Saturday, January 14, 2017

Marrow

Warm April air in that spacious flat had turned thick... with fragrance of mutton curry...

S.K., Punit and Aru-uncle all 3 were down approx 2 pegs each...
Besides creating the happy buzz, whisky also had made them hungry... super duper hungry.

Thankfully Punit's mummiji served dinner...
Just in time... n all four of them shifted to table.

It was very typical 'sunday night meal' visual... Of any nouveau riche meat-eating marathi family.
Shiny steel plates... shinier bowls...
dahi-raita...
chapatis... warm n soft like baby-cheeks...
red steaming mutton curry...
n specially in Punit's plate: big chunk of lamb-bone... his favorite!

Punit cheered up...
He threw happy air-kisses towards mum... and sucked that tubular bone... sucked while it's hot...
Sucked so hard... It was almost vulgar.
All that bone-marrow got into his mouth...
That buttery, warm, grey chunk of happiness traveled through his food pipe n he moaned... in ecstasy.
"Mum I love you for this."

Mummiji had a fresh tide of maternal love,
"I know you like marrow... n you need it too.
It will strengthen your broken bones... love.
My poor baby... n his leg...
These idiot slum people... is footpath a place to slee...?"


S.K. had to poke her... hard... to stop her rant just in time.
"So Aru... my man...whats new?"
He swiftly changed the topic.

Aru-uncle perked up.
New frontiers of science was his forte after all.
"Hey we are currently working on microids."

"what's microids?"

"Have you ever heard of nanobots? Those microscopic robots?"

"All I know is Nano car", Punit threw a stupid grin.
"Actually the other night when I banged my car I totalled one Nano too... ouch!"

S.K. kicked his son's non-broken leg hard under the table.
"Aru ignore him... just go ahead...
and Punit no more refills for you... Seema control your kid. He cant hold his drink."

"Anyways... So we gave some more thought to nanobots.
I mean they are completely mechanical but what if we could put some organic properties to them?
For example intelligence and functionality like ants or bees or termites?
Can we give these dumb tiny machines brain and bit of consciousness?
...may be not as complex as humans but say somewhat like ants??"

Punit's thick brain was already foggy with booze.
He was starting to find all this gyaan too heavy...
He turned to what he liked best and got mummiji to fetch one more bone for him.

Aru-uncle was in full swing:
"So as I was saying, we are trying to combine intelligence of tiny insects and obedience of machines.
They are bigger than nanobots but still very tiny. Hybrid of machine and tiny insects.
Hence we are calling them microids.
Just imagine the possibilities my friend...
Complex surgeries or tricky tasks in small nooks n crannies of big machines.
You might even be able to fix your car troubles with these...
No need for opening engines n big rip off from those car mechanics."

Thokk thokk... Punit was banging bone on the plate... in frantic efforts to get marrow out.
It wouldn't come out since bone had turned bit cold now.
Punit made some weird smoochy sounds and sucked it hard but no luck.
He looked deep inside the bone... there was marrow... whole lot... soft gooey buttery marrow...
Tempting as ever... But apparently it's  outlet was too small.

Aru-uncle grabbed his briefcase.
"Wait son, lets take out marrow from that bone for you."

He took out a small box... almost like 'tic-tac' pack.
It had tiny pellets... again almost like 'tic-tac' or may be little smaller.
"See these are our microids... they are inactive for now. Let's put them in action."

He emptied all of those pellets in a saucer and poured some thick red fluid on them.

"Whoa! Is that blood?"

"No. It's bio-fluid... well it does have some elements of blood and many other things.
Think of it as food+Battery charge for microids."
Once those pellets soaked in bio-fluid, they started vibrating...
In strange slow rhythm...
Aru-uncle set some commands on laptop and hit enter.
vibrating became fast... faster and suddenly those pellets came out of saucer.
They swiftly moved to Punit's plate, near the bone.
They made nice little Que and entered inside bone... one by one.
For 20 seconds there was just slight hum n buzz.
Then they all came out. Those tiny soldiers.
Each had collected some marrow with them.
They put it in the plate and neatly stood beside.

Here is your favorite marrow Punit... 'all' of it.
Aru-uncle was beaming with pride.

Punit was still bit skeptic.
He peeped into hollow bone.
It was polished off really well by those microids and nice small blob of marrow landed in his plate.

"So people these are our small soldiers aka microids.
As you saw they can be customized to do tasks where access is tricky.
In fact I am fondly calling them by our beloved Shakespeare characters names now.
This is Macbeth, that's Hamlet, she is Desdemona and this one here is Shylock.
Aru-uncle passed Magnifying glass.
Punit grabbed it and looked through.
Those microids looked like tiny rickety kid... 
with thin limbs and sharp nails... 
disproportionate bigger head and pointed teeth made to nibble.
suddenly Shylock looked straight at Punit...through lense...
and he sneered...sweet and affectionate and hideous and sinister... like some minuscule evil infant...
Punit startled and spilled mutton curry on his plastered leg.
He was not much impressed with all this tech-shit after all...

But his dad was!
"Super Aru... well... meat gets stuck in my molars all the time, can these soldiers of yours clean it?"

"Hmm may be but its too early to let them this close to Humans...
It might or might not be safe...
we need more tests to know.
Anyways S.K. I have early flight tomorrow, need to get going. Let me just call them back...
Seema-Bhabhi whats for dessert?"
---------------------------------------------------------

S.K. saw Aru-uncle off to his car... came back... and snapped,
"Have you got no brains woman? Are you going to share this 'accident episode' with whole universe now?
Your beloved son... this dumbard brick-head had been driving drunk...killed 3 persons sleeping on footpath and broke his own leg.
Put it on your FB wall if you like...
The entire last week I have been cleaning his shit.
Told Police 'tree fell on his car'...
Managed fake medical record for his broken leg...
Whole thing costed me five fucking lacs... totalled car not included...and you can't shut your hole?
Useless! that's what you are... both."
---------------------------------------------------------

Punit's bedroorm:
Punit was sleeping like a log.
A very very happy 'log'... after good drink, favorite meat and good release on some BBW on the internet... 
n best part: no annoying college tomorrow... perks of a fractured leg.
His broken leg resting on a pillow...
A.C. humming slowly...
Punit's mouth was slightly open... drooling in his sleep.

Shylock who had been hiding inside his plaster... all this while...
Moved further inside...between the gap of plaster and the leg...
He reached near the wound and started nibbling stitches... slowly...
Inside the stitches there was partially healed wound...
Half open... Red-Pink wettish wound.
Inside the wound... a bone... still cracked!
Inside the bone... marrow... soft gooey buttery.
Ever so tempting...
Shylock's tiny brain was filled with that gamy smell... of a marrow...
All he could think of since his earlier job was: MARROW!
Shylock nibbled away crack in the bone... deep... deeper... and Punit started screaming... like a dying dog!

                                                                  THE END
-Nil Arte


Image courtesy: www.nava-k.comb (Navaneetham Krishnan)



























































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