The new week started with a bang. New week in college is supposed to start off with a bang. They were all excited as Chaits was going to show some magic on his laptop…
“Thank God!” said Payal, “Priti is in her own car – now she cannot speed up”
“Her dad and his wise mechanic” they all laughed as Priti parked her car.
“Hi guys! Hi Chaits!” said Priti and then avoided the queer look that Natasha gave her…
“C’mon, Chaits has got something to show us” Amit was excited, as they settled down in the canteen, Chaits got his laptop – up and running.
“Guys… Unknown to you I’ve also been learning Graphics and Animation and what you’re going to see is a sample application I developed” said Chaits.
(Remember this was late 1990s when I wrote this story, today many applications can get this done and with advent of AI this all seems easy…)
He quickly went down the various programs and files stored in his laptop and soon they were looking at a blank screen…
“This is it” said Chaits and others first looked at the blank screen and then at each other.
“What is this?” that was the chorus…
“Now this is all about application and Animation coupled with Photoshop skills” said Chaits, “take a look at this picture” and he pressed a key
“Hey! That’s you” again a chorus
‘He really looks handsome in this snap’ thought Priti
“Of course this is me as of today” and he paused, “would you like to know how I’d look 10 years from now?”
“Yes” said the chorus and Chaits pressed a key and lo! The photo changed to someone in his late thirties – it was Chaits.
‘OH He’s going look as attractive even after 10 years’ thought Priti.
“Now how about me – when I turn 60 years?” asked Chaits – everyone was interested. He pressed the key again and there was Chaits – 60 years old, fat and well fed man, “This is if everything in my life goes alright” said Chaits and then came a picture of a frail, old Chaits, thin with chest bones showing “this is if everything goes wrong…”
Everyone laughed “Chaits dadaji”
“I’d like to see how I would look in similar age” said Payal excited.
“So would I” said Amit & Deb
“Relax! I got everyone captured here” said Chaits, “Just sit back and enjoy the show…”
Then, the show began – it started with Chaps ending in a chorus of “Chaps Dadaji”
The next one ended with “Payal Dadi” then Amit, Deb, Lucky.
‘Lucky actually looks like a dirty politician played by many Villains in Bollywood’ – thought Priti … when it came to Vicky “Budha Gabbar Singh” was the echo and the laughter continued.
Chaits interrupted the show by ordering tea and sandwiches. “Now for some more imagination” said Chaits, “Presenting – Prof Trivedi – The difference is… it is the wrong side of the time. Prof Trivedi is old and about to retire – so you can say almost touching sixty as of today…”
“Wow! Chaits” said Payal excited, “You know something? Prof Trivedi looked exactly the way you have portrayed him in his youth that’s something I’ll say 99% accurate”
“And how do you know that?” echoed others.
“If you remember few months back we were collecting relief funds for flood affected areas, we had visited his house… The photo in his hall looks exactly like this one.”
“I understand our photos – I’ve seen a lot of them I read through various emails from my web friends which showed current Bollywood & Bollywood actors in their old age” said Amit
“But how did you manage the photo of youth of Prof Trivedi?” asked Chaps and Priti almost in unison.
Chaits took a deep breath – his eyes had a strange twinkle, “well” he said and paused again – and lost – he was dreaming…
“What?” that was a chorus that brought Chaits back to his senses.
“Well, few months back, I had seen an exclusive TV show that was covered in 3 episodes – the techniques used by forensic people to identify certain mauled bodies of people who were found dead – unidentified” said Chaits “What they do is make a replica of skull or it’s just a skull they use it and then they apply science and imagination to convert it into a face for identification.”
“What’s the science behind that?” everyone was now interested in this new topic…
“If you see your own face in the mirror, you would understand…” Payal quickly brought out a mirror from her purse and peeked at it.
“I cannot even imagine how can you girls peek into a tiny mirror like that and decide that you’re looking good” commented Chaps and the boys burst out laughing again.
“You’ve to be born a girl to understand how we judge that everything’s alright” retorted Natasha and boys burst into another fit of laughter.
“Shhh! Chaits is explaining” said Payal
“Now let’s consider Amit as our model” and Amit suddenly was at unease as everyone turned around and looked at him.
“There also are many books that you can refer, the most popular ones are those who seemingly teach you face reading” continued Chaits “Like you have a square face, just like Chaps or oval face like Pinky – sorry, Priti… We can say that Amit has a round face this could be misleading given the fact that Amit is roly-poly… Amit, can you turn and look straight sideways? Yes – stop! There you are. Now when you look at him sideways gives you the shape of his skull in the sideways dimensions.”
Everyone was listening with awe…
“The science is – Amit you can relax and join us now – a skull consists of some basic joints and basic holes. The most prominent are nose and eyes. So to understand let’s consider a hole on the perimeter of Amit’s nose”
Amit gulped as be imagined Payal chopping his nose off.
“Now imagine holes in place of his eyes”
Amit quickly shut his eyes trying to concentrate hard in not imagining someone taking his eyes out.
“Now if you see his forehead – you’ll distinctly see the bone structure over the corner of his each eye. You can try it out on yourself just gently press your temples and you’ll feel the structure of your skull bones around your eye sockets. And if you move down you’ll find that bone structure integrated with your cheek bones moving backwards toward your jaws and returning to the front as chin on your jaw line. Below that on your throat and neck you’ll get to feel the shape around chin up to below your ears, as well behind your ears joining back to your cheek bone.”
Everyone interestingly followed the instructions and agreed that they could feel the bone structure.
“Now – once you identify the bone structure you have a combination of science and imagination.”
Everyone was awed at this new knowledge inputs they received.
“The science behind a face then goes on with the thickness of the skin and the amount of fat in your body. That varies from person to person. But then the thickness of layer on your forehead and temples is always lower compared to your cheeks, which again diminishes toward your jaw line. You may have some loose skin hanging on your jaw line making it look puffy. Look and compare – Amit is roly-poly and has chubby cheeks…”
Priti quickly pinched Amit’s chubby cheeks and in a very sweet tone said “Chooo~ Chweeet” That made Amit go red with embarrassment and made everyone laugh.
“In comparison Deb is frail and his cheek bones show prominently.”
Deb just managed a grim smile and looked expectantly at Priti in hope she would pinch his cheeks just like she pinched Amit’s.
“And then runs your imagination – does the skull belong to a man or woman – whether the person had long, short or stubbed nose – how were person’s ears – what was the shape of the eyebrows, how attractive were the person’s eyes”
“If they’d have been too attractive” said Priti, “they could’ve attracted each other” and squinted and there was another burst of laughter.
“So here we are. We have clicked a lot of snapshots on various occasions; we have a large database of almost everyone in this campus.”
‘Why does he collect photos of people like Vicky and his gangster friends?’ thus thought Priti, ‘I can understand that he shared the flat with Lucky for some time, but how Vicky and his friends? – may be that would have been during college elections’ Priti concluded still uncomfortable remembering her episode with Vicky
“Hey Chaits!” asked Chaps” I did not see these age versions of Priti”
“Well” Chaits paused for a moment.
Priti became conscious and did not like the idea of getting old and thought fast. “Forget me!” she said smiling as she thought she had a way of diverting Chaits, “tell me Chaits, did you also get the photos of Alisha Fire worked – age wise?”
“Well” Chaits paused again. He seemed uncomfortable at the thought of Alisha Fire as an old person, “to tell you the truth I find both Alisha and Pinky – sorry, Priti to own very beautiful and attractive faces” he paused, “however I’ve worked on their photos as well”
Priti’s heart sank as others relished and laughed “I’ll never live to get old” wowed Priti…
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