LEAP OF DEATH

The professor leaned closer to the reporter, “Can you speak a bit louder? I am still getting used to the hearing aid”

The reporter leaned closer and shouted, “Can you start from the beginning?”

The professor smiled at hearing the words. It was his favourite topic. He had dedicated his life researching the history of the movement, which the reporter was asking about.

The professor started the usual way he would start his lectures “Where do I start? Ah, it all started when Rama Gowda met Katherine Wylde in the underwater cleaning facility. This facility would clean the ocean floor in the areas where underwater internet cables are laid. They were both working in the waste processing plant there.  A kid was born of this union. He was named Rocket, conjoining the first parts of parents name. 

“At that time, there was the great Acrophobic epidemic going on. The epidemic was caused by a virus which instilled Acrophobia, the fear of heights, in the infected. The epidemic had resulted in people getting afraid of the smallest of heights. Even the height of the footwear was causing dizziness and, in some cases, even death. People stopped using the footwear eventually.  The footwears became ancient relics. You could see them littered everywhere without use, like in road sides, dump yards, beaches, etc. No one dared to climb high rise buildings, mountain peaks.

“So, this kid, Rocket Gowda, was born in the underwater facility, and he was not exposed to the virus yet. Somehow, the underwater pressure was not good for this virus. The gigs in these facilities would take years together, so Rocket Gowda grew up in this facility. One day, he was with his parents, in the cleaning facility. There he came across a slipper cleaned from the ocean floor. Intuitively, he slipped his foot in. He was the first person to wear footwear after the great epidemic. That was the exact moment this jumping movement was born.”

“When Rocket Gowda came to the surface, the virus had already evolved and had subdued its effect. So, the virus didn’t have much Acrophobic impact on the kid. The kid slowly started climbing things. The next revolutionary act of his was to climb the roof of his house. That was the extent he could go. Slowly, his descendants started going to greater heights. Famously, his daughter Shabari was the first to sit on the edge of a cliff after the epidemic started. 

But, if you observe, although Rocket Gowda is called the father of the jumping movement, neither he nor his descendants for around five generations attempted jumping. Because, there was another side effect of this virus called Basophobia, the fear of falling. That side-effect remained in humans for a long time. Because of this no one attempted jumping. It was his sixth-generation descendant, Jambavantha Gowda, who famously and accidentally dived to the river Sharavathi, from top of Jog Falls, who initiated this jumping movement. After this, Jambavantha Gowda did several daredevil jumping acts and started The Jumping Association. In his famous speech, he called his ancestor Rocket Gowda the father of the Jumping movement.”

The reporter had been trying to say something. But, because of deafness, the professor kept on talking about history. The reporter had to shout again to interrupt the professor, “By beginning I meant what happened on the day of mass jumping.”

The professor was startled by the sudden interruption. He stopped, drank a cup of water and continued, “I was coming to that. So, to celebrate Rocket Gowda’s birthday, The Jumping Association conducted a mass jumping festival. This got the biggest response. People from all over the world came to India. This led to the biggest immigration activity in the history of mankind. I am not sure how the immigration office of our country managed this, but in Bengaluru that day, almost all of the 13 billion people from the world were there. There was not an inch of space to spare in Bengaluru that day. We were all assigned locations on where to jump. The Jumping association managed it really well. They had created applications and training programs and all. For me thankfully it was in Hesaraghatta Grasslands.” 

The reporter murmured, “I was thankfully not there in Bengaluru. I was enjoying the empty streets of Paris.”

The professor continued, as he was in his monologic trance, “So, the moment came and we all jumped together. The first thing that happened was we heard a loud clap, when everybody’s foot hit the ground, which made us all fully or partially deaf. In my case it was partial. And, then it started. There was an earthquake of magnitude 8. The high-rise buildings collapsed, the roads rifted apart, the electric lines and transformers were a tangled mess, the huge trees fell down, the impact was huge. There were rubbles all over Bengaluru. Many of us who were in open areas like fields and farms survived the Earthquake. But the people in City areas were the unfortunate ones. Almost 4 billion people are buried under Bengaluru now.”

~END~
(Author Notes: This story was written as part of creative writing workshop assignment. We were given several photos, and we were asked to write a piece, based on all the pictures. I had hit a block. I was totally blank, even with the prompts. So I wrote my most absurd story till date, writing whatever came to my mind. Did some random research, which helped with some ideas in the story, like occupation of parents, etc. My intention was to stimulate a chuckle or two with this story, and hopefully it does. I had problem with the ending, not getting the tone right. I left it as it is. )

Comments

Popular Posts