal pole. This way the bell was raised from the depths of hell. As it reached the surface. The particles did not detach further, because the boy had pressed something on his device.

Then he took out a metal detector and studied its composition. And this time he took out two metal pieces, placed them on a worn out holder, and with his fire gun he heated them up; then he added some compound to the heated metal, and the molten alloy formed a thick layer around the holder. At this stage he applied something that looked like oil on the red hot metal surface, and spared frozen ice over it. Then using the automated file in his fire gun, he smoothened its surface and drilled a hole in it.

He examined it, polished it a bit more. And once again pressed something on his device and the bell was lifted up and hooked to the metal pole once again. Finally the metal pole looked happy, and the bell sounded louder and better now!

Then the boy walked away, and at a distance, these particles achieved a ladder like formation, and he climbed the ladder until some flying object appeared in the sky, and the boy got into it and vanished from our still surprised eyes. But the boy was still caught in the wonder struck allays of our minds. 

We all were looking at the bell, and the happy metal pole. Both were happy, we were happier. And as we looked at the bell and the happy pole, a paper fell from the sky bearing this note,

“This bell was hoisted at this height by our elders who had visited your planet 1000 years ago. And the ringing of this bell is important. Because when it stops, your city will erupt like a volcano and everything will be reduced to ashes. We were worried that the volcano had erupted and it was time for us to save the very few and good souls, before they perished into its depths forever. However, thankfully it was not so!

Next time, when it falls and there is no volcanic eruption, please hook it back to the pole and ring as usual.

We will return unfailingly whenever the event takes place. And the ringing of the bell shall tell us when. But as promised by our elders to your elders, we shall take with us just the few of you. Just a very few!

Until then, keep ringing the bell. Now the holder will not weaken for a million years because it has been strengthened with few compounds only found on our planet.

Keep ringing the bell, and may it ring the sounds of joy and virtues of goodness in your minds and hearts alike! ”

Since that day, we have been ringing the bell everyday as had been the case always, for centuries. And everyone is happy now. Because the bell does not ring for one of us, its sound pleases all of us equally.

To know if the bell ever fell again, and what happened then, you must read the scifi novel, They Loved in 2075. 

In this novel the symbolic love between the metal pole and the bell is represented by two lovers, a boy and a beautiful girl, who fall in love. But the girl struggles to feel and emote like humans, because she is always surrounded by self aware machines. And her excessive interaction with them has killed her ability to feel human-like emotions.

And, as the boy tries his best to make her feel human once again, the world in 2075 is caught in a devastating war between 3 clans. Where one of the clans owns an infinite army of self aware machines. And the boy who represents two clans, gets dragged into this war with machines. Whereas on the other end he fights an even gruesome battle to help his emotionally sterile girlfriend feel human once again.

This romance science fiction has moments that will leave you emotionally submerged, and there are many moments where the scientific innovation will leave you wondering, but nowhere will it distance you from the reality of 2023 i.e. our current crisis that will lead to a major crisis in 2075. 

Crisis of Global warming, Climate Change, and Development of self aware machines without any predefined guidelines and protocols that take into account one main aspect: prosperity and continuity of the human race, when planet Earth will enter its dying stage one day. And that is bound to happen, with or without Climate Change or Global Warming. But, there are few who believe that if the occurrence of eternal inferno is unavoidable, why not plunge into it now!  

Isn't that selfish and asinine? Because the end of the Earth can be delayed if not averted, however few of us want to speed it up. 

It is like believing I have lived my life, hell with the future generations. It is l who matters; because I live for the possibilities where only my set of possibilities matter to me. Hell with the rest of you! Oops that is too avaricious!

But if there are no future human generations then what is the use of self aware machines? It is we humans who represent the human race, not some self aware machine that thinks like humans. And it is us humans that shall become an intergalactic species one day, and in this quest, self aware machines are our only hope. No doubt about it! 

But going by the present development in this sector and the thoughtless approach adopted by us for the quick adaptation of this advanced technology across the globe, we may end up in the hole where the bell had fallen. And we may not even be fortunate enough like the bell that was rescued by a boy who resided on some alien planet. Where I believe they have achieved technological harmony at such a scale that they coexist with the universe. 

Our technology is yet to achieve this coexistence with the universe, because we believe the universe is a dead place. Whereas it is alive and it reacts to every wrong move that hurts its complex arrangement of different forces.

For more details and to feel the similar rush of feelings, read the scifi novel titled: They Loved in 2075.

Until then let the bell of happiness ring in your lives, and through this wish, in mine as well. Amen to that!