It's a rather chilly night, chillier than the cold shoulder I was given at the highly boring function I had to attend. One negative aspect about a funeral is that it's anyway a rather depressing affair. What's even more depressing is that I'm dead and invisible to the human eye (hence the cold shoulder). And I'm attending a funeral of some other deceased.
Did that send a chill down your spine? A dead man attending funerals? Decipher on...
I was married at 22. I settled down in life rather quickly. I had a good job at a reputed bank and made a decent enough salary to keep my wife and me more than just afloat. We loved each other to death, which in my case was literal! I used to have a strange, recurrent dream of attending funerals. Every night I would dream of attending the funeral of someone or the other. Little did I know that my dreams would one day mirror reality. The dreams just seemed so random.
My encounter with death began one fine morning on 27th August 2000. I was crossing the road casually when a truck at lightning speed came and knocked me over. I don't recollect any pain. I just remember being transported to a scary yet spectacular world of shimmering lights and haunting sounds. The ambience was bright yet subtle; I hadn't seen something like this before.
I heard a voice. It said 'Welcome Max. You're no more. You've lived an overall good life, albeit with a few grave mistakes. You need to redeem yourself. From now on, you must attend the funeral of every person who dies, and bless them for a peaceful journey but you must also suck the blood of one person at the funeral in order to keep your dead existence in bodily form. Your victim will be preordained, someone who has lived an impure life. You will continue to do this until your wife too breathes her last. It is then when you'll finally unite in heaven'.
My wife is still young, so I don't see that happening soon. But hey, next time you're at a funeral, and your heart isn't clean, just remember I'm around.
Rohan Pasricha
5 comments:
Roh never thought u'll write a story on death..but really well writen but the thing is The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man. Im sure after reading ur story n ppl who will believe will live a life clean
Roh, I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.
good goin partner...mwaaaaaaaaaah
all i can is very well written n same request dat keep writing....
want to add one more thing dat i am very fond of reading and amongst all the books dat i have read i never came across such a story....its indeed mind blowing at the same time story passed shivers in my body i actually started imagining dat dead man.....once again very well written
For me, Death has a sort of mystic romanticism attached to it. Even then, I'm highly amused/surprised you picked it to be the soul of your very first story Ro.
Starting with the technique..ummm..(And I AM going to go ahead and "critically review" this so don't come after me with a dagger in hand..you know I still love you Lads :p ) moving on now...
Not that I am an authority on any of this but still.. I felt it was a wee bit too blatant in it's narration Lads. More often than not, it's what is left unsaid that leaves a greater impact on the reader than what is clearly spelled out for us. But then again... that is just my inexperienced opinion. Feel free to dismiss it with a slight of hand :)
As for the story, I think the overall theme is quite good. The intention was perfect, the execution could be better. And I say that cause I've seen how well you're truly capable of writing.
On a side note, loved Tasneem's comment on the story.
Hope you're already working on your second installment meister! Will be waiting with much anticipation and curiosity. Keep me posted love.
Good Luck and God Bless.
Fisrstly, great and unique looking blog. Secondly, loved your spooky story ;)
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