Rendexvous with GOD

The Crescent was trying hard to make the sky brighter in a lesser starry night and Atif was seated alone on the salty and wet sands of the beach with his eyes hooked on the point break of the foamy waves. There were hardly any human movements around him except for few couples who were busy smooching and did not bother about a lonely man who had made his mind to plunge into the sea. Atif was attempting to block any thoughts which would hamper his spirit and fighting hard with his dilemma for two hours, he finally rose and started walking towards the water. The waves welcomed him with a cold touch over his feet and encouraged to move in further. He stood for a minute with water over his hip; struggling to balance his feet which were confronting with the mighty waves.

“Perhaps, I should let loose now” he thought and eased his body which helped the waves to pull him in. He felt a splash of water over his face and the next second, all he could see, was darkness under the water. Gasping for breath, Atif knew that he had lost control of his life and hoped for his vision to go dimmer. A hand pulled his hairs of skull, hauled him out of the water and shoved him to the ground. Atif coughed enough to get rid of the imaginary choker around his neck and looked back at the unwelcome savior. A man of his height was upright, his face almost invisible owing to the darkness of the night. “Not a bad attempt, I must say but you should have gone in further”, said the man with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice.

Atif rose on his feet to have a look at the man’s face and was petrified at the sight of his countenance. The stranger was an exact replica of Atif and also he was dressed alike him. “Atif, please sit down” commanded the man pointing to the edge of a deserted catamaran. “How do you..? Who are you and…?” Atif shot incomplete questions towards the person who wore an uncanny smile on his face. He spoke,” The dictionary calls me God and so do you people. You must be wondering about the need of borrowing your countenance and attire but I felt that this would minimize my efforts to explain my divinity and Son, the last thing I would like to do is perform some stupid magic tricks to make you believe that I’m God.” Atif was in no mood for a rough night and started walking towards the opposite of the sea. “Wait”, the voice ordered,” I would hate to tie your feet with ropes of sand”. Atif stood still and turned back bewildered. God pointed him a place to sit and he sat like a tamed pet. “The girl’s name is Kalpana, Isn’t it?” questioned God and sustained not waiting for a response “and you decided to kiss death because she dumped you”. Atif never expected God to be such unsophisticated but he was getting acquainted with the eerie approach.

Kalpana left him because she felt that Atif lost his strength of character after couple of years of their relationship. She told him that he has been behaving oddly and warned him to stop doing so. Atif slapped her in frustration and it was all over between them. Atif apologized to her multiple times but Kalpana never wished to see his face again. The very thought of losing her made Atif to take up a cowardly, yet strong decision of suicide.

“So, you are thinking about her now?” spoke God, flouting Atif’s thoughts. Atif gathered some courage and spoke, “Thousands of people commit suicide daily. Surely, I’m not so important to be saved, am I?”

“It is true that I cannot save everybody who takes this foolish decision at the same time but I can certainly save one and today it is your turn. Your life is not over, son and I know that I cannot stop you from dying every time but I can only say that you should reconsider your decision”, spoke God in a husky tone and continued,” Your mind now says to leave from here to adopt a new strategy for death.” “No, I didn’t  ...” said Atif but he knew that God had read his mind.

“Who will take care of your family once you are gone? Answer me before you take any decision. I can only give you strength to live but cannot throw money in your backyard”, God’s words were making Atif’s heart to pound but he wished he could leave from the place.

“You need love but you also run away from it. Do you do it because you are getting it from the wrong person?” asked God.

Atif knew very well that God meant Rumaiza. Rumaiza was madly in love with him but he never felt the same for her.

“Son, I have lot of things to do apart from wasting my time with you but I’m sure that you will leave this beach with wet sands in your pockets and lots of hope in your heart. You have the rest of your life to conquer and never stop loving your life until death comes naturally to you. All the best.” spoke God and directed him to leave the place with a righteous smile.

Atif almost felt like a changed person at heart not that he got a lot of confidence from the rendezvous with God but he wanted to rework his life and started to walk away from the shores towards the road. He never turned back to look at God as he knew that God would have gone to find his next victim.

It was a dim lighted restaurant designed to suit the mood of the private conversations. Kalpana, who was seated in one of the corner tables, had got a text from Raghav that he is on his way to the restaurant. She could not stop thinking about Atif in the brief loneliness gifted by the less punctual Raghav today. Her relationship with Atif, though short-lived had its own sweet memories. Even though she was paranoid about his weak character, she also hoped that the break-up would make him a strong person and rediscover his life.

“Hey beautiful, sorry I’m late”, announced Raghav before a thought-struck Kalpana.

“Raghav, you should stop apologizing for your infamous punctuality” replied a miffed Kalpana.

“Looks like you are in a wonderful mood today”, smiled Raghav.

“Please be done with your cool attitude and just tell me what happened yesterday?” quizzed an irritated Kalpana.

“You owe me a big one, dear. Know what? Your ex-boyfriend bought the entire God act. The only edge that I had was that I look like him and the rest is the talent of this great theater artist before you.” exclaimed Raghav with pride.

“Did he actually fell for it?” asked Kalpana with a curious face.

“Believe me Kalpana. Atif will never attempt suicide for some days and I’m optimistic that he will never think of it. I still didn’t figure out the reason, I took this assignment and flew down to Chennai with you. Maybe the whole thing was risky and interesting for a theater guy like me who had become claustrophobic with cliched roles and tasteless scripts in Kolkata” spoke Raghav  without a pause and asked,” But why did you thought that Atif would only choose beach for his suicide attempt? ”

Kalpana keeping her voice low said,” We were in relationship for almost two years and knowing him fairly well, I made a wild guess”

” I’m going back tomorrow morning and there is one question which I really need to ask you before I leave. We bumped on each other a week ago in Kolkata. You explained about Atif and his suicide-threatening calls to you and we planned this whole thing. Not to miss out that you also paid me fairly well for this assignment. All this for an ex-boyfriend, simply because you broke up with him?” asked Raghav, looking attentive for the first time.

“It’s complicated, Raghav. You need to be the real God to understand this”, said Kalpana briefly.