The aliens land in Vishakapatnam, India

On November 22, 2017, the phone rang frantically on the table of Mr Murti.

Mr Murti had just had his second round of filter coffee and was wiping his lips on his kerchief, the one his wife had loving folded for him that morning and put in his palms and he had slipped it in his pocket, matching the same lovingness with his usual "thank you" smile.

(No we are not in the '70s but conservative India continues to honour its traditional version of a kiss to wife before leaving for work, thus.)

The office hardly had visitors and the landline phone seldom rang like this, shrill and shrieky, like a trapped bird. Everyone had cell phones, which explained the disuse of land-line phones. Mr Murti had already plunged into the pile of papers on his table and gestured to his assistant to answer that call. It could only be some miscreant.

The voice at the other end was gasping, rasping and speaking incomprehensibly.

" Relax, relax. What happened, did you see a snake?" Inquired the assistant at this end, "Calm down, da".

Gulps of air were heard being swallowed at the other end when finally, the voice explained, "We...we...sir...we have found some aliens hiding on our construction site."

" What, you found aliens?!" The assistant looked at Mr Murti with a puckish smile. "Then you need to call the police immediately, not us, mister." the assistant chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. Mr Murti gave a quick snide glance and carried on with his head down.

"Sir, sir, we did call the police, they came, they saw and said we must call you, so we are..."

"Okay, okay, chill madi. We cant help with aliens da, we are Zoology people, meaning, animals, birds, plants...that sort of thing."

"Sirrrrr..." the voice at the other end bounced on to plead. "Help. Can you send someone to see what these aliens are? They look very small and vulnerable. Yet we are construction workers, we are frightened shit."

Murti, took the phone from his hand and said, "Listen, why don't you send us the photos? Here right down my cell phone number. We will see what we can do to help."

Flashback to two hours before this call -

The workers from the site had ascended up to the 16th story of the concrete monolith building. Each one peering over the shoulder of another, elbowing for space to take a look at the "aliens".

"I knew it, these American movies make them out to be some powerful dudes from outer space, but look at them, shriveled prunes, barely 9 inches tall, come to rule our planet, eh?!."

Another voice caught the drift, "these two, shaking in their knees are going to take over the planet, ya?!" Laughter ricocheted through the cemented room.

Maybe there's a heavy reward the government has on them. Let's capture them. A cane basket will do." Another perked in. More laughter ensued.

"Ummm... I found them there, on the loft when I came up to check on the faulty wiring here. Don't forget. My name must go to the government first. I will share the booty equally with y'all." Chided the hero who had discovered the aliens.

"They look like they need food right now, not the whole planet." snorted another. Peels of laughter rose and hushed for fear can sound alarming even if it's cloaked in laughter.

"Why are mighty aliens huddled in the corner of a loft of the 16th floor of this construction building? They could have chosen the Prime Minister's house or parliament building na?!" A circumspect voice rounded the nervous discussion.

"Ya, ya, start from there. That's where all disaster is born anyways." someone gave this voice a firm hand on his occipital.

*

The site engineer finally arrived and pushed everyone aside. Elegant authority set the tone down, "A call to the police has been made and they are on their way. All of you can go back to work now."

The vexed engineer went to whisper to his assistant. He had his doubts that these cannot be aliens after all, why would they arrive so absurdly and choose his workplace of all the places. And if they had chosen so, why are they taking so long to destroy it anyway?!

The police arrived soon enough. After all, even the fiercest aliens were a welcome break from the everyday "tap-water flow" cases of wife-beating, child abduction, rape and murder.

The head inspector was a young fellow, a smart cookie. He looked and looked closely and could not figure out much. He would have scratched his head in from of his troupe if it were not for the pride he held of keeping his Police Peak cap on at all times.

Suddenly he had a brain wave. His eyes lit up and the small party of constables understood well when the Megastar Rajnikant stirred alive in their DSP and sparkled in his eyes. They came to attention, all hands on their guns, ready for action. The band of construction workers had merrily disembodied their engineer and stood huddled in a corner in the name of supporting the country in this hour of great peril. Of course the lanky engineer seemed like he could use some morale support himself.

DSP was a techno-geek. He had recently bought the new Google phone and downloaded Google lens on the very day it was launched - 4th of Oct 2017. Barely two months ago. He had played with it more than his young son could, aiming it at innocuous things and perking up at rare findings by the road side, or in his wife's kitchen, on his table in the office, even in the hair of a constable one morning.

He had bought it from the money he extorted from local goons and was shy of flaunting his new acquisition publicly. But this alien story could make the headlines and so would his name. This was an unprecedented moment and called for unprecedented measures, he figured.

Quick as a flash, as if he was twirling a gun out of his holster, just like the Megastar Rajnikant did in all his movies, he zipped his new smartphone out and aimed the camera at the two shivering alien figures up in the loft. Himself standing on a shaky ladder, nervous excitement writ large on his face. He was ready to make a discovery that would go down in history forever.

At his investigative best, Inspector considered - surely Google can tell which aliens are these, what part of outer space have they arrived from and what is their mission. His grandfather had told him stories of the Pushpak Vimana - flying vehicles. He recalled his old man telling him, or was it his grand aunt, that aliens will certainly land first in India. After all, India had the Pracheen Sanskriti - ancient culture, so what if USA made more movies on aliens. And quite frankly, all alien movies they make are pathetic.

Google lens had zeroed in on the two unassuming aliens huddled in the corner and was scanning.

Still scanning.

DSP came down the ladder and held his device high, peering through his Rayban dark goggles searching for network, walking all over the 16th floor.

Still searching.

Everyone waited with bated breathe, minutes passed but nothing. Twenty long minutes passed and yet nothing.

Just ten he realized he had not switched on his data. Impishly he made the switch while no one was looking and continued as if nothing had happened.

"Ah, there it is. Uh!" He stopped in his track, swiped off his Rayban lookalike goggles and stood there with the other hand on his hip.

Dumbshocked.

"Well, friends, it turns out these are not aliens as I had suspected from the very beginning. These are Antaikals - baby owls - owlets - birds - young bird chicks." Reiterating the defeat to himself. Wiping his brow he turned off his device and slid it back from where it had come.

A sigh of disappointment rose like two cement dust clouds, one from his little troupe and the other from the band of workers and turned into one cloud, slowly descending the 16th story building towards the ground to contribute to the reigning pollution below.

They all looked at each other and then looked up at the loft, quite visibly dejected at all prospects of a fabulous adventure and the promise of a better tomorrow, siphoned off so quickly and ruthlessly from their hands.

"Ah, that explains."

"Oh, then there's nothing to worry about then?! Is there?"

"Well, that's that then, da."

"Sh#t F#$K".

"What should we do now, the story has already gone to press thanks to constable Venkataraman there."

"You morons, call the Nehru Zoological Park and tell them to come here and take care of these two...two birdlings. Tell the press the real thing after confirming with Nehru Park." Th inspector let out his disappointment in a roar.

That's when the phone we heard at the start, rang at the table of Mr Murti in the Nehru Zoological Park.

Someone slapped the back of the head of the constable who was on that call, dramatizing the event when all drama was already leaked out.

"Shudup, Venkat. You should join a drama company man..." He snatched the phone away.

"Sir, Please send someone. We are the police. There seem to be two owlets stranded here at the construction site past MG road."

"No sir, no aliens, just bird chicks."

Mr Murti took matters in his hands, "Raghav go and tend to the chicks please before they do turn alien to this planet. Some moron will feed them wrong stuff and they might die. Rush now."

***

9th Jan 2022

Ref: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1565378/barn-owls-mistaken-aliens-indias-visakhapatnam

Disclaimer - this is a fictionalized tale of the news. Any mention of people and names are purely fiction.