The Awaited Normal

The Time Express arrived just in time as usual, and Mr. Past was already there standing at the door. The journey had been quite tiresome since the train takes a detour to reach Future. It has to cross a round-about and would only stop at Present.

Mr. Future was waiting at the station for Mr. Past. When the train arrived, both of them shook hands warmly.

“What a delight to finally meet you Mr. Past!” said Mr. Future. His voice was unmistakably cheerful and easy to recognize.

“Always a delight Mr. Future”, said Mr. Past, being quite modest here.

Both of them have decided to meet on that day to decide something really important. Later on, Mr. Past had a big job to accomplish.

“Let us take this car, Mr. Past and it will direct us to our destination,” said Mr. Future. They went inside the car which was voice-controlled.

“Take us home!” ordered Mr. Future and the car as if having its own mind, took the order, and started moving at a fast but comforting pace.

Mr. Past hasn’t really been in this place earlier. Everything seemed changed and nothing like he remembered. He could see cars flying, big buildings, greenery people having a gala time and everything seemed, different, but normal, and he was shocked to realize that.

After about an hour and a half, they both reached their destination.

“Welcome to the Normal Junction Mr. Past,” said Mr. Future who was looking at the scenery ahead with pride and arms open.

“Well the name seems quite unique, isn’t it?” asked Mr. Past.

“Oh it definitely is, but you will see that it perfectly suits the moments you will experience here” answered Mr. Future.

“Well then, what are we waiting for, let’s roll!” said Mr. Past.

Both men joined hands in hand and went in for a tour. Least did Mr. Past knew that this tour was going to be a roller coaster ride for him!

Mr. Future led Mr. Past to a school where students were studying a subject that seemed a little familiar yet surprising to Mr. Past.

“Are they studying…” inquired Mr. Past

“…Sex education, yes that is correct!” said Mr. Future, cutting him short. “This type of subject is very important for these children to understand. There are so many myths attached to this subject that it took us a long way to come here.”

“Oh yea, of course.” said Mr. Past “This subject certainly is important” he added.

“Well what about the citizens of your place, what were they called again?” asked Mr. Future

“Ancestors” Mr. Past answered.

“Yes. Ancestors. They were totally against this, right? And even if they taught this subject, they would make boys and girls sit separately. I don’t think that was a great idea. Apart from that, not teaching this subject was also inviting a lot of social crimes, so you know, we had to normalize this stuff” Mr. Future added further and Mr. Past nodded.

They moved further and Mr. Past’s eyes fell upon a scene which he couldn’t believe would happen. People were letting a transgender man and woman, eat and sit with them and allowing them to have a nice time as they all enjoyed the sun on the green grass.

“Well, now that’s news for me” mumbled Mr. Past and ignored the scene.

Further ahead, Mr. Past was met with many such incidents, like a chemist was giving a girl sanitary pads without wrapping it in polythene or paper, the traffic policeman was doing his duty and managing the traffic, everyone was driving safely on the road, and what not! All of this literally gave him a headache, but he couldn’t complain because of Mr. Future being senior to him, and mostly because he somehow liked the air he was breathing in.

After a long tour, Mr. Future took him to a café. Both men had lunch and had a light conversation about sports and the ruling government. Mr. Past was relieved to know that there was a little bit of corruption in the government but was disturbed to know that the rich and the poor live peacefully and never had crossed any limits.

“… and you would also love to know that even our army is getting full support from the government and the public is getting justice within time and there are no pending cases!” Mr. Future added.

Mr. Past listened to everything with eager attention and also was surprised to know that so much has changed. He seemed a little skeptical about this deal and wanted to clear his doubts.

“Mr. Future. First of all, all of this seems really fantastic. I mean that sex education and all and people actually embracing the ideology of equal pay for both the genders. This is actually remarkable. My major concern is that isn’t we in more of an ideal situation? I mean all of this hasn’t really happened in my presence so I am really not sure. Can you please guide me over this?” added Mr. Past

Mr. Future took a deep breath and said, “That’s the thing Mr. Past. It is not the ideal situation, since such kind of situation doesn’t really exist and we have just conjured it up in our brains. These types of activities are actually, Normal! Not ideal, but Normal. So, if you could have a word with Mr. Present and tell him about this place, share with him the photographs, spread awareness and ask him to think before he acts, I don’t think this Normal Junction would be an issue” said Mr. Future.

“Well you know how Mr. Present is” added Mr. Past “He doesn’t really listen unless he meets a blow by me!” he said.

“How about you use your favorite tools, huh? They being, past mistakes, experience, etc.… well you know how they say, that you learn from your past, imply it in your present and enjoy the results in future! You yourself added that you liked all of this stuff. I think it’s a good deal.”

Mr. Past thought about it and finally agreed to make the Normal Junction one of the stations in place of future, visited by the Time Express.

Hopefully, we get to travel there soon…