Feluda woke up feeling disoriented. He looked around only to find that he was lying on a huge bed. He found that he was in his room but the room was different from the one he was accustomed to. It had a flat black screen on the wall that looked quite similar to the screens in cinema halls just smaller in size. The room had a plushier sofa than the ones he was used to sitting in. The room was full of things that he had never seen before.
Suddenly Tapesh came into the room hastily. He looked quite relieved to have found Feluda awake. Tapesh was about to address the new arrangements when the bell went off all of a sudden and he went silent and shot Feluda a questioning look. Feluda moved towards the door cautiously and opened it.
To his surprise, Lalmohan Babu looked at him with a confused look. “I have no idea about what has been going on. The city looks so different! I was looking for a taxi when a kind man helped me book something called an Uber using a machine, he referred to it as a cell phone and my goodness the public here is so rude” said Lalmohan Babu in one breath.
“Why don’t you take a breath and come inside, I’ve been trying to figure out everything too.” Feluda offered with a grin, eyes full of amusement at Lalmohan Babu’s rambling. Lalmohan Babu shot him a grateful look and followed them in. Just as the trio reached Feluda’s now unfamiliar room they heard something ring. They looked over at the location of the noise and spotted a machine that looked quite similar to the flat screen that was in the room except this one was tinier. Lalmohan Babu exclaimed, “That is the machine that that man was referring to as a cell phone and helped me call that Uber thing through”.
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Feluda picked up the so-called cell phone out of curiosity and noticed that there were two options displayed on the screen, Receive and Decline. Curious, he pressed the ‘receive’ option and suddenly a man’s face popped up on the screen. He looked to be in his late 30s. The man smiled at them all and said, “A very good morning, all. How are you liking the new timeline, Mr. Mitter?”
Feluda looked at the man in surprise and exclaimed, “What? Who are you and what do you mean by “new timeline”? On hearing Feluda’s panicky outburst the stranger chuckled with mirth and said, “I’m Anirban, Anirban Basu, a scientist of the 21st century. I apologize for borrowing you from your timeline without your permission as I need your assistance to solve a case. So, you better get ready because I’ll be there in 10 minutes. Till then enjoy your time here in the 21st century.”
The call disconnected on its own and Feluda looked at the screen with utter disbelief flashing over his face. Tapesh and Lalmohan Babu gaped at Feluda who was staring out of the large glass window at the familiar but different city of Kolkata.
Image courtesy: Wikipedia
