A Day in the Year 2030

"So will you be there at the launching?", I whispered
inquisitively to Rabia, "I heard from Prof. Haider that Dr.
Shahryar Imam is one of the guests. Imagine seeing him in the
flesh! Raza's managed to convince his father to
lend us the car tonight. It should be great! So have I made your
mind up for you yet?".

Just as she was about to utter the first syllable of her reply,
a booming voice interrupted, "Janab Hasan Sahab!
Have I or have I not, told you to restrain from whispering while
we are in the middle of a lecture?! Do you have
something to share with us today that would enlighten us more
than Rehman's Quantum Computing Architecture,
which for your information, is what we are discussing at the
moment?" This had happened too many times this
week, I just managed to squeak a muffled, "Sorry sir", which too
was perhaps drowned out by the ’hee hee's, ’oay
hoy's and ’ufffff.. Phir baizti!"'s that were emanating from the
back rows. Wait till we leave the class, O'Princes
of Sarcasm, I thought to myself. For the moment though, my head
dropped as low as it would go, almost
instinctively, to avoid the killer gaze Prof. Alvi was notorious
for.

In his measured accent with his patented slow speech, peppered
with the occasional quick and stressed delivery
that seemed to keep everybody but myself intently focussed on
the lecture, Prof. Alvi continued, "Now then, as I
was saying, Rehman's brilliant insights into quantum physics and
nano-technology, coupled with his practicality
have resulted in one of the most amazing developments in
Computer Science. In this past year, you may have
read repeatedly in newspapers about the rumours floating around
in scientific circles regarding Rehman's selection
for the Nobel prize in Physics - unfortunately, there is still
no category for Computer Science or Engineering. The
basis of the Quantum Computing Architecture is Rehman's Quantum
Instruction Set that can be entirely computed
using a network of devices, each of which are no larger than a
thousand molecules. Another fundamental
advancement is the electron charge detector memory circuit. As
you all know, electrons in orbit around an atom
have certain charge levels. Rehman's charge detector is able to
differentiate between 256 charge level
combinations for the electrons in orbit, each level corresponds
to a sequence of high/low orderings for the eight
bits in a byte. Thus, with one byte per atom, you can - or more
appropriately, you can't, imagine the densities to
which memory technology has been pushed. This is a revolution my
friends. With this we end today, tomorrow we
will go into the details of Rehman's Architecture starting from
the structure of his processor, which is only a few
million molecules in size. If there are any questions, please
come up to my office."

By now I had managed to return to normality recovering from the
embarrassing incident in class. Really! I should
be used to the embarrassment by now. "So, Rabia", I turned to
her again, "Kitnay bajay tayyar ho gi (what time
will you be ready) ? The launch is scheduled at 8, but we need
to be there at-least a couple of hours before time.
They expect more people there than they did at the Horse show -
and you know who made me miss the Horse
Show!".

"Acha bhaee! Acha! Jaldee chalein gey (OK! We'll leave early) -
you and Raza can come to my place at 5:30
and we'll leave then. Is that early enough for you?".

"Done!", said I, with a beaming smile - wider perhaps than the
solar panels on Badar IX. Or maybe not exactly
that wide!

Everybody at college. No! Everybody in the country was excited
about the launch. As the architect of the
Pakistani space program, the universally respected academic, Dr.
Shahryar Imam had said, "With the launching of
Saif I, Pakistan will finally be up there, amongst the stars!".
The launch scheduled at 8pm was to put into orbit,
Saif I - the first nuclear powered deep space exploration
vehicle. After a week of staying in Earth orbit, during
which time system tests were to be completed under the
supervision of the Abdul Salam ground control station in
east Kashmir, Saif I would fire its primary thrusters and begin
its voyage to the far reaches of the galaxy. Once
beyond Saturn, the nuclear engine would power up - far away from
Earth to prevent disaster should any
’problems' surface - propelling the spacecraft to almost 36,000
km per second. Near a fifth the speed of light.

Such an ambitious project had never been undertaken by any
nation, and every Pakistani, whether or not he had
an interest in Space, was proud of what SUPARCO had accomplished
in such a short time. The closest, for lack
of a better word, any one had come to developing this kind of
technology was the US Voyager IV project,
completed 3 decades ago, at the turn of the millennium. In-fact,
that was probably the last of the great American
space projects; the economic war with China during the 10's and
20's all but ended funding for research and
development in the US. Slowly but surely, its industrial
capacity was crippled. Its hegemonistic foreign policies
during the last five decades of the 20th century had not won it
many friends. It's last bit of brutality in the Middle
East highlighted America's underlying desperation and finally
resulted in an international backlash leading to UN
imposed sanctions on the country. The old newsmagazines in the
library paint such a different picture, but we all
know how the poor country is faring now. I almost feel sorry...
but as Mrs. Qureshi very aptly quoted Wilde in
class the other day, "America [was] the only country that went
from barbarism to decadence without civilization in
between". The oft-repeated saga of downfall; an ill-informed
people led by tyrants.



"Yaar, Raza, you always do this to me!", I shrieked into the
Satphone.

The ’phone showed a seemingly worried Raza, "Yaar, mein teray
ghar teen minat mein pohanch raha hoon. (I'll be
there in three minutes) It was the damn traffic! Everybody's
headed out of the city to see the launch." "Acha,
batein na bana, jaldi kar! (Quit talking and hurry up!)". I had
hardly kept the phone down and slung the holocamera
bag on my shoulder that I heard the home computer say, "O'Hasan,
Prince of Pearls, aapka dost Raza aa gaya
hay". I had programmed the machine to praise me at random
intervals, but I could still not help smiling every time
I heard it's exaggerated praise and seemingly immense
appreciation of even the smallest things I did. Ami had
already warned me not to be, as she called it, ’self-indulgent',
so instead I programmed the computer, or Papoo, as
I had named it, to be more ’casual' when I was in the company of
my parents. It obediently agreed.

Raza and Rabia were in the car already. "Yaar, I figured it
would be faster if I picked her up first because her
house is on the way to yours. I knew you hadn't figured that out
because you are really, and I mean REALLY, no
good at directions!", Raza said with a wry smile.

"Acha acha, zyada bakwaas na kiya kar. Waisay bhi der ho rahee
hay (Shut up and drive, we're late already)",
was my immediate reaction. Both of us excelled in badgering each
other every second of the day. Rabia never
understood why this was so necessary to our well being, and we
told he she never could. So finally she gave up
questioning our motivations and of late, was trying very hard to
stay out of our, as she called it, "chikh chikh".
However, she did have her weak moments and apparently this was
one of them. Both of us got smacked on the
back of our heads, "Ab chalo gey ya aik dafa aur karoon? (Will
you move now or should I do that again?)", she
giggled.



The highway was jam packed - all 6 levels of it. There were
hardly any cars coming into town, but it seemed as if
everyone was leaving for the launch site. Luckily, the traffic
kept moving and we were able to get to the Jinnah
Space Center well before 8pm. The Center itself was about an
hour's drive from the New City and encompassed
a huge area. There were Air Force and Army research offices on
the premises, as well as the SUPARCO
research center and the Pakistan Space Ltd. manufacturing
facility, all surrounded by miles of barbed wire, watch
towers and boundary walls. Since the government had officially
invited the people to attend the launching of Saif I,
a huge area all around the complex had been set aside for
parking cars, whereas the pre-launch ceremony was to
be conducted in the huge football fields just inside the
compound.

Thousands of people were already there. Children on special
field trips arranged by their schools. College students
such as us, families, and older people - it seemed everybody was
brimming with excitement and anticipation. In a
little while, Dr. Shahryar Imam would come to the rostrum and
deliver his much-awaited speech. In the distance,
we could make out the launch tower, with lights flashing and a
number of army helicopters buzzing all around it.
At the moment, some Balochi folk musicians were singing
beautiful songs and dancing in celebration of the
greatness their country had achieved.

Suddenly, the music stopped and there was complete silence in
the audience. A VTOL transport in SUPARCO
colours approached the landing pad just behind the stage and
hovered over it for a few seconds, finally beginning
it's gentle descent to the ground. Some SSG personnel rushed
toward the pad and surrounded it. Once the engines
were switched off, the main doors opened and out walked the
Prime Minister, accompanied by a smiling Dr.
Shahryar Imam. The army officers saluted the two men who had
been so instrumental in transforming Pakistan.
The crowd, as soon as it caught the first glimpse of the Prime
Minister, erupted in cheers. The ever-popular
slogan, "Pakistan ka matlab kya, La-illah-a-illAllah" was
repeatedly raised by the young school children, the very
picture of innocence, dressed in their white shalwar kameez
school uniforms.

As the Prime Minister walked up the steps and onto the stage,
there was a renewed vigour in the crowd. The
Minister of Interior took the microphone and announced, "Meray
bhaiyon aur behnon, aap kay wazir-e-azam! (My
brothers and sister, your Prime Minister)". The popular Prime
Minister, in his regular dress of white shalwar
kameez and blue waistcoat took the rostrum. Suddenly, there was
complete silence.

"Bismillah! My friends, today is a very important day for our
country. The singular efforts and dedication of the
Pakistani nation have pulled us back from the very edge of the
abyss. We have claimed our rightful place at the
forefront of the world's nations. But we have done so by our own
hard work, and not by exploiting others. We
have done so by fighting for our rights, and not trampling the
rights of others. We have done so with humility and
faith in Allah, not with arrogance and cruelty. My countrymen, I
congratulate you on this wonderful occasion, and
I remind you never to forget the words of Allah, never to lose
sight of your objectives and always to remain
humble, no matter what your circumstances. Peace unto you!
Please welcome the architect of the Pakistan Space
Program, Dr. Shahryar Imam!"

In the midst of deafening applause, Dr. Imam approached the
rostrum. The Prime Minister shook his hand and
retreated to his reserved chair. Dr. Imam began, "Bismillah-
ar-rahman-ar-raheem! My brothers and sisters, I
thank you for coming here today to share this wonderful occasion
with us. I can do no better than repeat the
words of the Prime Minister, that despite our achievements it is
important to maintain our resolve and do so with
humility. For you have seen what is the fate of nations that
fall into the trap of arrogance. I am a man of few
words, and I would not like to take away from your celebration
by continuing for much longer with my speech.
Let me thank Allah for his mercies on our country. Thanks are
due to the Pakistani nation who believed in
themselves and battled adversity bravely. This country is
indebted and grateful to the members of the OIC for
helping us all along the way. We share our newfound prosperity
because of our co-operation, and inshaAllah, we
will continue to co-operate and help each other in all spheres
of life. Allah nigaihbaan!".

There were now only a few minutes left before the launch
countdown would begin. Everybody was keeping their
cameras and eyes focussed on the tower that now seemed to be
pulsating with energy. The countdown began on
the public address system.. Dus, nau, aath,... the sky was being
slowly illuminated by the rocket's engines.. Red,
Green, White streaks of energy seemed to fly all over the place.
In the midst of all this, Raza snatched my camera
and jumped onto my shoulders with a quick, "You're taller than I
am and taller still if I sit on your shoulders. We
have to get the best possible shots yaar!", as if that was
explanation enough. I couldn't really argue with him. The
countdown continued, and the hum of the engines grew louder and
louder - teen, do, aik, sifar! We couldn't hear
what was said after that. The engines were just too loud - the
whole sky, seemingly for miles around, was lit up
with the glow emanating from the rocket's booster engines. We
had seen launches before, but this was something
totally different. The rocket that carried Saif I dwarfed
anything else I had seen before. The spacecraft itself was
much larger than a satellite carrying module or anything similar
we had seen being launched. Within seconds, the
spacecraft was nothing more than a very bright speck in the sky.



As we drove back home, we were too awe-struck to talk much. Raza
just kept saying, "Zabardast! (Great)", until
Rabia whacked him again for being "so damn irritating". I
suppose what all of us were feeling then was very deep
happiness mixed with a strange flavour of pride; I don't know,
it's hard to explain. It was different to being happy
for ourselves. The happiness stemmed from a sense of belonging -
an attachment to our country and our people. It
was many times the satisfaction of beating ’you know who’ in a
cricket match. I suppose we were happy for
being us, for being Pakistanis; for being able to share that
sentiment with so many of our countrymen. Life is good
in our country, not because we are rich individually, or have
more wealth than we did 30 years ago, but because
we have found a new respect for ourselves and a confidence which
tells us that we can achieve anything we set
our minds to.

Just as I was thinking this, Rabia said, "Don't you wish we
could somehow go back in time 30 years and tell
people that it's all going to be alright. That they don't need
to lose hope, but only work harder?". Opening the
window, I looked up to the sky where I could still see the
shimmering speck that was probably the Saif I launch
vehicle. The cool air hit me in the face; it almost felt as if
it was breathing new life into me after a tiring day. Then
I turned to her and said, "I wish we could tell them Rabia, I
wish".