Alive

Sonu woke up late as usual and was hurrying himself up to office. This had become his routine. It was not new to Sanya. She had got adjusted to his routine. She served him breakfast and he couldn't even finish half of it. He was about to drink coffee from his cup when his daughter, Rachu, came running from behind and hugged him. Her hand accidentally touched the cup in his hand, and the entire coffee fell down on his trousers. He immediately started scolding Rachu for no mistake of her's. Sanya took her inside the kitchen and handed her, her lunch bag and gave her a toffee to lighten the mood up.

Sonu grumbled and changed his trousers. He was looking at his watch and asked Sanya if she could drop Rachu to school. Sanya replied that since she had to take mother in law to doctor, it was not possible. He was frustrated, the meeting was scheduled at sharp 9 a.m and if he had to drop Rachu, it would delay all the more. Feeling helpless, he rushed her to school. Rachu was feeling scared all through the drive to school because Sonu was driving at a very high speed. As soon as they reached school, he left without saying bye to Rachu. She felt bad and went inside the school.

It was 9.15 and his colleagues were waiting for him to conduct the meeting. He apologized for his late coming and asked his secretary, Ramya, if everything was ready. For a change, Ramya had kept everything ready because she always was at the receiving end during Sonu's meetings. Everyone was eagerly waiting for Rahul's announcement about the hike in salary as the company had achieved great success and was awarded as one of the best companies to work with.

Ramya set up the PowerPoint presentation and gave a yes signal to Rahul and walked past him. Rahul started briefing about the company's success and other details. The office clerk came in to serve coffee and placed the coffee cup near his laptop and moved on to serve the next person. Rahul saw the coffee cup which reminded him of the morning incident. The avid coffee lover that he was, he reached for the cup and by miss the laptop titled, in order to save it from falling down, he had to bend down and while doing that, his hand hit the cup and coffee spilled over his laptop. He lost control and started shouting at the office clerk who was standing at least 6 feet away from him. Poor him had to be the scape goat of Sonu's anger thought Ramya in her mind. She offered to clean it up for him and signed the office clerk to move out. The meeting got cancelled and all the employees were disappointed as they were looking forward for the much awaited news on salary.

Sonu's day was not all that good as he had not expected that the meeting would come to such a drastic end. He stayed put in the office to complete his work and left for home late evening. As soon as he came inside the house, his mother asked for his late coming to which he didn't even reply and hit the bed without having his dinner.

In the morning when he woke up, he could see his wife crying in front of him. She was joined by her mother in law and Rachu, his daughter came running inside the room. For a second, he himself was in a dilemma as to why they were crying. Slowly, his neighbours dropped in. They had bouquet in their hands. Sonu stopped one of the neighbours and asked as to why he was carrying the bouquet. He didn't even bother to answer Sonu. Sonu saw another person offering garland to the photo in the hall. He came out of his bedroom and saw his own photo kept on the table with incense sticks and garland. His eyes slowly moved to the body covered with a white bedsheet.

He opened the bedsheet and bounced back. He started screaming at Sanya that he was alive and held her shoulders and shrugged it, but she wouldn't listen. He told her that he was hungry since he had skipped his dinner and he wanted to have breakfast. Sonu then moved to his mother and told her that he was there for her always and was sorry that he hadn't asked her about the appointment with the doctor. His mother didn't even bother to answer him. Feeling frustrated and full of agony, he went and picked Rachu up and told her that he was sorry for his behaviour yesterday and that he would drop her to school today. Rachu went and sat on Sanya's lap ignoring his presence. Sonu was disoriented. He started tearing his own clothes and went to each one of his neighbours to tell them that he was alive. No one heard his screaming.

A decorated van came and few people carried the dead body in the van. Sonu could not see the sight of his own dead body being carried away. He still believed that he was alive. He ran inside to get the car keys. By then, Sanya had started the car. He screamed that she was a bad driver and he wouldn't let her take it. Sanya started following the decorated vehicle. Sonu started running fast to keep up the pace with his car and reached the cremation ground. He was happy to see the office staff there and went near Ramya and told her to tell everyone that he was alive. When she didn't respond, he went to the office clerk to seek his help, who walked towards the ditch where his body was supposed to be buried. Everyone started crying loudly and Sonu could not bear it. He saw people were lowering down his body into the ditch. He fell down at their feet one last time, which was of no use. All his family members came in front to bid a final adieu to Sonu. Sanya took flowers in her hand and gave some to her mother in law and Rachu. They started offering flowers to his body.

Sonu felt something soft touching his face. It was Sanya's hands. He woke up from his bed in a baffled state. Sonu pinched himself, it was not a dream. Sanya touched his forehead and told him to have coffee and get ready to go to the office. Sonu sighed a huge relief and called up office. He got ready as usual. He asked his mother about her health. Before going to office, he kissed Sanya to her surprise and carried Rachu to the car. On the way, he bought her some chocolate and waved at her before leaving to office.

While at the office, he called Ramya and the office clerk and apologized to both of them. They both stood there with wide opened mouth to which he put some sweets and told Ramya to distribute the sweets to everyone and informed that there was a marginal increase in their salary. He told his staff to work for half a day and enjoy. He left office and picked Rachu on the way and reached home. Sanya was stunned at his behaviour. He took his family out for a movie and had dinner, which was unlikely of him. While driving back home, Sanya whispered in her mother in law's ear that something was really wrong with Sonu, she replied to her, " let it be wrong from hereon as it is good for everyone."

The next morning, Sanya woke him with his favourite coffee. He pulled her into the bed and kissed her hand. He was about to....when Rachu jumped into the bed and hugged both of them. Sonu's mother was very happy at this sight and prayed to God to shower his blessings on her family.