Tell Tale by Time

“This couldn’t be more boring”, said Shiva, smoking his chillum.

“Yeah and that is why we are here” replied Guru Nanak.

“Take a break from marijuana and come here, you were the one who called this meeting” Brahma called his brother.

Jesus shifted on the couch to make space for Shiva, signaling him to sit. Shiva joined them, but not before putting off his chillum. He knew Allah was allergic to smoke. Vishnu served tea for everyone. With hot tea in their hands, they were all ready to discuss the issue.

“Years ago when we created these programs, it was all fun. Something went wrong only recently” said Vishnu.

“Yeah, we made a variety of programs animals, birds, trees. Dangerous, funny, intelligent all types” Allah said, sipping his tea.

“Sure, it was all well planned and organized, but that’s the problem. It’s monotonous. They all live by their instincts and we always know their next move” said Jesus “maybe we should create another interesting program”

“Or maybe we should improve one of our existing ones” suggested Guru Nanak.

“What do you mean?” asked Brahma. Everyone was curiously looking at Guru Nanak.

Guru Nanak explained, “See, if we make a new program, we might get bored with it soon. It’s better to improve an existing one and..”

“..And continue making amendments as and when necessary” completed Allah.

“Better yet, we let that improved program make the amendments.” suggested Vishnu “I have a plan for that. For now, we need to decide which program to improve. What do you say about Lion, one of the most powerful program.”

“I don’t think so” Shiva disagreed with his brother “Monkey, it has to be monkey”

“What’s so special about monkey?” Everyone asked

“Monkey is the naughtiest and funniest among all.” Replied Shiva, “I believe it will be most entertaining”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Looking at Vishnu, Jesus said, “And for letting the improved program amend we need to give it some reasoning power. You know some intelligence that differentiates this one from all the programs, we made till now.”

“I had a long day. I am tired” announced Brahma, “maybe we should take a break and think about the improvements needed. Then we can discuss it after.. you know.. after a while”

There were no units to measure me in those times. Anyways, everyone agreed and dispersed.

Second meeting:

Everyone had thought creatively and was eager to share their ideas.

Brahma started, “I think we will give this program only two legs to walk on, other two will be changed to hands. Hands will help them hold objects and do other stuff”

“and they should all look different. How about some skin color difference to make it more prominent” added Allah excitedly.

“It would be great. Plus, like other programs we will give them a language to communicate but to make it more interesting this language will be comprised of tones, expressions, pitch, sounds and words” suggested Guru Nanak.

“I was wondering if we could give them emotions, to be felt, not seen. Other than physical comfort and pain which is very much visible, there will be emotional happiness and pain.” said Vishnu

“Good idea. This emotional thing will be expressed with the help of their language. It won’t be something very tangible. Also, we can give them ability to smile, an expression for happiness, which will also make them look more beautiful” Jesus spoke.

“I guess we don’t need to plan anymore. Rest will be taken care of by the reasoning ability we decided last time.” Said Shiva’ “And we will call this program..”

“HUMAN BEING” everyone shouted in one tone

After millions of years, all six of them are still amused by their creation. A lot has changed. Human beings have made rules, developed the concept of money. They have divided the planet into countries than states than cities etcetera. They have also named me. Time is what they call me. Now they measure me in seconds, minutes, hours, days and so on.

“The reasoning ability is the source of most of the fun” says Shiva, “rather than accepting, human beings have the urge to understand. Once they understand, they want to improve. Improving one thing destroys the other, than they try to improve the destroyed one and the cycle goes on”

“You bet” giggles Jesus, “Smile was an expression of happiness. Can you imagine they learnt to fake it? In fact, they have learnt to fake every emotion.”

“So much confusion, so much fun” added Vishnu

“The more detailed language we gave them to communicate, the bigger reason it has become for miscommunications” Guru Nanak laughed

“And did you notice, how they all pretend to be same, when in their hearts they all know they are different” Allah was amused, “Goodness, we made them different to enjoy not to fake being same.”

“And the funniest part is they think they are created by one of us not all of us” said Brahma.

Everyone laughed uncontrollably.

Trying to catch his breath, Shiva said,” Do you know, now they are making robots, some artificial intelligence thing. Let’s see where this goes”

Once again everyone is laughing uncontrollably. Amidst of all this I am also happy because I am time and no human being ever gets enough of me.