Live & Love!!

For the Tell tale Contest!!

“Coffeeee!! Teaa!!”

“Coffeeee!! Teaa!!”

The vendor called out as he passed the coupe.
“Thuddd!”
The baby fell on its knee trying to walk across to his mother.
The mother ran to pick up the child and is busy placating him.
Ravishing young lady sat across him checking her flock of hair in the mirror of her mini clutch bag.
The chatter from the group of young boys engrossed in a card game relayed from above.
The train had halted at Varnasi for 15 mins. He hadn’t moved or uttered a word from the time he got on.
The newspaper covered Sanjay’s face; his eyes peered through his bi-focal spectacles and his hair rested neatly combed sideways.
A pencil in his hand was losing his grip.

The pencil fell down. Sanjay observed the motley crowd in his coupe– the cute baby, the caring mother, a good looking young lady and an energetic group of young boys.  He slowly knelt down to pick up the pencil and wanted to continue scribbling a letter but he could not write anymore. He folded the newspaper and closed his eyes. Rest would help those tired eyelids that have been hyper active and over worked in the last 48 hours. He knew he was near and yet so far.

The train gathered steam slowly and left the Varnasi station. Hearing a loud wail, Sanjay’s eyes jumped to life. The baby had again fallen down but this time the impact seemed larger; at least the wail was loud enough to send the alarm bells ringing within Sanjay. The mother picked up the little kid and slowly started singing lullabies. The baby was in no mood to sleep and every time the mother would stop singing, the little brat would wake up and start crying. Sanjay’s forgotten smile broke out for a second but flash it was gone. He started visualizing the moments when his mother had taken care of him, singing lullabies and telling fascinating stories, making him believe that the world is a place to live and love wholeheartedly.

A loud cheer from the group of boys playing above disturbed Sanjay’s seamless transition into the past. One among the six had just won the game. The energy, spirit and liveliness had the power of youth written all over it and Sanjay could see his group of friends playing with him right in front of his eyes. Sanjay was sitting with them, laughing and egging one of his friends. Friends form a special part of one’s life and Sanjay’s friends – Ram, Surinder, Mankad, Vivesh and Kalyan all shared a special bonding. He wanted to meet them all today as today was the most important day in Sanjay’s life. He lived his best days with these friends and loved them so much. “Live and love”! He wanted to press that pause button of his brain box to simply stop these digressing transmissions.

The Phone rang sharply! With a sudden fit of rage, Sanjay jumped from his seat and lost balance completely. Thud! He hit the ground and the mobile phone in his shirt pocket popped out. The mother in the coupe immediately tried to lift Sanjay as the group of boys from the above berth jumped down to help the mother. Sanjay was surrounded by people now. The young lady, whose cell phone had rung, joined the helping party with a bottle of water and Sanjay gulped the water to his heart’s fill. Sanjay was back on his feet, assuring others that he was absolutely fine and carefully pocketed his cell phone. People went back to their respective activities. The young lady dialled back to return the call she got. Sanjay poured himself into the newspaper and observed the young lady very keenly as he kept flipping the pages slowly. The fluctuating emotions at every flip of the page kept him hooked. He was in rapt attention listening to what the young lady was speaking. He understood she was just engaged and was talking to her fiancée. Sanjay thought to himself “The period between engagement and marriage is one of those moments when two people start loving and living in each other’s cocoon.”  

The trauma of the loss was unbearable as the words love and live kept haunting him. He saw every life in front of him as an epitome of living and loving. Why was he born? Why did his mother shower so much love on him? Why his friends always wished the best for him? Why did his girl of dreams love him so much? Why did he have to lose them all? A bomb blast and all was over! His engagement celebrations came to a rude end. Could they have avoided going for shopping that fateful day? No one really cared and compensation can never compensate life. I wanted the world to take notice and what did I do? It might have been a religious factionalism that took my dear ones away but how did I think that this was the appropriate answer to my loss. Who are these people? I don’t know them but somehow the entire crowd reflects the family I lost. He rushed out of his coupe and every other person resembled the people who made Sanjay’s life colourful.

Two more minutes! Sanjay pushed the lavatory door close. He pulled out the bomb from his pocket. The devil was in it! A tight press and the mobile was diffused and switched off forever. Sanjay took one last look at it and dropped it through the hole.

My Nominations

Deepak 

Divya

Anand