I stare at the ceiling fan and furtively bob the black eyes,
right, left, up and down. No, I ain’t practice asanas. The furious barking of
dogs, a cat yelping in pain and tiger growling in the dark forest slowly rings
an echo in the ear. I am breathing profusely and gaze fixing the yellow cream
coated painting on the wall.
The room went dark and the light off. My stomach is churning
and growling. I move and squat on the bed in a yogic position. A shadow seeps
slowly behind me and pops out of nowhere. I am sweating and almost shrieked
with fear. I go numb and the voice is lost to the sight of the mighty round
body with a protruded belly hiding secrets surfacing in front of me.
The fan whirs back to life like a lost pup finding its way
after wriggling the monsters in the dark forest. Light shone on his face. I
become sibilant watching the yellow tube light. He is me. His face is black. I
am fair. I am thin. He is fat. The icy cold face stares at me as if I am a
hardened criminal. He wore no expression. I go blank at my own version.
“Who are you?” I balk.
He is dumb and numb. A coarse voice thunders, “Your
reflection.” I wonder there is no mirror.
“Identity,” the terse human says.
He goes into silent mode for seconds and minutes. I am
getting pissed.
The silence is broken. At least. “You are me. I am your voice
of truth. I am the demon. I am the angel. Your savior,” he calmly says.
A shadow enters my house in the night and I am compelled to
listen to lesson doled at this odd hour. I am fuming but cannot move an inch
away from the bed. A strange force has imprisoned me and fettered me on the
bed. There is no chain but a strange fear. I cannot move at all.
He winks mischievously as if laughing at my misery. “You are
still not listening and just being a hyper fool. There is nothing that you can
do. Loosen up and chill. Understand why you are here and I have come to visit.
Face the demons. I am you.”
I see butterflies, flowers and stars in the sky. Is it this
what he means by loosening up? I slacken my grip on the body. He broke into a
shrieking laughter, “See you soon. Be a good boy. Adios Amigo.”
A shrill laugh broke inside the room. An ear-splitting sound
almost deafened me like a balloon cracking into tiny pieces. He disappears out of the room like a fly.
