The Well

Note: The picture has been clicked by a friend, Jasmit Arora. It is put up here with his prior permission. The link to his profile : http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Profile.aspx?uid=1335823977744501693

Disclaimer: This one is, like many other posts, an imaginary 'interpretation-of-a-photograph' post.

The grandfather put the little girl down from his shoulders. She held him by his hand as the two walked into the fields - the place the grandfather had been going his entire life.

"This is where your father played cricket with his friends", the grandfather pointed out to a patch of land which was now covered with weed that were as tall as the little girl's knees.

"He played cricket here?", she asked, visibly surprised.

"Ha ha, yes, here..", the grandfather said as he patted her.

"And this, my dear, is the well I was talking about...", the grandfather pointed out to a well not too far away, "Your father would jump from that tree into the well for a swim."

She nearly giggled for this seemed so unbelievable to her. "He used to go for a swim there in the well?"

"Oh yes, it was the kids' favourite passtime - especially in the vacations. They'd be swimming almost all day long."

The girl stood by the edge of the well and pushed herself up from her knees.

"Wow, this well is deep", she said.

----------------------------

The well was indeed deep. The walls were bright initially. As one went to heights too low for light to reach, things became dark. After a patch of pitch-black darkness, there was a circle of light (see the pic). This circle of light was nothing but the reflection of the sky high above.

This reflection was once of a young boy jumping into the well. The reflection now was of a young girl, the boy's daughter peeping into the well trying to have a look.

Was it a well - blocked at one end? Or was it a tube? Connecting two images of the sky at its either ends? Connecting two generations through a long dark tunnel called time?

Mickey at the mall

Disclaimer: Work of fiction


A girl in her early twenties walked into the mall. She looked for the friend of her childhood - the Mickey mouse man who played around in the central foyer. He often distributed balloons and chocolates to the children while their parents shopped away.

The Mickey Mouse man was an entertainer at the mall - he wore a plastic head three times the size of his body with the Disney character's face painted on it. Nishi would always come to the mall since the time she was a kid. While her mother worked at one of the stores in the mall, Nishi would stay with the Mickey at the mall - he would play with her, he would give her chocolates and more importantly, Nishi would talk for hours with him. Mickey was not allowed to speak by the mall authority rules but he would be a good listener to this little girl who loved to talk.

As time passed and Nishi entered her teenage years, her affection towards Mickey only grew. She had told him about her first crush, her early career plans - he knew it all about her.

Today as Nishi was looking around for him, she could see images of all the wonderful times she had spent with this stranger yet a friend at the mall.

Nishi was not particularly well-off. Her parents worked to make a paltry income for the family. She used to fight with her parents these days, her dad especially. She thought he could never understand her career aspirations and never let her take the risks she wanted to. It's only risks that makes a person above ordinary, she thought. She sulked and fought and came to this mall nearly every day with the hope of meeting Mickey.

She always wondered how this stranger felt closer to her than her parents. The stranger who never spoke but only listened - and her parents who could never understand her.

She would often be surprised at the relationship she shared with the Mickey at the mall. And was worried why he wasn't coming to the mall these days.

That day again, she returned home. Her father, visibly upset at his daughter, was sitting on a chair with his head down. Her mom had told her that her dad couldn't go to work because he was so depressed due to Nishi's behaviour. Nishi only sulked and ignored it. "Know what dad, there's this entertainer at the mall. He's closer to me than you!", she said to him.

One day, she fought up with her father - it was the last straw. Her father disappeared in the middle of the night.

Nishi lodged a police complaint. The police officer asked her to search his room for parting letters of any sort - or anything that would leave a clue of where he could be.

She went to her father's room. He had a box which he had never allowed her to touch. She thought she would find something there. She opened it.

She saw a huge structure inside the box. It was a large-sized head - head of a Mickey mouse.