Paradise Lost

It was a beautiful day. The spring breeze blew gently spreading the bright sunshine over the little hill and the blue sky was flanked by cotton clouds. Butterflies hung about adding colors to the bushes laden with white roses.

Little robins and sparrows sang from the trees. The grass on the sides of the path was fresh and green. The fountains ran clear water and I could almost see a feeble rainbow in the spray as I walked back holding a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee after a hearty lunch at the office cafeteria.

Perfect day at the paradise, I thought, yet something was amiss. It was as if the painting lacked a certain shade or as if a symphony had a certain instrument slightly out of tune. I just couldn’t pinpoint what it was till the phone rang.

The monotone at the other end of the phone told me what I dreaded most. “We can’t do anything Sir” was all I could follow. There were some complications and the weather was partially responsible for what happened and they tried their best but could not revive the functioning was what I was told.

I disconnected the phone and flopped onto the first chair that I saw. I could not finish my coffee and flung the cup in a bin nearby. “What would I do now?” I wasn’t ready to believe it. My entire life came crashing. I had always known that all good things come to an end, but this was too soon. I wasn’t prepared to say goodbye like that. I looked skywards. I hated the Delhi traffic. I hated the incessant rains all the more. They were the ones responsible for my tragic loss.

The memory when I first saw it was still fresh on my mind. The reference was sent in by a friend and I looked at the pictures online and fell in love at the first sight. Beautiful was all I could say and soon we were inseparable. Little did I know that this habit would be the nemesis of my golden relationship.

I clearly remember that fateful day. It was the 25th of August. The Delhi traffic during the office hours is killing and I had no choice but to take my bike to wade through the snail pace traffic in the morning. The sky was clear when I started off from home but as it had to be, dark clouds came out from nowhere and it started to pour cats and dogs within no time. I looked hard to find a cover but there was none. I rode like a madman, snaked through the lines of cars that had started piling up, rode over the footpaths and where there were no paths at all but it was almost 15 minutes in the downpour before I could find any shelter under the roof of a bus stop and it was all too late by then.

My bag was dripping wet and love of my life – my laptop was wet as well. I looked around in despair. Maybe I wanted someone to step up and tell me that everything would be fine and that it would have braved all the water and would spring to life the moment I would call it by pressing the power switch. Instead an elderly gentleman came by and told him in a coarse voice “You should have covered it before you stepped out”. I wanted to snatch this guy’s umbrella and run it through his throat. Last thing I wanted now was useless advise.

I stood there for almost two hours waiting for the Rain Gods to find something else to do. Once, it stopped pouring I rushed to a nearby service center and got my laptop admitted to what looked like their ICU. The guy asked me to leave my baby there and wait for their call.

And now, when the call came in, I knew the worst had happened. The perfect day was ruined – the paradise raided….

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PS: Well, those who might be inclined to ask, most part of the post is fiction except that I am still reeling through the after-math of motherboard burnout on my new desktop and crippled for most work that I did from home.