My Superhero Friends

Saturday evening, it was awful that the regional TV channels have started broadcasting serials in the weekends too, I felt terribly bored, which naturally led me to pay visit to my friends. It was a cold evening in Bangalore, the sun set actually made the sky look as if it was covered with an orange blanket! Lovely, I thought while starting my bike and accelerated towards the main road in Koramangala.

After a few minutes of ride, I'd reached my friend Sam's house. Knocked his door, though it was open as he's married, and waited patiently, came the voice "who is it?" his wife that. "It's me sis, Sasi". "Oh Anna (elder brother in Tamil), he went to the terrace to put the washed clothes to dry." "OK ma, I shall go to the terrace", turning towards the staircase. "You don't bother to come out," sent my voice in.

In the terrace, why on earth would they wash clothes at the end of the day, thought I while looking for Sam. There was neither him nor clothes hanging anywhere. I wondered where could have he gone with the wet clothes? All of a sudden, Sam landed on the terrace from the sky with dried clothes in his hand. "What on earth are you?" I asked, completely baffled and shocked. He saw me in disbelief and "oh, Sasi, it's you," walked towards me, "it is important that," he cleared his throat, "at any cost, you shall not reveal what you have just witnessed here," he kept the neatly folded clothes on the water tank, which stood at the corner where we both were standing. I being freaked out considerably, have managed to pull myself together and "what is happening? Where did you go?" He smiled at me and "my wife asked me to put these clothes to dry," I interrupted with "yes, I know. I was..." he stared at me, if he had done that before I'd seen this stunt from him, I would probably have ignored and continued. Having seen him flying, I had to stop. "Sorry Sir, you carry on" quipped I. "Its alright Sasi, we are friends. Just forget everything that has happened today," patted my back and "so I came here to put these clothes to dry but there was no sun," shrugged his shoulder, "she was watching a serial, which I hated," smiling sheepishly he continued, "I flew to the sun to make the clothes dry" said he. "Wish I was watching serials at home," I murmured, for which Sam asked "what is it?" "Nothing Sam, you carry on with your," I stammered, as searched for the words while walking back towards the staircase, "you carry on with your work, Sam. I'll catch you later," and I skipped two to three steps until I reached the ground floor where I'd parked my bike.

My heart palpitating as if all the beats that my heart would take in a whole lifetime is happening in a way that it would stop in five minutes. It took some time for me to catch my breath and to make a decision to go to another friend of mine and Sam, Srinath, who lived two blocks away from Sam's.

In a while, I'd reached Srinath's house - I went in his house where his mother was watching a serial in the hall. I asked in my restless voice, "aunty, where is Srinath?" she momentarily turned her gaze towards me and back to the TV, "he is in his room. Drink some water before you kill yourself," and she continued watching the serial. I ran upstairs to his room, opened the door hurriedly, "Srinath, you wouldn't believe.." stopped I when I fixed my gaze at Srinath who was sitting facing a wall and on the wall there was a moving picture of mountains and caves, which I had seen in the war movies. "Where is the projector?" I turned back and scanned for a projector but there was none. Then I'd realised that Srinath has conjured this on the wall and was killing people who wore masks like the ones the terrorists would wear in the movies. I was stunned and speechless and stood there like I was paralysed from my neck below. After a while, he turned off the picture by moving both his hands as if writing the letter 'x' in the air and turned to see me motionless. " Sasi, when did you come?", asked he casually as if he was playing video games. "What were you doing?", asked I, not bothering to answer his question. " my mom was watching a serial, I felt bored so I conjured the places right here where the terrorists were hiding and killed every one of them", said he, smiling victoriously. Without saying a word, I walked back to the door, "where are you going?", asked he, " where I could see a human", responded I, stopped in front of the door, turned back, and "don't worry, I won't tell anyone what I'd seen here", he stood up smilingly, "thanks buddy". I rushed out of his room and his house.

I saw myself riding to the port where my other friend Vinod worked. He's a marine engineer and he is going to start his sail from tomorrow. He met me in the aisle and there were several containers stacked up either sides of the aisle. "Vinod, I have something to tell you but we need some place where nobody could hear us speak", said I and looked at him worriedly. "Worry not my friend, I will take you to the sea on a cruise, which I had just fixed", quoted he, while walking towards the cruise ship that was at other side of the containers. He jumped in on the deck and signalled me to hop in, which I did and for the first time I felt relieved and relaxed. I walked towards the stern and stood behind the handrails overseeing the ocean while Vinod entered the control room. The ship has started to move and I can feel my heart in my mouth when we moved past several waves. After a while, we had almost reached a place in the ocean where I could not see any lights but the stars. He came out and handed me a coffee mug, "enjoy the sail buddy", and started to sip his coffee. " this is amazing", took a sip, "it would be great if we could cook and eat fresh fishes off the ocean now", said I with a smile.

He gulped his coffee, kept his mug on the deck, and jumped in the ocean. " Hey, Vinod, what are you..", what the hell was wrong with him? Why did he jump off the ship now? My god, I have never rode a ship before, I thought, while leaning forward from the handrail to see if he was there swimming. But it was dark and I could not see anything. I ran to the control room to see if I could alert anyone or call for help. When I was about to open the door, I heard a heavy thud on the deck beside and the ship tilted to its side until I could see sea water as close as the deck and got back to its original position in some time. I looked at place where I'd heard the noise, and to my utter dismay, there was a whale lying on the deck. My friend Vinod flew back from the ocean and landed near the whale, "Buddy, this is for you", said he, while walking towards me. "I am a pretty good cook," said he while shaking his head quite rigorously and the water splashed at my face from his hair. The water kept splashing at my face and I could faintly hear my mom's voice, "serials are done for today", now the voice is getting clear while I still feel the splash of water on my face, "wake up, Sasi, it's 10 PM", now I opened my eyes to see my mom with a jug in her hand, "have your dinner and sleep" said she and moved out. I got up and sat on the bed contemplating on what had just happened. I then realised it was all dream and thank god for it - those guys with supernatural powers, I said it to myself and laughed while going out to have my dinner. But someone has to tell my dream generator that there is no ocean in Bangalore.