The Secret Portal

Kalkham

Narmada had arrived a bit late at the research lab. Driving through the foggy cold weather had made her feel sick. But the very thought of missing the last lecture from Dr. Upen had made her go numb. Dr. Upen was a renowned research scientist who had kindly obliged to spare his time early in the day for his students, before boarding a flight to Shillong that afternoon.

Parking her white moped by the parking side, picking her study materials and a big blue file, she looked at her watch hopefully. Oh god, short of 15 minutes again! She grunted as she made her way hurriedly up the stairs. Swiping through the entry portals, she sprinted for a few meters before slowing down her pace as she noticed the partly opened door from a distance.

Adjusting her dress and her hair, she peeped through the door windows. Pushing the door silently, she gently raised her eyebrows, took a deep breath and requested, May I come in, sir?

The scientist showed no signs of displeasure at her late arrival. Waving his hand, he gestured her to enter and take an empty seat without pausing his lecture. The students in the room appeared like statues, struck by the breathtaking discoveries and insights from the ongoing lecture. Dr. Upen always had that command and power in his speech. No surprise that the women staff at the research institute admired his confidence, politeness and gentle behavior.

That day, strangely enough, the chairs had a hexagonal arrangement in two sections. Though surprised, Narmada hid her bewilderment and silently picked the only vacant chair, on the right section in the first hexagonal bend.

Very well, let me prove it right away in front of you, my child, laughed the scientist, proudly proclaiming to one of the students seated in front of him.

The students now turned wonder-struck and were amused at this startling challenge. Dead silence prevailed for almost 10 seconds until Janani, Narmada’s close friend, broke the silence.

Really? Oh, wow! Please sir, I want to record this amazing challenge right away on my camera.

Why not? the response came in the most confident tone.

The class seemed suddenly brought to life from the dead.

Man, this one is going into history books. This is just going to be amazing! exclaimed a student sitting behind Narmada. Narmada became nervous with the sudden turn of events, as she could not catch up on the topic that the class was showing so much excitement about. What challenge is Dr. Upen talking about? Why is Janani so inclined to record it? What does this have to do with a milestone in history? Oh, someone please fill me in on what’s happening here! Several thoughts crowded Narmada’s mind as she prayed, wishing that someone would enlighten her.

Dr. Upen seemed to have noticed the contemplation on Narmada’s face and announced loudly, Okay, let us instantiate our seating arrangements. The polar occupant in the first quadrant should communicate with the polar occupant in the second quadrant. I will demonstrate it in front of you, the hypothetical power of this mystical setup in your seating arrangement today!

With his eyes fixed at Narmada, he spoke to the class in a determined tone, Let’s start the activity 10 minutes from now. Prepare yourselves quickly. Meanwhile, I will find a suitable recipient for our experiment, he said and left.

The students started moving from their chairs to look at their counter-positioned occupants.

Good luck, Narmada! remarked Uday from behind. Narmada turned tense at his words. Biting her nails, she found herself searching for clues as to what to say or do. She glanced at Janani and shouted, Janani, what the hell is going on?

Janani laughed from a distance and carried a piece of paper along, walking towards her good friend. She placed the blank sheet in front of Narmada, picked up a pen lying in front of her and started explaining what she had understood. He says that he has discovered a suprasonic sound, which is supposedly the medium through which planets communicate with each other. Thus, planets maintain the laws of attraction and repulsion from each other through a pivotal Sun which pumps in the required frequency so that they do not collide with each other, but enter a cyclic series of repeated attraction and repulsion. This, in turn, prevents them from colliding. She then drew a peculiar pattern with two hexagons adjacent to each other and drew connecting lines. She elaborated, Each of us is seated on a hexagonal arrangement by a chair positioned at A B C D E F and a b c d e f.

"See here? These thin lines connecting ASa, BSb, CSc, DSd, ESe and FSf? They indicate a communication link. By intensifying this communication over a considerable period of time, this thin line of communication grows thicker and gradually becomes strong enough to generate a low-frequency suprasonic sound which has the power to attract or repel chairs, at least, in this exercise. All we have to do is to establish communication with the persons designated in the sketch here, she pointed it out in the diagram. You are my opposite polar occupant, which means that YOU are connected to ME with this seating arrangement. Therefore, we have to maintain communication until Dr. Upen signals us to stop. Students in the first hexagon will say SOH and students from the second hexagon will acknowledge, HAM. This exercise is put into action in a repetitive cycle. Dr. Upen will hold a frequency detector and let us know once it detects the low frequency suprasonic sound."

Narmada was skeptical. A suprasonic wave superior to the gravitational pull from the sun? That’s fascinating, but hypothetical. She bluntly expressed her opinion. Very well! So we are now unleashing an energy that controls planets in their orbits! said Narmada with a naughty smile.

As we all know, Dr. Upen is always a challenge for science to hide its secrets, laughed Janani and returned to her seat.

Dr. Upen arrived with a huge apparatus which he introduced to the class as Frequadrant – suprasonic sound wave detector. The class seemed excited now and keenly awaited the kick off.

Please keep your voice high and eyes closed until you are asked to stop, he said, checking his pulse. He then shouted, Well, here we go! On the count of three!

One… Two… Three… – He announced and the class started humming in cycles:

SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM SOH…HAM

20 minutes passed and Upen and his apparatus showed no signals yet. Narmada’s sense of hearing was quite sharp. She recognized the sounds of a heavy downpour, which gradually mixed with the SOH HAM chorus.

Rainfall in winter? Impossible! It could just be a trick of my mind! Let me just concentrate here on this, thought Narmada. Nevertheless, her mind became too curious when the downpour became even more distinct. She opened her eyes. Her attention immediately feasted upon the slowly erupting concentric circles of low emitting light that started to surround each person in their chairs. Each student was just lost in the chant of SOH HAM. All of them had closed their eyes while establishing a communication link. The radiation added more lustre and gained intensity with time.

Oops! Wasn’t she supposed to keep her eyes closed? But these new colorful circular patterns surrounding each of the hexagonal bends were too beautiful to comply with Upen’s demand for closed eyes. They moved up and down with every chant of SOH… HAM.

What a sight! Am I seeing the energy fields that actually exist in our solar system? she thought.

The downpour increased further and began thundering loudly. What is going on? The sound of thunder is so different today. Fear grips my heart. Why are the students not feeling any fear? she wondered. What about Dr. Upen? she looked around to see him. The Frequadrant Apparatus glowed with a red light, repeatedly.

Narmada’s sixth sense gave in to a conclusion. Untimely thunder and downpour, concentric circles around each chair, and a beeping red light, she wanted to check with Dr. Upen.

Where is Dr. Upen? she thought. Gazing at the red light, she stood up to find him. Dr. Upen was lying unconsciously just beside the apparatus. She sensed grave danger and rushed to attend to him. In this attempt, she stumbled and lost her balance owing to entangling her legs in the chair. The chair was displaced from its original location. It became obvious to her now. The hexagonal structures were disturbed and so were the communication links. The moment she realized this, she witnessed a strange sight. Within a fraction of a second, the students who had closed their eyes chanting SOH…HAM vanished from Narmada’s sight.

Concentric circles surrounding each empty chair now pumped higher towards the sky. The scene appeared as though there were multiple rockets being launched alternately between

the first and second quadrant in turns. Circular solar halos from both hexagons merged and encapsulated Narmada in a protective shield.

Doooooooooooommmmmmmm!

The uproarious clouds burst illimitably, cracking the walls holding the room together. She was unable to fathom the events that were taking place. The roof collapsed all around her. A powerful flash of white lightning, intensely bright, struck the center of the two hexagonal arrangements. The stretch of light was so huge that she could not trace its source. All the concentric circles now simply merged into this striking line of high voltage energy. The bubble enclosing Narmada rose up, defying gravity. She started to float by using her arms to swim through the air.

The white light spiraled and generated a high frequency sound. She moved her arms higher and rose towards the tip, slowly and steadily. She emerged from the broken roof. What she saw next sent chills down her spine. She had transcended the limits of the earth. The source of the white light was still untraceable and she kept waving her arms, which propelled her further into the unknown. The bubble had acted as an anti-gravity vehicle fuelled by her waving arms.

As though recovering from a stint of memory loss, she remembered something. She immediately closed her eyes and chanted… SOH… HAM SOH… HAM SOH… HAM

The spiral white light now took the shape of a bright female spirit, a very beautiful form of a human girl and voiced…

KAAAAL YAAAAN…

KAAAAL YAAAAN…

KAAAAL YAAAAN…

Narmada opened her eyes. She was captivated by the beauty. It was such an enormous embodiment that she had to turn her neck from one end to the other to trace the beautiful female form. She could not comprehend the visions. She panicked and closed her eyes in fear, chanting SOH…HAM SOH…HAM even more vigorously.

There was an uncomfortable feeling in the legs and arms and heartbeats intensified. Consciousness was swirling as though a current of high voltage electricity ran in the head, numbing the whole body.

The young man started shouting louder:

SO… HAM

SO… HAM

"SO…