PARINDA परिंदा پرندہ
A Story Of Hope
Tham ke, ruk ke behti thi hawa,
Rukh badal badal ke behti thi hawa,
Uda woh aise hasraton ko paane,
hausla dekh toofan ne bhi rasta chodd diya,
tha ek parinda aisa manchala sa,
jiski zidd ne hawaon ka rukh hi mod diya.
ONE--------1
She sat there staring at the sun as it was about to kiss the horizon, trying to contemplate the very fundamental nature of the universe, dreamer she was and a seeker too, seeker of higher truth. Her definition of euphoria was to imagine and to make sense of utter chaos, adding logic to absolute random behavior in order to predict future; that was her superpower. When civilization came to an end abruptly due to futile conflicts over territories, when delusional men were made to fight and kill each in the name of an imaginary father figure called god, the whole structure of humanity was reduced to rubble in just a matter of three days and the unlucky ones who managed to survive the holocaust, ran out of resources first, then hope and then their breath, but her superpower helped her survive, she made it alive. From the watch-post of her bunker she built for herself just 14 days before it all went downhill for humanity, sipping warm water she gazed at the cemetery the world now was. She watched the four horsemen of conquest, war, famine and death slowly consume the entire humanity leaving nothing behind.
Rukh badal badal ke behti thi hawa,
Uda woh aise hasraton ko paane,
hausla dekh toofan ne bhi rasta chodd diya,
tha ek parinda aisa manchala sa,
jiski zidd ne hawaon ka rukh hi mod diya.
ONE--------1
She sat there staring at the sun as it was about to kiss the horizon, trying to contemplate the very fundamental nature of the universe, dreamer she was and a seeker too, seeker of higher truth. Her definition of euphoria was to imagine and to make sense of utter chaos, adding logic to absolute random behavior in order to predict future; that was her superpower. When civilization came to an end abruptly due to futile conflicts over territories, when delusional men were made to fight and kill each in the name of an imaginary father figure called god, the whole structure of humanity was reduced to rubble in just a matter of three days and the unlucky ones who managed to survive the holocaust, ran out of resources first, then hope and then their breath, but her superpower helped her survive, she made it alive. From the watch-post of her bunker she built for herself just 14 days before it all went downhill for humanity, sipping warm water she gazed at the cemetery the world now was. She watched the four horsemen of conquest, war, famine and death slowly consume the entire humanity leaving nothing behind.
It was not always like this, a faint memory of the good old days reminded her of how it used to be. A small part inside her was so used to seeing sky black, that sometimes she had a hard time believing that it was once blue, that there used to be sounds of birds chirruping at daybreak instead of sandstorm hitting the protective foil covering of her bunker.
There were no birds now, not anymore, no signs of life, just vast expanse of desert, where sandstorms blew fiercely slowly eroding whatever hope she had left of a better tomorrow. As the horizon slowly ate the sun, and darkness started to take over, her heart was filled with gloom and despair. She felt powerless, hopeless and helpless all at the same time. It was hard for someone to keep the chin up in times like these. She wanted to wave a magic wand to turn it all back to normal again, but she knew there was nothing like magic in this world, so she dreamed, lived in a virtual world where things were exactly as she wanted them to be, imagining every minute detail in her fantasies, escaping from all the harsh realities of the world. Sometimes make belief is what you need to keep going.
She climbed down from her watch tower, and started covering the solar panels with protective foils. She carefully placed weights on the panel to counter the fierce winds. The toxic air exposure was slowly taking its toll on her. She was panting after every hundred steps. Nothing broke her more than her weak body not obeying her strong will. This marathon runner who now believed that she held the baton of human race was now dyspneic. It was year 2076, or somewhere around that. She was not sure, despite her best attempts to keep a track of time for initial few years now it all seemed like a waste of time.
She went inside her dimly lit bunker. She had book rack, where she kept all her religious scriptures, Bible, Quran, Geeta, ZendAvesta and many more, which she often read for moral comfort and literary qualities. She was a cynical atheist now, a staunch skepticism prevailed as she read them every now and then. She had witnessed world killing itself slowly with war, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime and corruption. May be it was all part of the greater plan she kept telling herself. From the radiation proof window of her bunker she gazed at the sky trying to find that one single twinkling star that she sometimes spotted when the toxic clouds were thinner than regular days. She hummed her favorite tune to herself, as if trying to provide herself with a lullaby which transported her back to her childhood when her mother used to sing her to sleep. But tonight there were no stars to be seen, the sandstorm hitting the bunker was so fierce that she was not able to hear herself, she wrapped herself in her quilt and went to dreamland.
"Only in dreams, a person is truly free" She told herself as the storm's sound became deafening.
1000 kilometers from where she was, an engine was kicked into action. She had no idea of what was about to come. As she was fighting her way through life, universe was busy conspiring. It was all about to change for her.
To be Continued...
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