मैं और असीम

Summary

The narrator describes returning from a visit to the remote jungle village of Devgarh, which he had first visited three years prior. He is prompted to write about an extraordinary, almost unbelievable experience that occurred during that initial trip, an experience he had not recalled until his recent return. The narrator explains that he went to Devgarh for his adopted nephew, Aseem's, wedding. Aseem had come to the village years earlier for sociological research but became deeply involved with the local Adivasi community, becoming a dedicated Gandhian activist and even abandoning his thesis. The narrator had been a bridge between Aseem and his worried father, Surendra. During his first visit, the narrator, fascinated by ancient sculpture, discovered the ruins of a thousand-year-old temple in the jungle. On the third day, while examining a hidden idol, he had a profound experience. He heard a whisper asking if he recognized it, and the scattered stones seemed to move and reassemble into a complete, vibrant temple. He found himself transported a thousand years into the past, experiencing the temple's construction and realizing he was its chief architect. Upon returning to Devgarh for the wedding, the narrator slipped away from the ceremony to search for the same idol, but it was gone. He suspects Aseem may have moved it. The narrator is now haunted by the memory and the question of why he was given that experience, feeling compelled to trace its roots to his own being.