My New year Eve

I switched on my tv with great anticipation, the anitcipation arising due to two things.First to see the movie I,Robo that was to be screened in a channel; Second due to fact that it would help me stay awake till midnight, as it was a new year eve. The first can be fulfilled anytime later,but i aint sure of the second.Considering the history(my history), which shows that i ve failed in 6/6 attempts to stay awake at such special nights. It would give my readers a wrong impression that i am not at all capable of staying awake through the night, but i assure u that it only on such special occassions that i fail to stay awake. Guess thats what makes it special for me. Well, i switched on my tv, bouncing in anticipation. The movie was scheduled at 9 pm, and now the time was 8:30. Half hour and three hours separated me and my achievements. It was a pleasant shock that awaited me as soon as i switched on.

It was History channel and Mr.Hitler(one amongst my idols) was giving out an inspiring speech. I sat fixed with my eyes glued to the great man, the only problem that existed between me and Hitler was that he was good at German and i wasnt.Coming from Bhavan's, the stronghold of Max Muller society, i knew a bit of german, but was no where near my idol's.So there i was, watching him giving a beautiful speech. Around half hour must have elapsed, though my intuition said it was around ten minutes since i sat watching. My intuition was proved wrong for once, for my mother shouted at me for dinner stating that it was nine. Gosh ! nine, and i was supposedly waiting for I,RoBo.... i could have sat watching Hitler,but my second target implied that i switch over to something that would keep me awake closer to midnight. Mr. Hitler would not be certainly speaking that long!! So i tuned to Star Movies and there was an AD asking the viewers to sit watching how many times a stupid icon of a robo jumping up and down in a corner of the screen. Idiots, these ad makers are. How many do they think are stupid enough to sit watching a icon, rather than watch the movie.... These rational thoughts of mine were disturbed by a sudden blaring off the tv, and my robos vanished giving room to the title song of a mega serial.

It took me a full minute to understand what had happened. My grandma was the culprit. She had changed it to some stupid channel where she watched a mega-serial. It drifted me into another chain of thoughts, how do people watch these mega serials ?? It seemed to me that my grandma shared a distant cuzin relationship with the lady in that serial, the invisible thread of bonds that held her glued to the idiot box every week at the same time. But one day i was even more surprised when i realised that half the population shared the same relation with that lady in the serial. Lucky lady,was all that i could think of about her....... Well my thoughts broke due to another bout of noise from the tv. I realised that i had lost ten minutes of the movie.

I hastily grabbed the remote control and tuned it to IRoBo... The hero was chasing a Robo running on the street and, thinking it to be an urchin (robo-urchin). This was when i realised that the first few minutes form the most important component of any moive. I couldnt make heads or tails of the movie for the next ten minutes. It was only after it entered the main idea that, i could find out what was happening in the world at chicago in 2035. I gathered that the robo's had violated the laws of robotics. I am a CSE student who chose the elective Robotics as self study elective due to sheer interest in the subject , so it was easy for me to recollect the laws..... for those readers who are unaware they are listed below....


Law 1:

A robo should never harm a human being under any circumstances.

Law 2:

A robo should obey the commands of a human being implicitly provided it is not against the first law.

Law3:

A robo should strive to protect its existence,provide it doesnt conflict with the previous two laws.


The heroine and others felt that the robos cannot violate these rules as they are hardwired into the robos, but the hero says that evolution has made them diobey these rules... ultimately the hero wins the point and due to sheer courage than logic manages to subdue those mighty robos. And the robos and humans live happily ever after..... There ended the movie in the usual tamil movie fashion. Good movie i felt, solid timepass and makes u rooted to the idiot box for two hours, i thought. Two hours ,being an engineering student maths was something that i was good at and i calculated the time in a fraction of a second, that was what made me realise that it was just 11 o clock and there was a full hour that separated me and my goal.

I fiddled at the remote hoping that Mr. Hitler would be kind enough to show his presence yet again... but no such luck my dear readers,no such luck.... It seems that i have a boon of not being able to fulfil any such resolutions that i make. The channel showed some crazy pop singer and his history....Again i fiddled with the remote and find another channel that would interest me, but as i said no such luck. When i thought it cannot be any worse, the worst happened... the cable connection went ka-boom and i felt like crying at that moment. Whats worse, power chose to deceive me at that time augmenting my agony.

I sat sitting on my sofa for ten long minutes, hearing the ticks of my wall clock... i sat counting them, even my strongest resolution and interest in math could not make me count beyond 342. I groped for my mobile in the darkness and eventually managed to grab it from under my frame(i was sitting on it, a polite way to say it was under my arse). I then decided to spend some time sending new year sms, i wished everyone in my contacts. Though i boasted of a huge contact list , that couldnt stretch more than 11:45. Sullenly i sat counting time again... my mobile showed 11:59 and i felt a joyous shock running down me when i felt i have achieved my target after six attempts ....i felt like the spider which jumped a huge distance the seventh time (a story whose name i forgot )... Satisfied i made my way through the dark and fell on my bed with a thud, sleep grabbed me more due to contention than exhaustion.

My mother woke me the next morning,i walked to the living room, half sleep and sat on the sofa..The tv showed 7:59:45 in a huge font. The time countdown before the 8:00 am news was going on. i lazily took up my mobile and looked at it. I kept staring at it and at my fate, it showed 8:20 am ............................