Saturday, October 8, 2011


It was the usual multi-storeyed shopping mall in middle of nowhere. K looked around and thought he stood in the centre it. When one looks around 360 degrees and doesn't locate the end any where one tends to feel so. Everyone has the right to think that they are at the centre of the universe because the radius for the lack of any better word of the universe is infinite light years. Of course it applies to the people who inhabit Mars as well. No, it was not a usual shopping mall. When he looked up he didn't see the roof, no black or blue sky and when he looked down he didn't see an end to it either. All he saw around him was shops and stores. From the thirty two rupees per day to the stores where thirty two thousand per day would not suffice, this mall catered to all kinds. And he saw people. To his left, to his right, up, down. Countless number of them, if countless was a number. It was so jam packed that the fact that he could breathe came as a surprise. People walking in all directions, all grumpy, a constant expression on their faces they all looked the same. All of them wore a grouchy mask it seemed. He felt a deja vu every thirty seconds. Did he look like them as well? "No" he thought because he was happy, wasn't he? Why was everyone so irked? As soon as the thought came across his mind a guy dressed in dark blue salesman attire with the same masked expression tapped on his shoulder and for a moment changed his expression to ask K that he should follow him if he wanted to know. K silently followed him through the sweat and stink towards a usual escalator. There was an enormous queue though to get onto the escalator going downwards. On the other side K observed a constant chain of people emerging from the opposite escalator. K tried to initiate a conversation but the salesman never responded, the same peeved expression glued to his face. After twenty minutes they stepped onto the escalator, the salesman leading the way. There seemed to be no end to the journey. The escalator turned round and round, a spiral moving downwards. No, it was not a usual escalator. After two hours the journey came to an end. They had reached at the bottom of the pit. He despaired when he saw another queue. Another endless queue, this time straight in front like dead bodies standing tall on a conveyer belt. There were police men ensuring that no one would break the queue and whenever someone desperate would make that attempt they would be beaten to pulp. There was one more queue of people walking in the opposite direction moving towards the escalator going up. They walked at a tortoise pace for another hour before he saw a cherry red door. The door would open, someone would walk out and the next person in the queue would get in. K tried to peep in from a distance but couldn't see a thing beyond the door. He was close now, fourth man from the front in the queue. He only saw a white wall every time the door opened. The salesman went in and walked out. The expression didn’t change. It was his turn. He hesitantly grabbed the handle of the door and opened it. To his left he saw himself in a mirror and to his shocking horror he wore the same expression. To his right was a toilet.