2050 Reminiscence Urna Mukherjee 1st year, B.A. (Hons.), English St.

Stephens College

The world began without man, and it will end without him. - Claude Lvi-Strauss A light gust of wind was blowing a cool spray of water on my face, smelling strongly of tender green leaves, dewy sprigs, and moist, shaded barks and freshly blossomed jasmines A distant trilling voice like the tinkling of crystal chimes warbled somewhere far, far away, too far away for my imperceptive ears to hear anymore If I did not wake up now, I would surely lose my mind. And so, I finally decided to open my eyes. But what did I have to open my eyes to? A dying, drying sea of endless murk and contamination? An immensely protracted landscape that spoke of nothing but desolation and despair, which no gentle caress could ever make benign again? Everywhere I look I see nothing but misery, every human I meet of the meagre handful left have nothing for anybody else but looks of unspeakable savagery a hatred that comes from the very innards of their being; they have seen their childhood, adolescence and youth ravaged by the ruthless and insatiable greed of their fellow humans, their world with all that pleased them and all that they held dear crumble to dust and ashes because of the blind arrogance and supreme indifference of them they had been taught to call their brothers; they have seen their mothers and fathers choke on noxious fumes and gasp in vain for a last breath, their brothers and sisters foam in the mouth and writhe on stone cold floors as unknown enemies invaded their defenses, their husbands, wives

and children die by inches of sheer starvation as they themselves were reduced to things less than human hunting and scavenging, fighting tooth and nail merely to survive they have watched helplessly. Nothing scares them anymore; having known fears beyond all others they are now scarcely more than mindless automata, driven solely by hunger and thirst. These are a violent lot too, testimony to civilization coming full circle, living as little more than the primitive hunter-gatherer, destined to be vanquished from this earth by its own self. Yes, I have seen the future. And man figures nowhere in the equation. Has it been only half a century? Time flies too fast for me. It seemed but yesterday that the naked, inhospitable soil wore a veil of the brightest, newest, most refreshing and most nourishing green; that every patch of greenery had exotic hues, irresistible fragrances and lilting melodies to boast of, where love and friendship were not all that obsolete or unheard of, where a human young still pulled into a warm embrace the offspring of animals different than itself. But, in the midst of all of that, had I not seen the ominous shadow of an impending eclipse looming at the back, growing larger everyday, threatening to consume all things precious? Had I not heard the piercingly silent cries of agony as one tree after another fell like slain heroes, as bird and beast dropped off one by one having tried till the last to survive a long lost battle, as crowns of frozen splendour dissolved into their own tears, as children were snatched from their mothers bosom to slowly burn away in the fiery pits of mans hell, as the lustful giant danced its triumphal dance trampling mercilessly on the weak, the meek and the poor? What had I done about it? But then, was it my place to do anything? What of those who had claimed this planet? Gaia is not mine, I am merely a visitor so what if my visit has lasted centuries? So what if I had had to fight my master, that master whom I had promised to keep well fed in the hope that he would feed on me and mine last, to protect this wretched globe of green and blue from his deathly jaws? So what if

he banished me to live forever in this inexplicable world that I yearned for so much? So what if I had almost come upon the sole reason for my entire existence? I had more right than others to sit back complacently, refusing to heed the warning signs, to listen to the pleas of all those who had seen, to take the fact seriously once and for all that things were closing in Its been ages since Galactus left and it turns out he was right after all. The world began without man, and it will end without him you cannot go on protecting those creatures you dote on, they will end up killing themselves some day and then you will be there, all alone, with no one to dote on anymore what are you going to do, eh? What will you do then? I had refused to believe him then. I was becoming much too, how shall I put it, human. His prophecy is on its verge of fulfillment. Increasingly, the world around me looks as if its inhabitants hated it. Man has succeeded in destroying himself and like the hungry tide that pulls and devours all that its watery tongue reaches out at; he has pulled all his fellow creatures down to the infernal depths of doom. Who will save him from eternal damnation? He has sucked the life out of this once thriving, deeply organic planet. There can be no salvation for a sin so great And yet and yet A little girl strokes a swooning dove with great tenderness. Her face is pale and emaciated, her limbs skinny and sickly; clearly, she has neither eaten nor drunk for days. And yet, she pours the last drops of water from her little pitcher down the throat of the keeling dove. Surely, there is hope yet. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. Why cant this be a new beginning, the commencement of something

even greater and a lot better? Surely, there is a grand design; surely, mankind has a destiny to fulfill! Surely, it is all part of the intentions of a higher power! Surely, one day The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.