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A Dystopian Bangalore, 2069,AD

A Dystopian Bangalore, 2069,AD

4 mins
485


2069 AD, Somewhere in Bellandur, Bangalore

It was 4 am when the beep came. The commander Ravi had a restless sleep. The beep meant that the schedule for the delivery of tankers had arrived. It was a highly secretive operation for the tankers were meant to carry some highly valuable liquid to highly placed clientele. The past few days were tension ridden for all concerned. The powers that be were annoyed about the delivery of the liquid and missives were going here and there. Now when the delivery was made the tempers would cool for at least for a few days.

He quickly did side stretches lying and did a few bridge asanas before he left the bed. He went over to the balcony fed the pigeon a few grains and tied the slip of paper containing the code. The homing pigeon would deliver the code to the Wizard in a few minutes time. They had developed this communication system as any electronic communication was under surveillance by the state. It was the Orwellian state that was ruling.

The Wizard received the pigeon message in 10 minutes time and he too fed a few grains to the pigeon. His team was waiting to hack the system. His team was brilliant computer nerds but unlike the others,their heart was at the right place and they were the guerrillas in the e-world. They were not paid 7-figure salaries like the computer geeks who must have created the ultra- safe program for tanker scheduling. They broke bread with the slum dwellers, drank the water they drank and were hell bent on creating chaos. They too practised yoga and were capable of focussed effort for any number of hours. It was 0415 hrs when they began operations. They had the luxury of about 10-12 hours to crack the code. Their office if you would call that one was a shanty of about 300 square feet but fitted with the latest gadgets that one can name.

Over the next 10-12 hours,they were hell bent on their desks freaking out with the key boards. Cups of coffee and akkirotis were downed.

Wizard was pleased as a punch when they cracked the code. He lit a cigarette the only one for the day. The occasion deserved it. The cigarette brand slogan was "If you will you can." He read the schedule. The Logistics Department of the State in their arrogance had made a mistake. The Head had arrogantly declared that their program code was hack proof. The collection point was only one. He hand wrote the schedule in different notes and sent the homing pigeons to the field commander. Field Marshal, Manek, immediately set on work and made arrangements for refilling.

0400 hrs the following day

The automated tankers left for their destination. Only the Wizard and his team knew the destination was reprogrammed. Manek was waiting with his team to receive the tankers. They had 10 minutes to empty the liquid and refill. The tankers left their originally programmed route and took a route for a different destination and re-joined their original route. The time taken was 20 minutes. The Wizard and his team hacked into the program and wiped out the detour and the time record. The Logistics Department never noticed any anomaly at all. The tankers delivered the liquid at their programmed destination in time. Commander Ravi received a beep. He got ready for what was going to be a day when hell broke loose.

School children from the elite apartments were the first to fall sick. They had assembled to celebrate "World Water Day" and as soon as the program started, they began vomiting. The business leader too vomited and held his stomach in pain as he was presenting a prototype washing machine which did not require any water at all. Elderly citizens too fell sick and the housewives followed suit. Ambulances were ferrying sick people to private hospitals. The Minister screamed at the Head of the Logistics Department. Many samples were taken and analysed. The liquid had turned out to be treated waste water. The elite officers of the Intelligence Bureau were set into motion.

In the new slum built on a landfill which housed about 100 families on the fringes of Bellandur, which supplied the cleaning labor to both the municipality and the elite apartments, the citizens were surprised to find that the liquid had never tasted so good. An old man said that this was how Cauvery 'neeru' used to taste in his younger days.

Wizard and his team quietly celebrated their guerrilla operation with a cup of coffee and "maddur vada." With the compensation they got, this was what they could afford.

The "Water War" had begun in the city of Bangalore which had been declared as "Water Red Zone Area (WARZ in short).



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