the search..

Disclaimer:I don't know what mood I was in to write this piece..totally unexpected and a different one..bear with me..

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The vivid eyes, the chromatic purity of those eyelashes, the crystallized lens, the described line of kohl, and the hidden crimson tides behind all these - God seemed to have etched two butterflies instead of her eyes on that picture perfect face. And then when she looked at him, those butterflies transcended into his stomach and grew to be dinosaurs. He loved them in his belly. She loved the way he smiled. It was after all the beginning of a love story.

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It was white. Just plain white. The pearly gate they call it. He stood outside looking around the semi-clad angels and demons.

“Why is everything so white and only white? Glad that the people aren’t tainted in white too” Siddarth mumbled.

“Hey you! Step in” a guy at the door said.

Siddarth religiously followed a semi-clad lady who was draped in white. “Phew! Where does she get her style mantra from?” he mumbled again.

“This is where you are going to stay forever” she said and opened a door.

The door flung open to a wide area of greenery. People seemed to simply sit and look around, plucking flowers, eating apples, playing something, talking anything, and walking as if there was no tomorrow.

“Thank you very much” he thanked the lady.

“My pleasure. Enjoy your stay here”

“Yeah right. First class executive suite. How pleased am I? I’m dead and here to spend the rest of my whatever in a place which has so many of my relatives” he sighed.

“You wanted to die early. You decided to take your life” she said.

“So you do know my history”

“Yes. I know each and everyone’s history and future”

“How long have you been living here? When did you die? A thousand years?” he laughed.

She began to walk away from him.

“Can you help me?” he asked.

She stopped but did not look back.

“I came here for a reason. I know I don’t have a way to get back my life. But something that belongs to me is in this place”

She turned around.

“Here?” she asked.

“Yes. Here. I know she is here, somewhere, waiting for me to come”

“Who is she?”

“Mansi. She died a month ago”

“I’m sorry. This place is full of dead people, but a world in itself. I haven’t known anybody who gave up their life to search for the loved and lost one” she said and began to walk.

“Can you help me find her in this world of dead people” he smiled.

“I will try” she kept walking.

He walked behind her.

“What is your name?” he asked.

“I do not have a name” she said.

“Whoa! What do people call you around? You are addressed by numbers or something?” he laughed.

“We don’t need a name. We know when somebody is calling us and when we are supposed to attend to somebody”

“Interesting. So if I feel like seeing you around will you know it?”

“Yes I will, but I won’t be coming to see you”

“Why?”

“I’m not supposed to. I need to attend to calls only from the people who own this place”

“I will give you a name. I will call you ‘Neo’ hereafter”

She smiled in agreement and left.

“Neo, I want to see you now” he thought to himself as he was entering the huge door. She didn’t come.

“Damn” he cursed.

As he walked further into the new beautiful world he recollected what they had instructed at the pearly gates.
“This place is no different from the earth. You do not have technology here. All you have is nature and people. Both heaven and hell has been merged for better management purposes and easy administration.

Hence expect the unexpected any time and all the time”

“Sounds as good as a cinema script” he mumbled.

“You need to be careful with people dressed in black. They are people who belong to hell and most of them are harmful”

“And then we go back to the Black and White TV era” he continued to mumble.

“You are not supposed to fall in love with anybody. And physical intimacy is strictly prohibited”

“Wh.. what? No love. No physical intimacy. And you still call it heaven” sighed Siddarth.

“If you trespass all the rules, you will have to wear the black dress and be our guest” the final verdict alarmed in his ears.

“Give me the black dress now instead of the white. I would prefer to trespass the rules and be your guest” he said as the lady in white walked over to him.

He spotted a few men and women in black. “Most of the good looking people around are in black” he thought.
He sat beneath a tree that had ripened apples dangling all over.

“Where will I find her, in this ocean of dead souls?” he thought.

“She might be behind the woods playing with the other girls of her age” an apple fell on his head.

“Talk of gravity. Now talk of a talking apple”

He took a bite of the red apple.

“Ouch”, he heard.

“Is there any limit to all the insanity around?” he took another bite.

“By the way, how do I get to the woods?” he asked as he took another bite.

“Just keep going straight. You will reach the woods” the apple said and died. He finished his last bite.
He looked up the tree hoping for another apple to fall down. He saw a bunch of apples smiling at him.
“Scary” he said and walked away.

He kept walking straight. “How come I haven’t seen any brook as yet” he thought and from nowhere he walked to a brook. Clear water flowed down the brook. He could see through the water and count the pebbles at the bottom. There were golden fishes playing the love life game. “How come they aren’t in black?” he thought and just then a huge black fish swam across with gaiety and swallowed few golden fishes . “That is much better”. He jumped across the brook.

As he jumped across he saw the reflection of his face. He turned around and sat by the water. He looked at his face. The last he remembered seeing his face was before drinking that bottle of poison.

“I don’t know why I saw my face before taking my life out. I should have haplessly hoped that just by looking at my face for a very long time would do the trick”

His face looked paler. It had drained but there was some kind of brightness around him. It might have been because of the pristine white dress that he was wearing or that was the code of look at heaven.

As he stood up, a fish swam up and put its pouted face out of water and said “You just have 18 hours to find your woman. If you don’t you will never get her”

“Now what is this drama all about?”

“You had 24 hours to accomplish your wants. Already you have wasted 4 hours. People who come here have 24 hours to do what they want and after that they should live by the rules”

“They never told this cue at the pearly gate entrance number 7”

“It is a hidden incentive”

“Thanks for letting me know”

“Good luck to find your woman. She must be excited to see you here”

Siddarth kept walking.

He landed in a rose garden. “It would be cliché to be looking for her at this rose garden” he thought to himself and walked away from the rose garden. And there she was playing with the kids, in that rose garden.
He walked a lonely road. A strong whiff of lavender. He turned around to see a lady in black. She stood by a tree looking at him.

“The bad people are in black. But this woman is too good to be bad” his mind raved.

“Looking for me?” she asked as he neared her.

“Not really. But wouldn’t mind looking for you” he flirted.

She put her arms around him and looked into his eyes.

“You are searching for someone. Although your eyes are fixated on me and my body, beyond those eyes, you are looking for someone else” she said in a chilled voice.

“Everybody seems to know why I’m here” he thought.

“You just missed her”

“Where?”

“At the rose garden”

He moved away from her and turned around to walk back.

“But wait. She has already left that place”

“Where to?”

“Get closer to me and I’ll tell you how to get to her”

He got closer to her and the smell of lavender grew stronger.

She held his hand and placed it over her waist and pulled him closer.

“And then we will kiss, fall in love, and live happily ever after?” he blurted.

“How did your woman ever manage to manage you?” she said still waiting with hungry lips.

He gently took his hand from her waist and turned around.

“I don’t have to kiss you to get to her”

She gave a sly smile.

“I would rather get to her and kiss her” he said and walked away.

Then he came across a bridge. His legs were already pained and he was tired. He had 16 hours left. He needed two things – Mansi and some sleep.

He sat down on the bridge with his legs dangling beneath the bridge and over the stagnant water. There were lotuses, lilies, and frogs.

“Now who is going to talk to me? The frog or the flower?” he asked looking at his own face on the water.
“It is me” his reflection said.

“Uh. How come I forgot you!”

“Why Mansi?” the reflection asked.

“Why not Mansi?”

“Do you think it is all worth it?”

“Every moment, every step is”

“Do you know what happens when your 24 hours of freedom is over?”

“I would lose her forever”

“And do you know why is that?”

Siddarth was silent.

“You will not find her because she would go back to earth as a newborn baby”

“Whoa! Do Indian directors live in closest quarters?”

“Stop kidding. And then one fine day even you will go back to earth as a baby, or a sapling, or an animal or a bird”

“How do you know that she would be a baby and I would be some other ‘thing’?”

“Her destiny is already defined. She is all set to leave, but with a clause of you finding her and retaining her here”

“I thought the earth was the most complicated place to live in. This place seems even more worse. Dramatic and funny”

The reflection disappeared with no traces.

He stood up to walk. On an impulse he plunged into the water.

He drowned. He reached the waterbed. He settled down on a slippery rock. There were no traces of life anywhere.

“Why did I just jump into this damn thing?” he sighed.

“Did you think you could get to see Mansi here?”

He looked around to see a huge… something.

“Er.. What are you?” Siddarth gasped for words.

“I don’t know” it said.

“Are you wearing a black dress or a white one?” Siddarth asked.

“I don’t wear any” it said.

“Good for you. I never read about such creatures under water”

“So you thought only sexy looking mermaids lived under water?”

“Duh! I don’t believe in mermaids” Siddarth said. He felt someone place a quick kiss on his cheek. He turned around to see a gorgeous looking mermaid. He smiled the moment he saw the mermaid and then noticed that it was not a mermaid but a merman! He quickly wiped off his cheeks.

“I’ve never read about mermen”

“You were just kissed by one”

“Thank you very much” he sighed.

“You got 14 hours. At the end of the journey you will meet her by the beach, under the moonlight, just the two of you… but….” the merman said and vanished.

“He came. He kissed. He left” sighed Siddarth.

“Go ahead. Don’t waste time” it said.

“Thank you waterbed creature of the next century”, he said and swam up. As he popped out of the water he saw a different place. He swam to the shore and saw few kids playing around a basket of oranges. Siddarth was hungry. He walked over to the kids and asked for some oranges.

“Sure go ahead. But as we plucked them, the tree said that one of the oranges in this basket is jinxed. If you eat that you will forget the past” one of the kids said.

Siddarth was in a trance. He did not know if he should kill his hunger or go ahead. He knew it would be impossible to continue the search with that stamina. He knelt before the basket of oranges and looked at them. They all looked photocopied, but tempting. He was reminded of the forbidden fruit.
“Satiate your hunger or cease your past or simply walk away” one of the oranges said.

He placed his hand on the talking orange. He grabbed it and began to peel it. Then he grabbed another orange and peeled it. He peeled all the oranges and finally threw one of the orange into the water.
“Go ahead kids. Have your share”, he said and walked away with few oranges for himself.
The orange that drowned into the water had a worm in it.

As he relished the oranges, he walked into a lawn. He knew this was the best place to take a quick nap. He spotted a tree that sprung its branches so wide that even the creature that he met under water could sleep beside him.

He sat down and closed his eyes. He Their moments of being together, the last argument that they had, her tears, his anger, their last words spoken, her last look, her last breath, all those images flashed in and out. He woke up with a shudder. It was already getting dark and he had slept in his past for over a long time.
He jumped and began to run towards the sun that was setting down. He knew the beach was there, they direction where he ran. He knew that Mansi and he were destined to meet that night. He ran until he reached a fast and furious river. There wasn’t any bridge in sight. He was helpless. He looked around for signs of life.
“The trees speak, the apples speak, and every cranky thing in this place speaks, but why are they all silent now?” he was frustrated.

Just then he saw few girls walking at the other side of the river. And then he saw her. She was as gorgeous as ever. That flowing hair. That lustrous eye lashes. That twinkle in her smile.

“Mansi” he screamed.

She did not look back. He picked up a stone and flung it in the air. The stone stood midway and fell right into the river. It simply would not cross the river.

“Destiny is the one that wins all the time” his mind read.

“Just look at me. Please. Just one time” he screamed.

She walked away.

He wanted to plunge into the angry river and swim to her. He ran around looking for something to make him get to her. Nothing helped. She was gone. All the mayhem was over. The river was silent.

He knelt down.

“Neo” he silently said.

“I wasn’t supposed to, but I have come” she said beside him.

He looked at her with those yearning eyes.

“You just have 2 hours” she said.

“I have you too” he said. He gained all the confidence that had just crashed right before him few moments ago.

“You can now swim across this river. Trust me, it is safe” she said.

“Thanks. Will I get to her? Will we be together forever?” he asked her.

“You will get to her”

He understood that she did not answer his second question.

“It is getting late. Go ahead” she said.

He instantly jumped into the river that was warm. He looked back as he swam and saw Neo walking away.

“Oy Neo!” he shouted.

She looked back.

“Just in case Mansi and I don’t get to be together, I will come searching for you, because I know for sure that you are one of those eternal souls in this place! You better be ready to live with me… forever” he said and smiled.

She smiled and walked away.

He swam to the other end. He walked towards the beach. The moon was shining brighter than ever. He knew he was going to meet her beneath that moon.

He reached the beach. The waves were calm and glistened in the moonlight. He looked around. There was no sign of life. He was tired. His eyes were drooping. Every now and then he shuddered to bring him back to consciousness. He had less than an hour.Far away, he saw her stroll the other way. He began to run. He ran for 10 minutes. She was still walking. He was still running and the distance between them grew. He did not give up. He continued to run.

As he ran with so much fervour, he banged with great force on a wall. He was thrown back and he fell on the wet sand. It took a while for him to understand that it was a huge wall that was a capricious mirror which showed Mansi walking the other way and hid Siddarth’s image. He had 20 minutes left. He jumped up again, picked a conch from the shore and flung it on the mirror in anger. The mirror shattered and sent a thundering noise. Mansi looked back. He was there with blisters all over him. She knew it was him and ran towards him. He smiled and crashed beside the friendly waves.

They had 5 minutes. Mansi ran to him. He had already crashed beside the sea. And then, in that last minute, she sat by his side and ruffled his hair. He did not wake up. In a moment she dropped down as translucent pebbles and ran into the sea. And few hours later he blended into the sand.

23 years later...

The vivid eyes, the chromatic purity of those eyelashes, the crystallized lens, the described line of kohl, and the hidden crimson tides behind all these - God seemed to have etched two butterflies instead of her eyes on that picture perfect face. And then when she looked at him, those butterflies transcended into his stomach and grew to be dinosaurs. He loved them in his belly. She loved the way he smiled. It was after all the beginning of a love story.

- the girl.