บท 2: Dreaming an alternate world

Aditya walked on the land-grey coloured skid-proof ceramic tiles of the school corridor. He stopped and leaned on the steel railing from the first floor as he saw his juniors of the Middle years' program playing basketball in the court adjacent to the school building.

He still remembered when he got an argument with his father when he was forced to join an international school after his 10th grade.

His father was a physicist. He had worked in almost all high-level particle research centres like Tata institute of fundamental research, Mumbai and Center for High Energy Physics, Bangalore in India. He had also participated in many international particle research scientific community studies.

Aditya knew that his father was one of those people who are crazy about their field of expertise. His father was so into particle research that he had travelled all over the world in his endeavour to unravel his 'crazy' theories on space-time duality.

His father wanted to gain approval from CERN laboratories to conduct his research, which required the Large Hadron Collider to experiment. He had submitted many proposals on behalf of the Indian government. He gave several presentations at many international congresses on particle research.

Before they went missing, Aditya remembered his father saying that CERN's representatives had approached him. Aditya's father said that he was pretty sure that his experiment would be a go.

So the main reason Aditya was thrown into an international school was that his father had planned his future career as a research scientist in CERN laboratories. So his father had thought that following an international curriculum would not disturb Aditya's education when the whole family had to shift to Geneva in the future.

So, if all had gone according to his father's planning, Aditya would have been in Geneva right now. The confirmation letter from CERN laboratories had come a month after his parents had gone missing.

Cheers and shouts could be heard from the juniors who were playing basketball as the game entered its last stages. Aditya looked at the match halfheartedly as he thought about his current situation. Waves formed on his close-fitting maroon coloured cotton shirt as the warm autumn wind blew against him. As Aditya instinctively straightened his shirt, he caught sight of a small black butterfly on the hidden side of his sleeve. One could only notice it when the short sleeve opening is rolled back a little. A small smile surfaced on Aditya's face as remembered his mother.

His mother was in every sense and way, a perfect human, a perfect wife, an ideal mother. He did not know about his mother's family as she refused to divulge any information about them. He only knew that his mother had come from quite an affluent family.

His father was an orphan who was adopted by a freedom fighter (his paternal grandfather) who was in his late fifties. The only son of his paternal grandfather had migrated to the United States with his family. After that, his paternal grandfather had adopted his father. Maybe, so that he wouldn't have to be lonely in his old age as Aditya's paternal grandmother had died long ago.

His father was an out and out scholarly material. He would want to know everything, learn everything. As much as 'Big Bang' was an accident, his mother falling for his bookworm of a father was equally an accident. Aditya used to complain that his father was not at home during festivals. He would ask his mother what unique feature that his father possessed that his mother even left her family for him.

Every time he asked this, his mother would smile gently and rub his head but not answer his question. Later on, Aditya also got accustomed to not expecting an answer, but he would from time to time use this question to irritate his father in front of the mother. Aditya's parents had not once raised their hand against him, which caused Aditya not to hold back his words in front of his parents.

Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, genuinely mean words used to roll out of his mouth. For example, he had gone to view a film in his 8th grade with his friends without informing his parents. When he got back home, it was already late at night. His parents had been frantically searching for him all over the neighbourhood and calling his friend's families. When he came back, his father inquired his whereabouts. Aditya, who was in his early teens, had brushed off his father words by saying, "why should I inform you about my whereabouts? I have grown up and don't need your permission to go outside."

His father had raised his hand to hit Aditya when he heard those words, but his mother stopped him. Aditya looked with a triumphant look at his father, but the smile on his face faded when he saw the sadness in his mother's eyes. His mother did not utter a single word of complaint against Aditya, let alone scold him. When Aditya looked at his mother, only then did he realise that he had made a mistake.

Following this incident, his mother had not eaten a grain of rice for three days at a stretch. Aditya's mind upturned when he saw his mother not eating anything despite his father's and his plea. From that day, onward Aditya was not afraid that his father would scold him or hit him but of his mother becoming sad. So whenever Aditya thought of doing something out of the ordinary, he would always instinctively question himself if his mother would become disappointed due to this. If the answer was affirmative, then he would not do that thing in any situation.

But on the other hand, it was his mother who usually supported him in all his crazy adventures and ambitions. Aditya had always wanted to become an F1 car racer as he desired to 'pilot' the fastest cars of the era. Though he later came to know that F1 cars were' not' the fastest cars out there, his passion continued. But in essence, Aditya was mesmerised with rapid pace. Anything which could give him the thrill of speed was in his to-do list.

When he proposed to his father that he wanted to become a car racer, his father almost choked on his food. After an intense battle of words between father and son, with his mother working as a mediator. A treaty was formally established. Aditya would complete his graduation and after that, if he still has the same pursuit, then he could become a racer.

As on Aditya's part, he was allowed to get in touch with cars by working part-time in Kishore uncle's car garage. Aditya's father thought it was below their family's living standard for Aditya to work in a car garage. But this at least was better than Aditya discontinuing his studies. Also, Kishore was his friend, so he could make sure Aditya did not cross the line and was safe when working with car parts.

That was one year ago when Aditya was 15 and was studying Indian curriculum. It all changed when his father threw him in an international school. There was, of course, another world war which ensued with Aditya admitting defeat. His father promised that he would buy him a car when he got into university as compensation.

A bitter smile appeared on Aditya's face when these memories surfaced in his mind. Now Aditya did not want any of those things as long as his parents came back to him safely. Thinking about his missing parents, Aditya remembered his dreams, which were decorating his long sleep.

At first, when Aditya developed this condition of sleeping for many hours, the very first day he had heard some terms which puzzled Aditya even now. He had not mentioned this to anybody, not even to the doctors. There were two terms which Aditya still remembered as 'Soul Docking' and 'Soul Merging'. He was not sure whether this was also part of his dreams, or there was a deeper meaning behind them.

Also, the dreams in the first few days were some incidents of Aditya's childhood. Aditya thought it was normal for people's dreams to be consisting of their memories. But then, things started becoming weird as Aditya saw his whole life recap as he watched.

From the time he was three when Aditya was fond of throwing things from over the balcony, he saw all those memories as if he was a film audience viewing a movie. He watched his six-year-old self kicking Kranthi on his buttocks during a fancy dress competition. He was frustrated that his father had forced him to wear a Gandhi costume, which he thought was so lame.

He saw his first meeting with his once dearest elder sister, Maahi Kapoor when he was five, and she was nine. He saw his nine-year-old self promising that he would protect her from all harm. He had found out that her father was a sadist who hit her almost every day. Aditya, in his dream, was dazzled when he saw his elder sister flashing a bright smile. He did not notice previously that her smile was so sincere. After nine years of being the best of buddies, due to an incident, Aditya had stopped talking to her.

When someone sees his 16-year-old life being compressed in 10 days worth of dreams, many of the unclear things become more apparent. That was what happened to Aditya. He found his younger version of his, immature, idiotic, hot-headed and brainless. All those incidents which he thought were 'big' incidents at that time seemed small and not worthy of mentioning now. Particularly his division with Maahi elder sister seemed incredibly petty now. He wanted to get in touch with her again immediately, but he was feeling a little awkward.

So when Aditya thought that these dreams were a blessing in disguise. He did not imagine that he was going to experience the shock of his life. Not only did the dreams stop at present but continued. The central aspect which upset Aditya's view of the world was that, in the dreams, his parents were not missing.

They were alright, and everything was normal, like how Aditya wanted it to be in the real world. His parents were not only perfectly okay, but his father also received the approval of CERN laboratories. Aditya, along with his family, had gone to Geneva like it was planned by his father previously. It was as if these dreams were depicting an alternate reality to Aditya where everything was normal. He could not wrap his head around this situation.

So, in essence, the dreams portrayed four months of Aditya's life in a different way in which his parents were perfectly fine. Aditya did not have the opportunity to introspect his previous mistakes as he did now.

Aditya of the 'dream world' was still fully passionate about becoming a car racer, which he was not so enthusiastic anymore in reality. In the dream, he still had a crush which he pursued, which was not the case right now.

The dreams just took an interesting turn, so did his life.