One For The Road

It was the evening of Dusserah. The moon was shining brightly in the dark blue skies although the grey clouds were hovering around. On such a wintry night Arnab parked his bike at the pool near the village Uddavne.  People of his town, Roha were busy prepearing for the festival of their village-deity to be held the next day. He had lost the track of time when he arrived at the pool and he didn’t even venture into checking the time in his cell phone. His twinkling almond shaped eyes shared similarity with the mood of the sky up there. It seemed as though the sky wanted to reveal his feelings that were playing havoc inside his heart and could not find a way out. Arnab got off his Activa bike, rubbed his hands and touched his face to give it some of the warmth from his palm. He then opened the small boot of his bike, a vague smile dancing on his lips; there was a DVD which he had rented for tonight, to watch on returning home. It had a cover of Rachel McAdams on Eric Bana’s lap; besides the DVD lay a pack of Gold flakes Lite and a can of Budweiser. “Happiness!” Arnab exclaimed as he took out a cigarette and opened the can. Just as he was about to light the cigarette the cell phone which hardly fitted his pockets buzzed; “Not now!” Arnab said to himself, as he took out his cell. Wide screen of his phone displayed a text message from Shreya. He tabbed in to see what the message contained. It said, “Sorry, am behaving rudely…..” He gulped in another sip of the chilled beer and forced a smile on his face. He wanted to laugh, but he realized it’s insane to laugh at one’s own misery. He kept the cell phone back in his pockets and took another puff followed by a long gulp. He felt so lonely at that moment that even a dog bark would have seemed like a good company to be with.

But that night he wasn’t alone at the pool. Just few feet away stood two shadows whispering to each other silently, it hardly made a decibel of sound. Arnab didn’t look back at the two people behind who were discussing about him. One of the two was a boy still in his teens wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt and jeans torn at random spots paired with sneakers with untied strings. The other one in his mid-twenties donned a blue-denim jacket over a cream white shirt coupled with black pants and boots. They both hugged and shook hands. The older one threw a good glance at the other and said, “You still look cute, kiddo!”

“And you look scarred, dude!” the kid replied. “It’s been a long time since we met, right?” the kid said resting on the barricade wall of the pool.

The older one nodded in agreement and threw his back at the wall.”We were bound to meet once again, for Arnab is in dilemma. We are the only ones who can help him out”. He took out a Gold flake and lighted it. “Not now dude. Don’t blow me up in such a crisis buddy. We are supposed to help him out now rather than just be a spectator. Don’t you see history repeating itself?” the kid shouted back at him. Arnab looked back but couldn’t see anything. He thought that it might have been a bat.

The older guy slapped the back of the kid’s head saying, “Don’t be too loud. I know the situation. It’s not his-story repeating itself, it’s your-story that’s reeling back in.” The kid got down the wall giving away a laughter and said, “Yes, I know it began with me. And hey, don’t hit hard next time. I even admit that it was my fault that I fell in love with a girl on social networking site. It was my fault that I went and met her on a date. “ He stammered nervously as a tiny rivulet of tears rolled down his cheeks. “It was mm-y fault that we broke up, but don’t you think that’s all in his head. Then why doesn’t he just rewind back in time and stop himself from going back in the pit?” the kid questioned the older guy.

“He isn’t a DVD player to play, pause, rewind or fast forward kid!” he replied, taking one more puff. Arnab coughed a bit on the other end.

“And what have you been doing, just giving him an excuse for taking one more for the road, huh??...” the kid swore back at him in rage.

“Chill buddy, that’s what my job is. It is to show him the consequences of his deeds. It’s he who isn’t paying heed to my acts.” The older guy replied calming down his younger self.

“Maybe time’s taking a bit more to heal the wounds and that’s why everything is going haywire? So what’s the big plan then?” the younger one asked his older self.

“There’s no big plan than bringing him back to senses. At least this time he is not broken, it’s just a bent. I think he will get over soon, because neither had he expressed his feelings to her nor had he fallen in love with her. We should get rid of that little petty thief who stole his heart” the older one said giving way to a yawn, and bending his neck a bit on either sides.

“Or maybe we should help him to read between the lines. It might help him as he gets older.” The younger one replied giving away yawn too. “Looks like Arnab needs some sleep!” he said rubbing his eyes a bit.

 Both of them started walking like brothers-in-arms near their present self. The two people talking behind Arnab, were his inner self. The older inner self threw the bottle down the pool into the Kundalika River while the younger one put off the cigarette. Arnab could do nothing but just stood there watching bottle being thrown up in air into the river and the cigarette extinguishing on its own. The sense of energy around him told him that nothing would hurt him. Both the translucent shadows of Arnab’s past and future merged into the present Arnab. The illuminated Arnab started his Activa and began his journey way back home. On his way back he didn’t know why but a song almost seized his mind “Har kisiko nahi milta yaha pyaar zindagi main…..”(not everyone is fortunate to find love)

Sometimes your heart needs more time to accept what your mind already knows.