I am not sure if the water is too cold. All I know that if the boat turns upside down, I shall bear the heat. Or, the cold, as it may appear. If I stuck to a shore before I reach my destination, I must find a way to proceed further South. All I know that nothing can impede me. Not even death because death is not impediment to life but a life event.
Amidst anxiety if I can make it to South safe, my gladness for being far away from Crescendore, is quite conspicuous. Strange! Crescendore is the island I owned and built a civilization there. It is, now, about to turn into a raging volcano. The process of island turning into a volcano can bring in tsunami. Sea will lose its current tranquility. Even then, I must continue rowing southward. War has been tearing the continents on North, West and East to Crescendore all apart. Those were nearer from Crescendore than the one I am trying to reach in South, though.
All my life beaten by humans I left one place after another. Yet I embraced humans to build one thing after another, and finally this civilization. I had no hint until recently, someday I had to leave the piece of land I discovered almost a decade ago, not because of humans but because of Nature. Life is full of Black Swans. One never knows that they occur until and unless one encounters them.
I used to be a good student. My father assumed that someday I’ll become a scholar and teacher like him. He used to call me Dhee, the patience. But, my mother used to call me Doriya, the confluence. While my father imagined that I should remain calm and stoic, my mother imagined me as a hub of intermittent turmoil and tranquility, which I found more real than an image of eternal stoic. Hence, my father lost hope in my growing up and called me disobedient. Disobedient, obviously, in fulfilling his wishes about my becoming a grown up of his imagination. My mother, hold my gear with all her strengths in the time when I used to go through turmoil, though at times she could not hide her fear that I might end up being drowned. She used to sing soothing tunes during the tranquil times while I sailed through the sea of life a bit relaxed.
After school, father goaded me to study Mathematics and Philosophy. But my intention was to know Nature more. My choices were Natural sciences, Earth science and Mathematics. Mother stood by me. She was happy when my teachers praised my studiousness and ability to learn fast. Father was happy, too. His consolation was that I was studying hard, at least. Occasionally, I topped my class. But that never mattered to me. Nor to my parents. Even, not to my teachers. Never to my classmates. I was happy for I was learning a lot of new things and about the camaraderie with almost all of my classmates. The teachers were caring. All these made my parents satisfied then.
Soon my happy world crumbled. In the evaluations of college education for passage into University, I failed. Some said, “It’s better than passing with a fair evaluation. You got another chance to prove yourself.” A teacher went to sue the University board. My father retired in gloom. My mother lit a dim lamp of broken heart and keep on singing to me in cracked voice that I must not lose hope. Inside, I was restless for I knew that I performed as always I do, my bests, though the results said otherwise. Outside, I became too tough, almost impossible to bend and prone to break at any blow stronger than my strength to withstand.
In the next opportunity, I barely passed, even after topping in several papers during the internal evaluations of college, after failing the university evaluations. The teacher’s law suit against the board was dismissed because I never agreed to be part of that. Somehow, I was scared about confronting the corrupt board. I still had hopes of scoring enough to accomplish my dream of being selected as a researcher in one of the world’s best institutes that studies Nature. After barely passing University evaluations, my hopes started drying up. Rumors were there that University board is prone to bribery. The laggards in the college had bribed them to obtain the best scores of the class and dumping the laggards’ scores on the best scorers.
I just did not pay heed to all these. I left college after fulfilling the mandatory period of attendance for obtaining the degree. Then I started looking for job. I tried to use my degree and my studies over all previous years of my life. Within a few years I bagged one. These few years appeared as if I had always been this straggler and I never studied or passed an examination in my life.
The job paid scantily. Besides, it demanded physical strength and tenacity. I never knew that I had so much will to be a bread earner. My will made me physically strong to bear the job. I started as a farmer for the State owned agricultural farms. The job enlightened me with the fact that all these years I was not just good at studies, but studying helped me acquire an ability to learn, to learn fast, to remain patient while practicing learned lessons till achieve efficiency, if not mastery, and to deliver analytical outputs based on lessons learned. This added knowledge about myself boost my confidence, helped me to wade through surprises of life.
My job performances often used to be praised by my supervisors. That irked one of my colleagues. That colleague became very jealous and started teasing me over anything and everything I did. Spoken words has never been powerful enough to harm my soul. The colleague’s fierce envy took a desperate turn to harm me physically. We used to live in adjacent quarters allotted to us by our employer, the State. Even pieces of agricultural fields assigned to us were adjacent.
One morning I woke up to find my yard being covered with glass shards and iron pegs.
************
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This story belongs to an anthology of my short stories are now out. It comprises ten different short stories of ten different tastes, shades and environments. Some set in paranormal India, some in serene forests and mountains. Some are spread from remote villages of Telangana to the United States. Some speaks of a controlled restrictive society and its freedom seeking denizens thriving through odds of politics, corruption and natural disasters. Some are depiction of strife of relationships. Some clings to brighter hopes and joy. Some include contemporary discourse on gender and beyond (what we do not know and are ignoring as a knowledge under peer pressure and scenarios that are waiting for appropriate moments to explode into experience). In nutshell, it narrates stories of contemporary Indians and their diversity.
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