Dreams Matter

Akarsh was walking on the road with his mother in the warm afternoon. The sun was spewing the UV rays like sprinklers spraying water everywhere, making sure everything in vicinity gets some radiation.

Its a pretty normal noon, dogs are trying to find a comfortable place to sleep in, some people trying to catch a bus for their offices, playschool students seemingly happy to get back to their parents, the pride of parenthood showing up on parents faces. The street kids running half naked towards the nearby lake. The shopkeepers cleaning up and loitering on the streets. The cars going at 40kmph on the narrow roads creating ruckus at an ear-deafening level. Akarsh makes a mental note of everything as he reaches home.

While going to bed, he asked his mom, "Mom, why do people throw garbage on the streets?"
His mother replied "Beta, they are just lazy people. You please go to sleep."
"But they can keep a plastic bag with them na, if they are too lazy?"
"Its not that simple beta"
"But..."
"Okay tell me what superhero power you would want to teach them a lesson.", she cut him off.
"I would become Flash and would go back in time and keep repeating the past till they don't throw the trash in the bins", Akarsh said giddily.

The mother smiled; half proud of her son's passion and half on the ignorance of the idea of paradox of time-travel that her son was fathoming.

She listened to the mumbling of her child as he carried on the idea and eventually slept.

Akarsh woke up to a voice calling his name. The voice came from a long distance that he knew he couldn't trace. The voice asked him "What is making you anxious?"

"It's the people" said Akarsh in a muffled voice.
"Hahaha..you have to be a little more specific on that.", said the voice grinning loudly.

"Why do people throw their garbage on the streets? Why don't they understand its a moral duty to keep your area clean"

The voice culminated into a shadowy figure and came close to him.

"I am tired of dropping hints to them. Tell me if you have any good idea."

Akarsh whispered something into the shadow ears.

Next day, Akarsh walked around with grinny face. Everywhere he saw, it was so clean. The half naked children were still running to the dirty pond. The dogs still couldn't find a warm place to sleep. The ear deafening cars were still a big trouble. He thought to himself, atleast one thing got cured. We will work for other problems some other day.

"Look mom, its so clean today. No garbage, everything either in the dustbins or in the 'houses'.", he giggled.

"How did this happen?", mom thought loud enough in order to make Akarsh answer.

"I asked the 'voice' to turn the garbages into 10 rupees note for few minutes"

They continue walking the road as Akarsh is singing happily and his mom scratching her head.

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Mumbai Diaries - Part 2(The One with the lasertag match)

In accordance with the feedback received from last part, here are the names of the character.
Atush - A, Gaurav - B, Nauman - C, Karan - D

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"Where's our beer? The service here is crap" asked Nauman(C).
"Just like the bus service here. Man, would you believe that it took me 2 hours to cover the stretch of 8 kms. In my city, it would take me 20 mins and a cigarette break only", chuckled Karan(D).

“You want to talk about traffic??? I was nearly fried, stuck between two BEST buses.” cried Atush.

“You could have used your AC” said Gaurav(B).

“Remember what we did last time we were drunk?” replied an angry Atush.

“Oh yeah, we left the car and AC running on the highway with windows open.” chuckled Gaurav and started laughing hysterically, but had to immediately stop as Atush started to pick up the fork in anger. “Nature’s call bro, can’t avoid!”

“The battery got so damaged that my father said if I use AC again, he will hack my account and will post a #supportJNU status to teach me a lesson.”

“Oooo that’s cruel.” everyone tried to suppress their laughter.

“Abe let’s change the topic. You won’t believe what happened at the station...” said Nauman.

“I thought, it will be more of a change.” interjected Karan.

"But this is interesting..." 

"Yaar, its Mumbai, these things keep happening."

"Yeah, let’s leave up the redundant traffic talks and tell me with the show of hands, who is up for a game of Lasertag" said an enthused Atush(A) raising his hand expecting a string of high fives from all parts of the table.
"Dude, no way I am going back in there", said Gaurav(B) explaining everyone's dropped shoulders.
"Don't you remember the carnage we conceded last time?" said Nauman
"Get over it man, we lost it big time. That girl single handedly beat our team" added Karan
"And that is why we should go and get our self-respect back."
"Man, people find romances in weird places these days", said Karan understanding the situation now.
"Ohh, our man has got a soft spot for the young lady" exclaimed Karan.
"Its not like that, I just love competition and yeah she is now one."
"Then we have got to go and get our man his girl" everyone roared.

They had this new energy inside coming, injected by the things shown in the movies. When its time to impress a competition, everything falls into place and nothing can get you down. That was the scene when they entered the arena, ready to crush anyone fighting against them.

20 mins later(outside the lasertag arena)

Everyone returned with dropped shoulders, lowered to a new level.
"Well there is 200 bucks and a girl I would never see again" said Atush.
"Chill out man! You did come second. Thank God she was in my team.” said Karan.
"I think she was cheating" concluded Atush.

"Excuse me?"
They looked back with shocking eyes. It was the girl that had beat Atush and his team.

They still stared at her like the star troopers looked at a Jedi before getting cut in half.
"Did you really think you could win by making such a dumb strategy? Who leaves the base undefended?"

"I thought.... I would!" said Atush stuttering. Although scared, he was really impressed by the passion with which she was talking about the game. "Damn! You are so cool", he imagined himself saying.

After completing the virtual nuptials, he finally muttered, “What are you doing outside your arena. Go depress some souls.”

This time she hesitated.

“Oh I came here to give these. These are congratulatory coupons given to the players who are just a little short of my high-score. It gives you some special privileges.” She said winking.

“I will beat your score someday. I will…”

“Huh! In hundred years!” she cut him off.

“The expression is ‘In a thousand years’!” corrected Atush.

“Well that explains why you being such a girl.”

She turned to leave and shouted in anger “There is a number mentioned in the back! Call it if you have any doubts.”

The three of them were in disarray, as they didn’t get what just happened here. They were astounded with the intensity that this girl shouted at Atush. They looked at a supposedly embarrassed Atush, but he looked serene and yet playful in his expression. He gave a wicked smile.

“So, her name is Akriti.”

To Be Continued...

Mumbai Diaries - Epilogue (The One with the Closure)

He came back to her, bruised and exhausted. She wondered this can't be real...it wasn't, but it felt so real.
He could see the pain and love in her eyes, but there was something missing beyond his comprehension. There were no tears. He asked "How have you been". She hugged him, a hug firm but hesitating one, a tender one yet corruptible.
The distance between them had put them in a position where both were trying to understand each other, just looking at each other, words not required between them, they never were necessary. She thought could this be the reason for putting distance between them. Could something so beautiful once, be destroyed by a mere words; or the lack of it?

Suddenly the pain seemingly felt physical, she thought about the unspoken dreams that she had dared to imagine, the dream of a life adulterated by no one; the only life she could imagine since their meeting 3 years ago. Fighting the world seemed like a formality, when they joined forces.

"Does it have to be so hard? Doesn't this pain makes you realize that what we have is real and its a mistake to go apart?" he asked again.

"The pain not only makes it real, but reminds that it is not meant to be" she replied.

That hit him hard.

"Shouldn't you be happy that what was not meant to be is not happening and you got rid of it."

"I wish things were that simple."

He went numb.

She spoke, "What we had was not love"

"We had love. But unfortunately love is not enough these days. Maturity is required as well."

She chuckled "Maturity! Isn't it an overtly used term these days. Blaming everything on it. When it comes to adventure and shenanigans, everyone seeks immaturity, but otherwise maturity is required. I am beginning to think that immaturity was what kept us together, in fact led us towards each other...".

"What?" he cut her off.

"Yeah! How else would you explain us. We are so different from each other. Our interests don't match. We are like two sides of coin, never destined to meet each other. On some level, we should have known that this day was bound to come."

"Well, if you put it like that, it sure seems the explanation. But it seemed easy that time and looked like our difference somehow were connecting us."

"Well, that was our infatuated mind taking over maturity."

"I understand now" he sighed, dropping his shoulders. "But how are you okay going forward with this?"

"I think I am being mature now", she smiled. He smiled back.

"But tell me this, how do I get closure?"

"Ha, never the one to shy away from the technical terms."

"How else to prove I am different!"

"Closure is nothing but accepting that there is no 'us' anymore and being brave enough to imbibe that."

"Like being happy for you and future?"

"No you fool, you don't have to feel anything for me anymore...be as apathetic as you can. If you care, you are only hurting yourself."

"It will be the toughest thing to do..."

"Me too"

"Who would have thought not caring would be this tough...."

"It is tough when you have promised 'Thousand years' to each other", she tried to joke, but the gazing intensity of him melted anything that was calm inside her.

"Yeah, a thousand years" his words carried something venomous that even shook the nothingness in her.

Suddenly she felt lighter. The cloudy dust that had shrouded everything seemed to be clearing out and she could sense this from within. The heaviness that his remembrance brought was felt no more and she could un-shackle herself easily.

Atlast she woke up with a smile. After an array of dreamless nights, she leveraged the all important lesson that would catapult her towards an ordeal free world.
She can be herself again, completed after a long time.

This dream had done the job much better than her own consciousness could ever do.

"Thanks for 'the thousand years' and I am coming back", she mumbled as she smiled her way back to sleep.

Image Credit: Google Images