The greatest grandmother of all the doom’s day movies, 2012 weaved such a spell on the audience that it left an elderly person sitting next to me sobbing at the end of the film. In the climax, after the usual cries and screams-the hallmark of any Hollywood movie – a girl on board the three ships tosses a question towards her parents- when would we all be returning home.
That was a big question for the survivors of the doom who not only lost their houses, districts, nations but all the continents and islands. The question made me think what would have happened next. My imagination took wings and flew to the year 2013 with the ships touching the shores somewhere in Africa.
After the apocalypse was over, people who disembarked from the ships are some Indians including Mayank Gandhi and his family, Hotaram Pohumal Fatnani and his family, Jana-Mardana Creddi, his brothers and their families, Sukhichand Dalchand Chhajed and his family and, Badrinath Saraswathi Mahaswamiji and his principal disciple Bhagini Badripriya.
Badripriya’s actual name was Kaveri Sharma before she chose the path of renunciation. A spoilt brat of a divorced couple, Kaveri grew up in America and was into all those activities which the society never gives consent. She was a drug addict, alcoholic and had a numerous boyfriends with whom she went on foreign expeditions several times. Her father tried his best to see that she becomes a judge but the girl’s destiny had something else in store.
Mahaswami says she was into all the sinful activities in her life until she met him. Swami takes pride in claiming that his discourse changed course of this Kaveri and made her flow on virtuous direction. Everyone else calls her Bhagini except for the Mahaswamiji.
The first and the only country after the great deluge is a small hamlet of some 5,000 people. Mayor-select Powel Bradson appoints James Collins, a Town and Country planner from Germany who prepares a layout of the residential locality.
Much to everyone’s surprise Sukhichand and Fatnani get two corner sites in front of each other right in the middle of the settlement. People say each of them bribed ten kilograms of rice, two kilograms of wheat and half kilogram of lentil to James and Bradson.
When the new civilisation is struggling to adapt itself to the new condition, Jana Mardana Creddi who has strange credentials for exploring metallic spots, goes on a strange hunt. Within two months of his landing on the island, he finds out a huge iron ore mine on the sea shore.
Though a rule book similar to a constitution is framed, which says the minerals on the island belongs to all, Creddis allegedly pays huge quantity of rice and wheat to Bradson to turn a blind eye towards their activities. Whenever Yushika Fujoyama, an environment activist, complains against the Creddis, Bradson calms her by saying that the minerals are found in the disputed area.
“The minerals were found at the shores, so we are not sure whether it is in our island or in the ocean. There is a dispute over it. Our law is applicable only in the island but not in the sea,” Bradson replies.
Before Bradson could calm the voice of dissidence against him for letting the Creddis loose, Hotaram Fatnani created another headache for him. Fatnani and Sukhichand Chhajed opened grocery shops in front of each other but what surprises everyone is that Fatnani always has more stock of food than he buys from the farmers. There have been incidents of people taking ill after consuming the grocery items sold by Fatnani.
Following complaints from the locals against Fatnani, Mayor-select Bradson orders food and drug inspector Mbolo, an African, to investigate the matter. His findings are that the vegetable oil in fact contains sea-fish oil, which is sold by some Mongoloid communities at a very cheap exchange with food grains. A night before the scheduled date of submitting the report Fatnani meets Mbolo at his residence.
Mbolo’s report to Bradson next day gives Fatnani a clean chit.
A month after landing on the island Badripriya becomes pregnant who goes underground quickly. Every year there is a new child on the streets of the colony having resemblance with the Swamiji but these stray incidents have not reduced the popularity of Badrinath Saraswathi.
His popularity rate is increasing at the same pace with which the Indian population is growing. Within a span of fifteen years the Indian population doubles the population of rest of the races. Corruption becomes an order of the day. People started losing faith in Bradson and the demand for a people’s government grows.
Finally elections take place and Mayank Gandhi is chosen as the new Mayor. People whisper that his funding agency, the Creddis, gave huge quantity of food grains and iron made tools to the voters in bribe. After losing election Bradson realises that he is caught in his own web. In a silent corner of his mansion he is weeping and praying, “O Lord, why did you save the humanity?. We were, we are and we will remain sinister and corrupt. We do not deserve to continue on this earth. I pray to you Lord, to bring another deluge and wipe us out.”
Posted by: G Manjusainath
