Path to Nirvana

From a very young age, Rahul Sharma was taught that a man must always strive to succeed. As a diligent student, a strict vegetarian, and a dedicated friend, he makes great strides toward the path to a comfortable and happy life. Perhaps owed to his remarkable kindness, he cannot help himself from befriending the new kid in town, the troubled and often misunderstood Tom Spencer. Together, the two build an unlikely friendship based on Tom’s earnest desire to get back on a more productive path. In Rahul, Tom believes he has found the perfect role model to help him avoid his nasty habits and build a better life for himself. As a transplant from England, Tom has led a troubled life. His parents divorced when he was a young boy. The result is a tendency to fly in the face of social norms and pursue self-destructive behavior. Even from a young age, he experiments with drugs and alcohol and explores his sexuality. In college, he begins a gambling habit that quickly blossoms into an addiction. The more debt he accrues, the more reliant he becomes on Rahul. When his gambling begins to spiral out of control, the danger hits home a little closer than either man could have ever expected. On a business trip to India, Rahul meets Julie, who has recently returned to Mumbai following her husband’s tragic death in a plane crash. Rahul takes a quick liking to the comely young woman. He asks Madhu, whom he had met in graduate school back in the US, his thoughts on Julie, and although Madhu has feelings for her, he gives his friend his blessing to pursue her romantically. For Julie and Rahul, the love blooms with great intensity. After a brief courtship, the two get married in Mumbai. They fly together back to Rahul’s home in Houston, where they establish a blissful life together. Julie could not be more satisfied with her new life, save for the consistent frustration of Tom’s presence. She believes Tom to be a bad influence on her husband. Her distrust only intensifies when she gives birth to Rachel. Now that she is a mother, she does not want anyone interfering with her happy home. On one of his regular trips to Las Vegas, Tom accrues a quarter-million-dollar debt at the poker tables. A high-roller named Suri butts in to bail him out, offering to introduce him to a man with enough cash to help him gamble his debt away. With fronted money from an international terrorist named Ismael, Tom makes an effort to eliminate his losses. He fails spectacularly, and now he is faced with an insurmountable debt to a ruthless crime lord. In lieu of money, Ismael demands that Tom steal schematics on a missile defense program spearheaded by his employer, a company that also happens to employ Rahul. As a low-level employee, Tom’s security clearance will not allow him to access the files he needs, but Rahul, recently promoted to a vice president position, will be in perfect position to secure the data. Tom merely needs to figure out how to leverage his friend to get to the information. Tom’s efforts fail, and he now finds himself pursued by powerful men who want him dead. As he has done throughout his life, he calls Rahul for aid. The unsuspecting Rahul drives to pick up his friend at a seedy gas station, and before he knows it, he is locked in a dramatic car chase. The chase ends in a devastating accident that kills one of the men while the other lives. To family and friends, it at first appears that Rahul has died and that Tom fights for his life in the hospital. But when Tom finally wakes, he insists that he is in fact Rahul. Through extensive psychiatric tests, it is determined that Rahul has miraculously come to inhabit his departed friend’s body. Blessed with this second chance, Rahul sets out to piece his life back together. He finds the going difficult, however, as living with another man’s face tends to present a number of obstacles. For one thing, his friends and family seem to have trouble believing that he is who he says. Worst of all, Julie, who had hated Tom in life, cannot bring herself to love her husband in the way she once did; and Rachel is too young to understand the concept that her father is locked inside another man’s body. Living as Tom comes with its dangers, as well. Though Tom has died in spirit, it is his body that his enemies see. Mistaking Rahul for his dead friend, Ismael returns to take what he believes is rightfully his. Now Rahul must stand up for himself and his family; he must risk his life to right all the wrongs committed by his late friend. Path to Nirvana is a story of a small group of people journeying on differing but tightly interconnected paths. The choices they make, for good or for bad, always impact the fates of the others. One man loses everything in his attempt to help his best friend. Another man causes the downfall of a happy life because he cannot avoid the habits he has cultivated over a lifetime of contrarian behavior. One woman loses her husband to tragic accidents and regains him as a stranger, is forced to face the harsh reality of trying to love a man wearing her enemy’s face. Their lives weave together in a story of tragedy, romance, and above all, fate.