July 19, 2012

An Orange Day

It was an orange day. I don’t know why but it was one of those rare days I classified as orange. Days can be easily classified using colours; my mind automatically arranges them for me – yellow when I am bright, white when I am calm, black when I am mournful and so on. Every hue carries a message and my intuition said today was orange. Something special was destined today.

In Mumbai, it does not rain, it pours. During the last hour of college, it was pouring madly. We requested our lecturer to leave early; he denied permission. Everything seemed just as usual. Afterall, heavy rains aren’t unusual phenomena in Mumbai.

When the college bell rang, we moved down the staircase that took us to the front gate, but we were stopped short by the sight before us. The rain gods had gone berserk and the pouring looked plain catastrophic. Cell phones beeped wildly and the verdict was out – No moving out of here! All rail routes, road routes were closed.

The next few hours were spent discussing gossiping about our "favourite" lecturers. I did not know that Emily was going out with Muthu Kumar! What a combination - two of the most hated lecturers! We cracked jokes on what would they name their kid. “Artificially intelligent”, came Armaan’s prompt reply while someone said it should be “Network failure”. Emily taught us Computer Networks, Muthu Artificial Intelligence.

Few hours passed and the rain subdued a little. The more adventurous lot started moving out of college. Heading home was impossible but people were trying to go to places of people known to them living nearby. Seeing the college getting emptier, I decided to go to a cousin’s place living some blocks away.


While I was still waiting for the orange spark, it dazzled brilliantly through the grey alley I was moving in. She asked me if I could help her under my umbrella. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was beautiful, elegant, graceful. It was her eyes I couldn’t take mine off from. Dark jet black – incomparable beauty! I felt a deep connection. I felt something about her that I had never felt before. I felt as if my heart had close for any other woman on earth. It was unusual but a moment to be revered for life.

“Excuse me?” I got back to my senses. “Sorry”, I mumbled. “You can get under the umbrella. But I don’t know how well this would be able to protect us both.” She got under the umbrella. She smelt of sandalwood – pure and holy. “Thanks”. I was wondering if she felt the same clinking of metals within her, the same current running under her skin as was running through me.



I tried controlling myself but blurted out, "You are so beautiful." How can you ever say this to a girl when you have only just met her? What will she think about me - would she find me desperate? But she smiled. "I know and I am glad you can see it too". Glad that I saw it too? Does this mean other people did not see her as beautiful? I was confounded.

It suddenly started pouring madly. The water in the lane we were now walking in was already above waist-level. Luckily, I noticed that an electricity pole dangling dangerously around the corner of the lane. If the pole fell down, it would electrify us both to our deaths. I caught her hand and asked her to run. The pole could collapse any moment and we had to hurry. But, she did not move - out of fear or shock I do not know. "What? Do you want to die?", I asked. She said, "Nobody wants to die. But we all have to." Wow! This wasn’t time for philosophy! But she continued, "People find death ugly for it takes them by shock. But, there are few who understand the beauty in it. Death is transformation. Can you imagine how would it be to just live on and on with this body ageing but there being no death. How ugly would that kind of immortality be?" I thought she was crazy. 

I left her hand to run away but she held my hand tightly and I just couldn’t move. I was mesmerized. She continued, "People see in death what they are. You saw beauty in me. Since you are beautiful! You will pass into a newer life without any pain, or trouble. You deserve a beautiful transition". Till I could grasp what these words meant, the pole collapsed. A strong current ran through my body and I smiled. Life had passed in the time my lips had curled. It was surely an orange day - the last of this lifetime.
Tarun

7 comments:

  1. It's so cool, because I find myself picking a color for the day as well... !

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  2. this inspired a poem yesterday, and i'm not a poet, so 'm not sure if its as good as your story, but heres the link if you wanna check it out :
    http://mananguju.blogspot.in/2012/09/an-orange-day.html

    ReplyDelete

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