The Madman

"I have this feeling for the past few days that my mother ship is trying to contact me. I am getting this very strong vibe from strange places and at strange times since when I lost my transiterator. Not surprising, since they would be worried. They can never think that I lost it; they might actually be thinking that I am imprisoned by you guys and you are trying to interpret their signals. Little do they know that you are these puny little fellows and simple minded too" said the mad man sipping the tea I bought him.

It had become a routine for me. I would buy him tea, biscuits or food and he would keep me engaged for some time with his words. I started this just to ridicule him and for time pass but I found that he actually has some interesting stuff to tell. But lately he was being ridiculously weird.

"You earthlings have an ego that is bloated enough to assume that you are moving fast towards the fringes of science when you have not even managed to enter the realms of what is known as true science in the rest of universe." He said with a gleam in his eyes.

I laughed "hey what’s up you are being weirder than usual.... you taking strange things, I was close to assuming that you were sane".

"Did you guys not call anyone who is wiser and different mad?" he shot back with considerable force in his voice which actually put me off. "You are all resting on your laurels - and success makes you blind, so blind that you are reversing a whole lot of progress made by your ancestors. You dismiss all their teaching as mysticism or something backward. You can’t be more wrong”

I waved my hand to indicate that I was dismissing his speech and was about to leave when he caught my hands and did not let me go. But I had to; it was getting a bit too much for me. What have I let myself into? Listening to him is ok but I don't have to get scolded for the evolution of mankind into what it was. It irritated me that a mad fellow was finding fault at the way we were and I released myself from his clutches and left in a hurry.

After a few days when I was standing at the entrance of the hotel waiting for funeral procession to pass I heard this ecstatic laughter. This fellow came running to me and says “I am so happy when I see someone crossing over! Why are you so confused? I mean the same thing you call death!! He will now see the other worlds”. I was taken aback and was looking at him with some new revulsion. He continued “now don’t give me that look. Haven’t you heard of the seven worlds that exist beyond the skies? You primitive creatures” he lamented.

Enough is enough, I decided not to see this fellow again and I just started crossing the road and did not even turn back to look at him, when he shouted “I like you; you are not like others who throw stones at anything that is different from them. I will talk to you even when I cross over and go to my world. It is possible you know, I can talk to anyone in this universe if I wish, but I should have the transiterator”

Sticking to my decision I hardly saw him after that. Even when I did, I took a detour to make sure that he does not spot me. I even stopped going to my regular tea shop to avoid this fellow. A few weeks had passed since then and today I happened to pass by the side of that shop and I did stop for a cup, when the tea master (the one who makes tea in a road side tea shop) asked me “Sir, you know that mad fellow was hit by a lorry last night? He died on the spot. People say he rushed towards the speeding lorry shouting something like finally I am going. The Police have taken away the body. Poor fellow! But good that he is dead. What use are these people to earth?”

I am not sure if I was happy or sad. But why should I feel after all I was not even attached to him. Putting all these confusions to rest and closing the chapter of the madman in the book of my life, I hit my bed when I suddenly heard this small voice: “Hey you, earthling – I have got a new transiterator”. I sat up wide awake fully drenched in sweat. Am I hallucinating? Was it a dream? or was it................