Convergence

"You are late Ms. Handa," the professor narrowed his eyes at the twenty six year old woman who was huffing and heaving breaths in front of him.

"I am sorry professor. I was typing this till early this morning and fell asleep in my chair." Geet said handing the professor a transparent file with fifteen pages in it. The professor glanced through the first page and looked at her in absolute bafflement.

"Please tell me that this is a joke Geet." Professor Rangarajan asked her unblinking.

"No sir, it is not. I have really thought through this and I think this is what I want my dissertation is going to be on." Geet replied.

"You realize that you passing the year depend on the grade you are going to get on this paper right?" Professor tried to rationalize.

"I understand sir. Please read through the abstract first. I believe that I should be able to justify my research paper." Geet replied.

"But comic books, Geet?" Professor wasn't convinced.

"Sir, The Sandman, is a graphic novel which derives elements from Greek, Roman and Norse mythology and is a story about stories where every character interpret events in their own perspective sometimes agreeing and sometimes not. There is a central character, of course, whose evolution is depicted in the novel. It is so much more than a simple story sir. The inter-textual structures, literary tools, the author Neil Gaiman's take on Shakespeare's Mid-summer night's dream et al is what I am planning to bring in to my thesis." Geet said everything in one breath.

"You do realize that I have no idea what you are talking about and whatever you just said didn't make any sense?" Professor asked her bemused at her passion. The professor had no clue who or what The Sandman was until Geet showed him. The first three volumes sat on his desk, untouched, and collecting dust.

"I know sir but you have an entire semester to catch up," Geet grinned at her professor. He chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"Alright Geet since I don't want to dampen your spirits, I will give this abstract a shot. But no promises on it acceptance, okay?" Geet nodded happily. She wished him good day and was leaving office when the professor's voice stopped her.

"Why did you choose this Geet?" Professor asked her. She turned around and looked at him blankly. "You are one of the top students in your class and you could have picked any book of cultural significance and aced it. Why did you pick this and are prejudicing your grade?" Geet didn't answer immediately as she searched for words. When she spoke, her voice was hollow.

"Morpheus, is The Sandman. A man who resembles a Greek tragic hero tries to bring himself to change but realizes that it is better to die than to change. He is of the believer that rules are more important than changes but an event in his life makes him see things in a different way. The cold detached man tries correcting the wrongs he has done over millennia but sees that there is very little he could to do to mend the wrongs. It's a story where a man evolves to the point where there is nothing but death in the end."

"What is going on Geet?" Professor Rangarajan who treated Geet like his own daughter had worry etched on his face.

"Good bye sir," Geet bode him farewell and didn't respond to his question.

--o00o--

Silence of the wind wakes her up. The silence is deafening and the air stifling. Two heartbeats later she realizes that she is wearing nothing but her skin and she is trapped in a big glass dome. She helplessly searches for her captors in the dark but in vain. She doesn't know if it's day or night or even what day it was. She hears a door creak open and a sliver of light falls into a room like structure.

Basement, she realizes.

Two pair of footsteps walks towards her after climbing down stairs. She bends her knees, crosses her legs and pulls them in front of her hoping to cover her naked form. She sees two figures peering at her and assessing her. Of what, she cannot make out.

"She is not what we wanted," she hears a man say.

"But she can be useful," the other man replies. Their voices reduce to whisper and she cannot hear their conversation anymore.

"Is she sleeping?" The first man peers through the glass dome.

"She has been sleeping since she was brought in." The second man replies.

"I will hold the dome up and you take her out. Master will not know what happened," The first man plans.

She hides her head behind her legs and watches them through the veil of her hair.

It was time.

But she heard a name somewhere in the distance. Geet. Was that her name? Geet. It was louder this time. Geet. She turned her head to see from where the sound was coming fromm.

"Geet!"

She was awoken with a start and looked around.

"I know you," she told the girl who was standing in front of her with hands on her hips and looking at her worriedly.

"You fell asleep in the class. Again," the girl told her. "Are you alright? You haven't been sleeping well, have you?" The girl was persistent with her questioning.

"I was typing that abstract last night Anjali and I fell asleep somewhere around morning," Geet replied and yawned loudly.

"Is that all there is to it?" Anjali asked, worry still evident in her voice.

"Yes. Yes. Yes." Geet replied rubbing her eyes.

"You aren't having nightmares now, have you?" Anjali pressed not letting it go. Geet sighed.

"I am fine Anjali. Let's go get some lunch, okay?" Geet got up and walked out of the classroom without waiting for Anjali's response.

Geet made a mental note to write about her dream in her diary.

Dream after all is who she wanted to meet the most.

To be continued.

Quote: Dreams are composed of many things . . . of images and hopes, of fears and memories. ~Dream