A motorbike is seen proceeding towards the house of the publisher of Noah Publishing Company, a renowned name in the field of publishing. A young person is seen getting down from the motorbike.

Doorbell rang!

After sometime an old man in his late eighties, wearing blue coloured jeans, white shirt and white cap is seen hobbling along the nearby street.

“Hello!” said the old man, as he came nearer to the house.

“Hello!” “Are you Mr.Noah?” asked the person.

“Yes” the old man replied.

“I am Jeff” uttered the young man.

As the old man started to scratch his head, this young person said

“You don’t know me, Sir.”

“Come in” old man said, while going inside.

“No Sir, I have to leave. i have something for you” Jeff said.

He handed a bag to the publisher with a number written on it. It seems as if the number is a telephone number. Publisher is gazing at the bag with his curious eyes as to know, what is inside the bag.

“Good bye, Sir” Jeff said while revolving the accelerator of the bike.

Publisher is still looking at Jeff’s motorbike vanishing slowly from his sight. While opening the bag, he went inside his home, sat on the sofa set. He took out a scruffy diary from the bag and kept the bag next to his right leg. Carefully opened the diary. On the very first page, he came across a heading and a name:

“BIRDS IN FIRE”

“WRITTEN BY: NOAH”

His eyes started to sprinkle water. It seems as if, he is in a numb state. He is carried away by thoughts: may be he is in his past. After sometime, he realized that, he was reading the diary. He slowly flipped the first page, a story began to unwrap itself.

II

He was travelling into the forests of Great Himalayas. The cool climate of the Himalayas was providing the continuity while travelling which, he needed the most. It seemed as if , the Himalayas doesn’t have an end. The farthest sight of his eyes could see, was huge mountains. As he was moving further, crossing the mountains, one after another. They were becoming more calm but gigantic.

“Who am I?” Noah shouted

The voice echoed, touching each and every pinnacle of the mountains and came back towards him, the same way it went away from him. He kept his bag on a huge circular stone, which was placed between two smaller stones. He moved slightly away from the stone and sat on a cliff, gazing at the vegetation. After sometime, he rested his head on a flat stone and started writing his diary. While keeping diary on the ground, he heard a sudden noise and realized that he fell asleep while writing his diary. He instantly went to the place from where the noise had erupted. Found his bag and the stone absent from their positions. He noticed that, the stone came from a height and was stationary for a temporary period of time. He kept looking downwards for some minutes. With an unstable mind, he started his journey again. While travelling on a narrow path, he had forgotten about what happened in the past and started concentrating on the path, which was becoming more narrow with every turn. Dusk showed its face, he knew that it was going to be dark soon. He moved fast so that his time to find shelter and sun’s time to set, could match with each other. Looked upwards, saw stars shinning blur, because the sun had not vanished completely.

He took out a matchbox from his pocket, lit a matchstick and looked at the path which became so narrow that, not even a single person could walk. A thought of resting came up in his mind. As he was about to lie-down, he heard the sound of water gushing out of a source. Noah instantly started proceeding towards it, carefully stepping ahead and lighting one matchstick after another. Opened the matchbox again and found only one matchstick left in it. In order to save the last matchstick, he kept moving slowly in darkness, placing one foot in front of another delicately, and, ensuring that the ground was still there. It seemed like, he was near the source of water, as his ears could only hear was, the sound produced by water after falling on a hard rock. He moved his foot forward and realized that his foot is in water. He wanted to light the last matchstick but thought, not to waste it. Noah lifted his left foot, placed it on the ground, started making circle on the ground with it and sat down there, with his legs in a folded position. As he was drinking water, his eyes got stuck at the sky, which was quite dark but the stars were that much bright.

He moved his head towards his left, noticed stars being obstructed by an object. Lifted his hand and touched the object. The object displaced from its position.

With a sweet, medium pitch voice someone said

“Who is there?”

Noah became afraid, stepped two steps backwards. With his shivering hands, he took the matchbox out of his pocket and lighted the last matchstick. He slowly moved the matchstick towards the object. When last matchstick, revealed the identity of object, he was dazzled. Hazel green eyes, bulging out of a very pretty face. He was lost in the eyes. His throat allowed him to speak only one word “WOW!”

“I said, who are you?” asked the young lady.

“My name is noah and i am a wanderer” he replied.

“Why are you staring at me?”

“Haven’t you seen a girl before?” asked the young lady.

He kept on staring at her. After sometime, he stopped staring, as he found her to be feeling uncomfortable. The lady was wearing a saffron coloured Indian dress, a necklace made up of beads, a ring in her lady finger, wearing nothing in her ears, had a cute smile on her face.

“What’s your good name, young lady?” asked Noah.

“Agatha” she replied.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I am a wanderer too and came here to finish my work” she told him.

They had conversation for a long period of time. During the three hours they talked, she told him she was from Italy. She further told him about her travelling from the past two years, around the world and she had come here as her last spot. She also told him that, she was searching the real truth.

“Real truth?”

“What do you mean by real truth?” he asked.

“I don’t know” she replied.

“Why are you travelling?” she asked while drinking water.

He narrated his story to her. In between their conversation, he realised about his lost bag.

“Agatha, I lost my bag which contained all of my eatables as well as some important items” he said

“Don’t worry, you can share mine for the time period” she replied

Agatha took an oil lamp out of her bag, bottle of oil and a piece of cotton. She rolled the cotton and dipped it in the oil lamp. With the help of a lighter, lit the lamp. He washed his hands in the flowing water under his feet.

“Why are you looking at me so strangely?” she asked and started serving him some bread.

Both of them had their dinner. Looked at each other as if ,each one of them had a question for the other.

“Agatha, what is your profession?” he asked, breaking the silence.

“And why did you leave your job?” he asked the second question without waiting for an answer to the first one.

“I am a scientist and I never left my job” she replied

She told him that she wanted to connect, spirituality and science, to find whether reality exists. When mind finds something innocent, then it usually laughs. His mind was not different from others, so it did the same. He laughed, which was the reason for her angry face.

“It’s not a joke” she said, with an expression of anger on her face.

“I know” he replied , while smiling and raising his eyebrows.

“Sorry, I have to sleep now” she said, as if she was tempted to be rude.

Saying goodnight, she took a dirty red coloured blanket out of her bag, spread it on the ground and slept on it. After some minutes, she blew out the lamp. He wanted to continue the conversation. But thought, she might be tired and said goodnight.

Night was as dark, as the meaning of darkness itself. He wanted to sleep. But she had become the reason of his insomniac state.

“It can’t be true” he said to himself

He looked at Agatha. But she was sleeping. A lot of time had already passed and he was in his thoughts. For the first time, he had experienced a feeling of connection with a stranger. After sometime, he sat in meditative posture and meditated for two hours. When he opened his eyes.

“You haven’t slept yet?” said Agatha, while turning her face towards his side.

“No” he replied

“I guess you are a human being.” she said, smiling at him.

He grinned and replied “I am.”

“Noah, if you don’t mind.” “May I ask you something?” said Agatha

“Yes, be free to ask” he replied

“Why are you like this?” she asked, blinking her eyes.

“What do you mean by like this?” he asked

“Most of the times, you are silent, laugh when the other person is serious, stare at me and moreover you don’t sleep.” she said

“Oh, your ego got hurt?” he replied, laughing again.

“I don’t need to answer you. But let me tell you, I laughed earlier, because you told that you want to combine science and spirituality, in order to find the reality.” he replied

“Then? What was wrong in that?” she said

“Because reality does not exist.” he replied with a sudden look at her.

“What the hell are you talking about?” said Agatha

“You’ll not understand.” replied Noah in a low voice.

“Then explain me. I have a lot of time.” she said

“Normal humans would not understand.” he replied

“Look who was talking about ego, who himself thinks that, his level of understanding is more than others.” she replied

After hearing this, Noah started thinking, what Agatha just said was absolutely right. How could he think that, he is the only person who knows and understands. After thinking for a while, he came to know the words which he just said, were also a part of his ego. This ego, was the ego of understanding. He unwillingly started sharing his thoughts.

“What is reality, as per your mind?” he asked

“Our perception through our senses, is the reality. As, I am able to see you, hear you, touch you, smell you. So, it means, you are real.” she replied

He smiled again at such an innocent level of understanding. The innocence in her, was the reason of his attraction towards her.

“What we perceive is not the reality, but how we perceive, is the reality.” “Close your eyes.” he said

As she closed her eyes, he stood up and went away from her.

“What do you perceive right now?” he asked

“Nothing” she replied

“Exactly. What closed eyes are perceiving, is the reality for the closed eyes.” he said

“Now, open your eyes and see what happens to your perception” he said

She slowly opened her eyes. But he was not there.

“Where have you gone?” Agatha asked, while looking here and there.

“Behind you!” he replied, while sitting behind her.

“The reality which was earlier in front of you, is now behind you.” he said

“I have not understood.” she replied

He explained her, the reality which a person perceives, is the pseudo-reality. The concept of reality is just an illusion , because reality keeps on changing with the passage of time. It is always an individual’s perception, which tends to create the reality. Otherwise there is nothing as such.