(DOR) Nature’s reminder

“What happened? Why did you call me?”

“Sir, what we have feared has just happened”

“How serious is it?”

“The situation is far worse than predicted, take a look”

“How long can we last with this situation?”

“We can last barely a day with this situation”

“I warned them, they didn’t believe me”

“There is no use now, all hope is lost”

“We are helpless now”

“What about the people, the country and the day to day functioning?”

“As I said, we are helpless”

“You mean the entire world will shut down?”

“Yes, life on earth as we know it will come to a standstill”

“And we, in a way betrayed them”

“It was not our fault”

“I agree; we did our best, we spent sleepless nights trying to find a way to prevent this, but it was in a sense too little too late”

“But that little effort is the factor allowing us to last for a day”

“This one day time period is the window of opportunity to mobilize available resources and make the public aware of the situation. I will inform the government immediately”

“They are probably aware of this”

“And what can we do now Sir?”

“I want all resources to last as long as possible, so, lets minimize all consumption and use all resources to stay connected to the central phone line so that the government can contact us if they want”

“Yes, Sir I will do that immediately”

“Good”

“Sir, please come here and take a look outside in the sky”

“What in the world! It is more severe than we expected”

“This is amazing that the present condition is holding on; considering the severity of the crisis we are facing”

“Well, at least we are giving people time to realize and prepare for the situation”

”But Sir, what about your family; your wife, children and grandchildren? Won’t they be worried?”

“That makes me want to ask you, what about your young wife and your parents?”

“I am sure my parents will manage the situation. I will stay here; you better go home and be with your grandkids”

“No, you better go and stay with your young wife, she must be worried. I have been through lots of things in life, and my dear wife will manage anything and everything”

“Sir, are you sure that you can manage alone?”

“Manage alone! What a question you are asking young lad? Back in those days, when I was adventurous, no one wanted to accompany me into the forest because the places I chose was extremely hostile and no one thought that I would return alive”

“How did you stay alive?”

“I grew up in a farm. There was also a forest nearby and I learnt to cope with the wild animals. I learnt to live off those available resources and these kind of experiences allow me to handle almost any situation”.

“That is really great. The modern generations like me cannot live without the luxuries for even a day”

“That is why the saying goes ‘Respect the elders’. They are a source of knowledge. They have lived through all situations in life, and they know what is good and what is bad. Only thing is you all didn’t use the ideal opportunity. You could have learnt from elders and spent some time observing nature and understanding its complexity, diversity and its beauty. But all hope is not lost.”

“The modern lifestyle is just too fast to spend quality time with elders and learn their experiences.”

“You are right. But do you realize that the modern lifestyle is also the cause of the current problem?”

“Yes Sir, I do”

“You know what?”

“What Sir?”

“How much ever we advance technologically and gain more knowledge of the universe and the things around us, we can never be sure that we have learnt everything. We can never be sure that we can be safe.”

“You mean….?”

“Yes, nature in one way or another reminds us that we cannot rule over it or control it. No matter what”

“Yes Sir, I get what you are saying”

“This major solar flare caused atmospheric ionization, which has destroyed all the Earth’s electrical grids stopping normal life on earth as we know it, is just a reminder that we are vulnerable. We must have planned the grids safely. The Carrington event should have been an eye opener”

“Yes, nature never fails to surprise us. Whether good or bad”

“And so, now, we on earth have to start life once again from the pre industrial era, but, at least we have the knowledge of how to get life back to normal. And it is up to you young future scientists to perform this task”

“Yes Sir, we definitely will do”

“That’s good, now go home and embrace the future. Whether the future becomes prosperous or not is in the hands of future generations like you”

“Yes Sir, We will make sure that the future is bright and prosperous”.

This is my first ever attempt in story/dialogue writing. And English is not my first language so please excuse any grammatical errors. I wanted to use this dialogue as an opportunity to say how vulnerable we are, and how we can never rule over nature, and how elders are good source of knowledge and how we must respect them.

It is an awesome story. I liked it! Three days to go... YIkes my nerves are running now... Good luck!

reply to post by titorite


Thanks titorite. I am glad you liked it.

reply to post by peacejet


You've done a wonderful job with everything you wanted to get across. It is a great story that I enjoyed fully!

reply to post by jackflap


Thank you Sir, I am glad that you liked it.

reply to post by peacejet


I really like the story. Your English is very good considering it is not your primary language

reply to post by Esoterica


Thank you. Glad you liked it.

Your English was great my friend, and your story was excellent as well. We could certainly do with a warning like this cause I'm pretty sure we're overdue for an event like that. The message about listening to your elders was right on as well.

I hope you do well in the contest,

wupy

reply to post by mrwupy


Thank you very much, Sir. I am very glad that you liked it.