What If ... ?
This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 7; the seventh edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
He had been walking for hours. He almost stumbled over a child; lying there covered in blood with missing limbs.Bile rose in his throat; he indulged. He knew he had no energy left to even puke anymore. Yet he dragged himself to walk on.He had to.. somehow. He had to get away from all this...
Yesterday when he returned from his shift and browsed for more than an hour before finally giving in to sleep, he had not even dreamed of having to face a day like this. And that too the very next day..
He didn't know what actually woke him - the loud noise or the cries or the pain that shot through his body or the eerie feeling of fear he had never experienced before. When senses returned to him, they did so with a lot of pain. He could feel blood gush out of his ears and saw a broken bone protruding out of his left hand with blood and flesh exposed. That was when he first threw-up that day.
He tried to compose himself. He looked around. What he saw, he could never have believed. There were no homes, no vehicles on the usually busy roads and not even roads to be seen.. All that could be seen was debris - concrete, dust, carcass and blood. For once, he couldn't stand the crimson color. He had always loved to see his love wearing crimson colored dresses.
He ran, as fast as he could. He must see her. Hoping she was unhurt, he had run. He had ran for hours and on the way all he had seen was destruction and death. He had stopped just enough to let the vomit escape before running on and on again. The few people who were alive like him, were in tears over their lost ones. Some refused to leave the shattered body parts of their family, some could not even cry.
But he couldn't find her house. With all this debris and the usual landmarks not to be seen, he couldn't even be sure this was the place where she lived. Something within him told him that he had lost her. He had lost the one who had loved him the most. He wished he had called her yesterday, he wished he could just hear her voice.
He thought about his parents. They were with his pregnant sister in the Gulf country. He wondered how vast this destruction was. He hoped they were fine, but he had no way of knowing. No TV's anywhere, he never got to retrieve his smart phone, no computer, no internet . He didn't even know if the Third World War had started and this was its resultant or if this was just another terrorist attack where his city got targeted. He didn't know why he survived...
He wanted to lie down somewhere. He wanted to stop the pain growing inside him. He wanted to nurse his hand which had become numb with pain. He wanted the flies to leave his wounded arm alone. He wanted to turn deaf to the wails of cries around. He wanted to eat.
He couldn't believe how among all this he could feel so hungry and so desperate for food. Yet he had to. He walked on and on. Looking for someplace he would get something to eat. He remembered all that food he dumped casually in the office canteen's waste basket because it was too salty or less spicy or just not interesting enough. He remembered ordering more than he could eat at restaurants and without regret binning them. He wished he could have a morsel from them now..just a morsel.
He knew he had walked out of city limits when he saw fields. He felt happy. There would be something to eat. But even the fields were destroyed. Then he saw a partially destroyed paddy field. Yet he felt defeated, it was recently farmed, it was not even near ripe. But hunger gripped him and he knew his life depended on it.
He fell on his knees and struggling to keep his left hand out of the way, he uprooted each blade of paddy with his nails and fingers. He found a grain of sprouted rice on its end. He split it open to find a white thing within. He scraped and ate it.It was hardly enough for him to even taste it. Yet he kept on repeating it. He dug with his fingers on the hard ground, scraped the mud till his nails and fingers were bruised & bleeding - for each unharmed grain in the fields.. With every grain, his eyes filled up with tears...
When he woke up his heart beats were abnormally slow. He panicked. He looked around. Everything was intact. It took several minutes before he could convince himself that it was a dream.
But he could never again live like he did till the day before. He could never forget that dream. He could never shake off all that he felt in the dream. He could never again take life and its blessings for granted. He grew to value what he had. His life would never be the same...
There was one question that drove him to live a new life, more than anything else : "What if the dream came true???" In today's world it is not an impossible thing. In fact many fellow human beings might have actually gone through worse..
Till he lived, his every action was haunted with the question, What if... ; yet it only brought him happiness and an odd sense of fulfilled living...
The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
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February 6, 2010 10:36 PM
wow, a good post. it was funny when you wrote, "He wanted the flies to leave his wounded arm alone." And it's my first blog-a-ton as well. Good luck to you!
February 6, 2010 10:53 PM
oh well written
gripped me till the end
February 6, 2010 11:09 PM
Phew! Thank Goodness it was a dream/nightmare! Not that the reality is a path strewn with roses but when one actually discovers that it was a nightmare, the relief feels like heaven! Imagine what the actual victims of such tragic incidents might have gone through! The very thought makes me shudder! Well written! Sure conveys a message! Good luck with BATOM!s
February 6, 2010 11:38 PM
I echo Chetan's sentiments...
February 7, 2010 12:17 AM
Quite liked the post. I have read 3 batom posts so far and.....funny how all of them touch upon love and human relationships!
"For once, he couldn't stand the crimson color. He had always loved to see his love wearing crimson colored dresses." We all go through those moments, no?? When we hate the things/people we love the most? And hate them almost as intensely as we love them?
All the best with BATOM.
February 7, 2010 1:44 AM
Narration of the nuances is well framed and
the intricacies are quite fabricated ...
February 7, 2010 2:14 AM
I have experienced a similar, with some modifications. I often think of how the world would be for me without my loved ones. I know i would end that very day. Nez...the post is remarkable. It catches many a nuances with delicate handling and detail. The idea that you wanted to transmit is certainly a winner. All the best for ur purpose.
And lastly, am still a bit lost about the blog-a-ton thingy...
February 7, 2010 2:23 AM
Wow! That was just brilliant! I'm not sure how this Blog-a ton thingy works either, but this piece just kept me reading until the end. I just had to see how things worked out, and I was so pleased that it was only a nightmare!
It's hard to imagine these "what ifs". I don't know what I would do if I were ever in that situation, and I just never think of these things.
Anyway, all the best, and I'm pleased that you are on the mend! Hope you are feeling better.
February 7, 2010 6:54 AM
WOW!!! Un-expected. This was well written and came with a message. Kudos girl! :)
February 7, 2010 10:29 AM
kollaam,
well written.
February 7, 2010 2:20 PM
Nicely done! Gripping till the end...
Good luck with your first BAT! :)
February 7, 2010 3:08 PM
Very well written. It was so graphic.
February 7, 2010 4:11 PM
Claps Claps!!
Loved the narration!!!
I was so lost wondering what would be the end...would he find the girl or not....but somehow I did not ever expect it to be a dream!!
Well written!!Good work Meenakshie!!
:~) take care!
February 7, 2010 5:41 PM
awesome way of expressing views :)
http://sparkledaroma.blogspot.com/
February 8, 2010 12:24 AM
neat! liked it :)
just something that i thought of...what if it wasn't a dream n the guy was just wishing all this was a dream n goes "what if this was a dream" (too many 'dreams' in there na?) ;)
February 8, 2010 2:15 AM
Amazing..
Very well written.
:)
need more of em.you are really good for creating twists
February 8, 2010 3:42 PM
Whoa Meenakshi! This is your best post so far yar. Just loved it to the core. I was really happy and relieved when I found out it was just a dream. And you are right. It's not impossible. But only one thing that keeps those nightmares away - HOPE!
Excellent narration. Hope to read more.
All the best for BATOM! :)
February 8, 2010 7:44 PM
You have painted a very vivid picture of tragedy that strike humans and the resilience with which they come out of it... Very nice...
February 9, 2010 2:09 AM
That was a gripping. Nicely done ..
February 9, 2010 10:42 AM
and i dont know why but i kept thinking of haiti. what ifs...do happen.
February 9, 2010 2:25 PM
Dear Meenakshi
Thanks for dropping by :) and i m glad u liked my blog :)
Kabir says that the people who do not understand Guru are blind. If God is displeased with us then Guru is there for salvation. If he is displeased there can be no salvation.
Here lies the importance of master (Guru)
February 9, 2010 11:13 PM
well written dear..!!
February 10, 2010 9:12 AM
awesome post..the story was gripping ..
All the best for BAT 7!!
February 10, 2010 10:30 PM
Isn't this called an epiphany........nice way to put its meaning across!
February 11, 2010 11:40 AM
interesting narration and a gripping post, very well written :)
February 12, 2010 9:40 AM
That was wonderful..A great thought and the way you elaborated is very good. I loved it.
Good luck.
February 14, 2010 2:40 AM
thnk god it ws dream!!! i started to belive it ws doomsday in build!! nice gripping way to get da message across...!!! what if ur future is a nightmare
February 15, 2010 11:24 PM
A very interesting dream..p'haps a warning to the mankind
February 19, 2010 5:35 AM
wonderful...really good. one.
February 19, 2010 11:19 AM
Wow, that's was very greatly written! Interesting.
February 21, 2010 7:01 PM
interesting !! and well written was a lil ghory for me though .
But point taken . cheers:)
February 22, 2010 2:02 PM
@Sureindran: Welcome to Banter Battery! thanks a lot for the comment. though I din't intend it to be funny, if it did bring a smile, am still happy..
@Chetan : Welcome to Banter Battery! thanks for the comment :)
@Raksha: Welcome! Life isn't a path of roses, but its heading to a direction where our worst nightmares can very well be a reality anytime or already has been in several people's life. Hope to see you around..
@IIM ka Sarkari Babu: Welcome to Banter Battery! thanks for the visit and comment :)
February 22, 2010 2:15 PM
@swayambhu: welcome to banter battery! yeah, most of the Batom entries I read too were on those lines; and each blogger did justice to the topic in their own ways.. yeah, its strange that with situations one can turn their love to hate.. about things I know it happens; about people, am not sure.. those whom I love, remain so; whatever the situation(at least till now). Hate is a tough word for me for people; I just ignore people I don't like or can't stand.. hope to see you around :D
@Mahesh : welcome to Banter Battery and thanks for the comment..
@Garf: Thanks a lot.. glad you liked it.
Blog-a-ton is a community of writers who decide on a particular topic or theme or picture or genre and write about it. Every first Saturday it is to be posted on our blogs; and apart form the writing satisfaction thingy, its a good -spirited competition. Also we get to read form a whole list of awesome bloggers.. Check out the link mentioned and you'd understand it better there..
February 22, 2010 2:24 PM
@Alice: thanks a lot, dear.. am healthy as ever now. :D
what ifs are a part of our lives..no point pondering over them.. they can always be tackled when or if they happen..
@Chcco : :D am happy you liked it.. and also happy that you are back to blogging.. missed your posts.
@Raghuji : am so happy that you liked it.. you sowed the seed for this post.
@Psych Babbler: Welcome to Banter Battery! Thanks for the visit and comment. Hope to see ya around.
@Butterfly : thank you.. I did want to make it quite graphic with words; happy that you felt it to be so too.. :)
February 22, 2010 2:34 PM
@Yemiledu : gee.thanks.. so happy you liked it..
@Prerna : Welcome to Banter Battery: thanks for the visit and comment.
@blunty : :D.. its better to have a lot of dreams like in your sentence than have to go through one such reality. waiting to read something form you..been a long long time since you posted..
@Sorcerer : wow! that was a great thing to say.. i shall surely try to bring up better stuff in future ..
@Karthik : great to know you liked my humble effort.. Hope is the only thing..also strong enough to keep us comfortably calm till disaster strikes..
@Dhiman : Welcome to banter battery. Thanks for dropping by and for the encouraging words of comment.
February 22, 2010 2:52 PM
@Madhu: Welcome to Banter Battery! thanks for the comment. :)
@Reema : yeah; what ifs do happen..
@Prerna : oh you meant Guru..i was mislead by the use of the word Master (prejudiced to the word, can say, it always brings the master-slave meaning to my head).
@Mural! : Welcome to banter battery!! thanks for the comment too :)
@Supriya : thanks :D
February 22, 2010 3:05 PM
@Harsha: Welcome to Banter Battery! Thanks for the comment. happy you liked it.. :)
@dilontherocks : Welcome to BanterBattery! glad u liked it.
@buckingfastard : lol.. now thats a what if, am damn scared of.. as Blunty says, hope is the only thing.. There are things I can do to ensure it isn't a nightmare; but if it still happens; there is nothing else to do than to cope and overcome it.. try to wake up soon. :D
@Tomz: perhaps :D
@Sorcy: two comments for the same post?? wats up??MPD?? :D but am happy as in both u like it ...
@ЯANdOM ЯAWR ◊ : Welcome to Banter Battery!Thanks a lot,dear.
@Smrithi : Welcome to Banter Battery! Thanks a lot for the comment.. it was a bit too ghory for me too.. but in reality such scenes are much more worse.. had to put in some of them to bring the feel.. hope to see you around :)
February 23, 2010 11:31 PM
oh hello i did post! u were the one who's too busy 2 come visit my blog residence :P
April 1, 2010 9:54 AM
Nice one. But there is inconsistency in the power of expression. It started with a BANG and then it fluctuated here and there. (Hope, you take the criticism constructively!)