‘Can I bring Henna?’
‘Do you have to?’
‘I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving her behind, all alone.’
‘Okay, I guess you can bring her – probably not wise to leave her alone.’
Jai had no idea why he was going to a Cancer Institute but he had put his fate in the hands of the professor, and was ready to follow him to the ends of the world to get the answers he so desperately sought.
Henna had overheard the conversation and saw worry lines on Jai’s face immediately after the call ended. This was important for Jai. He was battling his own demons and Henna had seen him struggle with them every time he was alone. She walked up to him and hugged him from behind.
He jumped instinctively at the sudden contact from behind and then heaved a sigh of relief as she patted his hands. He turned to her and returned the embrace and pulled her onto his lap, drawing a finger along the wet hair falling on her face. She blushed and buried her face in his shoulder.
Jai got up, lifting her with him as he rose, and headed towards the bed, Henna tightening her grip around his body.
Chapter 20
A Radiant Brain
Chennai, India
22 May, 2012
The Chennai Cancer Institute had loaned the use of its PET and MRI machines to Professor Ananthakrishnan and Dr Ravi Subramanian, an eminent neuro-radiologist, for their work on functional brain mapping. They had done seminal work on sexual differences in brain activity and their paper on the topic had been talked about widely, in scientific as well as lay journals. In addition to the routine academic stuff, they dabbled in the study and mapping of neuronal activity in ‘deviant’ brains and compared it to the normal. This research, done on the sidelines of their routine work, was ‘pariah’ to others, and generally frowned upon by the more conservative scientific community. They went about this part of their work as quietly as possible. Getting permission to use the machines of the Cancer Centre was a huge favour, which the professor had personally got, after an intercession by the Chief Minister.
Jai and Henna were waiting at the gate at eight. There was still plenty of hustle and bustle at this hour. Patients came to the Adyar Cancer Centre from across the country and even from abroad. This was one of the oldest cancer centres of the country and was doing yeoman service in cancer management and research. Professor Ananthakrishnan had been at the centre since five that evening, setting up the tests. He came out at ten past eight to find Jai and Henna sitting on the grass under a tree just outside the gate. He took them straight to the scan centre and made Henna comfortable on a sofa with a cup of piping-hot coffee.
A quick round of introductions followed and Professor Ananthakrishnan introduced Jai and Henna to his colleague Dr Ravi. They brought some papers for Jai to sign, regarding consent and so on, and then set about explaining the premise of the experiments to Jai.
‘I will be very frank with you. I have gone over your story many times in my head and I have to admit that I do not really understand what is happening with you. What you have related to me is magic, the stuff of fantasies and yet the proof that you have provided seems adequate to me; although it may not stand, on scientific scrutiny. I do not know where to look for answers to your conundrum, but the brain seems like a good place to me. All our thoughts, our dreams, and our experiences are because of our brain and that seems to be the first place to look into.’
Jai tried to follow. Then, he had a sneaking suspicion.
‘Are you trying to see if I am crazy?’
Professor Ananthakrishnan shook his head.
‘No. That is definitely not what this is about. I look into the way deviant brains function. This test will tell us if something is different with your brain. We are starting with a simple imaging of your brain, and will follow that up with tests to see how your brain functions under different test scenarios, like sleep, dreams, puzzle solving, reactions to images, etc. Normal people utilise particular areas of their brain during particular activities and the brains of savants or gifted people differ in the way they are utilised and the amount of brain that they are able to recruit during various mental and physical activities. We have a fairly good idea how the normal brains map out and we can compare the existing normal maps with yours to see where you differ.’
Jai nodded his head. He had grasped most of what was told to him till now. The professor continued:
‘Are you ready? You can ask me any questions that you have at this time or during any time during our tests. Shall we start?’
He had no questions to ask now. He nodded his head again.
First on the list was the MRI. Jai was taken to the magnetically shielded MRI room and as soon as he entered the room, Jai felt a bit dizzy. He grabbed on to a desk for support and sat down on a chair by the desk.
‘What happened? Nervous?’ the professor asked Jai, crouching near him.
‘I don’t know what, but I feel very light-headed, a little weak and unsteady.’
‘Do you want to have something? Some juice? Coffee, maybe?’
Jai did not want to disappoint the scientists. Jai was equally interested in finding the underlying cause of his strange condition and realised that this was perhaps his only chance.
‘It’s okay. I think I am ready.’
‘Are you sure?’ this time it was the doctor.
‘Yes, Sir. I am okay.’
Jai lay down on the MRI table and after making sure he was comfortable, Dr Ravi connected ECG leads on to Jai, steadied his head with a restraint, put cushions all round him, and then pushed the button on the console, which sent a supine Jai within the gantry. He adjusted the settings, closed the room, and started the scan.
The powerful magnets of the machine kicked in. Within moments, Jai started convulsing. His body contorted itself spasmodically within the confines of the machine and before Dr Ravi could react, there was a flat line on the ECG monitor.
Dr Ravi jumped from his chair and immediately hit a red button at the top of the console, marked as ‘Emergency Stop’. He pushed another button to pull the MRI table out of the machine. By then, Professor Ananthakrishnan had already run into the room to pull Jai’s lifeless body out of the gantry. Dr Ravi reached for the resuscitation trolley by the side and grabbed the shots of atropine and adrenaline. Fortunately, they already had an intravenous access for the possible use of contrast and Dr Ravi pumped in measured quantities of the drugs into Jai. He swiftly divested Jai of the hospital tunic and placed the lubricated paddles of the defibrillator on Jai’s chest. There was a flat line on the monitor and no electrical cardiac activity whatsoever.
***
Domus-Nova
Mouse-tail Galaxy
Domus-Nova Year 2548, Earth Year 7859 AD
Jai opened his eyes lying on the cot in the white room, still convulsing mentally although his body here was motionless, paralysed, and stuck in the bed. He was having difficulty breathing, and as soon as he closed his eyes, he found himself back in the MRI room, Dr Ravi rhythmically compressing his chest with both his hands. Professor Ananthakrishnan looked at the monitor and shouted:
‘Yes, he is back!’
Jai closed his eyes in the MRI room and immediately found himself on the cot in the ‘white-room’.
A fleeting second later, the white started to dissolve before Jai’s eyes and he felt himself being yanked back to the MRI room.
***
Chennai, India
22 May, 2012
They were still at resuscitation. Twelve minutes of CPR and three shots of adrenaline and atropine later, Jai opened his eyes. The heartbeat came back and Jai started coughing. His eyes were bloodshot with the strain and he pulled on the restraints and tried to jump off the table. The professor and Dr Ravi held him back to the table, pinning Jai against it.
‘No, take me out of this room. It’s suffocating,’ Jai protested and Professor Ananthakrishnan nodded at the doctor. They supported Jai about both his shoulders and carefully walked him out of t
he room. Jai started feeling better as soon as he stepped out of the room. The colour came back in his face and the reeling sensation in his head was gone. They made him sit on a stool and Professor Ananthakrishnan sat next to him, while Dr Ravi stood near them.
‘Are you alright? Boy, you gave us old-timers a scare.’
Jai smiled weakly. That had been a very unpleasant sensation. He had died and gone on to the ‘white room’ but had not reset to that morning.
‘What happened to me?’
Dr Ravi shrugged his shoulders.
‘I have no clue. Never happened before. People get claustrophobic in closed spaces, but no one has had a seizure or an arrest. It was not allergy or anaphylaxis; I hadn’t even injected you with the contrast.’ He shrugged his shoulders again, ‘I don’t know what happened. As soon as we switched on the machine, you started convulsing and then your heart stopped.’
‘You guys learnt anything?’ Jai asked hopefully.
‘Not much, actually. We hadn’t even started the test,’ Professor Ananthakrishnan replied.
Jai was deeply disappointed. However, he hoped the professor had another way to get his answers.
‘Well, what’s next?’
‘Boy! That was enough excitement for my heart. Moreover, I can’t risk your life again anytime soon.’
Dr Ravi agreed.
‘I am sorry we couldn’t help you much but it is too risky to proceed.’
Jai saw his chance slipping by him. He could not let this go by.
‘What about that other thing you guys were talking about? The PET stuff.’ Jai had heard them talking earlier and was determined to get his answers.
‘No more stuff for you. I can’t risk anything now until I understand what is going on with you.’
‘But you won’t know any other way, isn’t it?’
‘But Jai, it is too risky,’ the professor protested.
‘A risk that I have to take. For this is the only chance I have. You are my only hope, Professor. Please do this for me. You know my story, Professor. If I lose this chance, I may not get another one.’ Jai looked pleadingly at the professor.
The professor looked up at the doctor, who shrugged his shoulders yet again.
‘Well, a PET only reads the isotope signals. No powerful magnets or shields there. I guess it is safer. But I wouldn’t bet on anything.’
‘That’s good enough for me. Come on, Professor. Please,’ Jai pleaded again. ‘And anyway, you know about me. I can’t die. I will just reset and be back here again, telling you how it went this time.’
The professor got up from his chair, walked to the door, turned around and then asked Jai:
‘Has this thing, er, happened already with you?’
Jai smiled and shook his head. The professor smiled back
‘Okay,’ and then with finality he repeated louder, ‘Okay! Let’s do this.’
Jai got up from the chair.
‘Just one more thing, Sir. Please do not mention anything to Henna. She will get upset.’
The professor nodded back at Jai.
The three of them headed towards the PET room.
‘Do you think the claustrophobia could have led to Jai’s arrest?’ Professor Ananthakrishnan asked Dr Ravi when they were out of earshot, setting up the PET while Jai waited outside with Henna.
‘I doubt it. Never seen anything like that before.’
‘Are you sure this PET thing is safe?’
‘I don’t know, frankly. But if we put it down to claustrophobia somehow, there isn’t going to be much of that here. The gantry for this machine is open and small, unlike with MRI, where the whole body goes inside a closed space.’
The professor was about to say something but Dr Ravi went on:
‘I think I want to do a dry run of a PET scan first and then a CT to see something baseline.’
‘But I do not see how a dry run of PET’s going to help. If you don’t put in the tracers, nothing’s going to light up.’
‘Hey! Just a hunch. I am going out on a limb for your far-out story. I think you owe me that much.’
The professor shrugged and then signalled Jai to come in.
Jai was made to lie on another movable bed and the bed was slid into the PET machine. This time around, Jai did not feel any light-headedness. Dr Ravi had wheeled a resuscitation tray into the room, in case anything went wrong again.
Once Jai was settled inside the machine and he gave the thumbs up, the professor threw the switch to ‘On’. Since Jai had not taken any tracer, the professor did not expect anything to show up on the screen.
But the entire screen lit up in a riot of colours instead. The professor and the doctor stood stunned, as they stared at the screen.
‘Whoa!’ Dr Ravi literally jumped a moment later, seeing the image on the screen in front of him. Regions inside Jai’s head were brilliantly lit up with the radiant colours of a PET scan and the whole area of his head was suffused with a light, radiant glow.
The professor was speechless for a moment. He turned to Dr Ravi and shrugged a ‘what the hell?’ shrug.
Dr Ravi beamed widely. He had done this only on a hunch. He had had no idea that he would be getting this in return.
‘Now I guess all we need is to get the CT scan.’
Pictures of a PET scan only light up the radiation but do not give any anatomical details. A CT scan image is usually superimposed on the PET scan to make an anatomical interpretation of the PET scan.
They switched on the CT scan and the gantry started rolling. The first images appeared after fifteen seconds. The colours of the PET were still there in the foreground of the image.
‘Wow!’ the professor exclaimed.
‘Wow, indeed. The hypothalamus, the pituitary, and the pineal.’
‘The master controls and the purported seat of the soul. Can it get any weirder?’
‘I don’t know about the soul part but still I do not know what to make of it,’ replied the doctor.
The colours of the PET were densest at the pituitary, the hypothalamus, and the pineal. Nevertheless, the entire skull was suffused with an eerie glow of colours. It looked as if there were some sort of rays that converged on specific parts of Jai’s brain.
‘That’s incredible. What did I tell you about this boy?’ the professor remarked to Dr Ravi.
He nodded.
‘I guess he is special, the way you said he is.’
They continued the test on the PET gantry and asked Jai questions about his past, about his life in the orphanage, about his sister, about his weird dreams – but none of them caused any change in intensity of his brain activity. They tried imaging from various angles and various different sections but with the same result.
‘Let’s zoom out,’ Dr Ravi suggested.
Zooming out had a peculiar effect. The eerie glow not only persisted around Jai’s head but seemed to be coming from just above it.
‘The rays have a direction about them. Hmm… Let’s change his position instead,’ Professor Ananthakrishnan suggested.
Dr Ravi walked up to the PET table, unstrapped Jai’s head, and turned it to one side.
They started the next sequence of images.
With the head in a tilted position, they expected to see the surrounding glow also to keel over to that side, staying over his face like the last time.
But the glow stayed on the top.
‘Whoa!’ Dr. Ravi mumbled in shock.
‘Yeah! This is amazing. You know what it means, Ravi,’ the professor was mumbling, muttering something to himself rather than to Dr Ravi, ‘the rays are coming from somewhere, entering the vertex of the skull: some kind of beam from without, peering down into his brain.’
Dr Ravi had already understood the implication and was in a daze, looking at the rays suffusing Jai’s head.
‘Can we zoom it any further out?’
‘No,’ said Dr Ravi, looking down at the gantry controls, ‘I guess that’s as far as we can go with this.’
‘But we need to see where those rays are coming from. What are they? They look like some kind of radiation entering his brain. What the hell are they? Mind-control rays? Alien rays? Godly rays?’ the professor was muttering, almost to himself.
‘Professor, you realise your talk smacks of scientific heresy and is bordering on lunacy.’
‘Well, nothing in my years of study as a scientist has prepared me for this. So I may just be a heretic, an iconoclast if you like – I don’t give a damn, actually.’
Both of them were whispering to each other, still dumbstruck, their eyes riveted on the screen.
‘No, not my words; it’s what is happening on the screen which is heresy and lunacy. But I guess you cannot call it heresy if it is captured like this on this machine. This is science and we are scientists, two soon-to-be-very-famous scientists.’
Dr Ravi responded, his eyes still on the screen:
‘You are already famous.’
‘Oh that! No, Ravi, you have no idea. This is going to make us a cult of our own.’
There was nothing else that they could get from their armamentarium, and they decided to stop for the day after spending another awe-struck fifteen minutes on the images. They stored their work and un-hooked Jai from the machine.
Jai did not know what had transpired and they did not tell him much either. The professor took him to Henna and then he addressed them both.
‘We have made some progress. Today’s tests have thrown up more questions than answers. We need to run a few more tests before we can be sure.’
‘So when are those – the new tests?’ Jai enquired.
‘I don’t know. I will need some time. We need to go through the information that we have gathered today. A couple of days, max, if all goes to plan.’
Jai was happy to know that some progress had been made. But he felt that the professor was hiding something.
There was nothing that he could do about that, and he just smiled at Henna, who smiled back at him.***
The next two days went by in a blur for Jai and Henna. They were still holed up in the professor’s friend’s farmhouse. They were all alone there, all night and all day. There was nothing they could do but wait for the professor’s word. Though anxious for the results of his tests, Jai enjoyed the relative safety of the farmhouse. It was definitely better than trying to run from the gang and the police, looking over his shoulders all the time.
Immortals Page 15