Your world is one of a kind. Here the population renews itself, new beings replace the old ones.
Only when the old die one by one, those who will replace them are born, some in one role, some in another.
In such a place of constant change, movement and action, one fine day, the busy main road is empty; everything suddenly comes to a standstill.
[[Look around]]
or
[[Look for someone to inquire about this]]
or
[[Think that this is not your problem and go about your work]]
Before you even say anything, he begins to speak
'Hello! Seems like you need help with something.
I am your go-to guy if you want to know anything about something. You see I am the curious kind and don't stop looking till I find what I want, and I guess the others know that. Which is why everyone comes to me when looking for information.
Or maybe it's just because I'm a smart phone , or should I say 'smart smart phone' hahah.
Sigh.
Maybe thats why the other phones keep making fun of me.
Do you want to talk to me?or have you just come because you want something, like everyone else?
[[Engage in short conversation]]
[[Ask him if he knows where everyone is]]
You look around at the rather empty spaces and find them hard to recognise without any activity or movement going on. This is the first time you have seen the shutters at work, this time of the day. You consider asking them, but you have always been intimidated by them so you are not too sure.
Some distance away you see a phone, out with his human. One of the very few you have seen since morning. But it is a known prejudice that phones are notorious beings.
[[Ask the shutters]]
[[Ask the phone]]If others were as indifferent as you, crowds would never gather around a scene of action.
But if humans did not show an active trait of curiosity, stories would not exist, lucky for you and the rest of the world; you arent human but only a machine.
You continue to complete the task at hand and lead a life just as uneventful as before, only to regret it 10 years later on a rainy day,with rusty parts and eagerly awaiting the end.
[[The End]] Just as expected, there is something very shady about these shutters. The fact that they are working in daylight makes it only weirder, because before today you have never seen them. Some of them have ornated and imprinted their surfaces with the help of printers. Others have used humans for the same.
You have always heard stories about how they were the ones who saw the night through and knew about everything that happened in deep dark corners of streets and bylanes.They look like they have seen a lot, and that does not make for a very inviting face.
You are afraid.
[[Turn back and walk away]]
[[Ask them]]You are now standing where the evening market's hustle bustle used to be. One side of the road taking the vehicles and pedestrians in all directions and speeds, and the other side slow and visually more static. But combined, they somehow managed to form a perfect harmony that one would have to see to believe.
One of your closest friends - the street lamp is closeby.
[[Go to the street lamp]]
[[Look for someone to inquire about this]] The tall metal streetlamp, much like any other, lights up a part of the street below it after sunset.
This one for some reason remains on in daylight as well. You think that working overtime would have taken a toll on his sanity, because he likes to believe that during the day he casts an artificial glow onto the streets below only to illuminate fallen leaves in a soft golden yellow spotlight.
Other than being dramatic during the day and doing his job in the night, there is only one other thing that is part of his daily routine.
[[Know more]]
[[Greet him and return to your inquiry]] Other than being dramatic during the day and doing his job in the night, there is only one other thing that is a part of his daily routine.
He is in love with a bus that passes by him only once a day. You would find him either waiting for her or counting hours and minutes till the next time he could see her for those few seconds again. And the way bus schedules work here, it was almost always uncertian when the bus would arrive. That may be the most tragic love story you have ever heard, and is possiblly also the reason why you dont let yourself indulge in such things.
[[Spend the rest of that day waiting for his bus with him]]
[[Greet him and return to your inquiry]]You spend the rest of the day counting minutes and hours with him waiting for his bus to show up, and waiting to see his face light up for those few seconds. You look at him and wonder what it would be like if he too were a scooter just like you.You wonder if he would still be your best friend and would still spend all this time with you.Or if he would spend his time and fuel chasing behind his bus. Looking at the traffic on this road, wouldnt be much of a chase anyway! Maybe it wouldn't be as romantic, maybe distance truly makes your heart grow fonder.
You laugh to yourself.
[[End of the day]]You return to your enquiry, but all you find is others who are looking for the very same answers.
After all the possible places you could look, you think of the one place that could know.
[[Hospital]]
[[Mechanic's Garage]]
[[Parallel main road]]One of your closest friends the street lamp is closeby.
[[Go to the street lamp]]
or
[[Think that this is not your problem and go about your work]] After approaching them, you find out that they are not at all what you thought them to be, in fact the very opposite. Not only do they seem extremely harmless, but they are so hollow minded that they immediately forget something after saying it.
Turns out that these myths had to be created so that criminals would have some fear atleast. Because under normal circumstances, cars, and bikes, lockers would abduct and steal humans all the time, fearing nothing while doing so.
This puts a lot of things in perspective.
[[Think about humans]]
'So where are you from?'
'Where I come from is actually a fun story.
I know that there is a huge debate about whether birth is when I was manufactured or if it is when life was charged into me and I get a home and family. I believe the latter.
I come from a small family of a television, a fridge, a little house, a bed, wardrobe, fan, some crockery that we adopted and my older sibling who is a laptop.Seems like a lot but trust me, we are one of the small families and we have kept only 2 humans. Some families are much much bigger and they sometimes keep as many as 10 or even more humans.
[[Continue]]
[[Ask him if he knows where everyone is]]
Once you ask him this question, the true motive of your interaction becomes clear to him, making him rather upset .
He makes it clear that even though he might have the answer to everything, he is very particular about who he shares it with. Since that is the only way he gets to interact with others, he prefers ones who actually care for a conversation rather than just extracting information and getting work done.
You leave empty handed with hope that everything will go back to how it was tomorrow.
[[Next day]]'I dont do this often, but you seem like an insightful man. Tell me, what do you think about humans?
'I am a mobile phone, probably the one who spends most of my life with humans, so this question comes to me often. If I'm being honest, most of my life has been spent looking for reasons to believe that they are aware, ever listening, always watching. And some things light up my hope, and then some things don't. Its a struggle I gave up a while ago.'
This is the first time someone other than you have mentioned such a belif.
Once again,it gets you to[[Think about humans]] The day goes by counting minutes and hours and indulging in his view of the world which is quite colourful for a lamp with a light and life both equally monotonous. You wonder how that fits with everything else.
The next morning, everything is back to the way it was- the loud,the soft the fast, the slow, the crowds, the peaceful gullies. It is as if the cosmos of the chaos you call home has returned to all its familiarity. You are amazed at how quickly everyone forgets something different, odd or wrong, how easily everything can go back to preteding like everything is fine.
'The road wont stop taking you places if you dont step off it' You say, half hoping it means something.
[[The End]]Curious to find out if things would've gone a different way, if you made different choices?
Unlike Life here you can
[[Try Again]]You start questioning the credibility of things.
'If this can be a myth, so many other things can too!'
What if what we have been told about humans is not true. What if they are actually not mindless and lifeless beings that just move and do things for us. What if they too are using us the way we are using them, and what if they too think the same way about us- mindless and lifeless.
You start wondering how this new question was going to change your life and then, you [[Remember what mother said about life]]Mother was the philosophical one in the family. Either that or she liked speaking in circles (not, whether or not that had something to do with the fact that she was a ceiling fan was up for debatate but still..) so it made things seem quite deep, and some sense would always come out it.
She would say,'At any point of time anyday, if you try to pay attention and closely listen, you could hear the first cry of a newborn building, Maybe the sizzled soft cry of a newborn crepe whose very purpose was to be consumed and be flushed out, the final breaths of an old fallen signboard, the roarig final call of a motorcycle dying young and much more. The circle of life played out in that one moment . In that same moment you continue to hear all the static as well as chaotic, everyday movement. Thats the thing - this big road, these lanes, our life it is all about movement. It goes on, irrespective.'
This thought brings back some peace to your unfathomable thoughts, and with this thought you end your search for whatever was happening.
[[The End]] The next morning, everything is back to the way it was - the loud, the soft, the fast, the slow, the crowds, the peaceful gullies. It is as if the cosmos of the chaos you call home has returned to all its glory.
You are amazed as to how quickly everyone forgets something different, odd or wrong, how easily everything can go back to preteding like everything is fine.
[[The End]] You wonder why this place didn't come to your mind earlier. Hospitals were one of the places that you visited rarely, because your human seemed to be in good shape most of the time, other than the one time, when it was your fault that your breaks were a little delayed. That day you saw so many parts of your human broken, it was hard to forget.
You reach the place and everything makes perfect sense.It was humans all along.
[[The End]] You decide to check at the mechanic's because they are the first to know when anything goes wrong. You reach there to find the place shut.
Disappointed, you head back home.
[[The End]] You decide to visit the parallel road to find out if they are also going through a similar situation.
Once you reach there everything makes sense. And your speculation was right.
It was the humans.
[[The End]]