1 Aditya’s Strange Dreams

*A small note: the story is based in India

"Aditya!"

"Aditya!!"

A deep voice rang through the class as the teacher who taught Mathematics saw that the student in the back was sleeping.

The student in question jerked as he woke up with blurry eyes and looked all around in confusion.

Aditya, who was three months away from turning 17, had a shapely face, rather thin stature, healthy olive complexion. There was a little stubble growing on his young face. His jet black hair was ruffled and untidy.

As Aditya looked around muddled, he saw Bhadra, who was his best friend, gesturing towards his mouth and made a wiping action. Aditya touched his mouth to find that he was drooling. The whole class of around 40 students rang with laughter as he wiped the drool off and stood up.

"Aditya, go wash your face with cold water, and I want to see you in detention class in the evening after school. The teacher, Kapil Satyarthi, who taught group 5 mathematics, pointed towards the door, his voice carried unquestionable feeling as if how judge sentences a convict in the court by banging the hammer. Aditya knew that though Kapil sir was strict, he was reasonable and usually empathetic towards all students.

Aditya knew that he was in the wrong, so he picked his books and quietly walked out of the class to the nearby washroom. It was nearing the end of November and winter was around the corner. He sprinkled his face with the fresh tap water. The feeling of cool water on his rather sleepy warm face caused him to feel refreshed. He removed a blue handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face.

As he walked back to his class, Aditya involuntarily thought about the weird dream that he had when he was sleeping. He shook his head immediately to stop thinking about the dream.

Aditya inhaled the warm afternoon air as he passed through the corridor to stay focused. From the past two weeks, he had been sleeping almost about 14 hrs a day.

Aditya could not make head or tails of this situation. He couldn't help himself from bitterly laughing as he thought back to his hospital checkup episode.

Due to Aditya's 'special' circumstances, Kapil sir accompanied him when he consulted a neurologist. Aditya still remembered that hateful old geezer(neurologist). That old foggy had straightforwardly asked him if he was an alcoholic or a drug addict after hearing about his excessive sleeping problem. Aditya still remembered the stunned look on Kapil sir's face. He could only fathom what would have happened if he replied affirmatively.

Recently, Aditya has had urges to take up smoking and drinking to drown his worries, but he had not acted on it yet. So, when Aditya vigorously shook his head, the old neurologists still prescribed a series of blood and urine tests to confirm. He asked them to visit the next day when the results came out as the following course of treatment would depend on the cause of this problem.

Due to the 'small' suspicion of that kind neurologist, Aditya had been subjected to a 24 hr interrogative session (barring 14 hr sleep) by the school authorities.

"Aditya, we had thought that you are a good boy, we didn't expect this from you."

"I didn't do anything wrong."

"Is this the reason why you have been scoring less in the past two months?"

"No, it is not due to this."

"We know that you are having a hard time concentrating on studies due to what happened to your parents, but this is not the way."

"….."

"Are you using drugs or drinking alcohol?"

"Neither"

"Are you procuring them from outside or is someone supplying them inside the campus?"

"What? No, nobody is supplying anything to me."

"So you are going outside by yourself to buy, is that what you do during your outdoor activities time?"

"…."

Aditya felt that he was only short of lie detection test using a polygraph. When he saw those sharp hawk eyes of those questioning people, he recalled the words, "Guilty until proven innocent."

Aditya also felt happy that he was sleeping 14 hrs. He wanted to sleep for the whole 24 hrs before getting the test results so that he would not have to deal with this nonsense.

The school authorities couldn't continue to question him for long as they found him silently snoring in his chair. They could only continue when Aditya woke up the next day.

When Aditya and Kapil sir went to the neurologist, that old geezer lightly admitted that Aditya was not involved in any drug or alcohol abuse. He then went on to explain other more rare causes associated with his condition.

Aditya turned sharply and stared angrily towards Kapil sir. Now his moment has come, he decided that he will search all those people who questioned him. Aditya will stare back at them with an angry expression. Of course, other than that, he could not do any other thing to them.

Aditya might consider throwing one of those Bhadra's 'stink' bombs into Suresh sir's room as he was the one who hated him the most. Suresh sir was also the one Aditya hated the most. The feeling was mutual.

Kapil sir showed a rare apologetic expression in response to Aditya's stare. Aditya stopped when ahead and listened to what that real conspirator of this whole affair (neurologist) had to say about this.

But the neurologist did not bother about Aditya's wronged feeling and further proceeded to prescribe a polysomnography test for him. This test required him to sleep in the hospital, and they would check and record his brainwaves during his sleep.

Aditya was not inclined to agree to this test. He wanted to consult another doctor instead of this unrepentant oldy.

But Aditya immediately decided to stay when he saw the beautiful elder sister who was to stay and conduct the test. Aditya still remembered her name was Hamsa. She was so sweet and gentle.

Her calm demeanour and a certain spiritual flair reminded Aditya of his mother, which immediately caused him to have a favourable impression of her. This elder sister attached wires over his face near his eyes and throat. There was also a small transparent pipe inserted into his nose.

She explained the various uses of those attached wires and the corresponding measurements, but Aditya was least interested in them. The calm smile she maintained all the while, her gentleness when she cleaned his face with spirit and rubbed some paste. The unavoidable proximity caused by these actions caused Aditya's teenage heart to start beating violently.

Dr Hamsa might have thought it was normal, as she might have done these procedures to many patients, but Aditya felt a subtle emotion. This moment continued for a few minutes, and Aditya returned to earth after that. He slept that night with all those wires attached.

As usual, he saw all those strange dreams during his 14 hr, continuous deep sleep. When he woke up, it was already broad daylight. He saw the elder sister dozing on the table while electronic sounds punctuated the silence in the test room. Aditya did not even want to describe that heavenly moment where he watched her without any fear of being caught redhanded.

Later, when she woke up and saw the night long recordings which were printed on a strip of paper, she looked shocked as she looked at those recordings and back at Aditya.

Her brows pressed together as she asked, "Didn't you say that you dreamt when you slept?"

"Dream? More like a marathon of films, hours and hours of dreams, sometimes I ask myself which part of my life is a dream and which is the reality." Aditya smiled and said.

The elder sister looked at Aditya with a complicated expression and went outside while instructing the nurse to remove all the electrodes attached to Aditya and bring him to the neurologist. She walked briskly with those strips of paper, leaving Aditya mildly disappointed as he had expected that she would remove those wires personally like last night.

When the nurse presented the tidied up Aditya in front of that old foggy, that old fogey looked angry at Aditya and was accusing him of lying. Aditya was shocked at this sudden twist and searched for the elder sister for an explanation, but she was not present at the spot. So he could only brace himself to ask the old foggy about what lie he was talking.

"You said that you were dreaming a lot during your sleep, but the EEG recording shows that you were having a dreamless sleep." the old foggy stated.

"What? Of course, am having dreams, even yesterday I experienced them, how can you say that I do not have dreams?" Aditya shot back angrily. He was also feeling a little irritation now as this old foggy does not have one good point.

At the same time, the beautiful elder sister walked into the consultation room. Looking at her change of clothes, it was evident where she went. The neurologist upon seeing her gave her those recording strips and asked her to explain them to Aditya.

The elder sister turned towards Aditya and explained slowly that the human eye movement becomes rapid when humans usually dream. But there was no such activity noticed in Aditya's case. Though there are cases to suggest otherwise, it is still rare for dreaming hours without rapid eye movement.

She further added, though humans usually dream 4-6 times a night, one can only remember the dream before one wakes up. But the statement of Aditya that he was dreaming hours and that he could remember all of them was not normal. This point led to the neurologist conjecturing that Aditya was lying.

It was Aditya's turn to feel perplexed and confused. Aditya studied in an International school which followed the Cambridge curriculum. He had skipped studying biology for computer science, so he was not proficient in these medical terms. But one thing was clearly understood; his 'dreams' were not normal. He was sure of his dreams because he could remember them, and the content of dreams itself was a lot weird and unusual. Now it seemed that the nature of his dreams was strange as well.

Dr Hamsa then turned towards the neurologist and said," Professor, I have read something about dreaming in a deep, dreamless sleep, maybe we could start from there."

That old foggy waved his hand while shaking his head as he snapped, "that condition was only observed in some Indian and Tibetan masters of meditation. Do you think that this boy is one of them?"

Not only Hamsa, but even Aditya also lowered his head awkwardly. He thought angrily, "As if you are a great ascetic who can meditate for days on end."

Just then, Kapil sir came, and the awkwardness alleviated. The neurologist gave the conclusion from the findings, "taking the last night test results into consideration, we can eliminate the possibility of Narcolepsy and sleep apnoea. Since there is no history of head injury, the causes can be narrowed down to two, i.e. depression and genetics."

"The boy's father was an orphan and Aditya has no contact with his mother's family. We can't know for sure if some other family members have the same problem. But I think that you mentioned yesterday that the boy's parents went missing for four months and their whereabouts are unknown. So I think the boy is experiencing clinical depression due to this."

Kapil Satyarthi looked at Aditya, who was calmly sitting with his head lowered and sighed. He knew Aditya's circumstances as he was the class in charge.

The neurologist continued," So let's start our treatment from this angle. I will prescribe anti-depressant drugs. I would also suggest sending him to counselling sessions with a psychologist. It may be more effective than these drugs. If there is no change or the condition deteriorates in the next few months, we can then check for genetic causes. What do you say?"

Kapil Satyarthi knew that this was a highly reputed neurologist in Bangalore and there was always the choice of the second opinion, so he agreed on Aditya's behalf.

When they were leaving, the beautiful elder sister had come over and consoled Aditya with soothing words to which Aditya smiled serenely, conveyed his thanks and walked away. If one noticed Aditya's eyes, they did not speak of loneliness and depression. Instead, one could see a burning resolve and firmness.

If Aditya was sure of one thing about himself, it was that he was not the kind of a weakling who would be depressed about his parents missing. He had already decided that if the police could not find his parents, he would search for them himself. Had it not been for some reasons and some people, he would have already left the school.