A Dream

To the smell of mud just after it has rained.. the musical chirping of the morning birds.. feeling full on fresh.. Manu wakes up.. and sees the time.. Its 5 am.. and her day has begun..

She quickly gets ready .. very excited today.. for her martial arts class.. Today Mr Mukesh , their MMA instructor, was going to teach them  the flying kick.. She has been practicing for days to tone herself up for flying kicks. By now she had perfected all the fundamental strikes, blows, punches.. and of course kicks, her favourites. By 5:45 she is ready in her favourite black tracks and sets out .. jogging all the way to her MMA school, set in the heart of the dense forest city..

There she meets her friends.. Surya,  Anu,  Gaju,  Geetu,  Ishu,  Duggu and Kaku.

Together all 8 get started with warm up. By 6:30 they are done.  Mr Mukesh now tells them about the flying kick technique and displays a flawless flying kick . They are simply amazed. They are all too excited and a little nervous.. Mr Mukesh is a strict instructor . One by one they try the flying kick . They repeat it till they are satisfied.  After half an hour they practice the regulars and at 8, the class is called off.. Everyone is dead tired. They walk down to their favourite dairy, and enjoy a hearty meal of honey and chocolate milk, wild fruits and cookies.

At exactly 8:30 , they say their goodbyes and walk down to their homes. Manu and Anu go back together.. so that they can discuss their new S3 project.

Manu and Anu are Problem Solvers by profession. They solve the most pressing problems of their time. They love their work.Their signature project is Rohini Reinvented. They have created a forest city out of a city drenched in pollution, population and waste. Now their Rohini is the world’s first forest city, completely free of automobiles, air conditioners and almost all mechanised devices. It is a zero energy, zero waste and zero pollution city..and its not a surprise it has been topping the world’s best city chart for the last 2 years..

Only mechanised devices left are laptops, cell phones and aeroplanes. People in Rohini use aeroplanes only for overseas journeys. For journeys up to 50 km,  they use horses. Their immediate day to day places are no farther than 10 km.. for which they prefer walking. Everyone in Rohini is a fitness freak.

Anu and Manu are best friends.. By now they have completed 10 projects together.. each one a marvel in its own . The new project they have at hand is to make a sustainable model for Baghdad.

In about half an hour,  Manu reaches home and gets ready for work. Her place is a single-storey 1000 sq feet cottage called Nemat..constructed of natural reusables.. wood.. bamboo.. etc..It is completely earthquake resistant. It is covered on all 4 sides by a garden. The garden houses mango trees.  Manu’s favourite.. Apart from that there are strawberry vines and a gamut of varied species of plants. In the far end of the garden is the animal farm.. In there are 3 horses.. called Ninja, Racer and Ado,  one cow called Nandu , 2 rabbits called Cheenu and Meenu and 1 dog called Bruno.. Not just Manu, but everyone in Rohini forest city lives in similar cottages. What changes is the choice of plants and trees in the garden, animals in the farm and interior cottage decor.

Seeing this cottage makes Manu feel good.. She has initiated the paradise she used to dream of a few years back.

They walk to their office place.. A plush complex..called the Problem Solvers Shed.. just 5 km off from Nemat ..

It is one of a kind.. full of state of the art technological advances somehow effortlessly blending with nature..laptops and supercomputers supporting 5g internet connectivity within dense forests…aircrafts inside and horses  outside..

It is quite similar to Nemat, in a way. Only 10 times in size, and yeah ..there is no animal farm here. There are various divisions. and the one they were going to use today was called S3: Sustainable Smart Settlements.. There are just 7 people here.. popularly known as the 7 problem solvers: each a pro of his field.. They sit and brainstorm on the new Baghdad problem. Baghdad is the worst city on the city rating index. The government of Baghdad has sent them all the statistics, data and pictures they needed. They divide their work and set down to it.. Manu would handle the landscape design .. Anu the technological advances.. Golu, the governance.. Prakruti, the environment .. Farhan, the generic lifestyle.. Yuno , the unique stuff about Baghdad ..

They sit in silence for 2 hours.. none uttering a word.. total concentration..complete silence..

After 2 hours, at 12 they discuss their advances and formulate an action plan . By 2, they all set out for lunch.. They cook together for themselves.. Today they were going to try Lazeez Paneer..

In an hour, the lunch is ready and they voraciously  gulp it down. Even they are astonished that they made such a delicious lunch..but their team rocks.. Together they can solve grave problems.. and this was just a dish.. After a small game of cards.. they set to work again .. now all together.. By 6 they are ready with an ingenious and structured solution. Tomorrow they would fly to Baghdad in their self made plane.. VAYU.. It was the world’d first flying machine that used carbon-dioxide as a fuel.

They would stay in Baghdad for  a week.. to have a first hand experience of the conditions there. They would then discuss their solution with the people.. make changes to it if need be..Finally, they would appoint localites of Baghdad  to implement the solution. And if all goes well, Baghdad would compete Rohini within a month..

At 6:30, they all leave for a game of football. Today is Monday and Monday is the football day. They have a sport fixed for each day of the week.. Monday :Football, Tuesday: Swimming, Wednesday: Badminton, Thursday: Cricket, Friday: Basketball.. Saturday and Sunday were off and everyone did as they wished.. movies, horse-riding, family outings were the regulars..

By 8 .. they all say their goodbyes and walk back to their homes.. At dinner Manu tells her mummy and bro about her day. In return they tell her about theirs’.. Manu’s mum is an English teacher and she tells them anecdotes of the naughty children in her class.. Her bro is in 12 th grade, preparing for engineering. And unlike her, as of now he has no idea of what he wants to do with his life.. But that is what engineering is all about.. exploration.. They say their good nights.. hug each other and go to bed..

Manu picks up her favourite new adventure novel.. reads if for half an hour and then dozes off .. to a dreamless relaxed sleep..

-- manu  

-- twwg