Modern day Rip Van Winkle - Essay Example

Modern Day Rip Van Winkle Once upon a time at the foot hills of the Kaatskill Mountains in New York, there lived a very weird man d Rip Van Winkle. His life was very colourful in his own terms and to the world, Rip was a lazy and an unproductive man. A total failure, Rip was a man who loved to wander aimlessly as clouds. He had chosen the solitary life like hermits and his quest of idleness used to get framed up often with his interesting stories, toys and chocolates that he used to distribute amid the children of his locality.

Rip always wanted to break free from the shackles of the mundane household and his nagging wife Dame Van Winkle, who acted as a catalyst in the procedure of keeping Rip away from the menial chores of life. His only work was to ride his bike and wander hither and thither with a can of beer and a hobo bag carrying teddy bears and milk chocolates for kids. Troubled by the escaping tendency of Rip, his wife Dame presented him one satellite phone so that she could easily get hold of her husband. One autumn afternoon Rip along with his dog head towards the mountains to escape the irresistible nagging of his wife.

There he discovers something very unconventional and out of place. He found someone calling him with his name and discovers some weird men who are dressed like robots and are silently playing saxophone. They were drinking strong beer and were completely silent. Rip felt a bit awkward and he discovered the noises which were coming out of the abandoned theatre up in the hills. It will always seem very awkward for a man to discover that some suspicious characters completely unknown, knew Rip’s name.

But as usual Rip was least interested on the fact and took more interest in their liquor. After drinking few cans of liquor, Rip falls asleep. He wakes up one morning and finds that the place where he is sleeping is unknown to him. He found himself on the foot path and as soon as he stood up on the foot, it started moving. Rip was astonished at this sight. He rushes into a public toilet and saw that his jeans were almost torn and his t-shirt was very dirty. He had grown a long beard. His face was full of dirt and he tried to open up the water tap to wash his face.

Though he tried to open it up but failed repeatedly. Disgusted, he put his hand under the tap and water started flowing suddenly and automatically. He was totally surprised and started thinking that it was the hang-over of the excessive alcohol. Rip moves out of the public loo and started walking towards his town which he is able to recognize by the community building which has been renovated but still retains its old identities. To a greater astonishment, most of the people in his town are unknown to him.

He tries to find an old friend who used to work in World Trade Centre at New York City and learns that not only his friend Jack has died long before of a cardiac arrest, but also the World Trade Centre does not exist anymore. It has been devastated by a terrorist attack and the place of the mighty towers is called by the name of Ground Zero. He picks up a newspaper and asks a kid the time. He found that kids are busy on a new set of toys known as iPod. This is a mini television and music system and also has some gaming features in it.

Picking up the paper Rip desperately started searching the news of the gulf-war in it and not finding it anywhere, he asked the shop-keeper that what is the news of the gulf-war and are the American soldiers back from the front or not. The newspaper seller looked at him with awe and he learns that both Saddam and Osama are dead. Suddenly a passer-by recognizes him and takes him to a young girl who is Rip’s elder daughter. From there he comes to learn that his wife has died few years back and he has been missing since twenty years.

Now his bike has been replaced by a car that runs with solar battery. Gradually he learns that the people he met at the mountains were extra-terrestrial creatures who came with their space-ship and abducted him for twenty years. Awe-struck and proud of this fact like always ever Rip reverts back to his world of idleness. The only difference is that now he tells the story of his abduction by the extra-terrestrials to the kids around and gives them iPods in place of the teddy-bears. Bibliography Irving, Washington.

Rip Van Winkle. Digital Scanning Inc, 2009.