Seeking Nirvana

the day was like any other the sun was beaming hard, a lot of hustling and bustling in the street most of it was unnecessary, except it was a holiday. Although I cherish the rare breed that holidays are, but spending four back to back in a strange town with very few, hardly any, friends or acquaintances  was an insipid task. It was the forth day and my boredom was at its zenith. With absolutely nothing to do and a 1970 tv set which was showing (although flickering would be more appropriate) daily soaps in an incomprehensible local language. I sat on a rocking chair near the window with stone cutters from nearby under construction house providing background music. I tried reading but my heart was somewhere else, somewhere 1000 miles away where my family and friends were celebrating this festive season.

all these thoughts made my eyelids unbearably heavy and I dozed off. It was late in the afternoon when rain bombarding my tin roof broke my captivation. As usual  power was out,though power came here four-five years ago, even she doesn’t spend more than half a day here. Sluggishly I got my self out the chair, feeling a bit underdone in my belly and with my trusted umbrella accompanying me I went out to eat. But for reasons beyond my understanding, my regular dinner was closed on a ‘festive holiday’. With umbrella in one hand and misfortune in another, I went further down the road, starving. I was walking parallel to a tree line and the sudden showers had breath life into them.

the rain was more of a drizzle now and my umbrella was working as a cane. It was getting a little dark when I heard a whistle coming from the woods. Like the rain it was light but persistent. And as so many other stories go I too followed the sound. It was melodious, the whistle, definitely the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, I was no longer hungry. Deep inside the woods I went, desperately wanting to find the source of such euphonious sound. My walk turned into trot but the whistle was fading, as if the person was running away from me.

under a spell I persuaded the sound but of no use. No matter how fast I walk, the whistle was sneaking away. It was dark now with full moon providing the only illumination,that was a beautiful scene but I didn’t had the time. Tired and desperately in search of nirvana. For one last hurrah, with one last gasp of breath I ran towards the origin. I ran between the trees, smashing all the follower beds that came in the way. I was almost out of breath when I saw the cave. It was a black cave not big in size but large enough to let one or two person sit inside and play music. The sight of a cave in a thick Forrest after dark is both intriguing and frightening but holding my umbrella as the Excalibur I entered.

to my bewilderment the cave was huge from inside and had a waterfall in it. I could hear the sound loud and clear and it wasn’t fading. oh! the sound it was mesmerizing and it was coming from behind the waterfall. There was no point in leaving now, I had to find the truth. I went inside the waterfall and came out on the other end.

What I saw is very hard for me to describe. I was standing on a port with ships bigger than the football fields, bigger than what I have seen in the movies. There were more people than I have seen in my entire life. Bright and bold cars raced past each other. Shops had there personal huge tv screens displaying there signs. Streetlights everywhere not a single crook on the street was dark, absolute abundance of electricity.It felt like my own space odyssey.I wondered on the street for awhile. But my joy was short-lived. I got bored of it, sheer chaos it was. All the cars, the sirens on ships, people yelling outside their coffee shops asking others to come in and the constant nonstop ringing of portable phones were deafening me. I went there looking for a melodious sound, a sound which was soothing to my soul but all that purposeless honking, ringing, yelling and loud music all that noise was hurting my ears. I saw ships bigger than fields, buildings taller than mountains, there were more people on the street than in my whole country but the view wasn’t appealing, even the air was hurting my eyes. I couldn’t understand what was happening, where had I come. It was then, a newspaper caught my sight. I picked it up, the photographs were in color but the thing that caught my eyes was the date which read aug22,2012.