A Voice From Within

I wish I could introduce myself, but i do not have a name. Not yet. Lets put it this way, I traverse (not literally) through a path that would at the final bend transport me to the world of 'somebody' from the one of 'nobody. This journey you see is pretty interesting. It has its ups and downs. There are peaceful days when all I do is sleep, cocooned in warmth and love. Yet peace like all good things in life is short-lived and I encounter days when I am blanketed in screams, shouts, howls and noises of all sorts and kinds.


This reminds me of an incident that took place last week. I was getting ready for my afternoon siesta when i feel a sudden jolt! 'Its an earthquake!' I tell myself and try and relax. Then a second jolt, and a third! The wall around me is about to collapse I think. I pray for my dear life.
And then.......silence.......
I thank Almighty God for keeping me alive. Alas little did i realise that this silence was like one before a storm. Some storm that was! In my last life I heard the english teacher say that there are moments, the intensity of which cannot be captured in words. Oh that didnt make much sense did it? I completely forgot to tell you about my erudite last-life.

I shared a bed with the english teacher. Are you thinking............? Dirty minds, dirty minds! Let me be more specific. In my last life I lived under the english teacher's bed. I opened my eyes to 'cat', 'mat' and 'rat'. In my last life I had a name too....... they called me cockroach! I loved the teacher, a pretty old lady. She would disseminate knowledge to the students who visited her house and I would gulp the knowledge down my throat. No matter how much i loved her, I can't help sharing a little secret with you. I thought she was, you know, I wouldn't say mad,but undoubtedly in possession of a not so sound mind.For some strange reason that would be in its full bloom the moment i would think of meeting her and thanking her for all her goodness. She would jump on the chair, throw things at me. Shriek and pull her clothes! I would forgive her each time. The poor sweet thing was getting old after all. Yet its her sinility and my magnanimous nature which cost me my dear life. One afternoon when in my 99th attempt to greet her I appeared in front of her, amidst her ussual antics, she sprayed something like water on me! I don't know what that water like thing did to me, but i was actually dead in no time!!! Yet when i came to this life I realised I had retained most of what I had learnt back then, under the bed.

Now where was I in this life? Oh yes the intense moment when the storm hit me and lo and behold! I was upside down. I cannot explain in words how bad that feeling is. As I clutched on to the walls in my inverted posture, my heart screamed 'blistering barnacles' (one named Captain Haddock who would visit the english teacher's house often, would use the phrase whenever he seemed angry!). The storm subsided slowly but that did'nt change my position. These days all my time and energy goes in getting used to being upside down!

So I thought I knew all there was to know in english. Shakespeare and Keats, Woodsworth and Austen, I knew them all. ' I am god's gift to humanity' feeling however dissipated when such words would trickle down my room that i had never heard before. Words such as b-i-t-c-h, f-u-c-k 0-f-f, w-h-o-r-e etc. The other day I heard one such unheard word, a word that had an important feel to it in a weird sort of way. It was one of those noisy, not so peaceful days. I had finally accustomed myself to sleep with my head down. But who on earth lets me sleep! People upstairs are shouting their lungs out and amidst the hullabaloo I catch scattered words and phrases such as 'test done'- 'girl child'- 'dont want' and a word that intrigued me the most. Wonder what that means. It sounded something like
A-B-O-R-T.........