7. Singer does a Flying Sikh Act

Angry birds gave him a few ideas but that was clearly not enough. He could of course sit and ponder but he knew nothing was going to come out of it.  He was not going to find diamonds by stirring up all the muck in the stable. Unfortunately imagination and originality did not figure in his repertoire of skills. He was no Leonardo da Vinci.  So it was simple. When you cannot find something within, you need to look without. And the only place he could turn to at this point was his mobile phone. And there was no harm having fun while working as well, was there? After all so many companies these days were talking about fun at work. So he decided to stream some movies through YouTube and watch them to see if he could get some ideas.

The first movie he watched was an ancient Alfred Hitchcock thriller titled ‘Birds’. The movie did not give him any ideas as such but there was one clear takeaway: as long you are on the ground, you are helpless against the denizens of the sky. He then decided to watch something more recent. So he chose Avatar. That was a bit more helpful. He realized that in the world of birds, height was everything. The bird that flew the highest was the king of the skies. He then chose two Japanese movies: ‘Howl’s moving castle’ and ‘Laputa: Castle in the sky’. At the end of the movies he had a Eureka moment. A Eureka vacuum cleaner would have been more useful however for cleaning up the stables. That aside, he had finally did have a brainwave.

All he needed to defeat the raptors was a castle in the air. But where would he get that? Even Amazon would not have those for sale. But that was not a problem. The day dreamer that he was, he was good at building castles in the air. So he would build one himself. He just had to sit down, take a deep breath, relax and let his dreams take wings. As he sat and defocused, all the muck and dirt in the stable began to rise up and coalesce together, forming into some kind a structure. All the shreds of civil engineering knowledge left over in the recesses of this brain from his engineering days found expression as the muck fortress began to take shape.

Soon a floating fortress of muck stood ready. The cockroaches provided the floatation and the rats worked the dynamo to generate power to move the castle. The spiders with their webs manned the castle defenses. Harvi was now all set to take on the birds.

The moment the castle neared the birds’ territory, they flew out in all force to attack. Whereas their beaks could cut through metal and wood, they got stuck in the impregnable muck walls. The spiders immediately set to work entangling them in their webs. Soon the muck fortress towered right over the main nesting area. The birds had by now realized the futility of putting up any kind of resistance and took flight. The whole area was soon cleared of the birds. This had been such a cake walk after all!

Now it was time to return and clean up the stable. With all the muck and vermin going into raising the muck castle, what was left was hardly a challenge for any normal person. But Harvi was no normal person. He had never cleaned anything all his life and he had never intended to either. And now he had to undertake this challenging task. Two things were critical for success: technique and motivation. He knew just the person who could provide both: his mother.

Mrs. Singh was pleasantly surprised to get a call from her son after 2 months.

“How are you doing, ma?”

“So you finally condescended to check up if your old mother is still alive!”

“I was very busy with project work, mother!”

“Ha, ha, ha! Tell all this crap to your idiot of a father who dotes over you. I know what project work you will do. You will make all others do your work and just sit on your ass day dreaming!”

“No, Ma! I am turning over a new leaf. You know what? I have even decided to clean my room.”

“Don’t give me a heart attack, Puttar. You and cleaning! I remember last time I came to your room. It was like the city garbage dump. I spent hours cleaning it up for you.’

“You see how my room looks next time you come. Now tell me how to clean.”

“Stupid fellow! Twenty four years and still you want your mother to tell you how to clean your room.”

Nothing like his mother’s constant nagging to keep him focused. She kept giving him instructions and he kept  doing as he was told the first time in his life. In the next few hours, the stable was looking spic and span. At the end mother was feeling so proud of her son. At last he had reformed.

He boarded his muck fortress and was all set to return to the palace in Mycenae. He had now exactly half way in his quests . In MBA terms, he had cleared his first year. Usually the first year was the toughest. Second year was usually fun. But he could not imagine any of the tasks set by aliens being even remotely fun.

Next Part of the Story        : Singer takes the Bull by its Horns
Previous Part of the Story   : Singer in a Dirty Picture
First Part of the Story         : Singer on the Roof

Picture credit : http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/02/miniature-flyin.html