Diya switches on the TV remote. National Broadcast of the Prime Minister is on. It is a historic day. The decision to merge five nations into one is being formally announced. She sat on the couch to listen. Life has been tumultuous throughout her life. Very early in her life, she lost her kins during a pandemic. In 2084 she is 69, living single in a condominium given to her by the State based on her professional standing, like in numbers her life has turned downside up with time. She had a remarkable career of her own making.
"Our Nation has 15106km (about 9386.43 mi) of land borders and 7516km (about 4670.23 mi) coastline. Synthetic boundaries are dissolving as we learn to live in harmony with open borders. Families lived enough in constant stress with their folks separated artificially. Whereas State incurred prohibitive costs to fight natural calamities including due to different rules and regulations in different nationalities, the needy still did not get the right care. Now henceforth, things will change for good. The cost that the State incurs to separate people, would now get allocated to unite people, helping at zero level with a stronger family system of support in addition to helping from the State." PM tries to make people understand the logic to integrate and family values.
Diya looks out; curtains are tagged to the wall on the side on full-sized toughened clear glass fitted on a white polyurethane frame full-scale window. As night is falling, darkness is spilling into the room. Streetlights are glowing to blooming red orange bougainvillea with a background of evergreen towering trees lined across- cassia fistula, Palash (Butea monosperma), bistendu (diospyros cordifolia), neem (Azadirachta indica). It is springtime; the fiery red Palash flowers make the scene idyllic even in mercury white LED lights. Diya released the hold on the curtain; it danced down to meet the other half. It is 8PM in the evening, and still, she is not feeling hungry. Her eye fell on the mahogany wall frame holding old memorabilia.
The cabinet is full of photo albums curetted over the years. Diya digs out one she wants to see today. And return to sit on the canned mahogany easy chair richly placed in the reasonably big living room; almost square with a carved wooden door by the side of the opening to the front balcony by the side of the window. She is on the first floor of the building, with the front portion of her condo facing the green cover. The room has a door on the side too, which usually is used. She shuffled pages to the first, a newspaper clipping that is her only genealogical record. She had got a copy made on archival photo paper besides making a digital copy saved on her computer. She preserved it in a separate sleeve. Rarely in the last 7 years did she allow the temperature in the storage space to go beyond 65degrees and humidity 35% as prescribed to keep hardcopies healthy. The yellowish paper captures her mother's full frame lying on the floor at a railway platform.
Agony filled face on one side, half-folded torso and legs draped in a sari on the other. In her late thirties, she appears to be fair complexion on an oblong jawline, thin body frame, eyes and ears closed, limbs opened out, still and listless, there she is playing dead to obscurity. There alongside is a 2-year-old girl, weeping by the side and a horde of people around, a few of them taking pictures at the scene with their mobile phones. This Newspaper clipping had made headlines during the pandemic that struck the region in early part of century. Forced lockdown multiplied woes of migrant workforce made exceptional stories, that are an inseparable part in her aging memory.
Oreo came and sat alongside the chair. She recalls she obtained Oreo from a doghouse, around a year back. She was attracted to the puppy, a cross between a black Labrador and a collie, an abandoned creature taken to the doghouse by an activist. She made an application for his custody and care. She heard back from the doghouse almost after a week period, one of longest period of her life, as she had lost hope that she could ever bring the young puppy home, hardly two months old, weak and meek, her sympathies oozing out from the first sight. Within a year, he is grown to almost 3ft tall, healthier and affectionate, much attached to her. Squatting with his head on his forearms, eyes keenly seeing and ears mindful of even slightest of sound, he seemed to be in a state of profound peace. She, too, has no regrets about the life she has lived through this far. She relates to him closely. She was abandoned at the railway station when her mother died of the virus. There was no address, no leads available; she was too young to say something coherent. She can hardly remember of her life before that day.
She gets up to change as she is in no mood to cook in the small kitchen of her apartment. She wanted to talk about the historic event of the day and gossip in the dining hall with fellow residents of the society.
"Hi good evening", she looks around to see John moving to the lift area and calls out latching the door closed as she moves to join him.
"Good evening, what a pleasant surprise to see the charming lady... out on a kill," John is always full of life as he responds.
She has been careful always of her looks and physical being. She has a good dress sense. She is tall by standards, weighing less than 75kg, with body curves that could be the envy of any.
"So, you heard the PM this evening," Diya try initiating him
"Oh yes, finally dillydally is laid to rest, he said, are you joining for the meal".
"Yeah", she moves into the lift cabin as he held the back door to close.
"The writing is on the wall since the referendum revealed the result. I believe they have taken undue long time to announce",
"Yeah, those in power do not like to let it go just like that, they look to a history to support their decision," Diya likes the discussion extended.
"a disillusion of empowerment on taxpayer's money, I would not do that", John said as they entered the dining hall.
The dining hall is on the ground floor, suitably offered for an upper-middle-class lifestyle, capacity for around 30 residents to dine together, a lounge by the side for casual chats and a big tv screen on the wall.
Together they approached the self-help counter. Diya glanced through the menu, picked a plate, poured some salad and steamed fish fillet and moved to the dining table.
"Good evening, Tendulkar Sir,"
Mr Tendulkar looked at her and smiled back. He is a septuagenarian and known to be a person of independent views. John also came over and joined across the table on other side.
"Have you read the book 1984 by George Orwell, Diya continues the conversation looking at John. A book published in 1949 immensely popular during my college days when we felt that dystopic prophecy was going to be a reality".
"Yeah, I have read that," Mr Tendulkar came with a spontaneous reply. "What is the subject today that made you recall that old classic?"
"It is about the delayed announcement of the union of five nations today. Citizens expressed themselves loud and clear, yet PM has taken months," Diya said. At the same time, John listened," the way people think has changed dramatically after the pandemic of 2019. Earlier, state autocracy was prevalent in most democratic countries of the world. The governing systems ignored masses, in line with what Orwell had prophesied long ago. Failure to deal with virus changed the scene altogether".
"That is correct, virus had united humanity like no other," Tendulkar quipped. He finished his meal and rested his head back on the chair. He was staring at the table as if taken back to the distant past.
"You know my career in IT for 40 long years has been on building digital seamless platform across sectors across geographical boundaries and that was facilitated by the single event. Universal code of data exchange (UNICODE). All countries on earth for once agreed unconditionally to let space free for all on sharing data content and its seamless transmission as constraints challenged survival. Largely from non validated flow of information including fake ones and compounded because of unilateral restrictions imposed by authorities of respective regions", John said with a pride-filled face.
"That code was probably earlier limited to language text to smile emoji etc," Diya asks.
"Pandemic lead humans to agree across board a strategy to fight virus - adopting characteristic of virus itself - free flow and contagious for first time", John has a conqueror look on his face. "Privilege and power merged in solidarity to the race".
"The perception of Law changed too. Citizen groups instituted fact finding investigations, such acts found authority in Law that previously regarded as extra constitutional," Mr Tendulkar whispered, who retired as Judge from High Court.
"That encouraged civic participation which transformed public and governmental decision process," said Diya.
She finished her meals and excused herself from moving out as she had to feed Oreo.
As she unlatched the door, Oreo came running, vigorously wagging tail, huffing and puffing, expressing how happy he was to see her return. Diya took out dog food and poured some on his tray. He came over, sniffed and moved away. "Oh my.. my dear Oree..ee. you are growing choosy day by day," She poured some milk on food and waited alongside to see if he ate. Oreo was still sitting in a loin pose as earlier. Diya went to him and started feeding with her hands, "I have not pampered my own child like that", she smiled at herself and completed the feed to the dog.
Diya changed to her nightdress, set up the speaker on the music channel to her favourite violin recital, and returned to her easy chair. The room had physical sensors for light. Only the lamp near her was glowing; she dimmed it a bit and rested her head on the recliner. She recalls reminiscing from the book 1984. how emphatically the writer had drilled down the message of Ministry of Truth for masses, "war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength". She has the book handy. She picks it and starts to read, picking a page randomly;
"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate , the subtle argument which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious , the silly , and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that!. The solid would exists, its Law do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth's centre. With the feeling that he was speaking to O'Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom, he wrote: Freedom is the freedom to say two plus plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows".
The guiding principles are so profoundly different now in reality, "war is unnatural, freedom is fearlessness and knowledge is strength". In her lifeline, she is witness to this change. The writer's imagination was very near to the truth, turning the state to autocracy during the early phase of her life. People were scared of State, Big brother and the brotherhood was different from what is today. No privacy of individual to complete privacy of individual. Fallout of Pandemic introduced a self-correcting mechanism activated by nature to curb human ruthlessness to sustainability. Telescreen activation interrupted stream of her thoughts. There was a call from her daughter," hi Mom whatsup". She waved at her from her home in the USA.
"All good, I am fine," Diya waved back.
"Have you taken your tablets and what is your glucometer reading?" Riya, her daughter grown up enough now treating her like a mother.
"Take it now and let me see", she ordered. Diya got up and obliged.
"130", Diya announced after reading from the glucometer, pricking needle spilling blood sample on the strip. "Take early morning fasting reading too", she dictated, “you may have to start regular medicine for a pre diabetic.”
"Ok now tell me what is new dear", Diya asked, returning to her chair.
'Ma ours is one gender county now, of the woman, by the woman, for the woman." She was excited as she shared.
"You know my views on that," Diya did not show any emotions.
"Enough of male female stuff, two are mutually exclusive biologically and temperamentally. Each should have the right to exist exclusive to each other. Sperm and ova are like commodities correct, tradable too. What they do is to isolate woman as a person who produces as commodity, Human males have been considering female counterparts as something like property. Today we venture without fear or favor and live naturally not in awe of a male. Compatibility has been illusive to most of us but not anymore," she was emphatic, "who knows it better than you Ma".
"So you believe a bipolar world is sustainable," Diya asked, ducking the prompt she did not wish to get into. "Part of earth inhibited by females and part exclusively by males and there would be those who wish to stay together".
"Birds of a feather flock together, you know that since ages. It was happening but ignored and continues to be overlooked, now we will live and manage ourselves and world around us, why to continue posturing." Riya had an answer ready for the concern. "Ok I have to rush for work now, take care." She hung up.
Riya's words still are active in her mind; why did she say, "Ma who knows it better than you". She always lived with a belief gender is coded in the human body. However, there existed an urge to manoeuvre that has generated a social system and a gender bias. It is mainly responsible for a distorted view in a host of cases, overlooking the blissfulness it imparts to individuals, similar to the feeling with you devouring good food, company is good food. Male and female together as a unit are complete and are blessed to a panoramic view of life, woven in a social structure that has evolved over time for the general good. A complementary companionship… soothes and smoothen ups and downs that life journey unveils…. The ecstasy of a whole life lived through, appreciating details of things around, measuring expanse of individual behaviours is something naturally endowed in all living bodies, the life forms. She honestly followed this belief in her personal life. But now, it seems whereas she remained rooted in tradition, the world has moved on. How a gender-specific community would be as blissful, she wondered. But let it be, she thought. She switched off the lights for the night. Oreo came running behind and spread by the side of the bed. Memories with Ankit came over, and she drowsed in ecstasy of blissful moment from the past.
