“Cloooshe d stoor”

Adthiya spoke with his eyes closed, the eyes lids were so heavy that he felt someone had put a brick on them. The cold had begun to shrivel him, which was when his half sunken senses told him the front door was still open. He wished to say “close the door”, but what came out of his unwinding mouth was not even clear for him. He had never been so drunk, he couldn’t remember what happened on that unusual day.

Trying to regain his hold on the present he glanced around to see whom was he talking to. A blinking object on the posh sofa opposite to him caught the attention of his blurred vision. He forced his eyes out. It was his laptop; it was on from morning of that unfaithful day of winter, and the vibes of anger from the laptop were resonating on that Saturday night. He felt as if a train was honking and pacing up in his head, smashing the cores inside and occasionally hitting on his skull with the gained momentum. He got up from the sofa, strained himself to walk towards the door to close it, thus prevent further damage of the icy cold night. The door was still out of focus, just then he missed a step in-order to avoid stepping on something, he felt only his conscious was lost but his reflexes were still intact.

What lay on his square patterned carpet brought out the worst fears in him, for a moment his heart stopped against the intoxicating effect of Irish whiskey, he stood staring at it. Then, a single drop of blood couldn’t be found in his body if you were to poke him with a needle.

Like a dying angel who was victorious in reaching earth, but collided with the venomous earth, she lay there on the carpet which he had bought at the heritage exhibition .She had long eyelashes, her white cotton top was dirty with mud , her torn sky-blue nylon skirt revealed her rich thighs.

His reflexes sent an alarm to the brain which in turn helped him have a close look at his fate, her lipstick was spread in a weird manner, her hair, out from the broken hairclip and the shoe on her left leg was missing. Her slender figure started to haunt him in his drunkenness. As an offshoot of modern generation, he had longed to have a girl lying for him in his flat, but certainly not in a situation like this.

Staring at her, he tried to recollect his sense of recognition, which almost melted down with the Irish whiskey. Her resemblances didn’t relate to anyone from his stored memories which were recallable, his impulses as a social animal took over him and closed the door; he did not want the tenants upstairs to see him that pathetic situation, before he could solve the mystery by himself. A sudden paralysis got hold of his legs, he couldn’t walk back to the sofa, and he fell to the floor near the closed door. The pain in his head returned with a nauseating effect, his visions were blurring and night fell on him again.

“Water. Please water”

Adhi felt someone whispering in his ears and woke up thirsty. The water jug was in the adjacent kitchen cum dining room of the flat in the heart of Bangalore, he felt lonely walking towards the water jug among the endless restless residents of Indrangar. He was surprised to feel his leg humane, perfectly working, the paralysis was gone. The thirsty feeling led him to the water jug without giving attention to the stranger in room. Was it a Miracle? The very miracle he kept searching to reassure his belief in the known God, in different names and worshiped in various ways. The excitement was all over him, which left him with no thirst. He stood blank with the water jug.

“Water”

The same voice from his dreams, but this time be felt it so real he gazed over the room, he looked at the girl, her lips didn’t move. He was puzzled.

His emptiness was filled with the only face, which Adhi wished to have with him.It was a week back when they made the kidnap plan, over drinks on a Friday night.

“All you have to do is, get her to the parking lot” said Arun with excitement of kidnapping a celebrity for ransom. “By the time you both are in the corner where our car will be parked, I will come behind you and take her down”

“What? Why are you taking her down”, that day, same as today high on Irish whiskey Adhi replied.

“Listen to me, you make sure that you bring her to the parking lot. I have chloroform ready. "

Arun spoke with a feeling that he was the only one who felt responsible after drinking without loosing the consciousness, he sighed and with a determined voice he said

“I will take care of everything”

They were planning to kidnap Lakshmi, Adi’s love , to get married before she wake up from the sleep induced from chloroform, Arun had made all the arrangements including the marriage registrar.They have done this planning several times, ever since she rejected Adhi with the most common excuse, “I have not seen you that way, you are my friend ”.

Adhi, then on tried to forget everything and moved on with life, but times when he felt lonely in the crowded world, he thought about her, in times of his achievements, in times of his distrust, the times when his heart would beat to pump blood to other parts of his body, her would remember her. With Arun his best friend beside him, he would speak about his anguishes of love, and they would plan and re-plan the kidnap, but that was an ever ending circle of vicious love. Arun did it because he thought it might be a relief for Adhi, but Adhi was not sure why he always planned the kidnap, may be it was mental game he wished to play. As time went by “being single” became a habit for Adhi, one half of him got addicted to it that fact he couldn’t imagine being committed to someone, but the other half always longed for her, and it was an never ending conflicts of the two kingdoms of Adhi, however if there was a battle like Mahabharata, to be fought, without doubt, the side who longed for her will be victorious and would regain the kingdom.

Today as Adhi stood pondering over his unrequited love, he had a girl unconscious in his room, her presence alarmed him, his felt the affect of Irish whiskey was abridging and a feeling of fear was taking command of him. He we walked over to her and had a close look bending down. The head felt heavy as a truck, her torn dress, her spread lipstick, everything about her gave hints that someone tried to be indecent with her. A fallacious thought jolted him, could it be him?

The intense thought made Adhi panic, he searched for the missing pair of the shoes, in the bedroom he found the bedsheet clean and tidy as the maid had left, in kitchen there was not sign of struggle, he couldn’t find the missing pair of shoe, coming back to the living room he had a gulp of water to quench his distrust. His visions were coming in sync to a normal man on an early Sunday morning. He went near her and sat beside her, which brought a sheer pain in his leg, he had a look at his leg, it was swollen with blueish marks, the color of dead blood. He examined his leg to find a bruise near his ankle and adjusted himself not to hurt him. He saw his car keys beside her torn skirt which revealed her waxed thick thighs, he took the key and threw it over to the bundle of old new papers. Without his permission his hands went close to her, caught her skirt and with a slow paced act, put the skirt over, to cover her thighs. He did that action with such perfection that he himself though he was not drunk.

Adhi felt his intoxicated cells were fighting to regain their rule over him, he tried to quickly relate her face among the faces he had from his memories, he remembered seeing her in the junction near to his flat on his way back from the bar. Drunken driving was very serious offense yet he was drunk that night. He was fading away, he knew he would go back to the darkness soon. His memories went back to his wound and recollected someone hitting him, he tired not to loose focus of that glimpse, it was a blurred image of a man, and the girl was pushed to the ground. The blurred image had the same likeness of Adhi, and that fallacious thought tried to inject guilt into him. He strained himself and sharpened his senses to unclutter his memory.

And there began to float a petite stream of memories above him, he remembered it was on that Saturday, the weather had changed the future of Bangalore, that Saturday which was on the peak of winter, the climate unexpectedly, against the weather forecast turned to be the most hottest day recorded in its history, the streets where he used to walk awake in the nights under the low dim street lights freezing where filled with vapors from earths tears, the city that had now become a decade of his little life was no more his, that very day when Adhi felt the town was going to die and the degradation just started, Adhi made his long awaited decision to abandon this degrading city, where no one cared for him, where only rich got justice, where only poor died, where the cold climate was its attraction. He decided to go far away from the city to his village and start his life all over, to live without a status to keep, and that kept him drinking even after his friends left in the bar. He also remembered it was on that Saturday he finished reading the book about snake charmers, that left him curious to search his flat, he searched the bedroom, under the bed, up the slabs, the bathroom, the kitchen all the places where likely invisible snakes roamed around as said in the book, to make sure none of them lived in his flat.

“Water” “please, some water”

It was her, he saw her lips move, leaning over; he raised her head from the carpet and poured some water from the water jug. She drank more and more, he poured water until she stopped taking water in, it spilled over her face, ran down her cheeks and then to her hair. Her face was so pale that he felt it was the water he poured began to flow in her veins.

He felt weak again, he lay down facing up, with cramped leg, he felt as if he was chocked up to the ceiling by the carpet beneath him. The rudderless pain in his ankle darted his memory to the man hitting him, it was lucid this time, he saw the man hitting him with a rod, the rod he just took when Adhi watched him, the man with a bald head and strange deep eyes swing his rod, Adhi with a swift move pushed the girl, she fell straight hitting the ground, and the rod struck his angle… and the mere thought brought back the sheer pain in his angle. That coalesce of rudderless pain and weak memory gave his heart the guidance towards solace.

Just then, when his intoxicated cells were tasting victory, he saw her open the blue eyes. He didn’t know if she was really awake or just her eyes was open, but her blue eyes which were deep as the sky spoke of rehabilitation, that deep blue eyes absolved him from all the fallacious thoughts.

As he slipped into the spell of intoxication, he had a baffling question for her ”what really happened last night?”