My tryst with a Dream

I observed him carefully as he walked to the door. I knew that time was running out but suppressed the urge to check my watch. I took a deep breath and started counting in reverse under my breath. "Ten, nine, eight, seven...”.

The grey little creature seemed to be waiting for someone... or some instruction over the strange looking panel near the door which seemed to be a cross between an instrument panel of one of those modern cars and a sleek Home theatre system that seemed to have appeared out of thin air. I clearly remember I saw only a blank wall when I first saw that door. I had made up my mind to move back and run for my life once I was sure that he was far away and not looking at me.

The day had started in the same mundane and boring fashion as had been the case for as long as I could remember. I remember the vacant and hollow feeling in my stomach as I arose, that has been haunting me ever since the time I left my well paying corporate job and blundered into venturing full time in to pursuing my ever growing obsession about exploring that which lies beyond the boundaries of the known world, seeking an integration of Ancient History, Mythology, Science Fiction and New Age Spirituality.

I had torn my unwilling body from the bed trying to remember all the lessons of physical and mental well being that I had learnt so well that I could lecture about them for hours at end. But the mind kept going back to the strong, uncontrollable thoughts of futility of everything and telling me that it was pointless trying to create a healthy, joyous and exciting life by following all the known, clichéd prescriptions of regular lifestyle, frugal diet and positive thinking. It had got me nowhere till now and there was nothing on the horizon to raise any prospects of anything different. My obsessive poring over all the books and thousands of Google delivered pages or my going to all those esoteric workshops by the new age spiritual masters from across the globe to learn new techniques of intuitive knowledge gathering had only managed to confuse me further. To top it all my girl friend had finally given up on me, considering me to be a gone case. My other friends had deserted me one by one, since the topics that I would discuss or talk about would sound so weird to them.

How was I to know that a few hours later my life would be taking a 180 degree turn and hurtling me into a world that I could not have imagined in my wildest dreams- which I used to get aplenty, by the way.

Now, as my mind was racing like a Ferrari which had been standing unused in a garage for long, I had that uncomfortable feeling that I was now well and truly fixed. My mind was screeching at the bends of the unknown outcome of my adventure as it tried to grapple with this new reality which had dawned upon my awareness with an almost cruel suddenness.

I tried to remember vaguely the innocuous call that I had received from my college friend Rakesh, just as I was settling down in front of my laptop to check my mails and hoping that one of my potential clients would have responded with an offer of a lucrative sponsorship of my project or at least a hello from my girl friend, who had seen the futility of pursuing me to share any meaningful discourse.

“Rakesh, where the hell have you been man.... what a pleasant surprise!”. The thought that someone from the civilization had considered me worthy of remembrance had already uplifted my spirit and the serotonin was flooding my dried up pleasure cells. What he said next made my hairs stand on their ends and made me jump out of my chair. “Akhil, my dear old nut, won’t you be so keen to see a possible UFO landing site, before anyone else comes along?” “What are you talking about buddy? Where are you Rakesh?” I felt my pulse racing and heart fluttering somewhere near where my mouth is supposed to be. “Is this it?”, I thought to myself.

“I am stuck outside the city near the National highway. Remember where we have those forests that we used to visit often, bunking college lectures....” said he in a breathless, excited manner that reminded me so much of the Rakesh of the yore. “My car suddenly stopped here and while I was trying to look around for help, my eyes suddenly caught a glint from behind the bushes on the side. On examining further, I have come across a strange, big contraption just like those UFOs that you used to talk so much about. It is stationed deep inside the woods and I could see it only when I ventured beyond the edge of the road. There seems to be no one around and I could think of only you to tell, considering the deep interest you have in this sort of stuff. This area is deserted and I’m feeling scared going anywhere near. Would you like to come along to explore this further?

I had jumped into my car and had to check myself from driving like mad towards the area which Rakesh had mentioned. “Is this it....?  Finally an encounter?” I looked at my watch and estimated that it would be a good 30 minutes, considering the city traffic at this time. I also had to careful of not falling foul of our ever vigilant traffic cops.

As I settled into the drive, my mind went back to those strange phenomena that I had been experiencing since my childhood. As a ten year old, I had once fallen asleep while running in a park, early on a wintry morning when I was sent out to play with another friend along with a group of neighbourhood ladies who used to go for a morning walk. I was miraculously discovered only after a couple of hours, unhurt and fast asleep by the roadside. The incident had been forgotten as I grew up and got drawn into the routine of studying, passing exams, getting into a top notch Engineering College and pursuing the parameters of success defined by family and society. A well paying job through campus recruitment and a beautiful girlfriend came along as a par for the course.

However, all the growth and material success over the next five years felt meaningless and I gradually started finding more and more satisfaction in living in my dream world where Krishna would be an astronaut who descended on earth and worked for the creation and establishment of civilization. The battle of Mahabharata and the ensuing nuclear holocaust where Dwarka went under, Sarasvati dried up and the ruins of the golden kingdom were lost to the world only to be rediscovered as the Indus Valley civilization! Sometimes I felt like, what I thought Chanakya was trying to do when he was trying to bring back the lost glory of this land.  I yearned to discover the lost knowledge and bring it to the world. My encounters with the world of “Past Life Regression” and other forms of energy work had made me aware of other tools which can help by invoking the powers of our extra sensory perceptions. I would endlessly dream of an encounter with our alien gods and know the “Truth”. During one of my sessions with a PLR therapist, the memory of my childhood incident came back to me and I was convinced that it was a case of Alien abduction.

Then came the day when I announced to some close friends that I had decided to go on an eternal search mission for truth. Many had told me that I was out of my head when I chucked up my senior executive level job with a blue chip company which had given me the name, fame, money, and all the usual trappings of success which I had grown up to believe was the end game... the sole purpose of existence. But there was always this unexplained urge deep within that I was here on this earth for something else and the things which should have left me elated and brimming with the feeling of success left me rather cold and untouched.

As I neared the spot which Rakesh had mentioned, I slowed down and soon noticed his beaten down Volkswagen Polo parked near the edge of the road. Parking my car behind his, I jumped out and ran down the edge towards where I saw him standing, wiping his eyebrows. He pointed towards the disc shaped contraption neatly camouflaged behind the thick forest woods at a point that it would be lost to the vehicles driving along that otherwise deserted stretch of the intercity road.

“I can’t believe what I am seeing, but do you really want to go near? Isn’t it better to inform the police or someone?” mumbled Rakesh. But by now I was only vaguely registering what he was saying. I couldn’t miss this opportunity for life. Ignoring his words of caution I started pushing through the bushes and trees to get a closer look. It must have been around 400 meters and, as I pressed on I didn’t notice that Rakesh had fallen back and I was all alone. As I went near I could hear the gentle humming sound rising only faintly above the natural jungle sounds and something else that I had not noticed earlier. There was a bluish light around the object which was distinctly visible even in the daylight. As I stepped into the light something strange happened. I saw a short grey creature walking up to me. He was right there near what appeared to be the door of the UFO like object but became visible only when I entered the blue light halo. I looked back and could not see anything outside the circle of light.

“Come Akhil, you were expected here”, said the being. He seemed to be speaking without moving his lips. “We have been observing you for some time and you seem to be a perfect candidate for our experiments with the human consciousness. Yes, we had taken you with us once but had to put you back since you were very young and the time was not found to be right. Many of your ideas about us are right but there is more to it. However, let me warn you. Once you go through that door behind me, you won’t remain in this body and cannot come back. Your adult body has accumulated too much of pollution and would be a drag on our systems. We will give you a new energy body and your current one will be used for our organ harvesting experiments. In the next three minutes I will take you inside and you will then meet our leader and the rest of the team. It takes that much time to charge your physical body to be prepared for our environment.” He the turned back and started walking towards that door.

A cold sweat started breaking out down my spine as I realized the import of what he was saying. I suddenly became aware of how dearly I loved my current reality and all the relations that, perhaps I had not given much attention to. My girlfriend had sacrificed so much for me and was always trying to caution me to maintain a balance. Perhaps she was right. I had not realized that my quest for the unknown was of no consequence if it didn’t serve the purpose of making a difference to the world that I was born in. I was not ready to go yet, But this creature seemed quite determined and I had to make good my escape before he became wiser. That voice of caution started becoming louder  and louder and I realized what a fool I had been to just stumble in here. A voice of sanity told me run for my life before it was too late!

I observed him carefully as he walked to the door. I knew that time was running out but suppressed the urge to check my watch. I took a deep breath and started counting in reverse under my breath. "Ten, nine, eight, seven...”.