CBSE solutions for English Main Course Book Class 10 chapter D - Letters From The Planet Aurigae II [Latest edition]

Dear Pen Pal,

When I received your letter from the interstellar correspondence club, my first impulse was to ignore it. However, your description of Earth sounds exciting. I would like to live there for a while, and I have...

Planet AURIGAE II

Dear Pen Pal

Your prompt reply to my letter has made me very happy. I welcome your many questions, and I shall try to answer them all. However, I am not yet in a position to answer your question about how I plan to visit Earth, as my experiment has not yet proceeded far enough.

You are right in saying that it would be difficult for a being who lives at a temperature of 250 degrees Celsius to mingle freely with the people of Earth. This has never been my intention, so please relieve your mind. However, let us drop that subject for the time being.

I appreciate the delicate way in which you approach the subject of my imprisonment. But it is quite unnecessary. I have performed forbidden experiments upon my body in a way that is deemed to be dangerous to the public welfare, so charges have been laid against me. I have thirty more years to serve. It would be pleasant to leave my body behind and tour the universe-but as I said, we’ll discuss that later.

I wouldn’t say that we’re a superior race. We have certain qualities which apparently your people don’t have. We live longer - not because of any discoveries we’ve made about ourselves, but because our bodies are made of a more enduring element.

I am enclosing a photographic plate, properly cooled and chemicalized for your climate. I wonder if you would set it up and take a picture of yourself. All you have to do is arrange it properly on the basis of the laws of light-that is, light travels in straight lines, so stand in front of it - and when you are ready think “Ready!” The picture will be automatically taken.

Would you do this for me? If you are interested, I will also send you a picture of myself, though, I must warn you: my appearance will probably shock you.

Skander

Aurigae II

Dear Pen Pal,

You say you showed the photographic plate to one of the doctors at the hospital-I cannot picture what you mean by “doctor” or “hospital” but let that pass-and he took the problem up with government authorities. Problem? I don't understand. I thought we were having a pleasant correspondence, private and personal. I shall certainly appreciate your sending that picture of yourself.

Aurigae II

Dear Pen Pal,

I assure you that I am not annoyed at your action. It merely puzzled me, and I am sorry the plate has not been returned to you. Knowing what governments are, I can imagine that it will not be returned to you for some time, so I am taking the liberty of enclosing another plate.

I cannot imagine why you should have been warned against continuing this correspondence. What do they expect me to do? - eat you up at long distance?

In any event, I would like your picture as a memento of our friendship, and I will send mine as soon as I have received yours.

Skander

Aurigae II

Dear Pen Pal,

Your last letter was so slow in coming that I thought you had decided to break off the correspondence. I was sorry to notice that you failed to enclose the photograph, puzzled by your reference to having a “relapse”, and cheered by your statement that you would send it along as soon as you felt “better” - whatever that means. However, the important thing is that you did write.

Here I am in prison, doomed to spend the next thirty years tucked away from the mainstream of life. Even the thought is hard on my restless spirit, though I know I have a long life ahead of me after my release.

In spite of your friendly letter, I won't feel that you have completely re-established contact with me until you send the photograph.

Skander

Aurigae II

Dear Pen Pal,

The photograph arrived. As you sugest, your appearance startled me. You’ll notice that I’ve enclosed a photograph of myself, as I promised I would. Chunky, metallic looking chap, am I not, very different I’ll wager than you expected. The various races with whom we have communicated become very wary of us when they discover we are highly radioactive, and that literally we are a radioactive form of life.

As you know, I have occasionally mentioned that I had hoped of escaping not only the deadly imprisonment to which I am subjected, but also from my body - which cannot easily escape. Perhaps you’ll be interested in hearing about how far this idea has developed. The process involves an exchange of personalities with someone else. For this, it is necessary to get an impress of both individuals - of their mind and of their thoughts as well as their bodies. Since this phase is purely mechanical, it is simply a matter of taking complete photographs.

The next step is to make sure the two photographs are exchanged, that is, that each party has somewhere near him a complete photograph of the other. The third and final stage occurs when I activate the sub-space energy flow between the two photographic plates. (It is already too late, Pen Pal. I have already set the energy in motion!) Soon there will be an exchange of personalities - I will live in your body and you in mine.

You will take with you a complete memory of your life on Earth, and I will take along memory of my life on Aurigae. As soon as I grow tired of Earth, I will exchange bodies in the same way with a member of some other race. Thirty years hence, I will be happy to reclaim my body, and you can then have whatever body I last happened to occupy.

This should be a very happy arrangement for us both. You, with your short life expectancy, will have outlived all your contemporaries and will have had an interesting experience. I admit I expect to have the better of the exchange. By the time you reach this part of the letter it will be me reading it, not you. So long for now, Pen Pal. It's been nice having all those letters from you. I shall write to you from time to time to let you know how things are going with my tour.

Skander

Dear Pen Pal,

Thanks a lot for forcing the issue. For a long time I hesitated about letting you play such a trick on yourself. You see, the government scientists analyzed the nature of that first photographic plate you sent me, and so the final decision was really up to me. I decided that anyone as eager as you were should be allowed to succeed. By this time you will have realized for yourself that a man who has been paralyzed since birth, and is subject to heart attacks, cannot expect a long life span. I am happy to tell you that your once lonely pen pal is enjoying himself, and I am happy to sign myself with a name to which I expect to become accustomed.

With best wishes

Skander