Utopia

The alarm started ringing at 8:00 in the morning. He jerked mildly within his blanket for sometime. A hand popped out of the blanket and slammed the head of the clock. He started sleeping again. In about 15 mins time, his mom romps into the room and shouts, "Ravi, its 8:15, get up now. Its getting late for you". After 15 minutes of effort, Ravi finally pops his head out of the blanket, with wrinkles forming three neat waves on this forehead, showing his urge to sleep more. But, the feeling of another new day of life brought a smile to his face. He rises from his bed and starts thinking about yesterday, smiling instantly. The tile pattern on the floor of his room brought images instantly to his mind. He kept staring at it constantly with the floor in front of him getting blurred out and yesterday`s events getting juxtaposed on it. He kept staring at it with the sun`s rays garnishing the pattern even more as the dust within the rays seemed to be moving in a circular fashion. With a deep breadth that seemed to take along with it his morning laziness, he threw the blanket to a side and left the room for yet another day. After all, he had covered up what seemed to be the biggest blunder in his life.
He had ran out of his house fearing his parents 2 days back where he had found it in a nearby godown; rectangular, powerful, with buttons all over it. His name engraved on a hologram sticker that changed its appearance with every change in perspective was affixed at top of it. His eyes gouged out as he saw it for the first time, not knowing the connection it had with its life. He had found a remote control with a few buttons on them which seemed similar to the remote control of his VCR. The center had a rewind and a forward button with the play button filling the space in between the rewind and the forward button. He walked across the road and stood in a corner of it to experiment with it. When he pressed the rewind button, he found himself standing in the godown with the remote control in front of him. When he pressed the forward button, he found himself standing at the corner of the road again. It took him sometime to realise what was happening. Everytime he pressed the rewind button, he relived the events of his life, as his life went back on a timescale by 20 secs and everytime he pressed the forward button, his life moved ahead quicker than usual. He had been intimidated by this, but still he decided not to call for anyone`s assistance. He also realised that the remote was not visible to anyone else except him. So he was the only person who could operate with it. As he stood along the corner of the road not knowing what to do, he kept staring at the remote. It was then that it had struck him. A bright smile gleamed across his face as he knew he could relive the moments of his life and could amend his blunder. He had copied in an important examination at school and was caught while doing so. The principal had threatened to call his parents and inform them of his deed. The principal had asked him to expect a call anytime on the following day, before which he had ran out of house. His father was an arrogant person. Ravi knew he would kill him if he knew about this. Fearing him, he had ran out of house just to find the remote control that had the power to control the sequence of events in his life. And now he had the fickle mind to revert back to a day before the examination. Yeah, it had happened. He had gone back in time and had opened the book to read for tomorrow`s exam. As he read a paragraph, it had struck him that this question had indeed appeared in the exam. He had gone back in time physically, but nothing erased the events deeply rooted in his memory. So now, he even knew the questions that were to appear in tomorrow`s exam. He read those questions alone and did extremely well in the exam. For the first time in his life, his parents were very happy when they browsed through his progress report. His father, who usually avoids PTA meets accompanied him this time, for he was proud of having a son like Ravi.
As he came out of his room, he found his mom performing her daily prayers to god. His life moved on fast. From then on he had corrected every error that he had committed. With life moving faster than usual as he had lived only those parts of his life that he wanted to live, he piled up his laurels at school, college and literally every place that he went to. He was a brilliant student everywhere. He was a popular figure in every institution he had set foot upon. He used to play games for a couple of hours everyday when his mom used to scold pushing him to have his bath. When he wanted to play more, he would just revert back and start playing for a couple of hours again. Life was too good to live. He had succeeded in every task that was put forth to him. He solved every hurdle with ease and surged ahead. He would think at times about how he had found his remote in a godown, the thought bringing a bright glow to his eyes, for it was indeed something that veered the direction of his life which was once moving in a way undesired.
He was a naughty boy at school. He used to fight frequently with his friends. He never had got his lesson right and had never excelled in an examination. Everything brought anxiety. He was afraid of everything in life. He did not have the confidence to face anything in life. He would never listen to any piece of advice. He had failed in every respect of life. He used to disturb his mom a lot. But she really had so much of affection for him that she never bothered to scold him back. He loved games, but wasn't good enough for a pursuing a career in them. Then it all changed one day.
Making friends became easy. Moving with friends was never this simple a task for him. He had never quarelled with his friends for he had moved ahead in time and had an opportunity to read their mind sets and then react accordingly. Everything seemed to be like a dream, a realistic utopia. He had power, he had authority, he was super human. He took good care of his parents as he grew up. He made money easily.
As he was lying down, he suddenly felt a disgust for his life as it looked artificial to him. Years of winning had thought him to be confident and fearless. All this is because of that remote. Suddenly he decided never to use it again in his life and moved on with his life. But everytime he found something unpleasant happening, he felt the compulsiveness to use it and revert back in time, for it was too addictive and life was not favouring him without it.
He settled in life. He married a girl of his choice, had two kids who made him proud even without remote controls! They were good at school and were obedient. It went on and on. He relived those vivid moments of his life and avoided bitter events. He never had feared anything, for that rectangular box would take care of everything.
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He was lying on his rocking chair, relaxing himself on a sunday. His gray hair folded neatly with respect to the hair line, he kept staring at the walls and thinking of this past, the beautiful life that god had given him, the life that he adored so much, his children and wife on whom he had all his love. He would do anything for them. As he kept taking swift to and fro motions in his chair, something made him uneasy. He had felt a pain near his chest, something that was unbearable, something that felt like an elephant`s leg crushing his chest. He had his hand over his chest not able to bear the pain, not able to shout for help. With great difficulty, he reached for his saviour, the remote control which he had so preciously handled till now. Just about to press the forward button, his fingers ceased to move, his nostrils blocked the movement of air, his heart had given up and the remote control fell down from his hand. He had died. No remote could save him. Nothing could conquer death.
With a heavy heart, I closed the diary that was given to me by Ravi`s son, as he was nearby when ravi`s heart failed. He had noticed Ravi`s hands move in an awkward manner which became clear after he had read his father`s diary. He had tried to revert back just before death but had failed. Death seemed to be his first and last defeat in life. We don't get instant answers to certain tough situations in life. Instead of searching for a remote control in life, it is better to change our way of life as to minimize errors, keep everyone around us happy and live life as if we will die tomorrow. After all life is short and death is inevitable.

Alcohol, as they call it...

I`m not very attracted to the idea of sitting leisurely and tuning in to some radio channel and keep listening. I just happened to tune into Radio Mirchi today morning... Think i left something??? errr... yaa... "Semma Hot Machi!!!". Some nice song was playing. Once that finished, there was this RJ`s voice, part of which i could not comprehend because of the speed. I m sick of this. I really have no clue why they have to speed up things when they are talking. They have ample time, the whole time slot is theirs, yet they fly as if they have no time to spare!!! Anyways coming to the topic... Some programme called 'Ladies Colony' was being aired. And it had some interesting topic of discussion. So i decided to listen further.. The topic goes like this... "A recent survey reveals that 32% of the females in India consume alcohol. And more importantly, it is more than the number of men who consume alcohol in the country". For obvious reasons, the callers where females, for it was a ladies only show. So some caller comes online and argues "Instead of we bothering of the male-female statistics it is more important for us to consider numbers on the whole. Nevertheless alcohol consumption is injurious to health. So there is no need to consider men and female numbers separately for our aim should be towards reducing numbers on the whole rather than blaming the females for such high consumption rates." This was the first caller. The next caller quoted.. "Women in India are considered to be very divine. They command a lot of divinity. People have a lot of respect for Women in India. So thats why we get alarmed by the statistics. But there is nothing great about the statistics. I cannot infer anything of much consequence from the statistics ". Callers who followed based their arguments on the same lines. Atlast, after lot of waiting, there was one caller who really argued that the numbers really show how the standards are going down and how women need to mend ways. i noticed a 5:1 ratio. If 5 people said that overall reduction is needed, 1 said women needed to mend their way of life. Amidst all this talking, the RJ never allows the callers to express their ideas on the topic. Before they could express their view, the RJ asks whether women statistics alone is important or we should be bothered about the overall alcohol consumption rate. Obviously, any women will opt for the latter option. The replies are perceived as if people are so bothered about the general welfare of the country.
Now lets analyze this a bit. What would have been the result of such a discussion if the women statistics weren't this high? In such a case, how many women would have argued for general welfare instead of criticizing men for high consumption rates?
I guess the case itself would have been different. The topic would have digressed totally and would have been mostly about husbands torturing their counterparts after consuming alcohol everyday, and things on similar lines. The discussion would have revolved around the attitude of men alone and general welfare would have stayed apart. I guess the ratio that i mentioned before would have inverted now.
I really feel women share equal status with men in this society. A lot of atonements have been made right from the time of independence. They take part in everything. There is no subordination or anything similar to it. They are respected a lot by everyone. So it is up to them to decide whether they really want to be high held or let down because of their unacceptable practices. Not drinking alone be banned, such ladies only shows should be banned too. The very fact that a topic of discussion is taken to discuss with ladies alone itself shows they themselves aren't prepared to share the status with men. Find one show where a topic is broached and only men are allowed to share their views. So its women who really think their state in the society is really bad, when it really isn't the case.