'Be the God'

“Hey, are you getting bored?” asked Mr. Red.

“Yeah.” replied Mr. Green in a low tone. 

Seeing this dullness in Green, Red thought of extending the conversation all by himself.    

“This time of the night seems lonely, doesn’t it? I mean it sucks the energy out of you and although we are habitual to it but somehow we always have this missing feel, no?”

Mr. Green didn’t reply to what Red said.

Red repeated what he had just said when Green abruptly stopped him and said, “Yeah I heard you there so need not repeat things.”

Red felt offended and immediately asked, “Why do you seem so pissed off?”

“Well that’s none of your business. You mind your own please.”

Red frowned at Green and didn’t reply for a minute or two. Then he broke the weird silence. “You hate your job?” he asked with seemingly a caring voice.

“Why are you after me! Do you have no work!” frustration ruled over Green when these words flew out.

“I have, and I am doing it but…” said Red, trying to articulate his care when Green once again cut him off midway.

“Good. Do not disturb me then.” 

Red thought for a moment or so and asked, “Do you think if we entertained ourselves during our working hours then, it would affect anybody?”

“I don’t know. Why do you ask this?” asked Green with a birth of a mild confusion and some interest in what Red was saying.

“Think for a second. We escape from our monotonous job right away and do something different, something which spices up our mood, your mood specifically. What say? I don’t think that anybody would be monitoring us at 2am!”

Green was struck by what Red said and he immediately ran his brain on his habit of daydreaming. He imagined himself out on the beach with calmness as his only companion; he thought of those people who respected him; he felt proud of himself for controlling so many; he imagined himself as the ruler who punishes with physical damage to those who disobey him- although he himself didn’t like inflicting damage of any kinds to anyone but as a part of the protocol his job demanded, he unfortunately had to. And he felt powerful there and then.

With an instantaneous rejuvenation he asked, “What’s the plan!”

Red felt a sense of joy for he was on track to heal Green from his inexplicable misery but a devilish idea knocked onto him at the moment. And well, he latched onto it with conviction.

“Let’s play ‘Be the God’! I played it last long time ago when I used to work alone here so I am kind off missing it.” said Red with fervor.

Green’s eyes lit up when he heard the name ‘Be the God’, for a minute ago he was basking in the glorious powers of his job in his daydreaming routine. But as he was about to shout in agreement he retorted back and said, “I don’t think the game works with me. You know why I am so low today? Because I feel powerless, and you have added salt to my wounds by reminding me of the game because the game is all about holding power.” He further added, “Although I know the game quite well but I have never played it. My former colleagues used to play it quite often while they were off-duty but somehow I disliked it for its heinous rules. I am peace loving you know.”

“Oh! Now I get what makes you so miserable tonight: the lack of power to control the people. Hmmm. The absence of population on such times has aggravated your agony and has made you like this, right? But trust me, this game will rekindle the power you miss right now.” Red was now gradually targeting Green’s mind on direct terms.

“I don’t know Red, I cannot commit against the will of my heart. I know the consequences of the game and, no I won’t indulge in it. Sorry.”

Red sensed his loss of track towards Green again, when his subconscious was immediately broken off by Green, as if he wanted to finish off what he had just said.  

“Even in the day time the number of people whom I could control has gone down and the midnight is damn frustrating as always. The job which I loved the most has become a hateful one as it is rotting down in the present times. I don’t understand where have the people of this city vanished and without them I cannot feed my instincts of dominance and control. I feel useless without their presence.”

Red knew that he had to push Green to play the game, for deep down he had his personal gain in it.

“Okay. So Green, I challenge you in the game of ‘Be the God’ to defeat me in the most aggressive manners you can. If you disagree to play then I’ll assume that all the love for power you have been talking about is a lie, because those who loves power, those who love to rule, never let go off moments where they can showcase their prowess, and you unfortunately are letting it go off. This shows you are disloyal to your love.”

Green’s male ego was dented severely with immediate effect. He was taken aback by Red’s offer as choosing to participate in this game meant shedding off his principles which he had inculcated in himself since long time back. He delved into conflict. He took his time and fell prey to Red’s offer. He accepted the challenge after a few seconds of introspection.

Red had not challenged Green because he actually wanted to motivate him, rather he just wanted to double the thrill and violence this game had always blessed him with. He could easily have had played it in single-mode but by provoking Green he had thrown the aces at the right moment, for Green was going to lash onto him in the quest to prove him wrong and ultimately, happiness was going to be showered on Red in unfathomable measures.

The blinking tune in the silence of the night and the countdown of numbers on the foreheads of both Red and Green had been locked as ominous signs for the vehicles passing through their crossing.

They just waited for the perfect time.

*

The next day, the word had spread through the city that there had been a devastating accident on the Campus Sq. crossing, killing all the people in the three vehicles involved, which were now just a few disoriented pieces of iron. Reports suggested that this unfortunate incident took place due to the technical failures in the two traffic lights causing the affected vehicles to crash onto each other.

The Hanging Droplet

The grass is cold with the winter dew and the droplets are ‘dangerously’ hanging on the irregularities of the grass, engulfed in a battle between gravity and grass’s resistance to not let it go away from it. I focus my biological lenses into the inner chamber of one of the hanging droplets, desperate to study it as if it were a school project to be submitted within the boundaries of an unimaginable time period. 

The droplet has a world of its own: unexplored, least traveled, hideous and possessing crystalline qualities. But I am convincingly unsure of the kind of composition its air is made up of,"does it have oxygen or is it just layers of water one after the other." I introspect. I feel intrigued by the heaviness that this lightweight droplet carries because does it host any living soul or is it nothing but mirrors randomly reflecting unclear images of the environment. 

One gush of even the slightest of air particle will put an end to the life of this droplet forever. But no! What I feel is that it is immortal. Yes. Because maybe it gives up on the shape it has been holding itself on but at the touch of the wet soil it will regain and reform into a flatter and wider drop of water ready to mix with its uncountable peers. But this one is uniquely unique; giving up is not in its nature and hence it is suspended in mid-air like a valiant fighter not giving up on bowing down. 

The strength, the hold, is so attractive! Is it the surface tension as physics says or is there a soul underneath those reflecting layers, which is impervious to the superficial vision I possess. If there is this some kind of a magical assistance on offer then surely this is beyond the scope of science. It requires astounding amounts of purity to see-through the skin of the droplet. Naked eye shows a distorted version of the droplet but now I am starting to feel that what if our visions are only incapable to break the mysterious shackles. But I know science will disagree and so will the people. Newer outlooks, divine as this are hardly encouraged until ‘certified’ and I am no authority, unfortunately… But now I have the time, and I will scan it all over; I’ll delve into the unfathomable depths of its world to unravel what exactly it wants to show us but not what we see; I’ll unwind the distortion to sharpen the images it shows to us, because who knows, this hanging droplet might be asking for help!       

Insanity

In a crowded market place I saw a guy gazing at a mannequin. He stood still with both his hands hanging loosely on his sides; his face held high by a few centimeters, giving an impression that he was probably looking at the mannequin’s eyes. The mannequin wore a baby pink lingerie, posing in a sultry manner to lure in some ‘customers’. But he didn’t seem to fall for this marketing trap laid by the shopkeeper, instead he stood still for minutes without any sort of motion.  It was as if he was in the intense process of mindful meditation- where a person meditates being aware of his surroundings. The uninterested crowd passed behind him, pushing and shoving him away from their extremely tight schedules, schedules in which they couldn’t fit themselves but only the multinationals they slaved for. After a while, a brown pup came around him and started hovering near his feet. It was trying to catch his elusive attention in search of some food and enormous love but he was actually not there. Even the pup lost its will and sat beside his right foot, idly waiting for at least his minimal commotion.

Then, that moment of a spring morning arrived when the warmth in the atmosphere starts becoming harsh, leaving behind its freshness, but still he was stoned at the same place. And then the owner of the shop stepped-in in a casual manner to re-open his only source of income and found this person in his intriguing paralysis. He shooed away the innocent pup with a spark of dominance and without any sense of affection and called for this guy standing directly in front of him. He didn’t answer, so the shopkeeper pushed him aside by a little stroke of his palm only to disturb his body by a few millimeters but not his attention. Still, the guy stood firm where he were ever since like ages. The shopkeeper thought for a moment, considering all possibilities of him being blind and deaf both and started testing his assumptions. He waved his hands right in the front of the guy’s face but there wasn’t an iota of movement; continuing his battle, he shouted vehemently in both his ears but response was a blank audio-video from the guy. From behind a short heightened man in his forty’s came and patted on the shopkeeper’s back. Alarmed, he immediately looked back with an expression fluctuating between surprise, confusion, frustration and more confusion. The short man asked,”Did he move at all? Did he say anything?” baffled, the shopkeeper said “no” in a reflex reaction accompanied with questions. The short man replied with a satisfaction,”Oh that’s brilliant! I knew he was in love with her.” Outpouring with doubts, the shopkeeper gave a questioning look to this short man who possessed a caring happiness on his face, and he said,”Last night I saw this lady mannequin, I showed it to him and I could see the love he had for her; it was love at first sight. The very next moment I glued his feet here so that he could gaze at her beauty until he wanted and I am extremely delighted with the love they have generated since the last six-seven hours, I feel like letting him stay here for more. Let them know each other to their unexplored cores.” Stunned and astonished, the shopkeeper asked,”Are you out of your mind? And this is a mannequin! How come it is so real? His skin, his eyes, his lips, how come… and… if it is a mannequin then how come… he loves… what the hell is all this you are talking about!” he said all this while touching the male mannequin’s facial features. “I had a wife whom I loved so much that I used to get lost in her the most when she was in her pink lingerie, the moment just before we were about to make love. I loved resisting the temptation of what was forthcoming and what was right then. It was our kind of love: unusual and magical! So I didn’t want him to miss that kind of enchantment and ecstasy I experienced, after all he is my best friend now and our tastes are analogous.” said the short man with joyous tears trickling down his cheeks and instantly he walked away from there pecking his ‘friend’ at his neck and leaving the shopkeeper awestruck. 

Short and not so sweet

The Suicide

The knife plunged into the depths of my chest; it twisted in one complete three sixty degree rotation and remained stationary, though indefinitely. All the blood got directed towards the knife creating an insurmountable pressure; my chest was going to explode. The nerves around the wound cracked with the increasing pressure; ironically, elsewhere the nerves shrunk due to immediate dryness or maybe I just felt so.

From crimson to dark, then turning into an ugly shade of maroon the blood was gushing fearlessly out of me leaving me alone; it was ‘my blood’ and now it was leaving me as if it wanted to free itself from a sinful being as me or maybe I just felt so.

But at this thought, I felt happy for my blood for it had finally achieved freedom. And here I was marooned upside-down with myself. I could realize that every part of me was evacuating me in a hurry to be liberated, I could sense their joy of getting alienated from me and rightly so, for I was a sinful being or maybe I thought so.

My vision was travelling fast into a spectrum of darkness, my audible prowess was diminishing into nothingness, my physicality was declining alarmingly and all this to relieve myself from myself, or maybe because I just thought so.

And for one final time, gathering all strength, the knife took another circle and I finally knew that the proceedings of ultimate relaxation were finally completed, or maybe I just thought so… because I don’t know why, somehow this world was nothing but a train always ready to run over me.

I was lost

Though I was there but I wasn’t; though I was laughing but I wasn’t; though I could hear you talking about your grievances but I couldn’t; though I was watching a video with you but I wasn’t; though you demanded my full attention but I couldn’t, and though you thought I was happy living alone but unfortunately I wasn’t. 

I let time fly by like an unnerving entity; I let myself indulge in acts which hampered my dignity; I cried for reasons where I could’ve avoided it; I sat in silence but with peace devoid of it; I felt creativity pushing its pistons on me and I found myself running far away from me.

I embraced laziness as if it were my only love; I slipped past as its slave into its dirty gloves; I regretted my current slavery yet I was helpless; I didn’t feel like repelling as I loved its ominous calmness;  I failed to understand whether it was a boon or a bane but deep down I knew, wasting this time would later give me much pain.