I had booked the last flight home – at 10:45pm – to avoid the crazy Gurgaon Peak Hour Traffic, and also it was the cheapest I could get.

And the flight was delayed. Finally the boarding started at 11:30pm. I had woken up at 3:00 AM today, for this one day trip. I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open and quickly dozed off as the flight was taking off.

I felt a scary shudder and woke up and found the flight dark. I closed my eyes but I could not go back to sleep. I pulled up my phone and saw the time – it was precisely 12:00 midnight.

But I knew something was wrong. The phone was blurred and it was kind of overlapping as if 2 phones were there. I thought it was my tired eyes playing tricks on me and closed them once again and tried to go back to sleep. I could not shake off the odd feeling.

I tried to open my eyes, and by habit when I am bored I unlocked the phone. This time I tried to focus my eyes better and I could not believe what I was seeing. There were 2 phones. One an Android Phone and another my iPhone overlapping each other. I brought my hand up and could see 2 over lapping wrists and palms. I looked to my left and got the shock of my life.

My sleep evaporated like spilt petrol on a hot tar road.

My co-passenger, a young man – was showing in double – in an overlapped state – like a bad photoshop job. I knew it wasn’t a dream. Because any time I get such a shock I always end up waking. I spoke to myself what is this?

“Yes what is this” – I felt a message come back to me and it was very much my voice. Was I speaking to myself?

“Did I just speak to myself? – felt as if I got cloned or something”, I thought.

“Yes, it does feel like I am split into two. This is crazy“, quick came back the reply.

For sometime both of us were quiet letting the situation sink in.

I did not know what to ask. But I got a thought from my other self pop up in my head.

“I have read about this before. This duplication”

“Kidding me. This is nuts. Doesn’t make any sense”.

“Ok, I have a theory. I read lot of sci-fi, you read books right?”

“No. I don’t – but how come I read books. I certainly don’t.”

“Hold on – don’t panic. I think I am getting it. There are these parallel universes. Infinite parallel universes. There are infinite instances of us in all these parallel universes this very moment”.

“Doesn’t make any sense. You mean to say, I am right now in infinite such situations, and there are infinite Earth and Universe and so on. Sounds crazy.But go on.”

“Ok. Believe me. The latest in Quantum Theory proves the existence of these Infinite Parallel Universes. And at precisely mid-night we might swap our positions.”

“You mean you are having a different life – like a rockstar, and I can take up your life”.

“More or less. However our lives are not that wide apart – just a few variations thats all. I run a startup – what do you do?”

“Same, I also run a startup”.

“Ok, but before we get into the details, do you want to swap?”

“You mean we have a choice so we can swap places. How will we even do it, and how will I survive in your universe”

“Don’t worry, we have done it so many times before – just that we never do it consciously. Haven’t you felt your life take wild turns all of a sudden – it is because we have swapped places”

“Yes, agree to that. Thought I suddenly got lucky, or got totally unlucky. Ok I am game – always ready for a new adventure”.

“Ok. Man you are me. Always looking for an adventure. Lets do it. Just close your eyes, and will to swap places – I will do the same and go back to sleep. It will work”.

“Will we meet again?”

“Highly improbable. Even if we meet we wouldn’t know because there are infinite of us”.

“Can’t we continue this conversation some more time?”

“Look at our phones, what time does it say”

“Weird, Still 12:00. Thought I was chatting with you for long.”

“Yes, since we are conversing at the speed of thought, this discussion is happening in fractions of seconds. Before it turns 12:01 the swap should happen. Not sure how much time is still left. If you want to do it, we shut up, will it and go to sleep”

“Done. Nice meeting you myself. Have a good one.”

“Same here.Good night”. 

“Please raise your window shades and pull your seats to the upright position”, I heard the air hostess say. I opened my eyes, and felt strange. And suddenly the conversation came flooding to my mind and looked at my phone – it was 1:20AM. And it was not an iPhone any longer.