Dedicated to the two men I can always count on.
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Days turn into weeks, and weeks transform
into years and decades to only leave you looking
behind your back, mesmerized and boggled. If the scientists
and inventors could only create
a machine that could measure
the speed of time, I am sure the gauges
wouldn’t work, for such an entity, by no practical
means, seems to be measured
or expressed in numbers or digits. The speed of time and the rate at which it keeps increasing is incomprehensible, for, as much as it seems, it is not real but is essentially
abstract. It is with this thought I handle my gear, which happens to be a laptop computer,
to just hit the keyboard
number to times with my thin, skinny
fingers and pour my cauldron
full of a paste of thoughts and fill the heavenly white sheets of paper right in front of my eyes.It is 12:20 in the morning
and everything is quiet except
for the dreamy
hissing of the air-conditioner and occasional snores
from my room-mate
who is fast asleep after a long, not-such-an-eventful day. In a nutshell, my dwelling conditions
are far more than favourable
for this activity
that I normally
call writing.I shut my eyes and guess what? I see a little boy standing there.
He is wearing
brown, square spectacles,
a plain white shirt and dark grey trousers. His cuffs are folded up to his elbows exposing
his thin arms. It is his first day at the university
but he is not nervous,
but quite on the contrary,
to literally no one’s surprise,
he is as enthusiastic and care free as one can get. His under developed brain is filled
with false ideas and hopes about his coming life. He walks a bit but then stumbles and falls. But then right beside him a tall figure emerges
and gets hold of his arms and pulls him back up to his feet. The tall man with a beard, does not vanish
after that but stands aside,
beaming at him. When the little boy walks, he sees this tall man walking right beside him, working hard not to make a sound, but the little
boy can more than feel his presence.
So he stumbles
and falls again,
only to find himself in the same strong arms and then back to his feet again. He then realises
his mistakes and develops himself
into a man, a little
one though. He watches his steps as the tall man keeps pointing at hurdles and pits on the way to becoming
a man. He learns fast and no later than a blink,
he finds himself
helping others in exactly the same way as the tall man.I open my eyes and at the same instant
close them again to find the same little boy now all grown up. That was fast! Well, the situation
doesn’t seem the same now. The road has become
more messy and challenging, and it is steep too. As a consequence, the little man can’t help it and falls again.
But to his utter surprise
another man, a little bulkier
and shorter than the tall man comes into view. The little
man has this impression that this man who has just emerged
once wore spectacles
too. This man does not pick the little man up, quite puzzlingly though,
he hands him, the little
man I mean, a sheet of paper containing a detailed plan about how to get up and carry on on his own. The plan works,
quite miraculously, and the little
man is on his feet again, all tall and stout as a man should be. This new man smirks
too as he walks beside
the little man silently.I keep my eyes closed after that and keep comparing
the little boy and the little man. Both are of exactly
the same height;
the latter of the two, however, is not so thin.At this instant, I open my eyes for the second
time, only to find my eyes blurry
and my cheeks
wet.
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