THE SUNRISE

Early morning 5.30 am. A bus terminal.

The crowd was small. People were standing in small groups waiting for their respective buses. Most of them were drowsy. There were few cabs and auto-rickshaws with drivers sleeping inside. Surely that was not the best time for cab drivers to get hired. The only active morning person in the bus terminal was the tea master in the farthest corner of the terminal trying to attract the customers with his tea making skills. In short the atmosphere was perfect for an early morning bus terminal.

Having got down from the bus from a long journey just then, he wearily walked towards a stone bench and sat getting a deep breath. 

“Another 30 minutes and I am getting a cab !” He could hear her voice clearly amidst the chaotic horns and engine roars. He could easily say she was in anger from her tone. Another thing he inferred is her actual voice would be soothing if not for her anger.

He even got to know that she was waiting for someone to pick her up, probably her father who had overslept and would be late to pick her up.

She sat beside him. She didn’t notice him until she sat there. Looking at the huge clock tower she shrugged her shoulders in disbelief. One could easily say she was mad by looking at her swiping her mobile. Her eyes didn’t miss seeing a young adult sitting beside her. She thought he was strange for someone sitting in a bus terminal. He was extremely calm for her eyes. Looking at his mini travel bag and wrinkled shirt, she could say that he just completed his travel. Then why was he not leaving the stone bench? She thought. Was he too waiting for someone to pick him up?. She was bored using her mobile all through the night. She could not control her thoughts from the hidden investigation she was doing. She didn’t have any other way to pass the 30 minutes till her father’s arrival to take her home as her protective family didn’t want her taking a cab alone.

“Beep” Her phone whined before going dead with zero percent battery.

“Got to change you soon” She whispered to her mobile in disbelief. He heard her anger less voice.

She looked around her to find some charging slot to charge her mobile. She didn’t want her father to search for her all through the terminal. Unfortunately she couldn’t find one. All she had close to her  was a random guy sitting beside her on the same stone bench. The street light was not even enough to see his face clearly.

“Can I ?” She asked herself if to ask him.

“What could go wrong ?”- Her mind told her.

A minute of silence before she asked him.

“Do you have a power bank with you”

He was silent for few seconds before he took a back up power bank from his backpack’s little compartment and gave it to her. He didn’t even care to look at her face. She thanked her formally after plugging in her mobile. “ Shy to even look at a girl “ She thought.

“Waiting for someone?” She started.

“Hmm… Not really!” He laughed.

“That’s odd”- She whispered to herself.

“Well, I am not waiting for someone. But for sunrise” He said adding the fact that he should go somewhere once the sun rises.

“He has got some sharp ears.” This time she didn’t whisper. She didn’t even let a word spill out of her mouth in fact.

“But you are waiting right ?” He asked slightly turning his head towards her.

“Yeah. My father is picking me” She replied.

She had an urge to ask him for what he was there for. Was it too much to ask ? She questioned herself. For some reasons she really wanted to know about the random stranger she had met just then. She was always curious to know about people from her. It really helped her to improve her skills as a psychology graduate. But trying to know him was not because she was just curious. She thought he was elusive. She thought his calmness and words had something hidden beneath.

Getting rid of all the questions in her head, she asked him what was he there for.

“…..” A brief silence.

“I come here every year on this day”

“To attend what or to meet whom?” She was not easily leaving him. Nor was he felt awkward. He was ready to answer the questions about him to a complete stranger. He was not usually vulnerable to a stranger, but the reason.

Turning his head, he said- “ To sit on this stone bench ”

“Couldn’t get you” She replied. She was correct. He had a strong reason to be there. But she couldn’t know why unless she continue bugging the person who doesn’t even look at her constantly.

“……”

“If I am making this awkward sorry, I just wanted to have a conversation”- She put a bait.

“Not really” And he fell for that.

“I had an accident a few years back while I was sitting on this stone bench on an early morning. Since then I come here every year just to sit here.” He opened up.

“What a weird guy.” She thought.

Any sane person would not want to go back to the place where he or she had met with an accident in the first place. Why would someone try to remember the dark days of their life unless they have a logical reason to do that. These thoughts hit her.

Without a hesitation she asked- “Did you lose someone in the accident?”

“Nope” He was quick to answer that. She was relieved to hear that.

“I was alone in the incident when it occurred” He added.

She let out a big gaze at him. He was just looking at the clock tower opposite to the stone bench like a statue.

“I don’t want to make this awkward, but seriously your answer intrigues me. Meeting with an accident is not something to commemorate, right unless you lose someone which you apparently did not” She bombarded him with her last weapon.

The clock tower showed six. She knew her father would arrive at any time there to pick her up. She wanted to complete the conversation before that.

He laughed. Probably the only real emotion he had showed in this conversation she thought.

 “I didn’t lose someone. I was an architect before that. I am an architect now. In fact I didn’t lose anyone in my life since then. I was married before that. You are wrong about one thing though. It wasn’t a dark day for me.”

“An accident is a dark day for anyone Mr “Now her humor sense peeked out.

“I just feel the sunrise every year on this day sitting here. I was lucky to survive that. I just want to remember that lucky day every year sitting here under the sunrise. Many people don’t survive such accidents and I was lucky to be alive. The world changed for me since that sunrise.”

“….” She didn’t know what to say.

He had a logical reason to be there she thought. She concluded that he just want to be thankful to survive the accident.

A motor bike came and stopped just in front of the stone bench. Her father didn’t take too much time to find her daughter inside the terminal Her face brightened, although she was little angry that he arrived late. She plugged out her mobile and gave placed the power bank beside him saying “Thank you”.

“My pleasure” he replied looking at the motor bike.

She took her luggage and got herself up on the pillion seat.

“Be careful sitting here” she laughed. Her father didn’t have a slightest idea of what was going on.

The sun rose. Her father started the bike. The rays now helped her see his face clearly. She was satisfied knowing about a stranger. “Weird guy” she told herself. The bike then took a turn. She could notice something in his face though. She looked at him continuously while her father rode the motor bike in a circle, questioning herself what did she miss.

He took black coolers from his bag and wore it. He then searched his bag, took out a stick and extended it. Everything seemed clear to her now. The weirdness she saw in his face was his discolored pupil probably due to a surgical procedure. She now knew the reason why he told her he wanted to feel the sunrise. She even saw a living proof of why people become more attuned to sounds after losing eyesight. The morning before the accident was the last sunrise he ever saw in his life. She now knew why he was hesitant to look at her face. She now knew what did he lose really in that accident. After all, she got her answers.

He walked towards the open space at one corner of the terminal using his walking stick, to feel the sunrise. To commemorate the last ever sunrise he witnessed.

THE END

The Never Ending Road- By Priyadarshan K

It felt like it was the longest walk he is ever going to have in his life. Having travelled almost a thousand times along the same road, he had a weird feeling which was neither pleasing nor depressing. Definitely not the way he had felt when he used to travel the same road while he was young. It seemed to him as though the far orange horizon and the mild chirps had something to say.

If it was any other day he would have taken his mobile to capture the scenic sunset. It was not easy for him to walk the distance with thoughts hitting him like a flood. His ears didn’t care about the horns of the cement lorries that passed him along the way. His eyes saw emptiness all along the path. His mind didn’t remember the distance he had walked.

His phone rang.

Like someone who had just got up from a shock, he came back to the reality. Slowly he gave the mobile to his ears.

“Hello”

“…”  He heard his mother’s voice.

“Will be there in an hour ma..”

“….”

“No need ma, I am walking the whole distance.”

“….”

He didn’t want his father to pick him up that time as he would always do when he arrived.

The mobile then went inside his pocket.

He again drifted into the memory lane.

It had been nearly four years since he went to his native place. He boarded the bus with a happy heart and mind. Who would not be happy for their brother’s marriage?

He was awake throughout the journey, remembering all the memories with his brother, scrolling through his old pictures in the mobile gallery. Weirdly, he didn’t even untangle his earphones which was residing quietly in his backpack. Why would a person who would usually spend his long journeys with earphones fitted around his neck spend an eight hour journey without even touching his earphones?  He didn’t feel bored throughout the travel, nor was he sad. He traversed through all his memories with his native. He was realizing what nostalgia means.

From the time he almost drowned in a lake trying to pluck a lotus to his last memory when he went there to do the final rituals for his grandmother.

It was like he almost skimmed through his entire life within a five hour span.

He could see the sun setting through the window. At the same time the bus was nearing his destination. He wanted to get down prior to his destination as he would always do when he was very young as the transportation during those times was limited. His father would arrange someone to pick them up from there. Those were the times where being dependent on someone really made him happy.

He got down at the exact same spot, decided to walk the entire distance.

What he could possibly gain?        

An hour of walk could actually reduce his chance of dying from cholesterol which he would probably suffer from his “Sit all the time” job.

Apart from that, he wanted to relive his childhood. He wanted to feel the importance of the road he was travelling in in his life.

His legs stopped.

He saw a single lotus almost sitting prettily in the geometrical center of a lake where he almost drowned when he was ten. He could not control the sluggish smile his lips made when he remembered the bashing from his mother after the near- death incident.

Air seemed cold, he could smell a familiar scent with which his mind would alarm him that he had reached his native that he would wake up from his sleep in the bus when he used to travel with his mother. From incandescent to neon lights everything seemed upgraded along with all these years during which he had not even visited the place once. May be it was not his mistake to have not visited the place. After settling down far away from his native with an elite salary, why would someone even care to visit a rural place?

Having travelled almost for straight 10 hours, walking through the road did not make his travel cramps worse. In fact he didn’t even realize his pain. His rucksack felt empty, at least for his mind if not for his shoulders. The bush laden rural road turned to state highway.  Almost for every fifty feet he could see a construction of house with typical two room terraced architecture. It was almost like he was travelling straight through a portal to his childhood.

He knew he was nearing his destination. He wished he had stepped down much earlier from the bus. He wished his home was a little bit far. He wished to travel another mile and so on until he finish living his long-lost childhood. He wanted to bring the time to a halt. He wished he smile the way his younger self did. He longed for his guilt-free regretless childhood.

The thoughts seemed meaningless. His mind told him he was being emotional. His heart knew he was not. He was not even in a dilemma where our heart and mind would be in contradiction. He just wished the travel to last longer.

He stopped just a few hundred yards behind his ancestral home where his family was waiting for his arrival. Looking at the sky, he let out a big breath. Standing there simply for almost a full ten minutes, he made up his mind. He was happy to have remembered his childhood all through the walk. He then realized the place where he should be to be happy- where his family is.

The sun finally came down to rest giving way for the full moon light. A small boy holding a paper windmill ran across him followed by his mother begging him with a porridge pot to eat. The paper windmill spun fast and so are the boy’s childhood he realized. Tears rolled down his cheeks, but for a happier reason. He was going to his home, his family. After all, home is not just a place.

THE END