The Divine Lesson

 "Mom... a chocolate...."

“Yep. But, only one”, she said and bought her Son a candy. He tore the wrapper, grabbed the chocolate and put the wrapper in his shirt pocket.

“Idiot”, she said slapping lightly on his hand, “Put it down. Why do you put trash in your pocket”.

He obeyed and put the trash down, but still in a soft tone, said, “Mom.. teacher has advised us never to litter by putting trash on road. If everyone starts littering, world would be a dustbin soon. “

His words triggered her ego and she angrily glanced at him and shouted, “Shut up Kanha and learn to respect elders”. With that, she lifted him, took him home, fed him dinner and let him sleep.

Since her husband was out of work, she left her son to sleep and lay beside him. She felt remorseful about slapping her son, despite her fully knowing that he did no mistake. 

* * * * *

She got up at dawn and saw her cell phone. “Date: 22-Aug-2047 8 am”

Her son would have already gone to the office. She got up and slightly combed her gray hair with a comb, finished her morning routine and came to the living room. She then drank the chemical coffee offered by her daughter in law, and then swallowed few water capsules. She vocally ordered her mobile to present news. A news reader appeared before her in 3-dimension and started presenting the morning news.

“I am suffocating. Could you please increase the oxygen level a little more”, her daughter in law heard her and increased the oxygen levels through the Air Oxygenator. It was required in every homes these days as the outside air was no more good enough to breathe.

* * * * *

Water capsules were also very expensive. The government provided 100 capsules a month free of cost to every family. Apart from that, only few chemicals were available for drinking. However, they did not feel as good as water. Atleast 3-4 capsules were required a day for a human to survive.

Kids of these days studied about rivers and lakes only in 3D textbooks. There were also a set of people in their nation who debated all these and claimed that all information about rivers, lakes etc were part of conspiracy by the illuminati to misguide people.

“Drinking water being such a scarce resource, how could it have ever been possible for it to have flowed on roads?”, they questioned and these kids, who lived in an era where drinking water capsules costed thousands of bucks, often believed them. They thought that they should stay rational and not believe in such superstitions of the existance of lakes and rivers of pure water, as their parents did.

* * * * *

As she felt bored, she informed her daughter-in-law that she would go shopping and return by early noon. Then, she wore her oxygen helmet and came out of her apartment. Oxygen helmets were mandated by Government following the continuous death of people due to air pollution.

Walking a few steps out of her apartment, she boarded the travellator and ordered it to take her to the main entrance. The travellator quickly descended to ground level, moved horizontally for a short distance and let her out at the main entrance.

Walking past the gate, she boarded the walkalator on the street. Every street had two walkalators on either side for people to travel. It was sufficient to board and unboard a walkalator at the end of every street, to go from one place to another. As air was heavily polluted, special lights that would work in polluted air was used on roads.

She got down at the end of her street and boarded the next walkalator. Beggars occupied the corners, wherever a little space was available beyond the walkalators. Their condition was much miserable – Not just food, they had to suffer even for clean air to breathe.

* * * * *

She entered the mall, and removed her oxygen helmet. A robot girl came, wished her a happy morning and asked her for her orders. As she let know the items she required, the robot displayed the products in 3D format. She ordered a few clothes and requested that she wanted to touch and feel them before buying. The robot quickly provided her few sample pieces to touch and feel. Post her confirming her orders, the robot girl provided her details of her bill, and asked if the amount may be debited from her account. As she nodded yes, her consent was captured, and amount was deducted from her bank account. Another robot girl gave her all the products in a neatly packed manner.

As she was about to leave, she waited a moment seeing a working model of the old earth, which was displayed in the mall. A lot of kids were playing eagerly around it.

“See this, we had drinking water flowing like this as rivers, when mom was a kid like you”, a mother was showing her kid, as her kid listened to her in awe. Greenery of the trees, humans breathing without helmets – everything was a surprise to them. Her mind recollected the good old days and she let out a big sigh.

* * * * *

As she moved out of the mall with a heavy heart, she could see a kid suffocating for breath at the corner of a street. Possibly an orphan, it was evident that he could not afford a helmet, as he did not even have a good place to stay. Fearing any catastrophe, that may be caused if she waited for an ambulance, she opted not to call the free ambulance helpline and instead, lifted him herself and moved towards the nearby government hospital that provided free healthcare, which was less than a mile away.

There was heavy rush at the hospital. She went to the lady robot which served as receptionist. “Tamil nadu sarkariya mufth aspaththaal me aapka swagath hai” (Welcome to Tamilnadu Government Free Hospital”) - the machine welcomed her in hindi, a language which she never knew. “Hindi nahi.. Tamil bolo”(“Not Hindi.. Speak Tamil”), she ordered the machine using the only sentence in hindi she ever knew. This language was not as common in her childhood days, but following the changing governments, it was now one of the two languages supported by the Government everywhere.

The robot registered her name and citizenship ID as the attender details and requested for the patient details. She said “Not sure. It is an emergency”.

The machine let out a bed and she made him lay there. Robotic hands touched the boy at different places and measured his pulse, blood pressure, temperature and various other details. Later, the robotic girl let out a slip with his citizenship details (that were fetched through his biometric details) and his health parameters in hindi and english languages. The slip also contained a RED symbol indicating emergency, and hence she was allowed to meet a human doctor immediately, bypassing the others.

* * * * *

The doctor examined the boy, injected him with two doses of oxygen. After few minutes, seeing no improvement, he decided to try the old method of using an oxygen mask.

Then, he grabbed the medical sheet again, “So, you are yashodha. Looks you are a good soul indeed, to have cared for a street side orphan. Happy about such people”, doctor exclaimed.

He then continued, “You could leave now. We shall contact you later, if required, using your citizenship ID”. She refused, and informed that she would stay. She also sent a 3D short message to her daughter in law, intimating her that she would be a little late.

* * * * *

Seeing no betterment in the boy's condition, the doctor scanned his lungs using a machine. It showed the results in 3D format. He zoomed it and walked around it to take clear look.

“His lungs is full of micro dust. Very critical indeed”, he continued, “You remember our days, when we used to throw all garbage on street? The Govt somehow able to manage all trash dumped in bins. But, as people continued dumping everywhere, they finally took an adverse decision, claiming that they had no other way to go. They just broke all such trash into micro particles using machines – particles that are too small for anyone to see, and let them out into the atmosphere. As this increased air pollution, they made oxygen helmets compulsory. Rich ones like us still manage somehow. But, what happens to poor kids like him,  none seemed to bother!!”, he said in a sad tone.

As it looked like the boy was trying to tell her something, the doctor, thinking that they may be some of his last few words, partially opened the oxygen mask, so that he could talk.

The boy suffocated for breath and every time as he opened his mouth, Yashodha felt see could see the entire earth within his mouth – Earth that was full of trash, dump, garbage and pollution – all generated because some people of previous generation never bothered to keep it clean. She could see everything on earth, and also herself, asking her son to throw the chocolate wrapper on the road, instead of disposing it in the bin.

As she kept staring at him dumbstruck, his face suddenly turned to look like her son Kanha's face, who shook her holding her hands shouting “Why did we not keep earth clean mom.. I would be alive, had we did that at the right time, mom. Why did we not mom?? Answer me mom.. Answer me mom...”

“Mom....”

“Mom....”

“Mom.....”

“Mom....Wake up ”, she suddenly woke up from sleep with a jolt. There she saw Kanha, trying to awaken her from sleep, as he said, “Mom.. Today is Kichcha (Krishna) baby's birthday. We have to cook sweets for him. Get up soon...”

Not fully out of the effect of her terrible dream, she hugged him tight, kissed him, and said, “Dear.. I shall never henceforth dump any trash outside, and will always dump them in a bin. You shall do the same. We shall keep earth clean for our forthcoming generations”.

He smiled and ran away shouting merrily “Its Krishna's birthday today, and we shall all celebrate”.

As she got up, she looked at the painting of Lord Krishna and it looked to her like the Lord was smiling at her, asking, “Have you learnt your lesson?”

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