In the name of Peace

Who would not like to have this and live happily notwithstanding the humdrum of day to day life? Certainly Imaginch wished very much that he be allowed to live in peace, in the house at least. Somehow the circumstances conspired to corner him to react in non-diplomatic ways- only to get in to hostile atmosphere as often as possible.  Many sessions of self analysis, in his study room did not result in any revelation, except a maze of cob webs and few lizards giving company in the hope of catching unwary insects.

For Imaginch the typical starts with a request, “can you switch on the water motor?” Being an imaginative person he had landed in the land of science, engineering and geopolitics busying himself in reorganising the world as he would like to have it.  Certainly the request sounded like an insult to his caliber of thinking and the fateful reply comes out signalling the initiation of hostilities – “what will happen if it is done after some time convenient to me and what will happen if I don’t do it? Now the water kettle is on the gas range!

An avid follower of events connected to space activities, Imaginch was seriously thinking about the two interesting news items – the water plumes on Titan (Jupiter’s moon) captured by Hubble Telescope and the need for a 13th Zodiacal sign as per the precise path followed by sun during its sojourn as seen from earth. He was proud to possess sufficient knowledge about the universe, stars, planets, and exoplanets including the comets. He had been nurturing and augmenting this information bank since decades. He dismissed the first item from further analysis as its impact would not be felt in the near future, at least by him anyway!

The second information was a bit serious raising immediate concern in his mind as he had a low key operating knowledge. His line of thinking hit against a solid wall , “ can you close the tap or otherwise water will be spreading on the floor” . Imaginch wrenched himself away from his thoughts only to find a bucket overflowing and in his inattentive frame of mind, almost had a skating practice.  He retorted vehemently at the voice that instructed him to close the tap, “What is that you are doing except disturbing me now and then”? The kettle on the gas range started to gurgle imitating Imaginch’s raising annoyance.

Bottling up the anger-which he was unable to vent out on anybody fearing further escalation, he resumed his work out on the Zodiac with 13 signs. The first problem that needed immediate solution was by which name this new sign of the zodiac is to be called. The second one was how to design the new chart for the horoscope which thus far had 12 neatly drawn rectangular boxes called houses. The third problem which reared its head was the shape that would elegant to look at. The next task to be tackled was to convince the already existing houses to sacrifice a few degrees each so that the 13th house can be constructed.  A shrill voice chose to intervene at this crucial stage,” The garbage collection team is at the corner of the street .....”

Imaginch felt as though a load of brick had fallen on him.  With great patience, he shrugged off the interruption and went down 2 floors, venting his anger at the members of the staircase, and waited for the garbage team to approach the apartment, which seemed to be taking ages. He went back to work not before spilling his spleen by shouting, “what sort of a life is this where one cannot even think calmly for awhile on an interesting thing”? The kettle on the gas range started issuing wisps of steam reflecting Imaginch’s emotional disturbance.

He immersed himself in organising the star wars – the 27 stars that had the privilege of occupying a certain houses are to be mentally prepared to move over to a new address. This would be better rather than admitting new members which would become a head ache for the practicing astrologers. Any ways they have a greater problem staring at them - interpreting the horoscope. A group of neighbours descended on the house and a hushed tone whispered in his ears, “hurry and get some milk sachet and cookies.. Hahn..  Do not forget to bring a litre of fruit juice after checking the date of expiry” A real steam engine started whistling from the gas range cautioning Imaginch to calm down.

Interruption or not Imaginch did not want to leave anything incomplete. He continued to list down probable solutions: Even prior to this they have to assign ownership Lord to this 13th sign. Imaginch’s choice fell on the royal planets – sun and moon as each ruled  over a single house in the old dispensation and he foresaw no difficulty in making them as rulers for 1 ½ houses. He thought an additional shared house is better than refusing co-ownership! At this point Imaginch wanted to leave the rest of the matter in the hands of astrologers, who at least now can claim their prediction in the past had failed due to this unknown 13th house and reiterate that 13 is considered as an unlucky number.

Not to leave the matter without a resolution, Imaginch hit up on brilliant solutions that would allow the horoscope followers to live in peace. The stark simplicity of them made him float in the heaven, among the very zodiac that is getting confused.  Stick with the 3000 year old Babylonian dispensation as it is convenient. Secondly, take care of the gnawing scientific findings by declaring the time taken by Sun and his paraphernalia as “Earned leave per completed trip along the zodiac, of course without any leave travel concession. Finally to ensure that no untoward disruptions are caused in the followers’ peace of mind, doubly make sure they are powerless to act other than to maintain status quo during this leave period.