Saturday, October 13, 2007

Erased...

Yesterday I wanted to go to the moon next street. I had set my steps towards it and was may be few yards away. I wanted to take a gleams of that mysteriously glowing red disk. But they grabbed me from all around and forced back into a room they called "my room".I was so close to my destination. Just a right turn from where I could reach would have let me stand face to face with the moon. Things in this room looked familiar. I've seen them earlier but couldn't recollect where. I hesitated to touch them for the one who possesses these may be vexed. But why did they force me to this room? "He's again left his room".."He's again going among the busy street".."What do we do with this man.We are fed up".."Why don't he die??" they shouted on me irritably as they locked the door behind me in this room. Poor fellow, they must have mistaken, this isn't my room. I tried to have a look at the moon from the window which led in a busy market place below it. Well, while the resident of this room doesn't arrive I think I can use is armchair to relax. How about trying his black framed spectacle from over his table and have look at the newspaper?His glass fitted well on me and I could see better. Browsing through the printed lines of the newspaper I felt asleep I knew not when. My sleep was terminated by the sound of unlocking the door. Perhaps the occupant of this room has arrived. Where had he been so long?May I apologize for using his room and his spectacle?But it wasn't my fault, those strangers forced me in here.
The door gave way to the woman followed by a man."Last evening he again set free and walked straight through the busy road. Had Ramu not seen him go towards the fruit market , perhaps we would have lost him this time. His attacks are more frequent these days. This is his fifth attack in this week. " said the woman in a concerned note. "I told you so. As the years will pass by the frequency of the attack will go on increasing till it reaches its extremity when he'll remember nothing.That is the last stage of Alzheimer's" said the man nodding his head and throwing a glance at me. "So what do we do now?"asked the woman."There's no remedy to this disease yet as I've told you earlier. I can just say don't leave him alone and try to spent much more time with him. Here's some sleeping pills which can be given in case he turns violent and unmanageable" said the man as he scribbled on his writing pad and handed the woman a piece of paper torn from it. But whom are they talking about? and why are they staring at "me"?.
"This isn't my room. Sorry for residing here last night.I used your spectacle" I said in an apologetic tone as I landed the spectacle where it laid earlier. They both exchanged a hopeless look and stared at me in a convincing way. "This is your room"said the lady softly. "I'm Shobha, Can you recognize me?". She was almost in tears. "This is Dr. Desai, do you remember"...This time a drop trickled down her wrinkled cheek. As she wiped it away with the back side of her right palm she hasted towards the cupboard and opened it."These are your shirts, this is your study table.And ,and this is your spectacle. The black framed one which you chose from the Mittal Opticals last year.Don't you remember you spent hours in this room with your calculations and studies."She dashed through the room trying to find some thing or the other to show me which she could claim of being mine. "I-I'll show you the group photo. Here, look at this. This is you on this armchair with your grandson Pinku. The same room with the same table behind you in this photo."She was pointing at the photograph of me with a boy of age may be three or four. Yes she was right. It was the same room as I'm standing now. The room I've spent my night awaiting its resident. So, the resident is "me". But I couldn't remember a thing. Neither this room nor these people.
I walked slowly towards the window. The street under the window led to the red moon next street. Perhaps I could go there some day................................................