S13: "Time Changes Everything"

Her flight was 30 minutes late. She just attended her son’s funeral in Delhi and was going to her friend’s place in Mumbai.

In the airport, she walked to the Starbucks cafe and ordered a coffee. She placed her handbag and the remaining things on the table and had a seat.

She took her phone, opened the gallery and started reminiscing with her memories. The first photo she saw was a happy selfie with her husband before 6 years when they were immensely in love.

Her husband was her classmate when she was doing her masters in Delhi. He was an energetic hunk who was a charmer and a heartthrob for many girls.

Her lips smiled forcibly but her eyes were worn and dried out.

The next photo she swiped was when they both eloped as their parents did not agree to their decision of marriage. She and her husband were on his bike with packed suitcases and with a board in her hand saying ‘Just married’.

That’s when she got separated from her parents. Since then, they never called her and never answered her calls.

She smiled again even more forcibly.

Her eyes were saying that she was deprived of sleep since many days. They were dark red and bulged out.

She kept seeing the photos. The next one was when she was pregnant. Happiness was filled immensely in the photo.

 Her husband was holding a beer in his hand and she was hugging him with a widened smile. Her eyes were filled with joy and excitement in the photo.

She swiped with a speed for the next one. It was in the hospital. She was holding her baby boy and her husband was kissing on her forehead. Every corner of the photo was filled with love and joy.

She dropped her phone and closed her eyes. Tears were hardly coming from her eyes. She sat there without any movement.

The waitress brought the coffee. After a moment, she picked her phone and swiped again.

Another photo was when her baby boy first learned to walk. She was holding his hands and her husband holding a beer in his hand.

Her hands shivered when she swiped on to the next one.

She took a lungful of air and swiped again.

The next photo was her husband being unconscious on the floor. He was no more a charmer. He put on much more weight. He looked so different. He not only looked like an alcohol addict but also became one.

There were no more tears left for her to cry and was nothing left in her life to cry on.

The next one was the photo of her dairy in which she wrote everything about her life.

She was not very fond of writing but maybe she didn’t find any other way to share her feelings with. The dairy was the only shoulder for her to cry on.

The next photo was a soul-stirring one. It was her son’s photo who got admitted in the hospital as he was suffering with cancer. They discovered it at its last stage.

She spent many nights with tears. They became her best friend. She left her job after having a baby. Now she was in need of money and emotional support.

She called her parents. But her parents didn’t respond her. She felt lost.

The one for which she left her parents were not there with her at that moment. She didn’t know where her drunkard husband was. She didn’t know what to do.

She went to her best friend, the only hope she had. She was her childhood friend who was there with her throughout her life. She shared her laughs, giggles, tears, breakdowns and everything. Now she was a very successful woman who also runs a publishing house.

She went to her friend and collapsed on the floor, ‘please help me, He is dying’. Her friend immediately gave her the cash. ‘Don’t worry, I am there for u’.

She took the required cash and ran to the hospital. For her surprise, she saw her husband standing outside the hospital and looked so nervous.

As soon as he saw her, he came running to her and hugged her.

‘I am sorry’, he said.

She regained all the hope with that one hug and that one sorry.

‘I didn’t know that our son was..’, he began to cry.

At that moment, she felt that the whole world was with her. Her eyes were sparkling with hope. She hugged him back and said’ I got the money, we can save him’.

He looked at her, consoled himself and said ‘give me, I’ll pay there. You go and get these medicines,’ he gave a receipt of medicines to her.

She gave the money to him and ran to the medical shop to get the medicines. She had the feeling that her family will be complete one more time and happiness will visit her home one more time.

She took the medicines and headed towards her son’s ward. The nurse came running towards her. ‘Mam I am horrified to see this negligence. If you can’t afford a son, then don’t give birth to one. Your son is dying there and you are walking leisurely here.’

 She had no clue what the nurse was talking about. ‘But..But my husband came and paid the bill before an hour.’

‘Mam no one paid the bill. This is not the time to play with miscommunication. We have no time at all. Mam, do you understand? Please pay it immediately’, said the nurse.

 It was legit to become angry, after all he is a 5yrs boy. He has a life to live and he can’t be killed by negligence or lack of money.
She dropped down the medicines. I can’t say she is heartbroken. Heartbroken is a petty word at that time. It was intense. Her heart was frozen. She was numb.

She had no idea what was going on. Nothing was audible. Nothing was visible. She came out and sat on the steps of the hospital. The hope which was patting her back 5 minutes before was no more seen around her. She felt like her heart and brain stopped working.

As she was sitting there, the nurse came running to her, she kept her hand on her shoulder and said’ Mam you are here, I was searching for you in the whole hospital.’ She seemed so depressed. ‘Mam I am so sorry we lost him’.

The words were barely reaching her ears. It was like someone was whispering from a far distance. She can’t even see her clearly. Everything was dark and gloomy.

‘Mam’, the nurse shook her arms vigorously.’ Are you listening?’

She now heard the words clearly. She went inside the hospital.

She felt the whole weight of her heart in her legs. She was unable to walk. She forced herself to her son’s room. She saw him lying on the bed. Everything stood still. She was just breathing but she felt like she is also dead along with her son.

 She cleared the formalities and took her son back home. She stood there in front of her son’s dead body benumbed.

Her friend came and started crying by seeing the dead body. ‘What happened’, her friend shouted.

She turned to her friend. Now she felt that her senses were back, her heart started thumping again. She collapsed. She cried her heart out. Her friend hugged her and tried to console her. She was nowhere in control. She was sobbing terrifically. She was crying as if her sound would reach her son who was on his way to heaven and make him to come back.

She cried the entire night. They both did all the rituals.

Neither her husband was with her nor her parents. The only one who was with her was her friend.  Her friend asked her to come and stay with her in Mumbai.

She placed her phone on the table, besides her phone there was a book, she picked up the book and read ‘TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING BY SAHAJA GUPTA’.

Her smile rejoiced and now not her lips were smiling but her eyes were smiling.

The dairy in which she wrote everything came to life. Her friend took that dairy and get it published. Her friend not only gave her story a life but also gave Sahaja a new life.

She sat in the Starbucks cafe, sipping her coffee and staring out of the window. She held the book in her hand. It was her debut not only in the writing career but also in her new rejuvenated life.

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S25: "My Super Hero"

She was sitting in her 5B class with her bag on the desk and her eyes stuck to the floor.

Her bangs covered her forehead but she wished they could have covered her entire face so as to hide from this world.

She was shy and timorous. She always stay quiet in the class, not socializing with anyone.

She gets bullied all the time but she tends to ignore acting like she is deaf and they are talking to a wall.

She only makes eye contact with the teacher and when the teacher is not there, floor becomes her best friend.

The ‘cool guys’ of the class who are a bunch of six boys always hinder her and keep taunting her but she never acknowledged them.

One day-

During the play period, all the children were playing in the ground.

She was sitting on the swing pushing the ground hard with her tiny legs but the swing condemned making large movements.

‘Need any help sulky?’, the cool guys make their steps towards her.

She didn’t look at them.

Mittu, who was the fattest of all and who looks like a laughing Buddha came closer to her and hold the strings of the swing.

She tried to get down but before she could put her both legs on the ground, Mittu pulled the swing with force and left.

She had her one leg on the ground and the other in the air because of which she fell on the ground with a terrific thud. Her face got punctured into the sand.

Everyone in the ground started laughing and singing

‘Sulky sulky, sulky got yucky

 Sulky sulky, sulky got yucky'

As she tried to stand up, their chorus reverberated in her eardrums.

She stood up, dusted herself and walked closer to Mittu and said with her eyes spearing into his and with a subtle expression, ’Don’t mess with me’

‘What will you do, you sulky monkey’, he pushed her which made her to take a few steps back.

‘I am warning you’, she said again with a meek, non-aggressive voice.

‘Oh I am scared, I am scared’, he tried to make fun of her.

Without any mere change in her expression, ’you don’t know about my super hero. You will pay for this’.

She said and left while they kept mimicking like Superman and Spiderman.

That night in Mittu’s house-

While Mittu was sleeping with his mouth wide-opened, drooling all over his pillow, there was a furtive sound of a window opening.

Inadvertently, he peered with his one eye but he can only see a blurry image. He saw a person’s silhouette standing before him.

Out of a sudden, the sleepy head sat gaping at him and his hair stood on end.

He started covering himself with his bed sheet and tried to hide from him.

‘Wh..who are you’, he stammered.

 The silhouette moved forward. The moonlight from the window fell on him and his image became clearer.

He is wearing a dark grey suit from neck to toe having clouds with thunder in between them scattering all over the suit just like a furious sky engulfed with a cluster of clouds rumbling with thunders and lightening.

The suit also has a symbol of a massive cloud with a thunder penetrating into it in the center of the chest. He covered his head with a mask leaving his eyes naked and vulnerable.

‘Don’t you dare to shout’, his muffled voice was just as frightening as a roaring thunder.

Mittu was about to cry.

‘Are you sulky’s super hero?’, he said almost covering his head with his bed sheet like an ostrich 

trying to hide inserting her head into the ground.

‘She has a name, you dumbo’, he grumbled.

‘Sweety sweety, sorry’, Mittu began to shiver.

‘I got something for you’, he said taking something out of his pocket.

‘Noo, I don’t want anything’, Mittu started crying.

‘What I said about not making noise?’, he said holding a pencil box in his hand.

‘Sorry sorry’, Mittu whispered and gulped his cry.

He opened the box and took out a mammoth spider and threw on Mittu’s head. ‘I know what you are scared of’.

Mittu jumped from his bed and was shivering closing his mouth with his hands so that not even a single scream would escape from his mouth.

‘Will you ever tease her or should I give you one more present?’, he asked in a ferocious tone.

‘No, never never’, Mittu was  trembling vigorously in one of the corners of the room hoping that the wall would make a secret opening from him to escape.

‘Good’, he said and leaped out of the window which is on the ground floor.

The next day-

The whole school was talking about Sweety’s Super hero.

Mittu was no less than a radio and it was a worst night he went through.

Everyone in her class and in her school started treating her with respect (Though it’s the fear sugar-coated as respect).

Sweety’s little brother Bunny who was studying in kindergarten in the same school came to know about the news of her sister’s super hero.

That night-

Bunny came to her room with his spider man toy sweeping the floor.

‘Sweet, do you really have a superhero?’, he asked with his eyes sparkling like stars.

‘Who told you bun?’, she asked smiling.

‘In school, all are coming and saying that there is a superhero in our house’, he said wavering his hands.

‘Is he under your bed?’, he asked looking under her bed.

‘No bun. Do you really want to see him?’, she asked.

His eyes twinkled like lights in a stadium and his mouth with a wide-spread smile showing his freshly grown baby teeth.

‘Okay then, I will tell him to come to your room after sometime. But don’t tell to mom and dad’, she said.

‘I know about super heroes. They are secret’, bunny replied innocently.

‘Pinky promise’, she moved her little finger forward closing the rest of the fingers.

‘Pinky promise’, bunny held her little finger with his which interprets that he agreed to the vow.

Bunny was eagerly waiting for Sweety’s superhero.

The door slowly swung open and he saw the shadow of a person entering the room.

‘Hi bun’, he said.

Bunny was totally wonder-struck by looking at him. He sat speechless for some time, just 

communicating with his eyes.

‘Will you be my superhero too?’, Bunny asked throwing his Spiderman toy aside.

‘I am always your superhero’, he said.

‘Can I see your face, I won’t tell anyone. Mother-promise’, Bunny said touching his neck with his thumb and forefinger.

He laughed and removed his face mask.

There was a complete silence in the room. Bunny’s eyes blasted out and he was utterly shell-shocked.

‘Swweeet, it's you’, he shouted.

Sweet winked. Bunny ran towards her and hugged her.

‘Sweet, you are my superhero’, he said.

* Be your own super hero instead of waiting for someone to come and lit the lights in your life *

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