Publisher's Synopsis
Professor James Peterson, teaching in Material Sciences and Engineering, Cornell University who came to India to attend the 107th session of the Indian National Science Congress gets an invitation to visit Oxford School in New Delhi. He interacts with XI and XII grade students and when he is about to leave, an XI grade, Dhiman Mukherjee, nick named Tom tells him that he has an object with some strange qualities. It can neither be burnt nor can it be broken. This shining gray colored pyramid shaped object when placed on one's head stirs up his or her childhood memories. He says that he got it from a German monk whom he met at a place about 20 km away from Rishikesh, Uttarakhand up in the Himalayan mountains. Professor examines the object but does not give his opinion. However, he promises to help in finding out the truth and leaves for the US. Soon after he informs Tom that a research scholar from Zurich University would reach New Delhi to carry forward the probe. Christina Weber, a research scholar in Neurobiology department of Zurich University reaches New Delhi. She along with Tom's classmates visits the National Physical Laboratory and learns that the object is made of Lonsdaleite, the hardest material ever known, harder than diamond which till recently was thought to be the hardest. The next day Christina accompanied by Tom and Vaidyanathan travels to the monk's cave near Rishikesh. and confronts him. She finds out that the monk is Dr. Alexander Mueller, her friend's husband who went missing about one and a half years ago. Christina phones her friend who persuades her husband to return. Their little daughter cries out, says, "Please come. I miss you dearly." Dr. Mueller melts and decides to return home. On their way back to Delhi he reveals that he and his neuroscientist friend Henry found the object in the summer of 2017 in the Arctic where they went in connection with their project on how Penguin's memory works. After returning to their University, they built a microprocessor which they tucked into a small hole in it. The next year Henry was to get married and not willing to visit the Arctic. But Dr. Mueller persuaded to accompany him to the Arctic to carry forward their project work. One morning when he was asleep Henry found a flock of Penguins outside their tent and chased them hoping to catch one of the birds. He ran far while chasing and then realized that he had lost way to the tent. His dead body was found near a glacier. After his dead body was brought to the University, Henry's fiancée was informed. She came and stood silently beside the dead body. Then she turned to Dr. Mueller and said that had he not insisted to accompany Henry to the Arctic he would have been alive today. A terrible sense of remorse gripped him. He left his project and reached the Himalayas to seek solace. Tom asks him to explain how the Lonsdaleite piece stirs up one's childhood memory. Dr. Mueller regrets saying that he did not know. He said, the microprocessor was programmed by Henry and he only assisted him in the job. With Henry's death the knowledge is lost. Meanwhile, Tom's friends raise funds to pay for his journey back to the US. While thanking the members of Tom's Science Club at the airport before departure he says, India is a beautiful land not only for its beautiful landscapes but also for its people with unparalleled warmth. He says, he would come again to this land which he made his second home.
