Books, ipso facto, truth.

Pre-Script: Anyone without a good sense of humour for satire – please don’t proceed.

It was the year 3018. There is nothing significant about the year, except that it is a perfect thousand years from now, and it kind of takes a lot more time to type, ‘it is one thousand two hundred and thirty five years ago’ every time. I’ve got to work on my report, you see.

Right, so its 3018. Huge skyscrapers lining the skyline. Small private jets zooming around like our cars of today. We could add some robots taking out dogs for an evening walk. A hologram theatre with new shows of ‘Spiderman – A kid like Aunt May’ and ‘X-Men: The Lastest Stand’ running. The latest texting app to hit the stands – one that could translate the thoughts of the sender via his brain waves. “No more thumbs needed. Just think to send!” – if you’d like to go the ‘Black Mirror’ way. The bottom line is, conjure a future in which the humans are still idiots. Trust me, given the huge line up of dystopian novels, it is not that hard.

The podium was filled with students awaiting a talk by the Educational Minister. It was the last day of the National Science Congress, celebrated every year on the 2^nd of May commemorating the great battle fought by their ancestors. The great hall was decorated in streams of yellow and black indicating the Senator’s allegiance to one of the four great houses. A hush fell upon the crowd as the Minister walked towards the stage dressed in a midnight-blue suit. He offered a silent prayer to Rowena, “Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure” for guiding him through all his hardships.

“Dear students! I’m very glad to be part of this annual tradition, celebrating our country’s culture, values and of course, science. This is a day when we as citizens should come together and help teach the masses about our proud heritage. Today, we see technological advancements all around the globe. Scientists of the opposite corner of the world are credited with their supposedly ‘ingenious’ ideas of magnetic levitation and whatnot. But, we, dear people should know better.”

“We are descendants of some of the great minds that walked the meadows of Mother Earth. We, as a nation may not be one of the stalwarts of leading scientific innovation today, but we sure were pioneers a thousand years ago. Let me explain.”

“Show of hands. How many of you are saving for their first private jet?”. About half the crowd raised their hands.

“How many of your houses had/has a plane?”. Most of the hands were now up.

The Minister gave a warm smile and continued.

“What if I said that a thousand years ago, the planes were limited only for the elite class. And even then, they were not for every day travel?”

A few gasps came from the crowd while a few adults nodded knowingly.

“Ha ha, unbelievable, I know. But, hear this. Our ancestors had advanced time and space travel gadgets even back then. Now, anyone who had read our Holy book, would undoubtedly know this. But, my emphasis is for the more skeptic student crowd, such as this. Today, mag-lev technology plays an important part of our lives. But, do you know that a thousand years ago, our ancestors used the same mag-lev tech to play our national game, Quidditch? Granted, we don’t play today in brooms – instead in fancy flying pods, but we invented mag-lev much before any of today’s scientists did.”

“And where do you think, they got hold of the phenomenon called ‘transformation optics’? The hats that you wear to break the ice on your first date or the cloak that you throw around and run off, the moment you utter something embarrassing in a party? We were way ahead of the rest of the human race with making objects invisible when our Lord was winning wars with his invisibility cloak.”

The Minister paused to get a sip of water. A hand shot up in the crowd.

‘Yes, young man. You have a question?’

A lanky guy with thick rimmed glasses – the nerdy guy of every story ever told - stood up nervously. Mike was passed around for him. Well, some habits just don’t die.

‘Good day sir. I’m a graduate specializing in science history from the local university. And I’ve to say I’m a huge fan of our holy book. But, I think –

‘Fan, young man?’, the minister peered through his half-moon spectacles. As old as his glasses make him look, he took pride in the fact that the Great Mentor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, wore the same kind of glasses as him.  ‘Don’t you mean, a follower? What with you looking just like our Lord Himself?’

‘Um… no sir. I, uh, meant that I’m only a fan. Not a follower. So, I’ve this question,’ he continued before the minister could interrupt him again. ‘As much as I enjoy our holy book, what if it was only a tale told to regale the people? Very much like movies, which are again some of the remnants of our bygone era. What if - he paused for effect and the entire auditorium held their breath to add the necessary ingredients of the effect – er, Harry Potter is, uh, just a fictional character?’

A well-earned silence went through the crowd. People moved restlessly in their seats. Already, the minister was boring the crap out with his long talk. Why the hell should this guy contradict him? Netflix is releasing its new sitcom today and a debate is what they need now? (Again, some habits just don’t die.)

The minister gave the guy a smile. ‘Dear young man, how inquisitive you are! You are so much like our Lady Granger. As much as scepticism sharpens your wit, it also makes us tread in dark ways. Only faith will light our ways even in the darkest of days. But, let me first answer your question. If Harry Potter is only a fable, then what moved our ancestors to write it? Isn’t writing in scrolls, one of the primary means of communication in those days? And, you, being an historian, should be knowing this. Right?’

‘Yes sir, but…’

‘Ah, so if our ancestors wrote to communicate information to others, ipso facto, the book contains nothing but facts! What other proof do we need other than our holy book through all its seven volumes that speaks nothing but truth about our ancestors? They had theft-proof houses that only the true owner can enter through the likes of Fidelius Charm and the Whomping Willow. They could traverse the space-time continuum through time-turners which our science still couldn’t achieve even with its accelerators and neutrino observatories!’, the minister thumped the podium hard in pride.

The boy asked timidly, ‘But, what if all of this was just in the writer’s head?’

The minister climbed down the stage and walked towards the boy. ‘My dear boy, what is your name?’

‘Regulus Arthur, sir’

‘Regulus Arthur, you were named after the two most inquisitive people I’ve ever known. But – ‘, the minister took the mike and faced the crowd – ‘even if its going on in one’s head, why the hell does it mean it is not real?’. The crowd drowned his words in a sea of applause.

Post-Script: HP fans could get the inside jokes. Others, what are you doing without having read HP for so long?

So long and thanks for all the views.