I was trying to replicate a very complicated diagram in my sketch book with the only pencil I could find. The diagram was an intricate arrangement of straight lines. My fingers played the pencil game and dropped the pencil on the floor, like it had to happen just when I was trying to employ all my thinking cells. I erased the mark it had just caused and looked for the pencil. It was nowhere to be seen. I looked again, closer, in frustration. I was holding the pencil a moment ago when it was under my eyes and then, it disappeared.
I looked for it around, first in places where it probably could have fallen - under the cot, on the bed, in the pillow covers, in the gaps of the chair or just still in my hand and later..in the cupboard, in the refrigerator, in the restroom. I realised I had gotten too carried away and I had to look closer in my room. All my efforts ended in vain.
I came up with a few theories later, about the mystery of the missing pencil.
1. The pencil could have shattered into microscopic pieces that are are not visible to the human eye and these pieces could have been scattered by the wind.
2. The pencil could have been stolen by a thief who carried out the theft, literally, at the blink of an eye.
3. It could have bounced off the floor, fallen through the window, into the swimming pool in which case it would have been impossible to find it even with the best search team.
4. It could have disappeared due to the presence of supernatural elements.
Just as my pencil went missing, the TV channels told me that an aircraft had gone missing over the oceans. Is that even possible? - all of us thought. Turns out it is!
In an age where technology surpasses human imagination and surprises with each innovation, goes an aircraft missing with no signals left behind, with no emergency calls, with no trace. The aircraft had (or still has) 239 passengers on board with five Indians, doesn't matter, 239 people.
True, it is undemanding to make statements about the failure of the rescue operations from the comfort of my living room, but such is what the hype about technology sets in the mind. "Is this all your technology can do?", when pointed at the rescue teams is a very difficult question to answer however. Imagine your parent asking you, "You can't fix the tube light and you call yourself an engineer?".
Agreed, no more blaming the ones looking for the aircraft. But the question still remains as unsettling as ever "Where is the flight?". I told my mother, "I just dropped the pencil. Where could it be!".
If the internet makes the world seem small, the case of the missing MH370 shows its immensity - something as big as an aircraft could get lost in this world. However, some wild theories from the members of "The world is definitely small" group include an alien hijack and they hope the Curiosity Rover would find it on Mars one day. Another theory says that the hijacked plane could return piloted by terrorists for a 9/11 kind of attack in India. However, the expertise required for such an attack in India is immense, for there is no building as tall as the WTC and the hijacked plane would most probably fly freely over the tallest building in vain, no matter how much the pilot tries to lower the flight.
Most people are however still left wondering, "Something is fishy.." because there are loopholes in the issue visible even to a common man like me - Two passengers in the aircraft were reportedly carrying fake passports. How could this become news after the flight went missing and not before?
None of what we watch or listen might be true, this might be the biggest conspiracy of all time.
Theories aren't convincing, they only confound more because the fact remains that the flight is missing and the reason for 239 people missing remains unknown. 26 countries have come together to look for the missing flight. My search team included my mother, my sister, the maid and a friend who looked for the pencil upon my persuasion. The pencil is missing and they don't care about it anymore just like we have forgotten about the missing flight.
