Coffins In The Sky

Morose. I finally managed to assign a feeling, an emotion to the day that was slowly drifting by. It was, indeed, a morose and melancholic kind of a day, like it was mourning but didn’t know for whom. I glance around, to the lush green pastures that surround my weekend villa. Even they seem to have abandoned hope and are just swaying in the slight cold breeze.

On the outskirts of Mumbai city, away from the hubbub and rumpus of the metropolis, is a small unnamed village that rests in the valley of the mountain that holds the Mahuli fort, nearby the Tansa river. Right in the middle of the uninhabited village rests a big two-storey villa. An imposing and impressive structure, the villa was built as part of an experiment on ultra-modern architecture. Minimalist interiors and the colour brown rule the inside. One side of the villa, facing the falls, is made totally out of glass, giving an amazing view of the horizon. On the upper storey is a balcony that juts out of the glass wall, out into the open air. I stand here, resting my hands on the glass and metal railing, my palms cupping a mug of strong Guatemalan roast coffee.

It is roughly afternoon, I don’t care to check the time. The sky is overcast, but there are no dark clouds. Just clouds. Sad, morose, miserable clouds not allowing the sunlight to seep through. Such a kind of an atmosphere almost always puts you in an introspective mood. I reflect on the past. All that has happened. This villa has become a sort of self-reflecting getaway for me in the recent years. Lost in my train of thoughts, I search the skies for answers that have no questions, and then I see it.

I squint my eyes to see it, because it’s very very far away, but it wasn’t something you would miss. Black clouds were gathering in a far away distance, and seemed like slowly advancing. All of a sudden, all was quiet. Calm before a storm? As my mind wandered to this new development, I frowned at the possibility of rains. I liked rains, but they weren’t meant to be enjoyed when you’re alone on such a lousy day. The dark was gathering rapidly now and I sensed something amiss. Since when did storm clouds take on an absolute black colour? Weren’t they always supposed to be dark gray?

As the black mass slowly approached, I sensed it might not be storm clouds after all, but rather a procession of blackbirds. But I doubted if any living soul had ever seen such a huge flock of birds, be it of any color. The dark ‘mass’ covered the whole of the visible sky above and seemed to pick up speed as it prepared to approach the sky right above me. I was just trying to make head or tail of this addition to the sky when I saw them! Terror paralyzed me! I stood stock still!

Coffins! A horde of black coffins! My mind refused to think, my heart refused to slow down and my muscles refused to move. Hundreds of coffins painted sharp, jet black fly above me, like a silent procession of death itself. The whole day has become utterly silent, the coffins making absolutely no sound as they floated above me, a live graveyard with no destination in sight. Wide-eyed, I just look on as this utterly strong omen flew above me. What was in store? The heavens (or should I say hell?) alone know.

I decide that the cold, and now uninteresting, coffee was a lost cause. I lay the mug down and proceed to walk out down the fields to gather some understanding of this recent and unexpected turn of events. There is a barren, trodden path down a certain slope that leads to the (supposed) market area of this particular village. As soon as I reach the market area, the first thing I notice is that it is totally deserted. Not a soul in sight! Have the villagers emptied the place after the bad omen in the sky? Did they even see it? I see half-empty vegetable carts lying around, stacks of hay piled in a corner, a cow tied to a stump, blankly gazing into nothingness and chewing on something. Was it not frightened? As I take the scene in, my already strange day is soon to become stranger.

A deafening crack rips through the air. The whole earth begins to tremble. The cow is now starting to tense. In an instant, a huge earthquake rips apart the ground in two, the crack spreading ahead in a hellish zigzag. Was this the calamity that the omen foretold? I never get to an answer, because I’m confused of a far more worrying thought. Even though the living daylights have been torn apart by this ‘earthquake from the other-world’, I notice that I stand unaffected. In the middle of the market road. Not a grain of dust on me, not a single strand of hair out of place. It’s almost like the earthquake has no effect on me. This thought worries me intensely. The cow is still somehow safely tethered to its stump, although totally shaken. The whole day had been turned upside down into a living nightmare!

As if this whole natural calamity occurrence wasn’t enough, the wind starts howling. Rage! It’s like the air is angry that the earth has sustained this demonic shatter and is hell-bent on bringing nothing but destruction in its wake. As I watch the wind howl mightily, I hear a distant rumble. A sound so horrifying that all the hair on my body stand on end. I look behind me to find a gigantic flood racing across the ground to wash away this already devastated village. As the water rises and gushes and destroys, I notice that I just stand above it, dry, safe, and unaffected. Have I already died? Is this my post-death vision? Or is it a premonition? The angry wind takes a turn for the worse as it turns into a mighty tornado. It rips apart the only settlements. The carts and haystacks go either down with the flood or up in the air with the wild wind.

As I watch, still untouched, from my vantage point, the sky begins to roar. The cow is struggling in the gushing water as the stump is losing its grounding. Then suddenly, a flash of lightning illuminates the whole scene in a deathly light. In the same instant, I glance sideways and see the cow hurtling towards my direction, carried away from the stump easily by the tornado. As it approaches me for impact, my eyes open and I wake up, trembling in sweat!