The Journey - Part 2

“Past Tense”

“Are we visible?” Suman was not sure why #13 would follow all traffic rules and stop at every signal. “We are not visible but we exist.

“Is that even logical?

”I’d started liking you, so please don’t ruin it by such questions, you got to resolve some curiosities on your own.”

He dismissed her for no reason. Before she could react furiously with generic remark about men, he parked his car under an old building and opened the door. She was confused whether to go with him or just wait.  #13 took out his iPad, checked flat number

“See, her flat is on sixth floor, and it is an old building, so I believe there is no elevator. I suggest you stay here, I am already short on time, and I have to reach there before crowd gathers.”

“Her?”

“Yes, you will know the details later, got to run”.

He literally ran up the stairs. 5 mins gained by running were compensated by the time he took to catch his breath in front of the nameplate embossed with letters “Anushri”. He went inside, neatness in every single corner of house impressed him. Everything was at right place. He was looking around, one area didn’t quite follow the pattern. Notepad was on the floor, pieces of papers were torn and thrown around, and coffee mug was shattered into thousand pieces. The place looked like a total mess. She was sitting in the study chair by the window in front of her laptop with head resting on one arm folded. The other hand was hanging in the air exactly in parallel to wired mouse hanging. She might be working on something very important last night. He went closer, glanced at her stressed face and then checked her laptop screen and tapped on her shoulder with a sigh.

“Hey Anushri, it’s time to go”.

She looked at him in total shock but didn’t had enough energy to express it. Her reflexes had given up. She was trying hard to make sense out of what was happening around. She stressed her cerebral to remember the last thing she did before falling asleep in front of her laptop. It exhausted her more, she decided to keep thinking aside for the moment.

 #13 was familiar with such situations. He could read between the lines.

“Please don’t be confused. You are dead and I am here to take you to heaven, you will feel tired for another 10 mins, but then you will be fine.”

“Fine?? Being dead is fine?” she tried to raise her voice a little. Even her dead version was head-strong.

He smiled, “I mean you will not be tired, but you will still be dead”.

“I thought being dead will feel like stateless, weightless, fearless, emotionless mind. How can I be fresh or tired, aren’t those materialistic attributes of the body?”

“Wrong expectations often lead to misery, you should have known this, 34 years is not a small period and earth is a good school”

“So, you are saying nothing will change and I will still be the same, what’s the point!” irritation in her voice was clear enough.

“I never understood obsession of earth guys with knowing everything beforehand, can’t you guys just have little patience?”

She looked down at the ground for a moment, looked up with a smile, “You will make a good witness in the court, you are good at giving answers without actually giving them”.

Her face was like an animated slide show, he thought. New expression flashed every second like it was impossible for her to hold anything inside.

“You almost look like a Salesman and nothing like Yama – I mean as per our concept of Yama”.                                                             

 “I am not Yama, I am his messenger and let me tell you, earth is not only planet revolutionizing, even heaven is upgraded now”

“Great, let’s go then, it is great to go on vacation without having to pack and worry what all you need on the journey. I needed a vacation badly.”

“You are lucky you have a tour guide like me”, he bragged. She ignored him.

They started walking down the stairs.

“I never thought you will believe me so quickly, you are new generation girl. I thought I will have to give you at least 15 min lecture on logic behind the concept of afterlife.”

Her ear to ear smile ascertained that she was as fresh as flower now. “Life stopped being logical for me a while back”. She wondered if it meant something to her, something significant, relevant. But it was another futile attempt at connecting the dots.

She jumped from the last four steps like a kid, she stumbled but landed safely on the ground.

“It is been long time I have done that, mornings used to be always so busy you know”.

“A stateless and emotionless mind can’t do that”, he whispered.          

 “Meet Suman, your travel mate”.

Anu shook hands with Suman.

“Hello Anu, how are you doing?” Suman asked as if it was unwritten rule that ‘hello’ had to be followed by ‘how are you’. Question didn’t suit the circumstances but it was too late to correct it.

“I think I am doing fine. He told me I will be fine and right now I have no option but to go with what he says.”  Anu looked fine, but #13 could tell from his prior experience that her mind was still restless.

“That’s good”.

“Ladies, you don’t have to mention me as “he or him” every time, I know it is ‘your’ big day but I have a name which nobody was bothered to ask.”

Suman and Anu looked at him with question mark on their face. He still didn’t answer.

“Ohh, you actually want us to ask you? Okay”, Anu smiled, “What is your name?”

“I am number 13”.

“Name?”

“That’s my name.” he wondered why Anu asked him again.

“Suits you”, Anu and Suman replied at exact same time.

Suman’s train of thoughts in background had left current station and was moving backwards in her past. People say near-death experience makes you see your whole life in a flash. Actual death made her look at her life as a third person. She kept thinking if it was all worth it, if it made any sense at all, if she did the right thing as she wanted to, if her conscious was clear at the end.                                                                                                 

Before she could get used to rhythmic sound of the train, #13 broke the silence “You both should be given an award for this. Two women and pin drop silence coexisted in the universe at one point.”

“Looks like jokes on women are famous in heaven too”, Anu replied.

“Yeah, they never get old.”

“True” She paused and suddenly asked him, “How did I die?”

“That’s confidential information he cannot share”, Suman was back to reality, or what looked like reality.

“She is right, I can’t tell you that”.

“Are you saying I will never know how I died? Are you kidding me? That’s is a torture”

 “Does it really matter how we died? Ignorance is a bliss.” Being a professor, she could say such things convincingly irrespective whether she believed in them or not.

#13 stopped the car again. This time in a very posh colony with two storied bungalows, classy cars, security, chauffer and a handsome dog. He took out his iPad and cross checked the address twice. Mistake was a costly affair in his profession as there was no room for correction.                                                                 
 “One more? How many people are dying today?” Suman.                                 

“112,489 in India to be precise, but I will pick only three of them, so this is the last stop, I will be back in some time.”

Anu opened the door and asked him “Can I just see around? The place looks amazing”

“Yeah sure, you are free, you can do whatever you want to”

“What if I and Suman Aunty run away?” Anu grinned.

“From what? To where? That’s the thing about this freedom, once you have doors open to go anywhere, you have nowhere to go. Enjoy yourself, check out the place”.

#13 entered the mansion, it was almost afternoon but a quite one. He went upstairs. The staircase was well decorated, similar to the ones in Suraj Badjatya’s films where a normal day also looks like a festival. There were beautiful paintings on the wall. One wall was full of family photos, everyone looked so happy in those expensive frames. She looked graceful in the portraits. Her grace hadn’t aged with her, she looked extremely charming in the photo with her grandchildren. It was quiet, but #13 was not sure if it was content silence or the terrifying one. Money doesn’t always buy contentment.

She was sitting in her rocking chair by the French window. The view was peaceful, very soothing to eyes. Green canvas of the lawn was cut through by the bright colored swing. Her grandchildren were fighting over whose turn it was to play. Anyone will envy her for that kind of life.She was reading a book just a moment before she died. #13 tapped on her shoulders, she woke up thinking it must be Neelkanth her husband, “I will be down in another 20 mins dear, let me finish this chapter, I have already asked Geeta to prepare snacks for children”. She turned and was taken aback to see a stranger right beside her.

“Who are you? And how did you get here? Security” She shouted. The book “Lean Inn” fell off her lap.

“Calm down Mam”, he picked up her book and gave back to her “Please listen to me carefully. I am here to take you to heaven. You are no longer alive, they cannot hear you”.

She got up from her chair. She was surprised that she did it that quickly. It took at least 10 minutes usually. She knew something was wrong. She could not possibly have this much physical energy at 70, at least she didn’t, a moment before.

“But I can still see them, hear them, they must be hungry by now”, she took few steps towards the window with almost no strength in her knees. Loss of strength was psychological more than physical.

“I have to be here when they come back, they won’t do their homework without me.”

“I understand, but we need to go. Everyone has to, at some point. Believe me you will be just fine. They will be just fine. We are so proud about being independent and we don’t need anyone but we have to go on this journey to understand that world is not dependent on us and it can very well run without us.  Everyone is just tiniest entity in whole scheme of universe” #13 repeated his mugged theory, he thought he went too far with tiniest entity thing.

She didn’t say anything, just looked at him puzzled and waited for him to tell her what’s next. She accepted as she had no other choice.

“I have done this before, you have to believe me when I say they might not do their homework today but they will start doing it, soon. Let’s go”. She started walking with him, it seemed like she wanted to pause for a moment at family photo wall, but she didn’t. She decided not to. #13 came back to car. Ladies were back from the little tour of the mansion. They were mesmerized by the beautiful house.

“Your house is beautiful, not just huge, but every corner depicts the aesthetic sense of the interior designer.”

“Thank you”, she said awkwardly.

“Oh sorry, we should have introduced ourselves first. I am Anu and she is Suman Aunty.”

“Hello, I am Mrs. Neelima Neelkanth Sarpotdar”.

“We have to leave now to reach destination on time. At least Anu should sympathize with me being a mumbaikar, traffic gets worse in the evening and I am not that skilled driver for this new car” #13 got into the car and unlocked the rest of the doors.

“But even if we met with an accident, what worse can happen, we are already dead”, Anu giggled. Neelima too laughed. #13 felt relieved to see her smile. “You are dead, rest of them are still alive and there is no room for more people here and I am still alive too”

“Alive as the tiniest part of the whole universal scheme” Neelima tried to corner him. He laughed. It was not going as bad as he thought it would.

“Are you not worried how did you die? I and Anu were kind of stuck on that question.”

“Well, I am already 70, so I thought maybe a heart attack or something, why?”

“No, just like that. He, I mean Mr.13 cannot tell us. Some habits die old, I am more curious just because he can’t tell us.”

“Same here” Anu nodded.

Neelima too started thinking. #13 had to divert the topic. “Anushri, what did you do for living?”

“I have a firm in partnership. We are into software services. We have a client base mostly in India and trying to expand” She was about to continue and stopped suddenly just when she realized “I should be using past tense, shouldn’t I?”

The Journey - Part 1

"The Pick Up"

It was a bright sunny morning. He looked around and found empty cubicles and pin-drop silence on the floor. He tightened knot of his tie and sat down, sipped coffee, switched on his computer. Bunch of emails about new policies and rules were marked as important and unread in his inbox. He archived all those to go through them later. His assignment email notification popped up, he opened it anxiously -

Hello Number13,

Please visit Earth-India-Maharashtra today to deliver three people to heaven.

One of them will be here on temporary basis. Details and location map is attached.

Please confirm once done so that my team can take up necessary paperwork for them.

Have a nice day!

Thanks,

Chitragupt on behalf of Yama.

Head of Corporate and Accounting, Heaven.

That was heavy workload - delivering three souls on same day! Man, no wonder recession was hitting heaven office pretty bad. He had no choice. He opened the attachment - All three women! No ways! Bright sunny morning just turned gloomy, coffee tasted bitter than fresh. He loosened the tie knot and took a deep breath. Seriously, what else you need to make a bad day worse? He knew he will have to listen to endless cribbing, queries, emotional outburst and "Why me?" question which practically had no answer in any dimension of the universe. He was not excited at all.

He got into his fancy vehicle which was one of the perks of the recent promotion. He drove towards earth, it started getting darker. He reached his first destination , wrist watch notified 5 AM earth time. It was a remote village, turned into small town due to political success of one of the farmers. He had to leave his vehicle far behind and walk towards the house.

The house looked old and raw from outside, couple of cows, goats and a bike in the shade. It looked well renovated from inside with all the latest electrical equipment like TV, Fridge, Microwave, DVD, and Computer. Family should be doing financially well, he thought to himself.

It was dark, the power was out. Power cut should be normal there as the whole family was asleep quietly. He found his way with the help of mobile flash light, woke her up "Excuse me Mam, it is time for you to go". People often confused the death talks as one of their dreams. After-all, it is hard to accept you are dead when you are wide awake, isn't it?

Suman’s confusion was natural and obvious -

"Where?”

"Bad news is that I am sorry to inform you that you are dead and happy news is that you will be going to heaven and I will be tour guide."

"Are you death-god, Yam?”

"I believe not, he can’t reach everywhere as population is out of control these days. I am the appointed Yamadut, recently promoted. But not to worry, I have done this before, so I should be able to answer your questions and take you safely."

"How did I die, accident/heart attack?”

“These are not the only ways to die”

“Was I murdered?”

#13 felt relieved and exhausted at same time. 

Relieved because she brought the idea of Yamadut so quickly. He found her smart. Convincing ordinary people on earth was very tough these days especially with the new dress code in heaven – full shirt n tie which unfortunately made them look like salesman on earth.

Exhausted because she asked ordinary questions, but as far as his experience goes, witty women don’t buy ordinary answers even to ordinary questions.

“Sorry Mam, but I am not supposed to disclose the type of death you suffered. It is classified information. I can only assure you that it is not a dream and you are actually dead”

“How did it end so soon? There is so much unfinished business here ! How is it even possible?”

 “Mam, what I am trying to say is ….”

“But I am telling you, I can't leave all this in middle… what will happen to these people if I die?”

                                                    

#13 to himself – that’s what I was worried about. It is easier to handle male deaths, they are mostly thankful that they are dead finally. ‘How to make a woman listen to you?’ - still marked as open question in their training material. The directive from authorities in this regard was clear, “Take it as it comes, do not argue, and just go with it”. He left the trail of this thoughts right there and turned to her.

“Mam, there are no ifs or buts now, you are already dead, it is not really a multiple choice KBC question you know - yes/no/cancel, none of them, all of them types”. He laughed.

He immediately felt ashamed of his little joke. The timing was off. He decided to shut up after the look she gave him. He had practice of reading woman’s looks after 6 years of his marriage. Well, not all looks were obvious and clear but he was certain about “shut up” look which was used frequently at his home.

Awkward silence lasted for another minute, but he had to break it as clock was ticking.

“I thought your case would be easy one today! ….since you are single, almost 55, no kids. I mean you don’t have any strings attached as such”

“No strings attached? One has to be born as a woman to know the strings she ties herself into.” It reminded him of his mother. She used this sentence like a weapon in every little argument.

“You do not have to give birth to a child to become a mother. You don’t have to be married to be a homemaker. The moment she takes her younger sibling in her little arms for the first time, she becomes a mother and moment she crashes in the arms of her lover, and she becomes a woman.”  Her eyes turned moist.

“Your profile says you were a literature professor and you talk like one” he smiled, “but I must tell you that it will be lot easier if you accept the truth as soon as possible. Believe me, heaven is a pretty good place”

“So you are telling me that, i have been an atheist almost my whole life and I am being sent to heaven? One cruel irony!” she looked back from door for the very last time and walked out from house with #13.

 “God is not blind even if people blindly believe or not believe him. My big boss says, atheist are also kind of believers, they hold a strong belief in my nonexistence. Finally it is the power of one’s belief and one’s karma which leads to ‘Moksha’. 'Belief in what' is almost immaterial at that point”

“So I am free? No rebirth? “. She felt liberated, felt like heavy burden was lifted off her shoulders. “Wow, I have not debt, no outstanding balance, nothing to be paid off” she smiled.

“Didn’t know literature professor would do additions/subtractions and keep accounts like that”, he smiled.

“An unadulterated artist will be bloody naked if he does not cover himself with practicalities. He has to protect himself with reality in order to protect his unreal art."

"Even the god himself was not spared from keeping accounts." , he mumbled.

She complimented him on his fancy vehicle and started asking more about heaven. He started enthusiastically talking about his vehicle, his job, heaven but finally ended up cribbing about the corporate culture and rat race in heaven like any other white collar human being on earth.

She kept smiling throughout and listened to #13 patiently, cribbing was not very new to her, she had a software engineer nephew of his age.

#13 took out his iPad and upgraded Suman Deshpande’s status as ‘Time of Death – 5:35 AM - Picked Up’.

They headed towards the next stop, Vehicle took a sudden turn and they were on heavily crowded road, everyone was walking and driving at their own pace, no one looked at each other. She guessed it was Mumbai!