The Burj Khalifa in Dubai was once the tallest building in the world. Decades later its glory faded. When Priyansh grew up there, the apartments were slums.
Priyansh was smart and ambitious, though. He became the only Rhodes Scholar the Burj ever knew. He traveled the solar system working on ever more ambitious projects. He designed major systems aboard the space habitat orbiting Jupiter. The Degrasse-Tyson habitat orbiting Neptune was Priyansh’s.
After forty years without setting foot on Earth, Priyansh brought his son Samar to Earth to see his old neighborhood.
The shuttle weaved back and forth on counter-gravity fields as Priyansh looked confused.
“Are you lost, Poppa?” said Samar.
“Of course not!” grimaced Priyansh. “This is Dubai.”
“Okay.”
“The Burj is nearly a kilometer tall. It should be easy to find.”
Samar looked out the window. Perhaps fifty buildings soared several kilometers up.
“Yep. You’re lost.”
______________________________________
Written for What Pegman Saw: https://whatpegmansaw.com/2017/06/17/burj-khalifa-dubai/
Author’s Notes:
Rhodes Scholar: “… is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford. It is widely considered to be one of the world’s most prestigious scholarships.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_Scholarship
Burj Khalifa: “…is a megatall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft) including the antenna and a roof height of 828 m (2,717 ft), the Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest structure in the world since topping out in late 2008.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa
Neil deGrasse Tyson: “…is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator…he hosted the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a successor to Carl Sagan’s 1980 series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.”
No more glory for Burj Khalifa. It’s now quite ordinary.
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Yep. For even the greatest buildings it’s their eventual fate.
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Great story, and a good comment on changing times. I still think the Chrysler Building is pretty spectacular.
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It is a beautiful building. A lot of old ones are. Well, heck, the Pyramids are pretty awesome and they’re ancient. Though, I always feel bad when I see those grand old movie theaters fall into disrepair. We can only hope our current building giants retain their glory for a while.
Thanks much! 🙂
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Degrasse-Tyson Habitat — Ha!
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Hehe. I hoped people would catch that one. 😉
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Hah! You can imagine some future architects’ convention in Dhubai: ‘I have a big one’, ‘No, mine is bigger’, ‘Hey, mine is bigger still’… And then they start talking about buildings… 🙂
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Haha! I think they already do that. 😉
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love how you tied that one all together. Funny how time can change a place. 🙂
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That one comes from personal experience. I went home after being gone a long time. Nothing looked the same. My wife was teasing me because I got lost my own home town! Thanks much. 🙂
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I’ve had the same experience going back home recently and couldn’t find the cemetery to pay respects to family.
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That’s great! Especially loved the Degrasse-Tyson habitat orbiting Neptune!
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I’m so glad folks picked up on that. Thanks bunches! 🙂
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Great story. I think you’re probably right in predicting that, well into the future, sons will still enjoy finding fault with their dads’ navigational abilities (and men will still be refusing to admit they’re lost).
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That’s the thing about scifi. People may fly in spaceships and wield blasters, but people will still be people. 😉 Thanks for the visit! 🙂
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What a fun story! That last line really brought it full circle. Nicely done.
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Thank you! Good to know the last line had the punch I was looking for. 🙂
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Both a punch and a chuckle.
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