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!