Life in 4000 A.D.

Future world painting by Fred Freeman (1906-1988)

Hi! I’m Tanvi Gupta, a student of Level X of the “Edu-Circuit” school located on the Earth. Today, I’m going to tell you about my day…

I woke up at 7:50 A.M S.E.T. (Standard Earth Time) when the biological alarm clock connected to my brain set off and automatically secreted anti-soporific agents in my body. After getting up, I walked into my new “Clean-o-matic” machine that helped me get ready for school. The new machine has all the settings customized for me- the electronic toothbrush, my tooth paste flavor, temperature of water, my favorite soap, automatic hair-dresser and also my school uniform (completely ironed).

I got ready by 7:52 A.M. S.E.T and had my favorite breakfast, a couple of “sandwich pills” that provide me instant satisfaction & nutrition of 2 sandwiches in a single gulp! I stuck my “nano-book” behind my ears and was ready for school. My grandmother tells me that when her mother used to go to school, they actually used to take huge books that were double the size of our palm! Oh my God! Its so hard to believe that! Our ancestors were really very primitive…..

Anyways, at sharp 7:54 A.M. S.E.T. I entered the “teleporter” that instantly transmitted me to school. As I entered the lobby, the electronic records automatically got updated with my attendance for the day. Our school is one of the most famous schools in the “Milky-Andro” Galaxy belt. That’s the reason we have many alien students enrolling every year. I reached my classroom at 7:55 A.M. and saw that the class was already full. The first row was occupied by the “Zilchos” from planet “Zilch”, the invisible planet from our neighbouring galaxy Andromeda. They look similar to humans but with the absence of a nose. They use their palms to smell. So they make sure that their hands are kept clean always!

The second row was occupied by the “Ezhiopians” from “Ezhiopia” which is the seventy eighth moon of planet “Zoogoooo”. They are very different because they consume food through their skin which is porous. So, you better be careful the next time you shake hands with or hug an ezhiopian! But jokes apart, they are very friendly and helpful by nature. The last three rows were occupied by earthlings, moonlings and marsians. Actually, all of us from the Solar system are quite united in the class. In our history lessons we learnt that many years ago there was a geo-bio-racial discrimination between people from earth and mars due to the red colouration of martians. But now, we have crossed all inter-planetary racial barriers. But we still need to overcome the inter-galaxial boundaries…

We had our Cosmography class at 8:00 A.M. S.E.T. Our class teacher “Tutor #2435” was the latest model of the techno-tutor series of robots with the highest level of artificial intelligence and advanced cognitive abilities. She* entered the class from under the desk and greeted us all. Then she started giving us the codes of the various sources of information about the various planets which were fed into our nano books. The nano books are equipped with the latest technology and all the information automatically gets neurotransmitted into our brains! But this process is done at a steady pace to ensure permanent settlement in the grey cells. I have heard another shocking fact from my granny that our ancestors used to write in books using an instrument called pen that had a coloured fluid inside. How is it possible when there are zero-gravity classrooms? The fluid ink will not be able to flow down at all!

*( the Intergalaxial Institute of Gender Balancing – IIGB, has passed a legislation that the robots have to be addressed with a female pronoun because of the fall in the percentage of female organisms in the galaxy)

Anyways, the classes continued as usual. I had a couple of meal pills for lunch. Post-lunch, I felt quite heavy. I guess I had a pill too much. I had a hydro-pill to quench my thirst. The hydro pill is equivalent to water of the ancient days. As you know, earth is the only planet that had water content. But everything dried up centuries ago. The hydro pill is synthetic compact water generated in the laboratory. We have learnt to adapt without real water through evolution over the past few centuries!

The last class for the day was Language, at 3:00 P.M S.E.T. We all had selected the language of our choice. I had selected “Ezhiopian” language because I find it very interesting to learn inter-galaxial languages. And it would also be useful for my future because I’m planning to move to Ezhiopia for my further studies. They do not use the mouth or vocal chords to communicate. Instead, this language uses claps, snaps and sneezes! Its an amazing adventure to learn such languages!

School was done for the day at 4:00 P.M. S.E.T. I teleported home by 4:05 P.M. Now, it was time to visit my favourite place on earth – The Forestarium! It is the most beautiful scene that I have ever seen. It is a pre-historic piece of land that has been conserved and showcased. It contains a bunch of around 25 huge green and brown pole-like structures called “Trees”! These vegetative organisms have become extinct centuries ago! But we are lucky enough to be able to witness atleast a bunch of these today.

My mom also gave me a pleasant news that our cousins are coming to visit us from the Moon. I love my cousins a lot. We all have grown up together. But last year, they had to shift to the moon because the population on the Mesosphere of the earth has also surpassed the limit. Last century, the population on the earth’s crust, troposphere and stratosphere had reached its peak. Each layer of the Earth’s atmosphere is being utilized one by one to build zero-gravity apartments every year! The Moon is also almost full! ;)

Today was an eventful day…

Anyways, its bed-time for me now…

I need to switch off my brain and keep it for charging. Need to use it tomorrow in class!

Good night (in case you have a period called “night” in your planet)