Eve of Destruction

There were so many bulbs that it was hard to keep track of which one was which. These were all different in some way or the other though. Like for example, Bequito the 100W had a slight greenish tinge, whereas Juiko the 100W had an orange tinge. Ofcourse there were 60W, and 200W as well. The 200W were just a bunch of snobs in the 60W's opinion. Looking all big and glowing so brightly, they were just a bunch of show offs in the 60W's opinion. The 100W didnt care much for these things, they would just interact amongst themselves and not have anything to do with the 60's or the 200's.

Today was one of those days when the 60W's were kinda in a bad mood and felt like taking it out on the 200W's.

So they decided to use the mega beam and annoy the 200W's. The mega beam shined a beam of anti light which would reduce the brightness of the 200W. This was a trick passed on from the early 40W, which are now nearly extinct.

So Eioeer targetted the beam at one of the 200W, they really didnt know any of their names since they were all snobs. As soon as the 200W realised what was happening, all the other 200W's turned towards the 60W. And then the chase began. The 60W were smaller and lighter so they cud get away, this is how they always managed to escape.

Suddenly there was a lot of smoke in the room, and Gibrala, the monkey entered. All the bulbs panicked for Gibrala was a terror. He would just break them into pieces without any sense of compassion. Gibrala headed straight for the 200W bulbs. The only defense mechanism that the 200W had was to shine extremely brightly so that their surface gets too hot to touch. But that required atleast a few minutes, and Gibrala was already running towards them.

The 100W were meanwhile trying to act dead. All of them just went off, and lay like zombie bulbs. The 60W were already on the run so they just continued running. The 200W couldnt act dead now since Gibrala had already seen them, so even if they acted dead now, he would still come and destroy them.

It was too late, there was no hope, this was going to be the end for some of them, what a painful way to go, to be shattered to pieces on hard ground. They just lost hope and stood where they were, and didnt even bother to try and escape.

Gibrala came and picked one of them up and held it close to its face. You could see in Gibrala's eyes his love for destruction, the saddistic pleasure he was going to get from throwing it to the ground.But just then, one of the 200W came up with a brilliant idea, it started flashing, on off, on off. Seeing this, all the other 200W started flashing. Gibrala was distracted. He looked confused. But as brilliant as the 200W thought this idea was, it backfired. Gibrala went so crazy seeing all the flashing that he decided to randomly take out the bulbs.

Bulbs were flying in all directions, one of them hit the wooden pillar on the side, the other hit the fan on the roof, and another went crashing into the window. It was total mayhem, glass pieces everywhere, 200W were getting destroyed by the second. Seeing this carnage, the 100W and 60W decided to step in and stop this disaster. But there wasnt anything they could do.

They just gathered around with full determination and then realised all they could do was flash or shine a light at Gibrala, which would probably only make him come and take them out as well.
So they just stood there, and saw the 200W's getting maimed.They felt sorry for them, but they were also scared.

Then, in the complete randomness of events, one of the 200W went straight up in the air, and fell right on Gibrala's head. It burst open on Gibrala's head causing Gibrala to go completely bonkers and start running around. But there were glass pieces all over and it pierced Gibralas feet, he tripped and fell right on top of millions of shattered glass pieces. Now Gibrala was really hurting, he had glass pieces pierced all around his body and in one final act of desperation, he tried to head towards the exit, but the glass pieces in his feet were too painful and he fell again, on top of more shattered 200W bulbs, and went still, and then there was silence...

There were a few 200W remaining and they were too shocked by what just happened that they decided to switch off and stay that way. The 60W and 100W bulbs were equally shocked by what had just happened, and they went off one by one as well. Slowly the room got darker and darker...till was completely dark.

The way things are...

Well there was no hope. It was all over. Kaju wanted to just go home. She looked at the sky and wondered why such a horrible thing should happen now. Just when things were going smoothly something like this had to happen.It has to be fate. Or is it luck? Maybe both.

Actually it cannot be both, fate is something that is laid out, defined. Luck comes and goes. Atleast thats what we are made to believe. But there are people who claim they can change their fate, and others who claim luck is defined and laid out. "I'm just having a lot of bad luck" they claim.

So there is no fact, or ultimate truth in regard to this matter.

"Well, at least I know it ain't my fault" thought Kaju. Or was it? She knew it was monsoon, and that the sun don't shine like it used to in the summer, and yet she decided to build a solar energy powered doll house. She should’ve guessed as much that the sun might not shine during the demonstration.

But it wasn’t her fault that the demonstration was on a fixed time and date now was it. That was the princis fault. Hmm…was he the one who decided the date and time? Well not really, we had to pick slots, they wrote numbers on pieces of paper and asked us to pick one from a box.

So it was she who picked the number 15, if she had picked 4 or 5, she would've had the demo yesterday, and yesterday was a beautiful sunny day.

So then it comes back to luck, it was bad luck that she picked the number 15. But when she picked it, she felt it was good luck, because the first day always sucked for project demos, the second day was when all the people showed up and you can really make an impression, because the second day was a Saturday, the weekend, Friday, people had work, so hardly anyone showed up. So it was good luck and bad luck at the same time.

"But I would rather have a successful demo in front of 10 people, than a failed demo in front of a 100." thought Kaju. So it was bad luck then, or rather it was good luck turned bad luck, or it was bad luck all the while and she was foolish enough to think that it was good luck.

But it needn’t have had anything to do with luck at all.

Many people would say that she was destined to pick up that piece of paper which had 15 on it.
It could’ve been my fault as well, what if I had picked up a slot after a few more minutes, or maybe earlier, before Lollu picked 3, I might have picked 3 then.

Just then Lollu came up to her desk and asked her "Hey wats with the doll house, you still havent grown up or what?"

"No stupid, its a solar powered doll house, there are solar powered lights, fan, a lift en all in the doll house, if only the sun would shine"

"Hmm..well, you can check with the princi if you can use the focus lamp that we have in the auditorium, think that might be powerful enough to drive your little dolly house"

"Thats not a bad idea, thanks" said Kaju already on her way to the princi’s office.

So Kaju ran to the princi's office and requested him for the light, princi called one the watchman and asked him to get it for her. With complete disinterest, the watchman took his own time to slowly walk towards the auditorium and then he had to find the right key, and he had like a 100, so one after the other he tried, and after what seemed like an eternity, he got the damn door open and it was really dark. So he took a while to get used to the darkness, and then grabbed the focus lamp and ever so slowly , walked towards the exit.

"Enga ma vekanam??" he asked, meaning "Where do you want me to keep it?"

She hurried to what seemed like an optimal location and said "Inge".

So the watchman placed the lamp around where she pointed to and plugged it into the nearby outlet. All she needed to do was adjust the angle a bit and VOILA!!! it worked, the whole doll house came to life, all the motors started running, the lights were on, the fans were rotating, the water started flowing, it was a big success. She immediately looked around to see if any of the teachers were around. Yes!! she was just in time, they were walking in a group along with the chief guest, and she was on next.

The teachers were really pleased with the project and the chief guest was very impressed. She explained to them in detail how everything worked and they all listened intently. They then started telling the chief guest what a good student she was en all that.

She started wondering if she could get Project of the Year award. But the class topper was next, and he had a highly complex structure built with just paper, she wasn’t quite sure what it did, but it looked real hi-tech. And he looked pretty confident as well…

And then the inevitable happened, it started pouring, all of a sudden, it rained down real hard, like it was just holding it all along and couldn't take it anymore. Everyone scattered to cover, it was comical, almost like they were being attacked by terrorists or something.

Kaju rushed to the nearby hall with her doll house, the watchman came running from nowhere and rushed the focus lamp back into the auditorium all the while muttering some curses. The class topper was nearby, looking extremely pissed with this sudden turn of events. The teachers and chief guest were in the nearby hall. And it rained and rained, and it was the end of the day, people had to go back home, everyone was asked to leave. The class topper never looked more upset than he was when everyone left.

So Kaju wondered once again, was this luck? Was it bad luck for him and good luck for me? Or was it because of me. If I hadn’t spent so much time talking to the teachers and chief guest and explaining details, they would’ve seen his project before it rained.

But it wasnt intentional, so maybe it was his luck that I took so long. But then, he could’ve simply taken a desk to my right and showed his project before mine. He just wanted to be last cos he thought that would give the best impression. So it was his fault then...

Hmm...I guess you cannot really blame anything that happens on luck, fate, yourself or anyone else, things just happen. Thats just the way things are...





 

The Lights

Dilpush was sick and tired of waiting. The lights should’ve shown up by now. Everyday, at 9:00 pm sharp he wud see blinking lights in the sky. It was such a mysterious sight. Dark cloudless sky, and there , in the distance are two blinking lights moving farther and farther away. Sometimes he wondered if he could call out to the lights and make them come closer instead. He decided he was gonna do precisely that today. Scream out to the lights from the terrace and see if he can grab their attention, make them come closer to him. Then he could find out what it was…maybe it was some kind of spaceship…or maybe it was….well he had no clue!!! What if it was something so completely new, no one had ever seen before.

But once that thought occurred, it also occurred to him that others mite have noticed these lights, and probably attempted to attract them as well. Had they failed? Or maybe some of them already know what it is. But what if no one had attempted to shout out to the lights and get their attention. Maybe the lights thought no one was interested in them, so they moved further and further away. But they probably showed up everyday hoping that someone would notice their presence.

It was 10:00 pm now, it was getting colder, the winds were getting stronger, lights were going off in nearby houses. But since his mom hadn’t called out in a while, he assumed that they assumed he was fast asleep. He looked up, and then had an idea. What if he signaled the lights with a light of his own. Neat! He ran downstairs, albeit on tip toes, not to disturb his parents who were watching television. He went into the storeroom and found the flashlight, tested it once, yes, it worked. But wait, what if he had missed the lights, damn, he had to rush back to the terrace. He did so, without his parents suspecting anything. “Yes!!!” he whispered silently to himself.

Once on the terrace, he realized he needed a better field of view to shine his flashlight. The tank, the highest point in the house, this would indeed give a really good opportunity to get as close as possible and offer a clear signal to the lights. He began climbing the tanks flimsy ladder with the flashlight held in his mouth. The wind was getting stronger, he could feel it pushing him. As soon as he climbed onto the tank, the wind was really strong, he had to crawl on fours to maintain balance.

Dilpush felt fear now, he was alone, atop the tank, nothing around him but a sheer fall in all directions, all lights turned off, completely silent with only the sound of wind, the sky was clearer than most days. And yet, he wondered why the lights didn’t show up.

Wait, over in the distance, he could see the lights. Finally!! The green and red alternating lights, were getting closer! He thought to himself “I shall wait for a while and then yell out to them and shine my flashlight. I might wake the neighbors and my parents, but when they come and see that the lights responded to my call, they will be silenced.”

He waited, the lights were getting closer. His eyes opened wide, this was it, the moment he had been waiting for. And then he decided to go with his plan and try and grab the lights attention.

He stood up, switched on the flash light, he could barely stand still now because of the wind, he was struggling to maintain balance. There were just a few feet between him and a 100 foot drop to the road. He managed to hold his balance and pointed the flashlight in the direction of the lights and yelled out “HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYY”!!!

Oh what an absolutely terrific sight it was. The lights had seen his signal for sure, for they had never before
taken the route above his house. It was worth all the effort and risk. Dilpush felt as though he had accomplished something
great, he couldn't wait to tell everyone what just happened and what an amazing spectacle he had just witnessed.

He just stood there in awe for a few minutes, and a sudden gush of wind jerked him enough to kick him back to reality.
He was still smiling though, and constantly thinking about the lights. Slowly he made his way down the ladder and went downstairs
and back to his room. No one had noticed him sneaking in. The nights activities were a complete success.

He snuck up inside his blanket and with a grin on his face, went to dreamland.

He finally knew what the lights were...