My Trip: Day 1

"Welcome to my home !" Mogo was super excited. After all, I was visiting him for the first time. He was eager to show me around. At the same time, he was determined to make a first-class impression on me. 

We are pen pals. Though we had known each other for a long time, we had never actually met, until Mogo insisted I should visit him. It took some time to arrange everything. He had to secure permission from MUSIC (Martian Unit of Space and Interplanetary Council). There were innumerable questionnaires that they insisted upon being filled. Add to this, CEES (Center for Earth and Extraterrestrial Studies) demanded medical examination and psychological evaluation before I could venture out into the thermosphere. It was as if they were doubtful that any sane person would undertake such a journey just to meet a friend. Going for knowledge transfer was a routine matter for these officials, but as mine was a personal visit, they went through the rulebook with a magnifying glass.

We crossed all hurdles and finally, the day approached when I was to zoom out. This wasn't my first trip into space. I had been to Moon on many occasions, the recent being our family get-together. Flying out to Moon is hassle-free as it comes under Earth's orbit. This trip to Mars was my first outside Earth's orbit. Needless to say, I was double excited. I could meet my friend and I could see Mars.

Mogo met me with a big toothless smile. His three eyes are wide with excitement and constantly blinking as if making sure that I'm real and not a dream. As he came forward to hug me with his seven outspread tentacles, he was stopped in his tracks by the over vigilant ETO (Extraterrestrial Travel Officer) saying that I had to be sanitized first, as if I'm some sort of package. Well...I can't blame them for taking precautions. By being sanitized, he meant being shut in an enclosure and being sprayed by a yellow gas that I'm sure smelt foul.

After this and some more digiwork authorization, I was finally free to leave with Mogo. But before leading me anywhere, he gave me the hug he was waiting to bestow on me. It was similar to the bear hug my grandmother used to smoth

Advertisement

er me with, except that Mogo's felt cold and slimy. We came out of the facility. Mogo walked me towards his ariel vehicle AV4.5 that he bragged so much about. He was not exaggerating and I could see it looked more sleeker, meaner and sophisticated than the others vehicles parked around.

"You need to put on a lot of weight if you want to fit in my seatbelt." Mogo laughed as the safety belt was way too loose for me, inspite of tightening it to its extreme. We took off. The sky was grey and the ground was covered with buildings of all shapes and sizes. There was not an inch left uncovered with these skyscrapers that went as many floors underground as they were above the ground. Did I mention that there were no roads? Infact, Mogo was quite surprised that we still travel on roads. All their vehicles were ariel.

Mogo was also surprised to know that we divide the land into continents, countries, states, and cities and each has its own set of laws. Mogo's Mars was just one big entity, divided into zones for the sake of easy identification. As he flew me around, I was struck by the difference between my home and his. Though I had seen documentaries and video reports of Mars, viewing it with my own two eyes was a different experience altogether.

My Great-grandfather once told me that they would refer to Mars as the Red Planet. I wonder how they came up with that name, as I didn't find anything red here. The ocean, just like ours is vast, but grey in color. It was such an angry flow of liquid that I was reminded of the tsunamis off the coasts of Asia. And I'm told it is much deeper than ours.Mogo will be taking me to the craters and the mountain ranges tomorrow. Besides these, there is next to nothing to see, for practically no flora and fauna exist here. I'm not comparing, but between the two, our planet is more colorful. 

I want to rest my fingers now friends. I will keep you posted on tomorrow's sightseeing and more on life on Mars, specifically on Mogo's residence and workplace. I'm super tired and this planet lag is killing me. So stay tuned and bookmark this space for the daily report of my Mars trip. Bye till tomorrow. Stay safe.