Resurrecting a dead body! Sounded like a perfect and sure adventure. Some of my freaky scientist friends invited me over this audacious errand. Fond of leading a swashbuckling life, I acquiesced.
One of my friends, Dr. Nayar, procured an unclaimed dead body from a government hospital to carry out some biological experiments. Mr. Nayar, in spite of being a doctor, was an ardent follower of necromancy. He had been reading these eerie books on voodoo and sorcery for the past few years. Once he claimed to have mastered the art of black magic, but nobody believed him and declared him a pariah. Practicing necromancy in this era of science and technology is considered tantamount to being paranoiac. But this time there seemed to be a strange certitude and charisma in his voice that tantalized us in believing him.
So, all of us gathered at Dr. Nayar’s clinic, that night, to witness the most venturesome deed in the history of mankind. The very thought of it gave me goose bumps. The clinic was somber and shrouded with an unusual silence that frightened the rest of us. Ironically, that room was a place meant for saving lives! The dead body, daubed with some strange chemical that smelled like rotten onion, was lying naked on a stretcher. It was a male body aged around 35, with dark complexion and heavy built. Dr. Nayar was sitting near the bloated head of the dead body with a series of weird colored chemicals, packed in oddly shaped glass bottles, lined up in front of him. The idea of providing us with the lifetime opportunity of witnessing this historical event impregnated him with a condescending feeling. The rest of us sat there in a row like an obedient kid listening to a fairy tale.
Dr. Nayar started the experiment by cutting a gentle slot into a vein of dead body’s hand, and pouring an azure chemical through it while continuously chanting verses in some strange language. This continued for the next 30 minutes until he had emptied 10 bottles of chemicals. He had the amazing ability of keeping the same countenance under all kinds of situation. Excess intelligence made him stoic. The continuous chanting by Dr. Nayar was soporific and made us dream about the beautiful bed.
As was vaguely expected by all of us (except Dr. Nayar, of course!), nothing happened. We lost all our hopes and cursed Dr. Nayar for ruining our night. But Dr. Nayar imperturbably continued with his experiment.
After another 30 minutes our patience declined and we stood up to leave. Just as we approached Dr. Nayar to bid him goodbye, we got startled by a vague jerk- like movement in the dead body. A chill ran down my spine. Overwhelmed with mélange of excitement and fear, I felt like throwing up. Dr. Nayar, who was until now working with a poker face, suddenly got excited and started infusing chemicals with an aggravated enthusiasm. The dead body started shaking vigorously like an old diesel engine. It took the body another 5 minutes to calm down, and then, as we saw it, he started breathing. He slowly opened his eyes. His eyes were yellow, probably due to the cessation of blood circulation. He then opened his mouth to say something, but all we could hear was inscrutable gibbering. He tried to sit up, but his limbs betrayed him. Dr. Nayar, unlike the rest of us, was dauntless and phlegmatic all this time, as if he was already aware of what was going to happen. He instructed the dead man to lie down and rest until his body is back to its normal rhythm.
After about 2 hours, the dead man started talking normally. He explained to us how he got distracted by the picture of a half naked woman on a roadside advertisement banner before he got ran over by a truck. Then Dr. Nayar explained to him how he brought him back to life. Dead man was stupefied by his narration and it took him a while to digest this information.
When he finally got convinced that he is alive, he unexpectedly got angry and tried to attack Dr. Nayar, but couldn’t succeed as his body was atrophied by death. He was seething with anger and constantly imprecating Dr. Nayar, for he was the one who brought him back from his beautiful after-life.
Beautiful after-life? Discombobulated by this queer fact, we requested the dead man, whose anger obliterated by now, to explain the after-life. Whatever he said next were the most amazing things we ever heard in our lives.
“The life after death is nothing. It’s a zilch. No ground below feet, no sky above head. No object in vicinity. Darkness everywhere. But this darkness is completely different from the darkness of corporeal world. This darkness is soothing and embracing, rather than the asphyxiating darkness of the material world. There is no feeling of pain and fear. No feeling at all. The only feeling that can be sensed is the feeling of cool breeze striking against the face. The body feels weightless. No worry and no emotion at all. Only peace of mind.”
His narration was so lively and visceral that I could almost feel myself there. As a kid, I was taught that one gets to meet god after he dies. I solemnly espoused this theory, which thwarted me from taking any stance defied by god. Driven by this curiosity, I asked the dead man if he saw, hear or felt the god after death. The dead man guffawed, apparently at my childish fantasy.
“God is not a person with a body like human beings. God is a force. The darkness that embraced me is the god. The cool breeze that was blowing on my face is the god. The peace of mind that I felt is the god. God is within yourself and present everywhere in myriad forms. You feel god all the time, but you never acknowledge it…..”
He wanted to say more, but his tongue failed him. The effect of chemicals, as was already told by Dr. Nayar, was ephemeral. The dead man was shaking vigorously once again, as if he was following the same route for departure. Few minutes later, he went back to his beautiful after-life. He died once again!
