THE BEGINNING OF THE END

All the four lids had to work overtime before his eyes could be opened and the extra bright light forced a severe bout of blepharospasm[sorry,it’s a technical term to denote spasm of lids] before he could see the light of the day.Infact it was the intensity of the peak hour light that finally brought out the ‘ I’ in him at about noon.It had never happened before and a light headache was rearing its head.He rolled out of the bed and the silence that greeted him made him uneasy.He flew all around the house in search of the ‘KANI’.No sign of her anywhere.The uneasiness turned to a slight panic.She never deserted him at any cost!.He went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and noted the total inactivity there.He cursed her and went to the fridge to take out the Milma cover and it was freezeed solid milk which angered him.After thawing it he made a bad cup of hot coffee and soon the first surge of caffeine through his circulatory system stimulating the cortex brought a semblance of life in him.He sat down and lighted a cigarette[it is yet to be banned in blogs] to ease in to the first gear of the day and sort out the abnormality that had befallen him.He gazed up all the three walls which adorned a clock and promptly all the 3 displayed the track of time as 9.40[infact each one showed 5 minutes this way or that way as usual] and it has to be A.M only considering the state of the Sun which was in its peak altitude at that time.It was then the panic struck him.He jumped and switched on the channel 23 and the freezed shot of an anchor in Ndtv looked back at him without any audio and the time shown on the corner bleeped 9.42. When he kicked the sound system furiously it blared back ‘Jeena yahan,marna yahan,is ke siva jana kahan’and repeating itself like a soiled record player.He ran amok.
Then his brain reminded him ,no external sounds from the street and the dead silence was deafening.Unlocking the door he peeked out and the whole horizon was EMPTY EXCEPT FOR THE PLANT KINGDOM… NO HUMAN. OR ANIMAL PRESENCE.He pinched his skin in shock. HE KNEW NOT WHAT TO DO .All the concrete structures were intact and all the houses locked. WHAT HAPPENED AT 9.42 to be precise.Suddenly the truth dawned on him, HE WAS THE SOLE SURVIVOR OF A CATASTROPHY ,he knew not. The heart rate which had soared to 140’s began slowing down. He sat down the steps to reflect on his predicament. He went back to the house and tried the land line and mobile and both were dead as if in confirmation. To reconfirm he shouted in full throttle ‘Any one out there’.The plants moaned.in desperation .For the first time that day HE FELT ELATED,
The panic had died down to a whisper and surprisingly he felt reconciled to his fate.He went back to his kitchen and had nother cup of coffee and smoked in deep thought. Should he kill himself to bring a noble end to the whole crisis? But ,no , his ‘ I ‘ in him would never allow him to do that , for sure.He has been in far worse situations even when the world was in full bloom .He chuckled ‘first , let me go out and perceive this new world without its usual inhabitants.
He put on his old lungi and with out any shirt jumped out in to this new found freedom like a child and ran through the streets in gay abandon with not a soul to spy.
The first act of the new born rebel[true coward ,to be exact] was to lift the lungi and pee skywards in the center of the street .A little relieved at his act of defiance,he slowed his pace and strolled to the main road .There was Dr.Vasudevan’s house deserted by his mad patients,a little ahead was the medical store fully opened , stacked with all sorts of drugs from the analgesics,antibiotics,the antihypertensives,the tranquilisers----for WHOM?
A strange thought pulsed—if no humans or animals what will happen to the bacteria,viruses and the mosquitoes? The next one was a shoe shop and noting his bare feet,he went in and put a new elegant leather chappal and came out taking a new umbrella to ward off the angry sun. Taking a u turn he reached the the main arterial road ,the heart of the now deserted Ottapalam town. No soaring vehicles with blaring hones ,no traffic , no shouts of the vendors , like a ‘ bandh’ except that all shops were open to the public.The banks with its coffers full lay in front of him like the prostitutes[sex workers they are termed now].No more any concern for the dollars,euros,the interests,the CRR rates,the loans or balances.
The Geojith office next door smiled at him—good bye to the Aban loyds,
The Reliances,the Punj loyds ,the DFL ipo or S.B.I. infrastructure funds---to hell with the crooked financial pundits—the technicals$ fundamentals---the Nifty futures,derivatives and Religare commodity markets. The Kavitha jewellery invited him with its gold and diamond ware---what is he going to do with the jewellery in the bank lockers ,he mused.He walked in to a hotel and helped himself to a cold lunch of yesterdays.Absent mindedly his hands went to the hind pocket for the credit cards with which he could buy the whole world[he had joked to his wife the last day.]
The lunch and cola invigorated him and he saluted the coca colas and pepsies for quenching the thirst of the third world. The next one in line was the State Beverage corporation with its Macdowells awakening his old urges.But he laughed aloud---what to do with the pegs when there is no one to show off---no need to escape----nothing to bother about , which was the real kick..He was no longer afraid of the police,the politicians ,the puritants and the pundits ,the STATE in general. He took a stone and hurled it nonchalantly at the Collectors bungalow.He tore off the party banners and danced with the umbrella ,a sort of thandava.Feeling tired he collapsed in the pavements and enjoyed the much needed afternoon nap against the blazing sun.
He woke up a little later and the sun was closing shop for the day. He knelt behind a public tap and had the bath of the year.Wetting himself kindled life back in to him and decided to pack for the day and return home.Snatching a bunch of bananas,few eggs and a pack of Modern bread from the near bye shops he trudged back .While he neared the brandy shop,a sudden urge took over and stealthily his eyes scanning the road either ways[habits take its own time to die down],he ducked in to the shop and was back with a xxx Rum and a familiar shiver of wicked grin freezed his face.Balancing the bottle on his head he eased forwards . As the dusk glowed,the joy of the new found freedom ebbed and the melancholy was taking over.
For the first time he began missing his so called friends,the foes,the strangers and even the street dog.Where was he going back?No more chances of fight with his wife,sermonizing with his sons,patching up with relatives,the longing for the long lost love,the restlessness with the patients,the covert glances at the neibouress,the mega serials ,the boring one dayers, the Mukesh hits,the street brawls and most of all his shoddy blogs.The sole companion will be his books.He wondered about the world with out any relationship as advised by his scriptures and the resulting freedom will not be any way ‘BLISS’ rather a sort of sickening ‘ DRYNESS’as he felt now.There will not be any eagerness for the tomorrows, he was sure.The old home welcomed him to emptiness and he stared at the withering photos staring back at him.
He took his old place in the balcony and began emptying the nectar from the bottle,gazing at the last rays of sun painting the borders of horizon of the gloomy skies waiting for the stars.As the superficial layers of the frontal cortex was being cooled by the alcohol.he spotted the ‘ Swarna Kodimaram’ of the Krishna temple about 10 meters ahead, he could not resist the impulse to meet the LORD [whom he had eluded for the last 2 years] .Gulping another tumblerful neat, for the road,he swam to the Temple which was open to all atheists and aneastheists,but not to non- hindus,he ventured in and reached the idol sitting idle,no supplicants today and literally starving,.
‘Heh,Krishna! Need some company today? No more will you talk about Vairagya,no?You are in the same hell as I am,aren’t you. The Leela you played has misfired ,am I correct.Let me be frank inspite of the rum. You need to share with some body whether it’s joy,misery,anger,envy,love,hate,action,inaction,bhakthy,freedom or moral slavery.Without your quota of bhakthas.you became just a stone instead. Today I am in a mood to listen to any ‘,far more worse than my enemy’,the term I use to categorise my wife,sons and YOU for sure.You all have the uncanny knack of sucking me to the center of the web you all created from which I have no escape .Why don’t you speak? Anything will suffice-even Gita !-my ears crave for sound notes,my eyes crave for any human form,all my senses are geared up for some sort of stimuli.,my voice slurred and fell I , did at the feet of my master.
Lo,I could hear HIS voice in chaste English. “My son, you know not what you are talking.You are too tired by the freedom combined with loads of rum.You will realize yourself in a short time ,then you will realize ME. Go,have a sound sleep after a shave.”
With out looking back I crawled home .My head was on fire and my ears resounding with his words,I howled aloud. To soothen my frayed nerves, I went to the bathroom and heeding his advice,I took out the razor and peered in to the mirror.

IT WAS EMPTY.

The ‘sookshma sareera’ orbited the temple and was soon engulfed by the REALITY OF MAYA.