The power of human mind...

Yes, we needed to calm down. We needed to think.

“Ok, firstly how does life start? Its when a man and woman have ….” And Jerry interrupted me.

“Oh shut up Tom! Life is not only in mankind, life is also there in plants, trees, animals, insects etc. We need to figure out what is already present on this place. We need to explore it. We must be sure what all can sustain on this planet.”

“You are right Jerry! And did you notice one thing; we are able to breathe easily. Oxygen is available in abundance here. It would have been hard without it…I cant even imagine oxygen in my I2C.”

“Yeah, right! Now shall we start our journey or do you wish to wait for day light to guide us. It seems it is night here.” Said Jerry.

“I wish to go ahead, this torch will guide us. Let’s hold hands and march. And whenever you feel hungry or tired let me know. We would use the I2C.”

And so we decided to move in one direction. It was just randomly selected. I was holding the torch in one hand and Jerry’s hand in the other. The I2C was with Jerry. The bright yellow light was falling on the cracked land in front of us. It seemed there was a drought here and the sharp rays from the sun had cracked up the fields. But God said, sun will not be here. Then what were these cracks about. We continued walking.

There was no trace of water to be found, no plants no trees. Just plain land. The cracked surface got over and some rocky surface started. Our foot kept hitting small stones and rocks. We had walked quite long now.

“Im getting tired Tom. Need some refreshment now. I think we should take a break.” Jerry said.

“Yup! So what would you like to have Madame?”

“Oh, an apple pie would do for me. And Gatorade to go along it.” She said casually.

“Do you also have Gatorade on NASA?” I asked surprised.

“You dumb head, you forgot that we both would have the same knowledge. Now order fast. Or let me imagine my own meal on I2C.” and she took the I2C back from me.

And within seconds, her apple pie and Gatorade were in front of her. “Your turn Tom.”

I just thought to myself, can I order anything??? I had once seen and read about the most expensive sundae served at Serendipity 3 in Manhattan, NY. I don’t remember its name but I could imagine it. It had Madagascar vanilla beans with cocoa chunks from the Venezuelan coast. Toppings included candy from Paris-based Fauchon and a trio of infused caviars: passion fruit, orange, Armagnac and all covered in gold. The whole thing was presented in a Baccarat bowl with a gold spoon. And Ah!, there it was on the screen. I quickly created it and the bowl was in my hand.

“That’s called stupendous.”  Jerry was actually staring at my sundae and then looked at her pie.

“Even I want that.” She said like a child.

“Let me feast on it first.” And I took the golden spoon and dig it in the bowl.

It made the sound of metal hitting a metal. I tried again and the spoon won’t go past the gold layer.

“Oh my! This is hard gold on my sundae. It was supposed to be edible gold leaf. Why did the I2C get it wrong?”

Jerry had the answer, “Maybe you just imagined gold cover and not edible gold leaf cover. I2C just reads our mind; it doesn’t know what the actual thing is. It doesn’t have its own brain. Remember GIGO – Garbage In Garbage Out.”

At that moment I realized, nothing has the capacity to understand what is right what is wrong and what is good what is bad. Only the human mind can do it. And that’s what I had to use here to create a world. I2C was only a means, the real power was in the mind.

My first creation - Olympic torch!!!

God just walked amongst the crowd and mixed up. She could not be seen anywhere now. Her work was done and my work was yet to start. The crowd was talking amongst themselves; some were with Angel or now Jerry; some were looking at me with anxious faces. For me the most worrying thing was the second point told by God, “That he/she won’t be there.” It was really difficult to imagine life without God. I closed my eyes, “Oh God. Why?”

When I opened my eyes it was night. NIGHT??? Had I become blind or was it really dark? I realized in one hand I had the I2C, and the other was holding someone else hand.

“Is it you Angel?” I asked

“No, its Jerry.” She replied

“Oh yeah, I meant the same thing.” “Where are we?” I asked

 “I guess we are at the new place, SALT.” Jerry said

“Oh my GOD!” I exclaimed

“Your God? There is no God here Tom. Only you and me.”

“Yeah, but why is it so dark here. I cant see anything. Keep holding my hand Jerry, don’t leave it.” I said

Why so suddenly had God sent us here? We didn’t even get any time to think, to meet others, to plan something, to thank God, to ask God or to get ready. Maybe it was for good! When you know you are going far far away and more the time you spend with your near and dear ones, the more difficult and painful it is to part away. It seems it was good for Angel, oh sorry, for Jerry. And as for me, if I had been given more time I would have surely asked hundreds of more questions from OA. OA knows me well, he must have told God that I always have a question mark on my face. But why would he tell? Doesn’t God already know everything?

In between these random and unrelated thoughts, I heard someone weep.

“Can you hear that Jerry? Someone is weeping.” I said and became cautious.

“Be careful Jerry, hold my hand tight.” As I said this, the weeping became more louder.

“Oh! Is it you Jerry? Oh God, where is your face. It’s so dark here!” I said as my hand tried to reach her face.

“Stop it Tom, you just poked in my eye.”

“Oops, OK let me use my I2C now for the first time.”

I looked at it and imagined the Olympic torch of 2012 Olympics. First the glass sheet got illuminated at the border with blue color and then the torch appeared on the glass sheet with David Beckham holding it. What is he doing here? Oh, I saw him on TV and that’s what I imagined. Then again I imagined only the torch and it was there. But I dint like the burning flame, so I imagined the torch with a yellow halogen light bulb. It was shining there on the glass sheet with the halogen bulb throwing bright light. At the lower right side of the glass were the two tabs, create and destroy. I hesitatingly put my finger on the ‘create’ tab.

The glass sheet again became blank and the torch was there lying in my feet. WOW!!!!!!

I picked it up, it was golden in color. The light was going up in the sky. I felt elated on carrying the torch. Even Jerry had stopped crying and was looking in amazement.

“Can I hold it?” She asked

“Sure, take it.” I said as I handed it over to her.

“Oh My God!!!” She exclaimed.

“Hey, there is no God here, only his blessing in the form of I2C which we must protect even more than our life, at any cost. We will survive only and only because of this.”

Then we both hugged each other. Jerry was holding the torch and I was holding the I2C.

“Hey why were you crying?” I asked as I remembered the reason why I created this torch.

“Oh, was just thinking about everyone on NASA. Leave it now; we have a future which we must create. Nothing is pre-written, there is no destiny. We decide how it goes on from here. We will write the story, the history, the future, the destiny of this place, SALT.”

“Yes, we will. Its like having the power of God. We can create anything and we can destroy anything, A N Y T H I N G. This torch has led many athletes to glory on Earth, now it will lead to us to glory.

Tom and Jerry will be the creators, preservers and destroyers of SALT”.

Jerry interrupted me, “Calm down my love. Let’s plan how to start it. Its not about starting a company, its about starting life.”

And so the planning starts. Had you been in this situation, what would you do first of all? How would you plan? Or would you first create something to eat, something to sit on, something to drink, some nice clothes to wear or a nice bed to sleep as it might be night on SALT…it is dark there.

The Game...

“God is neither man nor woman. God is universally present in everything. God just takes any form.” Said OA and moved back to let God take his place.

Everyone bowed again in front of her. But I was staring at her. “Why should I believe you are God?” I asked her.

She looked at me and smiled. “You should not. Believing in God is not a compulsion. It is one’s own choice. But if this disbelief will come in way of me explaining to you the purpose of your life, I think I should prove myself to you. Ask any thing from me and I shall answer.”

“Ok, let’s do it then. Two questions, firstly which car was I driving last night in my dream?”

“Aston Martin DBS Coupe”

I was shaken…“I myself never knew the model.”

“Next question please.”

“Yeah, sure. If you are God, tell me what is my next question.”

“Logically speaking, your second question was to ask me what would be your question. And in reality, you never had any question in your mind, son.”

“Crap! Oh sorry! I mean you are God? The creator of this universe? The one who made me? The one whom I worship daily? I am sorry I had to put you to test but not even in my wildest dreams could I imagine all this. Oh! Oh gosh, I am feeling numb, trembling. Trembling with fear.” I was literally uncontrollable. My mind had just shut. Complete blank. Can you imagine yourself if God came in front of you?

But as is said, God is always there to help. She pulled me closer and gave me a hug. I can’t narrate the experience here. My mind was again shut. Completely blank. The only difference was that when everything went blank before the hug, it was all DARK. When it went blank during the hug, there was LIGHT. I was feeling normal now. I could not thank God enough for this. However, I had to move back and let God do her work.

And then she addressed the crowd there, “So my fellow beings, hope you are enjoying your life as usual. Those who are in any kind of pain or misery try and keep faith on me and all shall heal. Not to mention, that I am fully aware of the concerns of everyone here and soon you will be getting a fruitful result.”

Her statement was marked by applause from everyone. Then she continued again, “Next I would like to thank you for letting a living being from another planet, live with you and enjoy his day with you. Your hospitality as always has been heart warming.”

And again a round of applause. “Now let me tell you and my son Gurpreet as to why all this happened? Everyone knows here the fate which Earth met and why. Gurpreet and six other human beings from Earth however survived the blow as per my wish and were sent to your beautiful planet to spend a day and meet me. The reason for their survival is that they have been chosen to start life on a planet which is not in the Milky Way Galaxy.”

It left everyone stunned except me...I was frozen. But God continued,

“They will be sent to a planet called SALT in the SPICES GALAXY. Also, another very important point is that each of these earthlings will be accompanied by a dweller of NASA, and Angel has been chosen to accompany Gurpreet. When they reach SALT, both of them will have the same level of knowledge about everything and the same emotions and feelings. In short, Angel will become a earthling. And now let me explain you the rules of the game.”

“GAME???” Said everyone including me.

“Yes a game. You have to survive there to win it and you cannot lose. SALT is a place which could be round, flat, triangle or anything. It could be as large as Earth, or Nasa or the Sun or as small as your dining area. Sun is obviously not there as he is busy giving you sunlight. It is just a blank piece of crust. It is a completely unknown territory. All the members of NASA will be given timely updates of what is happening on SALT as they were given about Earth.

All the 6 couples will be dropped there in different places; they might or might not meet each other. The good thing which will happen on their meeting will be that everyone here and those couples will be told as to why were they chosen for this game.

Now I would conclude with the last 3 most important points. Firstly, since it is a beginning of a new life, Gurpreet and Angel will have new names. They are now named as Tom and Jerry respectively.

Secondly, you have no God there. I won’t be there, though I will keep an overlook on all of you but would control nothing.

Thirdly, I present this piece of square glass sheet to Tom. This is the I2C, that is 'imagination to creation'. Whatever Tom imagines looking at it on SALT, it will show up here. It will then show you two options; create and destroy. I feel Tom is sensible enough to know the use of both.” And she turned her eyes towards me.

“Yes, I am” I said.

“Good. And once you have created anything, it cannot be edited. The only option is to completely destroy it. You just need to hold it against your creation and it will again show you the two options. Apart from this what are its other uses, will be known to you once you start using it. 

And my last piece of advice, in case you break it; you need to find other survivors to help you keep breathing as death does not come easily there.

Anytime, Tom and Jerry will vanish from here and start their journey on SALT. I would now take your permission, thank you all.”

SHOCKED...............

When God came...

All fresh and ready to face OA, I stepped out of my room and went straight to Angel’s. I peeked inside and she was still sleeping. I decided to go to the Earthlings Information Center. On my way, I found a young girl.

“Excuse me, would you be kind enough to tell me where the meeting with OA will take place.” I asked her.

“Sure Sir, it would be under the tree near the gate to PTI on the surface.” She said and smiled and walked away.

“Great thanks” I said and went to PTO.

I reached the surface and it was day now. I wanted to spend some time with myself, so did not wait for Angel or Sir Lemo or anyone else to escort me. I just went near the trunk and sat there resting my back with the tree and wondering, “Why God…Why?”

I was more serious today and felt like a new employee in a company who has just been introduced to his new co-workers and now awaits the arrival of his reporting manager and the CEO to tell him his work. And the best part is, I had been selected for this job without my consent and without the knowledge of my compensation. My earlier job was much much better, living with parents, self employed, working from home on my eCommerce website, eating what I want, sleeping when I want and doing what I want. And again the same question, “Why God…Why?” I was still not able to completely come to terms with reality; felt sad, worried, anxious, afraid, down, alone, bashed up, torn, frustrated and many more things. These feelings, mixed with memories of my life on earth made my eyes close and take my mind to a sub-conscious state.

Dint knew for how long I was in that state but some whispers and talks around me bought me back to my normal self. I opened my eyes and could see the sun rays falling on me, coming through the gaps in between people standing around me. A good crowd had gathered and everyone was busy talking to each other. I tried to stand up and a hand came forward to help me.

“Thank You Angel.” I said looking at the hand as I held it and stood up.

“How did you know it was me?”

“I only know that you will always be there to help me.” I said with a smile and then a wink.

She seemed pleased and then with a disheartened voice said, “Not always my hero.”

“Angel, what is it that is behind that statement? Last night also, you were hiding some thing. I need to know it now.” I demanded.

“It’s almost time for you to get your answer. Get ready, OA will be here any time.” And as soon as her statement ended, I again heard the sound “Woosh, toin, blop” and a figure appeared in front of the crowd. It wasn’t the Windows Office Assistant this time, but just looked like us, wearing the same type of clothes.

Everyone bowed down in front of him, except me. Angel pulled my hand and asked me to bow as well.

“Sorry OA, but my head bows down only in front of God. Though you too are a part of him but I am still not very sure about it. I hope you don’t mind.” I shouted so that OA could hear me. I was standing towards the end of the crowd and OA was at a good distance from me.

A voice from the crowd replied back, “He might not mind, but we do.” Then OA intervened, “It’s absolutely fine. We can understand your situation. Now all may rise.”

“Gurpreet, since you are the protagonist here I would request you to please come forward.” OA said. I held Angel’s hand and started walking with her. Only one step had we taken together when OA again spoke, “Alone please.” Angel quickly freed her hand and moved back.

I was surely not on good terms with OA now. I made my way through the crowd. OA came forward and shook my hand. It was a nice gesture and I obliged. He then addressed the crowd,

“So the inhabitants of NASA, how has the last day been with a living being from another planet?”

Everyone started clapping which I was told meant that everyone here welcomed me. It bought a smile on my face and I started to clap as well giving them the message that I too welcomed them in my life.

“That’s great. Now let me tell you that God will be present physically today here in front of all of you.” This statement too was welcomed with claps all over.

“Now Mr Gurpreet, you have been asking a lot of relevant questions from the darling of this group, Angel, which she has not been able to answer and rightly so. She does not possess enough knowledge to explain you the reasons behind the actions of God and neither do I. Only and only the supreme master of all knows when, what and why of his doings. So I would ask you to get ready for the moment of your life which you will cherish forever. God will be here to address all your queries and let everyone else know what is up his sleeve.” He then paused a bit.

“God is present within and among us. See him walking through the crowd.” And he pointed his finger to a woman walking amongst everyone towards me.

“Gosh! She was standing ahead of me a few minutes back. And I never knew God is a woman.”  I exclaimed to OA.

“God is neither man nor woman. God is universally present in everything. God just takes any form.” Said OA and moved back to let God take his place. 

Very true..why do we always assume God as man when God is universally present in everything???

Finally the day ends...

I was left speechless on reaching the spot. I again took back my words, “Sir Lemo DOES HAVE BAD TIMING.” He was standing there with Angel. On seeing him there, I came to a screeching halt which was enough to grab his attention. He looked at me and said, “Yes Sir, what makes you come back here?”

What excuse shall I make?

“Aahh…I, I just came looking for Angel for, for, for…to know the program for tomorrow? “ I said stammering.

“Program? Are you two going out somewhere? Angel, dint you tell him about OA’s visit tomorrow? He needs to be there.” Sir Lemo said looking at Angel with disbelief that how could she forget such an important thing. Before, her sweet voice could come out, I jumped in.

“No, no. You are taking it wrong Sir. She did told me and I came to ask her about the timing of the meeting only. I mean, I wanted to tell her that, that…she should wake me up in time so that I can get ready!” Oh, what a stupid excuse I had made.

“Oh, don’t worry on that. All of us here will make sure you are there on time. But for the moment, you must sleep early so that you are up and fresh tomorrow. I will leave for now. Take care children” And he left, leaving me and Angel.

Angel, who had remained a mute spectator during the conversation, finally spoke, “That was a close shave.”

“It really was. But what was he talking about to you?” I asked.

“He was just making sure that no one said or acted anything about your spitting the food. He felt a bit concerned also, in fact worried about what might happen tomorrow. May be, and only may be, God too may come.” She said looking at Sir Lemo walking away.

“Forget about tomorrow, talk about the present. You said you wanted to meet me?” I quickly changed the topic. But Angel dint seem in the mood.

“Yeah, just wanted to let you know that I love you. I thank God for sending you here. I don’t know what future holds for us, so just wanted to let you know. Now I think we must retire to our rooms.” She said and walked away.

Though she said a big thing but still I felt she dint say the complete thing she intended to. She was hiding something surely. The talk between her and Sir Lemo was much more than what she told me. I followed her, “Angel wait.”

“Not now Gurpreet, we will talk tomorrow. We both need rest now. Take care.” And she increased her pace and within an instance she went inside her room. I was left stranded. Then I too went inside mine and lay down on the floor. The firefly’s box was emitting light in one corner; slight breeze was coming in through the dark holes on the ceiling and I was tired enough to doze off. When I closed my eyes, I just wished for one thing, “I hope I wake in my bed in the morning.”

Finally the day had come to an end. It started with spending time with anxious parents, then the tornado flinging me in the air, me landing here, climbing the tree to eat fruits, sliding down the PTI, Earthlings Information Center, Sir Lemo, spending time with Angel, then hating mine and my fellow earthlings actions, then my room, then dinner  and now off to sleep. Tomorrow morning the eyes will surely see something new, I believed.

In my dream that night I imagined Angel was with me on Earth and we had planned a road trip in my Aston Martin. And an officer stops me on the highway for over speeding and Oh My God, he is Sir Lemo. After paying the fine we move ahead and suddenly a baby rhino comes on the road. I applied the brakes on time. He goes away and we continue with our trip. Rain starts falling and Angel loves the scent of wet mud in the air. All of a sudden, my car slides on the wet road and it’s out of control. It hits the divider and topples 4-5 times. I realize my body is dead and my soul is being pulled towards a force in the sky. I don’t know what happened to Angel. That force then sends my soul on NASA, the other planet. 

OOHHH…I sat up suddenly. What was that? I look around; I was still in the room which Angel introduced me too. I tried to recollect, which is reality and which was a dream. Ok, the accident was a dream and Earth being destroyed is the reality. I sat panting. I looked up at the holes, the day had started. I could sense it was dawn. I lay down again but couldn’t sleep. So decided to take a bath, get ready and move out. 

Move out to the unknown..my meaning and purpose of my life was to be defined in a while!!!