It was noon. I took a train to go somewhere. I got down at a station and followed the hoard of people that got down from it. The people walked slowly for some distance and entered a dingy room with an old door. I reached for the knob, turned it and went in. The hoard of people had started to walk up a flight of stairs. From where I stood, I could see the flight of stairs led to a room made with walls of aluminum sheets. The people entered this room. I followed them. But by the time I began up the stairs the room shrank to the size of small box that could fit a 26" tv. It stayed at the level of my chest, so I bent down to see where the people had gone. And I wondered where they went or how they could fit in. As I was wondering about this, an old man spoke from behind. He had a white beard that reached his chest and white hair that reached his shoulder and had a fatherly expression. He said to another person in the room, "Lagta hai isne kabre dekh lee. (It seems she has seen the tombs.)"
These words sent a chill down my spine and I felt like I was in a parallel world of some kind from where I must escape! A woman to whom the man had spoken to, came forward looking at my expression and held my hand. She was in her mid forties and had a calm expression on her face. She brought my hand up to look at it. It had a small book with hard-bound back and thick card board pages. She took the book, held it under a lamp, and flipped the pages. She stopped at a page, tore it, and gave it to me saying, "This is your key, say Palayan* four times, you will escape." I stared at the piece of cardboard in my hand. It had a picture on it with the words P-Palayan.
I held on to it tightly, ran out of from there, and reached a road that forked into two. At the fork was a large green patch. A long time had passed since I reached there. I sat there with a Macbook and watched funny videos. The escape seemed forgotten. The clock at the top-right corner made me realize how much time I'd wasted there instead of escaping. Clutching the piece of paper tightly, I decided to shut down the laptop and say the word that'd help me escape. I switched off the machine, it felt like a minute but the machine did not shut down. It showed a progress bar to denote the time left to shut down. The bar had just started to fill - 10% complete. The progress bar crawled to the other end. I was now anxious. If I couldn't escape now, it would be never. But something told me this thing had to shut down. The more time the Mac took to shut down, the the hazier its interface became. I could see the color of the mouse through my hand. My hands were getting translucent and the grass beside me less greener like it was made of mist that slowly disintegrated.
I realized lying horizontal that I had to only open my eyes to escape, But what if, that wasn't the case? What if I lay trapped inside forever? I just had to say the words and get it over with. The Mac now remained only a sheer film of white... This was sheer stupidity I thought, just open your eyes and get it over with. But that's not how its supposed to work, she had said, say the word four times, and escape. Just when the grass was a sheer shade of light green, I shouted, Palayan, Palayan, Palayan, Palayan!
I was staring at the ceiling and the fan that ran at its usual speed. The TV, just as I had left it when I switched it off the other night. I took a long hard look at the room which was a hazy view since I didn't have my specs on. I didn't have the courage to open the hand that was closed in a tight fist. Daringly, I opened it, and found....nothing.
I breathed heavily, turned on my side, and still groggy, drifted off...
*Palayan in hindi means Flight.
