Reflection

There was once a man who did not like the way he looked. He did not like his face, his body structure or his hair. Yes! Definitely the hair. I do not... I mean, he did not like his hair. One day he looked at the mirror and asked "Why the hell do you look like this?" His reflection responded "What the hell! How would I know? I am nothing but your reflection." He felt annoyed and said "I wasn't talking to you. Please stop talking!" His reflection felt annoyed too "I am the only other person here. Naturally I thought you were talking to me." 

"Damn it! You are not even a person."

"Says who?"

"Say me!"

"... And who the hell do you think you are?"

"I am your creator."

"Oh! Is it?"

"Yes, it is!"  

"The pride!"

"Not pride; its the reality. If I move away from the mirror, you no longer exist. See!" He moved away from the mirror and asked "Hello! Are you there?" He did not receive a response. "Hellooooo! Is anybody out there? No response! Silence! Ha ha! Thought so." He moved back and looked at his reflection. His reflection looked back at him. He asked "So?" His reflection mouthed back "So?"

"Where were you?"

"Where were you?"

"I did not hear anything back."

"I did not hear anything back."

"Stop it! Answer me now."

"Stop it! Answer me now."

He stopped talking and looked at his reflection confused. His reflection looked back at him confused. He knew enough physics to understand the principle of reflection. He realized reflections don't have life of their own. He stopped the thought in its track and shouted out "What the hell does 'reflections don't have a life of their own' mean?" This time, his reflection did not mouth back what he said, instead it laughed holding his stomach and mocked "reflections don't have a life of their own. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Your ugly face turned uglier. That was a laugh I will remember for long." He felt disturbed. Now that he had time to think, he realized reflections talking back was not normal. He said "Stop it! Reflections don't talk back. What the hell is happening?" His reflection responded, "How the fuck am I..." He shouted "Stop! No curse words. You know I don't write curse words." His reflection asked in confusion "What! Are you writing this?" He laughed and said "Of course, I am writing this. Only in paper do reflections talk back. It does not happen in life." His reflection's face reflected disappointment; he wondered if his face was disappointed too. He had no way to know. His reflection asked "You mean! I am a figment of your imagination."

"That's correct."

"I don't exist?"

"Nope."

"I don't have a life?"

"Not unless I think you do."

"That's disappointing!"

He felt sorry for his reflection and said "Sorry!" His reflection looked away and remained quiet. He continued "Look, I am sorry. I did not realize you will get hurt by this but that is the truth." His reflection looked at him and said "Truth! Hmmm! What do you know about truth? Does anyone know anything about truth? Everyone has their own truth. Each person assimilates what he or she observes in their own manner and consider these assimilated observations as truth. For you, when f, u, c and k come together, it becomes a curse word; a word that should not be uttered. Not just you, but for many people. But for me, uttering the word releases the frustration that I feel inside. Not just for me, I know it does for you too. All those 'hells' that you have written till now should have been replaced with 'fuck'. But you have internalized the thought that writing 'fuck' will make you seem crass, as the truth. As a result, your writings have never been yours. They are only writings by a projection of yours that isn't crass, not yours. This is my truth and from the look on your face, I realize that my truth, is your truth too but you are unwilling to accept the truth and now anger is taking over your sense and ..."

Lost in a path

What's the point of walking in the moonlight when one's sight is fixed firmly on the ground. But that night was one such night for her. She was a never a "Oh! Look at the moon" kind of person. Though there were nights when she could not help but appreciate the moon. Tonight was one such night and yet she didnot notice the moon. Obviously, the moon was not happy with this situation but there was nothing much the moon could do from such a distance. So it reflected the light it received from the sun on her. But she did not care to look at the moon. Her thoughts were fixed on the complexity of her life. Like many around her, she did not want to do what she was doing but she did not know what she wanted to do. So she could do nothing but do what she was doing. 

She considered giving up and going back home but she was sure her parents would marry her off to god knows who. She had not visited her parents for over an year as she did not want to get initiated into the process that culminated in her wedding, as soon as she landed home. She missed home, she missed her parents. But her parents were no longer the parents she had know for two decades. They seemed desperate to get her off their hands. She did not understand. She had taken care of herself well for the past two years. She had not bothered them at all. She even sent them expensive gifts on their birthday and other occassions. Till they brought the topic of marriage she had visited them regularly too. So why were they vehement on getting her married? 

She was not against marriage. She believed she will get married at some point in the future. She wasn't against arranged marriage either. By observing the lives of her friends and relatives she had realised that complexity of married life. So, she  believed that it did not matter if the two people involved knew each other earlier or not. Knowing the person beforehand would definitely help; arranged marriages are scary. But this by itself did not guarantee a life without issues post marriage.  So, she did not want to commit herself to marriage yet. She wanted to spend a few years by herself. Her parents did not understand this. They believed that a girl should be married by the time she turned 25. From the day she crossed 25, she received 3 calls a day from her parents. They coaxed, cajoled and even threatened her in these calls. " If you don't come this weekend, we will never talk to you. We will not even look at your face, even when we are dead." " We will give all our property and possessions to an orphanage." These threats vexed her. She shouted back at them and cut the call. In a few hours, they called her back and apologized. But soon the talk went back to marriage. "The boy belongs to a good family and he is working Japan. You were always interested in Japan. You used watch those cartoon and all. You will stay in Japan if this relationship goes through. So exciting na?"  Tears welled up in her eyes when she heard her parents talk in this manner.  She wondered where the parents she had known during her younger days had disappeared.

She continued to walk through the wooded path. The lights from the buildings were seen in the distance. But they were too far to light her track. The moonlight lighted her path and she kept her eyes on the path and it's surroundings involuntarily. Her mind was busy thinking the sad thoughts but her instinct watched the path and surroundings for dangers of the dark. Suddenly, she became aware of her instinct and wondered if she should stop being aware of it . The dangers that surrounded her could help end her worries. Would it be preferable to walk into them? She dropped the thought almost instantly. The messages from the instinctive part of her brain now took control. She looked around and was not sure where she was. Her thoughts had taken farther than she had expected. She looked at the buildings that were seen in the distance.  She identified some of them behind her.  She turned around and started walking back. Her instincts completely took over her mind now. She became aware of every sound and shadow that took shape close by. None of them turned out to be dangerous and she continued walking.

She slowed down when she saw that the path ahead was lighted. The darkness surrounding the path did not any hint of familiarity but the buildings that lay ahead continued to seem familiar. So she continued walking. Soon she reached the lighted part of the path. A little later she felt relaxed when seats with people  sitting in them appeared besides the path. The silence of the night was replaced by the sounds of their conversations. She walked up to an empty seat and sat on it. Soon a woman came by and sat besides her. She looked at her and said "Hello!" She looked at the new person with surprise. She seemed familiar. She responded back "Hello!" The two of them sat quietly. After sometime she looked at the woman. She was older than her. Her face had a worn look. She had a smile on her lips which she did not seem happy. As she looked at her, she turned around and smiled sadly. She got up and said "Take care of yourself and left".

She watched the receding figure of the woman. She wondered where she had seen her. She wondered the reason for her sadness. She tried to understand the meaning behind her smile. A hundred thoughts flooded her. She spend sometime perusing through the thoughts. At the end of the perusing, she smiled, got up from the seat and walked towards familiarity.