Rebirth
Nothing he could do to escape from the inevitable death. Neither could he make even a frantic call to the wife sleeping next to him as he gives up to last breath.
No sooner did his risk-averse soul departed from the corpse than it started to ascend. Divine spirit, liberated from its temporary shelter, slowly elevated to higher altitudes, like a hydrogen-balloon unleashed into the sky, destined for the eternal world.
Except for leaving the body, the soul had ever felt any difficulty in such return journeys. But only this time, it couldn’t withstand the excessive pull from the just-abandoned body as though a return call to re-enter. Albeit returning to the host body after the expiration date is a big offense, the soul re-housed in the thirty-nine-year-old body giving that gentleman another chance to live to the life to the fullest, for a meager one-day.
Rebirth for a day
My wife would have torn apart by hearing the incident unraveled in the bed-room few minutes ago unless my saffron-red face disguised under the darkness and trembles in the voice neutralized by growling Air Condition sound. Initial embarrassment, followed by a devastating pain, finally broke her into tears. When sleep shied away, nostalgia from ten years of togetherness poured in as we spent many hours kissing, hugging, weeping and murmuring.
In a way, sleep is a smaller version of death. You’ve no escape from either with compulsory wake-up.
5:00 AM
Alarm ranged, symbolizing a futile sleep-attempt.
Fear-mongering dreams still went on relentlessly reminding the presence of angels who glorify eternal life. All of my every waking thought seem blended with fears of impending danger.
7:00 AM
For the first time, I woke up to an utterly un-finished world. Wish-lists paraded to thoughts largely outnumbered what has been achieved so far in which I was so proud of.
Death warrant has overturned many things.
Gratitude buried under shameful arrogance reappeared. Career ambitions drove the life for almost fifteen years took back seat. Instead, relationships promoted behind the steering wheel. Money-eating life insurance has become an overnight sensation.
9:00 AM
There was no reason to reject her idea to dine-out. What could be better than to reduce kitchen time when you’re counting the hours?
She chose the restaurant.
What would have in her mind when she chooses her husband’s favorite hangout place – a small restaurant with its outdoor seats encroaching the footpath? Maybe sweet revenge, who knows?
The waiter brought my most favorite dish and tea. Sipping the ‘samavor’ tea, sitting on the polished wooden chair with my wife, holding both sons in the right and left thighs, I smiled at the irony brought by fate. Depriving the advantage of time fired up a father’s or husband’s natural fondness instinct that I long to spend the entire day with my family here, where I frequented with friends from escaping from the same family.
My greed for family-time have ten-folded. A wisdom that came late!
“Next park,” the elder son, who couldn’t get out of the splendid day-start, pleaded to mother enthusiastically, coercing his bother to demand the same, “The children’s park in Corniche.”
11:00 AM
As usual, we secured our favorite spots in the children’s park. Wife and I sat on a wooden-finished long chair on the sides of the walkway in the middle of the park, elder-son ran towards the play area, and the younger-one prefers to roam around our chairs as though he knows father wouldn’t stay for long with him.
Children are great foreseers as one Indian poet said.
Fatherly pride peaks when the elder son climbs a tall frame with no missteps. He has now become a skilled-climber never fallen off the frame in recent memory. Until yesterday, I too was climbing a mountain – life. But before today midnight, I would fall off the mountain scaled up through hard work and efforts.
12:30 PM
On the way back from the park, through the car windscreen, my eyes accidentally locked in the ‘For leasing’ banner hanged in a tower-building. In some way, I too have leased my life from someone. The time has come to terminate the agreement with that ‘someone’.
Unlike real-estate deal, neither I have a renewal option nor have any plan where to live next. Instead, jumbled pictures of an unknown, faded world gazing at me – Hell or Heaven, encounters with its gatekeepers, final judgment, high-class facilities in the heaven, hell-fire capable of melting everything, and so on.
2:00 PM
My mother has arrived from the airport on the ticket booked late last night. Had I not self-prepared for a meetup, I would have broken to tears.
Fifteen years before, when I said good-bye amid her prayers as I got to airport departure terminal dreamt of building a career and life, nothing had in between our umbilical-cord relationship. Together we had crossed many dreadful nights when her hubby away for work, pretend brave when hearing an unusual sound as though someone’s footsteps in portico, inspected the hidden areas inside the house before bedtime suspecting someone with malicious intent, slept early to reduce night time. Together we had walked many kilometres to avoid paying the taxi, stood many hours in overcrowded buses to secure a seat for one another, and so on.
Eventually, my new responsibilities as a husband, as a parent, as an employee and distance from each other cut down our communications into infrequent phone calls and casual talks during annual leave.
I am a bit more greedy now. Could it be possible to ask a little more extension for my life?. If she cannot, no one else could do that. That’s for sure.
4:00 PM
Looking around, nothing made any good impression. Things which were of great importance and precious few hours ago failed to make any impression at all. Many unimportant things have now become very important. Relationships, family time, parents are very few among the still-expanding list.
Imminent death emancipated me from unnecessary egos that stick on me as though iron particles attract to a magnet rolling on the sand. Otherwise, one has to ‘wait’ until erecting their tombstone.
6:00 PM
I have a gut feeling that my journey to grandmas about to begin. Within few hours, my soul would depart this world, travel through many complicated parts of the universe before joining with their souls rest in peace.
Strangely ecstatic that someone would embrace in the Otherworld must be a special privilege for those who lost loved ones in the way.
9:00 PM
Death warrant has brought drastic positive changes in the way I talk, I interact, I respond, I listen, I percept and I love.
I expressed my gratitude to everyone in the house, thanked them for this wonderful day, and hugged my mother as a farewell bid. After a long time, my wife and I said goodnight before going to bed.
From her composure, it was evident that she still has many untold stories, unfulfilled wishes in which I must take part. Tonight I would sleep forever hoping that soul would give one more chance to accomplish my new wish-lists compiled in the last few hours. In the bed, she hugged me tightly as though she wouldn’t leave me for death, kept her ears on my chest as close as possible as though she wouldn’t miss a single beat.
When angels get closer and closer, that famous quote reverberated inside, “To become a better person, you live every day as if it were your last.”