Time

All of them entered into the room and took their seats. This was the only room available for their meeting in the campus sprawling acres. After walking through corridors which resembled a maze they found the room. The first thing Siva Rajesh noted as he entered the room was there was no source for natural light into that room. Someone switched on the lights and a dim white light filled the entire room. On three sides Siva Rajesh saw that he was covered by walls without windows and on one side there was a glass door which had a dark corridor beyond.

“Hello Guys, lets start our team meeting. The first thing on the agenda is updating status. Can everyone update the status of your work?”

The leader of his team started the meeting.

Everybody started telling that X is pending and Y is completed and Siva Rajesh did his part.

“Next Joshua Peethambaram will give a presentation on the latest technology called Palmistry”

“What the hell is that?” Siva Rajesh thought.

The guy who joined the team very recently got up from his seat and went to the white board.

The leader settled in his chair comfortably. Siva Rajesh knew all this new technology is only for the people who are at the lower end of the ladder. The leader will go into his dream world for the next 30 minutes. And he knew very well that the leader will expect everyone to be Palmistry gurus after this 30 minutes session.

Joshua Peethambaram in an aim to get into the good books of the leader started talking animatedly waving his arms in the air.

Siva Rajesh decided Palmistry is not for him and he started gazing at each one. His eyes rested on Rupali. She had her arms folded and was looking keenly at Joshua Peethambaram. He saw that she has applied Pink nail polish. She had long nails which looked beautiful. “I think she has a crush on me”. He then moved to the next person and finally rested his eyes on Valarpirai. “Wow look at her hair. The way it flows into her shoulder it’s a poem”.

He debated within himself who is better Valarpirai or Rupali.

Suddenly he felt the room was caving on to him. He saw Joshua Peethambram waving hands in air and talking but no voice came. He saw the walls of the room have suddenly become closer. Rupali had her head now in an angle and he felt pain in his neck.

“Please straighten up your head Rupali. Looking at you having your neck bent like that is painful to me”

He saw Valarpirai she was slowly rocking in her chair. She is just shaking her legs to some tune which she is singing in her mind and swaying her torso.

He couldn’t find if his team leader was asleep or awake as he had his glasses on. All he could see was reflections in his team leaders glasses.

“Stop it Joshua or Peethambram whoever you are. Nobody cares about this stupid Palmistry”

He loosened his tie. He felt suffocating. “God, is the air conditioner working?”

He checked his watch. The second’s needle didn’t move. “The battery is weak?” before he could complete his thought it was moving. “Did I have a blackout?“

He could see he was climbing on to the centre table where Valarpirai had her hands rested gracefully. Seeing him she removed her hands. He danced on the table and shouted “This is discostry”.
He got up from his seat and left the room.

Joshua Peethambaram continued as if nothing happened.

The moment he came out of the room the difference in room temperature and the outside temperature made his face cringe.

“What the hell am I doing here?”. He looked around him and saw the huge campus spread around him and saw a lonely crow at the top of a Palm tree cawing in that afternoon heat.

**

“Are you ok Siva Rajesh?” asked Kulfi.

Only Kulfi came to his mind whenever he saw this person.

“No” Siva Rajesh replied.

Kulfi who was expecting “Yes” for an answer panicked for a second and opened his mouth for the next question.

“I am fine” Siva Rajesh replied and closed his eyes.

The din all around him calmed down the moment he close his eyes. He opened his eyes and saw himself inside the bus and the bus travelling. But he noticed some difference which he hadn’t noticed before. He could feel that the bus was not moving. It was static but it was rocking slowly. He looked outside the window and saw the world moving. He saw that only the place was moving and not the bus. “How is this possible? That is against all scientific principles. Leave alone scientific principles its against common sense.

Slowly he could see that he was simply sitting in a chair and around him he could see there was something which resembled a bus and outside the bus the places were moving. It resembled the way they shoot for movies.

He checked the time and it was time the bus reached his stop. He looked outside and saw the familiar street bustling with activity. The bus stopped and he got down and walked to his house.

He saw his brother sitting before the television and his sister painting something.

“Are you hungry?” his mother.

“No I am fine”

He went into the bath. He splashed water on his face. He looked at his palms they looked dry. There was no trace of water. He again took some water in his palms and splashed on his face. Now he saw his palms were wet.

He dried his face and for a moment he found the towel dry with no traces of wetness but the wetness appeared after a few moments.

He snatched the remote from his brother’s hands and switched the channel to watch sports. His brother hated Golf so he left murmuring. He watched the match for sometime. He checked the time and found it was time for dinner and he felt hungry. The hunger was not there until he checked the time.

During dinner a vision of someone floating in space kept flashing in his mind.
He was not hungry one moment and wondered what he was doing with dishes spread before him. One by one everything vanished and there was just him and emptiness.

Another moment he was hungry and devoured the food.

After dinner he sat before the television. His brother has tuned it to a Movie channel.

“I have seen this movie” he tried hard to recollect the name. “Yes. It’s Matrix with its stupid logic”

He went to bed.

**

He was not in his bed. He was just floating. There was nothing to hold him but he remained floating at the same location. But in vast emptiness one can’t be sure about location. He kept floating.

The realisation came onto him. The world around him, the persons around him all was just his imagination. There was no one else other than himself. All others are just his imagination. He felt great about the power of his imagination.

He tried to pinch himself. His hand couldn’t find the other hand. “Where is my other hand?”

“asdaer sadfas erreer asdasf”

“Could it be that I myself don’t exist. If the whole world is an imagination then I could be an imagination as well”

“ghgfj zzhjp poipo”

The vast empty void remained.