Mayank Mohan Upadhyay says the letter in THE THIRD LEVEL is real

The Third Level
“THE LETTER IS REAL”

Have you seen Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone starrer Hindi movie “Karthik calling Karthik”? It resembles with this story to a great extent.

Of course, the letter was real. It really did exist.

Charley was an ordinary man, who was fed up with all kinds of tensions and worries that plagued his heart. So, he wanted to escape from reality.

He imagined that he was successful in escaping. The intensity of his wish to break free was so high, that he got to believe that it was a reality. In real sense, it was mere a creation of his mind. Thus, the third level was born and existed only in Charley’s psyche.

Human mind is a strange thing. Charley’s mind was divided into two parts. One, that Charley controlled, and other, which controlled Charley. Actually, Charley was ignorant himself of the fact that it was his own creation. Hence, from one part of his brain, he was normal. When the other part of mind made him visualize the third level then Charley felt it to be real. And he wanted to tell others about his experience. He told everyone something, which they found hard to digest.

The dominating part of mind, which was the mother of that unreal world, wanted to make others believe it. Hence, it instructed Charley to tell everyone that there was a psychiatrist named Sam, who said it was just his ‘waking dream wish fulfillment’.

By this, the mind wanted to make others trust that, if Charley talks differently, then at least there existed a person named Sam, who was stable, because Sam said those words, which they had expected and hence they agreed. The mind also instructed Charley to write a letter on the paper, which was inside an envelope of his Grandfather’s first day cover collection, under Sam’s signature.

Moreover, the dominating part of mind made Charley to go and buy more old style currency. Hundreds of people come and go to a shop. How’d a shopkeeper remember who had bought what? He paid the bill under the name Sam.

Many times, when we place a key somewhere and forget, then our sub-conscious mind tells us where to look at, for it. Isn’t it? Like this, when Charley became normal again, i.e., when he gained back control, he saw that mail and was surprised. Also, he went to the shop to find ‘Sam’ had bought old style currencies. His dictating part of mind asked him to do both these tasks. And Charley felt that it was a calling from his sub-consciousness.

Therefore, Charley was himself forced to accept as true that Sam reached that level.

Again he told one and all. They could have easily denied Charley, saying he was crazy. But the mind firstly proved, through Charley, that Sam was an even person. Next, the mind made Sam, the center of scenario. And hence, all were choiceless but to accept that third level was reality.

Nowhere in the story is it mentioned that Sam met anyone personally. Only possibility was at the shopkeeper’s, but it was none other than our Charley.

Hence, the letter was real, all else was just a fake….

---by MAYANK MOHAN UPADHYAY, XII-B, KV,AFS,YELAHANKA

Mayank is very creative. I see a future poet and writer in him. I'm proud to have him as my student.