A Trek to Duke’s Nose

This is not the way Anand wanted to cheer Neha up. He thought sitting with Neha in the wooden bench below the photo of Gandhiji wearing big rimmed round glasses and smiling towards them. Samir, Pooja and Rajat sat beside him. They had no clues why they were in the police station in this wee hour of the day. Neha looked tired; her beautiful eyes were red and seemed to bulge out with dark circles around them. Anand placed her head to his shoulder so that she can sleep. He looked outside the window. He could see dawn setting in slowly, his mind wandering over the incidents earlier that day.

“Hey guys, do you know Neha is in town now?” Anand came sulking inside the gloomy rented house.

Samir and Rajat sat in their shorts and vests trying to cool themselves in the hot Saturday morning in mid of May. The lack of fresh air and outside heat made the room stuffier than it actually was.

“So that is why you are running around since morning.” Rajat teased Anand but Anand was in no mood for fun now. He was serious and that made Rajat think twice before proceeding further.

“She is supposed to be in Hyderabad for her new job.  Is something wrong with her? “Samir asked Anand.

“Actually there is a bad news.” Anand started slowly, sinking his fat butt in the bean bag. “She got pink slip due to this bloody recession”.  He sulked as if he had got the pink slip. Everyone fell quiet. There was total silence in the room with screeching noise of the fan breaking it in constant interval. Nobody knew what to say.

Rajat tried to break the silence “She joined just one month back and she has been such a high performer. How could they do this?”

Rajat’s sympathetic tone made Anand break down. He banged his fist against the wall and shouted.

“I tell you. These IT companies are bastards. They just have no human emotion. They need cheap workers not employees.”

Anand’s eyes full of rage.  “She left such a nice paying job to join this supposedly big fortune 500 firm thinking she will have a nice future there. Those fuckers have thrown her out citing that they do not need her any more. Just a month back they pestered her everyday to join the company. Bloody pimps!!”   Thinking about Neha made him sad and angry at the same time.

Samir patted Anand’s back. “Don’t worry. I know how you feel for Neha. She will surely get some new job soon.”

Rajat tried to lighten up the environment “What say buddies. Let’s go out somewhere. You will feel better Anand”

Anand tried to hide his emotion “Let’s plan something for Neha. Something crazy which will make her feels good”

“Yep. Sure. We are always game. But hundred fucking American dollar question. WHAT?” Rajat spoke in his half Gujrati half faking American accent that brought smile in Anand’s face.

“Let’s go to Duke’s nose for a night trek. That would be fun and different. The thrill would make Neha forget everything. Ask Pooja if she can come? That would make Neha comfortable with us as well.”  Anand said.

“If I am not mistaken this is a peak on the Sahyadri hills range which resembles like a ‘nose’. There is a temple on top of it as well called as Chinnamastika temple. It is a temple of an avatar of Kali with no head and two streams of blood gushing from the throat which two other demon one on each side drinking it. The trek itself will be quite hard through the dense jungle.” Samir said.

“Ooops. That’s a killer idea. Anand and Neha and Samir and Pooja. Jungle mein Mangal. To add to the thril we have a Chinnamastika Tample. “Rajat winked.

“You are such a fucker, Raji” Samir kicked Rajat’s butt. “Anand has not yet proposed Neha. So technically they are not a couple.”

It was 8:00 clock in night when they started in Samir’s old Maruti 800 car and within minutes they touched the highway oblivion of the destiny that awaits them. They had stacked the car boot with beer bottles. Samir was driving with Pooja beside him. Neha, Anand and Rajat were sitting in the back seat. Anand saw Neha from corner of his eyes. She looked beautiful at any point of the day; just today her eyes were unusually red. She sat silently looking outside the window. The wind was blowing her hair and couple of streaks were touching Anand’s face. She wore a dark jeans and a tight sleeveless kurta accentuating her slim figure.

“Hey Neha, what happened exactly. Did they give any reason for this?” Rajat started the conversation. Anand wanted to hit Rajat for asking this question but he kept quite.

“No Rajat. They just said the project I was allocated got scrapped and that is why they do not need me any more. I asked them to put me in some other project but manager replied saying no other project is available at this moment and they are not in a position to maintain any bench strength.” She got a lump in her throat while finishing the last line and instinctively held Anand’s palm.

Anand wanted to kiss Rajat for asking this question but he felt bad for Neha. He shouted at top of his voice trying to create the party atmosphere.

“Guys!!! No more questioning on this topic. Today is the night to live life to the fullest.” Then turning back to Neha he said slowly. “And I do not want you to cry tonight. You have done enough of that before. Now it is the time to enjoy and rest we will think later.”

Neha smiled “Thanks Anand. You are always there for me.”

They reached the base of the hill within 2 hours and parked the vehicle in a Dhaba outside the jungle. They started trekking through the jungle to reach the Duke’s nose. The jungle was getting denser as they ventured into it. The noise from the highway slowly faded away and all they could hear was different kind of insects sound. While they trek upwards, Neha pointed to something on the other side of the hill. It was a beautiful lake gleaming in the full moon light. The water droplets glittered like precious stones of hidden treasure of some forgotten Raja.

“Shall we go down to that lake” Neha asked slowly.

“Woooow” Pooja said. “Let’s go”. They started descending in the direction of the lake when Rajat saw an old mud laden board. It said. “Trespassers will be prosecuted”                                                              

“What the Fuck!” Rajat laughed. “Now who the hell has put this up here!!!”

“Hey wait, Should we go there? This does not seem right” Samir said hesitantly.

“Hey don’t be a spoilsport. Nothing will happen and by the way whose property this jungle could be? Lets go” Anand said enthusiastically.

Neha had asked something for the first time in the entire trip and there was no way Anand could not let that happen. They ignored the warning and went ahead.

They reached the lake and started playing with the water. Suddenly they were alarmed by sounds of boot rushing towards them. Before they could realise, they were surrounded by highly armed police force.

“Freeze!!! Stop where ever you are or we will shoot!!!”

They froze. Not because they followed the instruction but more because they could not comprehend what was going on. One Police Officer, with lots of stars in his shirt came and searched everyone. He did not even leave the ladies and that made Anand shout at the policeman. Next thing he realized, he was lying in the mud screaming in pain holding his stomach. The police had punched him so hard that he felt he would never be able to breathe again. Fear groped their eyes.  The Police Officer shouted again.

“Take them to the Police station”. They stuffed each of them in the police vehicle and took them in a shady police station in the village. The only out of order thing in the two room police station was the ironically smiling photo of Gandhiji hanging on the wall, everything else including the furniture bore the grumpy look.

“Sir, we are innocent sir. We have not done anything. We came just for trekking sir” Anand thought saying sir in each line might please them but nothing like that happened.

“Trekking?? You are all terrorists.” One hefty policeman, who constantly chewed something in his mouth shouted. It was difficult to tell whether it was just Pan or something else. He had kept three of his shirt button open to show off his hairy chest and a locket hanging in his neck.

“No sir. Please believe us. We are not terrorists. We work in decent companies” Anand tried to take out his company badge which by mistake was still in his pant pocket. The hefty police snatched the badge from his hand and looked intently. He alternatively looked towards Anand and the badge to make sure, he is the same person. His face softened a little and for the first time Anand thanked his forgetfulness.

“Where are these people’s badges?”

“Sir we all are from decent family and work in good companies. We just came here for night trekking to Duke’s nose. We wanted to visit the temple. The chinnamastika temple.” Samir said trying to cover up for their inability to show the badges.

They were not sure whether it was Chinnamastika temple or the badge but it surely had an effect on the policeman. He asked all five of them to sit down in the bench available in the room and left the room along with other accomplices. They waited and waited and waited some more, but no one came.

Anand saw his watch. It was 5:30 am and he could see the glimpse of sun from the window. They were tired and hungry. Anand thought of all the beers he had stacked in the car boot, all the fun he had planned for the evening. He got a lump in his throat thinking about the incident. He felt extreme guilt for coming up with the idea of trekking. He looked at Neha’s face. She was sleeping like a child with her head on his shoulder.  Sun rays were falling on her face and he felt she looked like an angel. He wanted to caress her face but he did not do it lest it wake her up. Suddenly there were lot of chaos in the police station. They brought in set of people who wore torn jeans and khakhi shirt with red scarf tied to their heads. The Police Officer, who had hit Anand, came towards them. He wore a broad grin in his face which made him look quite different and pleasant than how he looked few hours ago.

“Sorry guys. You people became victim of the situation. We were doing combing operation of the area for naxalites and mistaken you for them. Later we realized that you people are not the one we are looking for. Even then we could not release you as these are dangerous peoples. They were fully armed and had we released you, we could have run into a situation where they capture you make you as a human guard. It has happened before. So you understand we had to be strict and cautious. You people are free to go now”

They looked each other in relief. They came out of the police station thanking the officer.

“What do we do now? Back to home?” Samir asked everyone.

“No. We have come so far for our duke’s nose trek and we will finish it and go. What say guys?” Anand looked expectantly towards everyone.

“I have already lost my job and I do not want to be a loser again. We have come for the trek and we will finish and go” Neha said smiling towards Anand. “Just before that I need a cup of tea”

Everyone laughed and carried on with the trek.

Cricket in the Park

I have always been intrigued by Hindi films which show hero fighting multiple villains single handedly. In my free time I used to imagine myself as a hero saving some cute looking girl from the villain and later bask in the glory when people praise me for my bravery. However, rules of life are little different in reality.

It would have been a nondescript day, like any other day had been in the summer of 99 in Malviya Nagar, Delhi. The scorching heat always has a curfew effect on Delhi forcing everyone to be indoors in the morning hours, but by evening, roads will be bustling with activities. In the evening people of all age crowded the park. The old take stroll for their health, women to enhance their gossip knowledge, young boys roamed around looking for girls, girls giggle to tease those boys and kids play around laughing and shouting. We were also playing cricket in one of the corner of the park. It was my turn to bowl and Rohit was on the crease. This was the last over and they needed 4 runs to win with just 1 wicket in hand. Everyone in my team gave me a pleading look to take the last wicket somehow and win the match. I bowled with full intensity and Rohit just smashed it. The ball was nearing the virtual boundary line and we were going to lose the match. Suddenly a stranger appeared from no where and picked up the ball before it could cross the line. I was happy thinking it was not a four but soon my happiness faded away.
“Abe haramiyon…yahan nahin khel sakte” A hefty man with bulldog like face came towards us. He was wearing loose faded jeans which hung on his waist like a curtain. His shirt was not tucked and had couple of buttons open showing his chest hair which were as big as hair on his head.
“You bastards can’t play here!!!” He shouted again with a harsh coarse voice.

Rohit asked “What has happened, Uncle? We are just playing here and doing nothing”

He did not bother to answer Rohit. He started showering us with all kind of abuses and making gestures at us to move away from the ground. All we could understand was for some reason best known to him; we were not allowed to play in that part of the park.
Whatever be the case, it was a fact that he was alone and we were eleven young boys and we had the confidence of taking on anyone. So we started retaliating and abusing him back in his own words. That angered him more and he picked up one of the stump and threw it to us. It missed Rohit. Rohit picked up the same stump and threw it back at him and it hit his forehead. May be the surface area played the trick here. Rohit was a thin boy like me. The man’s forehead started bleeding and that was enough to scare us. We started running helter skelter. I took a turn on the road beside the park but an old man with silky white hair caught me. He was bigger than the man in the park and had similar grimacing look on his face. He dragged me to the middle of the park and threw me on one of the bench. I hurt my knees and it pained but as soon as I took my eyes up, my physical pain vanished an emotional pain engulfed me. Each and every balcony of the apartments surrounding the park was filled with people who were looking towards me. It felt as if I am a thief and waiting for a collective thrashing from the crowd. I looked around to search for my group but no one could be found. They would not risk being in the park else they would also join me on this cemented bench.

The fellow with bleeding forehead came toward me. The stump was still in his hand and that made me worry about my own forehead, but the crowd around gave me a certain sense of protection. At least he can not hit when everyone is watching.

“Call Police!! We will hand over this bastard to them. He will help us catch others as well” Shouted the old man with silky hair.

I could feel a lump in my throat. To avoid tears I started concentrating on what they were saying. The old man was the father of the fellow whose head we had broken.

Police came down, handcuffed me and took me to the police station. The guy with bleeding forehead, the old man with silky hair and many more old people, also came behind me to the police station.

“Thrash this guy. He had broken my sons head.” The old man with silky hair shouted.

A police inspector, whose badge read “Mr Akhilesh Tomar”, picked me up by my collar and peered into my eyes and asked “What did you do.”

“I have not done anything sir. I have not broken his head.” I was about to cry.

I do not know whether it was my 40Kg thin frame, my innocent face or my cry ridden voice, he felt pity on me and left me.

“Where do your parents stay? Give me their number.”

“They are not in Delhi sir, they are from Ranchi. We do not have a phone at home. I have to write a letter to them”

“Mr Ahluwalia” said the police officer. “Shall I book a case against them?”

The stupid police was referring to that villain as Mr. and me who have not done anything, he wanted to slap me.

“I know you have not done this.” The man whose head we had broken said, pointing his finger to his bandaged forehead. His voice was little sympathetic. I wondered why.

“Tell me the name of the boy and we will let you go” He said.

“I have not seen who threw the stump in the chaos. I can tell name of all the people who were playing there.” I do not know why I tried to save Rohit that day. He was not a good friend of mine and always used to bully me.

“Take us to the places where you stay.”

I took them to the apartment where we were staying but no one was there. My friends had already heard about my arrest and fled from the area. I was taken back to the police station and asked to sit in the bench along with a pimp, a thief and a good looking guy who deals in fake currency. I watched entire proceedings of other cases with Inspector Tomar shouting at fixed intervals. I guess they need to shout to be taken seriously. I was wondering what they were planning for me. Not a single person came and rescued me from the hell hole. They neither allowed me to go home nor do they put me behind the bars. I saw people who were inside the lockup and imagined how it would be to be with those people. I also thought about my parents and what they will go through when they hear about all this. I sat there for hours even when other people had left the police station. Later my friends arranged a guy who was not playing with us to come to the police station and find out about me. He brought cash with him which was enough to make Inspector Tomar happy.
He stuffed the money in his pocket and said “Mr Ahluwalia is a big shot in this area. Do not take panga with them. I suggest you convince all your friends to go to his house and say sorry. They are local gangster but still they are good at heart. They will forgive you people” I wanted to laugh at the irony of his words but didn’t say anything.

Later in the night we all went to Mr Ahluwalia’s house. I was ahead of everyone.

“Sir, I have brought all my friends. We are really sorry for what has happened. It was totally unintentional.” I said in single breath.

The old man with silk hair called us inside and asked as to sit and offered some roohafza. He later said.

“You are a brave kid. No one in this whole area dare to cross our roads. But I am impressed with you. I know you knew the name of the boy who did it but you did not disclose it. I do not want to know who he is now. We will forget everything and take the charges back. But do not play in that side of the park. We park our cars in front of it. Once a boy had broken one window. We later broke his legs.” He said in nonchalant manner which forced me to think whether breaking legs were that easy.

We finished our roohafza and came out of the house, relieved and tired. Next day when I, along with 2 other boys, walked into the chat shop that we used to frequently visit, it was busier than usual. There was a long queue and we waited for our turn. The shop owner saw us and went to one of the table and said something to the people sitting there. Suddenly 3 people got up from the table and asked us to sit there. We sat down and while they left the place, we overheard them.

“This is the boy who challenged Mr Ahluwalia and still he managed to be out of police custody in hours. He is so young but still had the courage to take on Mr Ahluwalia’s family. He must be having backing from a bigger gangster. It’s better to treat him good.”

Her Quondam Lover (Part 2)

Next afternoon, he was searching for Mitra house 26, Behala road. It took couple of enquiries to figure our the Mitra house, a three storey building although little dilapidate with time, but still the grandeur of an bygone era spoke through those walls. He was not sure what he was doing, nor had any idea what he was going to say if someone opens the door.

 

He knocked the door. A female voice enquired.

“Key…?  Who is there??”

 

Kishore was relived hearing the voice; it was still the same, a soft soothing vox. He did not reply anything.

 

Piyali opened the door.

 

A girl of fifteen disguised in women of twenty five, those twinkling bright eyes, her cherub chicks, her soft curled lips and long flowing hair. Beauty has showered herself more on her with passing time. She was wearing a lemon yellow silk saree and that made her beauty bloom like flowers just after the monsoon.

 

“Hi….do you recognize me. Kishore”

 

“Hiiiiiiiiii…” Her face lightened up seeing Kishore.

 

“What a surprise. How could you find up the place. I was just thinking of you only, whether you got the postcard or not. Ohh sorry… sorry… Please…please come inside.”

 

Kishore went inside. Lavishness and prosperity was evident from every corner of the house. Well decorated room with artefact chosen with much care.

 

“It seems you have proved to be a great wife. I must say your choice is very good.”

 

Kishore remarked on her well decorated living room.

 

“I am just trying to be one. You have to ask my husband how much successful I am in that. Please have a seat. Let me get you some water. This place is quite far from your house and its quite hot outside.”

 

Kishore wanted to say, it did not matter how far her house is. He would have taken the pain to go to a totally different city also in case that was required. But he didn’t say anything.

 

“So tell me, how are you? It’s been such a long time that we met each other. A lot must have happened in your life. Tell me in details. ”

 

Piyali tried to start the conversation while handing him the glass of water.

 

“Nothing much, I left Jadavpur High school after 10^th and went to Delhi. After my graduation, I took up a job but my heart was always in writing. So eventually I quit my job and now I am a full time writer.”

 

 

“I loved your book. It is just awesome.” She said indicating the blue covered book on the shelf. He could see his own picture on the back side of the book. It took him days to finalize this picture to be published behind the book. He has seen it millions of times but today, the picture looked new to him. May be he saw it from her point of view.

 

The voice of Piyali awakened him.

 

“What happened, you got lost seeing your own picture” She giggled.

 

“You look really handsome in that pic. Many girls must have fallen for you after reading such a lovely story and more than that seeing such a handsome writer.”

 

Kishore blushed hearing all these. He wanted to change the topic.

 

“So you tell me something about you. About your life after I left.” Kishore said.

 

 “What you want to hear? My life has been quite simple. After you left, when I was in class 12^th my father died. It was a difficult time for us and our area being not that a good place; it became all the very difficult for my family. So my mother thought it would be better to marry me off and I married Rajat. It’s been eight long years now that I am married. That’s it. Nothing much in my life.”

 

A sadness gripped Piyali’s eyes speaking all these and she avoided gaze with Kishore.

 

“Hey I will bring you some ginger tea. I know you used to like it when you were in school. Not sure if you still have the same likings or it changed.”

 

Kishore was surprised to hear that.

 

“You noticed me so much that you know my choices as well!!!!!! I am really surprised and happy to hear that. No I do not change my likings so often. I still love the ginger tea”

 

“Then you are a lucky chap today. I will get you some home baked cake as well. Another thing that you loved like anything”

 

Piyali laughed and went to kitchen. Kishore felt a sense of pride and belonging speaking to her. He could not stop thinking about her and her words. It seemed little weird that they were chatting for the first time. It felt they knew each other from years and just they are catching up on their old days.

 

He got up from the chair and went to kitchen behind Piyali.

 

“So what your husband does? Yours in laws seems to be a quite rich family.”

 

“Yes that’s there. My father in law was a very successful barrister so being rich was easy to them. Rajat works for a multi national company as Vice President and naturally that keeps him busy as well.”

 

Kishore could feel sarcasm in her voice but didn’t say anything.

 

“So you tell, what’s happening in your life. When are you going to get married?”

 

Kishore blushed again but answered honestly.

 

“My Mom is looking for one but nothing has been finalised yet. Let’s see when anything materializes.”

 

They came to the drawing room with the tea and the cake. Suddenly Piyali asked something that startled both of them.

 

“So Kishore what made you bring here. You never spoke to me when we were in school?”

 

Kishore was taken aback by the question. He himself didn’t know what brought him here. All he knew was that he wanted to see her, talk to her now and say whatever he missed saying when he should have said them. But those things do not hold true now. She is happily married and there is no point saying all these now. Still he felt little tinge in his heart as if something is boiling inside. He felt a sudden courage in himself to say and do things that he had never thought of his forte.

 

He took out the cigarette from his pocket.

 

“Can I smoke?”

 

 

She picked the ashtray and put in front of him without saying anything. She constantly stared him and that made Kishore little nervous. He puffed nervously and the puff puffed his nerves.

 

Kishore looked down and said slowly, his voice trembling.

 

“I loved you a lot when I was in school and after so many years I still feel the same Piyali. I could not help but say this to you. I am sorry.”

 

The sound echoed in the entire room and then suddenly everything was silent. He could not take his head up and kept staring at her feet. She did not say anything. The silence prevailed and prevailed, god knows for how long. A tiny droplet of tear touched her feet. He looked up to see her eyes were red, and her cheek wet with teardrops. She was crying profusely. Her big bright eyes looked much bigger in the tear drops. He did not know what to say, and went near her and hold her hand. She cupped his palm so tightly that he felt her nails on his skin. They stayed like that for who knows how long, they could have stayed like that for years.

 

She looked at him, in his eyes.

 

“I tried to find out about you when you left the school. But no one knew about your whereabouts. I tried searching for you in all the colleges after my 12^th and when they wanted to marry me off. But then also I couldn’t find you. Finally after so many years, when I am married with a family of my own I saw your name in the book shop. I could not help but find out your address and write to you. I never thought you ever felt for me. I just wanted to speak to you once Kishore. I just wanted to find out how are you and what are you doing in life.”

 

Kishore hold her face in his palms and looked deep into her eyes. She continued.

 

“Why Kishore…why? Why you came back here now and said those things to me and making me go so weak now. I still love you Kishore. I could never love anyone as much as I loved you.”

 

Tears kept rolling down her dark eyes. Kishore felt his own eyes going wet. He recalled last time he cried was when he had left the school. They sat there embracing each other in silence.

 

It’s in the power of silence…that two souls can touch each other.

 

They touched each other that afternoon.

 

 

G.O.D – Grand Old Dawn

Disclaimer: The thoughts and ideas mentioned in this article are totally mine. These views are not against any individual or groups. Each one has their own views and opinion on the topic and I respect them as well. I would like to have a free and open mind to assimilate more ideas on the topic which is as vast and vivid as the opinion on the topic.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. – One of the speech by Nelson Mandela

If there is one discussion that would evoke emotion from each one of us, will be the topic of God. Nothing apart from the essence of the almighty is so well ingrained within us that we sometime tend to forget or realize the source of it. It hardly matters whether an individual has grown up in developed countries like America, Britain etc or in civilization as barbaric and savage as in the jungles of Africa. Each civilization has manifested, that belief in god is something that have come up irrespective of the region, social need or any particular purpose of it. Each civilization has a different history to tell accompanied with wide variety of genetically wired humans in each of it. It is sometime difficult to compass the concept of god being so alike in each of the civilization as if the source is one. Still, people around the word over ages have believed in polytheism, concept of multiple gods. Each religion has a different god, Hinduism itself have some few million gods to worship.

As a logical thinker, I have always wondered how god can be different in each language and society given the fact that I understood the purpose of god as a father figure to combat the eternal feeling of fear. I have always believed that fear is something that is inherently human and any other form of emotion arises with manipulation of fear.

As remarked by Richard Dawkins in his much acclaimed book “The Selfish gene”, every individual or rather gene is propelled by selfishness to survive and evolve and not the altruism that was the previous popular belief. The selfish nature of the gene in my opinion is because of the inherent fear of survival. People have the liberty to choose some belief and this is the one that I decided to choose.

Having said that, I could never comprehend the meaning of god given the fact I was always confused between which god to worship or believe in. later in my school days I came across the concept of monotheism that is belief in one god. I found it much easy to convince my logical mind but along with the concept came up confusion to decide the form of god I should believe in. For years my mind wandered from one form to another trying to hold on to a state which could be permanent fixture of the form of god. I did not find any. Innumerable deities for innumerable purposes could not convince me the reality and validity of their existence, and slowly I chucked out any possibility of the existence of human god, to the extent of being an atheist.

But might be we humans are programmed in such a way that we can not escape the bond between us and the god. We all are tangled in a huge and complex thread that connects each one of us, like bubbles in an ocean. That might connect with god as well. Somewhere in my heart I felt an eternal quest for that search, search for the meaning of our existence, search I had envisioned in some wild nights staring at the stars when I was a kid. The quest was lost in the worldly battles and I convinced myself with the denial of any such existence of god firmly.

As a child I was more intrigued by the mystic philosophy of science rather than the vivid display of religious and mythological doctrines. And I soon decided that science would be the ultimate answer to the existence of life, as I had already failed in my quest to understand life reasoning it with the existence of god. Not that I made any specific effort to understand it but belief I feel is more powerful than the actual manifestation of the idea that you believed in first place.

Recently I read a book called “Code Named God” and my belief in science strengthened more. I felt science provided more logical answers and direction to the quest that I had long buried deep inside my heart.

Coming to science, we all know that each one of us is made of tiny particles called atoms which in turn made up of further small particles. Science has already shown that these particles are nothing but a form of energy. For that matter any mass is just a different way to look into energy and nothing apart from it. They are the two sides of the same coin. The energy that we perceive in different forms is nothing but different fields acting at different level. Much recently it was believed that each field is different to other in terms of its properties and the jurisdiction of area where it acts. But with recent developments, the unified field theory allows all of the fundamental forces between elementary particles to be written in terms of a single field. The same field when acting at different temperature and distance gave rise to different energy levels which became the basic premise for the formation of matter and in turn the entire universe. It has been postulated that universe started some 15 billion light years ago with a big bang. But what happened just after the big bang? The disequilibrium created the big bang and the huge energy that was created expanded. With expansion, the energy level fell to a certain extent which gave rise to the creation of the first particle of the universe and then slowly atoms, molecules of hydrogen and subsequently each element came into picture. These elements took the form of universe we know it today.

But the question remains, why did big bang happen at the first place? It has been shown that the there are enough negative energy in the universe and the total energy of the universe is 0. So can something be created from nothing? Can zero energy give rise to something as vast and vivid as this universe? Who was present before the big bang to see it happen? Are we any way connected to that single point, just before the big bang? It seems to be taxing to our human mind.

Let me illustrate a simple experiment that was done to understand the non locality of the particle behavior. It is well known factor that to observe any incident, the observer has to be present in the near vicinity (Not considering other means that could make the incident visible). A particular laser was made to strike a crystal to create 2 entangled photons. With entangle, I mean these two photons were supposed to have properties that were dependent on each other. That is the property of one proton do not exists without the existence of the property of other photon. Once these two photons were created by the laser striking the particular crystal, they were separated in two different directions. That is the two entangled photons were now separated in space by quite a distance. This experiment although easy to illustrate was no simple feat given the fact the apparatus used were not recently developed, even though the theory of the experiment was postulated by Einstein to understand the grand unified theory or the theory of everything. Coming back to the experiment, it was observed that when one of the photons’ properties was changed, it changed the property of the other photon even though the other entangled photon was not connected to the first photon by any means and was separated in space. This experiment proved that to be connected to one another do not require being in the same space or even in the same time frame.

The experiment illustrated few very important property of any particle or field. That is a particle can be entangled to some other point which might be at the other end of the universe and still can behave in similar ways. And with that another question also gets answered. An event can happen in absence of an observer. Thus the occurrence of big bang was not dependent on the availability of any observer.

Regarding the concept I was discussing, how something could be created from nothing. Is it possible for zero energy to give rise of something as vast as universe? But we should understand that the word “nothing” do not have any significance. “Nothing” can not be seen in totality of itself. Absence of “something” gives rise to “nothing”. Zero can not be attributed just as nothing. It is mid point of positive and negative numbers. It is the starting point for two sides of positive and negative increments to the extent of infinity on the both side. It is opposite of infinity as well. If we understand the existence of universe as two extremes of positive and negative energies, it is not difficult to comprehend that zero might have given rise to whatever existing as of today.

With the advances in science it has been easy to understand the existence of a particle and the formation of the universe. We have been able to justify and understand the matter as it exists today in different forms and its relation with the energy and the fields. But why we are the “thinking being”, trying to understand our own existence. Is mind and matter one and the same or they are different?

As the great mathematician and philosopher “Descartes” made clear distinction between the thinking substance that distinguishes us as a man and the matter that makes up the physical universe including our own body. Descartes defined matter in terms of two properties only – extension is space (length, breadth, depth, time) and motion. All other apparent properties depend on the perceiver and are the result of the impact of physical objects on the sense organs. Mind as he proclaimed is essentially non-physical or incorporeal. The mind that makes us understand and question the existence of life is the mind that exists in each of us. It is something like mind trying to understand itself. It is more like understanding the link between us and the single point where the origin exists. He also argued that, in contrast to the physical world, the mind is an indivisible unit. This is also the philosophy of almost all the religion. So if mind is an indivisible unit, where does the source of it exist?

Or the source is same for both mind and matter. It is very unlikely that when the universe is so much over simplified in terms of its existence to a single point that it would have different sources, one for mind and other for matter. It is just a matter of time that we realise that both mind and matter are interwoven and interlinked and the existence of one is not possible in absence of other, similar to the experiments of the entangled photons. That is the existence of the entire material universe is not possible without the existence of the mind in each particle that exists within that material universe. Everything within the universe is being entangled to that single point of zero energy which is the source of all. We are nothing but part of that source and the source exists in each of us. Although separated by couple of billion light years our mind is still entangled to that point which is the source of everything. May be that we should call as god.

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners. –Kierkegaard

The 3 mistakes of my life – Review

This is the new novel by “Chetan Bhagat”, and those who have already read 5 point someone or one night @ call centre would not need any introduction. For those who haven’t, please grab a copy of 5 point someone and finish it off. It is worth reading. I would not say the same for one night @ call centre though. Anyways, let’s get to the purpose of this blog and that is the review of his latest venture.

There are few things we Indian can not live without. They are
1. Religion
2. Politics
3. Cricket and
4. Emotions

And if the story includes friendship, father-son troubled relationship, mom-son bonding, love angle with your best friend’s sister, urge for success, riots, cricket matches, deaths of beloved one and finally suicide, I think the entire gamut of emotions are covered. Chetan has done exactly the same. He knows what the pulse of an Indian reader is. Everyone can identify with a guy who wants to make it big in his own business, a guy who wanted to be a cricketer but failed badly, a guy who just has no aim in his life and can do anything for his friends, a girl who just wants to be free from the clutches of small town family mindset etc.

The basic plotline is similar to 5 point someone, with three friends and there struggle for success, their mistakes and the outcome of it. The only thing is setup is much bigger and real here to accommodate the entire generation of youth as the audience rather than keeping it to handful which was the case with 5 point someone.

There are few things which are worth mentioning

1. CB wanted to keep the setup as a small town so that to connect to the larger group. The city (Ahmedabad) chosen was perfect as it has all the development and infrastructure a big city would boast of but still it contains the small town mentality.

2. The entire story was given a real feel so that readers feel as one of the protagonists portrayed. CB has brought himself intelligently in the narrative to bring that authentic feel. The timing of the entire setup was chosen such that it could encompass the real events like ‘Bhuj earthquake’, ‘historical match between India and Australia’, ‘godhra kand’ etc which enhances the real feel.

3. He has applied the optimization techniques (might be learned in MBA school) on each emotion and dished out a very perfect balanced and tasty story.

4. “3 mistakes” captures a reality where young people in small town India are less likely to make out in bars and discos than on building terrace. The Indian style love story where ‘true-close-friendship’ can happen while studying maths problems together rather than at a coffee shop – especially in small town India.

5. The feisty of a small town girl where medical entrance exam is just an excuse to escape to an anonymous place. Where your brother won’t be standing by to thrash every guy who gives you a second glance.

There are number of pitfalls as well. There is nothing much in terms of the literary content in the novel and if you are looking for some real good literary work then please keep away. This is pure masala. The climax is bit filmy and the end was predictable. There are some sequences which does not seem believable, like the kid flying to Australia for cricket training etc.

I feel he is more of a script writer rather than a novelist. His language is lucid, fast paced and youthful. Something that we loved in films like “Socha na tha” and “Jab we met” (Both by Imtiaz Ali and recently Chetan Bhagat has teamed up with Imitiaz for a film. Hope it delivers double shot keeping the fact it conjure the efforts of 2 calibre person)

To cut the story short, if you are looking for some light and masala read, pick up a copy.