Autobiography of an idea

Chapter 1:

Shantanu woke up to a wonderful smile. Raini was looking radiant as she sat at the window combing her hair. The sunlight was streaming in and making a halo around her head....

It was a stormy night and Shantanu was running, running like he had never before; the darkness melded with the tightness in his chest and curdled up to form fear. He tripped and fell on the slippery pavement, the fading light pooled into grotesque forms, he recovered and tripped again, crashing onto the pavement, his head hit the pavement and he lay still.

Raini awoke into darkness. She reached out with her hands and the nausea hit her. She controlled herself and stood up shakily. She felt around the room. It was totally empty, except for a glass of water in the corner and a couple of samosas. She gulped the food ravenously, and sat down cross-legged. Her eyelids grew heavy and she fell to the floor in an uncontrollable heavy stupor.

It had been an incredible month, Shantanu thought, as he drove on autopilot down the old bazaar around the Plaza de Italia. Left, right, around the deserted atrium. It was the wee hours of the morning and the speed dial hit 80, then inched up to 100. He put on some loud music and opened the window. Outside it was pitch dark except for his piercing headlight. Suddenly he felt uneasy and lightheaded and the light seemed to glimmer green and amber. He back at the dial and it showed 60. His hair stood on end. He looked out and saw that he was now in a different part of town. Another green flash. It was earlier in the day and he was sitting at his desk. This was crazy. He had just been speeding down alongside the deserted atrium and here he was. He was beginning to feel really spooked. He picked up the phone and called Raini, Raini of the wonderful smile and the beautiful eyes. They had just been married a couple of months and everything felt just right after he had talked to her. Try as he might he could not remember the number. Frowning and irritated with himself, he looked into the address book of the phone. Still no Raini. He looked around and made a sign to Varun to come over to his desk. They went back a long way, to when both were gangly teenagers in high school.
Varun was in the middle of a presentation but he immediately strode over. He considered Shantanu a brother in-spite of their frequent disagreements and . Varun said "This will really sound strange to you. Must cut down on the Friday night tequilas. I just had this dreamy episode a while ago and thought that I was driving home. Never mind, I can't seem to find Raini's number, could you look it up in the phone book?"
After giving a puzzled look Varun could just manage a monosyllablic "huh?"...
"Just give me her number OK? This day is beginning to get to me."
"Who the heck is Raini? Are you feeling alright. Is this one of your silly pranks?"
"This is not funny OK. Raini of our grade school and my childhood sweetheart. And oh by the way, your second cousin too. I have no idea why her number is missing from my phone book. Maybe some software glitch."
"I really have some work to do, if you insist on being silly, I'll get going now."
But there was no going anywhere. Varun knew Shantanu very well and there was something seriously wrong here. Finally after fifteen minutes of discussion he convinced Shantanu to take the day off by saying that they would drive home where he could meet Raini. Unknown to Shantanu, Varun drove down to Dr. Moitra's office near the famous Lal Chowk. Dr. Moitra was a personal friend and a famous psychologist. Almost 4 years ago Shantanu had begun suffering from strange memory lapses and schizophrenic behavior. However with some treatment the episodes had begun to diminish to the point of going away altogether a couple of months ago.