Points of view

Up here, the nights are never quiet. This went against expectation but none were disappointed. The noisiness was quite unlike anything usually heard in cities. A constant chatter between little creatures about their travails in life. Everyone listened intently but could not understand a word of conversation. They could not even identify one voice from another let alone the words. Worse, they did not even understand the direction from which the chatter came from. So they sat silently and listened to the wordless chatter. At regular interval, a series of hoots would emanate from above their heads. It was almost a regular night for the residents of that location. Yeah! I said almost. They had the human presence in their midst. Though they had spent the last thirty minutes in silence, they were at our usual noisy best prior to that. They brought in another disturbance to their everyday lives by building a campfire. The crackling sound, the heat and the bright orange light from the fire seemed to add to the beauty of the place, that is, from their point of view. But the residents did not think so; they were probably covering their eyes with their forelegs and cribbing on this unfair intrusion.

I sat against a tree under and watched him. He was close to the fire and his face flared up and down with it. He was looking around from person to person with a smile on his face. No one seemed to notice; the dancing flames seemed to have hypnotized everyone and they found it difficult to break out of their respective states of trance. But he did not look at the fire. He was eagerly trying to catch anyone's attention. I felt a pang of sadness for him. He had this constant hunger to be the center of attraction. He had to be the life of every party. He had to be the one with the best stories, best jokes, best one-liners, ... He basically wanted to be the best person anyone could wish to have around him/her. I am not saying he was terrible at these. On the contrary, his stories, jokes and one-liners were very good. His story-telling technique captured everyone's interest. The problem was that he was relentless. He had to be loved by all. No, not loved! He had to be adored by all. No, not even adored! He had to be worshiped by all. Instead, all he received was scorn and mockery. Everyone found him pushy and tried their best to avoid him. But he did not give up neither did he get angry. He tried harder and that worsened his position. I felt sad at this situation and looked him with pity. But I have no idea what he felt. He just moved from one ridiculous situation to another.

"Why are you all so quiet? It seems like a funeral gathering. Wake up, boys and girls. Its time for a story."

"We came here to get some peace. So please spare us from your spook stories."

"Spook stories! No way; this one's a love story. It is a true story and I recount it to you as my friend did to me.

I am not quite sure when she joined the organization. One day, she moved into the cubicle behind mine. Initially, she would not even smile at me or anyone else for that matter. She would avert her eyes away from me whenever I crossed her path. So you could imagine my shock when, a few days later, she pat me on my back and said "Good morning mister". I turned around and stared at her smiling face for a few seconds and then found the voice to return her good morning. Since then, we started interacting with each other regularly. As time passed, most in the office realized that she was not the quiet person she seemed during the initial days. She was boisterous. When she talked everyone in office heard it. When she laughed everyone in the office laughed. She loved to shock people by slapping them on their backs. The strength of the slap usually indicated her liking for that person. 

She was liked by all and everyone liked her. Eh! I mean, she liked everyone and everyone was liked by her. No! That's not right either. She liked everyone and everyone liked her. Ah! Right! She brought life into the office and all of us loved the time we spent there. It goes without saying that every man in the office was in love with her. One of the fellows, confessed his passionate love for her to his friends. His friends called her immediately and made a joke out his passion for her. She did not laugh and sympathy oozed out of her eyes. The poor fellow left with tears in his eyes. She remonstrated his friends for their heartlessness. For the next few days, things sobered down in the office. She avoided slapping anyone of their back. She did not talk much. Now, the men exuded the charm of wilted grass. The office turned graver than the days before her arrival.

The Navaratri festival brought back some of the lost vigour. The office turned colourful. She was back to her effervescent best and smiles flashed all around. The Dandiya was arranged on the terrace and people swirled around clashing sticks to loud songs. All the twirling and clashing sticks had made me tired and thirsty. I went down to the office to have a swig of water. As I entered the office, I saw her and the quietest fellow in office who loved to sit in his corner and stare at the screen or out of the window, standing face-to-face. They did not notice my arrival but continued to maintain their stance. 

'How long do we maintain this pose?'

'I don't know'

'Don't you feel like moving in a little'

'No, humans cannot move any closer to Gods'

'But Gods can move closer to humans. What would happen then?'

I could not control my tongue and blurted out at that moment 'That would be disastrous. The world is already struggling to with the likes of Percy Jackson'.

They turned around and looked at me. Their expressions had a combination shock and disgust. Her stare, in particular, bore right into the my soul. She stomped off through the door and was never seen in the office again. None of us could ever determine what happened to her; the damned HR fellow maintains is so obsessed with confidentiality that he will not utter a word about her. Was she offended by what I said? Did she not come back to office due to that trivial comment? That sounds silly. I don't understand why she should be upset by my innocent statement. In fact, I thought it was funny."

He stopped talking and looked around; a proud smile adorned his face. The people around were staring at him. Some had their mouth opened in astonishment. As I said earlier, the fellow was a good story teller and so everyone was immersed in the story. But the ending had annoyed them. They protested in quick succession "that's it!", "but where the hell is the romance!" "this is more horrifying than your horror stories", "how will we sleep through the night" and it went on. He listened to all these with a smile. From time to time, he let out a syllable or two but the torrents of comments did not allow them to become words. By this time, the little creatures in the area had directed their attention to them. They started protesting vehemently. They were unable to hear each other due to the commotion caused. They unleashed their ultimate weapons on the humans; their blood thirsty flying warriors who were efficient in their attack. All the noise makers ran for their lives. He stayed on though. The smile was off his face for the first time that evening. He looked at the dying flames listlessly. A tear drop formed in the corner of his left eye. Soon tears were flowing down both his cheeks. He did not try to wipe away the tears.