A Glimpse of Death

  "Which is the one and only absolute inevitable truth in this universe?"

 There was pin drop silence in the Philosophy class when the teacher had thrown the question at the students. Only one student raised his hand and answered that explicitly, " Sir, the answer should be Death." Now, that student, Shanu had become a paragon in the painting world. 

"There is no quality creation without quality recreation," thought Shanu . 

And for quality recreation it meant Marijuana to him . He even pronounced M with great emphasis whenever he thought about Marijuana in his mind. 

Everyday at noon he was habituated to get off the sleep-horse and lit up a joint. The moment he stroke off the button of the lighter and inhale the raw aroma of burnt green weed , instantly he could separate himself from the so called real world and sail through the sea of the Real-real world . He believed, this universe has one soul. And by obliterating the self-oriented thought inhibition he got united and imbued with divine power to paint some unique outstanding work.  But eventually he got used to it and needed higher dose to get a kick . 

So, one day he decided to shift the baton from Marijuana to 'Bhaang' ; he knew he needed the kick to create something new.

 His speciality was abstract art. People felt special surrealistic pain in his work and anything special had a special price tag. So by selling only one painting, he could spend 5-6 months lavishly without doing anything. That day he planned to create something special. So he prepared a high dose Bhaang based beverage. 

But the problem with Bhaang was that after you drank, the kick took time to get the peak and it couldn't be controlled. There were some incidents of Bhaang toxicity which lead to Death. 

Shanu had no idea, something similar would happen to him. He drank more than he could digest. So after one hour, he started to realise this was not at all a good stable kick. It was getting higher and higher. There was a sudden plateau phase in between when it seemed the kick had been at its pinnacle. Then again his kick climbed up a sharp peak which made him feel frightened, but serene. He had no control over his kick. One time, he had realised he had no control over his body. He somehow entered the bathroom and looked at the mirror. His eyes were fresh red. He rinsed his face with tap water , but he couldn’t feel the touch of cold water. Then he forcefully slapped his face thrice . He couldn’t feel any pain. Suddenly he saw nothing but darkness. Anyhow, he managed to get his body to his bed. His eyes were open. But he couldn’t see anything except darkness, so he closed the eyelids. 

Suddenly, the outer world was vanished, except some sounds. After that, the sounds were also muted. He was inundated by some sort of strange sounds : some peculiar frequencies. He was not in his body anymore. He read about stories of suspended animation by ancient monks. Was he experiencing something similar? 

He first started to enjoy his peculiar state. He was nothing, because he couldn't feel inside of his mortal body. He felt no pain and saw a fractal world which was centered by a glaring white light. He couldn’t differentiate whether he was going towards the light or the light was approaching towards him. But he felt divine peace and severe fear simultaneously. He extrapolated that as soon as the white light would engulf him, his so called life on this earth might had been over. So what, who cares? Its so beautiful, he thought. I am not I think I was. His fascinating thought was not over. Suddenly, the light came close and everything disappeared. 

At the next moment, he saw himself as some different self with some weird living thing playing a video game. It seemed there was a bolt of mini-thunder inside its body. 

But there was no game on Shanu's screen. Only two words, " Game Over! " were displayed over his screen. The other self was still playing. He looked at its display screen and surprised to see that it was roleplaying as a nice young lady who was cheating her boyfriend with some other girl. Does it know that it is a lesbian lady? He thought. He called the other self, but it was too submerged in the holographic game to answer. It totally lost its actual self in the game. Nevertheless in a similar game, he just lost his life.

 He touched it, he felt nothing. But when he tried to wake up the self by shaking, it broke into three smaller selves. One was highly repulsive and the other two were attracting towards him. Two things chased him. But they were not walking, as if some invisible force was conspiring those things to fly towards him. He couldn’t understand anything. But he started running and a sparkling sound was heard. He was running through the new world without legs. He saw some form of cloud surrounding him. He got a mirror like surface there, but his image was distorted there, as if some part of him was transmitted through the mirror. He saw a cliff in the end like a mirage in the desert. He felt so lonely and afraid there that he jumped into darkness. 

But after that he didn't fell down there, rather he started floating around and suddenly collided with an energy field. A part of him got stuck into a surface and the jump had no impact on him,  rather suddenly he got his old body back in his room. He woke up in his bed. But this time many people were standing there surrounding him in a bereaved fashion.

One of the doleful face shouted, " Evila eh si?" 

 He got up and shocked them. Before their shock had precipitated any further, he jumped out of the bed and saw the clock. Exactly two hours had passed since he started to feel dizzy. But another refutable incident had caught his eye. The clock was running backwards! Everything around him seemed so bizarre suddenly. Everyone was walking backwards as if it was normal. As if someone had clicked a rewind button of a play in original speed.

 Other people were discussing seriously, but he didn’t get a single word. Suddenly he fathomed that sentence he heard, "Evila eh si? " It definitely meant, "Is he alive? " So, they are talking in mirror image pattern, he figured. 

On the next day, he met a Sadhu. Yes he had met a Sadhu the day before he lost his mind in the previous reality. Sadhu had advised him, " To be great, you have to know how to live, " he revisited his past reality. After saying that words of advice, the Sadhu asked him to look into a mirror. He told the Sadhu that he couldn't find anything extraordinary in that mirror. The sadhu had chuckled. In the present reality, his mind was unhinged, exasperated. So he entreated the Sadhu for suggestion. Sadhu uttered the same sentence here in beaming face, but this time in mirror image template, "Evil ot woh wonk ot evah uoy, taerg eb ot," and asked him to look into the mirror again. He found himself this time.

Yes, I have to live, i must not die inside. I have to come around, he tried to shout. But he couldn't. He didn’t know what was forthcoming. So he closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, he felt as if he was out of breath. He took a deep gasp of breath inside, jumped out of his bed. Then he instantly ran towards the bathroom and vomitted his brain out. After sometime, he came out of the bathroom, drank a bottle of oral rehydration fluid. After he stabilised himself, he checked the clock. As he guessed, it was normal : it was two hours past his event. Time is now travelling forward here and its the well accepted conjecture of so called reality, he muttered . He began the new abstract art depicting the following idea. 

A thought had escaped from the box and travelled faster than light, approaching and departing in the opposite direction at the same time with respect to a white light reflecting from a mirror and the whole theme was represented in a fractal world. He labelled the work as, 'A glimpse of Death.'

Memory

   About a month had passed since Mr Bose, the lunatic boss of Rhea was murdered. May be 'lunatic' was an understatement about him. Though Rhea believed, one shouldn’t hold bad opinion about a dead person. May be Mr Bose seemed a bit queer duck, but he possessed a brilliant mind and a kind heart - kind enough to admire young talents in Computer science and Mathematics and to offer them a job in his lab. Rhea was assigned a project under him after she completed her PhD on Computer Science.

 Tonight she was in a different mood . She entered the Oly Pub with her mind engaged with thoughts of the murder of her boss. She ordered the usual - Beef steak and Vodka. It was not unusual to have a crush on a brilliant boss. But she realised soon Mr Bose was not a type of guy to settle with. So the secret never revealed and now this was how she decided to deal the grief process - by drinking alone every night. While Rhea was occupied in the thought of her future career prospect and Mr Bose, waiter served the order. Umm..Beef steak was well cooked. Chewing a piece of hot beef steak and washing down with a sip of Vodka seemed appropriate to think about Mr Bose. She just couldn’t forget that horrible night. That night after work, Mr Bose was seeing off Rhea to her cab. Suddenly a bike rider stopped and fired a bullet through his heart. Before understanding what was happening, he expired on spot. Why a mad physicist could be on a hit list of an assassin? Was he really the target? Or was it just a mistake? Rhea tried to search every data on the lab computer of Mr Bose. Was there any research that could link to his murder? But there was no clue.

 After finishing her drinking alone program, she decided to walk in the streets of Kolkata. Usually she was a cab liking person. But tonight booze was quite high to perceive the world differently. It was 9 o' clock. Dark night that covered the pavement was cloaking the streetlights. She felt grimly alone in the streets camouflaging with darkness. Suddenly she felt a shadow was following her. She tried to cross the main road to come to the other side of the road which was somewhat crowded. But suddenly the shadow blocked her path. There was enough dim light to recognise the face of the shadow and Rhea did identify. But How could it be possible? The shadow was no other than her dead boss, Mr Bose . She felt a sudden cold chill and tried to shout in immense fear. But she couldn’t and fell unconscious. 

When she opened her eyes, she discovered herself lying in a bed in a House. Certainly that was not her house. Then whose it was? She tried to remember the past events. Yes, of course she was intoxicated and hallucinated Mr Bose under the effect of alcohol. May be a kind guy rescued her to his house. She decided to take a tour in the house. She discovered a big hall room next to the bedroom. The room was full of books and big computers. Then she found the bathroom. She felt relieved as she certainly needed to do some unfinished business in the bathroom right away. When she came out of bathroom, she met the person sitting in a chair in front of the table - that person rescued her yesterday. And she realised she was not hallucinating. He was Mr Bose indeed. He brought her here. She glared at him and asked-
" But how? You were dead right in front of me. "

"How!! Think Rhea.. Think ", Mr Bose sarcastically replied.

" Were you not murdered that day? "

" In a sense, yes."

"Then are you ghost or something like that? "

"You are a scientist.  Do you believe in Ghost? "

Rhea burst out, "Right now, I am just a person who can't believe my eye. I mean, are you even alive? Can I pinch you? "

Before any answer from the other end, Rhea took a magazine from the table next to her and dashed that to his face.

" Ow," shouted Mr Bose, " What is that all about? "

" So you are as real as me ", Rhea exclaimed.

" In a sense, yes."

"But how is it possible? "

"I made it possible. "

"What does that even mean. You have even shadow!! "

"Rhea, please calm down. Take a glass of water and listen to me. "

Rhea glugged a glass of water in one breath and sat down on a chair opposite of Mr Bose. He started calmly-

" I was murdered. How do you know? This is a memory you retrieved from your brain. Right? "

"Yes. But how its relevant?"

" Be patient. But what if I tell you, your memory can be altered or modified? "

"I can't get you."

" Let me elaborate," he stood up from the chair, lit up a cigar and strode clasping his arms behind his back. He continued, " I am experimenting a subtle approach to hack someone's memory for last 10 years. You were my Guinea pig along with myself . I spent a lot of time with you listening to a special kind of white noise developed by me. And as a result, some outer shell electrons of two special proteins in our hippocampus and prefrontal cortex were linked through quantum entanglement. I named two proteins as Cryptoglobin and Rheaglobin respectively. As you know, quantum entanglement allows two particles affect quantum state of each other when measured, irrespective of space-time. I correlated those data of our brain via an algorithm. You unknowingly analysed it for me. And now I can hack your brain memory or read your mind. You saw me murdered. Actually I imprinted that memory in your hippocampus. So that was reality to you till now. Whereas I am still alive."

Rhea was shocked by this ground breaking explanation. She asked in a trembled voice, "But why others didn’t rectify me about your death? "

He replied, "I counselled everyone in the lab, you were not mentally well and needed space. You didn’t contact anyone and you didn’t show up in the lab in past one month. All the memories of my funeral were injected into your thoughts. So there was no doubt in your mind. "

"But why didn’t you tell me the truth for last one month?" She retorted.

He smiled and spoke, "I was observing how real the effect is and how long does it last. I was also ensuring to exclude any kind of subjective bias. Truly speaking, I was checking how much do you miss me? "

"What? "

"I know you like me, Rhea. I like you too." He looked at her, " The research was confidential for definite reasons. And I didn’t like you to suffer anymore, " he took a pause and spoke again," Would you like to go out with me, perhaps for a dinner? "

"Really!! First hacking a woman's brain and then asking her out ! You are really weird. "

"Yes I am, " grinned Mr Bose, "Tonight 8 o' clock, then."

*******

Its almost 9 O' clock. Rhea was waiting outside of Peter Cat Restaurant for 1 hour. But Mr Bose didn’t show up yet. "Such an irresponsible person he is, should have called at least once," she murmured. She called his number. But no one picked up. She decided to go to his house. No one was there. She called one of her lab colleagues, Akhi. What Akhi said she couldn’t believe. Akhi told her, " Rhea, you should seriously get some help. Mr Bose was murdered one month ago !! You were solo eye witness of that incident ! "
Rhea couldn’t stand anymore. She fell unconscious on the floor of his house. Someone saw that and texted to a strange number - " Job done! "

©Dr Suprabhat Das

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