Once upon a time

Once upon a time, there was a child named I. I was a very happy child. One day while playing with friends I fell down a pit. This is I’s story:

I began falling. Free-falling in this dark pit. I was dazed and confused. Didn’t understand a thing. I was thinking, more like wondering, how did I fall in this hole!?! No answer sprang. No matter how hard I tried to think, I couldn’t recollect how exactly I began the descend! This darkness is getting on to me, I thought!

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard a crackling sound, and the next thing I knew was that it’s skin burned. The pain was excruciating. LIFE smiled. I asked the reason behind the lashing I just received. LIFE told I that it had a debt to pay. A debt of its sins of the past. Confusion took over yet again.

I was used to the dark now. I saw a smile in the dark. I got scared. I wasn’t aware that there was someone else in this non-ending well along with it! The smile told I that it’s called SERENITY.

SERENITY told I that, it was going to give I company in it’s fall. SERENITY had coldness about it. It was sweet and calm, a bit too calm. Its Monalisa smile didn’t comfort I much. But then again, something is better than nothing, right? At least I had someone to talk to. I became pally with it. I had some stability even in that fall, so as I thought. How wrong was I!

Anyway, with SERENITY, I learned to smile. I saw a faint light at a distance, or should I say, far below them. I asked SERENITY what it was. It replied, HAPPINESS. I asked, “Happiness?” “Yes. One more friend to give you company,” it replied. I was excited to see how HAPPINESS would be. I hoped and prayed for I wished it not to be as boring as SERENITY. HAPPINESS met them soon. There was so much jumpiness about it. It had its associates, LIGHT, BEAUTY and LOVE along with it. Everything was so much fun. HAPPINESS taught I how to Laugh. I was enjoying itself with HAPPINESS and its associates that I didn’t realize SERENITY had left; not that I missed it, but still. HAPPINESS took I’s dullness away. I’s skin began to glow from inside. I looked beautiful. I was laughing all the time.

Suddenly, without realizing, they were joined by an evil looking cloak. What was weird about the cloak was that it had an inviting smile. A smile that wouldn’t make one uneasy, unlike that of SERENITY. I wondered what it was! HAPPINESS introduced I to COMPROMISE. I neither hated nor liked COMPROMISE. It never spoke a word. And even if it did, never to I directly. It only spoke to HAPPINES and its associates. Soon, the jumpy behaviour was gone. The laughter was replaced by only a smile. I realized COMPROMISE was the one responsible. I yelled at it, it didn’t budge. I punched it. It threatened I in return. I found its threats hollow, so I punched it again. This time harder. It got angry. It caught hold of HAPPINESS and evaporated. LIGHT, BEAUTY and LOVE gave I a wary smile and faded in thin air in an instant. I was alone again.

Neither HAPPINESS nor SERENITY to give I company, I felt lonely. The walls of the pit started caving in. I thought they were gonna crush it. How wonderful would that have been! But then again, I still hadn’t paid its debt off. The physical closeness of the walls made I claustrophobic. I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to rip its clothes off. I did so to no avail. I wanted to get out of that skin, that body! I tried to scratch the skin off but soon realized that I was trapped in that body. Locked, chained and bolted. The walls soon started giving I the original space. I was relieved. I could breathe again! I closed its eyes and inhaled. I opened its eyes to see two strangers staring deep into I’s eyes. One of them apologized for scaring I that way. I smiled. It introduced itself to I as SORROW and the other one as its associate, GLOOM. This fall was becoming interesting!

“AAAAAAAAAARGH! Can’t you give me a heads up before whipping me like that,” I yelled. LIFE laughed at I and said, “whats the fun in that!” True. I agreed. SORROW and GLOOM smiled as well. Though I’s skin burned, it couldn’t help return the smile. GLOOM got a first-aid kit and SORROW applied an ointment on I’s burns. They took good care of I. Though they were the ones who had taught I how to cry when they first met I, they were making I smile. I was laughing in their company. They made I feel Alive in that dead hole! I loved them!!!!!! They were always there with I, taking care of its burns after every time LIFE lashed i. Though I cried from time-to-time, they somehow made I smile at the end of it. I truly loved them!!

One day, I saw a smile. A familiar smile that I couldn’t quite place. I knew that smile, but whose was it!! Gosh! It felt like it was in some another lifetime. SERENITY was back with its eerie, dumb smile! They had so much to catch up! SERENITY and SORROW acknowledged each other in a rather cold way. I was so busy catching up that it didn’t see SORROW leave with GLOOM. Post realization, I was surprised to find itself not miss them!! SERENITY has a thing about itself. It grows on to someone like a parasite. One gets used to it after spending a considerable amount of time. So did I. I asked it one day, “what do you think went wrong that made COMPROMISE take HAPPINESS away like that?” it explained that I was not patient enough. If I wished to be with HAPPINESS longer then I had to work its way around COMPROMISE, it told I. I wished it could go back in time and correct its error.

Its wish came true. No, I didn’t go back in time, but it saw LIGHT one day, far below. I met HAPPINESS once again. LIGHTER was brighter, BEAUTY was prettier, and LOVE was deeper than before. HAPPINESS said it was stronger this time. SERENITY soon left as before. I’s sullen skin glowed once again. COMPROMISE soon joined them. As soon as I saw COMPROMISE, I held on to HAPPINESS. It smiled at I. Smiled the way a mother smiles at her child when the child tightens its grip around the mother’s hand in the company of unknown (to it) relatives. I was scared of losing HAPPINESS again. So much so that I didn’t realize that its hug had started choking HAPPINESS. Frightened by its own actions, I let go. The moment it was free, HAPPINESS along with its associates left I engulfed in the dark again. COMPROMISE grinned and called I a Jackarse and left.

LIFE lashed I, out of nowhere as usual. SORROW along with GLOOM came rushing with medicines. I cried its eyes out, less from burns but more because of its stupidity. I cried till I could cry no more. As before, SORROW and GLOOM cheered I up. I felt alive once again! SERENITY’s jealousy got better of it. And soon enough it came back making SORROW and GLOOM leave along with their aid box.

This pattern soon set in. no matter how hard I tried, I never really got comfortable with SERENITY due to its smile. HAPPINESS left I as it was not forthcoming the next time; the next time it left cause I was boring and yet another time cause I had changed!! oO

During one I’s lashings, I asked LIFE how come all its ‘friends’ keep meeting it in the same sequence? LIFE laughed at I’s naivety and exclaimed, “haven’t you realized it yet!!??! You are not falling into a well where there will be an end. You are caught in a cycle. You will attain Nirvana once your debts are paid off, with interest, of course.” LIFE winked and left with I’s skin burning. Those burns got no attention as I was with SERENITY then.

Now, I is accustomed to this whole drama.

The lashings continue. Though, I is used to it, it still hurts. LIFE realized that I had grown to the burns, so now-a-days, it has started using a cane with thorns. So these days, I bleeds.

SORROW and GLOOM are the only ones I truly love and adore; a they are the only ones who cures I’s injuries till date and continue to do so. They are the only ones who make I feel alive.

SERENITY’s jealousy doesn’t allow it to watch I laugh with them. Its jealousy is turning into obsession with each passing day. With each cycle, SERENITY lets I spend lesser time with SORROW as compared to the previous cycle.

I has learned to live with COMPROMISE, though HAPPINESS continues to come up with new ways of leaving. Its excuses have become real creative. It is with I right now so I can’t bitch about it much to me. LOL. It anyway seems to be scheming an innovative reason.

Gotta go to see why is COMPROMISE smiling at I, seems like HAPPINESS wants to talk. I wonder what it would be this time!!

;D