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Alice in botland

At the India Today office, the desk screen lights up and flashes the date and time: December 15, 2026, 10 am.

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Illustration by Nilanjan Das

The gentle vibrations of my bed shake me awake at 6.30 am. Rather than the shrill alarm of yore, my fully wired bed is programmed to wake me up. I touch my headboard and the built-in screen lights up, showing my day's programme. My personal bot (I prefer referring to him as my orderly since my father was ex-army) pops out as a hologram and informs me about how many hours I slept and whether I snored or not (my doctor asked me to monitor that).

From a tiny chip embedded in my hand, my orderly has already read my vital parameters, including my heart rate, my blood pressure and my sugar levels. All fine. It even checks if any of my cells have rebelled during the night and are turning malignant-the early signs of cancer. If they did, I would be instantly online with my doctor who would give me a tablet that would strengthen my T cells, those cellular soldiers in my blood, to identify the rogue cells and eliminate them.

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In the bathroom, as I brush my teeth, part of my mirror turns into a TV screen, giving me the news round-up and briefing me about any important mails. I tell it to open one that seems urgent. It reads out the message and I bark a reply before I begin shaving. As I put on my jogging tracksuit and shoes, the cupboard screen lights up and the front pages of the daily newspapers pop up. I turn the page with a wave to see what's up in the big city news.

Outside, I see it's raining. My office is having a party tonight and I consider calling the micro-weather management bureau to see if they could work out a way of blowing the storm away-at least over the venue. I look out of the window and scan the skyscraper opposite which has a vertical farm that resembles the beanstalk that Jack climbed. I notice that the oranges growing on the 40th floor look good at this distance and tell my bot to get me a dozen. By the time I finish my jog, I know they would be on my table and the amount for the purchase deducted from my bank account.

Instead of going outside for a run and getting wet, I decide to trot up to my VR room and play a round of tennis with either Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray. (I'm a tennis nostalgist). On a drab day like this, I prefer Novak-he is more fun to play with and even cracks the occasional joke. I slip on my headset, put on my data gloves and digital wrist band and, as the VR screen comes on, I choose my favourite virtual racket. I wave to Novak and he wagers that he would take less than five minutes per set to whip me. He is ruthless and 10 minutes later, drenched in sweat, I concede defeat.

I go in for a quick shower. The temperature of the water has already been programmed to 30 degrees Celsius, but I yell that I want it a little colder, and the shower listens. It better! As I walk into my dining room, I don't like the dull blue colour of the walls. I touch the wall, and a screen with a palette of colours lights up. I choose a soothing light yellow, and instantly all four walls change to the colour I want.

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I need a fancy shirt for the party tonight. I check the range on my screen and choose one that is a daring blue. I order my 3D printer to have it ready for me in the next half hour. I hear the gentle purring sound as it selects the cloth and the styling and gets down to making it. It is ready by the time I am done with breakfast.

It's office time and my bot informs me that there is heavy traffic between my house in Gurgaon and my office in Noida. Instead of my car, I decide to take my flying roadster-that can both fly in the sky and drive on the roads. I inform air and road traffic control, and they give me a time slot 20 minutes later. I live on the 50th floor and my roadster is parked on my balcony. It takes off vertically and lands close to my office and I drive the remaining distance.

At the India Today office, the desk screen lights up and flashes the date and time: December 15, 2026, 10 am. My bot reminds me that it is India Today's 51st anniversary. Just out of curiosity, I call for the 41st anniversary issue 10 years back in which I had written about the Next Big Things-the technologies that would change our lives. Instantly, the bot searches the digital library and puts the magazine on the screen.

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I gesture, and the pages of India Today magazine begin to turn at my bidding. I discover that many of the big technologies I had written about then had become a reality faster than I had predicted. When I had written the article in 2016, I felt I was Alice falling down the rabbit hole and entering the wonderland of technology. I thought it would take forever for these technologies to become a reality. I remembered the conversation that Alice had with the White Rabbit.

Alice: "How long is forever?"

White Rabbit: "Sometimes, just one second."

Follow the writer on Twitter @rajchengappa