The bright saffron trees juxtaposed meticulously with the white ones was the first thing Dr. Turgenev noticed after opening his eyes. The mountains were completely capped with these tall conifers. Turgenev shrugged off the dirt from his clothes and stood up with his eyes still fixed on the colourful mountains. Left, right, front, back they all looked the same, so beautiful, so vibrant. After a few steps, the green conifers peeped from the lower side of the mountains, and Turgenev couldn’t help but furlough his research, at least momentously.

Dr. Skiminiv Turgenev is a famous Russian scientist. His work in using artificial intelligence to improve human anatomy has opened new horizons to civilization. But if his new research comes full proof then it can be the biggest ever eureka moment for mankind.

He has developed a machine that completely transmits the researcher to the mind of another human being. It’s like the Inceptions and Interstellar turning into a reality. The reason why Turgenev has not yet gone public with his invention is he is yet to figure out the identity of the person’s mind he is invading. His entry and exit inside a mind are seamless but the address isn’t.

Turgenev is in between one such unknown voyage of his. The orange, white, and green trees by now have become habituated to the eyes but their beauty hasn’t. The sky is unbelievably clean. If it were a touch lower, Turgenev might have seen his own reflection on it.

Leave the beauty aside, Turgenev perceives, he’s in for a tough time there. It is shivering cold, not the kind even Russians experience in winter. The temperature seems to be dipping further as he ventures deep inside.

Also Read: So Long MS, So Long


Over the past 15 months or so, Turgenev has entered many unknown territories but he hasn’t experienced anything like this. The trees, the mountains, the temperature everything is vastly different from his previous experiments.

He tucks his hands inside his jumper and keeps walking. ‘Enough of sights-seeing, now let’s find something worthy enough to make this trip a success,’ Turgenev tells himself when suddenly a thud behind the bushes interrupts his thought process. He takes small steps towards it for a closer look. The thudding gets louder and so does Turgenev’s heartbeat. Pop! A little jump to the left, then one to the right and it vanishes in the foothills of mountains.

Turgenev is flabbergasted. Human minds are complex and often the presence of animals is normal but nothing as alien as that one. It looked like a dog but jumped like a rabbit. Its camouflaged coat allowed it to bluff easily. Turgenev walks through a narrow lane and realizes the small creature was not the only animal there. There are dogs, goats, and other creatures but astonishingly all bear the same camouflaged fur.

The more time he spends there, the more curious he gets. It is incredibly organized for a human mind. It’s like someone hired an interior designer to build it. But it is getting increasingly difficult to stay there. By now, Turgenev can’t really feel his legs. The chilly wind has somehow found its way through his sneakers. Finding a shelter soon is a necessity now, otherwise he will freeze to death or will have to abort the mission abruptly. Turgenev can’t afford both. He carries on without wasting much time.

After a constant battle with the unbearable cold, the occasional sighting of camouflaged animals and of course the tri-coloured trees, Turgenev reaches a spot which outdid the temperature, the scenic beauty, the animals and the overall neatness of the place. And perhaps everything else on earth.

Turgenev’s hands went up in prayer. He’s not a religious person by any means but he couldn’t help it. For what he was seeing in front of his eyes was nothing short of Godly.

It was a giant machine, even for someone a scientist like Turgenev. Numbers went here and there but there were no signs or symbols. Just numbers rolling up and down, going left to right. It didn’t take much time for Turgenev to conclude it was the medulla, the most vital part of the human brain which works as a control system of the heart and lungs.

Turgenev’s hands and legs had gone numb. If he doesn’t end the experiment now, he could well freeze to death. Even though he wanted to take more notes from that giant calculator but he had no option but to abort.

A double-tap on his forehead and Turgenev woke up in his laboratory after a few minutes. He rushed towards the supercomputer. There is a folder in the E drive containing brain behaviours of certain personalities of the world. He desperately tried to match what he had experienced a few minutes ago with someone's brain. 

After five-minute haste, he stopped for a second as if something had clicked. He called his friend Dr. Harish Gunarajan in India. After a quick conversation, he typed a name in the search bar and pressed enter. Voila! The characteristics matched. The unbearable cold inside, the tri-colour, the camouflaged animals, and of course the automated giant calculator, the numbers 148, 2007, 2011, 45-50, it all made sense. This was by far the most exciting journeys of Turgenev’s life. He had just successfully explored one of the most sought after minds of the world.

He smiled and kept looking at the search bar which read MS DHONI in bold letters.

(A tribute to one of India's greatest cricketers... Inspired by Professor Shanku and an article published in Bengali daily Anadabazar Patrika a few years ago.)