take a breath · read slowly
“Why are you sitting here?”
“It is very calm here… I like it”
“Did you come alone here?”
“No, Subbuni and Jammu also came…”
Govinthan checked the surroundings, and he couldn’t see anyone there. She was only a 10-year-old girl. But why is she here at such an early hour near this river?
It is a very calm place indeed… It is just about the beginning area of the jungle, and the river crosses through this place. A river with a lot of pebbles on the sides. He didn’t want to leave that girl there, so Govinthan was doing his exercises on that spot – he wanted to see her parents.
Govinthan wakes up around 4 in the morning, and he likes to jog on this side of the park; it is such a fantastic place; no one usually comes this far deep in the park, and he loves the sounds of water flowing through the pebbles; for that reason, he loves that river too. Many of his great ideas were materialized in this very place.
Usually, he never sees anyone here, not even anyone who jogs in the park, but today, this little girl, and she was alone.
“What’s your name, girl?” asked Govinthan.
“Meera… Me….Raa…” that girl said with a tune, and she motioned him to sit next to her on the ground with pebbles, but that girl didn’t look at Govinthan; her sight was fixed on the river.
Govinthan looked at that girl and pondered for a while. This girl doesn’t look confused or lost; she is so calm, and her hand motions and body language are something different; perhaps she is a kind of special kid.
Govinthan got angry with her parents. Why would they leave this kid here?
Meera motioned again at Govinthan, asking him to come to sit next to her, so Govinthan did sit next to her, on the pebbles.
“Who is Subbuni? Is he your brother? What is the other name you said? Who was it, kid?”
“Not kid… call me Meera…”
Oh, he thought to himself, ok… Govinthan asked again, “Who is Subbuni? Where are they?”
Meera didn’t look at Govinthan or respond to his question for a while.
Govinthan was observing Meera very carefully; she was such a puzzle.
“What do you think of this river?” Meera broke the silence.
Govinthan replied, “It is a beautiful river. I like the sound of the water flowing through the pebbles, and early morning fog and cold inspire me a lot; it is a mind refresher”, and continued to observe Meera.
She was wearing a fine dress, nothing anyone would wear for a morning jog or in daily life. Her dress was fancy.
“I didn’t ask about the river; I asked about the water that flows in this river… What do you think about it?” again Meera asked.
“Ah… you asked about that, eh?”
Meera, for the first time, looked at Govinthan with a divine smile. It was fantastic; only a painless child could give such a smile, Govinthan thought.
Govinthan said, “The water in this river is always in motion”
“For how long has this river been here? And will the water ever stop running out?” Meera asked and turned her face again back to the river.
“That is the definition of the river: the water always flows… And I have heard even in the driest time, this river never ran out of water…” said Govinthan.
“Where does this water go?” Meera continued.
“It goes to the sea… Kid, listen to me. Where are your parents? Or tell me where you want to go; I will walk you there… Do you know where your house is?”
Govinthan was really worried about the kid.
Meera turned again, looked at Govinthan with the same divine smile.
“I am not a kid… Call me Meera… Meeraaa…”
“Ohhh… Ok, I am sorry, Meera. Will you come with me? I will drop you at your place… Your parents might be searching for you…”
Meera turned again, looking at the river now, “So this river doesn’t have a start and end… it always flows…”
Govinthan had a mild shock. He thought the kid was thinking smart. But her presence and the way she talked looked strange for a 10-year-old kid. Maybe she has some mental conditions? He was puzzled, but he continued,
“It is not like that, Meera; probably this river has a starting point in the mountains somewhere, and it goes straight to the sea. Right now it flows through this place…”
“So it is like our lives…” Meera said.
Wow, this small kid does have such fine thoughts.
“You know a lot of things, Meera… kudos to you…”
“That is the problem, Doctor Govinthan….”
Now Govinthan is amazed that the kid did know his name, and he even asked, “How did you know my name, Meera?”
He was amazed but not shocked because everyone seems to know Dr. Govinthan; he was a professor of physics and well known these days. Every magazine and newspaper had published a lot of articles with his photo about his recent work – Quantum gravity equations.
Govinthan was finally cracking the answers to create the unified field theory; finally, gravity was combined with the quantum world! He had developed a framework, and that looks promising; it is speculated that in a few days he would show his final equations.
She must have read the news; otherwise, who would know this old professor of physics, Govinthan thought.
“I know a lot of things…” said Meera, and she took a small pebble and threw it into the river. And she said, “Did you see what happened?”
Govinthan smiled, “Yes, I see… Do you know there is gravity and it dragged the pebble back into the river…? Do you know what gravity means, Meera?”
Now Govinthan wanted to talk to Meera; she must be a prodigy, he thought.
“Do you know Newton… his gravity?” questioned Govinthan.
Meera turned her face, and her eyes were wide open… “Newton?” she continued, “Do you know Kanthasamy?”
“Who is Kanthasamy?”
“The one who discovered the principles of gravitation”, said Meera.
“Oho… I didn’t hear about him, sorry no…” Govinthan now pondered why she was talking like that. He thought someone must have told her this false story. But the silence was broken by Meera.
“He was also like you, such an intelligent being! He discovered those fundamental theories of gravity in the 11th century!” Meera threw another pebble into the river.
“Like me? Ah… Do you know me? How did you know my name?” Govinthan was asking a lot of questions… at once.
Meera didn’t bother about those questions; she asked, “Can I tell you about Kanthasamy? If you know about him, you might understand about me perhaps. I know you are intelligent.” As she told, she threw another pebble into the river.
Govinthan was in wonder! But he wanted to talk to this little girl!
“Ok, tell me about that guy, Kanthasamy”
“According to your calendar, he was living in the 11th century, Asia. He was only 19 when he discovered gravitation… just mango, and then he was in; he was such a brilliant boy in mathematics. His thoughts led to one another, and just like that he figured out why everything falls”.
“I never heard of this story”, Govinthan said.
Meera now again turned her face, looking at Govinthan, again that divine smile.
“Of course! You don’t know, or no one else for that matter… this story is not part of your history… it was kept that way…”
“Then how did you know about it?” asked Govinthan. He was furious to know her next story; he admired her imagination! She was such a wonderful storyteller, he thought.
“The biggest mistake of Kanthasamy was that he was born in the 11th century. Every society is like this river. In this vast universe, life is such a precious thing, and intelligent life is even more precious. But the common pattern is that when a life form develops knowledge, they usually misuse it and destroy themselves without realizing the vastness of this lifeless void of space.”
“I think you must have read about Dirac equations and Fermi paradoxes, didn’t you?” smiled Govinthan.
Meera did the magic again – that divine smile- and she now brought her hand out and held it in front of Govinthan, gesturing to him to hold her hand with his hand. Govinthan didn’t hesitate; he softly held her hand too.
Meera continued, “Not just in the cosmos, but even in the Milky Way, life is common, but intelligent life is very uncommon because usually, they destroy themselves. My civilization is many million years old. We took charge of taking care of these primitive intelligent living things, such as humans on Earth.”
She was softly caressing his hand and continued, “We do have a big genius, Debi; she developed an equation that governs the evolution of intelligent living things… it predicts the outcome depending on how and when those intelligent societies learn and use technological inventions and discoveries. If a human would get to know about gravity in the 11th century, then in the 18th century, they would have developed a faulty fission design and could have destroyed much of the developed society and turned humanity into the Dark Ages for the next thousands of years. It is predicted by Debi’s equation; it said this would happen, and the probability was 87%. So we have to stop that from happening, so humanity could develop more.”
Now Govinthan was a little worried; he didn’t know whether she was playing or not. If she was playing, she was damn good at it. But what if it is true? He was pondering deeply.
After a while, Meera continued again, “Intelligence is a property of this universe no matter which living organism has it. So we should not destroy it; through intelligence, this cosmos evolves. But to keep an intelligent society from developing, we must do something to make sure that they don’t do anything stupid, which is why we have to stop Kanthasamy. Then we saw such an intelligent young guy, Newton, in the 17th century; for our equations, it is safe to provide the knowledge of gravitation. So we hinted and helped Newton without his knowledge, at that time of course, and he discovered it.”
Govinthan was speechless; he asked in his inner voice, “What happened to Kanthasamy?”
Meera yet again did the trick, that divine smile, and said, “I told you already, knowledge is a property of this universe and one should not destroy it. His knowledge was saved, or should I say, he was saved. Like Newton and countless other intelligent beings, of course not just human beings, but intelligent beings all over the world, now they are all working to develop more precise answers for Debi’s equations. Improving the probability of accuracy will help us govern and nature primitive intelligent beings easily and stop them from getting destroyed”
She continued while Govinthan was speechless, “An intelligent society should not know our presence until they reach a certain level. Knowing our presence would make their society lose their faith and crumble into chaos. We only govern how they get their technological advancements; Debi’s equations only govern that part of the aspect. We never let our ideas mold any primitive societies. Our work is invisible”
Now Govinthan started to laugh hard, and he almost rolled on the pebbles!
“Where are you learning all these, Meera?”
Meera didn’t react any differently; her divine smile was still present, and she was still caressing his hand.
“Did you know why I told you about Kanthasamy? He is here for you too… I call him Subbuni for short; he is so sweet too, like you are.”
“Oh, is he now? Where is he? Let me see him…”
“You cannot see him now, but you will soon enough…” smiled Meera.
“Why can’t I see him?” demanded Govinthan.
Meera turned her face again toward the river but didn’t leave Govinthan’s hand.
“Look at this river, Govinthan! The water you are looking at right now is not the same water that was flowing five minutes ago… but it still retains the structure, as we know, river and the river is still here.”
“Yes, I can understand that…” said Govinthan.
“This behavior is not just for the river; it belongs to the whole universe…”
“I don’t understand what you are trying to say, Meera…”
“Govinthan, your mind is fantastic; this cosmos needs you!”
“I will help this world and universe, for that matter, as much as I can, and I am still doing it…”
“And that is what’s wrong…” Meera said.
“I don’t understand,” Govinthan Said.
“The gift you are going to give to this world in just a few days- those solved equations of quantum gravity- and they are dangerous! At least for now, for humankind! According to Debi, humans should not get to know about them until the 23rd century. But the problem is, you have already solved it – the human mind did it, and if you give away that knowledge to the world, according to Debi’s equations, there is a 91% probability within 100 years earth will perish due to an unfortunate experiment of fission near your star – the Sun. This should not happen”.
Govinthan let go of Meera’s finger on his hand; he looked puzzled. “What are you trying to say? What do you want me to do?”
“Your equations talk about the 4th spatial dimension, didn’t they? Don’t you want to see? Your intelligence is a property of this universe, so we don’t want to lose you; at the same time, we cannot let you publish your results too. Come with me as Subbuni did…. Come with me, Govinthan…”
Govinthan practically had a headache now; he just couldn’t understand anything anymore. He asked, “Where?”
“I am not what I look like right now; your little girl Meera is not the real Meera. This is just an illusion because I have to be in three dimensions so you could see me. You can come with me where there is no space nor time exists; you will help develop Debi’s equations – we have to protect intelligent living organisms throughout the universe. Once upon a time, Jammu came for me, just like I came for Subbuni and you… You should come with me to the betterment of this world”
Govinthan maintained his silence.
After a while, Meera continued, “You can come again here in the 23rd century to give this knowledge back if no one ever discovered it until then. But if anyone discovered it beforehand, we will come at that point too, and just like I did with you, we will convince that human being and take that one with us.”
Meera stood up now; she stretched her hand towards Govinthan, and he was still speechless, motionless, and in shock.
Meera again smiled, that divine smile, and she said, “It is getting late, Govinthan; sunrise will come soon… Let’s go…”
Govinthan couldn’t decide anything; everything suddenly looked blank. It must have been her divine smile; he was moved, and he grabbed her hand…
Suddenly, everything, including trees, pebbles, water, and all that could exist, started to crumble into dust… he could see two more figures starting to appear in front of him; he was still holding Meera’s hand. But now none of them looked like humans; the shape and everything was different. Even he couldn’t see that little girl Meera anymore; he was holding hands with something he couldn’t even describe…
Then he heard that sweet voice of 10 years old girl, “Welcome to the 5th dimension, Govinthan…”
The end.