THE MYSTIC: PART I - THE SEEKER (Part 1 - THE SEEKER)

by Arindam Bhattacharjee

  She worked all night to finish an article on the use of brain mapping to finish off the Naxal movement in India. She showed it to her friends and their initial reaction was of disbelief but going by her credibility they eventually believed what Christina had told them. She said to her friends,

  “If this was a western media I would have surely seen my career grow; but here the art of speaking the truth has long been lost.”

  She continued “I would like to publish this article even though it means the end of my carrier but the truth must come out for the sake of this country.”

  Her friends took the article from her hand and tore it apart. They said,

  “You will not be spared by the government if you write something of this nature. We are doing what we think is the best for you.”

  Christina did not retort back as she knew that her friends were right.

  Raghav and his men had crossed the Manipur border over to Myanmar safely during the night. Bad weather prevented the army to reach to the remote facility before Raghav and his team had reached the safe location in the forests of Myanmar. It took them almost two days to move through the cover of darkness in the forests of Burma. They halted in a small opening near a lake in the forest which Dr Raman has demarcated as the safe place from where they could carry out their research.

  The forest canopy provided a good hiding place for Raghav and his men – safe from satellite surveillance. The nearest town was about 200 kms from that place, so their presence would not raise any suspicion. They removed the units from the trucks and started assembling them in makeshift tents in the area. One by one they took down the fallen comrades and slowly moved them into the tents. Raghav had given special instructions to take maximum care of the comrades and the scientists moved them with extreme caution.

  The next task was to install diesel generators that they had smuggled from the facility to power the entire facility. In another one week’s time the machine would become operational. Most of the extra staff was sent off to the island in Andaman waiting for further instructions. During the entire period Raghav went through newspapers to see if his victory had been reported. He looked smugly at the row of newspapers that described his assault as a mere accident in the facility and there was not a single reference to any external force.

  Raghav knew that these news articles would send trembles to New Delhi’s thrones. However, he felt there was no reason for complacency. He was aware that those who knew what actually had happened would be tensely alert knowing that Raghav had returned with a band and had kidnapped the top scientists of Government of India. There was every possibility that the machine would now turn against them!

  After setting up the operations Raghav made a request to the scientists. He went to Dr Raman and said,

  “You know what I want. One of the comrades, Comrade Shukla was last seen with my wife as per the newspaper reports. Now he turned up over here but my wife is missing. I want to know what happened to her. If you can show me what comrade Shukla has in his memory, it would be very useful.”

  Dr Raman said, “I will see what I can do about this.”

  6.5: Christina Fired

  Christina started behaving very rudely with her officemates and her team and did not show any interest in the mentoring activity that was being carried on. She was getting worried on both fronts; while the condition of team was not known Raghav after gaining control of the machine seemed to be planning another civil war in the country. She spent most of her time coordinating a search with her think tank trying to locate where Raghav and his men had escaped. The think tank did not have any resources at its disposal to search this region.

  Dismayed by her churlish manners in the office her colleagues vowed not to invite her to their daily chats and she became alone in the office again. This brought her once more to Sagarika’s evil notice.

  Sagarika called up Christina to show the images of destruction of the facility. The purpose of this meeting was to show the bravado of Sagarika for she was the only woman journalist to cover this region. Christina could not any more handle the sarcasm of Sagarika and asked Sagarika for a colloquy on what actually was happening in that facility. Christina said,

  “I have been going through some of the articles of that were published by you news agency for the last ten years. It was very clear that there were substantial attempts to degenerate the characters of all the Naxal leaders who were brought down in counter insurgency operations.”

  “But you guys obviously did cook some stories up just to make your point without doing any substantial research on the topic. You were just trying to see that nobody should die a hero.”

  Sagarika was infuriated by Christina's sudden outburst. She continued,

  “I have reports from the BBC that these were not accidents but were actually attacks by the same rebels.”

  Christina knew that Sagarika was not that intelligent to catch her bluff. Christina continued,

  “We must remember that none of us is infallible, we all make mistakes. It’s time we correct some of the errors done in the past or the karma will come and haunt us. Journalism ethics does exist. Your organization has a service record that is lax and inattentive. Don’t you think if the rebels attacked the secure base of the government they will not come after you for what you have done?”

  Christina paused for a while and saw that the outburst had shaken Sagarika.

  Christina said

  “oh my stupid tongue”

  and tried to act embarrassed for her criticising Sagarika’s reports. But the expression on Sagarika’s face betrayed her fear and emotions. She had not expected Christina to respond in this manner. Putting up a brave front she said,

  “Your pert and impudent remarks call for an apology.”

  Christina replied,

  “Yes I will apologize over your dead body when they come after you. There is something I know that you don’t about this whole incident.”

  Christina tried to pique Sagarika’s interest in order to get attention as she saw Sagarika relapsing back to her old self of being a bully. Before Sagarika could react Christina said,

  “Before even thinking of giving me advice please try not to speak in platitudes. You know what I am telling is the truth. There is a saying in our field that a writer who suffers from prolixity tells her readers everything that they never wanted to know about the subject.”

  “You agency had been doing this for the last ten years. And you have been thinking that you were so credulous that you received commendation for your hard work. Your walls are full of your prizes and certificates that you have received.”

  Sagarika had not expected that someone who was so skittish like a kitten while playing with her phone would stand up to her and question her ethics. Christina continued,

  “You know if you had worked for any international agency all your articles would have been outright rejected because it contains many solecisms.”

  Before Sagarika could speak anything Christina again stopped her and said,

  “You have been talking so much about women's rights but did you even question the veracity of Gupta’s testimony about the issue I had raised about him. It's time you think about the nature of the problem that you have created.”

  Christina in her heart still venerated Raghav for whatever he had written in the past. She provided Sagarika with the copy and said

  “This is a thesis of I think what probably might have happened in this country for the last ten years. It’s about how the government and media used the brain mapping tool developed in US to curb all the discontent in the society. If you have an iota of ethics left in you then you would publish this article.”

  Sagarika looked at the article and went through the first paragraph.

  She said,

  “For a mere tyro you have produced some marvelous work but quit making gratuitous comments about every political activity of this country. No one had asked you for your opinion.”

  “I could also claim
that you are being backed by US intelligence agencies and working against the Government of India and could as well allege you of heresy.”

  Refusing to let Sagarika see how deeply shaken she was on the allegations made against her, Christina kept her face impassive. Sagarika continued,

  “I will write to your agency commenting on the way you have handled your job. I am sorry that you felt this way about India but may God bless you in your future assignments. You should start searching something for yourself soon.”

  Christina replied,

  “Very well then, I will leave for United States in a week’s time. But you will remember that I did warn you about the impending disaster.”

  She hurriedly moved out from her room and cleared her desk ready to leave the office. Her office colleagues knew that Christina was punished because she was able to foil Sagarika’s diabolical plans.

  6.6: Raghav’s Quest for Wife

  The machine developed by the government had become so impalpable in Raghav’s hands that the government was not able to follow its footprints. Dr Raman and his team worked the whole night trying to get the information about Raghav’s wife. When Raghav woke up Dr Raman took him to the tent where the machine was kept. Raghav saw his wife’s picture and for a moment he forgot everything else.

  Raghav remembered her as a meticulous housewife fussing about each detail of home life. She was very soft spoken and was always polite in expressing herself. Dr Raman said,

  “This is one clear video of your wife speaking in a press conference with comrade Shukla.”

  The press conference showed his wife shouting allegations against the Government’s claims that Raghav was involved in Naxalism. Her recriminations were loud and angry as she answered to the accusations that Raghav was involved in unlawful activities in his business and his death was because of his involvement with the Naxalites. Raghav saw his wife depose before the media claiming that the conspiracy that was being published in the newspapers was the work of the intelligence agencies.

  She asserted that if Raghav was indeed involved in Naxal operations in India why would he be part of the government team to take part in the negotiations with the authorities? Raghav had not expected his wife to be so vocal about his death though he did know that she would leave no stone unturned to clear Raghav’s name.

  Dr Raman said,

  “Raghav the next video that you see will explain what happened to your wife. I am sorry for what you are going to see.”

  Listening to Dr Raman Raghav understood that the inevitable had happened. The video showed a scene of ambush where comrade Shukla and Raghav’s wife sitting in a small hut in a village when some men in camouflage attacked them. Raghav could relate the events similar to his ambush but he couldn’t understand why she was not in the facility. The next video showed what actually happened. A soldier placed his legs on his wife and pulled the fatal shot.

  The scene momentarily deranged Raghav. In anger he began hitting out. To prevent injury Dr. Raman tried to control him. Raghav cried out

  “how could someone commit such a ghastly act? What was her fault? Why was she killed in this way? What harm could she have caused the government?”

  Dr Raman replied,

  “The reason why they silenced her was because she did not have any vital information about the movement. She was also silenced so that people stop asking questions about the ambushes staged by the government forces.”

  The news of the death of his wife left Raghav disconsolate. He said, “I had never expected my meek wife would stand up to speak the truth. There was no rationale to kill her. I am happy however that her reputation was not sullied like mine”.

  He started crying and shaking with sobs as he continued,

  “She was so gullible and trusting and this made her an easy victim for the first swindler who crossed her path.”

  Debashish said,

  “We had heard that your wife ignored warnings from other comrades because she thought that they were based on foolish fears. She was a brave soul just like you.”

  Raghav said looking at Dr Raman,

  “Whatever happened is outrageous. I want each and every detail that is stored in your systems about the last ten years. I need to know how these people got involved so that we all know what should be our revenge. Can’t you put the whole information into my memory in the same way you extracted them?”

  Dr Raman replied,

  “Raghav, its humanly impossible to put into your memory such enormous data in detail. If we do this then you might become unbalanced and lose your identity. Your conscious mind will shut itself down. The other option is making you sit and show all the events.”

  “This will probably take years and moreover we still don’t have better algorithms to map the information collected from brain signals into consistent visual images. These will not be sufficient enough for us to take any decision.”

  “So is there no way I could possible know what happened in the past? I have the outline map of the events that I want to know.”

  “I am afraid your maps will not help us get the right information that you want. This would lead to lot of resources being wasted just to get it. But there is a way.” “And what that is?”

  “We would feed all the signals that we have collected in your subconscious mind. This will at least take care to see that your conscious will would still be able to perform normally. But eventually the information in your subconscious will try to overcome your conscious.”

  “It’s like saying you will have a massive ego as you would know so much. Then your mind will decide which one will win. And since we believe that you have a very strong mind that helped you to escape I have sure it’s highly probable that you will survive this, despite the small risk of imbalance.”

  Raghav without bothering about the risk said,

  “So what are you waiting for? I think you should start preparing for the procedure now. Everything that I had come to know in life has come to a grueling end and I have nothing left to lose.”

  Dr Raman replied, “Very well then.”

  Chapter 7

  Fear is the Key

  7.1: The Data Fed into Raghav’s Unconscious Brain

  Kutty took Raghav to the special tent where the machine was kept with the chair plugged into the machine.

  Kutty asked,

  “Are you sure about what you are doing? Remember this could be very dangerous.”

  “I need to know everything that went on during the last ten years. Otherwise I would not be able to live in peace. I am ready to take this risk.”

  “Okay then as you have made up the mind I cannot change it. You could become a vegetable after this. I need to go and check with the doctors if they are ready with the procedure. I will be back in a while.”

  Raghav looked at Kutty but did not respond. Raghav slowly moved towards the chair and looked at it blankly. Looking at the state of Raghav, Kutty could not stand it anymore. He rushed out of the tent to go to the doctor. Meanwhile Raghav still looking at the chair went back to the time he had spent attached to this system for the last ten years, immobile with probes connected to his brain. There was a good possibility that he would become immobile again. His mind signalled to him to get out of the tent but his feet would not move. Raghav was in the same position when Kutty returned back.

  Kutty moved towards Raghav and he woke up from his deep thoughts. Kutty said,

  “I talked to Dr Khurana and he said that they are preparing the right mix of sedatives that would be necessary for this process. They have not tried this process before but let me explain to you what they want to do with you.”

  Raghav, still non responsive, kept staring at the chair. Kutty continued,

  “The doctors are saying that only way they could feed the data into your subconscious brain is if they can make the brain realize that it is watching a dream. They need to bypass your conscious mind for this. So you need to understand the theory.”

  “According to them t
here are five types of sleep states. The first is the shallow state where your eyeballs do not move. The second stage is the stage where the autonomous nervous system will make you feel that the dream as a virtual reality. Under these conditions the body reacts – it either fights back or takes to flight. In the third stage there is rapid eye movement.”

  Raghav slowly lifted his eyes sunken in grief and then looked back to the chair again. Kutty continued,

  “The scientists have informed that in the second stage the information would be passed on to your mind. This is a very complicated maneuver and they need to surgically plug in probes into the deeper layers of your brains to monitor these activities.”

  Raghav did not react. Kutty continued,

  “They said that when the data will be fed into you, it will all seem to you to be real and your body will react accordingly to these conditions. They are saying that you are going to see more ghastly images during the whole process and this might result in physical injuries in the body.”