The Cost of Values - 7

 

In case you happen to just come over to this blog post 

and are wondering what this is all about, 

please do go to the earlier posts, and especially  

The Cost of Values - 1. 

The story starts there. 

You may please read the other chapters before reading this one.

 

This is the 7th Chapter in the serialized story that I am writing.

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 CHAPTER -7

THE CONVERSATION

 

A few hours earlier

 

Akshay found himself in an unfamiliar surrounding. He thought he was in the cafe like structure one moment, and the next moment he found himself alone in a 'room'. There was light, but he couldn't place the source of the light. It was definitely not natural sunlight; though it seemed like that. He looked around and didn't find any windows or apertures through which he could look out and determine where he was. Given that he was naturally a curious person, he was not overcome with fear; though anxiety was there. Yes, certainly some anxiety.

 

Akshay checked himself and found that he was dressed in the same dress that he woke up in. He hadn't carried his mobile phone, which was under the pillow of his bed in the camp. Hopefully his friends would be taking care of it and answering any calls that his parents may make. There was a chair and he sat down. These actions and thoughts may have taken about a minute. Akshay called out to no one in particular, since he couldn't spot anyone, "Hello!"

 

"Hello!"

 

"Who is this? Where am I?"

 

"You will get an answer to these questions and anything else that you may have by and by. First tell us why did you enter that structure without any permission?"

 

"I did call out 'Hello!' when I entered through the open door. I thought it was a cafe and we could grab a cup of coffee."

 

"Do you want anything to drink or eat?"

 

"Yes, some water, a cup of coffee, and something to eat would be great". Akshay didn't in the least feel that he was in any kind of danger since the 'person' speaking to him was very polite.

 

All that Akshay asked for appeared almost instantaneously and was placed on a stool in front of him. He was taken aback by this. How did these food items suddenly appear out of nowhere? He drank the water, ate the slices of bread and sipped on the hot coffee. Are these items for real? Where did they come from? Looking around he found everything almost the same. But where was the other person who was speaking to him?

 

Suddenly he heard a voice, "We are 'beings' from very far off and visit your planet once every few years of your time. We have been visiting your planet off and on and whether you believe it or not, we have a decent knowledge of your planet."

 

"You are surely joking. What nonsense! We haven't been visited by any life form outside our planet till now."

 

"How can you say so? Aren't you surprised that we are able to converse in a language familiar to you?"

 

That is when Akshay realized that he had taken the language for granted. But still there were many possibilities that the 'beings' were from some part of our Earth. Why should Akshay believe that he was 'captured' by aliens? It could be Chinese too with some advanced technology or a secret project of the Indian government and he may have inadvertently stepped on to something that was being tested. Yes, that seemed to him to be the most plausible explanation.

"How do you know so many terms that we use conversationally like 'hunger', 'coffee', 'water', etc?"

"As I mentioned, we have been visiting often enough and have a reasonably good idea of the languages spoken by you humans. We have interacted with other life forms that live in water, on land, and in the air and have a decent understanding of their language too. We can converse with them as well, and have met them in similar surroundings over the last thousand years."

"What is the purpose of your visiting us?" Still no sign of any fear in Akshay.

"We have helped your civilization in many ways. Do you think you came about due to evolution? From apes? That was a theory that Darwin proposed, and yes, we have got that information too. Actually we helped the creation of sapiens and have watched you evolve, and nudged you biologically over time to help you reach this stage of 'intelligence'."

This continuous volley of information was too much for Akshay to process. He was not fearful of any unknown generally, and took anything that he didn't know about with a curious mindset. He also looked for logical explanations when faced with things that he didn't know about. If this was true, was he some sort of guinea pig or lab rat for them to experiment on? As if reading his thoughts, he heard the voice again.

"No. We do not experiment with any beings from your world. We nudge your brain a little; but sometimes that little nudge results in a huge breakthrough in your world. We may do that to you too so that you can benefit your people."

"Why should you do that? What do you gain by this?"

"Why do humans have pets? Why do they 'train' them?"

"We like to keep pets for our mutual benefit. Pets care for us just like we care for them. Ignoring some people who may keep wild animals as pets, generally our pets like dogs or cats are good for both of us."

"Good. Can you tell me why your scientists have experimented with plants? Why do marine biologists go under the sea to study marine life? Why do ornithologists study birds? What purpose does it serve the birds or humans?"

"We have learnt many new things from them. In fact we may also have invented some drugs to benefit us by exploiting what we study in the forests and in the oceans." Having said that Akshay now had a tinge of worry whether life forms on Earth are likely to be 'exploited' by these aliens for their purpose. He didn't voice his suspicion, but realized that his brain was being studied while they were busy keeping him talking to them. He asked, "Where are you from?"

"From a place very far off. Since you do not have any interest in astronomy, I may not be able to make you understand within the time that we have."

"What will you do next? Will I be able to return to Earth, if I am not there now?"

"Of course. As I mentioned, we don't take captives. You came to us; we didn't capture you."

"Ok. That is a relief. How much time has elapsed since I came here? I do not know how time moves in this environment relative to ours."

"Maybe about four hours. To answer your previous question regarding what we will do to you, we have already done that. As I said, a positive nudge in your area of specialization for you to achieve some breakthrough in your life and benefit humans."

"If I am asked about my experiences here, I may not be able to explain anything at all. This is just a seemingly vacant room and all I am hearing is your voice."

"Oh relax. You will not remember anything that happened here. We take care of that. We know that many of you folks are distrusting of anything you do not know and have historically tried to kill it and kill the messenger too!"

"But this is really sad. I want us to meet more often; not necessarily with me, but with many of our more intelligent and smart scientists, engineers, and technologists. They can really benefit with your interacting with them."

"Are you sure?"

That was what he heard last; though Akshay wouldn't remember these words. He now found himself at  the edge of the woods adjacent to the grassy lands near the campsite in Kanatal. He wondered how he got there. It was afternoon, though according to him it was just early morning a few minutes ago. He remembered walking with this friends towards a structure that had appeared suddenly the previous night, but now there was nothing there. When he looked towards the campsite, he could see the tents fluttering in the afternoon wind. He saw Amrutha, Ganesh, and Vikrant with some others. He started walking towards them.

_______________________________________________________________

 

Note to readers:

 

Thanks for your support and encouragement. Quite a few commented within the blog in the initial chapters, but quite a few wrote words of praise on WhatsApp. I thank them. I also thank those of you who took the time to come here and read this 'serialized story'.

 

Before beginning to write this story, I had no previous experience in this genre. I like to write and I look at this effort more like an experiment rather than an achievement (😁).  

The Cost of Values - 6

 

In case you happen to just come over to this blog post 

and are wondering what this is all about, 

please do go to the earlier posts, and especially  

The Cost of Values - 1. 

The story starts there. 

You may please read the other chapters before reading this one.

 

This is the 6th Chapter in the serialized story that I am writing.

 

CHAPTER - 6

The call to Ramu had eased the tension somewhat of the three persons in Kanatal. At least they felt that Ramu and Prema had not suspected the three friends of any foul play. That was a relief. Now they needed to tackle the authorities. They presumed that they would have to contend with the police since this was a case of disappearance of a person! How wrong they were.

Vikrant and Amrutha cleared their camp and were about to leave for Dehradun when Amrutha received a call from an unknown number. Again with great trepidation, she answered the call.

"Hello!"

"Hello! Is this Amrutha from DataLogix?"

"Yes. May I know who is calling please?"

"I am Pramod Gupta from the Government of India. I would like to speak with you. Where are you now?"

"Which department of the government do you represent?" asked Amrutha in a tremulous voice.

"That I will tell you when we meet. Where are you now? Please answer me honestly."

"I am in Kanatal. But why do you ask?"

"This is in regard to the disappearance of Akshay. We would like to talk to you about it."

"Are we in trouble?"

"That depends. I will be able to know more only when I meet you three - Ganesh, Vikrant, and you Amrutha. Just stay where you are and do not move away from your campsite. A team is coming over to you now to talk to you. We want all of you to be there. Do not leave the place. I repeat, do not leave the place under any circumstances."

"Ok sir!" Amrutha looked at Ganesh and Vikrant and all three of them realized that the situation is grave if some government agency is involved. Who knows what they may ask!

 

Within about fifteen minutes a police vehicle came to a halt near the campsite and a senior police officer got down with an Inspector in tow. He looked around and checked the tents of the three campers, turned around towards Amrutha and asked, "Amrutha?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Pramod Gupta spoke to me about an hour ago and asked me to come up here and be with you and ask a few questions. Do you mind if I ask each of you individually what you experienced today?"

Ganesh and Vikrant felt a bit relieved that they need not have to go anywhere since the police was here. But was that a good news or bad? They went a few feet away, but the Inspector took them about a hundred yards away from where the senior police officer was speaking to Amrutha. Probably they wanted to query each of them individually to ensure that there was uniformity in what they saw today morning. Already the disappearance of Akshay seemed to be so distant. Things were happening real fast.

"Amrutha, don't be scared of us. We are here at the instruction of Guptaji. My name is Shailendra and I am the Additional SP of Tehri Garhwal district. The Inspector there is Mr. Vikas Singh from the police station at Tehri. So we would like to ask a few questions before Mr. Gupta reaches here. He is already on his way and would be joining here within about 2 hours."

Amrutha explained in detail what they saw that day in the morning. Shailendra asked a few questions to clarify things that he didn't understand. Amrutha also showed him the pictures that she had taken. Shailendra looked at the pictures intently and complimented Amrutha for her foresight. Not for a moment did Amrutha feel that she was under any suspicion; but Ganesh and Vikrant, standing so far away that they couldn't hear what was being discussed, had some apprehensions.

Shailendra then called Vikrant over and checked with him about his impressions and later spoke to Ganesh as well. He soon realized that the three of them had prepared well what to say when questioned since their responses were, for the most part, identical. All five of them then went to the place where the 'structure' appeared and then suddenly disappeared. As they were about to reach there, a car pulled up near the campsite and they saw a gentleman in a formal suit gesture to them to return to the campsite.

"I am Pramod Gupta and this gentleman here with me is Mr. Somanathan. As I mentioned to all of you over phone, I am from the Government of India and am here to investigate this.....well... this issue. By the way did any of you three call Mr. Ramakrishnan, Akshay's father, to inform him of this event?"

Amrutha said, "Yes sir. I called up Mr. Ramakrishnan and informed him. He was shocked. Later I spoke to his wife also. They said that they would be coming here to meet us."

Pramod said, "Yes, I spoke to them afterwards too. But later they called me to inform that they may not be coming today."

Meanwhile in Bangalore, Ramu and Prema had finished their packing and were getting ready to leave for the airport, when there was another call for Prema.

"Hello!"

"Hello amma!"

"Akshay?"

To be continued next Sunday - 20-August-2023

 

The Cost of Values - 5

 

In case you happen to just come over to this blog post 

and are wondering what this is all about, 

please do go to the earlier posts, and especially  

The Cost of Values - 1. 

The story starts there. 

This is the 5th Chapter in the serialized story that I am writing.

 

CHAPTER - 5 

 

Ganesh and Vikrant discussed between themselves regarding which police station to go to for registering their complaint. The nearest police station may not have the necessary expertise for registering or investigating such 'disappearances', they felt. Hence they called up Amrutha to voice their concerns and involve her also in the final decision regarding which police station would be appropriate to meet with and register their complaint regarding the disappearance of Akshay.

It was finally decided that they would go to Dehradun and all three people were unanimous in their final choice since that was the capital city of Uttarakhand. There was a great mystery associated with Akshay's disappearance and they all felt that speaking to any other police officer in a smaller town may not get the attention that this event deserved.

Amrutha realized that the one-way journey for Ganesh and Vikrant would take about 4 hours at the least and she may have to stay back in the campsite for the full day and possibly spend the night alone too. Ganesh and Vikrant too realized this as soon as they had left; so they decided to return to the campsite. Now another quandary presented itself. If all three had to leave by vacating and clearing the campsite, they would have to remove Akshay's belongings and pack up the tent too. This would disturb Akshay's tent and may have a problem with the investigation. So they realized that they were back to square one on the next course of action.

 

Ganesh asked around if any among the three had any relative in the police department anywhere in India and whether contacting that relative would be helpful. Vikrant said that his uncle was a senior officer in the police in Rajasthan and he could contact him to inform him of the situation and get the contact details of the senior officer in Dehradun. 

Ganesh asked, "Do you think your uncle will believe us?"

Vikrant replied, "I am not sure. But do we have any choice? This is a unique situation and inspite of carrying out an internet search, Amy hasn't been able to get any information on similar occurrences in these parts, or anywhere else in India. We have to start trusting someone. I think this option is our best bet to make the authorities believe us."

 

Ganesh asked with a hint of sarcasm, "As if there would be news about such an occurrence! Even the most liberal and transparent country like US doesn't reveal any existence of such paranormal phenomena. Do you think Indian government would do so?"

 

Both Vikrant and Amrutha did not have any way to counter this argument of Ganesh.

Amrutha was pensive for a while basically thinking of her next step, which was to contact Akshay's father Ramu, or his mother, Prema, to inform them of the sudden disappearance of their son. She was struggling with how to explain. But she  had to call and Vikrant and Ganesh realized that calling Akshay's parents should be their first priority.

"Hello!"

"Hello! Is that Mr. Ramakrishnan?"

"Yes. May I know who is speaking?"

"I am Amrutha, Akshay's friend and colleague in DataLogix at Gurugram. I am here in Uttarakhand in a camping site near a place called Kanatal. I am here with two more of my colleagues, Ganesh and Vikrant."

"Ok. So why are you telling me all this? Is Akshay with you? Is anything the matter?"

"Sir, I am sorry to inform you, but today early morning when we woke up, we saw a structure had suddenly appeared near our campsite, which was not there till yesterday evening, and when Akshay went ahead of us to investigate what it was, the structure and Akshay both disappeared. Sir, please believe me when I say this, the structure and Akshay who had just entered the building, both disappeared instantaneously in front of our eyes! We are still unable to wrap our heads around this event. We do not know how to make anyone believe us."

Ramu felt all this was some sort of prank by scammers and they were after some extortion. That was his first impression and he didn't take this seriously. Amrutha, Ganesh, and Vikrant explained to Ramu in detail about their work in DataLogix, their individual contact numbers, and also mentioned that he could disconnect the call so that Ramu could call Amrutha back.

As he was speaking Ramu realized that he needed to involve Prema in any further conversation and both of them could think of their next move. He started towards his apartment and met Prema near the lift. He told her of the phone call and immediately saw that Prema gestured to him to return to their apartment to discuss further and investigate this call.

Prema and Ramu went back home and Ramu called up Amrutha, who picked up the call immediately. Prema wanted to hear from them directly and so Amrutha, Ganesh, and Vikrant told her what had happened that day. Prema said that both he and Ramu would take the next available flight to Dehradun and would plan to be there by the same day afternoon. Prema suggested to Ganesh that he should stay back at the campsite and Vikrant could take Amrutha to Dehradun after speaking with his uncle and contacting the senior police officer in Dehradun.

Things started moving speedily. Ganesh was mildly surprised that Ramu and Prema did not say anything that could suggest that they suspected any foul play by the three.

Prema contacted her office, informed them of a family emergency and said she would be travelling to Uttarakhand and may return after a week. Ramu did the same with his organisation. Prema had contacts with a travel agent who could organise flight tickets for them, which he did by the mid afternoon flight.

While they continued with their plans to travel, the 'loss' of their son in mysterious circumstances took a backseat. Though the concern was there, they were busy in organising themselves for the next phase of their task. That was to determine what happened in Kanatal and take the help of anyone who could help solve this riddle.

There was a call, again from an unknown number, to Ramu.

"Hello!"

"Hello! Is this Mr. Ramakrishnan?"

"Yes."

"Sir, I am Pramod Gupta from Delhi. We have heard of the news that your son, Akshay has disappeared suddenly today from a place called umm....Kanatal in Uttarakhand. Have you heard the news?"

"Mr. Gupta, who are you?"

 

"Please do not worry, Mr. Ramu. I am from the Government. I would like to discuss with you regarding this."

 

To be continued next Sunday - 13-August-2023