Who is “Bharata Bhagya Bidhata” in our national anthem?

We sing Jana Gana Mana, our national anthem in the glory of our motherland. How many of us know the exact meaning of the song? Let’s see, what it means. (Source- Wikipedia)

Oh! the ruler of the minds of people, Victory be to You,

Dispenser of the destiny of India!

Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Dravid (South India), Orissa, and Bengal,

The Vindhya, the Himalayas, the Yamuna, the Ganges,

and the oceans with foaming waves all around.

Wake up listening to Your auspicious name, Ask for Your auspicious blessings,

And sing to Your glorious victory.

Oh! You who impart well being to the people!

Victory be to You, dispenser of the destiny of India!

Victory to You!

I wonder, who is the “Dispenser of the destiny of India” or the Bhagya bidhata of Bharata? There has been a controversy as to in whose praise the song was written? Some sources claim that, the song was first sung during the session of the Indian National Congress held on 27 December 1911 which welcomed the King George V and the Queen of England upon their arrival to India. The sources say that, the “Dispenser of the destiny of India” is non-other than the King himself. However, Tagore proclaimed that the song was not in the praise of the king. Rather it was a prayer written for the religious movement called Bramhoism. Jana gana mana is the first stanza of the Bramho hymn. Which one is correct? I wish that, the first one should definitely not be correct.  

The Last Day on The Earth

Morning 6.35 am; a Friday. I was tucked in my bed. It was a little windier outside than usual. There seemed to be something abnormal about the weather. The temperature was constantly fluctuating. Suddenly there was an aloud thud outside my door which woke me up. Annoyed, I opened the door. I could not see anyone outside, no one even in the corridor. It annoyed me even more. I could not understand; who knocked on my door and why the hell somebody buzzed me like that. “Some silly prankster kid from the neighboring flats” I thought. Disgusted, I slammed the door and walked towards my bed. I took off the slippers and squeezed myself inside the blanket. 10 seconds later I woke up with a start. As my eyes opened, I remembered the star fish which I failed to notice when I opened the door. A Starfish outside my door!!! Where did it come from? My mind was tizzy by now. I rushed towards the door. I opened the door just to reconfirm the bizarre sight. There it was!! A big dead star fish!! I was even more surprised to see the corridor being completely wet as if someone has splashed few buckets of water there. But it was the sand mixed with the water that caught my attention. To understand what could have happened, I looked towards the balcony. I could not believe my eyes as I saw a big fishing trawler just few meters outside the balcony in very unstable condition as if it could hit the adjacent building any time!! What on earth is it! I realized my flat was on the 12th floor!!! A fishing trawler in air??? I dashed towards the balcony and looked down. My eyes almost popped out with horror. ”Oh My God”, I cried out loud I looked down to find water as high as 4 stories of my building. There was water everywhere. I reached out for the railing as I suddenly felt dizzy. I was stunned. My mind slowly started processing the information. Everything was inundated by water which was at least 4 stories high. The high wave was the reason for the star fish being thrown up to the 12th floor of my building. I was aghast! What should I do? What happened…. I thought it’s a good idea to get myself to a safer place before the water level rises up to my floor or the building collapses due to impact of the waves. I rushed inside and started packing the essential items in my back pack and left the flat. The lift was not working. I took the stairs and went down till the 5th floor. I found that the fifth floor was also inundated. The water was as high as half the floor level. “Now how do I get outside?” I wondered. "I don’t even know how to swim." I was trapped.. Suddenly I saw a floating dust bin which was kept on that floor for common use. ” My life saving boat” I thought. I pulled it towards me. Thankfully it was big enough to accommodate me. I could not see any other thing floating around. I did not wait any more and slipped myself into the drum (dust bin), it was empty but the stench was unbearable. Just cannot express the terribly nasty smell inside the drum, as if it had rotting meat in it. I felt really nauseatic. “Good that even with my weight, the drum is still floating” I thought. I found a small wooden plank and used it as an ore to paddle my lifeboat. It took me outside the building through the balcony exit. I desperately looked all around, trying to get some help. My life saving drum was now wobbling badly as the big waves shook it and it was not a pleasant experience I could see the floating debris everywhere, even saw a morning newspaper floating. The headline on the front page said: “Destruction on its way”. It reminded me of something. I immediately glanced at the date on my watch. It was 21st Dec 2012. Before I could think any more on the importance of the day, I saw a big wave heading towards me. Around 300 feet high, the monster wave , just swallowed a 20 story building and was heading towards me. A cold chill ran down my spine. Crap, I felt am dead already. I wished my drum had a speed motor fitted in it. I nervously looked around. My mouth was dry. My heart was throbbing. I had no clue how to escape the giant wave. It was getting darker as the deadly wave was getting closer. It raised its head like a giant serpent. The lights began to dim as it approached closer. I closed my eyes with fear…Suddenly I heard a beeping sound which was irritating. I tried to figure out from where the sound came. I opened my eyes. It was the alarm clock!! On the table near the bed. I was in my bedroom!! What a nightmare. I felt my forehead. I was covered with cold sweat. Thank God I am alive. The monstrous wave of the dream was still fresh in my mind. I checked the time. It was 7 am, “time to get ready for office” I thought. I felt like thanking my alarm clock to get me out of the deadly experience.

Well, forgive me my dear readers for giving such an awful start to this article, but this might had truly happened if the predicted “Dooms Day” as per the Maya long count calendar would have come true. Now that we are still alive post 21st December, 2012, we see the “Dooms Day” as a myth. But if this had truly happened, then what? Complete disorder…

Here it goes,

One fine day, it is declared that, after certain no. of days we would see the day and night for the last time on this earth. Dooms day is inevitable. From next morning onwards, there is no milk in the fridge as the milk man has left the city and decided to spend his last few days with his close ones in the village. No water to bathe as the staffs in the water supply department are not reporting to office. No electricity to switch on light, fan or TV as the staffs of electricity board are no exception. Mobile phone networks are down, even if they are functional, running huge congestion. No one reporting to office; you would not be surprised to see the empty bays on a regular working. The operations of big factories have stopped. The doctors are not available in the clinics or hospitals to treat patients. Children are not going to school as schools have been closed. The general stores have been shut by the shop owners in fear of possible vandalism; you have money but no shop is open to supply what you want. There is nothing to eat at home. Prisoners have broken the jails and escaped. There are incidents of robbery, theft, murder and criminal activities everywhere. The law and order has completely collapsed. One need not look any further. It seems like a scene straight from Hell.

Let’s stop here. We don’t have to think any more of such deleterious thoughts. We are safe as the marked day so called as the end of the world is a past now. But what is really meant by- “End of the world”?
Human race has existed on earth since more than 50000 years. Since the inception, the human race has evolved a lot in all aspects and has proved itself as the most advanced species of God’s creation. But perhaps now we are going in the reverse direction. We have started showing inhumanity as we have lost respect for each other. We have created differences by dividing ourselves into casts, creeds and religions. We fight with each other while trying to prove that our own religion, caste or creed is better than others. We have created boundaries and we have set our own acquaintances; we don’t mind arguing, insulting and if needed fighting with the rest. We have developed powerful weapons of destruction like the Nuclear bomb which can create havoc and bring nuclear winter on the planet. We take pride in developing and maintaining large stocks of such deadly weapons describing ourselves as advanced. We are spending a major portion of our revenue on defense systems as we have threats from own species; Humans, and we call ourselves civilized. Today, the ratio of instances of human killed by human beings is far higher than human killed by natural or any other disasters in some part of the world because of terrorism and continues wars. Humanity has been killed. Are we not heading towards the end of the world because of our own deeds? We don’t have to wait for a super natural act of nature for the destruction. Perhaps we ourselves will bring the destruction to this planet.
Will the idea of "One world" would ever become true? If not, removing all the boundaries but at least by reducing the distances between the hearts? Perhaps the answer is “No”, but had this been “Yes” we could have really proven ourselves to be God’s best creation.

The Mystery Man

The buzzing mosquitoes did not let my body rest in the late hours. The bizarre sound created by them was actually more infuriating than their bites as they kept on hovering near my ears. In closed eyes it sounded as if an old gramophone player is playing a 1940’s song in fast forward mode. Both my palms clashed with each other almost once in every ten seconds creating an applaud sound; someone observing me by now would have definitely taken me as a Kawali practitioner. The rascals had targeted me as their feast when I was trying to get a rest in the dark corner near F6 pillar resting on one chair and stretching my legs on another. I did not realize; when I caught a sleep. As I had just gone unconscious for some time, something quivered on my left thigh; my cell phone was vibrating. I gave an awful look to my cell phone for few seconds for disrupting my sleep. The person with a charming mustache from the US Operations desk had called me, asking me to authorize few payments. I checked my watch, it was 2.30 am. “I have to come back tomorrow at the most by 12 pm to start my day, so must take a short nap, atleast for 1 hour after authorizing the payments”, I thought. I Went up to work station 596 and authorized the payments. “Huh, Just for few authorizing the payments that too for some other desk I have to stay whole night in office. I cannot even sleep without a break without even having regular work, atleast these tiny carnivorous bugs won’t let me sleep”, I murmured myself squeezing a mosquito with anger that was hovering near my right ear.
I hurried back to my temporary sleeping platform with a desire to get back to an unconscious state till the next call. The two aligned chairs were so comfortable that I fell asleep very soon. After sometime, I got up and headed to the washroom. Just near the entrance of the washroom, something caught my attention. There was a note written on the notice board near the washroom which read as- “Be careful in the dark, you are never alone.” I was little astounded to see such a writing, “who posted this here? This was not there in the evening, where did it come from!!”? I did not engross my thoughts so much about it and entered the wash room. I did not want to splash water on my face, coz I did not want my drowsy eyes to get freshen up as I preferred to sleep for some more time. When I came out, I was stunned to see the changed color of the floor. The entire floor had been shaded with darkness as if someone has cloaked up the floor with a blanket. That view of the floor was fearsome, had never seen it like that before. Even the lights in the washroom started deeming. I was totally awake now as the drowsiness had faded out. I screeched at the top of my voice, Rajendraji. But I could not hear any voice. Tried calling Mukesh too, still there was no response. That terrified me. “I should better run to the reception”, I thought. The darkness had diffused its wings to each and every corner. “What happened to the people on night shift?”, I cried in despair. The entire floor including the reception had turned a no man’s land; I could not even see the security guard in night duty. “Am I the only creature left in this entire floor!!”, I wondered. I felt like a character in an old Bollywood horror movie held up in an abandoned palace with no one nearby. So I decided to get outside the building, on to the road, perhaps to catch some crowd. I dragged my feet faster on the stairs to get down to the ground floor as soon as possible. When I reached the ground floor, I thought of checking the lift area. Usually I see the lift man on night duty sleeping on the floor near the lift. So I checked there and found him in his usual position. I tried waking him up. But he was lying down as if he is dead, as usual. So I did not bother him and went outside. “Atleast now I have the lift man with me in this building” I assured myself with a relief.
The street lights had gone dead. I could not see a single vehicle on the road, there was complete silence, felt as if I am in a jungle. “Atleast if I can see a stray dog”, I thought. I walked a little ahead on the road. I saw something lying down on the footpath, around 30 feet’s from me. I went closer to see what it was and turned on the mobile flash light. Saw a dog on footpath, the head was missing. My eyes almost popped out seeing the vicious scene. It looked like some sharp weapon had been used to execute the dog. The sprouting of blood was still fresh. “Who did this to the dog, is that a man or….” In chilling cold of December night I started sweating. My throat almost dried up. I saw line of blood droplets near the dead dog. “This must give a clue to me where the assassin has gone after executing the dog, may be in search of his/her next target”, I thought. I could follow the droplets hardly till 20-25 feet’s after which I could not see any more blood drops. That spot was very close to the entrance of the Empire Industrial complex. “Has he gone inside empire complex?” I wondered. I thought of calling Rajendraji to check where he is. When I tried calling him, it got disconnected after 2-3 rings. I tried calling him again, but it got disconnected again. “Is everything all right?” Just that I thought this; I got an sms from him- “Come near pillar no E9.” It was a little unusual that he sent me an sms; he could have picked my call or called me back. But I did not think deep into it and headed towards 2nd floor. While I reached up till the CNBC office, I saw the black cat which normally inhabits nearby that office gazing at me with his tiny but scary gleaming eyes. It looked as if it was warning me about some upcoming danger. Looked at me quite a few seconds and then it mewed and crossed in front of me. I kept looking at the cat and started walking again. “Madam Curie must have had got inspired by the blushing eyes of cats which inspired her to invent Radium”, I added to my chain of thoughts. I wanted to keep my mind busy in motivational thoughts so that it does not get occupied in scary thoughts. I wanted to see my colleagues as soon as possible. I was walking very fast but still the distance from empire corridor till the 2nd floor looked like marathon distance. I was constantly looking back; my thoughts were “Is someone following me”? When I reached near the ground floor stairs, I thought of checking the lift area again, I would kick the liftman if I had to, if he would not get up by gentle shaking. When I reached near the lift, I could not see the liftman there. Instead I could only see his cap and chappal lying down on the floor. “Where he could have gone, leaving his chappal and cap?”, I wondered. Suddenly the picture of the beheaded dog flashed in my memory. I felt dizzy. I thought of reaching 2nd floor as soon as possible to get some gathering out there. I started taking the stairs. My memory played the flash back of all that happened starting from the black out on the floor till now in my thought as I was heading up.
It took half the time to step up roughly 40 stairs as it would take in normal course as I wanted to cross the staircase area as soon as possible. When I reached the reception of the 2nd floor; I found it the same way as I had left it before some time; dark and silent. I opened the door and started moving towards US Canada desk. As I was walking through the aphotic floor, I tried shrieking up- “Rajendraji”, there was no response. I tried even louder, no voice responded back following my scream. So I went till his row and saw there is no one. “Then why did he send me the text. Was that he or someone else sent the sms from his cell”, I pondered. Just that I turned thinking this; I saw lights from inside the dispatch section room that falls on the left side of US Canada desk. After the black out, that was the only light source I had come across. “May be all the people have gathered there”, I thought. I lugged myself towards the room; I wanted to see what is happening inside? As I came closer to the dispatch room I heard someone chanting something followed by a group of reciters. I could not guess what is happening in that room. I peeped into the room; to my surprise, all my fellow colleagues were sitting on the floor surrounding a havan fire. Among them I could see an unknown face wearing a wired outfit, something that will never come in the purview of corporate/modern attire. He was the one who was enchanting the mantras the rest were reciting the same in a frenzy. All the people were sitting on a parallel line on both the sides of that stranger. I preferred to stay in my position only and keep observing. The chanting of mantras final stopped after some time. “What is next?” I was curious. The stranger then handed over a sword to the person sitting to his right. He asked him to offer few drops of his blood to the fire incising his right thumb and to close his eyes. That person then slashed his right thumb against the sharp edge of the sword and offered his blood to the fire. He then closed his eyes and remained idle. Then I observed something strange in the lit up fire. The color of the fire was changing constantly. Suddenly a smoke exiled from the fire; it took the shape of a ghost and got inside that person who had offered blood. It shook him and his eyes turned blood red. A cold chill ran through my body seeing this spectral scene. My heart was throbbing. I still could not understand what is happening there. The mysterious man’s face was still not unveiled to me. He then asked rest of the people to follow the same process. Every time someone offered blood to the fire, a smoky ghost entered his/her body. When everyone finished their turns, the stranger said, “You all have offered your blood to the fire, now you have to obey my orders, and if you don’t, then the ghost inside you will reduce you to ashes.” It looked like; everyone indicated their acceptance by keeping quiet. By now I had understood; that why some people keeps on saying about sprits or ghosts. They probably would have seen some real ghosts like this. The mystery man then took a meditation pose and kept quiet for some time. “It is now your turn to offer blood to this Havan fire, Abhisek.” I felt like a landslide happening beneath my feet as I realized, there is only one person with the name Abhisek in my department, and that is me. He looked at me and indicated to sit beside him. His red and bold eyes had some magical power, I guess, because I lost control on me and started walking towards him. I think he had hypnotized me like he did to the rest. As I sat beside him, he closed his eyes and started chanting mantras. He stopped chanting after sometime and handed me over the sword. I took the sword in my hand and saw the edge of the sword had been covered with blood. “Perhaps this is the sword which executed the dog, and now it needs my blood too”, I thought. I was partly in my sense, I could understand something wrong happening with me, but my hypnotized mind had started obeying the orders of the mysterious man. I slashed my right thump against the aciculated surface of the sword. Blood gushed from my right thump and I offered it to the havan fire as the rest had done. My blood ignited some change in the fire and it stared changing colors. Suddenly a smoke exiled from the fire and started changing its shape. I saw it taking shape of a ghostly face. “I wish that I would have been watching a 3d show only, not the real ghost”, I cogitated. But I was wrong, it came closer to me. I was too scared that I closed my eyes. I felt a heat in my heart as the ghost entered my body. It shook me completely. Suddenly I heard someone saying “Default ho jayega, get up man”. My eyes opened, I saw Mukesh standing in front of me with a smile on his face. I tried to look for the mysterious man. I checked my right thumb, there was no bleeding. My forehead was covered with sweat. I saw the lights on the floor were back. “What a nightmare man”, I whispered to myself as I realized that all happened with me were not real, it was Mukesh who shook me, not the smoky ghost. Mukesh said “what?” I said nothing. “Authorise the last 2 fund transfers. Then you leave”, Mukesh said. I logged into swift and authorized the payments and left for home. I could not sleep in the cab on my way back home. I thought the mysterious man might return in my dream once again. So I preferred to stay awake for some more time atleast till the time the mystery man completely dissolves from my memory.
The stranger was still alive in my memory while started my day in the office next day. I thought of sharing the same with other colleagues, but later thought of not disclosing as they might think that I have a phobia towards darkness. But I could not forget the scene inside the dispatch section, even though the mystery man never existed, but his spooky appearance was still alive in my memory.

A voyage to The Indiscernible Island

I heard a bunch of people roaring into laughter, it broke my nap. I looked down from the upper berth and saw Amar bhai ecstasizing the flock sitting around him with his jokes. He was the host of that moment. My friends were auscultating the epigrams that his lips followed, while I had slipped myself onto the upper berth for few hours resting my body to avoid any kind of weakness due to the sleepless night spent yesterday. His humor made the passengers in the nearby berths to peep into our compartment. As the day was approaching further, the bursting of laughter became louder and louder. It was so much fun inside that we could not realize the day was approaching to an end; the red blazing circle was all set to slip into a soft, magical slumber after a long and weary day. In the konkan railway path, our train was moving ahead gashing the chests of several mountain ranges through the tunnels. It felt as if the day is frequently changing its color from light to darkness when looked through the windows. The train was running late behind schedule and for that we reached our destination very late, around 9 pm, whereas we should have checked in by 4 pm. The resort booked was good enough to give us a rich feel although it was cheaper on the pocket due to non-seasonal time. We decided to hit our beds as soon as we checked in as we did not want to waste time in the morning by waking up late.

We started the next day very late, around 11.30 am. We visited the Arambol beach which was around 25 kilometers from our hotel. The distance seemed more than double to me as I was not able to enjoy the ride by viewing roadside sceneries, thanks to Vishal’s daring idea to ride the bike. He had hardly driven any vehicle before that. I was on the back seat guiding him with my so called expert driving tips throughout the drive. Although he was driving well, I still could not make myself completely comfortable. Anyways we reached Arambol beach with all our body parts intact even though we had some close encounters. The day was spent well at the beach; the only regret was we could not have our lunch at the Florentino restaurant, one of the finest places to have cheap and authentic Goan food as suggested by Durga!!

In our stay of 2 days we visited Anjuna beach, Vagator beach and Baga beach. The treat from Saket bhai at the shack named Curlies near the Anjuna beach was awesome, the food was really delicious. The 2 days spent at Goa were heavenly to say the least. Unfortunately we could not buy some more time on the trip as most of our colleagues had to resume office on Monday. The departure time of our train was 6.30 pm from Madgaon station. The train was running 8 hours late from its scheduled time. We had already reached the station on time as we had no clue that the train would get late. When we heard the announcement that the train was arriving late, everyone started cursing each other, why not someone did check the train is on time or not before departing from the hotel. We had to seriously think about, how to spend the awkward 8 hrs.

We could not find any accommodation nearby. All we had one option, to wait at the station till the train arrives. We tried spending the time by playing antaksri, dumb charades. But we could hardly kill 2 hrs from our stroppy waiting hrs. We needed some better ways to kill the time.

I told Saket bhai to think about something. He suddenly announced that, he is going to tell the girls about what we boys did in the Saturday midnight when they went off for bed. Saket bhai whispered something to Vishal and started telling the truth about the Saturday midnight.

From now on, I chose to narrate the story through saket bhai’s eye.

As soon as we checked-in in the hotel, I enquired with the reception about the availability of vehicles on rent. The receptionist could arrange 3 scooters immediately and promised us to give the 4^th one in the morning. My astir mind had a better plan than simply settling myself inside the 4 walls of my room, it was all set for drifting throughout the night, may be with a very short nap, just to ensure maximum adventure and enjoyment on this trip. I had spoken to Swapnil and Vishal about this, and they had agreed to go with me on a night out. I managed to convince the rest of the boys for the junket. We all decided to go to the Sinquerim beach. It was a 20 minutes’ drive from our hotel. When we reached there, we found it completely dark. None of the beach restaurants were open nor could we see a single person on the beach. We were disappointed as we had thought the beach would remain active day and night. We were discussing what to do, whether to go back to the hotel or to check some other beach. I saw a person walking towards us wearing a 3-4^th trouser and a t-shirt. “Are you guys looking for some fun?” “Who are you?” was my first question to him. “I am Johan Jerin, a tourist guide”, he replied. “I can show you a really cool place, if you wish, you would have never seen such a place in your life”, he added to convince us. “You will show some beach or what, which is active even at this time?” I told him checking for facebook updates on my mobile. “Yes Saheb, I am going to show you a beach, but let me tell you, that won’t be an ordinary beach at all. It’s an Island beach having an adjacent jungle which adds to the beauty of the beach. And that’s not all; the real surprise is inside the jungle.” “What is there inside the jungle?” I asked with a sudden attention to the stranger. “A beautiful water fall that shimmers even in a new moon night!” My eyes widened. His words sounded like parts and pieces of some fiction story. I wanted to search for the island on my map which I was carrying. I asked for the name of the island to Johan. He told; “The Island is not in any official records as that is a disputed land and that is hardly known to anyone. You won’t get it on any map. However, the early visitors hard given it a name- ‘The Indiscernible Island’.” The name of the island was mysterious. I wanted to know, why it was named so. “Saheb, if I tell you the reason for such a name, then you won’t believe me. But I will still tell you. The island goes invisible in the day time. No one gets a trace of it in the mid sea under the sun. It appears only in the night.” There was no reason with us to trust the words of that stranger. “Is he trying to fantasize us to make some money or he should be trusted” I was muddled. I looked at my mates; they were all in a different expression- mixed of shock and surprise. “Where is it, how far from here?” my dubious gaze looked at Johan. “It will take 1 hour from here, but once you reach there you would realize that the 1 hour journey is definitely worthy”, he answered. I checked my watch, time was 10.00 pm. “What guys, what you all say?” I asked my mates. “It is too late Saket bhai, we must go back and take rest”, Prakash quickly replied. I looked at Vishal, Amar and Abhisek. I read hesitations in their faces. However Swapnil was still thinking over it. I asked him, “Swapnil, what is your thought?” He winked at me and said, “I am in”. I smiled and said, “come-on boys, let’s do this.” “Hey, tu pagal ho gaya hai, we have not even heard about this place before, there is no record of it in the internet too. And how can we trust this stranger’s words. It is too risky to go to such uncharted place”, Vishal responded with an irritation. Vishal’s concern was not at all pointless. But my super excited mind was somehow lugging me towards island.

The voyage to ‘The Indiscernible Island’ started. I had finally managed to convince my boys for the move. The speed boat was driving us to the destination at around 30 Nautical miles per hour. The shadow of the moon was hazily reflecting in the wind shattered water of the sea. The only sounds heard were the buzzing sound of the motor boat and the water that was clashing head against our boat. All of us were gazing at the distancing shore. To break the silence I asked Johan to tell us more about the Island. He uttered his mugged up lines telling how beautiful the beach is. His repeated lines did not kill my curiosity. I moved close to sit beside him. I asked him, “Why it is so that hardly any people have seen the Island, what is the matter?” “Saheb, I had told you about that the mysterious fact of the island that it goes invisible in the day time. For that reason, many people avoid going to such place as they think that the place is not so safe. That is the reason, who ever so far visited the island have avoided disclosing the existence of such an island. So, it’s not part of any map or any official record.” But is it actually a safe place?” I was concerned about the safety of my boys. “It is all safe, no worries”, he replied. I was still thinking over it. I did not show concern to my mates. We reached the Island after a journey of an hour and 15 minutes. When I saw the island for the first time, I felt as if I have landed in a fantasyland. The existence of such a place was only in my dreams. I was astounded by the elegance of the beach with a dense forest at the back side and the mountain range that stood like a wall guarding the adorable beauty of the place.

We followed Johan to the jungle. He had warned us to stay close to each other so that we don’t get separated in the jungle. Mobile networks were down, so there was no means to contact each other if required. I was walking ahead of everyone as I could not my hold my patience to experience something that I had never seen before- ‘The shimmering waterfall’. Every bit of furtherance made me antsier. The distance to the waterfall looked like never ending. We were walking through an intricate series of paths and grassy trails inside the dense forest. The fragrance of forest flowers wafted through the cool and crisp air. We had already walked for 30 minutes. I was kind of exhausted, my body wanted a rest, may be for a shorter while. I looked back for my guys. Hell!! I could not see any one of them. Soon all the excitement faded out and anxiety ruled my thoughts. I could not understand how they could disappear all of a sudden. I felt as if I was in a trap and did not get any means of alleviation. I started screeching names, the louder it is possible. I did not get any response back to break the dominance of silence filled in after my every desperate screaming. I felt as if the tiny night creatures making some peculiar sounds were trying to say something to me. May be they wanted to tell me- “go back, this place is not safe”. I had to ignore the allusions given by the tiny critters and had to search for my missing mates. I had really come so deep inside the jungle that I had lost my way. I still did not get any clue about my boys.

My crippled feet kept on moving in the despair search. I felt as if someone is watching my steps. I turned back and tried to figure out who he is, there was no one. I had to avoid any such engulfment which would fill my thoughts with fearsome ideas that would distract my search. I kept on moving. After a little more move, I heard the sound of a water fall. I moved to closer to confirm, there it was; the poem of a poet, a mirage in the desert, an imagination that came alive. The sparkling water was amazing. It would have been beyond my belief if I would not have experienced through my own eyes. My desperation now had turned optimistic. I had to wait there as I expected my friends to gather at the water fall. I was very tired and thirsty. I drank the clean and cool water from the stream. I thought of taking a rest near the bush and while waiting for my buddies. My bleary eyes caught sleep immediately.

I discovered myself in captivity when I woke up. I was shaken to see tribal people around me while I opened my eyes. I was tied up against a wall with the help of bamboo strips. The only thing that I could have done in that helpless situation is to observe their actions. I was in a cave with 20 odd tribal heads. I was stunned to see a fair skinned tribal person. I had never seen a white skinned tribal. I was staring at him and was observing his bodily features. He could understand that I am observing him; he looked at me for some time and turned his gaze sideways. Everyone was looking at the person sitting on some sort of throne made of wood and stones, as if they were waiting for some instruction. He looked like the head of the group. I looked around from one corner to another corner of that cave. There was so much brightness inside the cave. I saw a torrent of water adjacent to the exit of the cave which was shrouding the entrance; it was then I realized that the cave was just behind the water fall; that brought me to this island and was the reason of me falling in the trap.

My fast moving gaze stopped at one corner. The thing which I was afraid of had happened already. Vishal, Amar, Prakash, Abhisek, Swapnil and the Johan; all were under the same roof along with me as captive. I had no clues how to return back safe, it almost looked inconceivable. The reason why they caught us was still unclear. “What they want to do with us?” was my worry. I was desperately looking all around, if I can get some help. A glittering stone caught my attention that was the reason for so much brightness inside cave. It was fixed on a big stone that was kept behind the throne of that tribal leader.

The tribe became attentive as their leader spoke up. He was talking in some uncanny language which obviously I had never heard. Although I could not understand his language, I could understand from his voice modulation that he was giving them some sort of command; may be something related to us. After 5 minutes of talk, he ordered his men to bring the captives to the center place. The white man came near me and loosens me up from the bamboo strip. “Hi, I am Steve; I am the priest of this tribal group. The leader has ordered to offer sacrifice of your lives to their God. You have to help your selves and run as soon as you get some opportunity”, he whispered in my left ear while untying the strips. I looked surprisingly at him. All of us were brought to the center. Our worried eyes met each other. I told my mates what Steve informed. I read the tensed eyes of my friends; even I could not hide mine. All we had to do is to hold patience and wait for the opportunity.

The leader then commanded his fellows to get ready with their sharp weapons for the execution. The shrill edges of their weapons gave me goose bumps. I saw that, Steve went close to the leader and whispered something in his ears. The leader then stood up from his throne and looked at me with a surprise in his expression. More than him, I was amazed, “what happened, what his expression is meant?” He came closer to me and then suddenly bowed to me. Seeing him rest of the tribes bowed to me too. My mind could not process the happenings, it was beyond my understanding. Before sometime they treated me like a captive, and later they were treating me with respect. “What did Steve speak to the leader in his ears that changed his behavior?” was all I was thinking. The leader told something to Steve and he nodded his head in acceptance. “Come with me”, was Steve’s instruction to us. We followed him to the exit of the cave. I was clueless, where he was escorting us? We kept following him up through the jungle. I asked him, “Where we are heading Steve?” He maintained quiet and kept on moving. After sometime, we reached the beach where we had left our motor boat. I was relieved as I understood that Steve had brought us back alive from that noxious captivity. Before I could say anything, Steve spoke, “You guys leave as soon as possible and never come back to this place again.” “And you”, I asked. He refused to come with us. He shared his story with us. He had gone to the Island 4 years back. He had come from France to visit that Island as he had heard about the place from one of his friend who was a Geological Surveyor. Steve was a researcher who wanted to make a documentary on the tribes whom hardly anyone knew. So, upon his arrival to Goa, he approached a boatman and went along with him to the Unseen Island. And, there he landed up in trouble as the tribal people caught him. The tribes had an idea that, he wanted to invade the place and wanted to take away their magical stone, the one which was kept behind the throne. So they kept him captive. They did not kill him as they had to wait for the orders of their leader who was sick that time. Eventually when Steve met the leader he offered him some natural medicine by virtue of his Ayurvedic knowledge which he had learned from an renowned Indian Ayurvedic doctor in his last visit to India. The medicine offered by Steve cured him. The leader was pleased with services of Steve and offered him to stay with them. Later he learned their language and became part of their group. He also married to the daughter of that leader and became the priest of that group.

Steve mentioned about the power of the magical stone. Because of the stone, they never suffered from any natural calamities or any threats from out siders. We learned from him that, their magical stone was the reason for the indiscernibility of the island. That is why, the Island is known to very few people. “All that he explained to me would have been difficult to believe if I would not have come here”, I thought.

He also mentioned that some of the early visitors wanted to steal the precious stone from the cave. The gleaming water of the fall always attracted visitors as they thought the cave behind the stream was filled with diamonds. Many of them never returned back. He had understood Johan’s intention. “Do not even think about that stone in future, you might not be fortunate enough all the time” he warned Johan. After knowing this, I wanted to slap Johan for endangering our life for his greed. But I controlled my anger as I saw him repenting on his deed, his eyes spoke to me.

“Why you do not want to come with us Steve?” I asked him. He mentioned that he was an orphan from his childhood. He never really knew the love and affection of a family. Now that he had got everything, he did not want to leave the place. He wanted to help the tribal people to get cultured and educated. For that he wanted to stay with them. They had become the part of his life.

His words touched my heart. But I was still wondering, “What did he whisper in his leader’s ears? I asked him. He told, “I had to tell a lie to my leader for saving your lives. I mentioned him about a dream that I saw last week about the visit of God’s legates to the cave. I told him that, I saw the God’s men coming to the cave and blessing us with prosperity and happiness. I told him that you have come from the God’s place to bless them. So, he must relieve you and your friends. He was convinced to accept you as the God’s man when he saw the stone fitted ear stud and the glittering ring on your finger. These tribal people worship all the objects that are a source of light, even if it is a tiniest stone.” I could not react to the situation. I had never thought that my ear stud and my stone fitted ring can save my life.

My words were falling short to show my gratitude to him. His lie had saved our lives. We finally bid adieu to Steve and started heading back to the main land. The time was 4 am. We wanted to reach our hotel as soon as possible because all of us were completely enervated with so many happenings for one particular night. For this reason we could not get up early in the morning the next day.

Everyone of us were so much indulged in the story that saket bhai was narrating that we forgot that we were in a railway station platform. Girls had understood the truth about the nonexistence of ‘The Indiscernible Island’. We heard the announcement about the arrival of the Porbandar-Kochuveli train that was entering the platform. We had successfully passed 8hrs; the lively narration by Saket bhai helped this. Even though the existence of such a place was untrue, the beauty of the beach as described by saket bhai in the elusive island was still flashing in my memory. We boarded the train as it seized to stop at the platform. I went off to the upper berth and placed my body in a horizontal position to catch a sleep as soon as possible. I wanted to go back to the island through a dream; the dazzling water of the imaginary water fall had an attraction. Soon our train blew horn and return journey began.