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A hole in the wall

 

In a quiet mess room, Ghanada begins telling another one of his incredible tales. But this time, it’s not just about distant lands—it's about a journey across the stars. When a mysterious experiment by the brilliant Dr. Minovsky leads to the discovery of a cosmic "hole" that connects Earth and Mars, Ghanada is thrust into an adventure beyond imagination. Through this hidden portal, the vast red deserts of Mars suddenly come to life, but the danger is far from over. A cunning spy, a race against time, and a groundbreaking scientific discovery—will Ghanada make it back to Earth before the portal closes? Or will the secrets of the universe remain locked in the red sands of Mars?

Prepare for an adventure where science meets the unknown, and nothing is quite what it seems!

 

Gaur came running with news that made our eyes widen in shock!

Ghanada is leaving the mess again!

Again?!

What’s going on?!

It was a holiday afternoon, and we had just spread out the carpet and sat down to play cards in the living room. Suddenly, this news struck us like the first blast of an air raid siren in wartime, hitting Gaur the hardest. Shishir, in a fierce tone, said, "You—you—you're the root of all evil."

"Why would I be the root of evil?" Gaur hastened to prove his innocence. "The real culprit is that hole!"

"Yes, let’s go see for ourselves."

We got up and headed to the room.

Once there, we realized the matter was serious. The atmosphere was tense.

He was solemnly packing his belongings, deeply engrossed.

There was an old, faded, enormous trunk.

That trunk had always been a source of immense curiosity for all of us. For a long time, we had debated and speculated about what might be inside and what might not...

No one had ever seen Ghanada open that trunk in front of anyone. The naysayers used to say that the trunk was a physical representation of Ghanada’s stories. There was nothing that Ghanada couldn’t pull out of it, but in reality, they claimed, it was entirely empty.

He never forgot, and after that, he became so busy wrapping up his bed, as if he was gathering the wealth of seven kingdoms in it.

“What’s the matter, Ghanada! Why are you packing up like this?” We had to ask.

Only then did Ghanada seem to notice us. He stopped wrapping the bed and gave a slightly sorrowful smile, saying, “What else? I can’t stay here any longer!”

Our questions grew more and more anxious. Shibu, concerned, asked, “Did yesterday’s meat stew not sit well with you?”

Shishir, eagerly offering him a tin of cigarettes, asked, “Do you prefer rice or raw broth?”

Without even glancing at Shishir's cigarette tin, he tiredly replied, “What difference does my preference make? I’m not staying here anymore.”

“You’re not staying? Why? Did you get an urgent call from Washington or London?” Even in this critical moment, Shibu couldn't resist a joke. We, however, got annoyed at Shibu.

“What’s wrong with you, Shibu! You think a simple call would make him leave just like that? Whether it’s Eden or Dulles, they’ve been trying for ages to take him, but he wouldn’t go! No, no, seriously, what’s going on, Ghanada?”

Ghanada, for reasons unknown, seemed a bit pleased. He put down the rope he had been fiddling with and finally spoke.

“What is it, tell us!” we all eagerly chimed in together.

Standing up as if he were about to reveal some grand mystery, Ghanada signaled for us to follow him toward one of the walls in the room. Then, suddenly...

Even though Gaur knew a little about the situation beforehand, the rest of us were a bit taken aback at first.

Has Ghanada started hallucinating? Is he seeing visions on the plain walls? Then, of course, we noticed what he was pointing out.

There, where the floor met the wall, in one corner, was a small hole—barely big enough to fit a pencil through!

We barely managed to stifle our laughter, but Ghanada, as if he'd reached the limits of his patience, said, "Can a person live in a room with this kind of hole?"

By then, we fully understood why a tiny hole, no bigger than a finger, had made the room unfit for living in Ghanada's view.

The fault was ours, all of us. The courtyard sink downstairs had been broken for quite some time. After much persuasion, we had convinced the landlord to repair it a few days ago. However, while doing so, we had also asked him to touch up the room with some repairs and whitewashing.

Our request was unreasonable. We tried hard to explain it to Ghanada. Just because they were fixing the sink downstairs didn’t mean the landlord would suddenly agree to repair a room on the third floor. Besides, the entire house was going to be whitewashed soon, and his room would be taken care of then.

But who listens to whom! Since that day, Ghanada had kept his grievances to himself, and now, it was threatening to spill out because of this hole.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, we had no choice but to change tactics.

With sincere concern, I said, "I didn’t know your room had gotten into such a state."

Gaur chimed in, “Yes, this room needs to be repaired immediately.”

“If the landlord doesn’t agree, we’ll pool some money and repair your room ourselves!” Shishir offered generously.

Just as the situation was cooling down, Shibu's careless remark nearly ruined everything!

“A hole? A hole?” Shibu suddenly exclaimed with a smirk, “It’s lucky Ghanada never slipped through that hole!”

We could barely contain our laughter, to the point of nearly bursting!

But all laughter died with one sentence.

“What kind of hole have you ever seen in your life?” Ghanada’s voice was no longer his own—it was like the rumble of thunder.

And just like a bird mesmerized by the first call of rain, we forgot all our jokes and became eager to listen.

“Have you ever seen a hole, Ghanada?”

“The Earth’s diameter, even if pierced through and through, would be no more than eight thousand miles,” Gaur exclaimed in astonishment.

“No, not that,” Ghanada replied nonchalantly.

“Then...?” Before we could say anything else, we all sat down wherever we could. Ghanada began:

“The parachute just wouldn’t open! From twenty thousand feet to ten thousand, from ten thousand to five thousand. From five to two and a half, and from two and a half to one thousand feet! Yet, I kept falling like a sack of bricks!

The snow-covered Earth below was rushing toward me at lightning speed. A few more seconds and there would be nothing left of my body to find.

But at around five hundred feet, though the main parachute didn’t open, by sheer luck, the smaller backup parachute—meant for such emergencies—finally deployed. But even that couldn’t completely break my fall. Though I didn’t fall like a brick anymore, I still hit the ground pretty hard.

Fortunately, the snow had just started to soften at the end of winter, so the impact wasn’t too severe.

After gathering up the parachute and taking it off, I looked around in astonishment. There was nothing but an endless expanse of snow-covered tundra stretching to the horizon! But where was Mikhail?

He had jumped from the plane with his parachute right behind me. He couldn’t have landed too far away to be out of sight!

The mystery became clear in the next moment. How could I expect to see Mikhail on the ground? He was still in the air, floating down slowly with his opened parachute.

I looked up and finally spotted his parachute in the sky. In a minute or so, he landed about a hundred yards away.

After packing up our parachutes and minimal gear, I took out my binoculars and scanned the surroundings. Where could your Dr. Minovsky be hiding in this vast wilderness?”

“He must be somewhere around here! And we must find him!”

“Ah, you’ve told that story many times. But are you sure about the place? Cape Chelyuskin is the northernmost point of Russia, towards the North Pole. Beyond that, there’s only the endless Arctic Ocean. Are you certain this is where Dr. Minovsky has chosen for his groundbreaking experiment?”

“No, there’s no mistake,” Mikhail declared loudly, though it seemed a bit of doubt had crept into his mind.

But the doubt was truly baseless. We did eventually find Dr. Minovsky in that snow-covered tundra. But before explaining how we found him, it’s important to understand the reason we were searching for him!

Many may not know that after the last world war, the two great powers of the world began considering how to make themselves invincible by establishing bases even in outer space. One scientist had even partially revealed his plan on paper. About fifty miles above the Earth, they intended to place a floating station, like a miniature moon. This station would orbit the Earth just like the moon. And whichever power could launch this station first would practically hold the Earth in its grasp. The race to float this station in space became a closely watched competition, with both sides working fervently. Naturally, there was no straightforward way to know how far the other side had progressed, so numerous spies roamed, risking their lives, in hopes of gathering as much information as possible in exchange for great rewards.

However, Dr. Minovsky wasn’t supposed to be a target for these spies. His field of research wasn’t space science. Just like Einstein in the past, in this era, Minovsky was an extraordinary mathematician. He had made tremendous strides in unraveling the mysteries of the infinite mathematics that governed the universe’s creation.


Had I known that Minovsky himself could become a target for spies, I wouldn’t have agreed to parachute down onto Cape Chelyuskin from twenty thousand feet. But that’s a story for another time.


When I was searching for him, I knew I was there at Minovsky’s secret invitation to see his astonishing radio-telescope. According to his instructions, the world had already heard that this remarkable telescope was installed somewhere in Russia. However, aside from a few top officials, no one knew its exact location. This telescope was a marvel of the modern era, capable of receiving information from distant space, not through light, but through the finest radio waves.”


The radio telescope is many times more powerful than an ordinary telescope. Moreover, the advantage of this radio telescope is that it doesn’t get obstructed by clouds, fog, or smoke. Regular telescopes, which rely on light, need to be placed in clear skies like those in Arizona or the deserts of South Africa, but this radio telescope has no such limitations. A similar telescope has been set up in England recently, but Dr. Minovsky’s telescope is said to be much stronger. Not only that, but with this telescope, Minovsky is conducting an experiment so revolutionary that it could change the entire field of science.


When I received an invitation from such a man, I wasn’t particularly surprised, since I had met Minovsky long ago, before he became world-famous.


While I believed in the invitation, I didn’t initially understand why it was done in such secrecy. Mikhail explained it to me!


Although I wasn’t an enemy agent, I was still a foreigner. No matter how much influence one has, it wouldn’t be proper for Minovsky to show such secret equipment to a foreign friend. However, since he knew me well, he sent the invitation through his trusted disciple, Mikhail, and shared the address of his secret hideout. Even Mikhail didn’t know about the location beforehand.



I had met Mikhail not long before I received the invitation. He initiated the conversation, and though it seemed forced, I didn’t mind the gentle giant, with his rabbit-like calm despite his elephantine size. After learning that Mikhail was Minovsky’s envoy and waiting for the right moment to bring up the invitation, any reservations I had about him disappeared. Following Mikhail’s advice, I used whatever little favor I had with the higher-ups to arrange a plane and parachute into the location. Mikhail didn’t get involved in any of the arrangements himself, to avoid suspicion, as he wisely explained to me.


And indeed, he hadn’t lied. Once we found Minovsky’s secret observatory in that snow-covered tundra, I understood everything clearly.


The observatory was constructed in such a way that, unless you looked very closely, it appeared to be just another part of the snow-covered tundra. That’s why it was so difficult for us to find.


However, once we entered the observatory, all our efforts felt worthwhile. In this land of eternal snow...


Inwardly, I couldn’t help but admire the ingenuity of those who had built such a paradise beneath the earth.


But what kind of observatory was this! Where were the amazing instruments, the people?

Outside, it was a freezing cold winter, but inside the observatory, there was no trace of cold. It was like a grand ship, fully equipped with every comfort one could need for a peaceful life. Yet, none of the essential scientific equipment was in sight!

Finally, I couldn’t hold back my curiosity and had to express it to Minovsky.


He himself had opened the door, which looked like a giant wheel, and led us down the stairs inside. Though initially surprised to see me, once he recognized me, his joy knew no bounds.

“What! Das! You! I never imagined you’d come here!” he said, shaking my hand with great enthusiasm.

I jokingly replied, “Did I imagine it either? The plane suddenly malfunctioned, so I had to jump down with a parachute!”

“Oh, you came down by parachute?”


Seeing his surprise, I laughed and said, “Why else would I have landed here? I heard from your disciple, Mikhail, that no other method of arrival is acceptable to you. If not for that, I wouldn’t have made it in this lifetime.”


“Really? You went through all this trouble just to honor my invitation?” he said, becoming a bit serious.

Mikhail, like a devoted disciple, didn’t say a word during all this.

Minovsky then started showing us around the place. Amidst this, I finally voiced my thoughts, “What’s the point of seeing all this, Dr. Minovsky? I might as well have toured the Queen Mary or some large ship instead.”


“You are indeed looking at a ship,” Minovsky responded with a curious smile.

“A ship? I don’t understand the joke,” Mikhail’s voice was heard for the first time, and there was something different about its tone!


“It’s no joke! This is indeed a ship. A ship like no one has ever imagined before,” Minovsky continued. “And what’s wrong with a little jest? After all, isn’t it a bit ironic that the spy Michel has now become my disciple, Mikhail?”

I was about to say something, astonished, but Minovsky interrupted me, “I never thought you’d stoop to such a low, Das.”

Desperately, I exclaimed, “Believe me, Dr. Minovsky, I had nothing to do with any of this!”


"I don’t know. I genuinely believed Mikhail was your disciple and trusted his words," I said.

Disguised as Mikhail, Michel now shamelessly laughed and said, "How else could I have convinced a fool like you to arrange for a plane and parachute to get here?


My mission would never have succeeded without that."

"You think the police are that naive? As soon as you left for here, I warned them about everything," Minovsky replied calmly.


"You shouldn’t have done that, Dr. Minovsky," Michel's real character revealed itself in his voice. "I still don’t know what experiment you’re conducting here, but I’ve come to take you and everything important here away. On my orders, two of our planes will be arriving here soon."

Minovsky smiled calmly and said, "But will they find anything when they land?"

"Oh, they will!" Michel snapped back, "Before that, I’ll have to tie you up to prevent any tricks. As for this black-skinned man, he’s no concern at all."


Michel, like a raging elephant, stomped toward us. In the next moment, he was seen flipping over a sofa in the corner, writhing in pain.

I smiled and said, "Will you need anything else, Dr. Minovsky?"

"Thank you, Das! There’s nothing more I need. Even without your help, nothing would have been lost. I was prepared," Minovsky replied.

Writhing in pain, Michel roared, "Prepared? Let’s see how prepared you are once our people land here!"


"You have a long way to go before that happens," Minovsky said, turning to me. "Listen, Das, I’m about to conduct a remarkable scientific experiment. I don’t know if I’ll survive, so I want only this devil as my companion. You’re free to leave if you want!"

"What? This great fortune is reserved only for the devil? What crime did I commit?" I retorted.


Laughing, Minovsky patted me on the back. "I knew you’d say that. Go ahead, sit on that sofa and relax."


As soon as I sat on the sofa, Minovsky pressed a button on the wall. Instantly, a part of the floor opened up, and as if by magic, a machine emerged. He pulled a lever on the machine, and something incredible happened that I couldn't comprehend...


When I regained consciousness, I found myself sitting on the same sofa, in the same room. Michel was still lying there, motionless. Minovsky was standing by the glass window, looking outside.


I rushed to him and asked, "What happened? What are you looking at?"

"See for yourself," he said with a smile.


What I saw left me stunned. Instead of the snow-covered tundra of the poles, there was a vast desert of bright red sand! "What is this? The Sahara?" I exclaimed in astonishment.

Minovsky burst out laughing and said, "No, a little farther than that—this is the red desert of Mars. The red sand that gives Mars its distinct color."

Mars! At that moment, I couldn’t decide whether I or Minovsky had gone mad. But I was truly seeing a red desert instead of the snowy tundra. This wasn’t Earth!

Minovsky led me back to the sofa and said, "Indeed, we are on Mars. My experiment has succeeded."


“You’ve probably read in the newspapers how close Mars is to Earth right now. The distance between them is approximately 43 million miles. But even though it’s so close, traveling at 4,000 miles per hour with any space technology we have would still take over a month and a half. Yet here we are, as if in the blink of an eye!”


“But how did we get here?” I was as bewildered as before.


Minovsky explained, "Through a hole. We perceive the world in three dimensions—length, width, and height. Mathematics and science have discovered additional dimensions, but no one has been able to use them until now. In my experiment, I have harnessed the fourth dimension for the first time.


Let me explain it to you in a simpler way. Imagine a pair of very long tongs. To travel from one end to the other, you'd need to cover a yard’s distance. But if the tips of the tongs are only an inch apart, all you need to do is move an inch to cover what would otherwise be a yard in our three-dimensional world. In the vastness of space, there are many such holes that allow you to travel great distances effortlessly through the fourth dimension. I’ve discovered one of those holes."


With excitement, I stood up and said, “Then we must explore Mars!”


Laughing, Minovsky gently stopped me and said, “No, no, I wasn’t prepared for that this time. Besides, we need to return to Earth while the hole is still open—at least before that devil Michel regains consciousness.”



Michel regained consciousness only after we returned to Earth. By then, he had handcuffs on his wrists, inside a plane.

As soon as Ghanada finished his story, Shibu exclaimed, “I heard that Mars came extremely close to Earth this year, around mid-June or July. But it seems you were physically present in this mess during that time.”

Without answering, Ghanada absentmindedly took the cigarette tin from Shishir’s hand and quietly left the room.


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