*Life* Ashish tossed and turned on his bed, unable to sleep. He felt weak. He had popped a medicine a while back but hadn’t seemed to be of much help. The thermometer showed a temperature of 103 F. He got up twice; his uneasiness would not let him sleep. Ashish lit a cigarette and sat down in the balcony of the small flat where he lived. He smoked as he thought about life. He was proud of his new job and the branded clothes he was able to buy with his salary; but it didn’t give him the happiness he thought he would get. He missed his own small town where everybody knew everybody. He missed his cycle he rode to school every day, thinking that someday he’d be able to own a Ferrari. He missed the cricket bat his father had got for him when his school headmaster prophesized that he could be another Sachin Tendulkar one day. He missed his mother who would be up all night when he had fever, while asking every twenty minutes if he felt better. All his life, Ashish had thought that life would be perfect if he had a little more money. He would watch enviously from afar as his friends got drenched in the rain because he feared falling sick. He would sit alone in his hostel room hoping to solve a difficult question on Mathematics when all his friends would go out. He wasn’t even able to ask out the girl he loved so much. Perhaps, he had led his life a little too cautiously. “It is never too late”, Ashish thought to himself. He called up his mother to tell her that he was coming home for a week. He climbed under the shower, and let himself get drenched till his clothes stuck to his body. He would fall even more sick, but it didn’t matter. Ashish was determined to live for himself again. Money did matter but it would never be more important than his smile he had lost somewhere along the way. He would set fire to the walls he had built within himself. He would burn down the thought that tomorrow will be more pleasant than today is. He would do what he had not all his life; he would live. --Sreyasi Verma
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:30:00 +0000
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