Not very far above the dark hills on the road to Karjat from Mumbai, shrouded by mist and pre-dawn gloom, we saw a bright light, seemingly static and unsupported by anything on the ground. To me it looked like a UFO looking for a landing site. The other four sleepy members in the Toyota Fortuner protested half-heartedly. It was little after 6 a.m. on a cold (for Mumbai) Saturday morning and most of us had met each other just 30 minutes back. “Why do you want to be abducted by aliens?” petite A asked from the back seat. “I’m done with traveling on this planet. I want to travel to other realms,” I stated stoutly. As we drove past Neral on to the country roads beyond, it did feel like another realm. It was difficult to say whether we were in the wilderness or in villages. There were some buildings, a sudden market street, long stretches of lonely road, an unattended railway crossing and an unexpected school busy with its morning assembly. There were hills that kept u