Mirage

Siti looked at the clock. It's 9.00 am. She then looked at the door and not surprised to see the old lady walking in. It's been eight months since she started working at the cafe. Everyday the old lady walks in at the same time and sits at same Table  - 20, facing sun and looks out side. Everyday she orders the same. Kaya toast and  extra strong Teh halia. 

Siti looked at the old lady admiringly. She is amazed to see the old lady everyday walking into cafe alone, gracefully making her presence known, gives order with perfect English with her sweet captivating voice. Siti could not stop looking at her well kept curly black and white hair falling around her shoulders. Her manicured and painted baby pink nails, almost lost their boundaries n  faded into her pale skin. Her light pink lips have a hint of lipstick. Her scent is amazingly Asian and familiar but Siti couldn't recognise. Her laugh lines and few more wrinkles around eyes are not at all ugly but looked like cute brush strokes of a talented artist. Her black eyes turn a shade of brown by sunlight and looked sparkling. The old lady, in her younger days must have been a striking beauty. 

As Siti prepared the old lady's order, she heard a familiar voice, "Good morning Siti". Cafe's owner Veena walked in and went straight to Table 20. 

Next 30 mnts Veena and the old lady immersed in deep conversation. Siti many times wondered why Veena ignores other customers and sits with the old lady. She heard them talking about weather, dogs, toast, by-gone actors, old songs, old lady's daughter and much more. Never the same or routine. 

At 9.30 am, the old lady stood up and went to the door. As she left, Veena held the door and The old lady shook her hand and said, "it was nice meeting you" and left. After a minute, Veena too walked out of the cafe. Siti was seeing this "action replay" for the past eight months. The old lady never pays the bill and Veena never insists. Today, Siti couldn't hold back anymore of curiosity and rushed out to see what's going on. A few steps behind the old lady,  Veena was following her. Very slowly the old lady crossed the road. As she passed by a gate to an apartment building, Veena rushed and gently guided her back through the gate. As if she knows where the old lady lives. As Siti watched, both, Veena and the old lady disappeared into the apartment building. Siti returned to her duties at the cafe.

Veena gently guided the old lady towards the lift. At the lift, she asked the old lady where she lives. The old lady looked confused. "Look at your watch" Veena gently coaxed her. When she lifted her hand, the old lady was able to read "2nd floor, flat 203" . The specially designed watch engraved with the address guided them on their next action. Inside the lift, Veena asked if the old lady would like to press the button to Second floor. The old lady, like a child, got excited and immediately obeyed. On second floor,  as they both got out of the lift, Veena patiently waited for the old woman to lead the way to 'Flat 203'. At the door, the old lady stood confused n looked at Veena. "Pethaps you have the key to the door in your purse" Veena hinted with a smile. The old lady opened her purse, took out the key and opened the door. Once inside, the old lady invited Veena to sit on sofa n went into the bedroom. 

After a couple of minutes Veena followed the old lady into the room. In the room, beside the bed the old lady was standing facing the wall looking at a huge portrait. Hearing footsteps behind her, the old lady turned, looked at Veena and softly said, "Kanna!". 

At the cafe, Siti got busy in routine duties. Usually the cafe is crowded. Today, with just a few customers, Siti's workload was minimum. After one hour,  as Veena walked in, Siti prepared her usual Matcha Latte and handed it to her. Veena picked up the mug and went to Table 20. She sipped slowly looking at children playground just outside the window. Siti walked to her side and cleared her throat. "Màm, I am curious to know who the old lady is. Everyday I see the same routine happening. If you don't mind, who is she?" Without turning her head, or looking at Siti, Veena said, "she is my mother. Gowri. Real owner of this cafe". Siti could detect a hint of trembling in Veena's voice. 

"She is suffering with dementia. She doesn't recognises me. She doesn't remember her own cafe. It's very sad that there are no memories for her." As an elderly couple enterd cafe, Veena walked over to them to greet. Siti wanted to know more. How to deal with such situation? She remembered her grandmother at home. She decided to understand more about such scary stage of life, dementia. 

Later that evening after closing cafe, when Veena was looking at the day's register, Siti approached her, and asked, "I was thinking about  Mrs Gowri. How do you deal with such situation? It must be very difficult that your own mother cannot recognise you. How did it happen?" 

"Doctor says she is going through 3rd stage. She remembers incidents from past. Sometimes details are lost. She still recognises herself in the mirror. She recognises me, her daughter, as a kid. Her favourite and happy memories with me as a child. Not everything is lost yet. However, doctor says eventually she won't recognise herself in the mirror. She gets hungry. But sometimes forgets to eat. When she was diagnosed with her condition, she was better. Insisted that she wanted to stay near her cafe. Her dream. It's been eight years. There were bad days and good days too. She doesn't remember my children. As of now, we are managing by making her relax. Sometimes she remembers and cries a lot. At that time, we tell her not to stress. Stress, that's the first thing that caused this situation. When she was young,  she was cool and confident. Absolute joy to be with. Unnecessary stress created by others in life over the years gave her brain stroke. She will never be the same again." Veena took a deep breath controlling her tears. She walked out of the cafe, walking towards her car, she  looked up at the apartment balcony where her mother was standing. Gowri  was looking towards "Kanna's cafe" n waved at her. Today is a good day! Veena waved back n drove off to pick her kids from school. She is determined to make most of their time together happy, pleasant n memorable.

Gowri walked into her bedroom and looked at the portrait beside the bed. It's her daughter Kanna and herself.

Wat prompted this story? About two years ago most of the story was my dream. I woke up crying as, in the dream i couldn't recollect my daughter's name. couple of months later I had brain stroke. It took me about three or four days before I could remember my daughter's name and call her from my phone. 

Life is beautiful. Live it with joy and passion. Don't stress or give others stress. You will never know what can happen. When it does everything before seems silly and stupid.

Earth calling Earth

I woke up to a loud noise. Not the Ganapati pandal early morning loudspeaker noise but ten thousand times louder than that. My heart was beating as if I was on treadmil for hours. Are we in war with someone? Is Alien theory true? Are those sci-fi movies are real? Looking out the window I found moon n stars in their places. But something is different. I made a cup of Oolong tea n sat on the sofa. Switched on TV. No picture. Again, as usual, some satellite problem. I put on my all time movie  CD  Mayabazar n relaxed. Dozed off in front of TV. 

I woke up. Looked at the clock. It's 8 am! Where is Pochamma? Where is Nagamani? Where is Babu, my milkman? OK. Everybody took leave. What a day! Went through my routine. Freshened up. Something feels different. What is it? Oh I am not hearing the usual birds chirping. It's silent. Deafening silence. I remembered that its day after Janmashtami. Everybody in the colony must be resting after yesrday's fun packed active bhajans, keertans n food n fun. way into midnight. I picked up phone to call my Amma. There is no signal. Cursed service provider again. It's almost every fortnight we lose connection with the world! Switched on TV. Still blank screen. No satellite connection. Great!

Now I decided to go to the near-by village n get some milk. Perks of leaving Urban lifestyle behind n getting into partial retirement stage. How about getting some breakfast too? Great idea. Picked up car keys stepped out of my beautiful country style home. Still, Something is not feeling right. Took few steps. Found few birds dead in walkway. Oh poor things. That's why no wakeup chirping in the morning. How come all dead same time? Is it the heat? Yesterday the temperatures rose to 55 degrees as per news channels. Dam it. No point fools like me planting trees n moving to natural living methods. There are millions who are destroying environment everyday!  When do we humans learn? Got into car n switched on radio as usual.  No sound. Started driving towards Zupalli, our nearest hamlet. Started making mental notes to call Kanna, my daughter, call gas company for refil, again, complete my annual report n submit to my boss, n buy supplements. That's enough to take care of the day. 

I stopped abruptly n stared in front of me. NO ROAD! What? I see no road n buildings in front of me. Is it some sort of trick? I got out of the car. Slowly walked on the road. Checking every step cautiously.  A few steps, I saw sky. Huh?!?!? Sky on earth? It felt as if I am standing on edge of a mountain n looking down into the valley. However what in front of me is not a Valley but bottomless drop. I picked up a pebble from roadside n threw. It just dropped into the whatever you call it in front of me. Dropped n disappeared. I am shocked n scared. 

I turned my car n drove back home. I realised there is no one on the roads. Morning walkers, joggers, dog walkers. No one. As I drove past villas, I started honking. We have a no honking rule in our colony. My idea is, someone will walk out of their house at least to scold. I was right. I started seeing people walking out of their homes. A few. I saw couple of my friends. Felt relieved. Stopped at the junction so that I can share my findings.

We gathered at the junction. Everybody started talking at once. About the silence. About the eerie feeling. About dead birds in their walkways. Dead pets. Loud noise in the night. I got everyone's attention n told them about my unfruitful trip to village n the drop. Everyone became silent. Suddenly someone noticed that there are few people missing. Why didn't they come out? Quickly we walked towards nearby Rao's house. His main door was locked. One of the neighbours peeped through window n told us that Rao is in sofa in front of TV n not moving. We took liberty, broke his door n went inside. Rao was dead. Shocked, we moved on, Next stop, was Mrs Sucheta's house. A Navy commander's wife, well educated, kind hearted, jovial, and  a new mother. Through windows we found no one down stairs. Mrs Ragini rang the bell n bangged the door. Mrs.Ruby found the main door unlocked n we all went inside. Together we all walked upstairs. We found Sucheta in her bedroom.  Holding her mobile, with baby in her lap. It's apparent that she has been crying. Looking at us she started crying again. Ragini stepped towards her n took her hands into hers. "Last night I heard a noise. I thought Anuj (baby) will wake up n cry. But he didn't. He is not even moving. He is motionless. I am trying to call ambulance n Everyone of you. But phone is dead". We realised that the baby is dead. We left a couple of women to be with Sucheta n walked out of the house. We need to find out what's going on. Fast. 

All of us went to committee office. Few members took records n started taking attendance. Another couple of people took the task to visit absentees' houses. Everybody started frantically searching their devices for some connection or information. Suddenly Mr.Anant barged into the office. He was been missing throughout the time. He got news! 

According to him, he saw a post on FB from ISRO, just before the big noise. He downloaded the video. It says, earth has broken into pieces. WHAT????

According to the post, ISRO started losing contact with it's satellites. Last image it received  from one of the satellites showed earth breaking into six pieces. The message is sent out in hope that there is still some way to contact people n inform them of the situation. 

Where are we? How big is our chunk of land? How do we survive? Is my daughter in UK on this piece of earth or where? Am I ever going to see or talk to her? I started crying.

I heard "Bhaavayaami Raguraamam" M.S.Subbulakshmi's crisp voice. My morning alarm. I opened my eyes. This time really woke up. It's all a dream! A very bad dream! 

Lying on bed, covered in sweat, heart beating like crazy, I started thinking. Eventually, is this how mankind going to end up? Destroying earth? Is there time to stop the damage? Drilling earth, for what not,  sucking all its layers, creating vacuum, damaging it's  nature,, destroying forests, polluting waters, generating irrelevant piles of undesolvable - non perishable - toxic material, .   . .     much more.

I got out of bed. With new determination. However small it is, every step I take from now onwards, I consciously make sure that it is in the welfare of Mother Earth n benefits me.