Long Island

Chapter 1: Beginning

‘I wonder how many people actually joined!’ he thought to himself.

He found a seat in the middle where he thought he wouldn't have trouble listening and also stay out of sight. It is a known fact that people always watched the front and back seats the most so he always preferred the middle seats. Slowly the class started filling up. Soon, Rajan also arrived, greeted him and then sat down in the empty seat next to him. And soon started chatting up the people near him.

When the professor arrived, the chatting suddenly stopped and everyone started looking at him. Swamy also focused his attention towards the professor. 

“Hello class, My name is Prof. Samuel D’souza and I am the head of the virtual reality department. I am also one of the teachers who will be taking your classes in the 1st year. Nice to meet you. So to start, would you introduce yourselves? Let’s start on the right there with you.”

“Hi, I am………

……………….

……………..

After the introductions and after almost everyone said that they are a fan of virtual reality games and how excited they were to be joining this course the prof started explaining about the course.

“Well here it is", as he put up a slide showing the courses and the credits information. 

"Now as you may know that the program requires you to play one of the VR games and write reports, etc based on your experiences in the game. Ofcourse you would also be learning about virtual reality itself. Now you may already be playing a game already, which is fine by us. You just have to submit a form saying you play this particular game. Please note that if you change the game that you are playing, you will have to submit a form again and that can only happen once a term. So please stick to playing a game atleast for a term. If you are simply trying a new game, please don’t write it in the form.”

Swamy was in a bind. He was not playing any games. Even though a lot of people play VR games today, he only had a character in one virtual reality game for that one time he went on vacation. It was not that he was not interested in playing but his parents had always nitpicked on the quality of the VR games coming in the market arguing about the negative effect to human minds, which always seemed to take the fun out of them. Furthermore his one nightmare, writing reports for the game, had made him kinda resistant to playing VR games while in presence of his parents.

‘Never thought it would become this important.’ He decided to look at the various VR games and make a good choice. It might be better to choose one and play it a lot rather than trying different ones to see which one is better. 

‘Also I better keep it a secret from my parents. Writing reports aside, if I have to listen one more time about how the VR games are affecting human brains, I might as well never have come to Bangalore.’

Well that decides it. He had to buy the game by earning his own money. He couldn’t even use his savings account; his parents had set up that all transactions are reported to them. 

‘I will have to find a cheap game but it also has to be interesting. Wonder how much I would have to earn. And there would be monthly fees as well.’ While he was agonizing over this and that the professor added.

“Oh I forgot to tell you, but you have a 1 month deadline for the form this term.”

Just 1 month!!

Most VR games in the market he knew cost around 8000 – 10000 rupees (Indian currency almost 130 to 170 us dollars) just to buy and then monthly fees which are almost 3000 – 5000 rupees (about 50 to 85 dollars) depending on the game. Over the years the hourly pay in India had improved to almost 170 rupees per hour minimum but that would still require him to work 30 hours per month. Still he could manage that if he could find a suitable job, but what would he do about buying the game. Simple calculation he will have to work 60 hours. Considering the labor laws today which basically limit the hours a student (you still have to be 18 or older) can work to 20 hours a week and no working after 6 pm, he would have to basically work in the day time. Also he would have to attend his classes which would be from 8 am in the morning till evening 6 pm (practicals and homework included) meaning he would have to work all day long on the weekends.