A New Outlook (Sulekha Challenge)
Dec 4 2007 | Views 389 |
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Tags: EXPERIMENTAL WRITING SULEKHA CHALLENGE sulekhachallenge1
Tags: EXPERIMENTAL WRITING SULEKHA CHALLENGE sulekhachallenge1
I knew this would change everything but as I stood there transfixed, I felt helpless.
"Kill the b@$#^*! What are you waiting for, dumdum?" My friend, who was standing next to me looked at me as if I were a sissy. Nandini (yes, I had already given her a name!) looked at me with her enormous, mellow brown eyes with a pitiful 'moo'! Even while battered, prodded with rods and a broken tail, her spirits and her zeal to escape were commendable. She had put up a tremendous fight getting inside the abattoir even in that drowsy state after being stunned twice. Never had I seen such intense passion for life, before. Looking at her soulful eyes, I felt a stir of remorse. It was I who had been dead until now and this dumb creature gave me the breath of life. You see, it has not always been like this for me. To get a better understanding of that, I am going to tell you a bit of my past.
******
I was born into an affluent family. We were in the first tier of society and all the marriages that had happened within the family had been such that we never strayed from our level. We had an almost imperial air about us; we made the rules and we conveniently broke them. With changing times, our priorities changed. Our upbringing restricted us to a certain, conservative diet, but we adapted to novelty. That did not, however, make us broaden our other views. While looking for a wife, I still insisted on getting a virtuous, timid girl from our clique and one who followed our faith to the core.
As I said earlier, times were indeed changing. Furious with our condescending attitude, a revolution of sorts started in the region we were staying in. The minorities now became the majorities and an ethnic cleansing began. We decided to abandon our land like a sinking ship. There were better opportunities in a land far east (well, does it really matter, East or West? The world is round after all and the West is the East and the East is the West) and we decided to sail there. This was the new land of milk and honey, the land of the slant-eyed robots. I call them robots because their lives are so different from ours. After spending a few years there, even I grew on that thick skin of apathy, but I am racing ahead here with my story. Let me give you some tidbits about the new land and it's habitants.
A lot of the basic luxuries of life are limited here, but strangely some other allowances are lenient and plentiful. Every family was to comprise three; just one child. To encourage the population control even more, there were these centers of 'shava-dan' (aptly named, because after all, we really were 'dead' in a way)! Organ selling had become a thing of the past, here in this strange land. The new buzz was about donating one's body while alive and in perfect health. A person who donated his or her body (voluntary euthanasia) received the ultimate gift - lifetime coverage and support for the rest of his family. Ration cards and food stamps were obsolete. Quite a few of the people of my 'tier' back home, who had migrated to this land, had done 'shava-dan'. It was still a much better option than back home where the new majorities had overpowered the new minorities and pandemonium had struck.
The pastimes in this strange land were also different. As a child, I remember going to fruit orchards to collect fruit or going to parks to play. In this land even more than my homeland, there was a dearth of trees and picnic locations. Instead, families went to 'Pick your meat' centers such as 'Desperate Hunter', 'Ravenous Jackal' and so on. Or 'Catch That Stray and Win a Prize' centers where we would get big monetary rewards after helping catch a stray animal. At these 'Hunter' centers, one could select an animal of their choice and also get the pleasure of bringing home the bacon. Now I agree, I had started enjoying forbidden foods, but never had I really have to hunt for my food. There were no options in this land, though. It was either this or terribly expensive meat of 'unknown origins' (God knows where that meat came from, because I remember seeing parts of a human ear once!) and produce - a still better option than in the land of my birth where I and family would be out on the streets by now, I reminded myself.
The first kill had been an ordeal but I soon got used to it. To make it easy for us, we often went with other friends, to encourage each other during the hunts. The meat we bought back home would last for a month and filled many a hungry bellies. After being satiated, we would go to 'Stop-n-Buy', where we would get subsidized goods made in countries less fortunate than the land of the slant-eyed. Picking up a mat with the most intricate weave, I would shudder in fear after being reminded of what we would have been, had we not left for the land of milk-n-honey.
It had not always been like this. Our grandparents and great-grandparents often reminsced of the golden age in their times - when the earth was green and the water clean. Animals grazed in peace under the benevolent sun. Roads were clean and clear and one could see the mountain ranges in the distance without tall manmade structures to obstruct the view, for miles. Yes, things had changed after 'the people' started trickling in to our coveted land, after heavy bribes and threats and a spate of spineless leaders.
Then there were my parents - who often spoke of the technological age. Of a golden city of the sun, where the value of silicon had been increased multifold after a few ground-breaking inventions. Silicon, dumdum; not silicone - the material we find clogged in our rivers now. My parents remember with nostalgia, the air journeys and corresponding via something called fiber-optics. Then some fools decided to blast the golden city and a few other cities of technological importance and we were plunged into the dark ages. Funny how that did not change any other beliefs, though. Such as maintaining our tiers, the 'name' of the family, and so on. Anyhow, with this history, I hereby arrived in this strange land after a tiring journey over the seas.
Sadly enough, I could not bring my parents to this land. 'Land of the communists' was what my parents called this place. This place strictly enforced the rule 'Be a Roman in Rome'. I was allowed a roof in this place only if I adhered to the rules set by them. That is why I wrote earlier that after seeing Nandini, I felt as if I had been dead so long - in a land of zombies. Watching her kick and bellow in rage, fear and sadness, I felt an emotion that had been tucked away somewhere in me for long. I knew this would change everything but as I stood there transfixed, I felt helpless.
I threw down the meat cleaver and raised my hand to stop my friend. I approached Nandini with caution, ready to back off if she offered a kick. I would soothe the poor creature and even try making an offer to buy her from the miserable place. Tomorrow, I would probably enlist for 'shava-dan' to ensure support for my family. After this deep thirst for life that I had witnessed, nothing would ever convince me I had been alive so long. Not until I gave up what was dear to me - my 'dead' body - in order to free my tortured soul.
"Kill the b@$#^*! What are you waiting for, dumdum?" My friend, who was standing next to me looked at me as if I were a sissy. Nandini (yes, I had already given her a name!) looked at me with her enormous, mellow brown eyes with a pitiful 'moo'! Even while battered, prodded with rods and a broken tail, her spirits and her zeal to escape were commendable. She had put up a tremendous fight getting inside the abattoir even in that drowsy state after being stunned twice. Never had I seen such intense passion for life, before. Looking at her soulful eyes, I felt a stir of remorse. It was I who had been dead until now and this dumb creature gave me the breath of life. You see, it has not always been like this for me. To get a better understanding of that, I am going to tell you a bit of my past.
******
I was born into an affluent family. We were in the first tier of society and all the marriages that had happened within the family had been such that we never strayed from our level. We had an almost imperial air about us; we made the rules and we conveniently broke them. With changing times, our priorities changed. Our upbringing restricted us to a certain, conservative diet, but we adapted to novelty. That did not, however, make us broaden our other views. While looking for a wife, I still insisted on getting a virtuous, timid girl from our clique and one who followed our faith to the core.
As I said earlier, times were indeed changing. Furious with our condescending attitude, a revolution of sorts started in the region we were staying in. The minorities now became the majorities and an ethnic cleansing began. We decided to abandon our land like a sinking ship. There were better opportunities in a land far east (well, does it really matter, East or West? The world is round after all and the West is the East and the East is the West) and we decided to sail there. This was the new land of milk and honey, the land of the slant-eyed robots. I call them robots because their lives are so different from ours. After spending a few years there, even I grew on that thick skin of apathy, but I am racing ahead here with my story. Let me give you some tidbits about the new land and it's habitants.
A lot of the basic luxuries of life are limited here, but strangely some other allowances are lenient and plentiful. Every family was to comprise three; just one child. To encourage the population control even more, there were these centers of 'shava-dan' (aptly named, because after all, we really were 'dead' in a way)! Organ selling had become a thing of the past, here in this strange land. The new buzz was about donating one's body while alive and in perfect health. A person who donated his or her body (voluntary euthanasia) received the ultimate gift - lifetime coverage and support for the rest of his family. Ration cards and food stamps were obsolete. Quite a few of the people of my 'tier' back home, who had migrated to this land, had done 'shava-dan'. It was still a much better option than back home where the new majorities had overpowered the new minorities and pandemonium had struck.
The pastimes in this strange land were also different. As a child, I remember going to fruit orchards to collect fruit or going to parks to play. In this land even more than my homeland, there was a dearth of trees and picnic locations. Instead, families went to 'Pick your meat' centers such as 'Desperate Hunter', 'Ravenous Jackal' and so on. Or 'Catch That Stray and Win a Prize' centers where we would get big monetary rewards after helping catch a stray animal. At these 'Hunter' centers, one could select an animal of their choice and also get the pleasure of bringing home the bacon. Now I agree, I had started enjoying forbidden foods, but never had I really have to hunt for my food. There were no options in this land, though. It was either this or terribly expensive meat of 'unknown origins' (God knows where that meat came from, because I remember seeing parts of a human ear once!) and produce - a still better option than in the land of my birth where I and family would be out on the streets by now, I reminded myself.
The first kill had been an ordeal but I soon got used to it. To make it easy for us, we often went with other friends, to encourage each other during the hunts. The meat we bought back home would last for a month and filled many a hungry bellies. After being satiated, we would go to 'Stop-n-Buy', where we would get subsidized goods made in countries less fortunate than the land of the slant-eyed. Picking up a mat with the most intricate weave, I would shudder in fear after being reminded of what we would have been, had we not left for the land of milk-n-honey.
It had not always been like this. Our grandparents and great-grandparents often reminsced of the golden age in their times - when the earth was green and the water clean. Animals grazed in peace under the benevolent sun. Roads were clean and clear and one could see the mountain ranges in the distance without tall manmade structures to obstruct the view, for miles. Yes, things had changed after 'the people' started trickling in to our coveted land, after heavy bribes and threats and a spate of spineless leaders.
Then there were my parents - who often spoke of the technological age. Of a golden city of the sun, where the value of silicon had been increased multifold after a few ground-breaking inventions. Silicon, dumdum; not silicone - the material we find clogged in our rivers now. My parents remember with nostalgia, the air journeys and corresponding via something called fiber-optics. Then some fools decided to blast the golden city and a few other cities of technological importance and we were plunged into the dark ages. Funny how that did not change any other beliefs, though. Such as maintaining our tiers, the 'name' of the family, and so on. Anyhow, with this history, I hereby arrived in this strange land after a tiring journey over the seas.
Sadly enough, I could not bring my parents to this land. 'Land of the communists' was what my parents called this place. This place strictly enforced the rule 'Be a Roman in Rome'. I was allowed a roof in this place only if I adhered to the rules set by them. That is why I wrote earlier that after seeing Nandini, I felt as if I had been dead so long - in a land of zombies. Watching her kick and bellow in rage, fear and sadness, I felt an emotion that had been tucked away somewhere in me for long. I knew this would change everything but as I stood there transfixed, I felt helpless.
I threw down the meat cleaver and raised my hand to stop my friend. I approached Nandini with caution, ready to back off if she offered a kick. I would soothe the poor creature and even try making an offer to buy her from the miserable place. Tomorrow, I would probably enlist for 'shava-dan' to ensure support for my family. After this deep thirst for life that I had witnessed, nothing would ever convince me I had been alive so long. Not until I gave up what was dear to me - my 'dead' body - in order to free my tortured soul.
© Kalyanee., all rights reserved.
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