The Dark Side Of The Moon

THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

I was going to Bang-alore. Yeah, that‟s what I thought. As we progress you will come to know that in fact “I was going to get banged‟.

I was at my aunt‟s home at Gurgaon. My train to Bangalore was from New

Delhi railway station, means had to leave home quite early. Because you can‟t rely on the traffic of NCR at all. My Dad is in army, and you know they are punctual, so it pretty much makes me punctual. Hence, I left well on time. I booked a auto rickshaw from Daula-Kuan up to station. Auto-wala had to leave me ½-a KM away from station because of some construction going on, I suppose to make something ”state-of-art‟. I took my luggage, hung around the laptop bag across my shoulder and started walking. The air was chilly outside but I was fully protected for “some time‟.

As normal human beings anybody would have experienced that the intensity of chill is directly proportional to the times you go to pee. I was normal and saw a toilet, so as expected I went in. I stepped in and saw no one there, felt unusual.

Why Unusual?

You step in a public toilet, in India to be precise New Delhi, that too near “railway‟ station, and no one‟s there, you ought to be kidding me.

This was the first kind of a surprise for the night. So, I kept my luggage on one side and opened my zipper, I saw a guy approaching me. Then:-

•He held me tight

•blocked my mouth

•and last but not the least, pointed a knife at me.

I must admit he did it so coolly, like I wanted to give him a hi-five. I tried to shout, he stopped me, then I tried to have a last laugh, he stopped me again. He got to his business, started snatching my laptop bag, I tried to resist but then my gaze fell to something shiny that was going inside my thick winter wear, slowly and slowly. After seeing that glittering thing and not forgetting the cold weather, I had no option but be cool. It was smooth, yeah, he took the laptop bag, locked me in the bathroom and most probably, ran. In the bathroom it took me 9 secs to gather my senses and then I thought, what the hell happened! I started banging the bathroom door but nothing.

// from somewhere, I recaptured Socrates-“I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.”//

After 6 minutes somebody opened the door, he said something, but I ran out, went to-and-fro, here and there, asked some thelawalas, but in vain. I got back to the toilet, I did pee, closed my zipper picked up my luggage bag, the man who opened the door was still muttering something, I didn‟t respond and headed to the station.

Now, I kno the full form of RPF, was sitting at their establishment, but no one was there to register my complaint. They told station premises doesn‟t come under their supervision, only those 21 platforms are there responsibility. I said to myself “Hmmmm‟.

I didn‟t wanted to tell this to my aunt because she is extra caring and no chance of telling this at home, don‟t forget army man is there(and

FYI, he‟s my financer ). So now, I only and only wanted to go to

Bangalore. But how can this remain so simple in the night that was full of complexities. The ticket too was in the laptop bag.

I checked my name from the reservation chart and went to my seat numberB1-68. Sitting there I was thinking how to go without ticket, by God‟s grace I didn‟t even had much money to pay the fine. So what I need was an intuition and as I was lucky that day, I got one! Now what I needed to do was the implementation.

Implementation:

I went to compartment washroom, came back in 2 minutes, sat, and stood up all shocked (had to rehearse this scene in washroom to get my best out there) and cried, “where is my laptop‟. All co passengers saw my acting, and as I gathered gazes, I ran out on the platform. I came back after 7 minutes and everyone now standing in my bogie asked me which laptop was that, I told SONY VAIO 60000 bucks, black colour blah blah blah. I took my head in my hands and covered my face in despair. One co passenger told me don‟t worry son, file a complaint and somebody gave me water and somebody else called the TT. He registered my on-board complaint. I told ticket was in that bag, he crosschecked my ID and the passenger list, the names matched and he allowed me to travel. (TT was a nice guy but don‟t neglect my acting skills). Implementation Ends!

// Two persons were having a rare occurrence of Déjà-Vu //

Now , I must clarify, the place was a railway station at the capital in India, so as expected or not, crowd came to their character, suggestions and advices came flowing in to me like a dam had been opened, police also came, did some chit-chatting.

// In my mind-“Loneliness the clearest of crystal insight into your own soul, its the fear of one's own self that haunts the lonely” //

IN THE MEAN TIME(near an abandoned railway line):- A man was opening a laptop bag. He opened the first pocket; there was a hand written letter (story). He started reading it.

Contents of letter were same as what happened till now (or in other words what “you‟ read or are reading now). He could not believe that. Whatever he did today was all written in this piece of paper already. His mind started boggling. For some time he thought, is he reading his own destiny?

// To things running in parallels, letter and reality & total match //

Something came to his mind now, and the thing was- “Divine Intervention”. He thought this is an act of God. And now, first time in his life he thought he can change his destiny, he won‟t let the letter dictate him. So, he did what was expected when you feel “Divine Intervention”. Without doing anything else he headed straight to the station, platform 4,

Karnataka Exp., from where an “imaginary laptop‟ was stolen. His destination was B1-68. (of course he saw the railway ticket)

@B1-68: People chattering in different tones, I was getting sick of them, I knew nothing can be done now. I sat dejected and wanted the train to leave at its scheduled time, 9:15PM. I saw a guy coming from the crowd

and I could make out his face was glowing with an added calmness of some kind. Then suddenly he shouted who is the passenger at seat B1-68. My eyes were fixed on him only but his words were not reaching to my cerebrum. Then somebody shook me and told him it was me. He came near to me and handed me the laptop bag. I didn‟t knew how to respond to this another surprise.

// Was it really a surprise for me, I am not sure //

Some people started asking rather shouting at him. I was looking into his eyes and he into mine. Then a police guy came to him and started dealing with him in his own way. My eye contact broke, came back to senses.

Policeman asked him did you steal the laptop, bluntly the reply came

“Yes‟. I could see no sign of fear or remorse in him. Some people pushed him and may be hit him but were not able to stir his inner peace. He got a good beating, I sat there watching, contemplating may be. At last police started taking him to police station, while going he came near to me and said “Thank You‟. I was confused. Then I saw that letter (story) in his hand and the confusion was over like a click.

Everyone settled. I was happy. Train started on time. I closed the curtain of my berth. Opened my laptop bag and checked all the stuff. Everything was there untouched except the letter of course. Then suddenly

I got this urge to listen to the song “What goes around comes around ‟. So, I kept my laptop bag aside and took out my laptop from the “luggage bag‟ which was under the berth. Plugged in my head phone and pressed “Play‟.