Yesteryears...

That was an early day for the Arjun. Somebody woke him up. But what that somebody did was so smooth and soft that he did not even realize that his sleep was cut half way thru. As he pondered about that, he strolled towards the dining room to see a steaming cup of coffee, ready for him. Thoughtfully, he took a slow, but a relishing sip. Wow! The sugar quantity was perfect. A dark coffee, the way he always loved it. He blissfully took another sip. Another sip. Another one. He moved with the coffee cup towards the living room. His LCD TV switched ON, sensing him. It had a razor sharp display and it was hung to the wall, in such a way that if switched off, the wall behind it would show up, as if there wasn’t any TV in front of it. Neither it had any projector. They called it some “TransLCD” technology. He felt happy to see the TV. The latest news was scrolling down on it. He wished he saw the result of the last night match between India and Pakistan. Alas! The result scrolled up slowly. India lost. He was jubilant though, not for the match result. His new TV worked, as told. He wished he saw the mid-term elections news and there it scrolled. Cool! He said to himself. Smiling, he took the remote and pressed on a button. The floor carpet besides him unfolded and refolded to a neat recliner and puffed up in front of him. He sat on it and looked around.

Now Arjun realized who woke him up and who made the coffee for him, his way. He called out “MyBo….” And a voice came in return “Yes sir, I’m coming and my ETA is 5.45 seconds”. 4 seconds later, he saw MyBo coming in neat uniform steps, as if he is rehearsing for an army parade. Arjun wanted to ask “Can’t you walk better”, but he refrained, because he knew that’s the way MyBo walks. Coming close to him, MyBo said in his crystal-clear voice “Good morning sir. How can I be of help to you?” Arjun replied, “Hey MyBo, whats up for breakfast?”. As MyBo was about to reply, he thought “Why is he so formal today, he can better talk casually, maybe in tamil”. MyBo said “Enna Venum’nu solllunga sir. Edhu venum’naalum pannalaam” (Tell me what do you want sir, I can make any breakfast for you). Arjun took a second to realize that MyBo is talking this good a tamil. He felt so happy for paying so heftily for him. He suggested a breakfast and turned his head towards the TV.

One of his favorite movies occurred to him and there it already started playing in the TV. As he was engrossed in the movie of human characters (which he thought is very rare nowadays), he heard a quick-buzz and MyBo moved a table with breakfast towards Arjun. MyBo neither touched the table, nor the table the ground. MyBo called it as some magnetic-motion based technology. Once the table was right in front of him, Arjun leaned forward towards the table to make him self comfortable. And before he could do so, the table moved towards him making him all the more comfortable and prepared for a sumptuous breakfast. He smiled and consumed his breakfast. Once he was done, MyBo announced, “Sir, your breakfast had 8 mg Protein, 75 Calories, 0 Carbohydrates and 0 Fat”. Thanking MyBo, Arjun got up towards the balcony. He looked up to see the bevy of Airplanes waiting at one of the traffic lights. The traffic was smooth in the other direction though. Arjun thought he can get to office on time today, if he takes the Express flight. That makes only 2 stops. Government had last week imposed a law that people should not fly in their own flights to work. And the government also informed that if somebody takes the public flights to work continuously for a period of 1 year, they get a vacationing package in Mars.

He then looked down to see a train, where passengers alighted at the train station. Both the train as well as the station was hanging on the air. Once all the passengers alighted and walked away, the train shrunk to the size of a miniscule worm and crawled down into the yard. The station quickly disappeared. Arjun wanted to take the train once, but he knew there was a question of affordability. Arjun is decently rich, but trains are not for rich people, he thought. They are for Royal people. Once again, the station formed like an appearing image and a train approached. He saw an old man alight the train. The old man walked slowly, yet confidently. He instantly reminded Arjun of his grandfather.

He slowly thought of the lifestyle, his grand father Arun used to tell him. Those days there never used to be such train stations. All train stations used to fixed in a place. People used to go to a place called ‘Airport’ to take flights. And people drove to work in cars. And they had to be dependent upon centralized satellite agencies to telecast TV programs and they are scheduled too. No Artificial Intelligence in those days. They did not have any MyBo’s back then. Arjun can’t imagine what would happen, if MyBo isn’t with him, even for a single day. But his grandfather has always told him that there were people living together, back then and that’s what makes all the difference. Arjun could only imagine about living with the love and affection of people. All he knew was MyBo and his predecessors. At the back of his mind, though he realized that he is leading nothing more than an automated life, he has got used to his lifestyle too much to just turn back. And he did not want to turn back. His mind slightly got heavy.

As he kept thinking his grandfather’s words, MyBo called for him and said that it is getting late for work. Arjun realized he had his public flight in the next half an hour and in the following hour his house will have to shrink, to make way for peak hour traffic. After all, Arjun knew for today’s population, people can live only with this “SmartShrink” technology. He smiled to himself and walked inside calling “MyBo, what will be my costume for the day?!!”