Black, Brown or White?

Read a discussion on Indians being the new black people ( http://ping.fm/WZEbU ). It starts with a discussion on Indians taking over Afro-Americans jobs, later turns into flame wars between races and then dives into people proving each other their genetic origins to justify why Indians should be called black! Why does the skin tone ever mattered? Looks like racism will never die. By the way, I know of only two races of human beings – Good and Bad. How about you?

Demons

My head,a container.
A container for demons,
from the dark side.

“Tell me, you ghastly creatures!
Why me?”
They grin in response.

I wonder, how easily
they have made themselves at home.
Discolouring the colourful corners,
Denting the smooth surfaces.
Changing my thoughts, my feelings.

They need to be purged,
before I loose my own self.

But, they will take with them,
the colourful blossoms of my past.
I am afraid to let go of them,
for they bring me,
a few moments of ecstasy.
I feel I have lived my life.

I give in.

Another corner looses its colour.

Rishabh closed his diary and looked up. He saw people enjoying their walk in the park. Smiling. Being happy.

The camera zoomed out. Jason kept a straight face, hiding his emotion.

Wasted

“From where can I get a bus to the Persian Bank?” Jason asked again.
“Huh… hmm… I am sorry I do not know… Where are we?”

Rishabh looked troubled. He was upset and had been thinking about it the whole evening. It was eating him from inside.

“I am sorry, you seem to be worried about something. Can I help you?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, I am a little upset today. I do not mean to be rude to you, but… I request you to kindly leave me alone. Someone else will definitely help you out.”
“Are you sure you can take care of yourself? You do not even have a raincoat on you, and it’s raining cats and dogs!”
“I am perfectly fine. Do not worry about me. Good night.” And Rishabh started to move towards the end of the flyover.

“Why the hell I wasn’t informed about this?!” Jason screamed with clenched teeth over the radio to Nazia.
“Shh… He’ll hear you”
Rishabh had not heard him at all. He was lost. Lost in a world of his own.
“We had tried to inform you, but you were too eager to contact him that you did not want to listen to me then. Now that you know, what are you going to do?” continued Nazia.

Contact

It had been three years since they had contacted him. It had become very risky. The sentinels were always around Rishabh, though he never realised it. They were never the same. The ‘Revolutionaries’ had been quite reckless, and the recklessness had cost them four of their men. It had been four years since Rishabh was identified and the race was still on.

Unaware of the fact, Rishabh stood under the flyover, sheltering himself from the sudden and  heavy downpour. He stood there alone, shivering in the cold, watching the vehicles pass by him.

“Now!” the headphone crackled into Jason’s ear. Jason nodded and started moving towards Rishabh.

Jason had been watching Rishabh for quite sometime now. He had waited for this moment for a long time. The First Contact. He stood under a tree on the other side of the road, and camouflaged himself from others, in the darkness of the night. The rain provided the extra advantage. Nazia, had an eye on both of them. She was seated in a car, parked about hundred metres from Rishabh. Even in the heavy rain, with the lights and the wiper turned off she could see them. She saw Jason as tall, heavy built man in a shade of red, walking towards Rishabh, who was a dark shade of yellow. Nazia kept the engine running, she could not risk switching it off. With the car’s all lights turned off and the spattering rain to drown the humming of the engine, Nazia waited.

Jason had crossed the road by now. He wore a dark, long coat which was dirty on the back side. Rishabh had not realised Jason approaching him. He had been standing there with his head bent down all the time.

“From where can I get a bus to the Persian Bank?”

Rishabh looked up in a startle.

Pool

It was a strange place. It had to be. People often referred to this place as steps. It was a set of five oddly shaped swimming pools placed in the form a spiralling staircase. An amphitheatre overlooked the topmost pool. The other four pools seemed to be the stage of another amphitheatre. The parents sat on the concrete steps of the bigger amphitheatre, keeping a watch on their kids, who were playing in one of the four pools.

Why didn’t the Romans think of this before? thought Rishabh. Instead of watching the Gladiators fight on dry land along with lions and tigers, hungry sharks would have entertained them more.

Rishabh sat on the steps of the amphitheatre adjoining the top pool along with some of his friends and Roshni. Roshni sat on step below him, between his legs and he softly caressed the sides of her neck. They had been seated there for sometime now. Looking at the people sitting in the amphitheatre across them they discussed various topics, from politics to religion, and why the present government sucks.

Rishabh noticed a man in a yellow flowery bermuda get up from his place on the far end of the amphitheatre and move towards their end. He had a strange mile on his face.

“I would love to see Rishabh get hysterical on this…” said Nato looking on the screen infront of him. Nobody responded to Nato’s comment and the commander kept a stern face.

Rishabh did not like the smile on the strange guy’s face. He was getting more uncomfortable for now the stranger had a direct eye contact with him.

“Roshni, do you see that guy on our left? He is coming straight towards us… I don’t like the look on that guy’s face”.

Roshni did not respond. She was still looking at the people sitting across in the other amphitheatre.

“Roshni! You listening to me?”

Rishabh looked down at Roshni and his heart skipped a beat. Her hair was no longer black and silky as before. It had turned gray, like that of the dark rainy clouds, and at regular interval a couple of coloured spots ran down her hair.

Rishabh wanted to shake her; shake her hard and let her know that something was wrong, but, his hands wouldn’t move. He looked towards that stranger again. He was much closer now. Rishabh was panicking now. He looked at Roshni again. Her body had disappeared, only her hair was visible. Rishabh breathed in hard and the world blacked out in front of.

Nato give a big smile. The commander had already left.