The Dementor

"So the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears." Lupin was telling the students about the new creature it was going to teach them face in Defense Against Dark Arts class. I was seeing the movie for the millionth time but still I got the goose bumps when harry first time comes in front of the Bogart. I thought to myself what we happen if the Bogart stands in front of me, what would I see? There could be lot of possibilities but deep down inside my mind the thing which I feared most started taking shape, first I tried to ignore it but slowly that image started getting clear in my mind. It was nothing living thing but still I feared it most. Because it was the Chair in Dental Clinic.

The chair was nothing like the ordinary chair. It had different limbs like that of the Octopus which remains silent till the prey comes in its vicinity and then attacks without any clue. The torch which focuses the bright light not only in your mouth but also on your eyes makes you nervous the moment you seat on the chair. The dentist manipulates the levers to make you comfortable but you become more and more anxious. The instruments placed on the chair platform shines as if laughing on you. Then comes the dentist with the mask on his face and gloves in his hands. You do't need to open your mouth intentionally. Even the routine check up feels like you are going under major surgery. But if you are going there to take out your tooth then in Harry Potter terminalogy, I would say, you are surrounded by bunch of dementors and you don't even have the wand. The dentist approaches you with the injection, and your panick attack starts. He sooths you for a long time telling that it will be almost painless and the injection enters your mouth. Now each second feels like the minute. For a very long time nothing happens, then you think may be he injected us and thats why he said, 'almost painless' and you relax, in the next moment you can feel the neurons sending signals all over your body and your brain screaming, 'What the f...'. The same procedure repeats one or two times and then slowly the anasthetia works. The worst part is still yet to come.

Now the dentist comes with some sophisticated version of Chisel and clutchers which you mostly see in the automobile repairy shops. He puts them inside the mouth as usual and then you started doubting on the Anasthetia dose. You curse the dentist sor waiting so long...may the anasthetia had wiped out. You feel the sweat flowing on your head. The dentist takes his position and all you could mumble is Riddikulus.....

The Rising Sun

The cold breeze was howling through the window, I saw the open slit of the window and struggled with myself to decide whether I should get up and close it or leave it as it was. Finally, the pain in my legs won the battle over my will power and for the 13th time, I got up from the bed and closed it. I was in the sleeper coach bus from Pune back to hometown. I cursed the window violently. I tried to lock it again but I knew that lock was not working properly. I felt so helpless, I knew the moment I slip back into the sheets, the window will open again and laugh like some moron whom you can not even see but feel the presence.I looked at my friend sleeping silently but he was also shivering a bit or either I imagined that. 'Is hallucination the side effect of hypothermia?', I thought to myself. It was so uncommon of me to think like that at 5am in the morning. But I decided not to sleep anymore. I stared outside the window. The moonlight was spread all over the farms and trees, still I could feel the darkness. Then the bus went over the bridge and I saw all the water still as mirror, but there was something more to that...the white fog was spread all over the water. I felt like every little thing was ceased. Suddenly I realised, the slit of window was open again and fumes of cold breeze started itching my bones and ceasing the blood flow. I practically cried, praying to get rid of the cold.

And then I saw the red tinge on the horizon, I saw the dark color falling back and the red color emerging as the gladiator who won the battle. Then I saw the faint yellow light and I felt exactly like the girl in the typical bollywood film, where the villain was trying to take the advantage of a lonely girl and suddenly the hero comes to rescue. I saw the fog dispappearing from the waters, I heard the chirping of birds and then I saw the Sun rising from the horizon dark red. It was one of the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I wondered why people alloted some tourism spots for Sunrise. I think wherever you are, the rising sun is the most beautiful and the positive thing to see. I personally think that Sunrises are more beautiful than Sunsets. They give you the feeling of the Phoenix rising from the ashes, triumph of good over evil. The moment I realized the sunrise, I started wondering when was the last time I saw the rising sun. I could not remember, may be few months ago or may be few years ago. Suddenly I felt guilty for the wonderful miracle of the nature I was missing, wasting my time. I felt how could we take so many things taken for granted in our life. I promised myself not to miss the sunrise again. A thought then touched my mind, wouldn't the feeling die, if I see the sunrise daily like some day to day chore? or am I overreacting in the cold winter day? Then from nowhere the water started flooding the bus coming from the open slit of the window, with the sharp pain in my head, I woke up. I checked my watch, it was 5 in the morning and the ice cold breeze was flowing down my face from the open slit......and for the first time I was sure that I will never want to want to miss the Rising Sun.

The OTHERS

'When you face a dilemma in your life just listen what your heart tells you. Do not bother to reason or doubt your decision later', my father always motivated me. We were siting on the heap of ice on a cold afternoon. Now you may think that this fella must be from some northen europen side or above Canada regions, because there are quite less places in the world which gives cold afternoon. I was on the southmost part of the Earth. I was on the Antartica. Don't misjudge my statements, I was not born here, but our family migrated here. Thats a long story. 'Antartica has the toughest atmosphere for living things to survive', I often heard my father telling his fellas. But frankly speaking, I never found any problems with the surroundings. You could see the white ice all upto the horizon and never bother to focus on the fact that eyesight was the most vulnerable part of your senses, there. We were always moving from one part of the shore to another. We had to leave near the shores because as far as we were concerned, 'fishes are the only dishes!!' even the harder part was the determination which one has to achieve to take a jump in the ice cold water. When your body first hits the water, the splashes of water are more like the fire trying to burn all your skin to reach your heart and tear it apart. But the good thing was all in my family were good swimmers. My mother used to tell me the stories when she and my father used to go to the depths of ocean to grab our food when I was a kid. Now I hunt for my own. My mother never like the word 'hunt'. She used to say that what we do is far more sophisticated than what real hunting was. There were many stories about the OTHERS. Some told that they were the creatures from the far lands, some doubted that they came from sky. But no one was sure about their existance except for 'Piago', the oldest member of our tribe. He told us the story of his first and only encounter with those creatures, far years ago. He was lost in the ocean while fishing and went in the exact oppposite directions of the shore, after swimming for nearly half an hour, he realized that he chose the wrong path. He turned around and started swimming back but suddenly what he saw made his whole body numb. He saw the black silhoutte of something underneath the water. It was coming near him. He tried really hard to resemble the shape of the thing with any known sea creatures but it was nothing like he have ever seen before. It approached him with fast speed. Somehow he managed to dodge it. He heard screeching sound even in the water. He swam with the every bit of his strength and after any hour of swimming he reached the shore. Till today I feel the sweat on my neck every time I hear the same story. Once I asked my father, 'Could there be life other than ours?' 'This world is more hostile than what we can imagine.' I could sense he did not want to talk about it. So that was it. Neither did I care, because after all, we believe what we see. But I never knew I will have to see what I never believed.
It was the dark days as, 'for 6 months the Sun was the guest, we managed without him for the rest' We were all moving down the shore to the warmer parts with more fishing opportunities. Suddenly I started hearing some strange voices and the earth started quivering. 'This must be the ice breaking from the island', my father said anxiously. But the sound started becoming louder and louder. Suddenly, we all realised that it was not the ice, the massive structure from the sky was coming near to the island. 'Others have come, run for your life', Piago shouted and started running away. Suddenly the panick rose into the tribe and everybody was horrorstruck. Everybody started running to the shore. 'Run and swim down to the other island.', my father cried to all the tribe members and jumped into the ocean. my mother and little brother followed him as did the rest of the tribe members. Suddenly I was the only one left of the shore. 'Why should I go? This is our land. Why should we run?', I thought to myself. I remembered my fathers words, 'This world is more hostile than we imagined', a wave of shock reached me. Suddenly I turned back to see the bird like structure from the sky landed on the island, and then for the first time I sa them, OTHERS. They came from within the huge structures with many things on their hands. There were many flashes of lights on hands and faces of many of them. They seemed to be from some other planets. They were scary but not hostile for sure. On one side, I saw all my tribe members and family running for their life and I saw the strange creatures standing on the island. I remembered my last talk with my father. He said, 'When you face dilemma in your life just listen what your heart tells you. Dont bother to reason or doubt your decisions later.' I started approaching towards the OTHERS. One of them saw me and cried with happyness. The other creature threw the dart from something towards me. Within the two seconds of the dart approaching me, I realized that I took wrong decision, but this time I was not going to doubt my decisions. After all life is all about uncertain and random possibilities. The dart struck me right into the neck and my visiblity started blurring. Before I felt unconscious, all I heard was hostile creature telling to the happy creature, 'Jimmy, At last we found Penguins on Antartica!!!!!'
[Writer got the inspiration from the movie HAPPY FEET.]

Mirror

Akshay was seeing him after two days but it seemed like months. He felt slighly overwhelmed. "Where did you went, bud?",Akshay asked him relentlessly. "I wanted to ask you so many things", Akshay hated his own helplessness. 'Why do I need him actually, is it like I am not able to take decisions for my own?', he thought to himself. "I am always there for you but you should have called me before", bud answered with a crocked smile. "I was busy with my college works you know and I am also not feeling well these days, all time headache following me.", Akshay started vomiting all the complications of his life in front of his friend. "You really think of me as some stress relieving associate of yours, don't you?", bud was in no mood to take matters seriously. "Yeah you are my best friend and you know that", Akshay defended his own side. "But we defer in most of our opinions", bud was not the one to give up easily. "Yes but what is the point of friendship without quarrels and disputes?", Akshay started developing some emotional background to win the argument. "Ok, leave it. tell me your problems and best remedies will be yours." "I had kind of observations about the people around me. They have started acting bit oddly. May be they feel like I am somehow hexed and give me looks. That day that Sunil gave me some strange looks like he was analyzing me. I asked him whats the matter? and you know he was so terrified by me when I pointed you towards him. Do you remember that incident?", Akshay spoke as if he had prepared this testimony long before and was eager to split it out. "Oh that thing, why do you mind such small things. We have so many other things to talk about", bud now looked quite irritated. "No, really I had a feeling like Mohit also doesn't like you", Akshay said slowly but he noticed temper rising on bud's face. "Screw that Mohit", Bud said it loudly. "Don't say that, he is my best friend", akshay argued. "Even before me?", Bud was the one using the emotional weapon now. "Definately not, you are my first best friend but he will be the second", Akshay smiled at him convincingly. "Where did you went last night?", Bud asked him trying to distract the flow of topics which they usually followed which in turn used to get converted into quite a lot like quarrel. "I told you that from past two weeks I have been the permanent residence of headaches, I went with mom to hospital." "What happened there?", bud asked alarmingly, a slight tinge of fear in his eyes. "Don't worry, they just gave me some medicines and that's it." "and that's it?" "Yah, I had a good chat with the Doctor, he was very friendly. He asked me about my college and friends." "Did you talk about me?", there was urgency in bud voice. "Yes I just told your name that's it.", Akshay continued, "but mom looked quite worried after we left hospital. Later she even talked with Mohit." "Why would she talk with Mohit?",bud was feeling quite offended by that fact. "May be about that scholarship document. I don't remember much of it. I was feeling very sleepy. And don't be so jealous she will also talk with you someday." Akshay reasurred him. "No, she won't. May be she doen't like me.", bud said nervously. "Why do you say so? You are my best friend, I like talking to you and see I still am not feeling the headache. Oh..by the way I had to take my pill. Wait a minute.", Akshay went in the kitchen to get a glass of water. When he came back in the room, he found it empty. 'where did bud went? He always goes without telling me. He is quite as strange as people think of me.', Akshay thought smilingly. Suddenly he started feeling the pain in his head exploding out of his skull. He went immediately and ate the pill. Slowly he started feeling dizzy. I sat on the bed and his eyes meet with the envelop kept on the top of the cupboard with a piece of paper dangling out of it. 'What is it?', he thought, 'Leave it, I will see it later.' He threw him into the darkness of sleep.
The envelop on the cupboard read, ' Hospital of Psychology and mental disorder' and on the paper it was written, 'The patient is suffering from the mental disorder called split personality. Intensive care recommended'.....