Under Estimate

by : Zeashan Zaidi

He read the notice on the door before knocking it that stated, “Dogs and morons are not allowed.”

For a moment he could feel his legs trembling, he was intelligent yet had no inkling of the brilliance of the man sitting inside. There was to his utter amazement Professor Daniel Cooper, a world famous physicist and mathematician in that room.

He knocked at the door with skepticism.

 “Come in.”, said the brawny voice from inside. He entered the room shoving the door slowly. Prof. Daniel was sitting having his buried in the great a pile of books and papers on the table in front of him.

He moved wanting to sit on the chair on the other side of the table.

“Stop!” said Prof. Daniel in a coercing voice, “Let me test your knowledge first. I should know whether you are worthy enough for a conversation."

Before he could have understood anything, Prof. Daniel shot his first question, “If two balls are dropped from the top of a tower, one being heavy and the other light. Which ball will reach the ground first?”

“According to the laws of Newton and Galileo, both the balls will reach the ground together.” he answered.

“Wrong!” Prof. Daniel thumped the table. “As there will be more air pressure on the lighter ball, the heavier ball will reach the ground first.”

“Oh!”

“Second question, if two balls are dropped from the top of a tower, one being heavy and the other light. Which ball will reach the ground first?”

“This is the same question, sir!”

“You just answer, stupid.”

“As there will be more air pressure on the lighter ball, the heavier ball will...”

“Wrong again! The air pressure will be in the horizontal direction and thus both the balls will reach the ground together.”

He took a deep breathe.

“Third question, if the two balls are...”

“Sir, you are repeating the question...”

“Don’t interrupt in between you dumb head. Now give the answer.”

“As the air pressure will be in the horizontal direction and thus both the balls will reach the ground together.”

“You are not even worth talking to. Oh you fool; a lot of things depend upon the initial velocities of the balls. Don’t waste my time and get out.”

Disheartened; he turned to leave the room but then again he turned back to Professor Daniel and said,

“May I please ask you something before I leave?”

“And I hope that would not be a foolish question. Anyway, ask.”

“There is a tie hanging in your neck, but where is the shirt that should have been under it?”

“Eh?” Professor Daniel looked at himself. There was actually no shirt on his body and the tie was dangling on his nude belly.

“Oh my God, how can I forget wearing the shirt” said Prof. Daniel shocked.

“Okay sir, now I will take your leave.”

“No, stop! What is your name?”

“Sir, I am Dr. Anand from India.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I need your help in my project. We are facing some typical physics problems.”

“I am ready to help you, but I have one condition.”

Dr. Anand nodded his head in agreement and briefed him about the project.

After sometime when Anand came out of the room, he had calmness and grace on his face. Daniel had agreed to help him in his project. However, now his shirt was not on his body. According to the condition, Prof. Daniel had taken his shirt.

*****

This room had a network of machines and instruments and it looked like a great hall of fame. The different sized lenses attached to different machines were adding to the beauty and glamour of the room.

But what was more remarkable than the beauty was the experiment going on which Dr. Anand and his assistants Vinay and Gautam understood well.

“Today, we will have to make this experiment successful at any cost”, Dr. Anand said with a determined tone.

“We will have to”, said Vinay in a hushed tone, “In the past two years I have lost all hopes seeing this experiment fail multiple times.”

“What is the guarantee that today we will succeed?” Gautam was not much sure too.

“Well if Prof. Daniel gets deeply and madly into the project, our success is guaranteed.”

“So! is he actually coming?” Vinay was excited.

Dr. Anand did not have to answer as Prof. Daniel entered exactly then.

“Dr. Anand, how are you?” Prof. Daniel moved his hands towards Vinay.

“Excuse me, I am Dr. Anand.” Dr. Anand said impetuously.

“Oh sorry, but I had my meeting with him”, Prof. Daniel sounded confused.

Dr. Anand held his compose. He was amazed that how this blank head man became a renowned physicist.

“I have nothing to do with who is Anand and who is not, tell me something about your project.” said Prof Daniel annoyingly.

“Professor, my project is like this…” saying so Anand stopped near a table. The table had a set up of two copper coils kept apart.

“I am passing the current through first coil and as you can see the ammeter attached to the second coil is showing the current in it as well. This is due to Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction; because which the coils in spite if not being physically attached, links electrically.

“Why are you irritating me? You are telling the high school level kiddish things to a world fame physicist!” Prof. Daniel said almost shouting.

“Bacause I cannot explain my experiment without telling all this.” Dr. Anand said softly.

“Then continue irritating me.”

Dr. Anand further said, “The electromagnetic force responsible for connecting two separate coils is produced by the distribution of light particles photons.”

“That too I know”, said Prof. Daniel this time softly, although it felt like that he may burst any moment.

“Well, you must not know what now I am going to tell you. I will be using the same concept of electromagnetic induction to connect two bodies, among which one would be an alive human body and the other its electric image.”

“What do you mean?” Prof. Daniel was surprised.

“Any activity in an alive human body is due to electrical impulses produced by the brain and sometimes by the spinal cord. The orders given by the brain are carried away by neurons in the form of electrical impulses to the target organ. As a result of which that organ comes into action.

For example if, my brain wants my hand to write something, it will send its orders in the form of electrical impulses through neurons and then my hand will pick up the pen and write.”

Prof. Daniel was silently listening to what Dr. Anand was saying because by now he had understood that Dr. Anand is talking about something very important.

“The important point about these electrical impulses is that they are not constant but varies continuously. Hence we can apply Faraday’s law in it. That is if we keep a coil near a human body then there will generate an electric current in the coil. However that current is of such low intensity that no ammeter can detect it.”

“Okay.” Professor Daniel said after a brief pause.

“But there is one way by which we can amplify the current.” said Dr. Anand.

“And what is that?” Prof Daniel added quickly.

“The job of connecting body current and coil current mutually is performed by the photons. If by any method we can increase the energy of the photons then we will able to increase the current to an extent that it could be useful.”

“But how will the energy of the photons increase?” Prof. Daniel asked.

“For this we can use lenses, prisms, LCD’s etc. The full setup here constructed is based upon this theory.” Dr. Anand said looking all around.

“What do you want to do by increasing the coil current?”

“According to Faraday’s law, the pattern with which the flow changes in the first coil, the same pattern forms in the second coil. Similarly, the pattern brain makes in the human body, the similar pattern forms in the coil. In other words we can make a micro body using this technique which will remain connected to the brain and will follow its orders.”  

“Good! Superb idea and I am very sure that the micro body will be of great use for us.”

“Absolutely! As the micro body would not be of bones and muscles and so we will be able to send them anywhere, be it in space or in the sea or inside another human body, anytime.

By this method we can explore new things.

Infact, we can use the micro body to link atoms together or can do any micro surgery or can fight against the bacteria present inside a body.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s start the experiment.”

“Well, that’s where the problem lies, we have replicated the experiment almost 500 times but we are not able to create the micro body.”

“Huh!” Prof. Daniel nodded.

“First of all, I want to see the mathematical model of your experiment.”

Dr. Anand took him to another room and handed him a huge file. Prof. Daniel started flipping the pages. After a little while he turned to Dr. Anand,

“You have not used probability in the equation of the path of photons.”

“What is the use of probability? Photons will have a fixed path, no?”

“This is the loop hole. At quantum level no particle has a certain behavior or a definite path. That is why we use the term ‘probability’ in every statement. Now you please leave me alone in this room. I want to work upon it.”

Dr. Anand stood up and silently left the room. He knew that now if he spoke a word his collar would be in professor’s hand.

*****

After a full week, Prof. Daniel came out of that room.

He spent the whole week in the same suit. His beard and hair had badly grown long.

“Let’s start the work.” He said to Dr. Anand.

Both of them reached the laboratory and started doing modifications in the machines. After the hard work of around two days, Prof. Daniel turned to Dr. Anand’s assistant Vinay, and said,

“Come on dear, we will make your micro body first.”

“M…M…Mine? Why?” Vinay was stammering in panic.

“Why are you frightened dear? Nothing will happen to you. Whatever will happen will happen with your micro body.”

Vinay sat on the chair in the center of a circular machine. Then Daniel pressed a button and various lenses in the machine started emitting multicolored rays on Vinay. Due to the luminescence on and around Vinay’s body, others were not able to see him properly. He himself was not able to see anything and thus closed his eyes.

“Can you see anything?” Prof. Daniel asked Vinay.

“How can one see anything in this luminescence? My eyes are closed anyway.” Vinay was irritated.

“Concentrate your mind and try to see with your closed eyes.”

Vinay kept moaning for a while and then said, “I can see small ball like structures revolving around me.”

“Good.”, Prof. Daniel then turned to Dr. Anand and said, “Our experiment is successful. Look at the wall; can you see a small bright point there? That is the micro body of Vinay.”

“Yes Professor Daniel. Our experiment is successful.” Dr. Anand was excited and happy.

“But what kind of balls is Vinay seeing?” asked Gautam, another assistant of Anand.

“Actually, whatever Vinay is seeing is being seen by his micro body. And it is seeing the atoms in the air.” said Dr. Anand.

“Vinay, can you touch those balls around you?” Dr. Anand asked.

“Let me try”, Vinay raised his hands and moved it here and there, “No sir! These balls are moving very fast.” he replied.

“Okay, now stop this experiment.” said Prof. Daniel and Dr. Anand switched off the machine. Vinay slowly opened his eyes and tried to view the things around with his tortured eyes.

*****

She was a lady, the goddess of beauty. Her face had some unique kind of attraction that anyone looking at her could not take their eyes off her.

Well, similar was the condition of Prof. Daniel who had that lady standing in front of him.

“Tell me, what can I do for you?” asked Prof. Daniel softly without taking his eyes off her.

“I want to meet Dr. Anand”, she said.

“He is inside, but why do you want to meet him?” Prof Daniel added quickly.

“Because, I am his wife.”

Prof. Daniel was gaping, and then hesitantly he rang the bell and asked the peon to call Dr.Anand.

“Dr. Anand is very lucky.”

“Don’t know” saying this, the woman sat on the chair.

Dr. Anand entered with Vinay and Gautam along with him.

“Oh! Neha, you? Here?”

“Thank God! You recognized me. I thought you must have forgotten me. After all we are we are meeting after two long years”, Neha was angry.

“Were you out of the town?” Prof. Daniel asked her.

“No. Inspite of living in the same city my husband does not have the time even to meet me.” Neha added angrily.

“Neha, this project was extremely important for me, I had no time to meet anybody”, Dr. Anand said.

“I have no interest in your project. I am tired of living alone. All I want is just – divorce.” She said.

“Now this will be Dr. Anand’s bad luck.” Prof. Daniel added.

“You please keep quit”, Neha did not spare even Prof. Daniel.

“Neha, we better discuss this problem in our home.” Dr. Anand tried to convince her.

“When do you have the time to come home?” Neha’s voice had pain.

“The project is complete. Now I can go anywhere. Okay, I am coming along with you.” Dr. Anand stood up and then said to Prof. Daniel,

“Prof. Daniel, will you please take care of the lab in my absence?”

“Sure, why not. You please relax and go with your wife. Last few months have been pretty hard for you I suppose.”

*****

Nobody imagined Prof. Daniel’s monitoring of the lab would result in tragedy.

Because the next day he came inside the experiment room, Gautam was found dead there. His stiff body was lying in between the machine used to make the micro body.

There was a chaos and everyone gathered there. Dr. Anand was also called back to lab from his home.

“Seems like, yesterday night he tried to make his micro body and something went wrong”, said Prof. Daniel.

“The machine is perfectly okay, so we cannot say that it is machine’s fault.” Dr. Anand said looking at the machine.

Prof. Daniel keenly observed the dead body.

“Also one of the major questions is why did he come to use the machine so late at night? He could have done whatever he wished to do in front of us all.”

“As now he is dead, he has taken all answers with him.” said Vinay.

“We can get the answers. This machine will answer us.” Prof. Daniel added excitingly.

“How?” Dr. Anand seemed puzzled.

“Don’t you remember? This machine has a black box that records all the pictures seen by the micro body. Take out the memory chip from the black box and lets watch on the computer what Gautam’s micro body saw before he died.”

“Okay”, Dr. Anand went to take out the memory chip from the machine, “But the chip will show the records only if Gautam’s micro body had formed.”

“That we will know in a little while”, Prof. Daniel said staunchly.

Now they were watching the chip footage on the computer; the activities of Gautam’s micro body, which indeed had formed.

“He is going out of the lab.” said Vinay.

Then they saw the micro body on a street in the city.

“But where is he going?” Prof. Daniel asked.

“The streets seem to be quite familiar.” Vinay replied.

“That’s obvious; it’s your city after all.”

“But this is the way to my home”, Dr. Anand said, astonished.

“And now he is entering my house, what he wanted from me?”

The suspense soon ended, because now Gautam’s micro body was moving around Neha and then it dissolved into her body. And after they just saw extreme brightness and complete darkness after it.

Dr. Anand impatiently pressed numerous buttons but nothing happened.

“Leave it! There are no records in the memory chip after it.” Prof. Daniel stopped him.

“That means memory chip tells nothing about how Gautam died.”

“According to my opinion, memory chip is telling quite a lot.”, said Prof. Daniel.

“Like how?”

“I cannot say anything now. I need to connect the clues and will need some inquiry then only will reach any conclusion”, Prof. Daniel started walking in the room. Gautam’s dead body was still lying in between the machine.

*****

Police took Gautam’s body into their custody and commenced their investigation but what Dr. Anand and Vinay were waiting for was not the conclusion of police but professor’s conclusion.

And at last, he called them in his room.

“Firstly you tell me that where did you meet Gautam for the first time?” Prof. Daniel asked Dr. Anand.

“He was with me since the starting of the project. He qualified the research fellowship exam and then came under my guidance.”

“And does he used to go to your home very often?” Prof Daniel added promptly.

“Yes. But only till the project had not started.”

“Well, then everything is clear.” Prof. Daniel shook his hands.

“How? Will you explain?” Dr. Anand was bemused and was staring at Prof Daniel.

“Look, the fact of matter is that your wife is splendidly beautiful. Infact I myself got infatuated towards her the first time I saw her… No! Please don’t take me wrong. This is natural and this is what must have happened with Gautam that he fell for your wife. But he had neither the courage nor the power to step ahead; after all she was the wife of his guide.”

Dr. Anand was persecuting Prof. in his mind as his conclusion dragged his wife’s name every now and then.

Prof. Daniel then said, “Inspite of this, his desire to get your wife remained hidden in some corner of his mind and on seeing your wife again after two years, this desire overpowered him. Apparently, she was still away from his reach.

He now had an idea, why not use the machine, make a micro body and then reach her, that is he thought that if not physically why not get her spiritually.

He chose the silence of night to execute his plan. He sat in the machine and started it.” Prof. Daniel was saying, “His micro body then reached your wife and then it entered inside her body and then something happened that no one had expected.”

“What happened?” Dr. Anand and Vinay asked unanimously.

“It is impossible for anyone to understand nature completely. What happened was actually that when Gautam’s micro body tried to get inside Neha’s body then her body sensed trespassing and hence a resisting force produced, and as the trespasser was in the electrical form, the repulsion force produced was electrical too.

This force started killing Gautam’s micro body. Gautam’s micro body was connected with him via amplifier. When the electrically produced body got destroyed as a result the amplified energy reached Gautam’s body and the shock killed him.” Prof. Daniel explained.

Dr. Anand was blank for a while as he found himself in dilemma that should he mourn for his assistant death or be happy for his wife.

***End*** 

All characters & incidents are fictitious in this story