The Tunnel, The Train, The Rucksack Full of Responsibilities, The TITAN and The Alarm

I saw a light at the end of a tunnel. A long one. I was hoping, just hoping it was not a train. But I was sure hopes will not keep me alive. It was on the rail tracks I was walking, and you do not find subways in the tunnel to dodge the speeding train. I don’t know what made me walk without alternatives in this narrow tunnel. I do not bother to bother. I thought to run for LIFE. But what is the point now? I had started to find LIFE, a long time before. But always in vain. What I always met was an interesting creature that portrayed itself as LIFE and was full of gossip. I always believed the falsity of this mocker. I was sure it was not the real LIFE. 

Then, a fight started. A duel between two parts of my inner self. One was advocating “Don’t die before you meet LIFE”. The other said “Bull shit – Bloody Philosophy… Just Run!!” I thought both are at each other's throats for the same cause, to live. The former seemed a bit more possessive about meeting LIFE. The echoes of my inner conscience, the two of them, were hitting my ear hard. I could not decide what to do. I could not find the right vocabulary within, to think of what state I was in. I submitted to the light. Death is inevitable now is what I thought. The best of any avoidance algorithm I learnt in my computing classes was Ostrich Algorithm. So, I closed my eyes. I thought of every possible dream I had nurtured since my childhood. The train will roll me out into the tracks with all my dreams bleeding. The pain and suffering will all go in a moment. Who cares the instant pain that will be caused by the speeding train?

I than realized that the sound of the engine was fading away. I only saw the light but never relied on the other sense of sound. The sound sounded deceiving to me, not to believe. I opened my eyes, the ones which I believed more despite the myopia. I saw the light and it was disappearing in the big open. The tiny speck merged into the bright daylight and vanished with the muffle of the engine. I checked myself. A slight pain was there on the back and the neck. My rucksack full of responsibility was still with me, safe. I realized now that when I was following the dark end of the tunnel the train had crashed on me from the back.  And the light which I saw was not the front light, but the tail light. But I had survived. Survival for the fittest?? Theory of natural selection?? Or sheer luck?? Don’t know exactly what made me survive this roll out. I tried pacing my way towards the bright end of the tunnel, ambling. The birds chirping, the sun so bright but warm, the air so fresh. I breathed in, I breathed out. I did this a couple of times voluntarily. My chest felt free. Free from a congestion which was bothering me for a while. I felt like I am into a new LIFE. I raised my left wrist to my chest. The palm facing the sky, I looked at the watch. It was the TITAN, with white base and rectangular silver colored dial with black leather strap. The second hand, the fastest of the three was not moving. Don’t know about the others. I felt sad. This was the one which my brother gifted me from his initial salary savings. Gave a jerk to the wrist. The second hand started running back to LIFE.

The high pitched sound of the alarm made me awake. I never believe setting songs in the alarm tone in my cell phone. You happen to enjoy them rather. I searched for the snooze button. I smiled. What an unusual dream it was. Thought of it for a while. What was it? A LIFE saver? The snooze timer went off in 5 minutes. The same irritating sound, this time more noisy. I clutched the cell phone in my fist. I heard nothing now. It was dawn but dark outside, as always is any winter day. A reason enough for me not to get up, I curled more comfortably into my quilt.