Beyond the Stars: A Scientific Safari through 'Na Iti' by Dhruv Bhatt

Beyond the Stars: A Scientific Safari through 'Na Iti' by Dhruv Bhatt

Hello, 

Welcome to my blog. In this blog we delve into the world of  Gujrati Scientific fiction "Na Iti". 

Dhruv Bhatt was born on 8 May 1947 in Ningala village of Bhavnagar. His novel Akoopar has been adapted into a play directed by Aditi Desai.Tattvamasi was adapted into the 2018 Gujarati film Reva.

His latest jam is "Na Iti" from 2018. It's not just any sci-fi story—it's the first-ever in Gujarati! And it's not just spaceships and aliens. It's got this deep Upanishadic vibe, you know, like asking big questions. The title itself, "Na Iti," is a teaser, a bit like saying "not this, not that." It's like a road trip through the possibilities of life, like, in all the universes out there. 

Book Cover : 

The image on the cover page is of the Earth Goddess statue in the National Museum of Indonesia. This historical statue represents the indigenous people of the Indonesian archipelago who consider the Earth as a life-giving mother and worship it as the goddess of nature. The statue was crafted in the first millennium, and it was named Devi Prithvi (Earth Goddess).

Many people think that humans might not just be hanging out on Earth; there could be other places out there with life. This idea is not just a wild thought; even modern scientists and astronauts are actively looking into the possibility of finding life on planets beyond our Earth. It's like a cosmic scavenger hunt, with everyone eager to see if there are neighbors on other planets. 

Na Iti presents three worlds – the world of Iha, the world of Bhuiand the world of Earth with unique life-style. The chapter kicks off uniquely with  name "00"  It symbolizes the outset where all things emerge and dissolve into infinite nothingness. It's about those Men and women who no longer have name n emotions and living their life dictated by the Super Computer. How 'Key-10' is different from all the other 'Keyz'. How the chip controls man and one of them decides to break the rule n FEELS to LIVE.  

Within this initial chapter, we encounter Yunjan, a scientist investigating the possibility of life on planets like Pruthvi and Bhui. Iha  is in Pralay state. Yunjan finds out Pruthvi in its infant beautiul way. However, Yunjan and Nemi assert their return to the ancestral planet Bhui. Yunjan even calls Bhui a "she," like it's a person. His scientist friends aren't thrilled about it, but Yunjan stands his ground, saying,

“પ્રકૃતિની માતૃશક્તિને સમજનારા બ્રહ્માંડમાં જ્યાં જ્યાં પહોંચ્યા હશે તે બધા ગ્રહોને આ રીતે, નારી રૂપે

ઓળખાવ્યા હશે. નવા શોધાયેલા ગ્રહને પણ હું એવું જ નામ આપું છું, પૃથ્વી.”

Now be ready to change the setting and timr, because it is sci-fi.

On Pruthvi, life is not like ours. The planet can't support life, so humans made a world of machines and robots. When people are born, a chip is put in their nerves, like a tiny computer.

Let's see how can we interpret the chip...

Chip creats question in my mind. What is something in human imposed from outside ? - Beliefs, Ideas, Norms etc, may be.The idea of chip is familiar idea with Aristotelian concept of #essence. " Existence precedes essence, essence precedes existence" idea is reflecting here. The chips even tell them when to start and stop working with special tones. When someone dies, their body is sent through a tunnel to Pruthvi.

They don't grow food; instead, they eat energy tablets. Each person has a specific job and a set time to live, according to the codes in their chip. A supercomputer gives them commands. There are domes everywhere, and they have all sorts of transportation. People work like robots, following the chip's orders without thinking or feeling. Life on Pruthvi is tough.

" સત, દ્વાપર, ત્રેતા અને કળીયુગ પછીના નવા કોઈ યુગના ભણકારા. અવકાશમાં ચાલ્યા ગયેલા મનુજોની અને બાકીનાને ડૉમમાં વસાવવાની ચર્ચા કરતી પરિષદો. અંતે પૃથ્વી પર આ અંતિમ ભાસતા ડૉમયુગના મંડાણા...."

There's this main character named KEY - 10000, born on Pruthvi, a planet filled with machines and robots. But, surprise! KEY is different because the chip they usually put in people doesn't fit right. For the first four days of his life, he gets to live like a regular kid, thanks to the glitch.

"શબ્દો તો વાણીનો બહુ નાનો હિસ્સો છે. તે ન સમજાય તોયે અભિવ્યક્તિ અટકી પડતી નથી. અભિનય શબ્દો કરતાં ઘણું બળવાન માધ્યમ છે.' કહીને શાસ્તા મોટેથી હસ્યો અને આગળ બોલ્યો, ‘શબ્દો કહી શકે તેનાં કરતાં શરીર વધુ કહી શકે છે. એટલે તો નૃત્યો અને નાટકો સર્વવ્યાપી થયાં છે."

Life In Dom : 

Dhruv Bhatt used highly ironic language in this discription. Looking  through the eco-critical lense, there is degredation of earth. It is at its zenith in decay. "પોતાના કામ માટે બીજા મનુષ્યનો, પ્રાણીનો કે યંત્રની ઉપયોગ કરવાની ઇચ્છા આપણે પોતાને જ યંત્ર બનાવી દે તે શક્ય તો છે જ." Dehumnaising effect of greedy nature of humans reached at its pick that they have to make dom.

Even the way Dhruv Bhatt highlights the use of language in Dom is so distrubing. They have only limited words without emotions.

"પ્રજાની ભાષા લઇલો તો તેમના વિચાર આપોઆપ છીનવાઇ જશે. તેમને ખબર ન પડે તે રીતે તેમની ભાષા ટૂંકી કરતા જાઓ. વિચારોનો ઉપદ્રવ આપોઆપ શમી જશે. ભાષા વગર વિચાર શક્ય નથી. આવી સ્થિતિમાં કોઇ મૂંઝાય તો તેના ઉકેલ શોધવાનો વિચાર પણ કોઈને આવવાનો નથી.

શાસકો સામે વિરોધથી વધુ તમે કરી પણ શું શકો?"

 

In a way, I find out this is the book in which Key is finding his identity. He got all the knowelge related history and evolution. This leads to identity crisis within him. During this time, KEY discovers the world without the chip and gets curious about how life used to be before all this mechanical stuff. He falls for someone named ZEE, and according to the chip's rules, they have a child.

Now, KEY tries to find info about the old human life from different databases. One day, he decides to run away in a spaceship with ZEE and their newborn. But, The chip doesn't like that plan and commands the supercomputer to blast ZEE and their child's chips, essentially 'deleting' them. KEY, desperate to save himself, takes off his own chip but loses his loved ones in the process.

Now, in his sadness and confusion, KEY presses some buttons in the spaceship, speeding it up. He's so caught up in grief that he doesn't realize what he's doing. And that's where our story takes a twist!

On the third setting...

KEY's spaceship takes him to a new planet called Bhui. ( Remenber the decayed one) When he gets there, it's like a nature paradise, full of beautiful scenes. But here's the thing: KEY can't talk to the locals because he doesn't know their language. One more question- What is the importance of language ? The fact is that Language is man-made and relative to the time and place. He meets people like Pirthi, Shashta, Padha, Vedha, Shimpi, Luneri, and Jalpak. These folks follow the teachings of Yunjan and Nemi. Life on Bhui is different compared to Iha and Pruthvi. No one builds permanent homes, and they don't hoard stuff for themselves. Everything they need is asked from Bhui, like it's their living mom. They live in harmony with nature. Pirthi shows KEY around Bhui, and with Shashta, KEY learns about the planet's history and where everyone comes from. They think Yunjan and Nemi ( Similar to Manu, Adam and Eve) were the first to figure out how to keep Bhui safe from ending up like Iha and Pruthvi, all messed up.

So, on Bhui, people really respect nature. KEY, after learning their language, starts living their way. It's a whole new life for him. KEY remembers from the dome data that back on Pruthvi, before the chip era, everyone lived freely with their own spaces and rights. He talks with Pirthi about this, comparing it to life on Bhui.

“જે દિવસે અમે એક સ્થળે સ્થિર થઈને રહીશું, તું કહે છે તેમ જમીન ખોદીને રહેણાકો બનાવીશું, ધરતીને ખોદીને અનાજ ઉગાડીશું, તે દિવસથી અમને વસ્તુઓ માટે, ‘આ મારું છે’ તેવો ભાવ જાગશે. ‘મારું’ એટલે શું તેની બરોબર સમજ આવશે. અમે પણ એ જ રસ્તે જવાનું શરુ કરીશું જે માર્ગે તમે પૃથ્વીવાસીઓ ગયા હતા. કે, તમે પૃથ્વીવાસીઓ સ્થિર થઈને રહ્યા તે તમારી પહેલી મોટી ભૂલ હતી.”

They discuss permanent homes, storing things, and having a comfy lifestyle. KEY insisted so many times this things' that reveled his human side. But Pirthi explains that in nature, everything works together in a big chain. Every part is vital, and they all get along.

"ભૂઇ માંથી કશું લેશો નહિ. ભૂઈને તસુ પણ ઉલેચવાની નથી. ખાલી કરવાની નથી. કારણ કે તે, અંદરની ઊર્જા ઉપર તો પોતે જીવે છે અને તમને જીવાડે છે. ધરતીની અંદરની ઊર્જા પણ તમે લઇ લેશો તો તે જીવશે શી રીતે?"

Nature doesn't tell them what to do; it lets them figure things out. Humans, though, tend to change stuff based on their needs. Pirthi adds that without getting to know nature, you might survive for a bit, but you won't last long.

As time goes on, KEY gets the hang of Pirthi's world and starts to see things from their perspective.Pirthi tells him the error that humans made while living on Pruthvi. But KEY goes back to where his spaceship was and replays all the events of Pruthvi's evolution and destruction using the data saved in his hard disk.

While doing this, a little monkey shows up, grabs his bag of hard disks, and dashes away. KEY, all angry, even slaps the monkey. This isn't what the animals are used to because usually, humans and animals get along fine. The little monkey leaves the hard disks on the shore and moves away. This reminds KEY of how animal species went extinct on Pruthvi, leading to the destruction of life. Feeling guilty, KEY decides to let go of all his stuff. He throws the hard disks into the sea and sends the spaceship back into space. Then, he heads back to Pirthi, telling her about his realization.

The novel wraps up with the idea that human curiosity has been answered over centuries by discovering new things. This curiosity keeps leading to more discoveries because Mother Nature is infinite, just like the discoveries. It can't be squeezed into just one thing – 'neti neti' – neither this, nor that. He learns to negate –neti neti–discard the old learning and accept what nature and life has to present here.

The author employs a range of scientific terms to elucidate the futuristic world. KEY and Pirthi in the story show how humans are always looking for meaning in life. The author suggests that meaning is not something fixed or ultimate; it can change or show up in new ways based on the time and situation. That's why the search for meaning should never stop.

By following the idea of 'neti neti,' which means neither this, nor that, one can find something novel in every part of nature and in every aspect of life. As Existentialist believed in finding meaning like Sysiphus finds in his work.

Intresting book with scientific imagination.

Thank You for your visit.