by The Goldfish Bowl

Created on: February 03, 2010

Some people like to plunge into their world of fantasies just by themselves. Some like to use "machines" to help them take a ride in their imagination. Yes, it is a thin line between the fantasy world and the real world. Going into the past, the very absorbing stories, like in Jules Verne’ s story when he tells of a view from a "Big Glass Window" going miles and miles into the underwater deep, opened a huge world of fantasy for his readers. Now submarines are for real and in plenty. Even now its the ubiquitous "time machine" which is as popular as ever, running through generations, but mystifyingly sticking to the world of fantasy. In these times its the Virtual world at our fingertips, and our fingertip is on the click button of the computer. This machine connects the end user to such fantastic programs as "Virtual fantasy," offered on sites for Television programs.Like" Second Life". Now for quite some time, I was harbouring the desire of seeing the most popular zoo on each of the 5 continents.

I used to fantastically imagine such trips. Now thanks to the Virtual tours, I thought I was on the brink of turning this fancy into part reality. So now come with me down my Memory Lane to see what makes my effort memorable! So after doing quite a bit of homework, I decided to reserve each weekend for a virtual tour of one International zoo per week. Into my cubicle, with my computer set, DVD, video goggles; snack trays and refreshing soft drinks, I started to make the fantasy as real as possible. The goggles came with a reality check, a small aperture in the lens, which one had to look a bit to the side to see, so that I would not get lost in the zoo world. Also I had set automatic beepers with different tones, to remind me to pause, exercise a bit, or nibble and sip. As I had told everyone who mattered, "no disturbance please!" I did not have to hang this sign out. Previously I had filled in all the requirements the virtual website asked for; such as likes, preferences and my customised settings.

Things like "Would I like to tour ‘live’? "With live crowds and all. Well I thought of the noise and distractions, and maybe that some animals may not be out of their lairs. So I settled for ‘live’ as and when.The pre-recorded program was updated recently. So I started off. First of all I was shown a computerized view of the city, a bird’s eye view. All its "tourist" important places flashing about. Then the zoo was pinpointed, and then

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