CELEBRATIONS

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 16; the sixteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

It's been late today. As the lamp posts dim sheepishly across the star lit sky Piklu strode off his bicycle across the dusty roads to home. The day has been a hectic one. On reaching home he step off his cycle. It's a long roads back from tuition. He ring the door bell and paused to look for the old man. Just like everyday there he is, a man on his sixties probably, wrinkled skin and stammer as he speak. He coughs then and now and pauses longer between the talks more but Piklu wonder whether he has seen the old man to have a chit chat with someone anytime. Little does he know about the old man, he has met his two sons who are highly qualified engineers, they all live under the same old roof with their own families but still he has hardly seen anyone of them with this old man anytime.

Everyone is talking about it, the new format of MTV Roadies. The concept of the show is to reflect on the contestants the seven basic emotions and the outcomes at different situations. As Piklu surf across the channels a thought grazed across his mind Has he seen any? The old man on his verandah on his lonely night and day, he has hardly any of them. On the jolly times, when everyone in that house is busy in merry making he is singled out still resting on the verandah , even when the loud noises,screams engulf the locality as sirens wailing from that house still he does not show remorse, he does not feel sad or disgusted. He just look through the rusted grills from verandah in the moon lit sky questioning the sky itself. The local people have not  interfered. Because we are social. We are taught since childhood and as we grow we learn by heart to not interfere in other matters whatever it may be. A lonely old man with his lonely old sky he rests in his 3 X 2 sq ft verandah as the days pass by.

Today is Diwali. The day when our good old Rama returned home with Sita, the day marked as a new beginning of light and hope. Just as the evening drove past six, Piklu speed past the lanes to his friend's house in a nearby locality with all his crackers and fireworks. No books to gaze,no routine to bind to , this day is just like a dream day to him. The white fumes, the sound of crackers and the candles lit across the apartments everything has its due appeal for that day. His whole afternoon is sorted out with crackers hurling at his saitan neighbors, they have to start early else some of them will be spared. They will be paid in every possible means of fireworks and chocolate bombs for ruining their fun and mischief all around the year.

It's past 10 o' clock. Although the sound of the crackers exploding goes incessantly yet Piklu with his heart contempt with joy of savaging the neighbor houses strode past to his home. But as he come close he seem to be a little arised today. Something is unusual today. Something odd.Why so many people are crowding in his neighbor house? He speed through the lanes and as he struggled his way across the mob he peeped in the ongoing scene. The old man lies there, calm and quiet just like any other day but with his eyes closed. The  time may have wrinkled and deformed his mouth but the tranquility that exists today can not be explained just in words.  Nobody is crying, just that everybody is deep silenced within their inner self.

Piklu moved aside from the crowd and went to the rooftop. The whole scene is very vivid from there. "The good old fella is no more..."  as he repeat these words on and on his mind dwindle on the narrow line between the two worlds of Life and Death. The serenity in the face of the dead man ....is it the happiness for forsaking his deserted life and setting his voyage across the unknown world of darkness? Today is unusal for him not just as the old man is dead but what he have witnessed none of the people had or will ever get a chance to be. It is the first smile in that face Piklu has witnessed in ages. It's the smile for the end of an evil life, and the commencement of new hope, a new afterlife. "Oh Yes!!! It's not late.The Celebrations May Begin......."

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