Up, up… and above!

November 4, 2014 October 10, 2016 by Vinodini in 17 Comments
For a long long time her longing eyes were on them. That patch in the distance that went rampant with excitement everyday for hours together, dotted with popping bright colors, throwing myriad flashes of lights faraway in the horizon. She cocked her ears to the echoing squeals of thrill and pleasure oscillating to peaks of anguish and horror. It would bring an amused smirk on her face. Those gigantic machines that breathed life into the snaking, spiraling monsters that induced all kinds of varied chaotic emotions across the masses who alighted them, no matter which age group they belonged to, leaving little Aasma curious. Very curious actually.


“How could a bunch of motorized machines generate the kind of euphoria she witnessed every single day?” she wondered from where she saw it all.Right from the time of the inception of this colossal fancy adventure park on the highway across her little village that catered to the urban developments around the village, she had her sights on the mechanical sources of pleasure that people thronged in to experience, ready to fight all the panic that came rushing with the speed and heights the rides pumped them with. She pestered her Baba to take her in there, but unfortunately they were shooed off from the magnificently elaborate entrance gate itself. The forbidden heaven that seemed like a gateway to some kind of a dreamlike fairyland meant for a few fortunate ones. Apparently, your money meter decided whether you were eligible enough to enter the premises that beheld the promises of unbridled rush of joy and excitement.

The rich and privileged ones from affluent places nearby were seen zooming into this mystical adventure land in their flashy swanky cars. Aasma would watch in wonder from her courtyard every evening as the pitch of their voices rose in a unison of excited yelps while they slid helplessly winding down the treacherous roller-coaster rides. Treacherous – because, on one such fateful day, the roller-coaster decided to go by its own mind and refused to obey any orders. And that led to the goriest accident that the naive villagers had ever witnessed in their vicinity. Loss of lives and blood had brought the life-taking rides to a halt. But only temporarily. After all, someone had invested their monies in the project and they ensured that they sucked out the fruits of their invested wealth even at the cost of innocent lives. Lives of those who were out to have some harmless fun that costed them much more than a few thrills.

Her Baba had a solution for everything. The makeshift joy ride that he had made for her with his deft fingers to compensate for his inability to afford her whim to visit the adventure park had turned out be much beyond her expectations. The pure elation that gushed through her, every single time she pushed herself back to launch herself forth to aim for the sky was a feeling words could never describe. It surpassed all the promised joys that an expensive roller-coaster ride could ever offer her. This was her own personal secure joy ring of adventure – much simpler yet more fun than any roller-coaster ride. She dug her naked toes on the ground below in preparation for yet another swing high above, raising a tiny cloud of dust. Nestling her tiny frame in the rubber tyre that hung on a rope from a huge Neem tree that stood in their courtyard, Aasma sent herself flying yet again in glee in the blue windy skies….up, up…and above!