“Ram, get up!” screamed Ram’s father.
We then hear two fingers snapping against each other.
*snap snap*
On hearing this Ram jolted upright and restarted his assignment.
Whenever Ram’s father felt that Ram wasn’t fulfilling his duties, all he needed to do is snap his fingers. The message was loud and clear.
“Difficult journey is the meaningful one”
***
Few years passed and now Ram is graduating from his high school. As he went on the stage to collect his diploma, he could see a sea of people in the audience cheering for him and clapping but the noise became incoherent when it reached his mind from his ears. All that was clear was the snap.
***
Few more years have passed now, in the past years, Ram could hear the finger snapping sound of his father during any achievement or lack thereof.
***
Few more years have passed. Ram is now being honoured with a prestigious award. 10 minutes are remaining for the host to invite him on stage to accept this coveted prize. But Ram was nowhere to be found. His colleague Guru was instructed to look for him.
Guru left the auditorium. As the lift broke down, he had to make the gruelling
journey of climbing up the never ending spiral of steps to reach Ram’s hotel bedroom.
Upon entering, he saw Ram hyperventilating, breathing very heavily. He then proceeded to stand in front of the mirror and stared at his reflection. He first let out a panicky laugh and after a few minutes, drops of tears escaped, after a long term of imprisonment, from his eyes.
“The notebooks were not correctly bound, the essay was not constructed well enough, the efforts were never at par. I owed to myself, to be the best, but I’m not. I couldn’t make it then, I couldn’t make it before that, I—-
***
Guru had never seen Ram this way and didn’t know how to approach or reassure him. He just stared at Ram and the silence after Ram’s soliloquy made the air in the room palpable for Guru.
After a few minutes, Ram passed out. Guru rushed towards the ground where Ram had fallen and tried to wake him up.
“Ram, get up!” screamed Guru.
We then hear two fingers snapping against each other, an attempt to wake him up.
It was the sound like the knell of a distant bell, echoing since we met. Trying to get him out of the turmoil this time.
A cruel irony.
*snap snap*
