My shortest post ever.
Tring tring. Tring tring.
Lazily, I reached over to the table to my right and picked up my phone. A strange number flashed itself in my face. Now, it is worth mentioning that I am a Sales Engineer with a reputed company (i know .. i know..) and as all my brethren do, I am mortally afraid of calls. Due to this, I remember most of the numbers who are likely to call me when there is trouble brewing in my paradise.
(But there is one more level to this. These people sometimes call from hitherto unknown numbers and catch me lying through my teeth)
Looking at this strange number amused me. I picked it up.
R - "Hello."
Anon Caller- "Hello. Jayaram"
I took this as an introduction. Dont blame me .. the tone was such.
R - "Ha Bolo."
Anon Caller- "Kya &*^*&^&%*& ". This was said in the way guys normally address each other.
R - "Excuse me..!!"
Anon Caller- "Abe.. ^*&^*^*%&$^% "
R - "I think you have dialed a wrong number" I wasn't about to lose my cool over some innocent mistake.
Anon Caller- "Huh. You are saying you are a wrong number?"
Noting the error, I was amused to no end.
What else could i reply?
"Yup. I am a wrong number."
Click.
This just happened to me .. so this is an almost live post.
May 5, 2010
May 2, 2010
Epilogue
I was waiting. Fear coursed through me creating a small tingling sensation on the far end of my spinal column. It was time. I knew it in my gut. But the chimes from the clock on the central tower weren’t coming.
Coz at 5 o’ clock, I was supposed to be taken to the gallows and hung until I was dead, as the judge put it. I felt no malice against the Judge as Judges are honorable men. But something about his smug smile irked me. How can a man be happy putting an end to another man’s life? There was something to it. If only I could figure it out.
The afternoon meal was the not the usual. The bastards knew how to treat a man to his last meal. The portly warden looked on while I tried to not look at or smell the food I was dished. Life is always better on the outside of the looking glass. I wondered how he would feed his face on that fare if I could somehow trade places with him.
Presently, solitude was the only thing I had. Already the sands of time, for me, were running low. Any chance of escaping was nonexistent. The guards couldn’t be bribed. There is not much you can bribe with when dressed in a sack. I couldn’t understand their language and they didn’t bother to understand me. Hand signals were the only medium. At first, I must have been rude, I think. Looking at the stump where my middle finger had been on the right hand, I couldn’t even remember when all of this had started.
The bare metal bed felt cold on my skin. I couldn’t remember why I was here. I was supposedly in solitary from the beginning, supposed to have done something horrendous. The only thing I remember from that life is that I was itchy. An itch that did not want to go away.
My feet continue trembling. Why this fear? After all, I am not afraid of dying. I don’t believe there is an end. The material body made of dust may crumble but the soul endures. Then why? Why am I sweating all over? Why am I shivering uncontrollably?
I can almost feel the breathlessness. Am I choking on my thoughts? I think I can almost feel where my neck is going to break and when and how my body is going to jerk about. Bloody Einstein !! Why cant time pass quicker and I get done with my execution. The surmounting terror is just too much to take.
Hark!! The bell’s off. The priest comes in to read me the last rites. I am being dragged away towards the gallows as I take in the last sight of the cell which was my home now for some time. I feel my heart strings tug. The horrid little hell hole actually appears quite homely to me now.
Now I am being dragged through the courtyard. Ah! Now I can see the gibbet which will hang me and where I will be sport for crows and vultures as they rend my rotting flesh.
“God be with you, son!”
What? I turned to look at the stands and saw an old man with his hands to his mouth making sure his voice reached me.
What? Is there a God? Then why does he not listen to me? Why has he let me go? Why am I at the mercy of men who declare themselves as righteous? Is faith of no avail then?
Having faith in a religion or anything for that matter is good; gives one hope. But faith can fail you at your last moments when you need it the most. As it failed me.
I choose to not have the blindfold. The noose is tightened and I am at peace finally.I finally understand that life down here is just a strange illusion. People are not what we intend them to be and we are not what we deserve to be. Though the end is imminent, I am not sorry to have lived my life on my terms.
I am at peace finally and don’t need no God to help me.
God?
Hallowed be thy name.
__________________________________
Hallowed be thy name - Iron Maiden
__________________________________
Coz at 5 o’ clock, I was supposed to be taken to the gallows and hung until I was dead, as the judge put it. I felt no malice against the Judge as Judges are honorable men. But something about his smug smile irked me. How can a man be happy putting an end to another man’s life? There was something to it. If only I could figure it out.
The afternoon meal was the not the usual. The bastards knew how to treat a man to his last meal. The portly warden looked on while I tried to not look at or smell the food I was dished. Life is always better on the outside of the looking glass. I wondered how he would feed his face on that fare if I could somehow trade places with him.
Presently, solitude was the only thing I had. Already the sands of time, for me, were running low. Any chance of escaping was nonexistent. The guards couldn’t be bribed. There is not much you can bribe with when dressed in a sack. I couldn’t understand their language and they didn’t bother to understand me. Hand signals were the only medium. At first, I must have been rude, I think. Looking at the stump where my middle finger had been on the right hand, I couldn’t even remember when all of this had started.
The bare metal bed felt cold on my skin. I couldn’t remember why I was here. I was supposedly in solitary from the beginning, supposed to have done something horrendous. The only thing I remember from that life is that I was itchy. An itch that did not want to go away.
My feet continue trembling. Why this fear? After all, I am not afraid of dying. I don’t believe there is an end. The material body made of dust may crumble but the soul endures. Then why? Why am I sweating all over? Why am I shivering uncontrollably?
I can almost feel the breathlessness. Am I choking on my thoughts? I think I can almost feel where my neck is going to break and when and how my body is going to jerk about. Bloody Einstein !! Why cant time pass quicker and I get done with my execution. The surmounting terror is just too much to take.
Hark!! The bell’s off. The priest comes in to read me the last rites. I am being dragged away towards the gallows as I take in the last sight of the cell which was my home now for some time. I feel my heart strings tug. The horrid little hell hole actually appears quite homely to me now.
Now I am being dragged through the courtyard. Ah! Now I can see the gibbet which will hang me and where I will be sport for crows and vultures as they rend my rotting flesh.
“God be with you, son!”
What? I turned to look at the stands and saw an old man with his hands to his mouth making sure his voice reached me.
What? Is there a God? Then why does he not listen to me? Why has he let me go? Why am I at the mercy of men who declare themselves as righteous? Is faith of no avail then?
Having faith in a religion or anything for that matter is good; gives one hope. But faith can fail you at your last moments when you need it the most. As it failed me.
I choose to not have the blindfold. The noose is tightened and I am at peace finally.I finally understand that life down here is just a strange illusion. People are not what we intend them to be and we are not what we deserve to be. Though the end is imminent, I am not sorry to have lived my life on my terms.
I am at peace finally and don’t need no God to help me.
God?
Hallowed be thy name.
__________________________________
Hallowed be thy name - Iron Maiden
__________________________________
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