The Other World

The Other World

Under the humongous banyan tree, Hari sat. The newly arrived school teacher had told him a very intriguing story. Early that morning, Hari had seen his teacher prostrating in front of the tree.
His teacher turned on hearing him approach. He smiled down at him.
“Hello there! Hari, is it not?” the teacher asked.
“Yes Sir.”
“You are out quite early! You don’t prefer to sleep in?” he enquired.
“I like to go watch the sunrise sir. I get bored of my family sometimes!” Hari said.
The teacher smiled.
“Sir, I wanted to ask you something. I saw you bowing before the tree. Would you tell me why? I have never seen anyone form the village worshipping the tree!”
“Well I must get back to my house now, but I can tell you in short. Many centuries back, there was a man who sat down to meditate. He sat for many days, no food, no water, just sitting there in meditation.”
“Didn’t he fall asleep? Or go to the toilet?”
“No no!” the teacher laughed “So well, he sat like that and then when he came out of it, it was revealed that during his meditation, he travelled into a different world. And, it was under this very tree!”

***
Hari looked up at the branches now, as he recalled the story. He thought it must be the tree that had magical powers which sent people into different worlds. Curious, he had decided to find out for himself. So that morning, he had silently bid farewell to his parents, friends and little pet tortoise and set off to the banyan tree, to travel to the different world.

“Dear Mother Earth, I will now travel to a different Land if it is so possible. My final respects, if I don’t return!” With that he shut his eyes and waited for the tree to work its magic.

****
The dark surroundings were unfamiliar when Hari woke up. There was almost nothing to be seen for a while, until a large spherical object, larger than Hari came revolving into view. It had a very beautiful white coat that shined mysteriously. Hari thought to himself with rising excitement. “Looks like I made it into the different land! This round object must be an alien!”
He heard quiet laughter and then a very cool voice spoke;
“Hello dear Hari. Do you not recognize me?”
Hari was startled.
“Who said that?”
“‘The Round Object’ as you just termed me!”
“You can speak? And you can hear my thoughts!”
He realized he had not spoken a word since he entered this world! The voice sighed.
“I am what most of the people living on Earth call The Moon. And yes, I can hear you thoughts, because that is the only means of communication for us celestials! We don’t have a mouth. You don’t have eyes either by the way, you feel around with your mind!”
Hari was shocked as he heard this. Indeed, he didn’t seem to possess any of his human sensory organs. His mind tried to explore what he was like in this world and found out that he had a round shape with a jagged surface, like a rock. He had a pearly white color. Hari panicked.
“Relax! This is where you wanted to come! Didn’t you want to explore anyway? Here’s your chance! Just check it out! Look at the Earth! She looks so beautiful! She is my mother! And yours too.”
Hari looked down at the blue sphere.
“You are the moon, what am I exactly?” he wondered after a while.
“You are an asteroid of course. Hey, you are 3 hours old!”
“What! It has just been like 10 minutes since I got here!”
The moon laughed. “No my dear brother, time continuum for you has changed now! Look at the sun! You are already 3 hours old!” Hari looked around. The sun’s brightness had already changed direction! As Hari paid more attention to his surroundings, he saw and heard other stars and planets. Some were chatting with each other and calling out to him while some were humming quietly to themselves. But no one had much time to hang around him. But the moon pointed out that it was his own speed and not their time preferences!
“You’re lucky! At least you can talk to them; I’m out of their ranges. Since you are moving so much, you are at least in their thought waves’ range! In fact, you are my only friend, in years!”
“But I don’t want to just hear their thoughts once in a while! I’m all alone!” Hari almost cried.
“That is how it is dear brother! You have to accept your new reality!” Mars called out to him as he whirred past.
“I miss my friends! And I want my Mother!” he looked at Mother Earth longingly. She had been silent all this while; she was very far from him. He wanted to shut his eyes, but he didn’t have eyes to shut! So he stopped feeling with his mind.
“Do you really want to go back Hari?” a new calm voice asked in his head.
” Yes!” Hari sobbed, not caring who spoke. Everything went silent. Hari slowly opened his eyes, scared what he was going to find. He saw a black round ball in front of him.
“Another new planet?” he thought to himself. But no! The black ball was his friend’s head! He looked up and realized that it was already night. “You idiot! You fell asleep!” his friend yelled.
Hari heaved a sigh of relief and jumped up. His friend teased him all the way back and Hari felt entirely idiotic to think he had actually travelled into another world.
Hari’s mother tucked him up in his bed after a hot meal and a scolding. Gazing up at the moon from his window, he snorted and turned over.
A sad voice floated down to him whispering “I’ll miss you dear brother!”