An attempt to write something new… an attempt to gather attention… please read this story till the end.. Would love to know everyone ‘s views😃.( Anything simple will work the best!😅 Dont contemplate too much)
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THE BENCH- A SHORT STORY;
1.) “ Did I ever stop to say I care?
When I didn’t seek to hear it to?
When you weren’t so sure that I ‘d be there,
Did I ever show love to you?
2.) A wounded animal leaps with a broken leg. It continues to do so until the pain eases. And fades away.
Once, there lived a lively man named Robert. Robert Gupta. He started his Monday like every other person. He ate his breakfast, a half-made sandwich like many office goers. Often, cursed at the traffic and people. because they are existing to be cursed at.. and different varieties in that… His grudging boss who called him in hours, non-applicable hours.. even while driving home he would connect his device to his car system… Afterall to catch up to next day at office. Like every other being, once in his life.. he could not be the master.. He was a servant to his colleagues… who wanted to hear a joke from his self occupied self,… the inalienable nature of his boss was to annoy and by agreeing to be annoyed and giving up his precious time, he was a self-conscious servant.. Serving others though, is not always at diffidence to onself.. one ‘s health and one’s pleasures… He was a servant of love afterall. Self desired.. self-made self groomed love. Love imploring for more to happen. An assiduous engineer, because he struggled for a pay raise, made a fool of himself every time he showcased himself before his love. That is how it is called? Or who is called. My love.
Pia…
But more than that, drifting away from the myopic scope, just like all others he was a servant of life.. And sometimes, no always.. you can’t dictate life to plunge down there rather than attacking at the exact point..
Here…
And there once lived such a lively man.. lively because he remained active in the worst ( boss, office, job, pay raise) and of course he was an active onlooker, a participator at the best life still offered him.
It has been two years. Robert stares at his bed post, and turns off the alarm of his phone. It has been longer than anticipated.. 6.AM. Robert goes inside to freshen himself… Life must take a turn.. Robert, his shoulders shrugging, turns to apply paste to his brush. He does not look up at the mirror. He prefers to keep his identity reverted to his phone. But that too will run out of interesting stuff sooner or later. It’s a Sunday. But this man has risen himself up at his office’s alarm. With nothing better to do, he goes into the kitchen to make coffee for him.. A picture of him and Pia is there at the kitchen wall as he works. But he seems too tired to react to some “subversions”, some distractions of his past life and melt down and cry . Yet Robert declares himself enslaved… He declares everyday..
Its 10a.m and still a Sunday.. Locking the door behind him, he turns to walk ahead and coughs in the winter air. He does not speak until he has reached his destination.. it’s a fountain. A beautiful fountain which is producing water and reflecting some of the sunlight as it splashes down around it. Its hard to find such a sight. And Robert the only onlooker seats himself before the fountain over an iron wrought bench and he settles himself down.
‘Hello Rob what brings you here’, an old man wearing a heavy coat and groggy glasses not too fastly, calls to Robert. It is more of a greeting and less of a question. The old man seats himself beside his Sunday companion and Robert passes him a smile in return..
‘Nothing just the usual uncle’ Robert says in reply.
‘Just the usual?’, the old man pushes his stick forward. ‘A fine man like you must be engaged at this hour. I find this peculiar and rather very embarrassing for yourself!’
‘ Engagements are proposed. And I am too short of proposals’, Robert says smiling, looking at the old man.
‘Your smile seems rather toothed though’ the old man tweaks a tone and stares at Robert with fake accusing eyes.
‘So where did we leave?’
‘Ahh at the point when you were to tell me about your engagement with the girl,’ Robert exclaims. These days the only surety he is aware of was a cliff-hanger from someone else ‘s story.
Oh, oh yes! The girl. The engagement did not happen though.’
Robert turned sharply and asked ‘Why?’
‘ You see I had approached her too soon.. or maybe we weren’t meant to be together. That is what I think, sitting here. But that time I was enraged inside, overpowered by a tremendous sadness. Afterall she left me.’
‘She d-‘,
‘Oh no not like what happened to you. But very similar to your case. She left me for another person.. another guy’
The old man continues hitting his stick to the ground,’ Alright he had a good nose.. good nose… maybe that is afterall.. yes! She left a fine chap. It was purely her loss.. She left me after all’
‘ You must have been sa- ‘ Oh sad I was.The old man jumped, maybe realising he was approaching too fast,’ The guy had good features. Ok. I agree he was affluent. What did I have then? A struggling folk into some ‘business’. I still remember him though… never thought this bad from him.. , the man grinds his stick to the ground.
‘ Oh too sad… too sad..’ the old man says as he reverts to Robert ‘ I had befallen down.. I felt dejected. I felt the greatest remorse of the world.. I felt an itching sadness beside my bed.. I felt bad.. terrible.. ‘
‘And?’, Robert asks. In an urgent tone he asks for more.
‘ And wasted.. that was it! Yes the worst feeling ever it gave to people around.. to me it brought nothing.’
The old man continues, ‘ But I was fortunate enough to be guided by some event and realised it sooner than later.. I felt why is it my fault? Why do I have to curse myself for not being rich to be not born with a silver spoon.. Moreover, It is as if I am cursing my parents more than myself… And strangely Robert, though I was expected to- . Robert is looking at the old man but with a quite strange expression as the next will flow out of the old man. Robert ‘s mouth forms an oval ‘O’
Pia is looking at him, her fists clamped down over her lap and saying ‘ You enjoy this don’t you. This.. feeling of numbness.. feeling of doing nothing.. approaching nothing.. trying nothing new.. because new always tends to bring struggles.’
‘So’ Pia continues waving her hand ‘ you enjoy this na… You don’t have to do anything.. You just blame it on what has happened to you.. You don’t kiss the picture on the wall and cry every night.. You have already lost the feeling.. So why acting so numb? Why making me feel the accused one. Didn’t I give you enough love to show’. Robert though breaks the illusion, thinking some illusions are meant to be broken.
‘To put in you some deal, Didn’t she Robert, in you?The old man is speaking. Robert nods, suddenly disturbed by a new type of headache.
To see each and every relationship in a new way?the old man asks with concern full on his face. He pats Robert. Robert looks around at the sudden turn of events and talks.
‘ Love is what life has to offer.. don’t destroy your life from having it Rob. Don’t make yourself unnecessarily burdened and tied to your past. You also have a present… , the old man smiles at Robert who looks flustered..
‘ What happened to you’, Robert blurts out at the old man.
‘I see … you want an ending.. Maybe I said all that too soon. Aging people can hurry with the plot climax.. an ending. He chuckles exclaiming ‘ Like the moral of the story before the story itself.’
He continues, ‘ After she had broken off the plan of engagement, and since I was in my car, I had to revert my vehicle to a different destination. It was uncalled for.. so I swirled and swirled, tidied up the roads, took turns back,.. and tried to find a new destination… because all of it, He presses ‘ was uncalled for.’
So, I spent some whole months.. dejected.. wasted . Smelled puffs of cigarettes. I made regular excavations to a pub. Did not sleep… awaited nothing.. woke up everyday to be afraid to look at my reflection.., The old man sighs and stops’ existed without meaning.’ What more do you want to know?’ he says sharply and Robert looks at him with some familiarity uncalled for..
‘ He says, ‘ Life had been beautiful with your auntie though. ’
‘At some place. Call it a bench if you may. I befriended someone… Someone old.. you see old people have a perspective.. I changed.. Not completely but yes I did…’ Robert looks at him flustered and gets up from the bench.
‘ But I did change.. the main aspect of me did change.. and I want the same to happen to you.. You come everyday and sit on the same bench. When people arrive at the same place, they are either arriving for someone’
Robert had already taken big steps away from the bench. Accusation runs sharp in his eyes for the old man who elicited some names out of him.. to lecture him sometime.
‘Robert’, the old man called. Robert turns out of habit.
‘People arrive at the same place every day, they come about for two reasons, either to wait for someone to arrive, waiting for the arrival of something sure- Robert turns to go away. ‘ Hear the old man! The phrases don’t come everyday’. Robert stops as well.
The old man continues, ‘Or they demand some answers of their own, unsure of the question they want to ask.’
‘ But I see a question in you. Whether or not? and according to an old man who believes he has some perspective I believe, don’t accuse her. Start anew.’ But Robert walks away.
‘You are not entitled to this bench.’, the old man shouts and starts feeding the ducks.
And the recipients are enveloped under a beautiful morning despite their mood. Afterall, the sun can never stop to present itself before us.
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3.) ‘ I feel like blaming myself. But you tell me the reason.’
THE END.
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And i guess that is the end. i felt it needed an uplift or twist here and there. but some ends do not require a twist do they? Btw this is kunjal. I honestly dont know how it is.😅 But khushi, my best friend and partner really liked the style in it( i got a good inspiration from someone’s blog/blogs)
But for all i want to know,😅 ( and cool my curiosity) how was it?
See you guys in the next post…!! and check out a form that we had created in a previous post of ours here.. Do fill it guys! its for everyone!
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