A man walked past a tall
building and looked up to see the end of the building which seemed blurred. The
clouds had covered the extreme end of the building. The evening was eager to
turn into darker shades of grey and it seemed it would rain. The man took
out his umbrella which was a combination of the brightest colours, all attached
together and shone in all its brightness. The man walked at a fast pace. After
a little while and a few kilometers of walking, he thought he heard
footsteps following him. He stopped and turned around to see who it was. There
was no one there.
He went ahead, pacing
his steps as he felt a tinge of fear. His could hear his heart beat as he ran.
Rain drops poured down heavily and the sound of the footsteps ran with
him. "Who is it?" he asked, but, there was no reply. He thought it
was his imagination playing games with him. "But, I did hear
footsteps", he said to himself. He looked around and saw a shop keeper
shutting down the shop. Across the street, a couple, huddled under a lone
umbrella, walked by. There were a few workers down the road, all ready to leave
for home after a hard day at work. Somewhere there was music. It sounded so
familiar, the man wanted to sing. He tried to sing but the lyrics were hard to
remember, so, he just hummed and walked on. He had to head home as everyone was
waiting. He had to get home as it was his son's birthday. His one year old
boy, who had just started calling him 'Papa!"
The child had brought
about so much happiness in their lives, he wished his days would last forever.
He had never been happier in his life. He was almost home and could see the
light from inside the house. He also saw lots of people in his house. He didn't
know why they were there. "Oh! that must be for the birthday party",
he said to himself. He almost rushed. He could hear his excitement as he ran.
The rains had stopped and he hadn't realised. He was home. He opened the gates
of his house and called out " Meera!" . There was no reply. There
were so many people she mustn't have heard, he thought. He shouted again.
It was then that he
realised people were sobbing. Why were people sobbing on his son's birthday?
why? He thought. He moved steered himself across the room to the place where
everyone was pointing. He reached the place and saw a man lying there.
"Who could it be?" he asked himself. He went ahead and saw a man --
the man looked like him. He turned to the lady standing beside him exclaimed
"Who is that?", but, she didn't seem to listen. So, he yelled at the
top of his voice. No one listened to him. He saw his father and brother
carrying that man away and tried to stop them. No one listened to him.
He wanted to meet his
son, so he walked into his son's room, where the child sat staring at the cake
that he had to cut. He wished his son. The child blinked his eyes, smiled and
looked up at him, then crawled toward the cake and put his little hands on the
cake and scooped out some of it.
