Lost and Found

Lost and Found
Ramesh Gupta, Suzuki Ito and Jamal Hassan were the founders, funders and namers of the Astounding Asian Astronomy Association which was commonly known as the Tetrad A among the people who had heard much of its achievements and qualifications and who happened to be none other than Ramesh Gupta, Suzuki Ito and Jamal Hassan themselves. They also happened to be the sole members of this respected Association which had been started by the three friends after their failed conquest of NASA.
The head office was a small apartment, jointly rented by the three, and was kept under the care of a young, thin boy of about seventeen, named Leenie. It housed one mammoth of a telescope that had a huge, circular lens that would have covered much of the small wall it protruded out from had the long metallic body of the telescope not caused it to shoot out a long distance into the sky.
The clear, calm Wednesday night was cordially welcomed by the three friends after a week of constant stormy weather which had rendered it impossible for any observations of the night sky by the learned astronomers and the crowd of three joyfully squeezed itself into the small compartment, eagerly awaiting to continue observing and marking the movements of the constellations.
âMy word!â exclaimed Jamal, scratching the small tuft of beard that grew on his chin, âI say, whereâs the big dipper today?â
âThe dipper?â said Suzuki, âWhy, you should ask Leenie, big or small, if itâs a dipper, he should know,â
âNot that dipper, you blockhead!â Jamal rebuked, gluing his right eye to the telescope and straining it as hard as he could, âThe constellation, by my word, its Lost!â
âWhat do you mean its lost?â Ramesh said, for the first time glancing up at his two companions and putting aside the magazine he read, âThatâs ridiculous!â
Jamal straightened his long, bony neck, much like an ostrich, and muttered to himself, âThere can be no mistakeâ¦â and again perched his eyes upon the telescope, âI say, the Dipper is Lost!â
âOh get aside you fool!â Gupta said, rising from his seat and roughly pushing Jamal, âand let me have a look. With those eyes of yours youâd not see a jumbo parked at a hands length from you!â
He curved his back and placed his eye on the eyepiece of the telescope, and after some minutes had evolved exclaimed, âBy Jove, itâs true! Why thereâs scorpion and thereâs Aquariusâ¦thereâs the Polaris..the dipper should be to the Westâ¦but its not! â
âHa-ha!â rejoiced Jamal, clicking his fingers, âWhoâs the fool now, eh? I told you the dipper was lost!â
âItâs the biggest finding!â exclaimed Ramesh! âThe dipper lost! Ha-ha! Here comes the Nobel!â
âWhat do you think caused it?â asked Jamal, suddenly growing grave, âMultiple collisions, resulting in black holes?â
âFor all I care,â Ramesh commented, âlet it be multiple divisions! We found the lost dipper and thatâs all I know!â
âLet me have a look will you?â said Suzuki amidst the confusion and peeked through the telescope. He could clearly see all the normal heavenly bodies but towards the right, where one would expect the stars forming the dipper to be located, was an almost rough, black spot.
âOh how foolish have you two been!â Suzuki said , âhave you no sense?â
His face was grave and slightly amused as though he had discovered the most calamitous error in the doings of his two companions.
âYou fools think that you have found that the dipper is lost!â he said, âThen shouldnât you be calling NASA, instead of jumping around like monkeys!â
His two companions grew strangely serious at this and chorused, âWhy yes! We should call NASAâ
Their constant attempts at getting into NASA had made them quite popular with its members had earned them the phone number of one of the night guards. This very number the three friends dialed with much contemplation after they had rehearsed, at least thrice, what they were to say once the call was answered.
âWe the members of the Astounding Asianâ¦â Ramesh began on hearing a beep on the other side but stopped when Jamal slapped his bald head.
âThe call has been cancelled, you idiotâ Jamal said, âdial the number againâ
As Ramesh did so, the three friends crouched closer together, their heart racing at every ring that went unanswered, their lips shivering at every silent pause and their hands twitching in case the call remained unanswered.
It was during these moments of anticipation that the door to the apartment was flung open and a tall lean boy rushed into the room, causing the three friends to yelp in surprise and drop the phone.
âWhat is it Leenie!â Ramesh irritably said, âWhy now of all times!â
The boy looked nervously at the three angry visages glaring at him and stammered, âOh sir, itâs just thatâ¦justâ¦â
âOh spit it out!â cried Jamal, growing more impatient.
âOh sir,â the boy managed to say, âI just thought that you should know, that I have just now got rid of the bit of wet straw that had managed to get itself stuck to the right face of your telescope lens, sir, in the last nightâs storm, sir. So, sir, you can continue your observations⦠I thought the straw would have blackened your viewâ
The boy had not had a chance to complete his sentence that the three astronomers rushed to the telescope, gazed, all three together, at the night sky, and found to their utter dismay the lost Big Dipper, shining brightly in the clear sky.