Note to readers:
The following story was written as a series of blog posts by me a few years ago. I had decided then to serialize the story into various parts, primarily as an experiment, to understand how serialized stories and novels were written by writers in magazines in the days gone by! This story was deeply satisfying to me and many of my close friends were happy to read the weekly posts and encouraged me every week.
You can find the series of blogs here - the First Chapter. However, I am putting out the entire story here. Some grammatical errors that had creeped in have been corrected here; otherwise the story is the same.
The reason for putting out the full story here is that now I am working on the sequel to this and would like to take the readers along to know what happened to the protagonist afterwards. The sequel will appear in another blog, or series of blog 'episodes'!
CHAPTER - 1
Ramu decided that he would restart his morning walk on the first of the month and well, that day had arrived. He woke up at 5, as promised to himself, prepared coffee for himself, his wife, and the maid, and finished his morning ablutions and rituals. While sipping his coffee and admiring the view from his 15th floor balcony, he wondered whether he could delay resuming his walk by one more day. Such thoughts assailed Ramu often enough - not only in such mundane tasks, but also in important project activities and that had created quite a few problems for him in recent times. During project review meetings, he would get questioned about this; but his explanation that those activities couldn't be taken up on the planned day because of resource non-availability or some other constraints, would be accepted. Not without any reason, for Ramu was a diligent manager and projects under his watch would always get delivered on time and within budget and customers were always happy with Ramu and his management style.
Today was one of those days when Ramu felt lethargic and wanted to delay restarting his walk. Was it hot? Absolutely not. He lived in Bangalore and it was the first week of August, when the weather was balmy, the sun, though up in the sky, was being prevented by a blanket of clouds from peeping out and bathing the city in its warm glow. It was one of those mornings when even a conscientious person would be tempted to let go and relax, probably read a book, or do crossword, or attempt the Wordle of the day.
With some effort, Ramu conquered all the temptations and set out. Prema, his wife of 27 years, was still asleep. His two children were away – employed in different geographies, and the mornings weren't any longer the 'peak hour' in terms of 'traffic' at home. Things happened at a leisurely pace and the rest was well earned by Prema. Ramu remembered the hectic buzz at home when his two children - a boy and a girl - were young and in school. The morning hour from 5 am to 7.30 am, when the school bus arrived at the gate, were called 'peak hour' by Ramu and many of his friends took that term and referred to the time similarly in their family circles. The preparation of snacks and packing their lunch boxes was the task specially delegated to Ramu by Prema and not without any reason. Ramu was good and accomplished the tasks with patience and sometimes inventiveness. If the vegetables to go with the roti were not ready that day, he would apply jam on one roti, and a bit of tomato ketchup on another; roll the roti and cut them into bite sized pieces and arrange them neatly in the tiffin boxes. The children, while having their breakfast, would observe these and Ramu would hope that they imbibed some of these qualities later in their life. Now his mornings were more relaxed and most days since he worked from home, the commute to workspot and back missing, the 'peak hour' had become a 'relaxed hour'.
But back to the present.... Ramu had a habit of walking alone and detested company. He preferred to listen to podcasts or songs on YouTube or Spotify and generally keep his mouth shut. That is why Prema and Ramu hardly ever went for their walks together. Suited both of them. Prema was gregarious and preferred chatting with friends and if there were no friends in sight, she had the capacity to make friends. In the society where Ramu and Prema lived, having moved here 5 years ago, Prema had made at least about 30 friends and Ramu by himself had 0. The only friends Ramu had were the husbands of Prema's friends.
He got a call from an unknown number. Generally Ramu disliked picking up calls from unknown numbers since most of the times they were marketing calls from some bank or insurance company trying to sell their products. However, on occasion, he needed to pick calls from unknown numbers since they could be from the client company by someone who had a problem to report. Should he pick the call or let it be? Wasn't the holiday well earned by him, he thought? If the person had a problem, he could call the office and someone would respond and redirect the call or let the concerned person know about the problem, whatever that problem was. But Ramu being Ramu, he took the call. Maybe he shouldn't have. That call was to change his life forever. What was the call about? Who was calling him on a holiday? Why?
CHAPTER - 2
Prema rose from her sleep with a start. This was getting to be a usual occurrence of late, much to her growing consternation. She had been getting dreams of her college exam days or school monthly tests. She would awaken with a cold sweat; but feel relieved when she woke up to realize that now she is rid of those exam days.
Coffee was ready and she never forgot to silently thank Ramu for that morning ritual that he had taken upon himself many years ago. Today was a relaxed day and while sipping her coffee she turned on the TV to catch the latest business news. As a senior manager in a multinational company managing the finances and accounts, she took time to understand the economy and the way the policies were announced by various governments in the region. The weekly round-up was her favourite show since she did not find enough time to catch the news on a daily basis.
Prema took the newspaper from the magazine rack and started reading the news. She had her views on America, Russia, China, and India's foreign affairs with the Western powers, and engaged in a heated debate with her colleagues on how the Ministry should engage with those powers. Discussing with Ramu was futile, since he kept his views to himself on political matters - she suspected that it was because she was passionate in her views and rarely, if ever, acceded to contrary opinions. Ramu was more interested in tennis and cricket and watched the telecast of matches involving India and he had his strong views and opinions on team selection. Prema did not engage in those trivial matters. The world was her playground.
She was expecting a call from her son or daughter since they called up every weekend; but they hadn't called yet. Even if there was no call on any weekend, this did not cause any anxiety to her since it was quite possible that Akshay and Deepa were away to their friend's place. Even during their growing up years, Prema did not interfere in their studies, check their progress in class, supervise if they had done their homework or not, or signed their progress reports. Ramu took care of those matters and being very patient with their children, Prema realized that grooming their children was best left to the most competent person in the house! As a career oriented person, Prema routinely requested her parents or her parents-in-law to come over to take care of their grandchildren when they were young.
Akshay was three years older than Deepa and had a keen interest in chess and debating. On both he was active and had won prizes within their school and in inter-school competitions. Deepa was an extrovert and played badminton and cricket. To help with their passion in their hobbies, the grandparents came in handy since they would take the children to the training centres without fail.
Prema was extremely conscious of her health and did not miss the yoga classes every weekend that were held in the terrace of her yoga guru. But before going there, she needed to take care of Ramu's breakfast. Today would be dosa and she quickly prepared a few; ate a couple while other dosas were getting ready and changed into her yoga gear. She then picked up her car keys, locked the door, and took the elevator to the basement.
Prema opened the car door with her remote and glanced around to see Ramu walk towards the lift rather unsteadily. When he came nearer she thought she saw Ramu was not his usual self. Probably the long walk had tired him, who knows. Generally he would walk for about an hour on weekends, but today his walk was quite a long one. She thought she would inform him about his breakfast and approached him before he neared the elevator. It was then that she saw his ashen face.
"Ramu! What is wrong? Are you OK?"
CHAPTER - 3
A few days earlier.....
"Akshay, what are you planning to do during the weekend?", asked Pro (Pronnoy), Akshay's roommate.
"Not decided man. I may opt to just relax, if I do not have any backlog to be completed at work!" said Akshay with a sigh.
Over the last couple of years that Akshay had been with DataLogix in Gurugram, he was always being swamped with work. He resented that overload during the weekends, since he seemed to be among the few who, like his father, completed his part of the project on time and with the quality that was expected of him. This resentment didn't appear on his face or demeanor when he was allotted that 'extra' work by his manager during office hours, since his nature was never to refuse work. Among the values inculcated in him by his parents - both mother and father always mentioned that 'hard work never killed anyone; hence accept the work and do your best' - this was something of a golden rule. Other values that they instilled in him were curiosity, respect for everyone, and honouring the commitment. Somehow, Akshay never questioned these aspects; though on quite a few other issues he could argue with his father till kingdom come.
It was raining in Gurugram and the city was a mess due to the traffic, water-logging, and general indiscipline on the roads. He made his way to the office, just a block away from his apartment and got into his cubicle.
Just then Amy (Amrutha) came up to his cubicle and said, "Hey Aks, we three are planning a camping trip to Kumaon hills. Are you interested?"
"Yes, sure. I don't have a bike though."
"Not an issue. Vicky (Vikrant) is coming on his bike and Gan (Ganesh) is always ready to take any road trip. So there will be four of us on two bikes."
"Ok. Looks good. Let's do it. When do you leave?"
"We are leaving on Thursday morning. Take one day off and Friday is anyway a holiday. That makes it a three day camp. Hope you have your hiking boots and camping gear. Not given to anyone na?"
"No. I have that."
"Where are we going? Have you guys decided yet?"
"Gan was mentioning a camp site near a place called Kanatal, about 4 hours from Dehradun. We should be reaching there by late afternoon, if we leave this place early morning on Thursday."
Akshay decided that this trip would be 'off the radar' of his parents. His mother was of the worrying type and if he were to mention that he was planning a road trip, that too on a bike, to a hilly place, probably his mother would take the next flight from Bangalore and land up in Gurugram to prevent him from going. Better to talk to mom and dad after returning from the trip.
---------------
Saturday morning at Kanatal camp site
Akshay was thankful that the past two days were largely uneventful in terms of adverse weather. It was sunny and since the place was at an altitude, the weather was cool and nippy in the morning; but progressively warmer as the day progressed. It was a new experience to make tea or coffee and breakfast (mostly maggi noodles) before heading out for a trek. The sights were awe inspiring and since they were the only four campers in that area, they were largely left to themselves to enjoy the place. The site was a grassy land on a rise and even if it were to rain, the rainwater was not likely to cause any harm within the tent. Gan was anyway a pro in these matters and chose the place wisely.
The sun had just risen and Akshay saw that the others were also just getting up. But when they looked eastward, they found a building that resembled a small house that hadn't existed even yesterday evening. It was impossible that this building had been completed overnight.
The four of them decided to walk about a kilometer to check that out. Was it a shop? Or was it a cafe? Seemed to be a small restaurant. Could they escape the obligatory maggi noodles and instead get poori or aloo paratha? Akshay was the first one to enter the cafe, with the others maintaining a safe distance behind him. Amy was busy taking photos of the morning sunrise, the building that had come up last night and a video of the three folks ahead of her. She was a 'photo-nerd' and had already taken a lot of photos over the last two days. In between she also took some selfies with Gan and Vicky with the building as a backdrop.
Akshay didn't find anyone inside the cafe. He looked around for a few seconds and then called, "Anyone here?"
Suddenly, the other three almost lost their balance. They were a good hundred yards behind Akshay. The cafe vanished in front of their eyes and with it Akshay too!
CHAPTER - 4
The sudden appearance and subsequent disappearance of the restaurant like structure shook the three friends to the core. It was something so unexpected that it is no surprise that even technology savvy people were left dumbstruck. Vikrant was the first to recover from the shock of seeing the 'restaurant' disappear as if into thin air. It had also swallowed Akshay. Swallowed may be a wrong word to describe the events, but for Ganesh, Vikrant, and Amrutha it did feel that that is what had happened. All three were engineers and had a backing in science, but this phenomenon defied all known (at least known as of now to mankind) theories in science. How could a building vanish in front of their eyes? What had happened to it and where did Akshay go?
With some trepidation (fear of the unknown causes even the most scientific minds to be wary) the three of them walked gingerly, holding hands, to the exact spot where the building stood. Were there any signs of a building there from today morning? Any foundations? Any marks of the pillars? Was the grass bent? They could detect the places on the grass where Akshay's shoes made an impression. But suddenly there were no more impressions of Akshay's shoes.
Amrutha did a smart thing then. She took some photographs of the footprints and also shot a video of the footprints till the spot where the prints vanished. She took some photos of their camp location from the place where the building was seen.
Ganesh was the first to say something. He posed a question uppermost in others' mind. "What shall we do next?"
Amrutha said the most practical thing. "We should report to the police."
Ganesh posed, "What shall we tell them? That Aks vanished into thin air! Will the police believe us? Won't they detain us and question us; probably use third degree methods on us thinking that we are the cause of his disappearance?"
Vikrant agreed with Ganesh on this, but being a bit more astute, he said, "If we do not go to the police and report Aks' disappearance, we will be under greater suspicion. The police will not have to go far to locate us since all our information would be with our employer."
Amrutha, ever the more practical, said, "I have shared the photos that we have taken over the three days, including today's, in a common album with you. You will be able to show the photos and video to the police inspector so that the police doesn't suspect you. You both go to the police station, whereas I will remain here, just in case the building and Aks appear again."
Amrutha further said, "I will also try and google to find out if something similar has happened anywhere else in India or the world. Surely, this must not be a one-off affair. What do you think happened just now? What are your first impressions?"
Ganesh and Vikrant shook their head and realized that they hadn't thought of any explanation as to what had happened. Surely the police would ask them their suspicions based on what they had seen first hand. They should be prepared with some logical explanation. Better to discuss this together so that they do not give contrary and confusing responses to the questions by the police.
Vikrant said, "I think the most logical explanation is that we have been hypnotized. It will be no surprise if a magician like P. C. Sorcar with a film crew were to appear now and bring Aks over and have a laugh at our expense."
Ganesh thought about this for a moment before asking, "Do you see any evidence of anyone in the vicinity? I don't see anyone for miles together. This is not a forested or a wooded area. It is a grassland, though among hills."
Amrutha thought for a while and said, "I think we should discount the magic mumbo-jumbo when talking to the police. This will not wash with them, even though I suspect they may also think along the same lines given what we see in Discovery and History Channels on TV."
Vikrant asked, "So Amy, what do you think happened? What is your most logical explanation?"
Amrutha said, "I think we should all only say that the building disappeared in front of our eyes. That is a factual information. If asked by any authority, not only police, but any other authority of the government, we should express our ignorance of the matter."
Ganesh said, "I think people will ask our suspicions as to what happened. They will want us to describe how the weather was, whether it was a clear sky? Whether we saw any 'machine' in the sky or not? Did we hear any noise? If there was a noise, how clearly can we describe the noise to them. I think before leaving we should pool our information and speak as of one voice in these matters, else the authorities will likely suspect us first."
Both Amrutha and Vikrant thought that was a good suggestion by Ganesh. They went back to their camp and sat separately. As per Vikrant's suggestion, it was decided that each of them would write their experience starting from the previous evening till the disappearance of Akshay, in as detailed a fashion as possible, and then compare notes. The next thirty minutes were spent in silence, broken only by the sound of birds in the sky that were going about their daily routine, blissfully unaware of the crisis developing below them.
Having completed their notes, they compared what each had written. But for a few minor changes in perception, each of them had the same experience as the other one had. So with more confidence in their ability to confront any charges that may be thrown at them by the police, Ganesh and Vikrant decided that they would leave in Ganesh's bike and leave Vikrant's bike near the camp site, just in case Amrutha needed any transport. Thankfully, each of them was careful not to go near Akshay's camp so that everything was left the same way as Akshay had left it in the morning. They were sure that it would be first thing the police would check when they came here to investigate.
Before leaving, Ganesh asked, "Does anyone among us have Aks' contact information? His home telephone, or his father's or mother's mobile number, so that we can inform them at least? We don't want the police to be first to inform."
Amrutha thought over this and said, "No, I don't think any of us has that information, but I will immediately call our HR and get that information from them and call either his mom or dad. You better get going. It is going to take some time to reach the nearest police station. The earlier we report this, the better it would be for all."
After Ganesh and Vikrant had left, Amrutha did google for information on the disappearance of people in similar fashion; but she wasn't successful. Many were YouTube links where some dubious people were peddling fake information. She didn't believe any of these, but continued to look for credible sources. She didn't get any. Without wasting too much time on this endeavour, she decided to get the contact information of Akshay's parents. Instead of calling the HR department and getting questioned as to the need for her to call the company, when she could as well get it from Akshay himself, she called up Pronnoy, Akshay's roommate. Without checking why, Pronnoy gave that information to Amrutha.
Amrutha decided to call up Akshay's father Ramu, to tell him what had just happened. She decided it would be better to be truthful, rather than beat around the bush.
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."
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?"
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 his 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.
