Phoenix Moment

The phoenix in the painting of the wall seemed like it moved. ‘Is it my imagination?’

Is it a signal that she should take it up? God I should stop thinking like this, maybe it’s the overdose of Bollywood movies or hindi serials that’s giving me these kinda thoughts.

Marisha was a high flying corporate employee who climbed up the corporate ladder at great speed. She was always excited and full of ideas and hence used to be included in all the important meetings internal and with clients. She had the rare distinction of being liked by people above her and her co-workers. She was easy to work with and at the same time came up with some great plans. In 10 years’ time she was at the brink of reaching the top rung of management. She was happy with herself and gave herself a treat by taking a trip to Bulgaria. She was always the adventurous kind and wanted to try something different. So this time it was this trip with her school mates to this European country. They planned for days together and the highlight for their trip was that they would be skiing and it was peak winter. However the one thing that was unplanned was that her best friend sweety would fall of the peak and go missing as it was very difficult to conduct search operations. By the time they found her body a week later the entire group of friends were heartbroken and were hardly talking. Marisha efficiently managed all the work with the authorities and managed to take back Sweety’s body. Back home she took up taking care of Sweety’s parents and helping them manage everything and coping with loss.

As to the outside world Marisha was her usual efficient self nobody could see that with Sweety something inside Marisha was lost. It was not because Sweety was her only best friend or something like that. It was that she saw death first time so close to her rather she was seeing ‘life’ going away for the first time. She herself did not realize that she was any state of depression. Next month when she was given a promotion she declined telling she thought she needed more time in the current role. Though it came as a shock to all she was otherwise as easy at work as always. At home it was a total different scenario ; her parents were seeing a total different side of her. She was scared of going out with friends, going to office, going on a journey, planes , using equipment etc; anything and everything. They initially thought it was a phase but as after 6 months she was still the same they started getting worried. This was the time when her aunt who was her idol in her formative years came to stay with them for a few days. Her aunt realized and told her that she should meet a psychologist a get some help. Though Marisha did not believe she is depressed nor that she needs help did she meet one to indulge her aunt. Initially reluctant and later friendly sessions with the doc brought back the old Marisha.

As she was looking at the painting of Phoenix again and back to the email which was telling her that she’s being given the Global head for her company and that she needs to relocate to Bulgaria for the role she remembered the entire series of events.

A month later at the airport bidding her family a bye she was the same confident person who boarded the flight 6 months. Yes, she did feel it was her ‘Phoenix’ moment.

Startled

                                                                

Being the weekend as always she had made plans of going out. This day it was a music show; it was the first time that her daughter would be attending one. She was really excited to take her for it. As she was a music enthusiast she had a ray of hope that her daughter would eventually be one. She packed snacks for her daughter, change of clothes and some comfort toys to keep her entertained in case she gets bored.           Her mother, an uncle and aunt were also joining them for the show as this was a niche singer at the helm.

In the evening being her punctual self she started atleast 2 hrs earlier anticipating all kinds of traffic jam or any other blocks and reached venue an hour earlier. The venue was at the outskirts of the city and hence a huge place. As they entered they saw boats inside a pool kind of a place getting treated . There was a weird smelling mist around the place. They did not give it much of a thought and went to the entrance. As they were early and the seats were already booked there was no need to rush, however the doors to the hall would open only 5 mins before the show. This also means that the show would start half an hour after that; IST ‘ugh’. How people enjoy being late for everything and still think that’s the most irrelevant aspect of social life.

As the heat in the city was unbearable she thought of waiting just outside the hall with her daughter as it was cooler there. Mom, uncle and aunt went out to grab a bite as uncle had directly come from work and really needed an energy booster. Her daughter was happy to be outside as she also hates being locked inside the apartment and liked seeing new people and new places (but with her mom around).

After maybe about half an hour as her daughter was getting restless she thought of going out and finding her folks. The sun had set and it was cooler outside. As she stepped out the weird smelling mist hit her and she thought; why would they do something like this on the day of the show? However with her daughter tugging at her hands she moved forward and instead of moving in the direction of the canteen she went on a stroll towards the back side of the hall which is usually pretty deserted. As she sat by a bench and let her daughter run around the lawn. Suddenly she realized the mist had thickened and she went closer to her daughter to take her back. As they were going to walk back they spotted a deer and then another and then another and in a minute they were all running towards them. She picked her daughter and started towards the hall; realizing they had wandered towards the end of the lawn and also to their horror the start of the forest. She knew that she should not be running and was quickly wondering what to do to get time for the guards to come for help and at the same time distract or scare the deer. She rummaged into her handbag and suddenly her hand spotted her daughter’s whistle. She knew that this was it, the noisy thing which is really loud and normally irritates her might actually be the perfect thing for now. She started blowing the whistle non-stop. The deer were startled and stopped in their tracks and also started moving back a few steps. In about 5 mins from the corner of her eyes she saw that about 2 guards were rushing towards them. She didn’t stop the whistling until they were there and then she just ran outside the lawn. The guards were trained for handling such situations being close to the forest. She hugged her daughter and went towards the hall and saw her folks waiting outside the hall.

As she opened her eyes she realized that she was dreaming. Of course Bangalore and spotting deer outside a hall where a music show is happening. Come on. Anyways she quickly rushed her daughter to get up as she had to reach the show on time.