Broken Walls

1- Energy Unleashed

The sun was going down the soaring hills that surround the sleepy town, leaving large patches of purplish saffron across the cloudy horizon. Despite the highway being free, the taxi was moving at an average speed. Bose’s bungalow is about 4kms from the railway station. Milva, one of the least densely populated towns in India, is as usually calm.

Bose, 45, is fifteen years elder to me. My mother was the youngest sister of his mother. Standing six inches over five feet, he’s not a muscular stature. However the hairy, dark skin and bushy eyebrows alongside the uneven teeth brings a lot of masculinity to his thin structure.

Bose was only eleven when his father passed away, leaving his profiting pharmacy business to his wife. In those days, my father was serving as a Forest Range Officer in Maharashtra. He was far from home most of the time while my mother along with me and my younger brother stayed in Mumbai, very near to Bose’s home.

Bose had no siblings; he was close to me and my brother since our birth. My brother was twenty when he joined army. He was about to finish his third year in Border Security Force (BSF), when he perished in a suicide bombing by a member of Lashkar–e–Taiba (LeT) on an army camp at Poonch sector (J&K).

After finishing P.G. from the Madras Institute of Technology, Bose pursued his PhD from the Tokyo University. For almost a decade, he worked with the Indian Navy, designing submarines and naval vessels. During this time, Bose had met a press editor and married her within few months; however the marriage didn’t last for at least a year. Thereafter he left Mumbai for Milva, where he purchased a 3acre property near Milva Lake; since then the sleepy hillside town became his home.

Tall trees bordering the vast garden screen the bungalow from outside. The maroon compound gate, wide and tall, looks almost like a wall. Fully automated security system guards the estate 24X7.

As soon as I pressed the switch beside the gate, the huge single gate slid aside revealing a stony path. The hollow is sufficient for two persons to walk–in. If there is any car to pass inside, one has to double–press the switch for the gate to slide wide. This instruction is written on the switchboard. To enter the property one has to press this switch mandatorily. When the gate is double locked, the switch won’t open the gate directly but simply carries the signal to the house and from there the person inside has to unlock the gate from pressing a switch inside the house. If someone tries to trespass the nine feet compound wall without opening the gate, the nano–sensors inside the wall blares a siren inside the house instantly.

The main door was not locked; I walked-in, without any knock, to find Bose stretched on the sofa, a paperback copy of Marathi poem collections in his lap.

After some casual talk, I asked him the reason behind calling me all of a sudden in the name of a surprise.

‘That can wait for a while. If you care for a bath, have it and we can get some good tea and samosa down the road.’

‘Okay, fine,’ said I and walked into a hot shower that washed off all my journey fatigue.

‘I wanted to show you my new design,’ said Bose while we were almost done with the samosas.

‘New submarine?’

’Yes, Sun-marine.’

I thought I heard it wrong. I asked him the name of the new submarine.

’That’s what I said. It’s Sun-marine. I named it after Sun, to symbolize its power. I worked on it for nearly four years.’

‘It sounds odd. Yet, I’d like to see it.’

‘You’d love to ride in it.’

‘Ride? A submarine?’

‘Yes. From here.’

I was astonished. ‘If I’m not wrong, the sea- on either side- is over 1000kms from here.’

‘Yes. But Milva Lake is behind my house.’

‘A submarine in a lake? Is it a domestic submarine?’

‘No. I didn’t dedicate over five years of my life on a toy. It’s a war craft.’

‘I know you can’t understand without seeing it. Let’s go, take a ride.’ Although I had many doubts, I opted to wait and watch until he discloses whatever he is talking about.

The door in the kitchen opens into a narrow passage which extends to 8ft before ending at a blue tiled wall. Bose was holding a white remote; a very small one with not more than five buttons. He operated the remote to produce a rectangular hollow in the wall disclosing the unlit laboratory of Bose. The hollow will be open only for ten seconds.

Bose switched on the lights to unveil a room that was carved out of a black stone. The stone wall surface is irregular, as he didn’t care to level their shape when constructing this multilayered laboratory. Weird and colorful apparatus in different sizes covered all the corners of vast room and three TV poles on three sides of the room. On the right side of us, standing is a seven feet wide semicircular desk, with a big blue revolving chair behind it. Besides a laptop, there are various instruments and books spread on the teakwood desk. Flanking on either sides of the desk are wall-length bookshelves crowded with books and various artifacts. In the center of the chamber is a hole which is presently left uncovered, with its square concrete cap slid aside. The hole is just enough for a person to fit in.

Bose reached the desk and picked a gadget– a palm sized silicon plate. Then he reached the pit in the center of the room, gesturing me to follow. There is an iron ladder affixed to the wall down the hole. The 15ft ladder ends in the underground chamber of laboratory which is inadequately luminous.

Bose descended into that underground chamber through the ladder and I followed him. The underground chamber is a 20ft wide tunnel. Few feet from the ladder there are ten rocky steps going downwards into a narrow stream of water. The tunnel curves about five hundred meters before merging into Milva Lake. At the mouth of the tunnel there is a steel gate that stands like a wall; this was all made by Bose. Whenever he wants water in the tunnel, he simply lifts the 10ft length gate. For every four weeks, the stagnant water has to be replaced with fresh stream. The old water will be pumped back into lake through the pipe arranged underneath the steel gate.

We stood on the last step when he fetched out his mobile phone. Swiftly he played his fingers on the 6X4 inch screen for three minutes and there was a sound. It is from the bottom of the water. The water is now shaking hard, spilling fragments on all sides. Then I could see there is something emerging from the vibrating water.

Few seconds later, a giant ball is floating on the water surface. The water stopped shaking now. The outer layer of that globe is covered with spotless mirror, showing us a little bit enlarged reflection of me and my cousin. The radius of that reflecting globe is almost seven feet. It is looking like some gigantic circus ball.

Bose chuckled and said, ‘how do you like it, my boy?’

‘Nice mirror,’ I replied. ‘What is this?’

’This is the Sun-marine,’ he replied.

’Sun-marine? This… a submarine? This reflecting ball?’ If it is a submarine, I couldn’t see any door on the huge round mirror.

’This is my new design, my lad; the very one I was talking about; the very one I intend to show you. This is the Sun-marine; as powerful as sun light in protruding and travelling inside the water. The maximum speed of the submarine is 1000kmph and depth 3750 meters (12300 feet approx). Runs on fuel and electricity as well.’

I couldn’t believe his words. ’Is this the submarine you were talking about?’

‘Of course yes. Let’s go inside.’

‘There’s no door I could see.’

Fetching the silicon plate, he said, ’This is Heart Key; works only with an authorized thumb impression.’ When Bose placed the Heart Key on the giant mirror ball, a small screen appeared on its surface displaying numbers and alphabets. He tapped a ten–digit code.

‘Now opens the door to the mighty chamber,’ announced Bose. There was some buzzer sound inside the mirror ball and five seconds later appeared an oval hollow on the submarine, spilling the enlarged reflection of us. The oval hole is enough for a man to walk through. It is revealing the well equipped room inside.

Welcome to Sun-marine

A mechanical voice blared inside the mirror ball– I mean in the Sun-marine– the submarine.

Long ago, Bose had shown me and my brother the inside of a submarine. It was a standard submarine used by The Indian Navy guard teams, quite different from the large ones and very different from this giant ball. It seems that the Sun-marine is different from any other submarine in every aspect.

Inside the Sun-marine, the chamber is quite fascinating. In the center of the compartment, there are four recline cushion chairs, with folded footrests, arranged in two rows. Standing ahead of those seats, facing the 72inch square monitor screen, there is another seat. The Captain’s seat.

Six levers, different in size and shape, are fixed to the vast stretch of flat panel board under the LED screen. On either side of the screen are three analog meters– displaying the level of speed, depth, compass, fuel and others. There are also two small steering wheels amidst the levers. The interiors of the Sun-marine are painted in pale blue and dark grey.

I couldn’t understand how we are going to drive a submarine in this small tunnel. Without questioning, I followed him in. Bose took the rider’s seat and I the one behind. There are seatbelts behind the seats.

’Unless you put on the seatbelts, the submarine won’t leave the water.

‘Leave the water?’

‘We can’t take a jump from one water body to another, without the seatbelts.’

‘When we… what? Jump from one place to other?’ I was baffled. ‘What do you mean by jumping from one water body to another?’

‘You can reach the sea from anywhere… lake, river or even from sewers. And for that, you need to take leaps– sometimes large, sometimes gigantic– depending on the geography. That’s how I touched the Bay of Bengal from my home.’

‘Incredulous.’

‘You would feel incredible, in fact.’ He guffawed.

‘We jump from here to the Bay of Bengal?’

‘No. There are three rivers and two lakes we must dodge–in before finding ourselves in West Bengal coast.’

‘You said you had already touched the Bay of Bengal.’

‘Also the Arabian Sea. It is through five river bodies. Let me first switch on the systems.’

He began to activate the systems; the oval door had closed as soon as we were inside. ‘The driving is automation,’ he began to explain. ‘There is also a manual mode in which we use these levers and gears. By touching the screen, you can control the whole machine. You can change the directions, can change the speed, zoom–in or zoom–out the view and even pause the whole submarine at any spot inside the sea. And you can even launch the torpedoes, spears and other weapons basing upon the need– by screen instructions. For weapon launch, you need the password. There is also scope for ballistic missile launch, but as of now, there is no missile in this submarine, apart from small weapons.’

He fished out a box shaped glass from one of the drawers beneath the panel board. The box is almost palm sized with the width of four inches. It is coated with blue glass on outside. There is a socket on the side of the box into which Bose inserted the Heart Key. It is activated and instantly the glass turned green from blue.

‘Shall we start now or wait till tomorrow morning?’ asked Bose.

‘Who would want to wait until tomorrow? Let’s start now,’ I answered.

Few inches from the screen, on the plain surface of the panel board, in front of him, there is a carved design of the bright sun. As he placed the Heart Key on the Sun design, eight small hooks protruded out of the green glass box. He pressed three hooks back into the glass and there was a buzzer above our heads. ’This is the code to finish the activation of Heart Key. Now the submarine starts.’ The 72inch screen was on.

Current location: Bose lab, Milva, H.P. Destination: Milva Lake, Milva, H.P.

Local time: 19:12:51 Weather: 19° C/ R.F. Not expected

Few seconds later there was a colorful digital map of India. Then it zoomed into Himachal Pradesh State. And zoomed further unto Milva District, then further on to the exact location of Bose’s villa. Here, there appeared a red spot. Meanwhile Bose took the virtual keyboard unto his lap. His fingers played on the blue alphabets and numerical hanging to the air.

‘I’ll set the auto–drive mode on.’ Pointing at the levers in front of him he said, ‘when there is any technical trouble with the systems, there’s always manual operation. But there would seldom be any trouble with the systems.’

The tunnel in front of us appeared on the screen. It is curving left few yards ahead.

A mechanical voice emerged into air from nowhere –

Bose lab to Milva lake– Voyage starts in few seconds. 10….9….8...

He was finished with the keypad and waved the virtual keyboard few inches aside. Reclining back in his seat, he began to stare at the screen.

……3….2….1…Now.

‘Now the submarine moves.’

But I couldn’t feel any change. First I doubted whether the submarine was moving. ‘Even though you take a massive leap into the air or a powerful dip into the water, you won’t feel any pressure on your body,’ Bose explained. ’Not even when it floats on the tides. The Sun-marine’s outer surface is three layered. The pressure will not penetrate the second layer.’

The screen began to show the deeper and darker areas of tunnel. The navigation toolbar occupied the left corner down the screen, displaying time, speed, altitude, longitude, latitude and several other geographical and geometrical options. Currently we are moving at a speed of 15kmph. Within a couple of minutes, we are at the steel gate that is drawn down. Now, we need to open this gate if we’ve to get out of the tunnel. Bose had made little modifications to the gate while making the Sun-marine. As soon as the mirror ball touches the gate, the gate began to glide up into the stone above. Gradually we were out of tunnel and instantly the steel gate was drawn down.

‘The water level in the tunnel always remains constant with the automated pipe system,’ Bose said.

‘Seems like the whole tunnel is automatic.’

‘Yes, it is.’

‘Look, we are already in the lake.’

The screen is displaying black water. Bose pulled the virtual keyboard onto his lap to switch on the submarine lights. The interiors of the lake glistened in flash. The lake spreads for almost forty kilometers; at one point it looks like the extension of river edging Milva. We were moving at 40kmph, at the depth of 450feet. Bose raised the speed to 150kmph. We were shooting off in the lake, although there was no sound inside the submarine, indicating such speed.

‘Let us on the music,’ he said, playing his fingers gently on the virtual keyboard. It was a classic instrumental that suited the atmosphere.

After a half minute, he said, ‘there the river stands.’

‘We neared the river?’

‘Yes. We are at the edge of the lake.’ We were already far from Milva. This is a hillside village. The digital map appeared on the screen. There is a gap of thirty seven kilometers between the river and Milva Lake.

Bose said, ‘now, let us dive into the river.’

We were now floating on the serene lake the submarine stopped moving. It was a starless sky above the lake. The silhouette of hills at the distance loomed up.

‘You won’t feel the jump physically. See this animated video. It will give you an idea, how we reach the river.’

A series of files appeared on the monitor. The third on first row– a video file– was selected. It ran like this–

The Sun-marine is in a river which is flowing into the sea some five hundred kilometers southwest. On the driving screen the operator switches the ‘Jump’ option and selects a point in the sea. Ten seconds after the command is registered, the Sun-marine floats up on the river; next moment it leaves the water and tosses itself into the air and shoots off in a long arc right into the selected point on the sea. Two hundred kilometers covered in three minutes.

‘That’s too artificial to believe,’ I commented inadvertently. Then I added, ‘But I’d like to see it.’

’The demo is crystal clear reflection of the Sun-marine’s work. Look now as we take a jump.’ He gave a command in the keypad.

The submarine’s voice blared up:

Giant Leap Ahead…

A slight feeling of throwing up gripped me and left me in a second.

‘We’re in air,’ said an excited Bose; it was such kind if excitement you get when you expect someone to be excited.

The screen is no more displaying the looming silhouette of hills. It is showing the sparsely lit village below the Sun-marine. I looked down at the navigator bar on the left corner down the screen.

500 feet above ground.

And then the numerical indication changed quickly.

400 feet above….300 feet…200….100…

‘That’s how we drop into the river,’ Bose said reclining in his seat, his legs extending on footrests. So, we dropped into the river! It was somewhere, middle of the river, far away from any village. The shattering of river surface flicked on the screen for a second. Within ten seconds, we were 500meters beneath the river. The angle of the screen view changed from front to up. The monitor is displaying the river overhead us (the submarine) now. At a distance above, a group of crocodiles moved lazily, the reflection of crescent moon smeared above their dark bodies.

‘Hope you liked the work of hydraulics.’

‘Are we going to touch the sea in this manner?’ I asked enthusiastically.

‘Yes,’ Bose replied with a playful smile. ‘By tomorrow dawn we reach the sea. Perhaps we can go on a weekend vacation. How about Andaman Islands?’

‘Great.’ Reveling in the spectacular night, I couldn’t foresee more spectacular time that stood ahead. I asked him few moments later, ‘had she already leaped into the sea?’

Bose said she did.

The screen began the countdown–

Bose lab to Milva Lake– Voyage starts in few seconds. 10….9….8...

After an enthralling night, we were wide awake by 4:00a.m. By 4:45a.m. the Sun-marine crossed the tunnel mouth and entered the lake. There was no ray of sun yet. The town is now calmer than the night. Shooting off towards the river at 555kmph, we reached the edge of the lake in thirty seconds. Then in a flick of a moment, we were tearing the air and catching a glimpse of whole village for some three seconds, our submarine ball dropped in the river killing the calmness of the surface. Had we dropped in the shore, it must’ve surely awakened the bordering village.

‘Now,’ Bose explained pointing at the digital map on the screen, ‘we are right here and from here, we leap unto a stream of Yamuna on the northeast border of Uttarakhand. We dive deep and gush at the speed of 400–600kmph to reach Ganga in Uttar Pradesh. That takes not less than nine minutes. And from there, we keep under Ganga; pass through Bihar to enter West Bengal; at this point the small rivers like Gandak and Koshi (starting atop Nepal), merges into Ganga. The streak upon entering West Bengal bifurcates into some half dozen streams (three of them springing into Bangladesh). The Medinapur Plain takes us into the Bay of Bengal. On the whole, it won’t take more than eighteen minutes to touch the sea.’

It was not the first time for Bose to reach the Bay of Bengal. In fact the first voyage of Sun-marine rounded the Indian peninsula and Sri Lanka. Starting from the tunnel under the Bose lab, it reached the Bay of Bengal through Medinapur Plain, sped fast through the Andaman and Nicobar Islands before touching the Indian Ocean below the tiny island; upon merging into the Arabian Sea, the mirror ball arrived at Lakshadweep Islands and from there leaped northwest unto Gujarat line at Gulf of Khambhat touching the river Narmada. There upon catching one of the several curled streams of Yamuna (detached from Narmada by some 200kms) was a little difficult one. It has to be accomplished through the suitable lakes by taking maximum possible jumps at times. Once in Yamuna, the streak cuts up to Himachal Pradesh.

More baffling was the time recorded by the Sun-marine to complete the subcontinent voyage. Excluding the time periods of halting, the underwater jet finished the voyage (starting from and returning to Milva Lake) in 21minutes and 11seconds.

‘Are you ready for the massive jump?’ an exuberant question from Bose.

‘I was ready since last night.’

’We take a total of eight jumps. And the whole journey is auto–driven. Once I set the route map, the Sun-marine keeps going as per the set instructions. I set the maximum speed of 600kmph, which as I said, can be extended to 1000. The submarine adjusts the speed as per the path it travels in. If I want to make any changes in my route, I need to reduce the pace to below hundred before altering the instructions. Especially when it is in air or about to leap into air in seconds, we’d be short of few options.’

The submarine also shows us the volume of population in any area on the map. It can be parked inside the sea (water body) and can be retrieved with the combination of Heart Key and Bose’s mobile; as per the given instructions, the submarine parks itself at the depth of 500 meters and floats up when required by the authorized instructor.

As Bose was explaining the marvelous features of the mirror ball, the Sun-marine’s voice blared up:

The sixty five kilometers leap commences 10…9…8… 7…

The leap lands us into Tons, a contributory of river Yamuna. From there, it is a steep and furled journey southward until it merges into Ganga at the borders of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

As usual, the submarine’s dive unto the air and into the river depths, made no physical impact on the persons inside. Only the scene on the screen changes in a shooting velocity. The sunrays sloping down the Himalayan hills began to touch the rivers. Within few minutes, we’ll be exploring the vast underneath chambers of the Bay of Bengal. From West Bengal coast, it won’t be more than an hour stroke to the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Four minutes passed in the depths of Yamuna and suddenly the water became solid and purplish black. ‘Looks like the poison for god’s toughest enemies,’ Bose commented, ‘indicates that we are near the capital city.’ The digital maps besides displaying super quality images and accurate navigations, also shows the quality of water. Sky blue color indicates good quality of water; white indicates best; purple little diluted and red stands for toxin zones. Right now, we are super close to red.

‘Some toxins,’ Bose sighed, ’can even make severe patches on the Sun-marine glass.’

Five minutes passed later– there it is… the second leap. Shooting though the black and purple solid clutters, the giant mirror ball sparked unto sky to drop in Ganga-Yamuna Sangam, at the outskirts of Allahabad.

In the constant and serene energy, the Sun-marine dropped itself into the depths and sped fast west. Six minutes later we were in Bihar and five more minutes later in West Bengal.

‘There it is… the Medinapur Plain,’ Bose pointed on the digital map on the top right corner of the screen. We’ll be inside the sea in two hundred minutes.’

By now, the dawn had embraced the river. The Sun-marine took a leap into the early rays of the day.