He was riding the scooter continuously for the last few hours despite the fact that it was raining for most of the time. The road was terrible, but he decided not to stop because he felt that he would change the idea and might decide to go back. He didn’t want to return, no matter what happened, but he wasn’t sure that his mind would allow him to keep going if he had a second thought about it. He took a sudden left and then a right turn to reach a narrow road and continued through the route. The place was getting rather deserted, and finally he saw someone on the left.
“Where does this road end? Or does this reach some special place?” he stopped the scooter on the side and asked the man selling tea on the road side.
“It goes just a few kilometres ahead. After that, you can walk to the edge of the cliff there” said the tea seller.
“I haven’t heard much about this area. This is not really a tourist destination, right?” he asked.
“No, not really. It used to be visited by more people earlier though. Now, the roads are so bad, and a better tourist spot has been set up a few kilometres away on the other side. The local politician owns a resort and partially owns two restaurants there and so he promotes that place instead of this location. The families go there. Only some college kids come here, but none at this time of the day. The path is clearly not suitable for the scooters like the one you are riding now. People come here on big motor-bikes and bigger cars”.
“The business should be very dull then. You are like the last witch hunter; I mean the last tea seller” he added.
“Yes, but during the weekends and the other holidays, it gets better” the man said while looking at the empty glasses on the side.
“This should be the perfect place for me, the exact location which I have been looking for” he said.
“You have to be careful about walking near the edges. It can be slippery” the man warned.
“I will just go and have a look now” he said.
“Do you need a cup of tea? And maybe some snacks like parippu vada, uzhunnu vada or onion vada?” the man asked.
“Not now. Maybe when I return from there; if I do. I am not really sure if I will be back” he said while continuing his journey.
He could hear the tea seller shouting from behind, but he wouldn’t stop. He continued through the road. The pot-holes were many and it was more than what the scooter could handle. But he was sure that he was not going to use this scooter again, and so it didn’t really matter for him. The petrol was almost getting over when he reached the end of the road. He stopped the vehicle on the deserted area on the side of the road and started walking towards the end of the cliff.
He was waiting for that news which was to be music to his ears. He had waited for that for too long. He was so impatient that he himself asked if that particular thing was going to happen. But nothing really happened, and he was left waiting, and each moment was like eternity for him. It was only last night that he decided that enough is enough, and he had spent more than the time which was required. He decided to leave that behind and begin this journey.
He walked around the place for a few minutes and enjoyed the beauty of nature. There was greenery all around except for the small buildings which seemed far away. As he stood at the edge and looked down, his mobile phone started ringing. He decided not to take it, but it continued ringing for some time. After some hesitation, he attended the call and listened to that news which was music to his ears. Yes, what he wanted to hear had finally reached his ears then.
“But it is too late now. No more music to my ears, only the terrible noise of chaos” he told himself.
He had decided about what he had to do and there was no changing it now, as he closed his eyes and jumped off the top. The tea seller arrived on a bicycle a few minutes later to find an yellow scooter with the key and a bag left on it. He searched inside the bag to find a towel and a note which said – “No more music to my ears; but death is only the beginning”.
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.
***The images used in this blog post were taken by me on Sony Cybershot DSC-W310 and Samsung Galaxy A5
TeNy
The Tea Cerebrations 