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