IMANOFUTU

With the approval of the bill, Imanofutu became the first country in the world that depend fully on virtual currency for transactions.

From the sixteenth century onwards Imanofutu had a fast growing economy. The country followed a very liberal regulatory system for setting up and running industrial and commercial establishments including financial institutions. These institutions functioned without much hassles till the end of nineteenth century. By the end of twentieth century Imanofutu had placed itself at the peak of prosperity in almost all crucial sectors like industry, scientific innovations, education and health. Consequently it had become one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Ever increasing trading and connected financial activities made the country think about speedy methods of transaction and thus they established world’s earliest core banking and online trading systems.

Imanofutu had its earlier versions of online financial systems from nineteen nineties onwards. By the beginning of twenty first century the country developed a prudent core banking system. No later it also established online stock trading system.

The opening up of markets in accordance with the open trade policy in  two thousand marked the second wave of migration into Imanofutu. In some areas migration was found to be meritorious whereas in some other areas it produced drastic results. However the pace of economic activities, in general, increased substantially.  But unfortunately that boom was short living. By two thousand and five the country began to face  saturation of financial prosperity initially and then there came the economic meltdown of two thousand and eight. It disrupted all vital systems of the country.

Consequent on the severe resource crunch caused by the economic meltdown, undue competition for accumulating wealth began to reign the social life. As a result, all kinds of financial frauds like tax evasion,  fake currency and black money - began to appear first time in the history of Imanofutu. Thus the country, once famous for minimal law and better living, had witnessed frantic law making by  the senators. The senate approved more than three hundred statutes for the financial sector alone.

But lawmaking alone could not save the country from the serious troubles it was facing. Thus the country had to think about other means for a sustainable solution. After numerous brainstorming sessions and debates, Imanofutu House of Senate observed that sustainable solutions could be found only through intelligent use of technology. Thus House of Senate engaged the New Generation Technology School and the School of Financial Management at Imacifutu State University jointly  to further study the financial systems and their problems and come out with a suitable solution.

The Imacifutu State University took up the challenge with much enthusiasm and came out with a proposal for complete networking of transactions and withdrawal of paper currency.

As an initial step, the Federal Government of Imanofutu made it mandatory for all its adult citizens to have a bank account with any one of the banks approved by the Imacifutu Central Banking Authority (ICBA). In the second phase they made it mandatory that any transaction beyond 1000 Imacifutu dollars should be conducted online only using designated bank accounts.

In the next phase they have restructured the tax reporting system and introduced a tax watching system wherein nobody need to report income or tax. Instead the Imanofutu Revenue Authority (IRA) shall watch every transaction, assess tax by itself and either demand or deduct the tax from the tax payer’s bank account with the support of prudent IT systems and a strong network.

In the final phase, Imanofutu House of Senators had passed a historic bill for stopping the use of paper currency. With the approval of the bill, Imanofutu became the first country in the world that depend fully on virtual currency for transactions. 

The leading motor vehicle manufacturers had been engaged in ruthless competition. As a result the streets of Imanofutu were filled with motor vehicles.

During the first decade of twenty first century Imanofutu reached at the peak of industrial as well as economic development. The leading motor vehicle manufacturers had been engaged in ruthless competition. As a result the streets of Imanofutu were overcrowded with motor vehicles and it resulted in bumper to bumper traffic jams throughout the day.

A day in two thousand and twenty. Imacifutu Mayor’s office. Mayor was in a serious discussion with the Chief of Public Transport Mr. Putrant,  Chief Engineer of Public Works Mr. Puworker and the Director of law and order Mr. Polman.

“Mr. Puworker, at last we’ve reached the much feared deadlock. All possibilities for expansion of roads have come to a close. The corporation council has also decided against the encroachment of housing sectors by our road networks. You might know all these”

“Yes  Mr. Mayor “

“…and  a workable solution for this must come from Mr. Putrant’s department. We can admit no more increase in the vehicle density.”

“We know sir, we will succeed only if we will be able to curb the private vehicle density on roads”

At this Polman intervened and said: “One of the options would be to increase the vehicle registration fees and impose heavy fines for traffic violations”

“Well, what does it mean? …we are adding to the woes of people. I think the ideal solution would be to provide more efficient and passenger friendly public transport system that people would like to use every day.” – Mayor said.

“Exactly!” -  all others agreed to this unanimously.

“Majority of vehicles on road are driven for the use of single persons. It is a criminal wastage of resources and over exploitation of infrastructure, especially when the world faces deadly resource constrains and environment related issues” – the mayor added.

“I think, it would be helpful if we could arrange a brainstorming with all stakeholders in this issue” – Polman suggested.

“Definitely” the mayor agreed and asked his secretary to plan it.

The Mayor was a real statesman with futuristic vision. Therefore the consultations found result in the form a  well planned mass transit system for Imacifutu.

Contradictory to many mass transit plans, the top most priority of Imacifutu Mass Transit Plan was gone to the pedestrians. Comfortable and hurdle-free foot paths, pedestrian crossing and sub-ways were given top most priority in the plan with a slogan ‘walk your life healthy; make your environment serene’

Later on, within a period of five years, the model of Imacifutu had been followed by entire Imanofutu.

A day in 2030. Imacifutu General hospital. Specially insulated ambulances frequently rushed into the casualty area  with patients exposed to sun stroke. More than seventy percent of the inpatient capacity of the hospitals in Imanofutu were used for treating sun burn and sun stroke cases.

In the beginning of twenty first century fear of climate change spread all over the world. Facts and fiction about climate change began to dominate all kinds of literature and media. Scientists, policy makers, technocrats, social workers and all other stakeholders came out with all kinds of confusing opinions. However, finally towards the end of the second decade world had to admit that climate change was a reality.

The turn of events in Imanofutu was also not different. From the middle of the first decade of twenty first century, Imanofutu began to face visible changes in its climate cycle. The first change noted by all was the reduced rainfall, which was in turn followed by increased average temperature. A section of the Imanofutu scientific community argued that those were temporary phenomena and such thing had occurred many times in the history of world. But the other fraction of the scientific community warned government and other stakeholders that it was just a tip of the iceberg and more dreaded things were in store. They accused reckless industrialization and resultant environment pollution as the basic reasons for the drastic changes in the climate.

The politicians and industrialists attacked the idea of climate change as they feared the popularity of such ideas would adversely affect the industrial prospects of the country.

Amidst these verbal fights within and between different classes of the Imanofutu society, the changes in the environment kept on accumulating silently. The quantity and the occurrence of rainfall recorded steady decline every year. It enhanced daytime temperature as well as scarcity of water. The ground water levels dipped drastically.

At the face of amazing industrialization during twenty century, maintaining wells had become out-of-fashion and water supply lines and taps had become the symbol of aristocracy. However a lot of people living in semi-urban and village areas were intelligent enough to upkeep their wells. But when the ground water levels went down dangerously, most of those wells were also dried out. Only then the Imanofuteans realized the gravity of what was happening in the nature and thoughts on alleviating climate change issues got popularity. Finally the government of Imanofutu had to officially adopt the UNFCCC definition of climate change.

In two thousand and fifteen average daytime temperature crossed forty degree Celsius and by two thousand and thirty the average midday temperature touched fifty five degree Celsius. The midnight temperature was also rose to thrity five degree Celsius. No more they called daylight as daylight; it was day fire for them. It was not only the high temperature that frightened the Imanofuteans, but also the increased density of dangerous rays in the sunlight that penetrated their bodies. From two thousand and thirty onwards Imanofuteans worked for their livelihood only during the night. Even the emergency services of government had seldom worked during the daytime and people remained inside their homes. The windows were covered with specially made thick and dark glasses to prevent penetration of UVA rays. Similarly rooftops were covered with a special kind of white material to reduce heat absorption. However sun stroke cases occurred when children opened the door by accident or when adults went out under the compulsion of some exigencies during the day time.

Monday, January 15, 2035  ; Imacifutu State Skills University. The Senate of the university met on that day to take a crucial decision.

  The higher education system of Imanofutu was a role model to entire world right from the beginning of twenty first century onwards.

In two thousand and fifteen Imanofutu government had taken a bold and futuristic decision to convert all its universities to Skills Universities, which ensured employable skills training and education to students with the active involvement of industry. Based on the above decision, all advanced researches on applied sciences and technologies were strictly attached to industrial houses, laboratories and other agencies that make use of such sciences and technologies under the guidance of well organized quality control and assessment agencies. Other kinds of higher studies that were intended for just knowledge acquisition had to be carried out through the online university system alone.

For skills training and education, quite naturally faculties were also drawn from the industry. By two thousand and twenty five there were no one in the higher professional education system whose job was just teaching. It had become a corporate responsibility for all industrial houses to facilitate the learning and research activities as well as to provide efficient faculties. Now Imanofutu was getting ready for another wave of revolutionary changes in its higher and professional education system.

10.05PM. Senate members started to enter into the Senate Hall of the Imacifutu State Skill University (ISU), one of the oldest Universities in Imanofutu, which was established in seventeenth century. Its earlier name was Imacifutu State University and was changed as ‘Imacifutu State Skills University’ in two thousand and fifteen. In the twentieth century ISU became one of the most favorite educational destinations of people from all over the world.  But in twenty first century, when Imanofutu began to be engulfed by all kinds of socio-economic-political-environmental issues, the fame of ISU was also declined.

When the Vice Chancellor entered the room at 10.20PM, all the Senate members were in p­osition. Full quorum meetings of the Senate were very rare from the beginning of twenty first century. But that day it happened. Moreover, a solemn silence filled the room that used to be a pandemonium otherwise.

The senate of the ISU was unusually big with membership from almost all walks of life – academics from various disciplines of study, students, politicians, lawyers, scientists, writers etc.

“Good morning friends” – the Chancellor started to speak.

“All of you know why we are here today. Similarly all of us realize the gravity of the issue that the senate has to consider today and the need for settling them urgently. Therefore without much introduction I invite the Chairman of the Senate standing committee for academic policies Mr. Reoman to present the agenda”.

 “Good morning Mr. Chancellor and my dear friends, with the permission of all of you I’m presenting the single agenda item.” – Reoman, a very energetic professor of IT at his mid forties, started with his usual pleasant tone- “Due to the compulsions of adverse socio economic and climate conditions and government policies, further continuance of classroom mode conventional education has become almost impossible.

As you know these are all not sudden developments. We have a very long history of bringing in  revolutionary changes. In two thousand and fifteen itself we have discontinued with classroom education in the case of all streams of education except professional courses. Now we have been receiving representations and advisories for many years from now to think about alternative methods for professional courses as well. Compulsion of the situation to discontinue classroom mode of education in the case of professional courses is  very high. The copies of the proposal of the Senate standing committee for policies have already been circulated to you. Now the senate may kindly discuss the issue and suggest solutions. Thank you”

Reoman’s brief speech was followed by heated debate between conventionalists and reformists in the senate. The discussions on the first day was not fruitful. However the senate decided to discuss the issue in the subsequent days as well and it lasted for many days. At last the proposal was passed by majority votes. Thus Imanofutu Sate University discontinued the conventional classroom type education for all its courses.

The transition was not a nightmare for ISU, because it had already made much progress in developing and testing virtual learning environments. Educational reformists in the University had given top priority to Open Distance Learning from mid nineteenth century onwards as a solution for the ever increasing demand for higher education and state’s inability to meet that requirement consequent on population explosion and fund constraints. By 2010 further expansion of facilities for classroom education had become almost impossible. State had directed Universities to find funds for running the courses by themselves. Thus Universities introduced self-financing courses. In that mode, students had to bear full expenses of their studies. It resulted in skyrocketing of education costs because of the foul play of fortune hunters who looked at education institutions as just commercial establishments. It created a situation in which access to higher education was limited to higher income group people. Quite naturally it took the shape of  a big social issue.

It was a very hot night. Though it was only 9 pm, Reona suspected whether she could cross the extraordinarily large playground undermining the piercing rays of heat that radiated from the ground and buildings around.

Reona was an Assistant Professor in Imacifutu State University. She was thirty years old while these incidents occurred. She was the Coordinator of the complete digitalization initiative of the university library. The meeting of the senate, which had decided to stop the theory classes for professional courses, had also decided to digitize all the books in the library and make available it online to all the registered students.

She had to walk one and a half kilometers to reach the university library from her faculty cottage at the southern border of the campus.

Every day, while going to and from the library, she walked across the playground full of dried brown garden grass and  rock wall buildings covered in dust that frilled the ground. It seemed to her as scenery from some fairytale. Reona suspected whether she could cross the extraordinarily large playground undermining the piercing rays of heat that radiated from the ground and buildings around.  

When she reached the library, the all the four staff were busily scanning and uploading books to the library management system of the university, which was developed on a powerful free and open source software platform. They used a dozen high speed scanners that can manage books as a whole. Books with a total page count of ten hundred could be fed at a time. A special kind of marker strips were stick on the cover pages for the scanner to understand each book and create files accordingly.  It took only seven minutes to complete the scanning of ten hundred pages including uploading of files. The machine pulled in the books scanned the pages without human support.

 “Hi folks, how’s it going on?”

“one and half million roughly so far” – a chubby but gloomy girl replied.

“So we have two million remaining” – Reona whispered.

“Yea, it’s too big a job for just five persons to handle” – the Assistant Librarian murmured.

“But we have nothing else to do. We have no rentals; no reading room guests…all have gone. At least this heavy workload will help us to forget about the burning airs outside” – a very serious looking Reona replied.

“You are right, Reo” – the Chief Librarian agreed with Reona’s comments.

The conversation stopped when all of them including Reona had fully engaged in the scanning job. Nobody liked lengthy conversations during those extremely hot days.

Reona was day dreaming amidst the humming of the scanners. She mechanically engaged in feeding the scanners, arranging the books to be scanned and taking the scanned books back to the shelves.

Reona remembered the words of Prof. Humann in her post-graduate class: “Friends, yours is a transition generation. I’m anxious about your future. More evils are waiting for you… and I would advise you to get prepared for facing it”

Prof. Humann was a wonderful man; quite and soft spoken. His classes were like friendly chats in a family. He never got angry. Nothing and nobody could provoke him. “Cool grandpa” – that was his nick name among the students.

His words were always thought provoking. In his opening remarks at a crucial seminar on ‘climate change and related issues’, he commented that: “In the millions of years of history, man has overcome drastic changes in the living environments through adaptation. But today, the fortress of luxuries that we built recklessly around us has made the adaptation quite impossible. Ironically, the luxuries, that we build to create what we believe as a comfortable living environment, really make the changes in the environment harder for us to adapt.”

The  open distance learning system of the university was initiated by Prof. Humann. While launching the first course in ODL stream he told “Friends, I firmly believe that open distance learning supported by open educational resources would build the inclusive mainstream education system in the immediate future.” For him, open distance learning was the most environment friendly way of education.

Reoman continued to be a bachelor just because he had no time to think about marriage. His friends always teased him saying that he was married to internet and their honeymoon would never end.

Reoman spent major portion of the time every day for browsing, conducting online classes, group discussions, open content generation and blogging.  He had two master’s as well as doctoral degrees in Information Technology and Open Education. His career development was also a mischievous thing for most of those who knew him. He completed his masters in IT as university topper with gold medal at a time when IT industry was at its peak. He received a lot of job offers from the market leaders during that time, but he did not accept it. Instead, he joined for his master’s in open education. It was, in fact, a clear indication of the vision and mission of his life.

Reoman’s hostel was next to Reona’s. When Reona went out to the library in the mornings they usually met near the campus health club. That day when she went to the library he saw her through the lightly tinted glass window of the health club. Reoman had great appreciation for Reona’s very energetic and constructive involvements with university’s affairs, especially durig that versy sensitive transition period. Apart from being  a colleague now, she was also his student at the beginning of his career as an Associate Faculty in the University, immediately after completing his first doctoral degree in IT.

On the first day of her PG class itself Reoman noticed that she was something different. Immediately after his first lecture, nineteen out of twenty students in the class had encircled him for getting his signature at the recommendation part of the library membership application from. Imacifutu state university library maintained the procedure that every student membership application should be recommended by a faculty. At this Reoman had noticed that Reona alone was sitting peacefully at her seat. Then Reoman asked her” don’t you want a membership of the library?”

“Not in a hurry sir, Open Courseware is sufficient for the time being” –Reoman liked her answer, but he did not comment on that.

After returning from the gym he went to kitchen to prepare something for the breakfast. While sitting on the floor of the living room, leaning against the wall, with his tablet and bread toast, he got a instant message from Reona. She reported some system error they were facing at the library while uploading the digital books.

“dear, I will be there in five minutes” – he promised.

Reoman completed his breakfast hastily and started to the library. He was always quick in responding to the calls for help. He was quicker whenever the requester was Reona.

When Reoman entered the library Reona was sitting before a computer doing something.

  “what happened?” – Reoman asked her

  “the system keeps on displaying the message ‘busy’. It’s not accepting newly scanned files”

  “I think the database server is down. Let me reset it” – he sat at another computer and logged on to the database server. He restarted the server and everything began to work fine in ten minutes.

“thank you” – Reona thanked him with a sweet smile. She smiles only on very rare occasions. Those occasions happened most often while Reoman was near her. If it were anyone else other than Reona, others would have believed that they had been in love. Reona was very sincere and energetic but she most often worked as if a machine without expressing any normal feelings. Moreover they had other reasons to think that Reona would not fall in love.

The team became more gloomy, as the digitization works neared completion. It was also visible in the face of Reona, though it was always very difficult for others to read her face. All of them knew that the time for leaving the university campus would reach shortly.

However the university was very much concerned about its staff. The senate has encouraged the staff for a career shift form off line services to online, so that they would be able to work for the university even from their own homes.

It was the real starting point of extension of schools to the homes in Imanofutu.

It took almost seven years to complete the distribution of e-readers tablets to all students in Imanofutu. During this period government also gave particular care to train  teachers in the use of learning management systems, organizing online instructions and online student mentoring.

When the average daytime temperature surpassed the fifty five degree Celsius threshold making daytime movements and works impossible, school timings were also rearranged from eighteen PM to twenty two PM. Within next two years, weekly school days were reduced to four from five and in the next year it was decided that schools would function only on alternate days.

  The above situation had made all the stakeholders of education, academicians, students, parents, health professionals and education policy makers to think seriously about innovative ways of online education for school children as well. Studies on it revealed that support of  parents or other grownups in the home were very essential for successful implementation of online education systems for school children. It was the real starting point of extension of schools to the homes in Imanofutu. Parents, other grownups in the home and volunteers were massively trained for supporting this system.

By two thousand and twenty, as part of combating climate issues by keeping people and vehicles away from congested roads to the maximum extent possible, government had to make it mandatory for many transactions to be carried out through online only.

E-Commerce gained importance in Imanofutu from the first decade of twenty first century itself. It started as a luxury service for the wealthy. Major development in e-commerce during the initial periods were the introduction of debit and credit cards and accepting the same by commercial establishments for e-payment.

  In the second decade of 21 century, e-commerce services had become very popular among middle as well as lower income groups also. It was facilitated by networking of banking activities and opening of bank accounts for all citizens of Imanofutu. Along with this all other kinds of institutions began to promote ecommerce to reduce labour costs especially in the times of the economic crisis.

  By two thousand and twenty, as part of combating climate issues by keeping people and vehicles away from congested roads to the maximum extent possible, government had to make it mandatory for many transactions to be carried out online alone. Thus e-commerce had become the rule of the land.

“Let us also dream about solutions, because dreaming is an easy (and natural) way to know the universe”

During 18th to 20th centuries the main source of electricity in Imanofutu was its numerous thermal power stations that were spread all over the country. These power stations used diesel and coal as fuel. In the last part of twentieth century, they began to establish nuclear power stations.

In two thousand and five a deadly earthquake rocked Imanofutu and five of their ten major nuclear power stations had been dangerously damaged. The nuclear leakages claimed the lives of more than one million people and many survived with deadly after effects. This incident made  people think against nuclear power stations and at last government had decided to decommission all its nuclear power stations and go back to depend on the thermal power stations again. But in the place of ten nuclear power stations that made Imanofutu an electricity surplus country, the government had to construct fifty two thermal power stations making environment pollution a bigger issue.

The scientific community and the environmentalists were highly divided in this matter. At last Imanofutu House of Senators had to directly take up the issue. The Senate committee for science and technology had heard all the fractions of people and reported to the senate that:

“The Committee is convinced that Nuclear Energy is a reliable source of energy. Most probably we do not have information about any other sustainable mechanism of energy generation to meet our ever increasing energy needs. However we cannot help but raise our eyebrows when we think about Chernobyl, Three Mile Island , Fukushima and deadly 2005 accidents.

In simple terms radiation is the emission of energy particles or waves from the excited (or high energy developed) nuclei of atoms. It is an effort of the high energy nuclei  to go to a low energy or stable state. It is called radiation because this energy radiates or travels in straight lines to all directions. Light, heat and microwave are radiations in our daily life. Sun and stars send cosmic radiation from times unknown. Our earth is a source of natural terrestrial radiation chiefly through Radon gas and also many other radioactive materials exist in soil and rocks. Even people themselves are a source of radiation as they carry radioactive potassium-40 and carbon-14 inside their bodies from birth. Medical use of radiation is yet another major source, which accounts for 14% of radiation dose on general population. It means everything in this planet receives radiation doses regularly, of course, in varying degrees. However, high energy radiation is dangerous because it can ionize atoms by knocking out electrons. Such radiation is called Ionizing-radiation. Other type is low charge non-ionizing radiation, the energy level  of which is not enough to ionize atoms..  High amounts of ionizing-radiation is dangerous as it affects living cells, especially the DNA.

The radiation in the context of nuclear energy is ionizing one. A nuclear reactor works through sustainable nuclear chain reaction ( fission) using fissile materials as nuclear fuels. Materials that are capable of providing sustainable nuclear chain reaction such as uranium-235, plutonium-239 etc are called fissile materials.  The technology is like this. When a large fissile atomic nucleus absorbs a neutron, the heavy nucleus (excited nucleus) splits into two or more lighter nuclei, releasing kinetic energy, gamma radiation and free neutrons (to return to a stable state). A portion of these neutrons may later be absorbed by other fissile atoms and trigger further fission, which is called a nuclear chain reaction. The kinetic energy created during the  fission is converted to thermal energy when the free nuclei collide with nearby atoms. This thermal energy created in the reactor is used to produce compressed vapour, which is used to turn turbines to generate electricity. This reaction is controlled using special substances called nuclear poisons that can absorb the excess free neutrons.

Gamma rays that are being emitted during the nuclear fission  are the major radiation from a nuclear reactor. Gama rays are electromagnetic radiation of high frequency. Shielding from gamma rays requires large amounts of mass. They are better absorbed by materials with high atomic numbers and high density. Gamma rays are more penetrating and hence long duration exposure to high radiation may increase the incidence of cancer.

Various scientific literature say, it is not the fission alone that produce radiation in a nuclear power plant. For example, the radioactive substances that are used as fuel in the nuclear plants normally disintegrate or decay by the emission of alpha particles and gamma rays. Another source of radiation is the decay of fission products. Fission products are radioactive substances produced as a result of fission. Some of them would be highly radioactive. Similarly some impurities in the reactor coolant and the reactor coolant itself absorbs some free neutrons and becomes radioactive. This is called activation. But nuclear power plants use effective technologies to prevent all these kinds of radiations from exposure to the environment. However, nuclear fuel transport, fuel change in the plant and removal of waste from the plants etc could turn out to be the occasions of radiation leak outs. Now the challenge before the nuclear technology world is to device perfect systems that can withstand accidents and natural disasters as well as prevent radiation exposures.

The committee found nuclear energy as the natural way of generating energy and radiation as the natural way of transmitting it in this Universe. As it being a system used by the Universe itself, it has to be tremendously powerful as well as sustainable. It is really these qualities of the nuclear energy that demands utmost care from us while exploring its possibilities.

On the above grounds the committee recommends that our scientific institutions must study further deep into the universal system to  generate, control and transmit nuclear energy and design completely safe systems for the country. Knowing the universe is the real challenge here as well.

Let us also dream about solutions, because dreaming is an easy (and natural) way to know the universe and arrive at natural remedies.”

Nobody noticed the dip of oxygen in the air below fifteen percentage. The initial symptoms were felt in the streets of major cities in the Imanofutu.

By the middle of twenty first century the atmosphere of Imanofutu had become highly polluted. The sky of entire  Imanofutu began to be covered by thick clouds containing sulfur, carbon monoxide and other toxic oxides. This situation was the sum total of pollution caused by uncontrolled increase of motor vehicles using fossil fuels and reckless industrialization wherein all kinds of products, the byproducts of most of them were dangerous, were made in exorbitant quantities without thinking about its implication on the environment. It,  coupled with the destruction of forests for housing as well as industrial purpose, made the environment highly polluted.

Nobody noticed the dip of oxygen in the air below fifteen percentage. The initial symptoms were felt in the streets of major cities in the Imanofutu. It had become impossible  for the traffic guards to work more than two hours at a time in the busy streets of the metro cities. Serious health problems were developed in those who worked long hours in the streets. At last Government decided to implement two hour rotation for traffic guards. After attending duty for two hours they were urged to rest another two hours in oxygen chambers set up near their duty points.

From the streets of the metro cities, this situation slowly spread to all other cities and further into villages. Oxygen shortage related health problems became common in persons regularly using road transport system. It made the governments to issue statues to make oxygen cylinders a compulsory part of all motor vehicles. On implementation of such statues, two wheelers and other uncovered vehicles had been withdrawn from the streets. Only covered vehicles with air conditioners including oxygen supply were allowed thereafter. Dreadful increase of the average atmospheric temperature and increased presence of harmful rays in the sunlight were other reasons for the strict implementation of such statutes.

The problem did not end by that. Gradually all places where people gathered in large numbers were began to indicate shortage of oxygen content in the air. Auditoriums, schools, colleges, hospitals, office complexes, markets were all become prone to oxygen shortage related problems. In no time it had become a very serious issue in entire Imanofutu.

Though the pollution caused by vehicles stopped during two thousand and fifty due to almost complete stop of the production and supply of petrol and diesel, the environmental issues continued to escalate. Locking down of factories that caused environmental issues had also not changed the situation. Gravity of the aggregated problems caused by the human activities regardless of the health of nature through many centuries were that much deep and wide.

Thus the federal as well as state governments of Imanofutu had to work hard to find a feasible solution for generation and supply of oxygen to households as in the case of water and electricity. The primary method employed for oxygen generation was electrolysis of water and quite naturally this function was also assigned to Imanofutu Drinking Water Corporation. At least a couple of scientists suspected that the situation was moving towards mission critical.

However, the duplication of efforts continues to be a problem in governance in Imanofutu

Another night in two thousand and sixty. Humit was sitting in his office at the ‘Imanofutu House of Senators’ and carefully viewing the documentary video about a very famous senator of two thousand thirties called Transin. He was the then chair of the Senators’ committee for science and technology. Humit was always maintained very high academic interest in going through the history of past senators as well as various committees of the senate so that he could correctly trace transitions as well as identify gaps and possible reasons for successes and failures. “A clear picture of the history is very much required for taking stern decisions about the present as well as to plan where to place foot in the future” - he used to say.

Till the year two thousand and thirty, the Federal Government of Imanofutu and each state government in the country maintained numerous citizen registries for different purposes like voting rights, permission to travel abroad, allotment of government supplies, various  kinds of licenses, student registration, farmer registration, business registration  etc. Though there were amazing advancements in the use of information technology in Imanofutu, e-governance was not in the right track. Each initiative remained as remote islands with no means or interest to communicate with other initiatives. As a result, though government pumped enormous amount of funds for e-governance, people were not that much happy about what were going on.

It was a burning issue in the mind of Transin from his college days onwards. During those days he used to furnish detailed opinion and suggestions on those things whenever government sought public opinion on new as well as existing initiatives. But he found no signs of his suggestions were being considered with due importance. At this he became very angry, especially as he was a very active reformist from his teen ages onwards. He decided that he would pursue his suggestions. He was very confident that he would get an opportunity for that. At last his vision, strong passion and hard work had made him a proactive senator of Imanofutu.

As the chairman of the Senators’ committee for Science and Technology, the first thing he wanted to be discussed by his committee, immediately after he assumed charge of the office of the chairman, was the issue of convergence and coordination between various e-governance initiatives.

In his first speech at the very first sitting of the committee Transin said:

“Friends, as all of us are aware, we are living through very hard times in the history of human beings. The basic reason for this situation is the reckless use of science and technology all over the world. The growth  of science and technology helped people to build stable civilizations; no doubt in that. But when used in a reckless way, the same science and technologies have proved that they can be disastrous as well. Now we have to alleviate the effects of such destruction by the intelligent use of the same science and technologies. I know it is not an easy job”. At this an older senator said: “I agree with you chairman. But where should we start? Problems are now as big as the world itself. Where do we have a space to fix our feet to commence work”  Everyone including Transin enjoyed that comment.

“Well, let us start from simple and basic things” - Transin said “How many government cards each one of as are having? I have eleven of them”

“In that case I will defeat you. I have twenty two of them” the oldest among that senators said triggering a loud laugh in the room.

“Yea, that’s the point I would like to make. We don’t need more than one card. So that everybody wins” - Transin said with a smile.

“But how?” many in the group asked at the same time

“As you know, the technology is now ripe enough to store, analyze and retrieve millions of data in respect of each individual. Only thing additionally required is our commitment to use them in such a way. There is no problem in having many registries or databases. Only thing we demand is that all those registries should communicate among themselves and share data between them, again they should be able to build a master data registry at the very second we need such an information”

“we agree, this is a top priority initiative for our committee to examine” - all other members seconded the suggestion of Transin. The committee had decided to organize detailed discussions with each agency in the country which maintained or plan to maintain people’s registry in the first round and to call them together for a collaborative brainstorming in the second phase.

“We will set an example in this basic e-governance thing so that all other initiatives, not only in e-governance, would be able to easily digest and replicate the strategy” - Transin said in his concluding remarks of that sitting.

Humit closed player window and stood up. He knew the remaining part of the story. Transin and his team was able to successfully pursue the idea among all government functionaries and came out victorious in getting the proposal of ‘Virtual Individual Identification Card (VI2C)’. The Imanofutu Science and Technology agency had successfully designed and implemented it. VI2C was in fact an online repository of every individuals data from his birth onwards. Each development in the life of an individual including health care and education were automatically updated to the online registry. When a child attained the age of 10, the biometrics information was also captured and added to the repository.

Cheap VI2C readers were provided to all authorized persons in Imanofutu. When a person approach VI2C reader, after reading that persons biometrics information the reader populated VI2C. Each agency was given the facility to customize the display of the VI2C in accordance with its requirement. In addition to this individuals were also given a micro personal information chip embedded hard card to use standalone in exigencies where networks were not available.

Humit pulled out the hard copy of the individual identification card from his pocket. He was now very proud to look at it as the outcome of the foresight of a visionary predecessor.

As the wind speed showed steep increase every year, the destructions it caused also began to grow beyond imaginations.

Heless Guad , a middle level officer in Imanofutu Civil Guards Department, was in charge of the surveillance camera control room for sector ten of  Imacifutu city that day. He and his team did not take a break since the last afternoon. They were all expecting the strongest of the winds in the last six weeks. The meteorology department of Imanofutu had predicted that a deadly wind was likely to hit Imacifutu in the next twenty four hours. Some twenty five years ago the meteorology department was able to predict hurricanes two or three week ahead of its occurrence. But now the climatic conditions were highly volatile and hence all predictions happened only before a few hours of its occurrence.

  After a day long waiting the wind hit the seashore of Imacifutu by 2.PM. Within a few minutes, visuals from almost all surveillance cameras began to show only thick cloud of sand; nothing else was visible. Humming of the wind even peeped into the insulated underground  surveillance camera control room. However Imacifuteans feared little casualty since they had developed very matured systems to protect them from the wind. They had made effective design changes in their buildings as well as escape cellars. Moreover as it being day time, possibly there should be no one in the streets and other open spaces.

For many centuries some areas of Imanofutu had been prone to hurricanes. The country used to have three to five deadly hurricanes each year. From two thousand and thirteen onwards they witnessed a steady increase in the wind speed as well as the number of occurrences of hurricanes. From two thousand and twenty onwards they began to face more than ten hurricanes every year.

As the wind speed showed steep increase every year, the destructions it caused also began to grow beyond imaginations. The high-altitude areas of Imanofutu, that were once the major tourist attractions, had become inaccessible because of the wind. Travels beyond five thousand feet sea level had become extremely dangerous. The high wind also destroyed the high altitude forests.

The evil effects of sustained high winds were not restricted to the direct destructions alone. It had also caused deadly changes in the climate of entire Imanofutu. It upset the climate cycle and thus the climate of Imanofutu had become highly volatile.

Consequent on this wind-speed-effect the entire life style as well as the social systems of Imanofutu witnessed tremendous changes. Starting from the clothing style, nature of agriculture, building styles, shapes of vehicles and everything changed to cope with the high wind speeds.

Nowadays, people of Imanofutu started their daily activities by hearing the climate advisories that were mostly about wind speed, chances of new hurricanes and depressions. Earlier, depressions had caused rain along with high winds. But now depressions caused wind alone. It was another strange thing happened to their climate.

Now the unbearable heat of the sun, dreadful winds, environment pollution and the need for continuous oxygen supply all together force us to think about new kinds of domiciles.

A day after ten years since the Imanofutu Senate had approved the recommendation of the Senators’ Committee for Science and Technology to slow down the space exploration programmes of ISATCO and to concentrate on researches about alternative living space, Humit had an important meeting with Ms. Innowa Engineer. She was Humit’s schoolmate and now his technology consultant and intimate friend.

When Innowa came to the office of Humit, which was on the second floor of an office complex in the lake view road, she saw him standing by the window and staring at the dried out lake. He did not know the entry of Innowa.

“Hi dear, seems to be in deep thoughts” - Innowa said while standing very near him. At this Humit stopped daydreaming and greeted her with a gentle embrace.

“Ina” - he used to call her like that “I was thinking something wild”

“wild?”

“yeah! perhaps a wild dream!”

“my god!, nowadays it is unbelievable to hear that Imanofuteans can dream in this ever raising temperatures!” - both of them laughed

“okay, what's that wild dream?”

“I’ll tell you. I called you to share it, in fact”

“Thank you, I am very curious to hear it”

“Ina, ten years back we have decided to cut short funds for space exploration to concentrate on revitalizing the living environment in the earth. Now we are spending thousands of million Dollars for revitalizing the living environment of earth, without any tangible results at all…look at the irony”

“I know your concerns…and passion for getting the things move in the right direction” – Ina said

 “ Now the unbearable heat of the sun, dreadful winds, environment pollution and the need for continuous oxygen supply all together force us to think about new kinds of domiciles.”

“that’s right. I second your dream”

“but we are not stopping the space exploration, we will continue our space exploration below the ground”

“below the ground? what you mean?”

“I meant underground living spaces with the facilities like in the space stations above”

“ohh! It’s not that much wild…”

“It means you see some reason in it, Am I right?”

“Sure! tell me your dream fully”

“Ina, we have six thousand and fifty eight tube rail stations in entire Imanofutu. If we are able to expand that space further for commercial and residential purposes, we can save thousands of people from the angry sun. We should develop the underground living space in a way that it can be separated as space station like modules in the event of an emergency so that each module will store oxygen, food and other facilities for an isolated living  for a reasonably good number of people for a couple of weeks”

“It’s a wonderful idea! Shall I name it?”

“You are welcome!”

“hmm...then..call it UGL Space”

“UGL Space?”

“Yeah! Underground Living Space”

“Great!!!”

People were trained to plan their daily activities with the support of Information Technology Tools in a way that require only very minimal travel.

During earlier days hurricanes had made it mandatory for Imanofutians to build cellars attached to their homes. Later they began to extend its size, both area and depth to escape not only from the mad winds, but also from the extreme heat radiated from the sun. It was at that time Humit presented the idea of UGL Space.

Consequent on the success of pilot UGL space built as an extension to the Imacifutu tube rail station, hectic initiatives were on way in many parts of Imanofutu for constructing more UGL spaces. Many businessmen were also cooperated with Government in the UGL Space initiative. Within a five year time underground hotels had become the most luxurious hideouts in entire Imanofutu. Similarly offices of crucial government functionaries were also rebuilt underground.

Gradually government agencies began to build underground public areas. The development of underground streets and other public places commenced as an extension of the underground rail system. Imanofutu had an extensive and well structured underground rail system, which they used to call as ‘Tube Rail’ as it was being called in UK. Later they built walkways connecting the UGL spaces. As the time passed, these walkways further developed into streets and in no time business establishments and residential structures had been built by the side of these streets.

The construction as well  as maintenance of underground living space were being coordinated by the Imanofutu Underground Living Space Development Corporation (IULSDC). Tube rails were the prominent transportation system to connect UGL spaces.

The Government of Imanofutu had brought out separate statute to regulate underground living space development as well as underground living called ‘Statute for Imanofutu Underground Living Space Development and regulating underground living.’

The most important law for both the underground space development and underground living was the non-use of fossil fuels. The above law prohibited the use of all kinds of fossil fuels in the underground living space. Electricity was the only source of energy permitted for aiding the human living in the underground living space. For cooking induction cookers and Microwave Ovens were only permitted.

Another important law was the prohibition of private vehicles. To strictly control the use and thereby the number of vehicles in the underground living space, there was a total ban on private vehicles in the underground living space. It was perhaps a lesson learnt from the traffic problems they faced throughout the twenty fist century.

People were trained to plan their daily activities with the support of Information Technology Tools in a way that require only very minimal travel. Almost all official conferences were held online and official communications were made electronically. If ever they were required to travel, it should be via public transport systems only.

Similarly they formulated a standard for underground living called ‘Imanofutu Underground Living Standards IUGLS’. It was mandatory that all activities and all products used in the underground space should invariably meet IUGL Standards. As per IUGL Standards, no production and manufacturing units were permitted in the Underground Living Space as a measure to protect the living environment.

You are in the return path

You are undoing the evolution!

Humit was also the patron of Imacifutu Literary Association (ILA). ILA was the most influential literary organization in Imanofutu with its more than two centuries experience in literary service.

During the good times of Imanofutu, the ILA Hall in the centre of the Imacifutu was a star attraction on all evenings. ILA Hall used to host important literary events on all days, which were enthusiastically attended not only by the city folks but also by people from all parts of Imanofutu and the visitors from abroad.

The environmental and related social issues had affected the functions of ILA also. Daily programmes were cut-short to weekend programmes and subsequently to monthly and half yearly programmes.

It was one such half yearly programme. Humit was a regular visitor of ILA hall from his undergraduate days onwards. This time he was greatly attracted by a small poem of an young poet. The poem was chiefly a number of warnings specific to the panic efforts taken by people to escape from the clutches of the  environmental issues.

“You have been reckless exploiters

Who plundered nature for disasters

That you thought fortunes.

Hey men! You have spoiled the blues

And I don’t have blue skies now,

I don’t have white mountains

I don’t have green valleys

I don’t have serene air

Hey men! You are the arch destroyer!

Now you seek hideouts everywhere

Under the earth, under the sea,

These are not advancements

But man, you remember

You are in the return path

You are undoing the evolution!

This poem was the last item in the literary programme that night. While returning home from the ILA hall, the last two lines of that young poet’s poem banged in his mind

“You are in the return path

You are undoing the evolution!”

- really some unknown fears were creeping into his mind each time he recollected these lines. “He is right, extra caution is required. UGL Space should not be the end, it should be an initial step to rejuvenate the earth’s environment. But how???” – he thought.

“Let’s think how we can build families and then joint families...it would be an ideal case for a serious study”

As part of his tireless efforts for rejuvenating the environment, Humit organized an informal midnight brainstorming session at the Imacifutu Beach. Now it was a regular practice to organize all meetings in the open air. The places of Imanofutu that had a presence of sea were considered as the prime location for meetings. Even the meetings of the government officials were also being organized in the open. This was one among a few good things happening in the social life consequent on the influence of climate change issues. Nobody wanted to be confined in big rooms after a confinement for more than twelve hours in their own homes to escape from the wrath of the sun.

The brainstorming was attended by fifteen fellow Senators of Humit, eight noted environmentalists, nine  scientists, twelve journalists, twenty students and six industrialists. Innowa was in the co-facilitator’s role to help Hummit. The topic for the brainstorming was  the ‘Reuse of products and other resources’. It was an idea Humit had in his mind for long. He believed that it was the blind consumerism and reckless production of articles that triggered deadly culmination of environmental issues. Now, at the face of impending terminal disasters, government was able to control, to some extent, the production and distribution of products, which had some elements in its lifecycle that were very harmful to environment. But a lot had to be done yet.

The brainstorming was very encouraging to Humit, because all the participants stressed the need for ‘reuse of products and resources’ to avoid unnecessary industrial activities.

“each ‘throw’ in our ‘use and throw’ culture creates wounds in nature...” - Humit was highly attracted by these very emotional words of an old journalist.

“In my childhood I got textbooks and other instruments for studying in  each grade from my elder brother. I used it with care, and at the end of each academic year handed it over to my younger brother” - an old scientist recollected “at that time once textbooks are bought for my elder brother, my parents had not required to buy it again for me and my younger brother, unless there were changes in the syllabus.

“Now the text book problem is over by the introduction of e-readers” an young lady, who was a researcher, commented.

“No, what I wanted to highlight is the need for sharing. If it was text books earlier, now it could be e-readers?”

The discussions went on till 3AM next day.

While walking back to his office along with Innova after the brainstorming session Humit asked:

“How was the brainstorming?”

“Very useful and encouraging. But I missed a point that could be very interesting if discussed”

“What’s that? Why didn’t you make that point during the discussions”

“It is about joint families. It came to my mind only after you started your concluding remarks”

“Joint families?”

“yea, let’s take the example of reuse of textbooks that the old scientist had told. The textbooks bought by his parents for his elder brother were reused by himself and his younger brother. If it were a joint family it could have been reused by many more. It would most probably work fine in many other cases. It would also make it convenient for government to channelize government supplies to families”

“It’s a wonderful idea! Nowadays joint families exists only a very few places in the world. Our country had also joint families for a long period of time in the history. But it began to disintegrate from the latter half of nineteenth century and completely disappeared in the first decade of twentieth century. The primary reason for the disintegration was the fall of agriculture and farming as the principal occupation of people.”

“you are right! When people began to travel massively and extensively for trade and other occupations the joint families had been destined to a natural death”

“it was further aggravated by the selfishness and narrow mindedness of the modern society which feared sharing as a most dreaded thing and began to live in isolated or nuclear families. I think it need not necessarily be joint families alone. We can also think about closely connected communities ”

“you and me are the products of nuclear families. But now we have families that shall not fit into old definition of a nuclear family, that is, father mother and a single child. Now we have new kind of families, either father or mother and a cloned single child, or even a child alone” - Innova laughed.

“you are right. Earlier in Imanofutu, by law, only couples who have no chance for getting a child through normal pregnancy were permitted to have cloned children. Medical Research Centres were permitted to do cloning only on recommendation from a designated medical board. There were justifiable reasons for imposing such restrictions on cloned births. The most important reason was, of course, to protect the family system, which is the basis of a sound social life” – Humit said.

“but during two thousand and forty, business men ganged to get a foolish bill that permits cloning on a simple request from any individual passed by the senate. One of senators who was behind that move had told media immediately after passing the bill that the new law will promote a new kind of cloning industry in Imanofutu and that would make Imanofutu the cloning destination of the world! Thus now we have Cloning Centres everywhere as we have provisions or grocery shops earlier. It destroyed the entire social system” Humit took a deep breath

“Let’s think how we can build families and then joint families...it would be an ideal case for a serious study” – Innowa said.

When people deserted hospitals, the healthcare system of Imanofutu reinvented its grand old philosophy - “purely a social service”

Till mid twenty first century, only business that surpassed all the adversities in which most other industries lost the game was health care. The environmental adversities were, in fact, a boon to the healthcare industry. One in every ten persons in Imanofutu was living with diseases that required medical attention in hospitals and daily intake of a handful of tablets. As the environment issues were kept on accumulating, all hospitals in Imanofutu faced severe shortage of out-patient as well as in-patient capacities.

  Imanofutu had a fully privatized healthcare system with only a nominal presence of government services. In accordance with the fall of other industries, the competition in health care industry was increasing. The industrialists who lost in other sectors turned into healthcare business finding it as the only profitable business. Thus hospitals had become just business centres and the world had seen the highest inflated costs for medical treatment in Imanofutu. This situation continued till two thousand and sixties.

  By two thousand and sixties value of money became a myth by proving that the words of Inophil,  a celebrity philosopher of Imanofutu, was true “ once the planet earth is sick, then money shall have no value” – he used to warn people. Yes, finally it happened and it was the real starting point of the decline of healthcare as a profitable industry. Finding that the government papers in their hands were not enough to get them proper medical care, even in the cases of mild ailments, people learnt the art of living with the diseases peacefully – a strange adaptation!

  When people deserted hospitals, the healthcare system of Imanofutu reinvented its grand old philosophy - “purely a social service” - that it had been upholding  from times unknown and lost when everything became profit making tools in the modern age.

For this purpose a devoted national portal for placing offers on exchanging used or surplus articles and goods was established.

After the brainstorming on ‘reuse’ Humit prepared an outline of activities that were required to ensure effective reuse of products, services and other resources. Being a very studious, intelligent and practical Senator with a forward looking vision, Humit was well aware of the implications of ‘reuse’ in the national economy. Therefore he wanted to discuss the matter in detail with the prominent economists.

Humit conducted a series of video conferences with many Economists who concentrate on different branches of economics and conducted in depth research. At last he developed a concrete vision about reuse – a modified version of historic barter system, perhaps the first systematic economic activity that naturally evolved in human societies.

The abstract plan of Humit was first of all to promote living in joint families or closely connected communities. Then reusable things shall be identified and the reuse of such things will be encouraged.

The exchange of articles had already been promoted by some business groups in fact. It started with publishing houses offering facilities for selling used books. Now it worked fine in the case of a few other products as well. Humit’s plan was to make it systematic, effective and widespread. It required co-ordination between many government agencies. For this purpose a devoted national portal for placing offers on exchanging used or surplus articles and goods was established.

Though people waited impatiently for the first drops of the rainwater, they had to stay away from it to protect their body from acid burns.

A day in two thousand and eighty. Now rain was a very rare phenomenon in Imanofutu. More than nine months passed since the last rain, which lasted for  just eighteen minutes in most parts of the county. That day. Imanofutu Weather Department had announced possibility of rain in next thirty six hours.

Imanofuteans in the northern part of the country celebrated the announcement. The day time temperature was fifty three degree Celsius during those days. At least a week’s continuous ran was required for a reasonable decline in the average temperature at least for a few weeks. Every family talked about the anticipated  rain.

Though people waited impatiently for the first drops of the rainwater, they had to stay away from it to protect their body from acid burns. The atmosphere of the Imanofutu was highly intoxicated with sulphides and carbides and hence always the rains started with acid shower. Therefore government agencies issued strict warnings, as they did during hurricanes, to keep away from the rainwater till the national chemical agency would say that the level of acid in the water was safe.

While returning Humit told Triag “count me in as your peasant”

After having stopped his journey for attending the conference half the way, Triag did not go back to home. He temporarily settled down near the deserted village station where he hopped down from the train. His ultimate mission was  to make farming possible in the changing climates.

He had to overcome a lot of procedural hurdles before he could get access to the land for his farming experiments. That land was part of a hundred squire kilometer land abandoned by people. Subsequently as the land was transformed to desert like, it lost all the land marks. The land owners never returned. Even if they return they would not be able to identify the piece of land they owned, because now it looked like a single desert land.

But for government machinery the above facts were not a sufficient reason to permit Triag to conduct farming experiments. The bureaucracy of  that place, which was very nominal then, directed Triag to obtain digitally signed permission from all the land owners of that entire hundred squire kilo meter area  so that they will be safe to allot any part of the area without bothering about landmarks.

Triag told them that it was impossible because an initial enquiry made by him revealed that the people owned that area left the place more than two decades ago in search of other livable lands and might had migrated to other counties as well. But the bureaucracy and their procedures were very rigid to see reason in his arguments.

At this, as a final attempt,  Triag decided to contact Humit. He had read a lot about Humit in e-journals. He contacted him through a social network and discussed his ideas. Finally he requested his support to get a piece of land for his dream farming experiments. Humit got attracted by the plans of Triag.

The very next day, quite unexpectedly, Humit visited Triag. It was a great surprise for Triag. Before he could come out of his excitement Humit handed over another surprise to him in the form of a government order permitting him to conduct farming experiments and farming at any part of that desert like land.

While returning Humit told Triag “count me in as your peasant” 

From the first year of his five year medical course onwards, he cherished a strange suspicion that increased occurrences of  cancers in man were the early signs of another wave of biological evolution.

Mewstrath was a final year student of modern medicine and surgery at the Medical School of Imacifutu State Skills University (ISU). He was very brilliant and thoughtful. Since ISU had adopted Open Distance Learning as the mainstream education system, he covered a major portion of his theory classes online, and attended clinical practices at local hospitals.

  Face to face teaching took place only on two days in every three months. All monthly theory tests and submission of records and assignment were made online.

  From the first year of his five year medical course onwards, he cherished a strange suspicion that increased occurrences of  cancers in man were the early signs of another wave of biological evolution. But during the first year of his medical study he was neither courageous nor confident enough to share it with his friends or teachers. But he did not give up his thoughts and continued his research and collection of data in that direction.

  When he was in the second year of his medical study he got some courage to share it with his intimate friends. Some of them teased him, some were found confused and a few told that it could be true. Still he continued to collect data, make strange analysis and form hypothesizes based on them. At last he ventured to present his findings in an online conference. Contrary to his expectation, his hypothesis was accepted seriously for further research.

Towards the end of twenty fist century it had become a challenging topic of research for all disciplines of science.

Now, every day, he wake up to the fearful reality of considerable reduction in the number of plant types and area of cultivatable land…

Earlier there were 6698 plant species in Imanofutu. The existing assessment, based on the surveys conducted during 2094, showed that currently there were less than 3500 species of plants.

Prof. Sincebota, the Chairman of Imanofutu Botanic Research Association (IBRA), viewed it as an indication of a holocaust. According to him “large scale disappearance of anything - whether plants or animals or non living things -  is not at all a good indication. When it comes to the case of plants, it has to be taken as indications of sustainable damage.”

Sincebota’s love for plants started from his early childhood. The main reason for it was the photos of Chawit that he had seen everywhere during those days. Thus, after his schooling Sincebota had chosen Agricultural Science for higher studies. He spent major portion of his lifetime in the remainings of forests and farms that he could locate in Imanofutu.

Now, every day, he woke up to the fearful reality of considerable reduction in the number of plant types and area of cultivatable land than he viewed the same on the previous day in the Geographic Information System developed and maintained by IBRA.

It was something like men and animals entered into a treaty!

When man began to recklessly destroy forests, the animal population in the forests of Imanofutu were used to come out of the forest area to man’s habitats in search of food and water from the beginning of 21st  century onwards.

As atmospheric heat and drought were aggregating day by day, the water sources were also disappearing very fast. The river Imanoa the largest river in Imanofutu became a belt of just puddles of water by the second decade of twenty first century.

By this time animals, in large numbers, moved from the dried out forests to the spots near the water puddles. They attacked people who tried to access the poodles for collecting water. At this people retaliated with deadly weapons. This had become a regular concern and Imanofutu witnessed strange wars for water between  wild animals and man, both of them tried to keep the water poodles in possession. A lot of animals and men lost their lives during those fights for water.

At last a solution evolved out naturally. Some poodles had become the sole property of animals and some become the property of men. It was something like men and animals entered into a treaty!

Thus the animals began to live permanently near those water poodles, and gradually they lost their ability to live in the wilds. Of course, there was nothing like a wild by then. Scarcity of food had triggered further violence among animals and between men and animals. Gradually the venue of fight was shifted to sea shores.

All kinds of wild animals, even the tigers and lions, diving in the sea in search of food was a usual scene then. By the last decade of twenty first century, the animal scientists noticed that the foot of some animals had visibly broadened.

Therefore, towards the end of 21^st century, majority of diseases being affected by Imanofuteans were physiological in nature, caused by malnutrition, overheat and scarcity of water.

Every human society in this planet had its own age old traditional medicine and healing methods. Imanofutu also had a two thousand years old traditional system called Imanus. In Imana – the language of Imanofutu – ‘Iman’ means life and ‘manus’ means ‘wellbeing’.

  Imanus is very closely related to Ayurveda of India. The basic principle of Ayurveda was that everything in the Universe was composed of the Panchamahabhutas (five elements) – Akasa (Space), Vayu (Air), Teja or Agni(Fire), Jala (Water) and Prithvi (Earth) and hence well being meant maintaining harmony in the combination of these in very sensitive proportions, which creates life.

There was sufficient reason for the relation between Ayurveda and Imanus. Imanofutu’s history says that country had close trade relations with India for more than twenty five hundred years.

As the average heat in the atmosphere kept on increasing, the diseases due to bacterial and viral infections had decreased, because the rising temperatures were not favorable for them to thrive on.  Therefore, towards the end of 21^st century, majority of diseases being affected by Imanofuteans were physiological in nature, caused by malnutrition, overheat  and scarcity of water.

Traditional medicines were found to be very effective to heal physiological diseases than its counterpart drugs in the modern medicine. It was quite logical as well. The root cause of present day diseases in Imanofutu were the imbalances in the nature, specifically the imbalances in the five elements of the nature. Therefore a healing system which maintains  the five natural elements’ proportion as a basic principle had become ideal for the time.

During 2090s the young population of Imanofutu was entangled by a strange crisis called  ‘mental age crisis’.

  From the last part of 20th century onwards, the school academic councils of Imanofutu had begun to  drastically increase the content for all subjects of study in all levels of school education. What the students in the beginning of 21st century were studying in the graduate level had become the part of syllabus for the upper primary study by the middle of the century. Along with this it became a fashion in the 21st century to engage children to do things which they were not supposed to do at their age.

Though it was generally looked at as a great boost for the dramatic development of future generations, the net results of these eccentric or excessive engagements of children were drastic mental damages. The devastating effect of these developments were a generation of young people who were hopeless and found life less attractive. Young people lived with over aged minds or in another way they had experienced all that life had to offer within a very short span of time. This had become a very complex social issue.

Earlier they had many political parties. As the environmental issues began to aggregate…

In two thousand and ninety, Imanofutu had a very interesting political party system. They had only one political party called Imanofutu Peoples’ Assembly. However during elections, members, by their own choice, split into two camps and each camp presented their own panel of candidate for the offices of the president and two fifteen senators. The camp which won the presidential seat during elections became the ruling camp and formed government. The other camp functioned as opposition. Most often the camp that won the presidential seat also won majority of senator seats.

Earlier they had many political parties. As the environmental issues began to aggregate into terminal disasters and the political leaderships proved to be inefficient in finding effective solutions, people lost faith in the political parties and eventually most parties were destined to natural death.

Places:

·Imanofutu – Acronym for ‘Imaginary Nation of Future.’ This fiction series about the environment, life and history of Imanofutu, the imaginary Island Nation.

·Imacifutu: Acronym for ‘Imaginary city of future. In this fiction Imacifutu is the capital city of Imanofutu.

·Travima : Acronym for Transition village of imanofutu

Characters:

·Humit – Acronym for humanist integrated technologist

·Reoman – Acronym for revolutionary open education man

·Reowa – Acronym for revolutionary open education worman

·Imbusman – Acronym for Imaginary Business Man

·Inophil – Acronym for innovative philosopher

·Triag – Acronym for triumphant agriculturalist

·Mewstrath – Acronym for Medico with strange thoughts

·Prof. Sincebota – Acronym for sincere botanist

·Transin – Acronym for Transition Senator

·Heless Guad – Acronym for Helpless Guard

·Chawit – Acronym for Change Witness

Other usages

·Imana – language of Imanofutu

·Imanofuteans : People of Imanofutu

·Imanoa – The largest river in Imanofutu

·Imanus – Traditional system of medicine in Imanofutu

P. Anil Prasad lives in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. He is the author of the story collections The Netizens, The Quake and other stories and Bhukambavum mattukathakalum (Malayalam). He has also published an educational book Athirukalillathe Arivinte Lokam (Malayalam)