Revolution

I walked down the street, surrounded by friends and comrades. Today was destined to be the biggest day in the fight. What I was about to do would change their outlook about us. It would clarify, that we are serious about the cause.
Every revolution requires sacrifice, and today was my turn. It had been a long discussion among the core group on who would be the first one. I had been the obvious choice. Educated, belonging to a good family, and above all not attached.
Well, at least that is what I knew then.
I had expressed my feelings to her sometime back. She had kept down the phone, and not called back since. Disheartened, I had fully immersed myself into the revolution, and since then risen among the ranks.
I was ready to die for the cause. At least my parents and friends will be proud of me. I woke up early, bathed and had tea watching the most beautiful sunrise of my life. I wanted to call her and bid adieu but something inside held me back. She was so special and I did not want to lose the focus.
As I was about to leave, the phone started to ring. I left it ringing, stepped out and locked the door. But something, I don't know what stopped me. I went back in to take the call. Till then the call had already got forwarded to my voice mail. So, I dialed my voice mail to check the message. May be the schedule had changed.
What I heard made my knees weak. I held on to the table. It was her. She had called to say that she was now ready and wanted me to meet her parents and I should call her in the evening as she was going to the protests.
I stood up, so she was going to be there. Suddenly the resolve was going amiss. I walked down the stairs to the grounds.
I walked down the street, surrounded by friends and comrades. Today was destined to be the biggest day in the fight. What I was about to do would change their outlook about us. It would clarify, that we are serious about the cause. I was about to immolate myself in full public view. But now I was not sure. I wanted to live. I wanted to be happy with her; we would solve all our problems.
And then from the corner of my eye I saw a glimpse of her. Our eyes met. There was a burning sensation. The revolution was out of my mind and I was just staring in her eyes.
Suddenly she started to shout. Cry. The burning sensation increased and there was severe pain. Oh no........someone had set me ablaze. The flames were rising. I wanted to doze them but couldn't.
And then I fell unconscious.
Now my body lies in the morgue. Brought dead; with severe burns, and concussions. I am crying not because I died but because I died when I wanted to live. She walked in to claim my body. She was hysterical, and I was crying with her.....for us.

The Quake

I came back home late last night from a friends house. We had a nice time celebrating his birthday along with his parents who were visiting from out of town.
After reaching home, I followed my daily routine, changed, brushed, took my iPod and went to bed. Like all nights I listened to my favorite Elvis song....
"Wise men say,
Only fools rush in...
But I can't help falling in love, with you."
And then I heard nothing and fell into deep sleep.
Sometime later everything started shaking. It started as a slow rumble. My mind couldn't realize initially but slowly it started to register that this was an earthquake.
I held on to my bed, opening my eyes slightly to look at the stuff kept in my room. Everything was shaking.
Suddenly the rumbling increased and then there was shouting on the street below. Dogs were barking.
By now I was starting to get scared. My parents sleep in the next room.
Collecting my fears, I slowly started to get up. My iPod headphones were hanging around my neck. Pulling them out, I got out of bed.
The rumbling was persistent. I tried standing but could not. I held on to a chair to balance myself. Slowly I took two steps towards where my slippers were kept. I wore my slippers while holding on to the chair.
Kept the iPod on the table and slowly made my way to my parent’s room.
My heart was pounding. Slowly opened the door and looked inside.
They were sleeping sound. But there was shouting and screaming on the street below. "They must really be tired yesterday", I thought. I had a feeling that this was a nightmare. My foot hit a table and a low shriek escaped. My toe was hurt. I felt down, the toe nail was broken. This was true, and it was happening. I would show this toe nail to the doctor in the morning.
Slowly holding the furniture on the way walked back to where the television was. The television table was shaking. I checked the screws and then slowly using small steps came back to my bed.
I sat on my bed. The rumbling was still going on. But it seemed to be subsiding.
I sat there for a long time, eyes wide open, and mind blank. There were a lot of aftershocks. After sometime, when the shocks were nearly over I fell asleep.
Two hours later, the shrilling alarm woke me up. Opening my eyes, I looked around. Everything in the room looked fine.
Walking to the television, I picked up the remote and switched it on. I flipped on all the channels, but there was no news. Not even breaking news. How could this happen?
I looked around. Shaken, I went back to my bed. Couldn't believe nothing had happened and I had a nightmare.
To sooth myself, I decided to listen to some music. My hands roamed on the bed searching for the iPod.
It wasn't there. Where was it?
I walked to the table.
No, this couldn't be true. The iPod was on the table.
So, this wasn't a nightmare. I had lived it. I wanted to tell everyone. Nobody would believe me.
These things only happened in movies... or was this, an indication of things to come??