Beyond Boundaries
“T-ding! T-ding!”
The message notification chimed, resonating across the silent room. The pinging sound was all too familiar to me, for my days revolved around the rectangular computer slate and the virtual realm of the interconnected web. Soliciting relevance through social media, entertaining myself streaming videos, laughing over memes, instant messaging, all of these were so ingrained in my daily life that sometimes I felt that the internet was indeed my calling. It was ten minutes past midnight; the accustomed tone of the ping this time however filled the silent night with a tone of unacquainted strangeness as the message read: “Congratulations, you have been chosen! Enjoy the trip.”
Sheer daze and confusion appalled me as I re-read each letter of the message trying to unearth the smallest nuances that could make any bit of sense, however, to no avail. The sender unknown; the context behind the message unknown; the meaning behind the words appeared simple but yet it perplexed me as to what it meant. It’s already an hour past midnight, and I can’t make heads nor tails about the mysterious text message. Only one option remained: to shrug it off as a ‘wrong message’ and hit the hay.
Next morning, the cool morning breeze and the twitter of birds awoke me as I opened my eyes. The scene before me made me go back to bed, I pulled the blanket over my head again thinking “Yes, I must be dreaming. This time, I will definitely wake up properly.” and I pulled the blanket, stood up and gawked at the scene again, rubbed my eyes over and over but it made no difference: the sight was still unchanged and unbelievable. Instead of the same old boring wall clock, I was spectating something completely different: a vast blue sky atop an unending blue sea. I was somehow on a beach, and on the other side was a tropical forest of palm and coconuts. I was baffled, pinched myself on the cheeks and the surging pain made it clear this was no dream. Somehow, I had ended up to god knows where.
“Breathe in, Breathe out!” Calming my nerves, something struck my core and I thought about the strange text message, and looked for my phone. It was not on me, nor the fit-band I always wore to track my sleep not even the pajamas I was wearing — I was buck-naked . The bed I laid on and the blanket I smothered were but a pile of palm leaves. A man in the middle of nowhere lying naked on a pile of leaves, the thought of being seen by someone and being called a pervert-exhibitionist did not bother me more than the idea of missing my phone; that rectangular slab was my life. I could not wrap my head around what was going on, so I wrapped myself with the leaves and headed towards high ground and scouted the area. There I saw something sorts of a village through the forest; I hurriedly headed towards the village.
Reaching closer the village, I realized something: the houses were rather unique, and primitive, it made me immediately reached out for my phone to capture a photo, but I didn’t have a phone. Continuing, I looked around, hoping to find someone and ask them anything that could be of help, and fortunately up ahead saw figures resembling that of humans. I gunned towards the figure hoping to gain some information, but reaching closer, again, another something amiss: these humans were strange; large foreheads and uncharacteristic expressions, almost prehistoric. Amusement filled within me as I, again, reached out for my phone out of habit, this made me sad that my instinctual reaction was always reaching out for my phone. I noticed something more, these primitive humans had an odd way of dressing too: dresses made out of barks and leaves. Brushing aside these facts, I tried talking to them but their language was again something I never heard of; “perhaps, if I had my phone it could translate the ambiguous dialogue”, I sighed. Even so, I tried communicating and get any bit of information. A rather successful endeavor as I was able to befriend them and they showed me around the island.
Prowling about the area, an ill-fated disposition was starting to take over my mind; everything that I saw was too unfamiliar and old, everything was so different. Any modern thing I was accustomed to was no where to be seen — there were no vehicles, no cars or even machines; the houses traditional mud houses, everyone acted differently from humans like unintelligible apes; there were no any form of written communication. The concept of money was irrelevant, and they involved in barter. The civilization felt completely different, especially since there was no any form of technology but however some things were similar: these people did normal activities similar to us humans like cleaning, or eating, or rearing animals and farming, trade like humans, however, everything was done manually, no any specific instruments or devices. These people dwelled in the magnanimity of nature, the concept of technology or science did not exist. All this, I was certain that I was not somewhere in the world I was familiar with — I was somewhere isolated from the world completely where the concept of technology did not exist, or perhaps back in time.
With no idea what was going on, or where I was; How I ended up here, or what was going to happen to me, I felt insecure and trepidated. But the one day’s worth of experience made me realize something really important, that we humans take technology for granted and the value of technology and science is indispensable. A day where I lived beyond the boundaries of science and technology had given me unparalled insights on the world, and what would life be if technology were to not exist. The world would still be dwelling in the primitive ages, an uncivillized civillization away from the comforts of technology. The time beyond the leash of technology takes us closer to nature, makes our intuition greater and brings greater emotions. However, technology is a boon what makes us better, it makes us more civilized. It makes us humans more like humans than anything else.
Right after the epiphanic realization that I felt a sudden shock, like electricity running accross my head and felt like my body was being pulled apart, I closed my eyes to deal with the unannounced tor ment and reopened them. This time, I saw the an old wall clock hanging on the wall—I was back in my room. I sighed a gasp of relief; I had been dreaming all this time, or was I?
“T-ding, T-ding!”
Suddenly, the phone buzzed heightening a lingering feeling of deja vu. A text message appeared, it read: “So, how did the trip go?”
Again, I had no clue who this anonymous sender was, but a feeling of indebtedness and gratefulness was evoked in my heart towards him. The fateful message and the unprecedented impediments it brought along taught me a great lesson in the span of a day, at least it felt like a day, about how immersed I was in the technology I took for granted, and how life would be without technology. I had become wiser, made me feel ecstatic and spoke aloud to myself, “Maybe this is how Buddha felt when he unraveled the secrets of the world. Muhahahaha, I think I too have attained Nirvana!” As a demonic figure with a transcedental weapon appeared from the creek of the door followed by a bleating shriek, “GET UP ALREADY! IT’S TIME FOR BREAKFAST!” It was Mum with her broom!
