Short story (1)

REJUVENATED

Amanda, I first met her in a chat room on yahoo. She was nice to talk with and quite different than the rest of the girls. I couldn’t have imagined that day that she would get a work visa and would settle in my city, that is, New Delhi. She worked as a member of Red Cross society. I was working at that time in Genpact as a call centre executive. And it would be an understatement to say that my life transformed into a rollercoaster at least as long as i was with her. She had told me that she would be in Delhi for three months. So she had promised me to fulfil all my wishes during this time provided the wishes did not harm anyone and did not involve a journey over time scale. I had taken those words of her as a joke. But soon I realized that this girl actually meant business. And when I asked her how was she going to fulfil my desires, she revealed her life story. I did not believe it. Yes, I called her crazy. I called her stupid. But it was only until she vanished from the place within a second.

                                                                                 I searched for her. Here, there, near the parking, close to the mall, at the boundary of the park, where not. But there was no sign of her. I settled myself on a secluded corner of the park. I was perplexed. And I must also add that I was also terrified. I did not know if I wanted to see her again or not. One side of me – the curious side wanted to believe what she said and hence wanted her to come back and take me on the adventurous ride of my life. My other side, the logical and rational one, as always, triggered the caution button and forced my senses to secrete hormones of emergency so that I rush to make things normal again by forgetting all that happened. Before I could make a decision by shutting up one of these two, she reappeared. She was wearing a pink frock before and now she was in a blue Salwar Kameez. Again I was confused. Moreover she was not carrying any purse. So where did she get this dress from? Before I could make any further observation and before I could muster courage to ask her anything she began showing some of her tricks. She asked me to wish something. I asked her to shut up. She insisted. I got frustrated. She again insisted. I said ok, I wish I had a big moustache like my father. She blinked her eyes and then started laughing loudly.

 “What was the matter”, I asked.

 She again blinked. She now had a mirror in her hand. I didn’t have any idea what was happening. She brought the mirror in front of my face.

“Oh my God. Oh my God. Ohhh myyyy Goddddddd”, I shouted.

She asked me to calm down. There was no reason to not believe her now. Yes, she was a Jeanie. She  had been separated from her family for having loved and married a human being two hundred fifty years ago and had been sentenced to a punishment for the same period which was to expire in three months from now. I was the reborn lover of hers, so now that she had no right to marry me, she just wanted to fulfil all my wishes. The time period of three months began to appear really short now as I went deep into this story. She also told me that when she had first married me, all her powers had been taken away and after I expired somewhat two hundred and ten years and five months back, her powers again started reviving. Now she had reached almost to the zenith of her actual powers. Somewhere deep within, I actually felt the pain as if we were connected. Time was less so she asked me to say my wishes one by one.

First I asked her to take me to Agra. I had never seen the Taj Mahal. With love in the air, I felt I was the most lucky person in the world. We stayed there for several hours. We had great lunch on the banks of river Yamuna. Then we moved to see the sunset in a beach in Panaji, Goa.

                                                                             I asked her to make me fly over the sea. She blinked once again and we were right there on the sky. I amazed if someone had seen us flying. I slept in the locked bedroom of Hotel Taj in Mumbai. It was the night when the terrorists attacked. As no one actually knew that I was occupying a room in the Hotel (thanks to Jeanie’s magic) no one tried to rescue me. Worse, the room was locked from outside. At that time I could not make out what was happening, I could hear only loud noises, of bullets being fired, people crying, asking for help, grenade explosions, and many other undistinguishable ones. The worst though, was yet to come.

                                                                       I heard a bullet on the door of my room. Someone was trying to break the lock. I was terrified. And the fear was not unfounded. One of the terrorists entered into my room. I had hid myself in the bathroom. I think the terrorist wanted to reload his bullets, hence he had entered into the room. I had locked the bathroom from inside. I could only hear the noises. He was talking to someone through some device. It seemed to me someone was instructing him. I prayed constantly to God to rescue me. Then, right then, I recalled Jeanie, she was the one who put me in this trouble. I should call her. She had given me a small checkered cloth which,  if I rubbed, would bring her before me. It was fine. I will call her and she will take me away from all this. I felt relieved.

                                                         But that relief was only momentary. Where was that checkered cloth? Right on the bed I was sleeping on.

“Oh NO. Oh NO.  Oh NO.”, I said to myself.

 So I had two options, either I should stay back in the bathroom and wait for the terrorist to break the door and kill me. Or I could go out and somehow find that cloth. I thought, even if he shoots at me while I manage to reach the cloth, Jeanie would heal me in a moment. Another thing struck my mind. And what if I could not reach the cloth and he shoots me before rubbing the cloth. And what if she did not come on time?

                                                Soon I heard loud noises. BANG. BANG. BOOM. The terrorist was now shouting badly. I guess it was a counter offensive from the Police’s side. I heard the glass of my room breaking. What if the police fires a shot that hits bathroom window? What if I am hit by the bullet of the police? As per official records, this room was vacant, so anyone inside would be a suspected terrorist. I had too little time to decide. And still little time to take action. I had to go out, find that cloth and get out of all this. I mustered courage. I opened the door slightly. Without making a noise I opened the door slightly more. What could be more worse than this, the terrorist was trying to tie the checkered cloth in his wounded hand. 

“What is happening tonight. What have I done God. What was my fault. I didn’t come here on my own”, I felt.

 But wait, in the process of rubbing the blood from his wound, he actually rubbed that cloth. To my amazement, Jeanie appeared in front of me. He was shocked, astonished and horrified. Soon he turned unconscious. And I knew who made him unconscious. I shouted “JEANIE, HELP ME OUT”.

“Yes my dear. Right now.”

 And thankfully, she blinked.

                                                                 So at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, we were sitting at the same evening beach of Panaji. I don’t want to imagine what could have happened if things had turned out in some other way. But now she revealed me another truth.

                                                                               Jeanies’ were not authorized to use their powers between midnight and sunrise. And if they do so, they suffer a tremendous loss in power. Now I could recall why she had asked me to rub the cloth only it was really urgent. Because she used her power to transport me from Mumbai to Panaji. She told me that now she was not capable to fulfil more than three wishes of mine. But then, she requested me to allow her to say something about the wishes. I accepted the request. She said, “ Last time when we were together, two hundred and fifty years back, I had fallen in love with you just because of your sense of gratitude and humility. Today, I feel that in all this practicality of modern life, you have moved quite far from those qualities, the very qualities which defined you as a human. That’s why I want to take you to three places of my choice so as to reinstate that sensitivity and humility in you. Kindly allow me to guide your wishes. I will later on go back to my family.”

I don’t know what I felt at that moment, but I indeed was moved by her words. Also I wanted to explore those places which could fill my mind with virtues that I even did not think about in this birth. So I nodded. The first place she took me was Guantanamo Prison held by USA. We saw the terrified, tired and tormented faces of humanity there. It burned my heart. She told me to remember these faces when I do any work. You never know when you may land up where, so whatever time you have, you should invest in doing good work, work that improves the life of people.

The second place she took me was Sudanese refugee camp.  Malnourished   children, stick thin men and women, homeless and unemployed people were seen everywhere. I had not seen such great deprivation anytime before in my life. She told me that they were suffering because of ethnic conflicts going on from decades. So you should never consider yourself belonging to a particular community or group. The only thing you should identify yourself with is humanity. That is the only group that is recognized by God.

The third place we visited was Naxal affected area in Chattisgarh.it was four thirty in the morning and still we did not find anyone sleeping. Three people had been killed by the naxalites last night. These people were mourning their death and were preparing for funerals. She once again tried to say something. But just before that, something clicked. A flash of light. And just the next second, we were back in Delhi, the place we started our journey. Probably her powers had been diminished.

In her final words,she told me that human life was the most precious thing in this world. No matter what happens, you should not resort to taking the life of anyone. People can be changed and improved with love, patience and tolerance. These weapons should be used and not the weapons of bullets, grenades etc. 

Her words had a Godly feeling. She now asked for the permission to leave and kissed me on my forehead.

“Tears filled my eyes to its brim as I watched her disappear in the foggy clouds and since then, save for her memories I had nothing to live with for rest of my lives”