Charu in an unreal world

Abhay was lost after hearing the words "Charu has vanished" from Yuvaan. Abhay had his doubts about the operation. He was prepared for most of the things going that can go wrong. But, he could not believe something of this sort would happen. He did the next best thing he could do, called for the backup. The back up was there and asked for directions from Abhay. He asked Yuvaan to direct the back up towards the point where Yuvaan and Charu started their search. Abhay felt something wrong in the way Yuvaan was behaving. He thought it could only be his jealousy acting out. That was when Abhay noticed Yuvan's scuba gear had two octopus (alternate air-source) hanging at the back of the scuba tank. 

"Yuvaan, how come you have two octopus?" asked Abhay.

"It was Charu's. She gave it to me when I was having troubling breathing"

"What happened to yours?"

"It did not work."

Abhay picked both the octopus, and both seem to be working and in good condition. Then an officer came running to where Abhay was standing. Sir, we found a scuba tank. But we did not find Charu or her ...

Abhay stopped them and said, "Don't say it." He was not ready to accept something happened to Charu. He was not yet ready, to accept someone talking about her body.

"Do you want to say something now, Yuvaan?" asked Abhay.

"What do you mean, Abhay?" asked Yuvaan.

"What do I mean. I will tell you. "

Turning to one of his officers, Abhay said, "Arrest him and give him the third degree. I will see how he does not tell me what happened to Charu. By the time you guys finished with him, he should not just be talking he should be singing what happened here."

Elsewhere

Charu opened her eyes and saw an unfamiliar looking place. The place looked like a hospital with all the gadgets around. But it did not have the familiar phenyl smells. She wanted to get up and call on someone. She wanted to know where she was and what happened to her, and before she could get up, a man walked into the room.

"Hello, welcome back to the world. How are you doing?" asked the man checking on various machines attached to Charu.

"I feel okay. What is this place? Why I am here?"

"We found you in the water without any consciousness and brought you here. You are in our world."

Charu remembered the sequence of events. After she and Yuvaan dived into the river, there was a strong wave that pulled her away. She thought she died at that moment. Then came a realization, Yuvaan. Is he safe?

She turned to the man, "Have you found Yuvaan, too?"

"We found you alone at the shore. There was no one with you." said the man.

She started to panic, what if Yuvaan got into a bigger danger because of her. She started cursing herself for bringing Yuvaan into this. She needed to know.

"I need to go. I have to search for my friend."

"Not yet. The doctor would like to see you before you go."

"I have no time. I have to go right away," said Charu.

"Where do you think you are? The path is not easy to go back to your world?"

Charu then only noted something odd. The man did not look like any nurse she met before in hospitals. He looked a lot taller than her, could easily be 7 feet in height. He dressed as well differently, a white coloured dhoti and white shirt. The shirt was very tight, and the muscles of the man were showing. The clothes looked a little primitive as if made by hand. 

The man removed all the wires attached to Charu and asked her to follow him. She walked behind him as he showed her the path. The man's expression gave her so much comfort that she forgot to ask him where they were going. As they walked out of the room she noticed something about the place. There were green trees everywhere. She felt like she was in a remote village. After walking further she noticed the roads were laid so well, footpaths marked for pedestrians. Maybe a developed village she thought to herself. A little ahead she saw a board marked "Airport - 5 km". She was too confused to think anything. The man stopped ahead of her and opened a door and pointed her to go in. 

Walking in she found a few men and women sitting and discussing something. One of them walked to her held her hand checking her pulse then pointed a light into her eyes. She understood it was the doctor. After a quick check, he pressed a bell. The man outside came in and asked Charu to follow him again. Charu walked behind him again in a trance. He took her to a little further down where there was a jeep parked. The car looked like something imported from Europe or Germany. A gentleman he was, opened the door and asked Charu to get in. The car started its journey. 

The journey back to the world.

Charu was looking out the car window. The roads were wonderfully laid, large and looked only made yesterday. There were cars going at very high speeds. Traffic signals without police officers stopping the trucks. The whole place looked as if it is a fantasy world from 2050. 

"The doctor did not talk to me anything. He did not ask me to do 100 different tests. He did not also ask me for any money. Why?"

"Here, in our world, we take care of our guests. Athidhi Devo bhava."

She turned to the man and asked, "Where am I? What is this? Are you some kind of alien?"

The man started to laugh hysterically. After a few minutes of laugh, he controlled himself and said, "We are not aliens. We are humans like you. We are only a little advanced."

"Are we in Europe?"

"No, technically this is India. But in reality, it is a completely different world."

"What do you mean?"

"Many centuries ago a few people from various parts of India came out here. Scientists, businessmen, philosophers. They constructed a place for themselves. Invented things for advancing humanity. After that, they never felt a reason to go back and settled here. Now our world has about a few million people."

"Why don't you share this with the world? Especially, why don't you share this with India?"

"It is not for lack of trying. Every time our ancestors tried to do this there were hurdles."

"What kind of hurdles?"

"We showed an advanced health scanner which can do about ten tests at once. We said we will give this free to them and they doubted us."

"You should have told them the facts."

"We tried. But by then, they started to ask for our religion. We said we have no religion. They started to have more doubts."

"You should have lied. After all, this is for a bigger cause."

"Our principles won't agree to that."

"Is human life and advancement not more precious than principles?" 

"Principles are more important than any life. Vivekananda died, Kalam died, Bose died their principles live on."

"Principles are not going to feed anyone."

"Don't pick the exceptions to argue your case. "

"What do you mean?"

"If you let no one go hungry, is there a reason principles needs to be overlooked?"

"But that is the ideal case that cannot happen right away."

"When can this happen? By that time everyone around you corrupt."

"A few bad apples doesn't mean we don't believe in humanity to follow principles."

"Oh, are you trying to tell me a man who is rich does follow principles?"

"I am not saying that."

"Then you linking principles to hunger is also not right?"

Charu started to think. Her socialist background cannot accept principles that can come ahead of dignity of living. The car stopped near what looked like a port. They both stepped out and got into a small boat.

Charu trying to put the man in a spot asked, "You are talking so much about principles. What are you doing? You are stopping these people from going out from here. What if they want the fame and money that comes from this invention?"

"No one is stopping anyone here. Many of them leave this place to live in India and elsewhere in the world. They get the accolades, they get the money. After a while, a day comes when they realise nothing of that matters and come back here. "

"Once they do something to the world. They will be respected, they have great lives. No way, they want to leave."

"Let me ask you something. Recently a hungry man was killed when he stole rice. What you did when you learnt about it?"

Charu had no answer.

"That day about 100 big scientists left the biggest projects across India and came back here. "

Charu was dumbfounded.

"What you did when a pregnant elephant was killed?"

...

"A 50 veterinarians in various high paying jobs left their jobs and came back here."

"If the system is broken the learned people are supposed to fix it."

"When no one believes in principles no one can fix."

"You cannot give up on the world. Tell me this. You are cooking rice. You forget to stop it at the right time, what happens?"

"It will burn."

"What will you do with it? Will you throw it away? You will try to use what is not burnt."

"Let me counter you with this. There is a cup of milk, I put in a few drops of poison. What will you do?"

"We are not poison."

"People whose definition of right or wrong changes with premise are poison."

The boat had come to halt. Charu realised she was at the end of her journey. She tried to memorise the location but could not make out anything.

"Is there any way for you to live with us in this world?"

"Long back a man said when a lady comes carrying a special sword with her. That day we are supposed to come back and live there permanently."

Charu knew what sword he was talking about. The man turned and picked something from the boat, it was the sword. She was awed finding it there. She turned to the man to say, you cheated I have the sword. You should come with me. Before she could say she felt a push.

So-called real world.

Charu woke up at the shore, not sure how much later. She got hold of a phone and called Abhay.

"Abhay, I need to talk to you. Where are you?" 

"Charu, is that you? How are you? Where did you go?"

"I am fine. Is Yuvaan safe?"

"I made sure, Yuvaan goes nowhere", said Abhay.

"Happy to hear that. There was a big wave that pulled me, I thought something happened to Yuvaan. I am coming there. I have to tell you a lot. " said Charu and disconnected the call. Abhay was happy that Charu was fine but he felt guilty for treating Yuvaan as a criminal. 

Charu found a taxi and headed to Abhay's station. In the car, she started to think about how to tell about the other world. Will they even believe. They might think I had a hallucination. Maybe I had one. Before she could finish her thoughts and make up her mind the car stopped. 

Abhay was there to greet Charu. He told Charu about Yuvaan and said he was sorry. He asked her to come inside to give a statement to let Yuvaan go, formally. They both started walking inside the station and Abhay asked, "Where did you buy this dress. Looks new and exquisite."