Feeling the Devil

In all our lives, we experience a certain day which makes us rethink about the existence of God’s antonym – the Devil. This is what happened with me on 1st April. On such days, you feel like you have no one, absolutely no one, beside you. On such days, you’ll see your best friends pop out vicious fangs and grow devilish horns and your worst nightmares turn into a haunting reality.

It started off as an ordinary Sunday. But it would end as a night decorated with “feeling the devil” instances. I had promised a friend that we would visit a certain pizzeria outlet on the day. But due to CAT classes, I failed to adhere to that promise. I call him up and he tells me that he will never again go out with me to have dinner and he asks me to go to hell. Interesting, isn’t it? No wait, it’s only begun. I hence go out to dinner with 4 other friends of mine, who were incidentally at the classes with me and I supposed that joining them would make the evening more fun.

But, it turned out very weirdly. Two of them supposedly erupted on me and I couldn’t understand the actual purpose. The teasing seemed like insults and I sensed that this was not fun. The teasing turned into taunts and went all the way to religion (Refer to my earlier post “Pride and Prejudice” for more on racism in India), before which we departed on bikes. Being a beginner in biking, I asked one of my other friends to drive my bike.

No prizes for guessing what happened next – an accident. Not a major one. But it was serious enough to damage some morale. I had my right-view mirror broken and suffered a few bruises. Clearly, he had lost control. We picked up the bike and continued. The thoughts of the devil being around did creep up into me. But I calmed myself. It can’t get worse than this, I thought.

I dropped off my friend at the hostel and went to the internet café to surf some net. I surfed for 15 minutes and the net guy charges me Rs.15 for that amount of time, when the rates clearly read Rs.6. Interesting, because he is basically a very good, understanding fellow whose café I regularly visit. I passed him a bill of Rs.20 and he returns a meagre Rs.5 with an awkward smile that I had never seen on him. The question is not about the money, but why would a trusted guy all of a sudden do such a thing to you?

So here I am, writing this blog from the same guy’s café and he seems pretty much back to normal. The same good guy he was. So what happened to him the other night, the same night where so many other things went wrong? Why only that night?

I am sure many of us do experience such days where the unthinkable occurs. It feels like the devil is around, hissing and sniffing up all the good in and around you. It feels like the smell of hell is being sprayed from the darkness and polluting the entire essence of goodness. This is no April fool’s day gag. Trust me; this is the textual reincarnation of a nightmare.....