The skipped frame- A legacy of loss
Posted on November 27, 2024 • 7 minutes • 1447 words
Arjun stares into the empty dark sky and shouts at his highest possible. The stars seem to flicker harder like Arjun’s dry throat. Probably his frustration and boiling blood dried his throat. Like a pressure cooker releasing steam, Arjun appears to cope in this manner with his experience in the lab today. His screams filled the whole empty terrace. And all of a sudden, his screams resonating in the air just stopped like an injured bird falling from the sky. His cool eyes condensed all his steam and gentle drips of tears began rolling down his cheeks. His mind caught a Perl-like thought in the ocean of his agony. Though his nerves pine to be excited, his heart cannot afford to beat hard. Arjun slowly gets soaked in his newfound thought and rings his dear friend Shyam.
“Did I shout? Did I shout?”, Arjun yells in excitement when Shyam picked the call. Confused Shyam shouts back “Stop shouting. What do you mean?” “Yes I am, but did I?” Arjun speaks calmly, realizing the world is not his world. “Bro, I’m sleepy. I understand your experiments failed, but can we talk tomorrow about it?”, Shyam shuns his regard in the clutches of his heavy eyes. “If I shout and you never know, did I shout?” Arjun asks as a last resort to ignite his philosophical and curious-minded friend. This sentence engulfed Arjun’s half-conscious mind like sunrise filling the darkness during dusk. “Do you mean to tell me that truth has to interact to exist?” Shyam comments excitingly. “Yes indeed, think about it. This explains why my lazers cannot capture the “Skip” because the interaction creates an illusion of emptiness”
Shyam, being the first to theorize about the “Skip”, let out an imperceptible smile. He understood that he was now a part of a dialogue that would be written in history. That he might be correct, and the world might see that for sure. A million thoughts, calculations, and possibilities were gushing in his just-awakened mind.
“The Skip alters even my detection equipment and therefore I don’t see a signal”, Arjun continued. With all the mental flux, Shyam remembers his physics professor’s words “The world is not the reflection of your eyes but is the symbols on a paper”. Shyam quickly reacts to Arjun’s intuition and responds, “If the Skip can alter the receiver’s quantum state to nullify the scattering creating a backaction, I must then account for the uncertainty in my equations.”
Taken aback in this brainstorming, Arjun mentally bows down to one of the greatest minds on the planet. His dried tears, then, remind him of his pending glory. He asks Arjun, “If this is the case, can we ever experimentally prove the Skip?” “I truly believe you will see a way through,” Arjun said. “It must be you who is going to show the world ‘the super quantum positioner’, the Skip”, Shyam’s voice resonates with certainty.
“Sixty years since the iconic dialogue occurred and yet no one was even close to understanding Skip the way Shyam did”, Shankar remarks to his grandfather who always narrates him such inspiring bedtime stories. “Don’t you worry Grandpa. I will travel across the world gathering all the knowledge and one day, I will prove Skip and use the understanding to grow crops and cure diseases”.
Grandpa was amazed at Shankar’s understanding of sciences, his will, and his bold promise. But then, Grandpa let out a smile of relief recalling Shankar’s previous promises about his mastery of music, business, art, poetry, and astronomy too! “Ambitious kid”, he thought. “His intent to help mankind, that has never changed in his promises”, Grandpa felt a whisper of pride from his upbringing.
Shankar lost his father in his early years, and his mother and grandfather have been raising him ever since. Unlike other fantasy bedtime stories children typically hear, Shankar’s grandfather tells him stories of eminent people who changed humanity’s beliefs. Shankar too is no ordinary kid. A gifted child, of sorts. Though children his age relish mangoes, Shankar can also recall all the nutrient information while rejoicing at the taste. “Now dedication and hard work is all he needs, and he has it in abundance”, his grandfather tells his mother who is always worried for his son’s future. She is both proud of her son and worried if he could keep up with classmates twice his age.
“What happened to Arjun? Does he get a good ending?”, Shankar asks to bring his grandpa back to the zone. “Unlike stories, life need not have a happy ending, Shankar. Arjun was indeed a smart experimental physicist. But his glory was only present as long as he pursued Shyam’s hypothesis. When Arjun changed his research focus, his glory did not continue, and he could never support his friend’s pet project.” Grandpa answered Shankar, secretly thanking his time at the university where he studied Quantum computing.
Grandpa did not have answers to all the questions Shankar asked him during the bedtime stories. Once Shankar asked, “Is reality my elaborate dream then what in fact is truth?” Grandpa himself had no clue to the answer. All his life, energy, experience – an endless run seeking truth – yet at this age when his life seems to vanish anytime like a prick of water bubble, he is no closer to knowing if all this is nothing more than a dream. This is what science taught him, that any extreme is probable to exist and what you cannot know can be the truth.
The darkness deepened with many conversations between the tired minds. Sleep, a much-needed pause in the endless pursuit of knowledge arrived. The next morning, chirping birds and warm sunlight on the eyelids woke Shankar to the dawn of a fresh start. Obeying his circadian rhythm, he performed his morning routine- pumping his muscles, a meticulous bath, and a tasty breakfast. Once he was done with his physical needs, it was time to cater to his mental needs. He quickly strode to his knowledge pod appreciating the clear glass that absorbed sunlight to power the pod. He enters in and commands “Fetch me Prof. Shyam from 2025”. The familiar hum of the AI system began, and a holographic Shyam flickered to life. A character from his grandfather’s stories he could chat with.
With excitement, little Shankar pounded with endless questions about the Skip. Shyam, being patient as ever, explained to Shankar all the equations he wanted to understand. He said that the Skip’s nature was to harmonize and maintain superposition in quantum states. As the learning continued, Shyam said “Your curiosity and talent remind me of a good friend”. “Many years of training and they still hallucinate”, thought Shankar of the AI, but as his exhilarated mind sought a small break, he played along. “Are you referring to Arjun?” he asked.
With a small gap, Shaym replied “He was just like you. Curious and dedicated. I could not live long to see him crack the Skip”. This came as a shock to Shankar. He did not know how to react, paused Shyam, and flickered his eyes at a search bar for more details. He learned that devastated by grief of Shyam’s sudden demise, Arjun could not tread the path he forged with Shyam. His work turned into his reminder of emptiness.
The bond these friends shared sparked Shankar deeper and his promise to his grandfather started ripening further. Shankar then switched on Shyam. Shyam was surprised to see Shankar’s evergreen face turn pale. “What’s with the dull look?”, the compassionate chatbot asked. “I will achieve what Arjun could not. I will prove the Skip”, Shankar declared with all the confidence he could muster.
“So Arjun could not do it. He was always a sentimental person. “My life will always tightly grasp the Skip”, these were Arjun’s final words I remember. Now it is for minds like you to take up the work”, Shyam motivated the bubbling child.
With the newfound motivation, Shankar saw from the glass reflection Arjun saying, “My life will always tightly grasp the Skip”. Their experiments focused only on physical objects, he thought. A smile crinkled Shankar’s eye. He might have understood what Arjun meant. Could life be the answer? Having the ability to guide spontaneous events and orchestrate a beautiful melody called life, could the Skip be compressed in living cells? This compression will make it possible to see the Skip. Is this what Arjun meant? The brimming happiness and the weight of glory kept his body still. “The Skip should be there. In the beauty of the creation”, he thought. Time will tell if the silent promise of the groundbreaking quest begins here.