The Trip Beyond..

He was declared dead due to cardiac arrest and everyone was mourning. The loss was huge, especially to his family, which comprised of his wife, his 2 sons and 2 daughters. They were all in shock and grief and it took some time for the reality to seep in. All the customs were followed and he was placed in an ice box. Nobody ate, slept and though everyone knew he was no more, this loss of a life couldn’t be digested. Both the sons had to do all the formalities and he was about to be taken to the graveyard to be cremated.

Now, the old man was thinking that he was still with life. He couldn’t speak but he could observe with closed eyes what is happening. He had a quick glimpse of this world and the world beyond and had a chat with Death’s servants.

He told them he had been so good in life and that this death had come so suddenly that he wasn’t prepared to leave. They were tough both physically and mentally and wouldn’t budge to any of his talks. He said, he didn’t tell his wife where he kept his money box and that he wouldn’t trust his children to take care of her.  For every point he made, they gave a counter-argument that eventually his wife will find out where the money is and that she has no option than to stay with their children. He had to invent reasons to talk to the Lord of death himself and they wouldn’t allow him to do so. Finally, he said that he couldn’t even eat what he liked the most as he was hospitalised and given just one chance, he would eat 4 hot puris and coffee and come back with them after sometime. Since he was so adamant and argumentative, they lost their patience and took him to the master.

Now, the master was tougher but he made crisp statements. The old man was even more adamant and said that he(the lord of death) should lead a life on the earth with a family and then only he could understand the troubles that he had faced. The Lord argued that since his life was so tough, he was brought here and why would he again want to go back? The old man was quick to say that he wanted to have his favorite food and be next to his wife for sometime. Finally the Lord of death had to give in but with a smart plan. Unable to tolerate the nagging, the lord of death asked his servants to take this old man to his body and place him there and wait silently. The old man was very happy that he could convince the lord of death himself. His life came back to his body and he was sleeping now.

The body was brought to the crematorium but nobody realized that there is breathing in the body. Suddenly, when fire was about to be lit, one daughter-in-law told the other that she can smell something wrong and asked her hubby to check again. He gave her ‘you can’t be so stupid!’ look but when he too saw the lungs taking in air, he went dumb. The old man woke up with a shake all over his body and called out his eldest son by his name. That’s all! He ran away for some distance and had to be brought back. Everybody around didn’t know what to do and were dumb with shock.

The mother’s expressions went on from joy to shock and she finally became unconscious. Soon, everybody realized that he was back and took him home. Puris,Vadais were made and served hot with steaming hot coffee and the old man ate to his heart’s content.

He was soon back to his form, ordering, arguing but everyone was happy that he was back. Slowly, his wife asked him about his savings. He nodded and asked her, how much did they (the sons) spend for all this? Did they garland me with roses? The wife told him that both her sons didn’t have enough money as everything was so sudden and so some amount was taken from her and not only he was garlanded with roses, but his sons had bought loads of flowers and everything was planned in a very grand manner. He felt very satisfied and asked her for the money box's keys to check his treasure. She searched everywhere and told him that she had lost the only key of his money box in all the chaos.

The next moment, he was gone.