September 28. “Button, I read a strange bit of news in the Hindustan Times of the 27th.”

“Why strange?”

“Remember me telling you that Stephen Hawking, the physicist, believes that aliens exist?”

“I remember.”

“In a strange initiative by United Nations, it is all set to appoint a Malaysian astrophysicist to act as earth’s first contact for any aliens that may visit us!”

“How strange is that? And how exciting?”

“The head of the UN’s Little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), Mazlan Othman, has said that the ‘continued search for extraterrestrial communication by several entities sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from them.”

“And they want to be prepared?”

“Yes.”

“What wouldn’t I give to do such a job? Imagine waiting for an alien to come visiting!”

“It’s like fishing where you hang on to the fishing rod waiting for fish to bite the bait. Except that this concerns aliens and no one knows if they actually exist. Another expert in space law and governance at the UK Space Agency feels that the first encounter of humanity with aliens will probably be via radio or light signals and not aliens physically landing on Earth.”