Insight : bidA 3

1750, Prescott Jn.

I am on my own for a while, away from the cell. My eyes are burning. I am feeling the lukewarm salt as it keeps trickling down unabated over my dry lips. My heart is sinking deeper into grief.

Contrastingly today an agonizing silence has engulfed me. I can sense actions and cacophony around me. I can feel the stir of commotion. I still cannot hear any utterances. I continue to brood at the past, shoulders hunched, elbows on my knees.

Next, heavens inundate me in the golden light.

It twinkled once from an unknown horizon and kept growing in intensity thereafter. It brings with itself the elixir that enamors life into zillion of particles as they rise in flurry and meet the divine luminosity. The animating waves of its motion make the trees sway. It all comes to a standstill for a while, except the light of course. A peculiar sense of urgency lingers somewhere in my mental realms.

An ear splitting shriek!

The fulsome indomitable out-cry of life to the cruelty of death.

I slowly got back to senses. I get up from the bench and bolt towards the yellow metal rods as the train lurches forward.

It’s where we truly met first, on our journey to home.

The frowsty smell of dust gritting on the rusted iron and rugged up plastic sheets chooses to make me nostalgic. Ironically it simultaneously infuses in me the feeling of nausea. I get up for a breather and make my way towards the door. No wonder, the rhythm of clattering iron and clanking planks sound to me like the symphony of life. Cold wind gushes by, as my somewhat overgrown locks dance with jubilance.

Bring backs to me the soft comfort of her beautiful hands on my moist cheeks. She tried to console me once. It was dark. She whispered in my ears that things are going to be fine. The echo of those words still erupts randomly when I get neurotic. Gradually the glimpses of the most joyful smile start flashing past my eyes as the reverberations of her delighting musical laughter keep resonating in my ears.

The ambience is getting light. Her fragrance is taking me over.

Nobody in this world or the other can separate us! Not even Abob!

She lives in me.

Iddok: Come on you, the most depraved of all demons. Look at me! You did not really believe in my misery leading to your triumph. You parasite! I even doubt your existence. Maybe Abob is but a figment of my imagination, a shadow of my own.

As the verbosity grew so did the beats in the orchestra of life.

Synergy floats like mist around me!

I am at the helm of my ship now! I will make the right choices. This time, it has to be my way, the stakes are very high for otherwise. He is not going to come. That bastard cannot take me over here. This place is so full of life, our memories and my love for them.

Suddenly the light in front of the wash basin mirror starts flickering. Bulbs don’t flicker like this, not with a whispering hum oscillating in decibels. My grip on the iron rods beside the compartment door starts loosening as my legs throw me towards the epicenter of activities.

I am spiraling inwards in the abyss.

I am hallucinating. I should sleep, it’s late.

What? Where are the other passengers?

I am not panicking! I am just curious.

I run across the bogey. No clamoring man, playing cards and calling bids. No complaining woman showing her reservation tickets to the daily passengers. No child swinging by, clutching his mother’s sari. Not a single soul.

I drop on a seat nearby, catching my breath and trying to figure out the random pattern of my heartbeat. I try to concentrate arbitrarily at a blemish on the vibrating floor. My panting goes haywire. My vision is getting hazy.

Something happened. There is a recognizable hostility in the air now.

I look up and an immolating liquid drenches my gut.

The devil smirks and unleashes the most evil and heinous laughter.

I am on my feet. My nails dig deep in my fists. I face difficulty in controlling the reflexes of my muscles as my heart pumps tremendous vitality in them.

I pounced at him with full momentum.

A strange chill catches me in the air. I drop enervated like a frazzled leaf.

Bida is here!

Raising my eyes, baffled, I look at both of them.

Oh I understand it now! It had to be this way! She will make this monster disappear into a cloud of puff. She’s an angel. I close my eyes to thank the divine.

Bida: Finish him.

I have heard that commanding tone earlier. It enforces a cold blooded execution.

I must do it now. I tried to locate Abob for the same.

Little did I know about the voice culminating on the wrong ears!

She snaps her fingers as the gleaming ornate rings in stark contrast with her fair and supple fingers glide past my vision.

THUMMPPP!

A heavy object comes crashing at my head. I puke a spill of blood and sludge. Seems my Jaw has ruptured. I think my neck is badly hurt too. I cannot turn my face to her. I am holding on to the excruciating torment, as I see myself loitering in my bloody filth.

Abob is hammering punches onto me. He rammed my cheek bone on the ground, twisted my forearm and then tore apart my left leg from the knee. Now he drags me over, at her feet. I can hardly open my eyes. The agonizing pain is keeping me busy.

Her face is cold and pale. There is no fragrance around her. Moreover she looks at me with disgust and cruelty.

No!!

I cannot take it!

She can’t be my Bida.

The last of my breaths dawdle in my lungs.

(to be continued)