Sid was lying on the bed to take a nap. Sleep wasn't taking over him due to continuous thoughts of yesterday's experience.

He twisted and turned so much that his bones squished, but sleep still didn't find its way to the eyes. A moment later, however, it did begin to make his eyes heavy. Weary eyelashes slowly closed, and sleep at last came upon him.

All of the negative thoughts followed him like a shadow.

In his dream, Sid was walking in a dense forest alone at night. He kept on walking alone in the dense forest but found no way to get out of it. Fear smeared across his face under the thought of getting lost; his heart flooded with a concern that a wild animal would attack him from anywhere.

The wind began to blow from all directions, and a massive storm took place. The leaves scattered from the branches, and some hit Sid.

He was amazed at the very fact that the leaves were as sharp as a razor-edge, and they gave him cuts on the face, blood gushed out from the gashes. Why are they sharp like a razor?

The only way to escape this torture was to run, and he did it with his full energy. But more to his surprise all of a sudden, the scene changed. The dense forest transformed into an urban city, Sid caught sight of busy people walking on the street. He wondered where this place could be, and a little later, he got mixed with the crowd.

Not even a minute passed, and a massive digital billboard attracted his eyes, a sentence written in bold letters: "SEE GOD IN HERE." Curious, he rushed into the building but spotted Swami Mukhteshwar sitting inside as "God." Thousands of people were showering money and precious ornaments on his feet.

A grimace made its way up on Sid's face, and he walked out from there within the twinkling of an eye.

Sid aimlessly walked where his legs took him. He caught sight of a group of extremists was dragging corpses off somewhere. The scene was so horrific that terror jumped nimbly down his throat, and he could hardly contain the fear that rocketed inside him because the view was very horrifying.

Again the flip of the dream happened; the whole scene changed into the middle of a religious riot. People stampeded to save their lives from extremists, who were slaughtering anyone that got in their way. Sid's heart thumped like a snare drum; he ran with all energy to find a secure hideout.

Sid crossed the threshold of an alley and desperately searched for shelter. He turned around and saw a bunch of extremists heading towards him. They were holding swords and other weapons in their hands, smeared with blood.

Now he left with other options than to leap over some fences. And when he tried to jump over a wall, his hands got grazed by the sharp protection on it. He helplessly hid behind a car; the sound of the extremist group approaching him slapped his ears.

Tears well up in his eyes; this made him feel how it is like to experience the fear of death. His tears dampened his cheeks; all bittersweet memories were the only object of his remembrance. And when—

The eyes pulled open at once; Sid sat bolt upright in bed. His heart constricted with terror, but instant relief washed over him to realize it was just a dream. When he swept over his palm over his forehead, his fingers got damp with sweat.

He drank some water to wet his dry throat. Why I can't get over with it? He thought. Sid has this nature of being introspective about everything he comes across, but the kind of people he dealt with from past few days was nagging his mind. He just wanted to understand why in the world there are religious bigots like Nikhil and Kumar, religious hardliners like Raj, con-mans like Swami Mukhteswar, intelligent yet misled men like Prakash, and of course, there are thousands of people like them.

A little later, Sid got fresh and then posted a status on his Facebook: had a weird dream, very frightening. After that, he went to the hall room and saw his mom and brother had a heated argument.

******

It was evening time — a bluish and orange hue mixed with the sky. Sid had come to meet Ravi-because he couldn't stop himself from sharing the mental obsession he was going through-and Ravi was the only person who would listen to his plight with seriousness. Ravi waved his hand to grab the attention of Sid.

"Why are you so busy today?" Sid sat on a chair.

Ravi didn't reply anything. Instead, he began to massage his temple. Sid pressed his lips together in a thin line as he conceived Ravi's anxiety.

Ravi shrugged off his anxiety attack and inquired about the seminar—which Sid attended yesterday—that he had almost forgotten to ask. "What happened in the program?"

From where he should begin or how he was going to explain, these things captured Sid into a trap. He said whatever came in his mind that he was under the impression to get some universal essence of religions over there; the common link or perhaps a talk of wisdom about how converting others through worldly allurement is unethical. But what he experienced in that seminar was opposite and irrelevant.

"Are they also radical?" Ravi interrupted, stroking his chin.

"They said that everyone is God," Sid said. "God!? How can we be God?"

"I'm not getting it at all." Ravi stared into Sid's eyes with intense eye contact.

"Ah ... I don't know. That Swami gave an example of a drop emerging from the ocean or something."

When someone speaks in foreign that one does not know, it becomes a pain in the neck to communicate. Precisely this was Ravi and Sid's mental state as they were deepening their discussion.

"What disturbed me the most was ... when his followers were worshiping him as God. They were chanting his name, showering his feet with bundles of money."

Although this was a pressing issue, Ravi couldn't hold his tummy from bursting out in laughter. "Just flip the letters backward from G.O.D to D.O.G."

Sid glared at him in this-is-not-funny kind of look, though he was unable to restrain himself from letting out a chuckle. "Yes, true. Why are these people following these types of swindlers? Don't they have brains?"

Ravi wrinkled his nose, and his eyes narrowed. "Uneducated," was what he has to say.

"No!" Sid countered, "I don't think so. There was this one man I met; his name was Prakash. He was well-educated and had a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University."

"So, he also considers that Swami as God?" Ravi quoted his fingers on "God."

Awe smeared across Sid's face as Ravi rightly questioned. "Hell yeah! He was his prominent disciple."

This conversation got disrupted when Ravi's dad called him inside the office room. Within a minute, Ravi came out and told Sid that they could head back home. Instead of going straight home, Ravi rode his bike to the cold drink shop to kill the extra time. When they reached, Ravi parked his bike aside and continued their earlier conversation over some energy drinks.

Pondering over the same issue which has given him sleepless nights, Sid was still unable to get over with it. "Man! It's confusing. Any other guy would have become an atheist by now, instead of inquiring further about God."

Ravi rolled his eyes. "Well then, why did you even bother!?"

"I don't know, and I can't explain it. I am like this from childhood. Once I get obsessed with something, I can't be at peace until I discover the pros and cons of that subject matter. Now religions are the object of my obsession. Is there no one in this world who could teach me about religions and God?" Sid furrowed his brows at the last sentence, which expressed his mental commotions.

Of course, you don't find teenagers of coming-of-age talking about religious! The boys of their age would've talked about jumping into bed with girls as soon as possible. And here, Sid and Ravi are willing to discuss questions that school/college, movies, songs, and so on never speak or mention. Such as who God is? What am I living for in this world? What is the purpose of my existence? Why there are disparities and inequities in the world? Sid probably has more questions in his mind.

"It's Kali Yuga." Ravi answered, "Maybe such a saintly person doesn't even exist in today's world." He shrugged his shoulders as his bottom lip jutted. Kali Yuga is the dark age in which we're living: the age of hypocrisy and quarrel.

"Then who will?" Sid stomped his feet on the ground in anger.

"I guess God Himself. But don't know where He is," Ravi slightly tilted his head, "shrouded in mystery."

"Okay then, I challenge Him. Right here, right now." Sid looked at the night sky. He viewed it like a dark blanket above the head, studded with stars. He pulled out his mobile phone from his pocket and began to read what he had typed down last night in a notepad app.

Dear God, I guess I don't need to introduce myself to You. They say You know everything. Billions of people come to worship You daily, and these billions of people have made millions of religions (Ravi chuckled). They all come before You to demand various things from You, and the list of it would be in trillions (Ravi chuckled).

But I don't want anything from You. I just want to know You. Who are You? What am I supposed to do in this world? Why have You created this world in which no one is happy and satisfied? Tell me, who am I, and what is my relationship with You?

On the one hand, one of Your followers said that I'm going to hell because I didn't accept his terms and conditions. And on the contrary, one says, everyone is God. There are many situations in which people kill, murder, terrorize others, and all this happens in Your name, doesn't it enrage You?

So tell me now if anyone still wants to know You, but how can things work out for him, if these crazy ideas come across his way? Or have You forsaken us? I want to know You. I want to see You. My heart says that You are watching me at every moment. Could You liberate me from my endless thoughts?

****