29th August 2007: The meticulous revision of previous day's Chemistry lectures was over. For the past couple of hours I was absorbed in Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and its physical implications. Now it was the time for my dinner break. With mundane TV serials and totally unrealistic Reality Shows, I preferred to have my dinner while having a glance on Concepts of Physics book by Prof. H.C.Verma. It was during my IIT-JEE entrance exam preparation year that I started losing interest in watching TV. At least, the Concepts that Prof H.C.Verma presented were much more realistic and fruitful than some absurd news item in TV.
I opened up Chapter 47 - Theory of Relativity and started munching bits of my roti dipped in a tasty curry. The first few pages provided me enough time and company to finish the dinner. But the beauty of the topic aroused an insatiable hunger for knowledge. After keeping my plate on the wash basin, I returned to the very page I left. As I kept on reading, the physical exhaustion of the hectic day started taking its toll and I started feeling drowy. "If we move at a speed greater than the speed of light, then we would end up in a world where the effect would always precede the cause. In such a world, a bird would die before it is shot. A man would die before he is born. However, there are theoretical particles known as Tachyons which travel faster than light..." - These were the last few lines that I remember before everything faded into oblivion.
Everything was dark. At a very far away distance, I was able to see the blue earth revolving around an explosive Sun. I was in space.With home in my mind I started to run towards the beautiful blue planet Earth. However, the faster I tried to run, the farther it receded away from me. My run towards home seemed like a never ending journey. Even the Sun, Moon, stars and other planets were moving away from me. When I glanced at my wrist watch, it was running backwards.
I had become "The Tachyon" - A theoretical particle with infinite energy that can travel faster than light but it can never be slowed down.
The horror of this amazing moment was that not even Albert Einstein's famous equations had the power to bring me back home. In this morbid state I started feeling hopeless and helpless; when God sent me an angel with a WAKE UP call. When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was my mother's beautiful face. Her caring voice was telling me to "tie the mosquito net before finally retiring to bed". Perhaps, she didn't realize, that her casual words were feeling like a soothing balm.
After all these years, when I recollect the forgotten memories and laugh about the whole episode with Maa, I realize that even God salutes the Mother... For she has the power to convert a "Tachyon" to a normal human being... ;) :D :D
Everything was dark. At a very far away distance, I was able to see the blue earth revolving around an explosive Sun. I was in space.With home in my mind I started to run towards the beautiful blue planet Earth. However, the faster I tried to run, the farther it receded away from me. My run towards home seemed like a never ending journey. Even the Sun, Moon, stars and other planets were moving away from me. When I glanced at my wrist watch, it was running backwards.
I had become "The Tachyon" - A theoretical particle with infinite energy that can travel faster than light but it can never be slowed down.
The horror of this amazing moment was that not even Albert Einstein's famous equations had the power to bring me back home. In this morbid state I started feeling hopeless and helpless; when God sent me an angel with a WAKE UP call. When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was my mother's beautiful face. Her caring voice was telling me to "tie the mosquito net before finally retiring to bed". Perhaps, she didn't realize, that her casual words were feeling like a soothing balm.
After all these years, when I recollect the forgotten memories and laugh about the whole episode with Maa, I realize that even God salutes the Mother... For she has the power to convert a "Tachyon" to a normal human being... ;) :D :D
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