They Call Me Alien - Part 1

“Livita, what's happening? Are you not willing to go to the earth?” Kesandra asked in an eerie voice. She wore a shining long black dress which clung to her skin tightly. Her earrings were made up of musgravite and it sparkled against the soft glow of green light in the triangular bedroom which looked beautifully erected and definitely not the type of brick made. The windows were meticulously designed and the walls (looked like made of legos) were aesthetically painted by blue and maroon colors.

“No, I don’t want to go there. I am feeling very happy to live in the Syculia. I don’t want to leave this place and stay alone there without Irlot on my side,” Livita said. She was young and vibrantly rich and her face slightly bluish, not because of the typical house they made, but it was her natural skin tone. She looked like the Vedic characters lived in ancient India. She had soft glowing eyes which lit whenever she talked with her mother. There was a touch of affection that glimmered in her voice. That was her distinct feature. Even the way she sat on the edge of the bed looked brilliantly orchestrated as she had accentuated her body effectively than any other best actresses in the world.

“Livita, you shouldn’t speak like a sick girl. I don’t know why you don’t forget Irlot and move on in your life. Just know this truth. It’s been two years since he had gone to the black hole to do his research. Do you remember what he had told you at the time of his departure?” Kesandra gave her daughter a blight nod and continued, “He said he would be here in six months. But everyone knows what had happened, including the tutor who had trained him for this daunting task. My dear little girl, please try to understand me. He is no more here. He has gone and gone. You should realize it. I don’t think it is good for your health to keep thinking about him and lose your health. See already your face has became pale and it seems that you are going to be a victim of anemia,” This time her mother couldn’t hold her tears anymore, she just let it pass. But still she was able to meet her daughter’s eyes without any fuss, “No, dear. All I wanted to tell you as a mother was that the world is not just about our tiny planet. There are plenty of places to visit and learn new things and meet new people. Who knows, you may wonder how stupid you were for feeling alone all the time once you visit some new places. That’s why I am telling you to go and stay on the earth. I have loaded all the maps about the countries in the spacecraft, in case if you would like to visit them. But dear, you should be fearless. Otherwise, people would start questioning that you were into something. You know what I mean, right?”

Livita didn’t churn a bit while she heard her mother’s thoughts. Her grievance was more than preparing for this trip. She thought it was unnecessary and it wasn’t going to cure her strong and wild emotions at all.

“But mom, I am not willing to go. What am I going to do there? Whom am I going to meet? I don’t even know what language they would talk and how would they even treat me?” Livita said, plunged into a pool of atrocious feelings again. She didn’t cry but her soul was restless.

“I know it’s quite challenging, but you will love this journey. You will be meeting new people. Most importantly, you will lose worries. And I am sure you are going to love it,” her mother said in a caressing tone.

“Still I……………….” Livita said and crooned. There was self-doubt and restlessness showing in her eyes. She wasn’t convinced about taking this arduous trip. She knew she wasn’t the right person to go out of her shelter and face the difficulties. She wasn’t prepared for anything. She didn’t even know if people are living on the earth. She couldn’t imagine how they would speak, what they would like to eat, how they would spend time. But slowly a stirring thought took place in her mind. Yes, she thought about her boyfriend. She felt like her bones melted. No, I can’t leave this place and go too far from him, she thought. Her eyes were twitched to shed tears, but she didn’t. She stored her gnawing feelings inside her heart and didn’t want to reveal it to anybody, including her mother.

“Oh dear. I know how bad it is to go far away leaving us. But change will happen only when you go to new places. So, don’t hesitate. You should go. Don’t worry about the safety. I will send Virodh to be with you. He will take care of you,” her mother said.

Livita gave a slow head shake, but still not convinced. More than the fear of undertaking this journey, she wasn’t ready to get rid of this place even for a short period of time. All her thoughts were still swirling around this splendid house and gorgeous planet called Syculia. It was thousands of light years away from the earth. There were hardly five thousand people living in this place. But surprisingly, it took one billion years to see a human existence here. This planet was hundred times older than the earth. Do you believe it?

“Ok mom, I will go,” Livita said. Her body was hardened now, but still the girly features danced on her face.

“That’s my girl,” her mother jostled and sprang her hands to touch her beautiful face and poured her motherly feelings on her. She was a widow at the age of twenty five years when her husband died while trying to go back to his past through time travel machine designed by their talented architects. He wanted to travel back to thousand years to know what he did in earlier generations, but his attempt was failed when he was crossing about seven hundred years. The time machine blasted due to the heavy sun rays. Yes, the planet was close to the sun at that time. The Syculia planet mourned when everyone knew that the Prince was no more. But that didn’t stop anyone from continuing the research he did. Everyone was equally trained to learn the electronic gadgets from the age of two. They didn’t have any formal education like in our country. All they had was practical education. You can’t even find paperback books, they used to store all the data in the gigantic but a light weighted computer which was thousand times powerful than the intel i9 core processors.

“When should I go?”

Her mother didn’t even think a second time and said, “Right now. I have done the preparation already. You just have to sit inside the spacecraft and take a ride and land on the earth. Once you have reach there, call me back. Will you do this for me?” Her eyes were smiling as she looked at her daughter hopefully.

“I can’t miss you, mom,” Livita said and plunged on her mother. She has a weak heart, thought her mother as she embraced her.

She brushed off the tears from her daughter’s face and said, “You will be all right. But never forget to comeback, okay? Anyway, all the best from my side. A new planet is waiting for my daughter’s arrival. You are my little queen; I don’t know how my days are going to be without seeing your face. But I will survive, dear. God has given me all the blessings I need to challenge any problems thrown at me.”

Livita didn’t say a word again; she came out and saw the black and blue sky. The wind was hissing and roaring, at least hundred knots per hour. It looked like sand dune. There were no roads, but you could see big trees looming all over. But not a single tree looked familiar to our eyes. A small but circular spacecraft was lying on the ground. The engine was moaning. She opened the thin door of the spacecraft and entered inside and shut it forcefully. She didn’t even say a bye to her mother, because she knew she was vulnerable to fall sick again. Better not to look at her mother. Livita clicked a powerful metallic button as the spacecraft hummed with droning noise for a few seconds and lifted off from the ground. And it flew in the air. Initially the speed was slow about fifty miles per hour, but later picked up to five hundred miles per hour and again it rose to five thousand miles per hour and finally the speed was at whopping twenty thousand miles per hour. Can you imagine this? Her mother watched it as it moved in the space like a tiny blob of the light source. She mumbled a prayer that her daughter would be safe in her new adventure and learn a lot of new things before she returns back. She was waiting for the message from her daughter once she reached the earth, though she was aware it would take minimum sixty days to see it on the screen.

Livita had landed on the earth successfully earlier than her mother had guessed. It took her only fifty days to reach the earth. Thanks to the excellent spacecraft designed by their scientists. She had never thought she would be flying at this unimaginable speed. It was smooth and furious. She didn’t face any technical hiccups on the way. The only issue she had faced was that she was about to land on the moon, thinking it was the earth but radically changed her wrong perception about it. Otherwise, everything was smooth from her side.

Now, she landed in the outskirts of the Mumbai city. She could see nothing but mango trees and coconut trees everywhere. She couldn’t maneuver her spacecraft any more. She had to find an alternating vehicle to go to the city. But she didn’t know anything about it. She had never seen a bus in her life, let alone travel in it. The first thing she wanted to do was to eat something. She plucked one mango from the tree and looked at it doubtfully as if it wasn’t an eatable thing. After a long thought, she took a bite of it. Immediately, her eyes closed because of its sour taste and her mouth twitched. She threw the mango on the ground, repulsive to the taste. She slowly walked down to see the new place. When she walked down two miles, she had seen the people traveling on the bikes, cars and buses. She was amused. She wondered and thought it was pretty to travel in such vehicles. Even the whirl of smoke coming from the autos’ silencer, made her smile and think about it. Initially she thought the vehicles were running on electric power, but when she had seen a khaki shirt man pouring a can of petrol into the fuel tank, she felt like ask him what it was. But she was afraid to speak with strangers. Also she was aware of her dressing, which looked out of fashion to the modern world. She felt how people can wear such slim dresses here. Won’t their skin erode after much exposure to the air? She thought. A lady with a small girl, walked into the shopping mall, which was splendid and attractive as colorful balloons festooned in the front of the building and girls who wore green sarees welcomed the customers to get inside. Though she was averse to the salwar and kameez, she immediately liked the sarees. Her burning desire to wear this attire increased multi fold. She didn’t even give a second thought what they would think of her, and walked up along with the lady as she threw a weird look at the small girl, who went crying after seeing her costume and new features. The welcoming girls threw a surprising node when Livita started doing the same namaskar five times as they did towards her. They gave a long and perplexing look as if she was a new robot designed by the Japan. If they only knew she had come from other planet, they would have flown from this place abruptly.

She stood before the salesman who tossed a head to toe look and intrigued by her appearance and said, “Tum kya chaahate ho?”

She couldn’t understand the Hindi language, she gave a long and painful attention to him, but she understood nothing.

“Kuch kahiye,” he said this time with a strong dose of voice.

Livita jerked back. She thought he was going to beat her for not responding him. She knew nothing else than the Kirmian language which somehow matched with the English, even though there was a vast difference between these two languages. But how she was going to reply to this million dollar question?

“I ammm sorrryyyy. I caannnnnnn’t unnderstttttand what youuu arrrre taaalkkkking,” she said in long but reflexive tone.

The salesman muttered a few filthy words and started folding all the boxes and put it inside the racks behind him.

“Chalo, ek kaammm karo,” the man said and called the new salesperson who was showing sarees to a family on the left far corner, “Laxman, dekho this lady.”

“Ok, bhaiya,” the boy said.

But Livita stayed there, thinking, he was going to show more dresses to her. But the man pushed her from there as the other customer asked him to show some blouse materials. She almost collapsed on the floor, if not the old fellow had grabbed her shoulders to make her stand firmly. She only threw a haughty face and withdrew from him.

When the boy beckoned his hand to come at his counter, she walked down hesitantly as if they were going to inflict her. She was afraid. She was already homesick; she was missing her mother badly. She felt like going back to her planet immediately.

“Yes, what you want, madam?” the boy asked in a genuine voice. He had a firm build and was about 5 ft and 10 inches height. His eyes were always lit and there was an aura of radiation swirling around him. It looked like he didn’t belong to this position at all. His voice and manners suggested that he was an educated person and working here as a part time job holder.

Livita watched him with cool and lively eyes as if she was happy to talk to him. The main reason was that she can understand what he was speaking, though it was a lucrative business to decipher the details. It was like cracking through a firewall protection. But she could understand.

“I need dress,” she said after a brief pause.

“Fine madam, I will give you. Tell me what dress you need,” he asked, stroking his left side of hair. He had long hair which fell on his broad shoulders.

She mused as if she didn’t get what he meant.

“Ma'ammmmm,” he squeezed her eyes with his words. “I asked what dress you want?”

There was a mild shake from her head. He couldn’t get anything out from it. He was defeated.

There was a flicker of anger stood on his eyes, but for a short time. He was generally a cool guy. He thought she was trying to irritate him or play with him some awkward game? He wasn’t sure.

“Hellooooooo, don’t you reply?” Laxman said in a strong voice. He gave her a long look as if she had come out of the prison in a suspicious way.

Livita knew she had to do something. She pointed her index finger at the sarees section. Laxman turned to see what she wanted. A smile came to his eyes as he went down to take the bunch of sarees in his hand. He then brought it and placed it on top of the counter.

“Choose whatever you wanted. Don’t hesitate to ask if you need something better than this collection, okay?” he said to her.

There was a little shake from her head and she plunged to select a saree. Her eyes were lit strongly when she had seen the vast collection of colorful sarees which had various designs to enumerate rich and dynamic tastes of the women. She loved to wear it like the other women did. But she didn’t know how to wear it. She had chosen a soft pink saree which was bordered with peacocks rather than the purple saree which had little sun flowers at the border.

“Wow, that will look great for you,” Laxman commented. He wasn’t telling this just for the sake of selling something to the customer, but there was a feeling deep down in his heart. He knew he wasn’t lying. He had never commented about girls earlier, but for the first time. He thought he shouldn’t bias the tastes of the customers with his intervening thought. But why now? Because he had an urge to talk to her, since he had seen her fumbling in the shop even to speak with him properly. Also he liked her very much to initiate a conversation. Who wanted to ignore speaking with Livita, who is the Queen of Syculia planet?

Livita didn’t reply thanks but stayed there blinking her eyes, wondering how she can wear it. She tried to understand how the folds of the sarees were formed by looking at the married woman who stood behind the middle of the counter where she first met the repulsive salesperson. But her mind whirled when she couldn’t solve this tedious puzzle tossed at her. She thought it was cumbersome process and she had to be trained professionally to make it right.

“Don’t you like the saree?” Laxman intercepted her again like sneaking into a closed house.

“No,” she rushed to say, her hands were firmly clenched the saree as if he was going to pull it from her, “I mean, I don’t know how to wear it. Can you help me?” she asked. There wasn’t a speck of blush crossed to her face when she asked this question.

Laxman’s eyes turned like white eggs and he looked at her bizarrely. He thought she was trying to mock him. He had even doubted if she had inebriated. He brought his nose even close to her to smell if she had taken alcohol. No, she smelt of butterflies and strawberries. It wasn’t right to doubt like that, he thought of beating himself for getting such random doubts about her.

He cleared his throat hastily and said, “No, I can’t do that. Why don’t you take this to your home and learn from your mom?”

Her eyes were moistened at the mention of her mother like a small baby had lost her mother in the Kumbh-Mela. He had seen it.

“I am sorry. I don’t think I did anything wrong,” he said. He threw a look at the cash counter where his manager was collecting cash from the customer and beaming a soft face at them. His heart was breaking in small fragments because if his manager knew he had taken advantage of the customer, his position will be replaced immediately. He was aware of it. In fact, he was an MBA graduate, earned his degree two years back, but didn’t get a job in any of the companies due to the recession. He became frustrated last year. He even thought of killing himself by taking heavy and pungent drugs. But God denied his entry into the heaven. His father brought him to the psychiatrist and told him he was always trying to kill himself, his mother was weeping next to him, clutching the edge of the sari in her mouth. Slowly Laxman had found a way to release himself from the clutches of satan. Even this job was recommended by his father’s friend. He wasn’t bothered to take this salesperson job, after all he had done Master of Business -Administration, you know.

Livita wiped her imperceptible tears with the back of her hands like a school kid and said, “Nothing, I am all right. But it will take me seventy days to reach my mother,” she said with a soulful voice.

Laxman blinked. There were so many thoughts running in the background of his brain. Even if she belongs to the US, it would hardly take two days to reach there. Is there any other place in the world that would take seventy days to reach through flight?

“Have you come from Canada?” he asked, for his abysmal knowledge it was the distant place he had seen in the maps.

There was a wild shake from her.

He took a shallow breath and said, “Are you from Russia?” There was a reason why he had asked this question, because he had seen the accent she spoke was mixed with Russian blood.

There was another shake of her head.

He straightened this time. He stopped asking queries. He was even ready to take half day leave to know something about this girl. He was piqued by the indifferent answers coming from her.

“Wait a second,” he said and rushed to meet his manager, who was now writing something on the notepad. Maybe he was calculating how much collection he had gotten from the morning.

“Sir,” Laxman said in a polite voice.

“Yes,” the manager stretched his neck. But there was a grating eye response from him.

“I need half day leave,” Laxman said.

“Why?”

“I wanted to take my girlfriend to hospital. She is not feeling well,” he said.

The manager scratched his imperceptible beard with his fingers and said, “What?”

“Yes, sir,” he pointed his finger at Livita who was standing near the counter. “She has eye problem and it should be treated. Now we have planned to go to Dr. Agarwal eye hospital. She had already booked an appointment today,” he said, feeling unblemished by the lie he had spoken now.

“Is it?” the manager gave him a squeezed look and turned his head at Livita, who was stammered where she stood. He tried to understand what happened to her eyes by looking at it. He couldn’t know what the real problem was. He was perplexed. “What happened to her eyes? She looks all right.”

“No sir, she is suffering from cataract and can’t even see the people who are standing opposite to her. Not only that, but her eyes have turned bluish too. The last time when we had gone to see the doctor, he told the operation should be done as soon as possible, but that time she didn’t have money. Yes, she doesn’t have parents, sir. She is an orphan. I have to take care of her. That’s why I told her to wait until I receive my salary today,” Laxman said. He wondered why he was pouring all the information to him. It may not be required. But when he saw his manager, his tongue was automatically swabbing inside his mouth to speak such lies at a tremendous speed.

There was a speck of tear stood at the edge of the manager’s eyelid and said, “Oh, I am sorry. I have forgotten to give your salary. You should have told me in the morning itself, right? That’s okay,” he fumbled his hands in the cash drawer and pulled a bunch of two thousand rupees and handed it to him. He didn’t even count it properly.

“Thank you, sir,” Laxman said appreciatively while bent at his back.

“God bless both of you,” the manager said and looked at Livita again. He thought she would stop by him, but she didn’t. She was waiting for Laxman.

“Sir, shall I take a leave now?” Laxman said politely. His voice soaked in honey.

“Of course. Please go to hospital and catch the doctor to operate her eyes immediately. If you need more money, you just send me whatsapp message. I will be there for you,” the manager said.

Laxman was feeling greatly elevated. He had never had such an overwhelming feeling about his manager, but for the first time. It was like he had eaten a heavy dinner in a five star hotel. His stomach was protruded a bit too. He gave him a warm nod and walked down to take Livita’s hands to get out of here. But when he came close to her, he had felt vibrations in the bottom of his gut, and he had dropped the idea of taking her hands immediately.

“Shall we go out?” he asked.

Livita was happy to get a companion. She gave him a head shake, but she wasn’t overexcited like him.

Laxman lead her out of this textile. The manager beamed at him, his hands shivered to say bye to them.

They got out of that place. They both caught a bus and went to the coffee shop. Laxman was a rich fellow now, and he can do anything he wanted for her.

The orange color plastic tables weren’t smooth but had some uneven surface to give grip to the hands. It was intentionally made and it gave an enriched look to the customers. The chairs had wooden back, but its legs were made of steel.

“What can I order for you?” Laxman asked her slowly.

She gave a trivial look which meant she didn’t understand what he had meant.

Laxman took a long breath, because he was aware that a daring task was lying upfront. He grabbed the menu card and passed it to her. She took it and not a single word she could understand. Though she was able to speak English, the alphabets weren’t in their list. In fact, she had never gone to school. All the learning had come from her parents.

The waiter came and stood behind them, waiting for the order.

“One Espresso for me,” Laxman said and looked at Livita, who gave an empty look. He was slightly pissed off this time. He turned his gaze at the waiter and asked him, “Please make it two.”

“What the f……….” the blasphemous word was swallowed. He switched into caressing tone. “Tell me who you are? Are you an alien or what?”

Livita shook her head gently saying yes.

There was enormous blood rush that struck his heart when he heard this. Until now he thought she had some trouble in her personal life or she was depressed or something. But the word alien had damaged his brain for sure. He had least expected such a response from her.

“Is it?” his eyes were growing to the size of mangoes, “I can’t believe it. Don’t joke.”

“It’s the truth,” she said it in a striking balance.

His upper cheeks were already showing some weariness on hearing this. He didn’t know what he should do now. Should I escape from here without paying bill? Should I keep hanging with this alien until she drew blood from my lungs? No, why she had come to the shop? Has she planned to murder me in front of everyone so that people will be frightened by the arrival of aliens? Thousands of questions buzzed on his head now. He struggled to even take a proper breath.

He tried to stand up, but her hand crawled slowly and touched his hand. The touch was very firm. But Laxman felt one megawatt of current passed through his spine and made his legs shiver for a few seconds.

“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt anyone. That’s not my job. I came here to seek happiness,” she said. Her words immediately brought soothing effect to his wounded heart.

Her promising words gave him an edge of confidence that he won’t be hurt by her. But still some creepy doubts were poking his brain maliciously.

“No, I can’t believe you. Why should an alien come to India to seek my happiness? There is something wrong,” he gave a wild shake to his head.

The waiter came up with the large Styrofoam cups of Espresso and placed it on the table. Livita paused for a few seconds before she said, “Because I am a failure and I am a poor girl who doesn’t know how to lead her life along with her insecurities. I don’t know anything other than my mother and our Syculia planet. But God knows why I had seen him and fallen love with him immediately. He is no more. He has gone.”

Laxman didn’t even take a sip of coffee as he looked at her. He didn’t like to probe further her feelings. Earlier he wondered if an alien would have any feelings like humans had. But now he realized they were just like any other person here, though their physical appearance was quite different from us.

“Who is that guy? Did he cheat you?” he pondered over this question before he threw it at her.

An enlightening chuckle came from her, and the people from other tables gave a silly look and started fiddling with their partner’s fingers. But Laxman had seen the powerful pain in her eyes. He knew she was smiling just to make herself calm. But he didn’t fail to notice how beautiful she was. It wasn’t easy for any boy to get buoyed by the whooping glance of the girls like her. She was really a power packed house and had all the qualities to make a beautiful actress on the screen. But she won’t believe it even if a producer would come by and give her a chance. No, she wasn’t the girl to get seduced by the flattery. It would never happen.

“If he had cheated me, I would have torn all the memories I had in my mind the same day. Why should I grieve for him like this? Nobody in our planet had stolen my heart just like that. He did. He had such a piercing heart to make me unconscious and steal all my dreams with him. Yes, I had fallen in love when I had met him for the first day. He was a great space scientist in our planet and his talents always made us proud. He had discovered so many new theories and helped our planet to design powerful spacecrafts before he lost in the black hole,” a wave of silence stood between them before she said, “I can’t live without him there and that’s why I had jumped out of my planet.”

Laxman fumbled what to say next. He had no idea about the spacecraft and black hole. Even in his school he had feared about the science subject, clearly he wasn’t born to learn it. But he knew how to console someone who is going through terrible feelings. But he was novice in girls’ matter. He struggled to open up.

“I am sorry,” that’s all he can say now. He thought these were the safest words anyone could say to anybody without hurting them.

“Shall we go somewhere?” she said, she kept down the coffee cup on the table with a slow thump. “I came here to forget about my past. But I don’t think it’s happening here.”

Laxman’s cheeks bitten for a second, he thought he had aggravated her feelings by speaking in a grungy way.

“Yeah, we will go,” he said. He paid the bill on the leather server book, and waved his hand at the waiter to take it. Then he stood up and immediately booked a taxi to go to the movie theatre.

The climate had seen a sudden change. The clouds were swarming in the sky and a strong wind blew across the roads. The tall trees swayed generously and leaves started falling on the ground.

“Wow, it’s so cool here. Just like how our planet is,” Livita said as folded her hands on her bosom and enjoyed this moment like a very young girl. First time, he had seen joy in her eyes. It was abounding and gave him a wave of delight. He stood next to her just seeing what she was doing. She circled round and round, like a bird, with her dress flapping around her. People looked at her crazily as if she had lost her mind, but threw a smile at her.