The Missing Week

If you happen to read this story and if you happen to know me personally, please do me a favour. Please stretch your memory and try to recollect if you had met me in person or talked to me on phone during a week starting from 4th November 2013-precisely on the dates from 4th November 2013 to 10th November 2013. This has become very important to me. I will get my peace of mind only if somebody confirms my whereabouts during this week. Otherwise this week is simply missing from my life. I have no convincing answers to give to others about what I did in that week.

Actually, I know myself about what I actually went through but have no concrete evidence to show it to anybody. Only two staff members in a specific ward in a reputed hospital campus in Ahmedabad knew about what actually happened to me during that week. Unfortunately though, the hospital authorities, when I met them on 11th November 2013, flatly denied any existence of that ward in the hospital. Mysteriously, I have failed to locate that ward and the concerned hospital staff in the hospital campus in spite of a number of attempts I made during my visits to the hospital in the last one year. I remember the Chief Medical Officer of the ward Dr. Anita Sinha, a responsible witness to my story. The hospital authorities, however, flatly reject my story and confirm that they never had any Dr. Anita Sinha in their staff list and such a ward never existed in the hospital.

Before you start feeling pity on me and try to conclude something, I request you to read my story entirely. Believe me, otherwise I am leading a very normal and challenging research career in Ahmedabad Research Centre as on today.

I, Dr. Swaroop Chaterjee, completed my Ph. D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangaloe, three years ago. Very soon I got an appointment as a Visiting Scientist in the National Space Agency (NSA) in its Ahmedabad Research Center at Ahmedabad. The last year, I was lucky to get a permanent position in the same Ahmedabad Research Center as a Scientist/Engineer SD. Since I was already working there even the condition of one year probation period was waved for me. It was considered to be a very rare thing to have happened to any employee, so far.

The National Space Agency instructs its staff members to go through a thorough body check up once every year. As a permanent staff member I sought an appointment with the Hospital recommended by NSA in Ahmedabd near S P Ring Road. The hospital authorities asked me to visit the hospital empty stomach at 7 a.m. on 4th November 2013.

After the first set of tests, at 10:30 a.m. I was given a few snacks before the second set of tests started. Those tests were also completed at 12:30 hrs. Dr. Anil Varma, a man in his fifties and In-charge, Pathological Lab, called me and told me that I could collect all my reports at 2 p.m. on the same day. He further suggested to me that in the mean time I could go to the ground floor canteen and have some food as I might be feeling hungry. The canteen has a self service and I need not have to pay anything for the food as the Hospital would bear all the expenses. That was the usual NSA protocol.

I knew that all the four lifts in the Hospital open on the ground floor where there is a big waiting lounge that is always crowded with the waiting patients, their relatives and other visitors. I entered in a lift and pressed for the ground floor. I definitely remember to have pressed the Ground Floor button on the panel on the wall of the lift.

After descending a few floors the lift stopped on the ground floor. The doors opened and I came out expecting to see a crowded lounge. But after walking a few steps I did not see it. Instead, I found myself walking in a long corridor. I thought that I had come out on a wrong floor. I immediately turned back to board the lift before the doors closed. To my shock though there was no trace of a lift anywhere. It was as if I had simply come out through the wall behind. In fact, I found myself standing at the dead end of the corridor. Thereafter I had to go through a series of unexpected events one after the other. That's why I am narrating them to you. Today, I feel somewhat lucky to have come out of it. But I have lost my peace of mind, at least, partially in the process.

I had no other way but to search for an exit. I had faced a similar situation twice before in my life in two famous Malls in Ahmedabad. After I came out from the late night screening of a newly released film from a multiplex theatre I saw that all the gates were closed and I was not able to find an exit to come out of the Mall easily. I almost thought that I may have to spend the whole night inside the Mall. But on both the occasions, after a few scary moments and exploring various routes I found myself in the parking lot in the basement of the Mall and then could come out of the Mall safely.

But what was happening in that hospital on that day was beyond any body's imagination. I kept my nerve and kept walking to see if there was any exit from where I could come out. The corridor was well illuminated and took a right turn and opened in another shorter one. To my great relief I could see three rooms on either side. I knocked the door of the first room on the right hand side.

Nobody responded. I then just pushed the door after some time. It looked like an office cabin. "Anybody inside?", I shouted a little loudly due to my anxiety. No response again. I tried the remaining two rooms on the right side of the corridor. The same story repeated. Certainly it looked like the occupants of the rooms must have gone out for lunch or a meeting and they would return after a while. After exploring one side of the corridor I tried my luck on the opposite side. First room looked like an office cabin again. The second room was bigger and had two doors. For a change it was a canteen. In both the rooms I saw no occupants.

By this time I felt hungry enough and remembered that Dr. Varma had mentioned about the self service canteen. I was not required to make any payment there. I decided to avail the facility and grabbed two three packets from the shelf with a glass door. There was a microwave oven on the kitchen platform. I cooked the items as per the directions on the packets and had my lunch. That gave me some physical and mental relief. After taking some rest right there on a chair I again explored the first room on the opposite side of the corridor. I got a shock of my life. The room was completely empty. There was no office furniture that I had seen there earlier. Did anybody come and removed the office furniture while I was taking food? How come there was no sound of any movement of people moving the furniture out from the room? Did I really see the furniture in the room earlier? I was getting no clues whatsoever.

My sixth sense warned me to quit the place as soon as possible. But I must find an exit. Suddenly I remembered about my cell phone in my pocket. I had kept it in the switched off mode during the medical tests upstairs. I took it out and switched it on. But even after waiting for long time I could not connect to any mobile tower. That meant that I could not contact anybody, even the police, from inside. I had to search for an exit myself or wait indefinitely for somebody to come to my rescue.

The hours passed. In the mean time the battery of my cell phone got totally discharged and I lost the track of time also. Although the corridor and the rooms were well-lit, there were no windows to check the daylight outside. I frantically continued to search the rooms one after the other hoping to see somebody who could show me the exit. If anybody was really working there he had to come in from somewhere. I was getting tired. As I was proceeding to the self service canteen on the left side of the corridor again suddenly the lights went off. I was trapped in a pitch dark tunnel of the corridor. As no light entered the corridor from outside I went totally blind. After some time, I don't remember exactly how much time, the lights came on. I heaved a sigh of relief. I rushed towards the canteen to fetch a cold drink to quench my thirst that had resulted from my restlessness. When I opened the door of the canteen I saw the entire canteen was missing. Nothing was going right for me on that day. I started losing confidence in myself. So long, I had not thought of any supernatural things that were playing games with me and trying to scare me. But not any more. "Was the place haunted?" I asked myself.

I then ordered  myself to brush off any stupid thoughts entering my mind. I started thinking that because of hours of isolation from any human beings in that unknown place I was becoming incoherent in my thoughts and may be earlier I had just imagined to have taken the food from the canteen as I was very hungry that time and may be no canteen actually existed there earlier also.

On a close look inside though I saw a small cylindrical glass cabin at the centre of the room. That reminded me of a space capsule that takes astronauts on a space flight. I gathered some courage and entered the capsule and occupied the chair and took a position an astronaut would take before the launch of a space vehicle.

Suddenly the whole capsule started vibrating vigorously. It created unbearable sound. I closed my eyes out of some unknown fear. After some time the vibrations stopped. I came out of the capsule. I saw a door at the end of the room that I had missed earlier. I tried to open it and suddenly found that it was opening to the outside world full of fresh air and sky above. At last, I could escape from the strange place. But something held me back. The landscape did not look very familiar. There were hillocks and ditches everywhere and the soil was reddish in colour. There was no sign of any life around. No roads. No buildings. Suddenly I saw a dust storm brewing up outside and as a reflex action I closed the door from inside.

Had I reached another planet? Mars? The landscape was matching with the description I had read about the Martian soil in the science magazines. I frowned on myself. I realised that I had started getting hallucinations due to anxiety and prolonged isolation from the civil world. I came out of the big room that had housed the canteen earlier and ventured to search another room to check whether anybody had returned there.

Now this time I saw a comfortable bed in one of the rooms. This immediately brought thoughts of resting in my mind. Without thinking anything further I occupied the bed and within moments went into a deep sleep.

When I opened my eyes after the sleep I saw a woman in a white dress  standing there and smiling at me. After a long time I was seeing a human being there. "Or is it a ghost?", I asked myself. But I continued to look at her for sometime. On a close inspection I realised that she was wearing the hospital uniform. Before I could think anything further she smiled again and said, "Good Afternoon, Sir. Hope you look fine. Don't worry, everything is alright. Just relax for some time. I will inform Anita madam about you." Saying this she left the room.

After a few moments she returned and asked me to accompany her to go to Anita madam. By this time, I was feeling quite normal and relieved. All my fears had vanished. There were still many doubts but I decided to ignore them for a while.

"Who is this Anita madam, by the way? And why does she want to meet me" I asked the lady in a casual tone.

"Dr. Anita Sinha is the Chief Medical Officer of this ward. She will explain to you everything. Nothing to worry."

She led me to a cabin where Dr. Anita Sinha was waiting for me. She just signalled me to take a chair opposite to her and thanked the other lady hinting her to leave.

"You have passed all the tests. You did extremely well. Congratulations Dr. Chaterjee," she said and gave me a smile once again. I noticed her face for the first time. In spite of her sharp features and fair complexion he looked more like an army officer than a lady doctor.

"I don't get anything. Where were all of you when I came some time back? How did you come inside? Are there any secret routes to enter this place? What is this place by the way? This is certainly not the ground floor of the Hospital. How could I walk through a wall after getting out of the lift? What tests you are talking? Where is Dr. Anil Varma?" I threw a series of questions at her one after the other.

Dr. Anita Sinha probably expected this bombardment. She started speaking in a soft tone,

"Dr. Chaterjee, please excuse us for conducting a few more tests on you without your consent. When Dr. Anil Varma prepared your reports we decided to conduct these tests on you for a very special purpose. We wanted to test your aptitude to check whether you could become an astronaut. NSA wants us to look for the prospective candidates from it's centres located at many cities in India for the NSA's manned Space Flight Project scheduled to take place in near future.

"NSA is planning a week-long manned space flight around the earth at the height of 500 km. They are developing a space vehicle for a single astronaut to sit in it. The selected candidate is supposed to have  very robust physical and psychological abilities. One of the most important factor in a space flight is the functioning of the astronaut's brain itself. Studies have shown that many basic mental abilities, like attention, task switching, bodily co-ordination and problem solving seem to work less well in space. An astronaut is constantly faced with unexpected problems and situations. It is very important that he possesses tremendous mental abilities to combat any unexpected situation and come out safely through it every time.

"This ward and the one at NSA Head Quarters has been specially constructed. Here, we simulate such problematic situations to check the responses from a prospective astronaut candidate. Gladly, you passed through all of them satisfactorily. A space flight creates a total isolation for the astronaut from the other human beings and the very insecurity implicit in a space travel has a great psychological effect on him. One major problem is the hallucinations he starts getting due to the mental stress he goes through. You had one when you thought that you went to Mars. But you came out of that hallucination quite quickly and without any adverse effect on your  mental abilities..."

I just cut her in at this stage by saying, "Doctor, how do you know that I had a hallucination of visiting Mars? Although you are saying that I passed all the tests successfully,  don't you think these tests are dangerous? A mentally weak person may just crumble any moment and may face a permanent disorder to his mental health."

Dr. Sinha quietly answered this. "No worries on that count. Dr. Varma's people had planted a microchip in your body that continuously sensed your physical body parameters and brain waves that we were monitoring. All over this ward there are CCTV cameras mounted to monitor your movements. We stop our tests immediately on receiving a slightest signal of discomfort from the subject candidate. We immediately intervene and bring him to the normal world by making him to sleep for a while.

"Your case was very promising. We made you sleep almost for the whole week. That was a special NSA requirement. We wanted to test the effects on your physical and mental responses after intravenous feeding of a particular drug specially developed by the experts in medicine.

"As you may be knowing, this week-long space flight of NSA is a precursor to it's manned mission to the planet Mars in a few years' time. NSA is exploring the feasibility of lowering the cost of a human expedition to Mars by putting the astronauts in deep sleep during the travel. The deep sleep, called "torpor" or "hibernation", would reduce astronauts' metabolic functions.

"This will allow the crews to live inside smaller ships with fewer amenities like galleys, exercise gear, water, food and clothing. A recent study shows a five-fold reduction in the amount of pressurised volume need for a hibernating crew and a three-fold reduction in the total amount of mass required, including consumables like food and water. So far, the duration the torpor state in human beings has been limited to about one week. For the flight to Mars the spaceship crew, however, needs be put in hibernation for the transit time to Mars, which under the best-case scenario would take 180 days one-way. Accordingly, NSA plans to put the Mars-bound astronauts in the state of Torpor by rotation. One astronaut will remain awake for two to three days and then hibernate for 7 days when the other astronaut will be woken up to take his place.

"NSA always tries to economise and that's why they always plan multipurpose missions. They want to test the concept of putting the astronaut to a deep sleep in this upcoming week-long human space flight to make use of this concept later in the manned mission to Mars a few years later.

"Your responses to the drug are extremely promising. I hope you will be the first astronaut to go to space in the indigenous space vehicle being built by NSA for this manned space flight mission.  You will be informed about further developments when necessary. You may leave this ward now. Good luck to you for your space flight!"

"I am still not getting it. You say I slept for a week or so but how come I am not feeling it? What happens to the microchip in my body? Who will remove it?" I was quite perturbed by the idea of carrying a microchip in my body all the time and the sudden change of direction the events were taking.

"Oh, no worries. The chip is biodegradable. It will dissolve in your body in a day or two from now. You will not realise when it happens."

"Alright if you assure me so. Now tell me what is the time now and moreover what is the date today?"

"It's 2 p.m. and today is 11th November 2013."

"Thanks. How do I go out from this ward?"

"The exit door is just behind me. You can use it."

"Thank you Doctor. See you again some time." Saying this I went to the exit and opened the door. It simply took me to the visitors lounge which I was frantically looking for before some time (or a few days ago if Dr. Anita was to be believed).

I immediately rushed to the cabin of Dr. Anil Varma. He was fortunately available in the cabin. He was surprised to see me. He couldn't wait to remark, "You were supposed to collect your reports on 4th November 2013. You are appearing exactly after one week. Where were you all these days?"

"You know very well where I was." I said in return in a slightly triumphant tone.

"How do I know your whereabouts" Dr. Varma was visibly surprised.

"You people only planted that microchip in my body."

"What microchip you are talking about? Why will we do any such thing without your consent?"

"You are kidding, Doctor. Dr. Anita Sinha has told me everything."

"Who is Dr. Anita Sinha?" Dr. Varma was getting a little angry on me. I got confused.

"Dr. Anita Sinha is the Chief Medical Officer in the ward of this hospital where they conduct tests on astronauts." I answered but was not very confident about myself. "Is my debacle still going on? Am I really sure that that's what happened?" I asked myself.

"We have no Anita Sinha in our staff list in the entire hospital. And we have no ward where tests on astronauts are conducted." Dr. Varma was very emphatic.

At this stage I had to narrate him the entire story to which Dr. Varma gave a patient hearing. After I finished he kept quiet for some time. After a while he started speaking in a sympathetic tone.

"Dr.Chaterjee, I really feel very sorry for you. I have all your pathological reports that are absolutely normal. But I have started doubting your mental health. Do you get such mental breakdowns quite often? Or there is another possibility that you are fantasising too much about your future.

"Your career has just started. I understand that one starts dreaming about unrealistic goals at the start of his career. We call it daydreaming. But they are just dreams. They are to be forgotten as the days, months and years go by and should not be allowed to take over one's normal life. If that does not happen very soon things become irreparable. Young man, just forget what you have told me just now. Accept the reality from this moment..."

I decided to push my case once again. I asked Dr. Varma, "Doctor, then tell me where I was in this hospital for the last one week?"

"That is for you to find out. In fact, when you did not turn up for the entire week, I contacted the Senior Administrative Officer (Sr A O) of the Ahmedabad Research Centre. He confirmed that you have not reported to office either for the last week and have vanished without submitting a leave form. He further told me that they may file a missing complaint for you in the University Police Station nearby your office. Your services may be terminated if you don't report to your office. He further said,

"If you take my advice, just rush to your office and meet the Sr A O and try to save your job. Such high salary jobs are difficult to get these days."

I suddenly realised that at the moment instead of convincing Dr. Varma about my version of story it is more important for me to save my job. I collected my pathological reports from Dr. Varma and ran out of the hospital and caught an auto rickshaw. After getting down from the auto, I immediately rushed to Sr A O's office and forced my entry into his cabin without knocking his door and said," Sir, sir, I have come back.."

"Where were you? You had not applied for any leave and you did not make any contact with us. I was about to file a missing complaint for you in the police station. You could have lost your job had you come a day later. Now first give me a leave form. I will approve it seeing your past performance reports." The Sr A O was kind enough. But he did ask me why there was no communication from me for all these days.

"Sir, somebody from my village had come to Ahmedabad and told me that my grand father was in a serious condition. I am very much attached to my Grand pa. I just took a train and after changing the bus three times reached my village and could meet my Grand pa just in time. My place is so remote that there are no STD booths - forget about cell phones, emails or Internet. I am really sorry. I will never do it again." It was a blatant lie but I had to save my job at any cost. I could afford to forget the hospital episode for some time.

The leave formalities were completed in half an hour and I resumed my duties. Since then for the last one year although I am doing very good on the research front, occasionally, I do get disturbed once in a while when I remember the hospital episode. I did visit the hospital three to four times during the last one year but could not locate Dr. Anita Sinha or the nurse on duty that day. Nor could I locate the specific ward in spite of going up and down in the hospital lifts a number of times. Slowly, I have come to accept this missing week of my life as a bad dream and trying to forget it altogether.

                                                                          * * * * * *

Today it is 11th November 2014. I am doing my research very enthusiastically. This morning I did remember the hospital episode and laughed it off. Just then the telephone in my office cabin rang. Director's PA phoned me and asked me to meet the Director at once.

I did not have any idea why I was called but by now I know very well that our Director summons anybody at any time when he gets a fantastic scientific idea in his brain and cannot stop himself sharing with whosoever he remembers first at that time.

When I entered his cabin he looked very jovial and asked me to take a sit. Then he said in an excited tone,

"Swaroop I have a very good news for you. I have received a message from NSA Head Quarters just now. They have asked me to depute you for a training program for the astronauts for the NSA's first manned space mission. A total of eight candidates from NSA centres have been chosen for this training program. I am really proud of you.

"Normally they would have asked me to recommend a few names from our centre but they did not do it that way which makes me feel little offended but that's not very important now. I do not know how they picked you for this assignment as I do not remember to have sent any special performance reports on you to them. Nor they asked me to send any. I am sure they have many channels for collecting info on any of the NSA employees in any of its centres and must have selected the best candidates from all the centres.

"Hope you will accept this offer in the right spirit," then he mischievously added, "As a Director, I could assign any duty to you at any time of the day to be carried out anywhere in India on 24 x 7 basis. I don't need to even give a prior info to you. But today I am so excited about it that I could not stop calling you and giving you this news.  Just collect the Deputation Order from my PA and start preparing for your trip to  NSA HQ in a couple of days. Good luck to you on my behalf and on behalf of all the staff members of the Ahmedabad Research Centre."

Thanking our Director Sab with utmost courtesy, I came out from his cabin and collected my Deputation Order. I just smiled and said to myself, "Our Director does not know why I was selected for this prestigious assignment but I know it very well."

I thanked the God Almighty for the missing week in my life. After all, it does not happen to everybody.