A Wish Gone Wrong!

Eyes locked on the other end, he looked at the sky shrouded in a palpable eerie darkness. As if the universe was telling him the long-held secret; perhaps the storm of destruction is in the making! He looked around and there was still a hint of late-afternoon spark. He smirked at the “Cautionary” weather messages coming on the internet.

“Worse thing, I would get little late. But at least I would explore this mystical world. There is nothing to worry.”

This was his way to console and make himself ready for the ultimate dive into the ocean. With the desire to go deep into this uncharted ocean, he marched ahead, took a deep breath and dived. He started feeling his body getting clammy, and in no time the outside noise vanished into oblivion.  Opening his eyes, he moved back and forth to evade the fear induced by the quiet stillness. The eccentric view of the profound ocean was in his grasp, which he had only imagined till now.

He kept sailing through for the next two hours, without realizing that the little bit strength left, required to go back home, was getting sucked up. His legs were not able to support his body weight anymore. “Nothing to get paranoid! I can do this”. He kept mumbling to himself.

A sparkling fruit caught his attention. He stretched his hand with great struggle to finally make this expedition fruitful, in literal ways. Hoping to taste it like a sweet elixir, he rolled it over his lips first. Instead he felt a half-cooked flesh let loose in his mouth, making him feel lightheaded.

Suddenly there was a loud thud!

He tipped his head into the rock-strewn bed of algae. A very horrid creature was gazing at him. It seemed the creature was chasing him from some time. “Help!” He cried out in fear! The creature started teasing him in a fiery way. The protruding head and an obnoxious smell made him throw up more. He had no idea what was going to happen next, but he knew one thing that it was too late for him to go back now.

Whether it was his hallucination or the effect of this mystical place, the creature seemed ready to engage in a dialogue with him. The creature had the power to navigate him back, but only with one condition. He should be inside a metal cage with thousands of such sparkling fruits. He must go back and distribute those fruits to everyone around him- the ambitious one, the naive one, the evil one, the good one, the young, the old…everyone.

Considering this as a NOVEL harmless demand, he agreed.

A hot tear tingled his eyes as he woke up in a wheelchair. He couldn’t see anyone familiar nearby. His mind was trying to reach back to time when he was still on the other end of the shore. “Would things be different if I had taken the warning messages seriously that day?” He kept thinking this in a loop. The evening wind was never this gloomy and harsh. The roads look dusty. Why there are less people to be seen? A voice from the television interrupted his chain of thoughts.

“There will be a nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure towards the Coronavirus pandemic.”

P.S: All images are a result of Google search and I have no copyright over them.

 

Demonetization: Why we need to breathe and look at things in a simpler way?

 

Let’s get the record straight, yes we are experiencing a hurricane right now in the country with the onset of high-value currency demonetization. A lot has been said about it; the problems, long queues, hidden agendas, currency circulation, cash crunch, bankers as our new hero…and many other things. We have been filling our head with innumerable information, thanks to television and social media. Some are with the government while others not.

It’s time for a breather. Isn’t it?

Let’s give our relentlessly working mind a break and, for a change, look at things just the way they are. No political spin, please! I have been reading all the stories that have been going rounds from past couple of days. Having experienced the cash crunch myself I know one thing– that it is not an easy phase. However, this stage of adversity made me realize one basic thing. We Indians are not that complicated or apathetic as one would portray us to be.

If there are retired bankers who are offering to extend their helpful hands to wind up the work faster, there are also young bankers who don’t mind sacrificing their weekends and sitting daily till 10 at night. If there are restaurant chains like Pizza Hut offering free food to people standing in inexhaustible queues resembling 100 feet long anaconda, there are also shopping malls that have made their parking charge free for the entire week. If there are some local vendors who are delivering groceries at credit, there are also people who are voluntarily serving tea and water to people sweating in scorching heat just to get hold of the new currency at banks.

Of course, there have been many inadequacies and I am sure we all are ranting about it. The entire country has toppled over, but honestly, can you guarantee that if there had been some other country things would have been better? Far from our image of a poor or a law-breaking country, there has not been a single incident of violence, hostility, ransacking or loot.

My father had to wait for four long hours at the esteemed PNB bank to get his old currency notes exchanged. Honestly, I was worried because growing age usually brings along many jigsaw puzzles. To my surprise, he came back with a beautiful story to narrate. There were few chairs in the bank lobby, and it was unanimously decided that the senior citizens and ladies will take turns to sit there and rest, while their place in the queue was being taken care by the person subsequent to them in the line. My father got his share of resting time. Not only that, he was also greeted with generosity- in the form of snacks- offered by strangers who had now become friends.

I am sure there must have been several other incidents as well, some inspiring, some depressing. The point is, let’s start looking at things in a transparent fashion, without being influenced by what is being said or written. Figure out your experience and then pass a judgment. We may not be the perfect law-abiding citizens, but we are not that bad as well. Some part of us still continues to be the caring, compassionate and refined one.

P.S: All pictures are a result of Google search and I have no copyright over them.