पत्थर

मैं एक पत्थर हूँ.

रंगीन कपड़ों से ढका हुआ.

सोने के अभूषणों से सजा हुआ.

जाने क्यों लोग मुझसे इतना आकर्षित होते है?

कुछ लोग रोज़ मेरे पास आकर अपनी समस्याएं बताते है.

वह मुझे समस्या सुलझाने के लिए जाने क्या क्या देते है.

दूध,फूल,फल,मिठाइयाँ,

जो न मांगो, वो भी मिल जाता है.

अब भला मैं, एक पत्थर, इन चीज़ों का क्या करूँ?

मेरे लिए एक चार-दिवारी घर भी बनाया है.

मेरे घर के बहार एक व्यक्ति प्रतिदिन बैठता है.

काँपता हुआ, बीमार, फटे कपड़ों वाला.

वह रोज़ मेरे पास आने वाले लोगों से खाने का एक दाना मांगता है.

पर बेचारे को कुछ मिलता ही नहीं!

शायद वह ही एक व्यक्ति है जिसपर मुझे तरस आता है.

वह लोग मेरे लिए कितना कुछ करते है,

जबकि मुझे उनकी मदद की आवश्यता भी नहीं है.

वह उस ज़रूरतमंद की सहायता क्यों नहीं करते?

मेरा मन अक्सर मुझसे यह प्रश्न पूछता है.

मैं तो पत्थर हूँ,

समझने की शक्ति नहीं रखता.

जाने क्यों ये शक्ति होकर भी मनुष्य इतना मूर्ख होता है.

कहाँ गयी उसकी समझ?

The Marlok Mystery-3

I couldn’t sleep last night. Scenes from the shocking recording kept playing in my mind. I thought that I would forget about this in a while. But the shock that I got today is impossible to forget.

I wanted to know the cause of my death. For that, I tried to look into the recordings from the lives of the people who were a part of the smuggler group. After looking for a long time, I finally found something. It was a phone call.

The smuggler said to Tapesh,” If you reveal details about our intentions, team members or locations to the police, we will kill one of your family members. I am warning you in advance.”

Tapesh replied, “I don’t fear anything. You do whatever you want to, but I will reveal all the information. I have worked all my life to find this information, and I want your gang to pay for what it did to my father. Your gang completely transformed my simple, rule-abiding Baba. What you did cannot be forgiven. You have taken away my father from me. Do I have to remind you that you murdered my father? He had expressed his desire to stop working with you, but you said that if he did so, you would kill us all. He was in such a dilemma and shock, that he had a heart attack. I want to avenge his death.”

“Do whatever you want to, I won’t take back my words. One of your family members will be killed if you leak information.” The smuggler warned.

Tapesh had leaked the information to the police. As a result, I had been killed. I saw the scene of my death through the eyes of the smuggler. He had pierced a poisoned needle into my neck which had led to my death.

Few days after my death, Tapesh was coming back after work. The smugglers feared that he might leak some more information and might pose as an active threat to them. Hence, they decided to kill him.

I saw the recording of this scene and was shocked yet again. Tapesh isn’t physically very strong. Hence, it was easy to fight with him. After a few minutes he was badly injured. Yet, he didn’t lose hope and continued to fight.

While Tapesh tried to combat a man in his front, the chief of the smuggling gang tried to pierce his back with a knife. But, the chief was killed. Baba killed him. 

Baba stared at Tapesh and Tapesh stared back in surprise. Baba told Tapesh to run. Reluctantly, a super-surprised Tapesh ran away.

The clock struck 12.00 a.m. That was my deadline for this case. I had just two days. And they were complete now. The mystery of my death was solved, but another mystery had found its way.

I was completely shocked after looking at Baba. Was he alive? Had he lied to us? How was he alive? Why had he faked his death? Where had he gone after faking his death? Why was he helping Tapesh? I had so many questions!

Unfortunately, I will have to live with this mystery, as I wouldn’t be allowed to access these files again. It’s going to be tough but I know I’ll manage to forget about it.

The Marlok Mystery-2

Two weeks have passed and now I am an officially dead person. I have been given an apartment which is shared by Sadhna, Zara and me. Sadhna met with an accident which led to her death. Zara was killed during a terror strike in Kashmir. We have adjusted really well with each other in the past few days and both of them have helped me to adjust in Marlok.

When a soul goes to Marlok, he/she is allotted a job which suits their respective skills. They work in Marlok for 5 years and if they work well, they are given a new life. Marlok is a dull area. The atmosphere is silent and eerie. Nobody seems to smile; everyone thinks death is a sad thing. I hope I stay happy and enjoy my new job.

I have been allotted a job in the MKI (Marne Ki Investigation) sector. I will investigate mysterious deaths of people and try to find the root cause behind them. This information will pass on to the Marlok court which will then think about how the killer is to be punished. The verdict of punishment is sent to Vaikuntha where the Gods decide whether or not to give the punishment. Currently, I have been given a case to test my ability and rank my position in MKI.

My sample case accidently happens to be my own case. As a part of the MKI, I have access to incidents from any person’s life. The incidents are recorded through the eyes, which act as a camera for us.

Before anything else, I plan to see my family’s condition after my death.

(Next day)

Today was my first day at work. I was deeply saddened to see the condition of my family after my death.  Everyone was distraught. Maa looked as if she had given up on life. Ajit is really sad but has to continue with his job in order to support the family. Tapesh, however, had a mixed expression of sadness and revenge on his face. I really felt that there was something wrong. Durga started her college but isn’t able to focus. Kali’s board exam results were great but happiness was nowhere to be seen on her face.

Tapesh’s expression and behavior worried me the most. Tapesh is 23 years now. He has always been a very different person. He has always been focused on his goal and has never let emotions come his way. He has always detached himself from all of us and has never really opened up.  His relations with Baba in particular weren’t strong. He never really spoke to Baba a lot. He was always annoyed with him for some reason. Actually, his attitude towards all of us drastically changed once we moved to Pune. He grew withdrawn. After Baba’s death, he opened up a bit. He became really close to me and was my best friend-cum-sibling. He stood up for our family and shouldered the responsibilities of a good brother and son really well.

I have always been wanting to know the cause of Tapesh’s isolated behavior. Today, I got the chance to do so. I have merely three days to unearth the mystery of my death. I know I should focus on the cause of my death, but I somehow seem to be attracted towards Tapesh’s indifferent behavior. I think it is linked to my death in some way.

So I put on Tapesh’s life recording. I searched for those specific scenes which had Baba, so that I could find the reason of Tapesh’s behavior towards him.

I started seeing all the recordings and found out that I had been a part of most of the incidents that involved Baba and Tapesh. I finally came across a scene which was worth watching because it shook me.

The recording left me dumbstruck. 

It was the recording of a meeting of Baba with a stranger near the back door of our house. Tapesh had come to the kitchen to drink water when he saw Baba outside and overheard this conversation:

Baba: "So you want me to work in the post office and help you to smuggle goods? If it will help my family, I am ready to do it. I just want sufficient money to run my family. So will I have to migrate?”

The stranger replied,"Yes, you will have to shift to Pune. We will smuggle goods from Mumbai and send it by post to Pune.  All you are supposed to do is receive the goods and hand it over to members from our gang. I hope you can carry out this easy job with ease. We will pay you 15,000 for each good."

The end of this recording showed Baba agreeing to the stranger’s demands and the stranger shaking hands with Baba. The scene gradually blurred with tears falling from Tapesh’s eyes. Tapesh also looked dumbstruck and completely shocked. He had idolized Baba as a child and had loved him the most. This news was a complete shocker.

My anger knew no bounds. Confusion, frustration, anger all conquered my mind together.  Tapesh was just a 12 year-old child when he came to know that his father was a criminal. How would he have handled it? What would he have gone through? His attitude was justified. And Baba, how could he have done this to us? The man who taught us to do good, he himself chose the wrong path?

 I was distraught. I just couldn’t believe that my own Baba could do such a thing! And Tapesh, didn’t he trust me? Couldn’t he have told me about this? My dearest brother and father had both betrayed me. All I could do is cry. It took me a while to calm down.

After coming back to my normal self, I started wondering how this is linked to my death, because I am pretty sure that it is…………..

(To be continued)