The Death Prize

It is getting boring with each passing day; at least the monotonous job, which I am pursuing, is not getting me anywhere. I thought of the college days, then were the days when there were no restrictions, tensions etc; those were the fun filled days, with many friends around—we used to enjoy each moment. I wished that somehow I get a chance to meet those friends again. It would be very refreshing to meet them again. But, I knew, I would not be able to meet them since, except 1-2 friends, all others were either outside India or outside Mumbai. I wondered, “Will the days of my life will go as it is going now”! I desperately wanted some break from the office work—if I consider I am doing any work. A good break might provide me some energy to continue with the job that I desperately want to quit, since other than this job I don’t have any alternative.

To get rid of the growing frustration that I am undergoing daily at the workplace, I started to explore different avenues; started playing football, badminton, cricket—with the colony friends. These activities helped me somewhat but, what I actually was missing, was the friends that I had left during my college days. But truly God is very kind; He listens to us when we require Him to listen the most. Exactly the same thing happened to me; I was checking my mails after returning to home from my work, I was about to get a great surprise, it was the thing that I needed the most at that point of time, it was something that I would have not thought in my weirdest and wildest dreams. It was a mail from one of my college friends, and the subject was—2006 batch’s reunion. I was baffled and at the same time ecstatic. Ecstatic from the fact that I will once again meet my old friends and baffled because of the question that aroused in my mind –“how on such a short notice, people settled outside, can come to Mumbai in this short notice of 2 weeks?” From the above question it was clear that the reunion was after 2 weeks.

After the receipt of the mail, I gave up the question—“how people will come to Mumbai?” I started to channelize my thoughts towards the clothes that I would wear on the reunion. After contemplating for days and searching over 20 shops, I brought some great clothes with great price tags. I was happy with the shopping that I had done and I had the feeling that I should be in the best possible attire. Even I got to an extent of buying a new brand Samsonite’s shoe for Rs. 5750.

7th March came, the day, which I was waiting with a lot of eagerness and excitement. I wore the new clothes that I had bought along with the new shoes and used other accessories. I confidently went out of the home, but for the first time I wondered, how come I, without confirming even with a single person, was going to the meet. This thought made me look fool, I thought I would lend up alone at the venue, since there was only an email communication for the meet. But, since I had nothing to loose now, I went to the meeting place. To my wonder, here what I see? Most of the friends were already present at the venue, before time. It was feeling like a dream—from being an impossible thing it became possible within 2 weeks, I was thrilled to say the least. I started to meet my friends, one after the other; I wanted to meet all of them as quickly as possible—this just explains the curiosity that I had for this meet. Some of my friends came with their fiancé and some of them came with their girlfriends and some, like me, came alone. But in this process I just happened to notice the venue was decorated on a grand scale. And the most surprising part was the magic show that was organized on the stage, which was especially built for the occasion. I wondered, how could, such a grand event can be organized without any financial backup and that too within two weeks. I was very clueless and curious to know the answer. I raised this question to some of my friends who were beside me. They were too baffled by this question. After this, I forgot that I had come to meet my friends, the only thought that was moving in my mind at that point time was the background of such a large event.

But somehow, after sometime, I thought I should get rid of those thoughts and enjoy the occasion. At the same moment, the magic show started and the magician said, “ Let us begin the magic show with some startup tricks”. The initial magics that were performed were very mundane and boring. I thought that the magic show is such a nonsense, when considered that the magician was given such a big stage to perform.After some time my friends gave up the idea of watching the show, and we started to talk among ourselves.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the moment, except me, who was, it seemed, the only person glued to the magic show. I had the apprehension that there is something more to the show, something much bigger that is yet to happen. After some 1.5 hours of boring performances, the magician told us that let us play an interactive game. Now, I wondered, what he has in store for us. He said, “ let us play the statue game, and the last person who remains in the game will be awarded an exciting prize.” I was getting filed with an apprehensive feeling, I was very clueless about the game the magician wanted us to play. But my friends were excited about the game, they were curious to win. The game’s rule was that the magician will tell any color, and the people who will have that color on their clothes will try to touch others having that color. The person who gets touched first will become the statue. So suppose if the magician says blue color and say that 4 people have that color on their clothes, and then each one will try to touch the other 3 people with their fingers, this way only one person will remain, who will be touched, not first, by any one of the 4 people. After explaining the rules the magician said green, yellow, red, orange in the intial rounds. I was wearing blue jeans and white T-shirt. Due to which, I was safe till there were 3 players left. All other people were statue. No one was moving, everyone was acting like a perfect statue. The remaining three of us, who were safe in the game were having white colour on our clothes.


While waiting for the color that the magician was going to tell, I happened to see the time and it was 11.55 p.m. I was shocked to see that it was so late; it was almost 6 hours from time since I had come. But others were least concerned about this fact; friends who were acting as statues were happy in the statue’s role. The other two valid players were eager to win, they were too were unmoved by the time.

I just wondered and said to myself, “What is going on?” And one thing clicked to mind that some of the halogens were getting turned off automatically as the game was progressing. Now, I can see only two halogens that were lit. I could barely see the magician on the stage’s podium. I could just hear his loud laughter. I was very much terrified by his laughter; I wished that nothing bad happens to all of us. I saw around, moving head in a full 360 degree way, there was absolute darkness, except the two halogens. But it was shocking to see the other two friends, who just wanted to win the game. The magician’s words came in between in my thoughts. The magician said, “The game’s last colour is white”. On hearing white, I spontaneously touched the other two friends and they immediately became statue. I realized that I didn’t touch them to win the game but to tell them that we should go home, it has been very late. But, unknowingly I won the game. The magician announced, “Congrats!! You have won the game”.

I was nonchalant about the win and the prize, I wanted that all of my friends and I should go home. I told my friends that the game has ended and now they can come to their normal. But no one moved, it was unbelievable, I was not having the slightest clues. A terrifying feeling gripped, I just wondered, why other people are behaving in such an unconcerned manner and abnormally. I screamed and said, “ yaaron, game khatam hogayi hai, ghar chalo, ab natak karna band karo”. Then too no one moved. By this time I just made myself understand that there is much more to the events that are going on than I could see. The magician told me, “ man, you have won a prize, you should be ecstatic, but you seemed to be unhappy”. But anyways I should tell you that you have won a prize that no one could think off. “You have won a death”. On hearing this I was taken aback, I couldn’t make out any meaning out of the events that were going on. I pleaded to the magician, “Please make everyone normal and let us go home”. He said,” you take your prize and then everything will be normal, I have always given the prize whenever the game has been played and I don’t want to stop this streak, please choose the mode of death”. I wondered, “ how could a prize be a death”. I started to continuously plead him to let me go home, but he was having the view that I should take my prize. I could hear only the statement—“Your prize i.e death is awaiting, common come and take it”—and could hear after this statement a loud laughter.