Chapter 1: Ayaan and the solemn evening
Ayaan was sitting in his office and had just finished an important meeting. It was 7pm in the evening and the sun was about to set. Ayaan had come to Mumbai for this meeting and was staying at Taj Hotel which is situated next to the sea, dead in front of “Gateway to India”. Ayaan had been in the hotel all day and the something within him wanted to him to go out and breath the fresh air. He came down and walked towards the promenade. He he was walking, he opened his email and started browsing the emails which had come to him during the day. The emails were in hundreds- and all of them work related. Ayaan’s company had grown from a small startup to a unicorn in a period of 8 years. Almost all those emails concerned work but didn’t require Ayaan’s attention. Ayaan had developed a habit of tackling this barrage of emails. He would just skim through and catch if he saw anything of importance. Rest he would just ignore. Ayaan knew if anything was pressing and important, then he would receive a message on WhatsApp or a phone call. He did the same today, he scrolled and just close the app.
But he couldn’t shut off his phone, after all this was the new addiction of the modern world. In the world of smartphone, cheap internet, and social media, it was difficult for anyone not to browse his phone. Ayaan was no different.
On closing his email, he opened Instagram. His following had increased over a year, ever since he had started being active on the platform. He would post snapshots from his daily life on Instagram as stories which people used to enjoy. He looked the ocean in front of him. The sun had set and the sky was shining with the shades of red and orange. There were clouds in the sky which reflected the colours of rays of setting sun. It looked beautiful. Ayaan had lost himself in the scenery, and he would have remained there if not the phone had buzzed.
It was a random forward on WhatsApp on one of the family groups. As Ayaan came out of the mesmerising scene, he thought that he should post this view on Instagram. He took out his iPhone, and shot a short 15 seconds video by panning the shoreline from Gateway of India to sea and ended at Hotel Taj. The video uploaded in a blink on an eye, thanks to the 5G internet connection. Within a few seconds his phone started buzzing again with likes he was receiving on his video. This gave Ayaan a strange sense of fulfilment, but it was short lived. The first few likes were a testimony of acknowledgement of his followers and the world that his work was worth liking, which was indeed a pleasing feeling. After all who doesn’t wants to be validated by the world. But within seconds Ayaan had lost this sensation and he had subconsciously started craving for more likes. Just a moment ago those few likes by random people gave him a sense of fulfilment, and moments after these same likes looked inadequate.
Truth is Ayaan had been spending too much time of Social media, posting content form his life but mostly browsing. He was addicted and he knew that. In fact in the past few days he had been consciously trying to reduced his indulgence to social media, particularly apps like Instagram, Facebook, and the of course, the ever buzzing WhatsApp. But smart phone addiction is hard to go by, and it is very difficult for a person not to peek at his phone from time to time. As if staring at the screen was quenching some hidden thirst.
Ayaan had found a way out. He decided that he will try and read more on phone, which would make his use of time more productive. He had installed Kindle and had a long reading list. He would also browse news apps to catch up the latest affairs of this world.
He wasn’t in a mood to read at this time, so he opened the news app and start browsing. After a couple of swipes, he came across a headline which was catchy and intriguing at the same time. “UFOs spotted in Himalayas in Darjeeling”. This kind of news had been in the social media for the past few days. Various sightings of UFOs were seen in multiple places in India. To Ayaan this was more like a click bait, until he read a new one day which quoted the ex-Space agency chief of Israel stating that Aliens had contacted Earth and even NASA is aware of them. But they want the world leaders to keep it in wraps since according to them the humanity is not ready to accept this truth yet. Indeed it was quoted that there was an intergalactic space federation, which indicated that the so called Aliens were far far organised and advanced than us humans.
Ayaan wouldn’t think too much, for him alien existence wasn’t a surprise but rather a logical possibility. In this universe which has no end, Ayaan thought that it is impossible for life to not exist anywhere else apart from earth. Ayaan was a man of reason and logic, he was man of science, an engineer by Education. In fact his had spent 5 years of his life at IIT Bombay, in the same city where he was standing today.
But this news generated curiosity, which was altogether different. For he had a connection to Darjeeling. His in-laws stayed at Darjeeling, and Ayaan had been there multiple times. He loved the beauty of the Darjeeling hills and was simply in love with that place. Therefore a possibility of Aliens lurking around Darjeeling intrigued him more than usual.
Ayaan forwarded the link of that news on his family group, and locked his phone. Only a few minutes had passed since he had stepped out from his hotel, but it seems like a lot had happened to his mind. This was the reality of todays modern world. We have access to so much of information, that what we consume in a few minutes on a smartphone, could have been someone’s life’s experience 500 years ago. This was indeed an assault to the mind and to the senses. Ayaan knew this reality. He knew that living in the world of internet and data, he is actually encountering a river of information everyday, whether is he wanted or not. This wasn’t healthy and thus Ayaan had been trying get away from this data barrage.
He put the phone in his pocket. The light had dropped in those few mins. Evening had given way to dusk, and the colours of red and orange now also gave way to shades of grey. The night was creeping in slowly as the light faded away. But there was still a balance between the light and dark. There as sense of equilibrium in the atmosphere. Ayaan felt calm. But in this calmness he also felt emptiness, as if a void was lurking deep within him. It was a familiar feeling for Ayaan and would surface when everything else faded. Ayaan couldn’t figure out why this void was there, but he knew it was there. Ayaan was a successful man by all the standards of this material world. He had a humble childhood where plenty wasn’t a reality. He was born in a small town in the hills on Central India located in the Vindhyachal mountain range. He had worked hard, and made it to IIT, a place where many children dream to be in, but couldn’t realise it. Ayaan had done that. IITs were after all one on the most elite engineering universities in the world. An education from IIT Bombay had given Ayaan a chance to break the bondages of poverty and get catapulted into a life of opportunities. In the hindsight, he had made the most of it. He had worked the most elite companies in India, and eventually built a business with few of his IIT batchmates. He has earned money, name, fame, and success. The life of past was beyond him, and the life he lived today would be considered a success from all standpoints.
Yet he felt that void within him. As if something was still unfulfilled.
He had felt the same way when he was a child, but thought that success in life with change this. He had always thought, just like majority of this worlds thinks, that money was the answer to all his problems. He felts when he has enough money in his life, he will feel complete, he will feel fulfilled. It is the same feeling which a traveller feels while climbing a mountains. He thinks that once he reaches the peak on this mountain he will feel happy. But upon reaching the peak, the feeling which he called Happiness, wouldn’t last long. While standing at the peak itself, the climbers feels that despite this arduous journey, he still feels a void within. As if something is incomplete.
Same was the case with Ayaan. He was at the peak of success in his life, yet felt incomplete. As if this success had no meaning. And this feeling would only surface when alone in the quiet ocean of his thoughts.
Suddenly his phone buzzed. It was a message from his father in-law from Darjeeling. He has replied to his message saying that this news of UFO sightings is rubbish. Ayaan smiled at reading this message. He was back in the material world, as he would always come. To stay immersed in the quietness of his mind simply impossible in today’s world.
Ayaan unlocked his phone to take one more picture of the sea. It has become dark by now. The moon was out in the sky, and the moonlight glittered on the salty water. There were many Yatchs docked near to where he stood, floating up and down with the waves. They weren’t going anywhere, yet there was a motion. They were in sync with the sea, and vibrated with the same energy of ocean.
Something made Ayaan stop. He wanted to absorb the view within, for it was beautiful, like fine poetry. In that moment Ayaan didn’t feel like capturing it on his phone, rather wanted to experience it in totality with his senses. He was to catch a late-night flight to Bangalore, his home. It was time to leave.
Ayaan took out a cigarette from his pocket.Lit it up with a lighter. He took a deep drag and smoked the fumes of tobacco in the moist air of the sea. The smoke spread in the air like a small cloud of mist, and within moments the off shore sea breeze took it away. As the smoke vanished in thin air, so did the everyone of lurking feeling of this void.
The question was still there within him, but this wasn’t the day when he would find the answer.
Some other day perhaps- thought Ayaan. As he puffed one more time and tossed the cigarette in the sea.
The day was all but over, the question within him still was there!
