Episode 18 : The tenth planet

It was the year 1986.

A geography class was in progress. The students were queuing to submit their project.

A chart of the solar system showing the sun and its nine planets.

Those who had their submissions ready, had drawn a golden sun and each planet in a different colour, their orbits marked by circular or (nearly) elliptical dashes. A blue-coloured Earth, a red-coloured Mars, a large Jupiter, a ringed Saturn and a dot for Pluto.

There was an exception. One chart showed the sun and ten planets! It belonged to Srinivas, the topper of the class.

'Srinivas, the solar system has ten planets?' the teacher asked.

'Yes Ma'am, a tenth planet was discovered recently. It is smaller than Pluto and it is called Zeo' he said confidently.

His words were taken at face value. After all, the class topper would know these things. Charts were hastily redrawn and resubmitted the next day.

Ten planets orbited the sun. The letters Z-e-o was neatly written beside the tenth planet. Nobody had any idea about Zeo, nobody knew anybody else who could tell them about it.

The Internet was yet to make its mark. If it was available back then, it would not have taken a couple of years for me to realise I had been conned.