Strangely, the only question that popped up in his mind when the end of the world was declared was, “What about breakfast tomorrow?” Neel didn’t want to face it with a hungry stomach. He had just finished lunch when the news flashed on the screen. A minute later he paid more attention to it.
“The sun won’t rise again on our world tomorrow,” the news anchor said. It broke the silence in the canteen next to the college library where Neel sat every afternoon. Many around him stood up.
“What about my thesis presentation tomorrow?” Neel thought.
Neel’s thesis presentation was scheduled tomorrow. Now that the world was ending, it will have to be rescheduled, he reckoned. But to when? He couldn’t answer that. “What time should I wake up tomorrow now?” he wondered.
He momentarily speculated if there was any reason for him to wake up early tomorrow. Or wake up at all. He watched the news again. This time when he saw everyone relaying the same news, another question popped up in his mind. “Were the TV channels doing this to increase viewership?”
But the government had declared it. Not just his but all the world governments had. Even hers. That seemed to be the one thing over which the two countries and their governments had agreed.
It was all over TV and the media. Everyone was talking about it. So it must be true, he thought.
So was the world really going to end before he finished his last year at college? Was he not going to be able to finish his course? It was just a few months away. All the work adding up to nothing? Was the world really going to end? It hit him hard this time.
A big celestial object was going to crash into Jupiter, they said. The impact was going to be so huge that Jupiter would break into a few pieces. The result would be a huge tsunami of tremors on Earth shaking its place in space and leading to its dislocation, pushing it outside its solar orbit.
No one knew what would happen after that. But scientists said that the Sun wouldn’t rise on Earth. The world as we know it would end soon. Opinions varied vehemently on whether the end would happen instantaneously or would stretch over a painstaking few cold and dark days. The experts kept arguing. But with the Sun playing truant, no one gave the world more than those few days.
The end of the world was going to start tomorrow at approximately 10 AM local time.
Neel was sure he didn’t want to die hungry and cold, at least. He thought he should get some food and, maybe, a sweater and a shawl from the neighbourhood store outside campus. If he survived by chance, he didn’t want to end up feeling cold. As it is, winters in his university town were unbearable even with the Sun. He walked out.
On second thought, he felt he should pick up another shawl and some food for Farah too. But he wasn’t sure that they would get used. Would she come along with him now that the end was…?
She hadn’t said yes so far. Well, to be fair to her, he hadn’t asked her the question so far.
He knew his parents won’t accept her. It was too much to ask a fiercely patriotic army Dad and a ritualistic, God-fearing Mom to accept someone from across the border. An enemy country. An enemy religion. An enemy culture. Neel had stopped short of asking Farah the question due to that. She knew that too. She had similar doubts regarding her side of the family too. It was risky.
Silence had prevailed between them for far too long due to that, though their hearts spoke the same language. While pursuing their common interests and common dreams at university, they knew that their hearts beat together. But they had shackled that voice with the lid of their fears, accepting their destiny, taking no steps towards each other.
Neel picked up the shawl for Farah and held it close. He decided to trust his heart this one time.
The phones, TV and the internet would stop working soon, the news said. The satellites would stop relaying. Somehow he couldn’t get through to Mom and Dad, till his phone rang out of the blue.
“All flights are full, I can’t get a ticket for you,” Dad said in palpable panic. “I am pulling all strings,” the Colonel yelled into the phone.
“I will stay in my room. I love you, Dad and Mom,” he told them. But they weren’t ready for goodbyes. Nowhere close to it, in fact. It was too short a notice that this celestial object had given.
“No, take a car and leave for home,” Mom shouted, albeit in a teary-eyed voice. “All these years in the army, and can’t you even send a car to get my son home?” She shouted angrily at his father.
Neel felt her pain. But their fights were nothing new. His childhood had been peppered with them.
“I am trying my best. Isn’t he my son?” the Colonel yelled. “Neel, I will make arrangements.”
“When? After the world ends? After Lord Shiva is here?” his mom lashed out again impatiently.
“Don’t worry. Nothing like this is going to happen, stay strong, Son,” the Colonel said, his voice choking this time with desperate helplessness.
“But Mom.. Dad.. We don’t have much time,” he tried to argue.
“Leave now I said. Hire a car. Don’t wait for all these arrangements. My Shiva will take care of you. I have prayed to Him all my life. After the impact tomorrow, even the phones will stop working….,” she said in anguish. Her voice cracked, there was a lot of disturbance and the phone disconnected.
Neel looked blankly into the emptiness in front of him, and within him. Everything seemed like an illusion now. Did it matter? What really mattered? What was he to do? What did he want?
Neel remembered Farah. That thought gave him all the solace he needed in this grim moment.
“The world as we know it is going to end tomorrow,” he re-affirmed after he rushed to Farah’s room.
“Yes, it’s all over the news. Is it really going to happen?” she asked in her soft, tranquil voice.
“I don’t know. But what if it does?” he asked, with his eyebrows raised and a twinkle in his eyes.
“And what if it doesn’t?” she put across a counter question.
He paused for a moment and crunched his lips. Was it the right time for him to move ahead? Was time really running out? Was she thinking what he was?
“Does it change anything for you?” he gathered some courage from within.
“No. It doesn’t change anything for me. I know what I want. It is getting clearer now,” she replied with a curled lip. “And for you?”
“No, for me, too. I know what I want, who I want,” he said with a twisted mouth. He could see the beginnings of a smile on the dimple on her cheek. “And for us?” he asked.
“For us? Time is.. well.. running out. Is it not?” she muttered, under her breath, fixing her gaze alternately between his eyes and the floor.
“So now is the time, isn’t it?” he asked with a whisper in her ears, getting a step closer.
“If not now, when?” she implored, looking into his eyes, feeling his breath on her cheeks.
He hugged her tight. She didn’t make any attempt to resist. She held on for longer than he thought.
“Mom and Dad called,” he said.
“Mine too,” she replied.
“What do you think?”
“About what?”
“Should we go home?”
“Will it be okay?”
“I am not sure.”
“Even with the world ending?”
Neel shrugged his shoulders. They decided to hire a car, nevertheless, and drive together all the way to Neel’s house. Maybe it was worth taking a chance.
On the way they saw that the petrol pumps were empty, but people still waited in a large queue. The bank ATMs had dried up when he tried to get some cash. Neel checked that the car didn’t have enough fuel for them to last all the way home. He had some cash, but they needed it for dinner.
“People are filling their cars and their pockets when the world is going to end,” he smiled impishly.
“I wonder where they will go with it,” she smiled.
“Don’t think we can drive home,” Neel said.
“Maybe we shouldn’t, even if we could,” Farah replied in a serene voice, surprising Neel.
“Yeah.. Maybe we shouldn’t, I think,” he said, his mind filled with thoughts of Mom and Dad. He turned the car around. They changed their plan. “Might as well have a good last meal,” he said.
“Makes sense, not a bad idea,” she said with a faint smile on her lips.
They went to the closest shop to pick up some food. They saw that all the essentials were stocked out. They wondered what people were stocking up for.
“If the world really ended tomorrow, they won’t need all this, isn’t it?” he asked.
“And if it didn’t end, they would get it later anyway, isn’t it?” she asked.
They burst out laughing in the middle of the sombre silence of the shop. It was no time for logic.
“So?” he asked.
“Just take something for dinner,” she said.
“And maybe for breakfast and lunch tomorrow?” he asked.
“Yeah. And a couple of days after that? What if the end starts a bit late?” she said.
“Just to be safe?” he asked.
“Yes,” she giggled.
They picked it up and went back to the car. Neel drove in silence. He had dropped her so often this way over the past couple of years after working late together in the library.
“You want to come over?” Neel asked when they reached her place. “The end of the world is near,” he added. Farah paused for a moment thinking it over. Her mind was filled with thoughts of her family, her country, her culture, all of which bound her, all of which seemed far away now.
“And what if the world doesn’t end?” she asked.
“Well… You don’t want to have any regrets if it does,” he said with an impish smile again.
“I will be back in a few minutes,” she said and jumped off. She came back with a packed suitcase and some other stuff in her hand in a few minutes. He smiled and hugged her tight again.
He parked his car and they walked to his place, hand in hand. He stepped inside and switched on the lights. She followed in small but firm steps without any hesitation.
Within the confines of their room with each other for company, they felt complete. They weren’t looking for anything else in the world outside. They felt they had all they wanted inside.
Neel pushed the door of the room and closed it on the world. Without a care in the world, they held hands and sat in silence. Time stood still. It didn’t matter now, if the end of the world was near.
***