Second Position: Nagrika Spring Competition 2021

Lipokmenla Ao holds an MA degree in Literature from North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya. She works as a freelance writer for an NGO based in Sri Lanka, 'We For Us' and has been published consecutively under the Wingword Poetry Prize for the years 2018 and 2019 for her poems "Home" and "The Solitary Man." She has recently also been awarded a prize for her essay 'Indian Life' under the Nano Essay Competition, held in India.

SILVER: The New World

The dark summer air whistled its way to Lulu’s window, and into her bedroom, as she hurriedly clenched the wavering curtains, and slid shut her windows. It was the mid of July, and Dimapur had become the hub of generous rainfall. It was already the third consecutive day of heavy rain and with every rainy day, followed the glorious proud sun that rose and then drifted away into hiding after three hours of insanity. The army of dust scattered around the streets would then rise slowly with the maddening winds that fogged the city. The thundering clouds would then appear from far away the hills, flashing rapidly as though two rocks were being clashed in a desperate fit to attain fire.

Lulu sighed as she sat down on her bed; it was seven twenty-five in the morning and she could hear her mother clanking the pan in an ambiguous manner, that day a little too early. Every seven thirty AM in Lulu’s house was a ritual of intentional pots and pans clanking in the air, and it was enough to awaken any hibernating animal. That day Lulu could sense her mother stirring the pot of mashed potatoes, dried yam and red chilies that tickled her nose, as her mother sang;

“Far away there’s a place for you and me.

Far away there’s a place yet to be seen.

Far away there’s where you and I shall meet”.

As Lulu listened to this routine song, she noticed in the far corner of her room, a silver coated crow as though dipped in molten silver, perched itself at the top of her cupboard. It had taken shelter in her room from the arriving madness outside, and had nested itself on top of Lulu’s unwashed uniform from last week. Lulu approached the strange bird in utter curiosity; an uncanny air of interest had blanketed her mind as she slowly walked towards the bird. The clock ticked in frenzy, almost matching Lulu’s own heartbeat, conjoined with her mother’s call; “It’s almost seven thirty! Time for breakfast!” Her mother’s voice seemed more and more distant as Lulu’s hands moved nearer to the silver crow. Lulu’s finger tips touched the curious bird as the clock struck seven thirty, and burst into a rainbow of colors.

Now there existed only darkness and silence, and maddening silence. Slowly there was a sound, and as she listened closer, she heard another. It was a drop of something; clinking, splashing, crashing, roaring. Lulu opened her eyes to bright lights, almost blinding her, blinking vigorously as she rubbed her eyes.

She stood on a beach, and she stood there motionless and awestruck. She couldn’t scream; panic had no room in her mind quite interestingly. She could feel her feet press against the warm sand, and the curious grains peeping in between her toes. She remembered this place, there was an uncanny air of belongingness as she wandered the shore. 

After a minute of aimless wander, she noticed the same silver crow. But this time in the sunlight she realized that it was a mechanical bird - a bird not made of flesh and feathers, but nuts and bolts. The bird flew off as Lulu ran after it, approaching the end of the beach and unveiling to herself a strange new world. The strange ‘world’ was the most overwhelming sight her eyes had ever seen. She ran as fast as her feet could carry her, approaching this new world. She looked up as she realized that everyone had their own flying saucers. All the buildings looked the same, as it came with the same benefits and technology installed. Nobody was starving, no sight of pollution prevailed, no one was in a hurry. She realized that meetings could be held at home through projections, and one could buy anything straight from the television portals, and these were all controlled by the city board officials, who called themselves ‘The Mind.’

“Excuse me Sir, what planet is this?” Lulu asked an old citizen, who was just about to hop into his saucer. “The Moon” he answered as he walked away, laughing, looking back at Lulu as though to reassure himself. Lulu shrieked to this, making every person on the ground look at her in shock. She then sprints to a near corner, pressing her hands against the wall, breathing as she mumbled “I am on the moon…”

“Excuse me miss…” a little voice called out as she looked to her left, “Where are your shoes?” a young boy in a blue uniform stood by her side, curious as herself. “I’m on the moon” she answered back in an intensified fit of sorrow. “No you are not” assured the boy. “We cannot go to the moon, there’s the monthly curfew. At least until next week you cannot go there.” Lulu now stared at this strange boy who sounded humanly non-human, she had now assured herself that stranger things would follow the other, and there was no joy in panic. “And you are?” Lulu asked in a perturbed tone. “I am AIM2.0” he answered. “What is AI…okay I do not really want to know.” She nodded her head as she looked at the boy. “I shall take my leave now...” said the boy “and you ought to get some shoes, else you would be arrested for breaking code 24 of the City Law.”

Lulu watched the strange boy walk away and get lost in between the crowd of uniformed pedestrians who almost looked all the same. She then walked down the road, and entered a supposed shoe shop. She walked down the aisle as she watched an advertisement that announced a new model of television that could provide faster portal shopping. She watched the advertisement with an open mouth, as the actor slid her hands into the television to pick out a pair of sunglasses. The end of the advertisement read “BORED TO SHOP? NO MORE TRANSPORT. STAY HOME AND HOARD!”

She sighed as she looked down at her naked feet, underwhelmed. Just when she had lifted her head, the owner of the store walked towards her, “First walk in customer in over forty years!” she exclaimed. Lulu laughed at the woman’s exceptional sense of marketing humor, as she walked down the store with her. The shelves filled with LED fitted shoes triggered Lulu’s anxiousness as she asked, “Do you have anything that’s trendy?” Lulu asked, as the woman answered “Everything here is this year’s trend, the best of 2200.” Lulu laughed at this response as she immediately stopped again to realize that it wasn’t as funny to the other person. She then noticed all the tags, the television dates, the banners outside the streets, everything had proof enough of the year. She rushed out of the store as she yelled “Sorry I have no cash with me.” “What is cash?” the woman mumbled to herself as she walked back to her table that had a payment machine that read ‘sustainable transfer of chips.’

As she walked down the street raging with annoyance, she noticed the same bird again, this time she ran as she followed the bird, and as she jumped to catch the bird, she found herself at the headquarters of ‘The Mind’ and inside a chamber, strictly operated by the Government. The chamber had cubicles that recorded the number of events that had taken place in history hanging on the wall; there was the World War, the Wright brothers, Tesla, and more. She picked up a newspaper from 2021 that read “UFO sighted near Dimapur.” As soon as she had read this, she noticed the screens in the cubicles project the flying saucers teleport themselves back to history. The government had been operating time travel, and had been sending their transport systems to the past for quite a while, awaiting the right space and time to reveal the future. Then in the far corner she noticed a recent project, that read “SILVER.” She leaned in to notice that the silver crow was the new model of transport that was under development by the Government. The tablet next to the project read “Takes one to where their mind feels the need to be.” She then looked at the bird seated on the stand, and with her fingers she gently touches the bird. Once again she opens her eyes to light, standing on the same shore where she first arrived. “Hey I wanted to be at my house address!” Lulu yells at the bird, until she realizes that she stood on her own address, just 179 years later. She then grabs the bird again, and finds herself finally in her room. She opens the door to find her grandmother seated in the common room. She gasps in both horror and joy as she walks over to her grandmother. “Granny?” she calls out as she sits beside her in melancholy. “Why is that crow following you?” asked grandmother, who suffered from mild alzheimer’s “Do you know that we consider crows as symbols of change and adaptation? Its spiritual for me” she added as she got back to watching the television. Lulu slowly walks back into her room as she looks at the bird “I have to be really specific with the year right?” she holds the bird one last time and opens her eyes.

The wind blows heavily as she gets up from her bed and shuts the window, she sits on her bed and breathes a sigh of relief as she assures herself that it was all a dream. She turns her head to the alarm near her bed that reads ‘seven twenty-five’ and as soon as she turns her head, she gets a whiff of dried yams being stirred in the pot. Her heart beats faster and the clock ticks with the same rhythm, as she looks at the far corner of her room almost as if expecting something, and her mother yelling “It’s almost seven thirty. Time for breakfast.”

This piece is part of Nagrikal, a platform for citizens from small cities to share their experiences so that they be channeled into policies.