KARIKALAN AND THE TIME MACHINE

                                               KARIKALAN AND THE TIME MACHINE

“Man! How could you ever tell such things to my face?” the Super Star could not believe it was his Manikkam who put that question.

“Cool down, sir. I knew you did not forget your Valli. I just wanted you to forget monetizing the Time Machine and…!”

“Man! How could you ever stop me from that! Now you have reminded me that my Valli might need some things …why she could ask for the moon!”

“No problem, sir! I could give it to her!”

“Manikkkkkammm! DO YOU MEAN YOU COULD TAKE PEOPLE TO OTHER PLANETS?”

“Oh no I never mean it that way! I only…”

“No, No, No! You’ve already committed to it. You can’t back out now. Come on and tell me all about it!”

“All about what, sir?”

“About taking folks to the moon!”

“I only meant it in the conventional way, sir!”

“What do you mean connn?”

“In the conventional and Traditional way we would give cheese to children crying for the moon, sir!”

“Well, then I mean in an unconventional way…Just tell me if you can manufacture Time Machines taking folks to the other planets or not!?”

“I don’t like your mercenary attitude to my Time Machine, sir!”

“No? It, the machine no longer belongs to you, Manikkam!”

“The Machine is mine, sir. Remember? It was I who had manufactured?”

“But now we are partners, Manikkam. That makes me equal partner. So the Machine belongs to us jointly and severally!”

“No, sir. The machine belongs neither to you nor to me!”

“Then you say you stole somebody else’s idea, Manikkam?”

“No, sir. I only meant it, I mean the Time Machine belongs to the Vedic saints and sages!”

“Now, Now! Don’t give me stuff like that, Manikkam. I see every time I asked for the concept of your Machine, you come up with this obfuscation about the machine belonging to the ones who cannot claim it from you back. While I can see an inventor is not expected to be readily forthcoming with his concept. But the machine itself belonging to the Vedic saints and sages is a far-fetched idea. Ok, you closely guard your concept of the Machine. But it no longer belongs to you alone, Manikkam. I speak it in the sense, that since I take your sister for a wife, you must give half the machine to me as dowry!”

“The Machine as a dowry, sir. It’s not the Singer Machine, sir. It’s a Time Machine!”

“OK, Manikkam, let’s treat it as an open question requiring answer sometime later. Now just tell me if your…er…our Machine can take folks to the Moon or not?”