i have a dream of one day being able to make the world realise the importance of truth. lies have engulfed us to such an extent that we lie without even noticing and if accused of lying, we simply deny it and with such force as if we are the only truthful people in this world. i would like to change that.

i've dreamt of one day making everyone realise that lying is not helping them in any way. we establish relationships through lying. if a relation is to be started using lies then what is the point. it all will one day come to the person you lied to and then you will be left with nothing. you will be standing from where you first began. i dream that one day we will be living in a world free of lies and pretensions. people would not change themselves to fit in the society but rather make their mark and the world will make place for them. one day, when the sun rises, it will be the first sunrise of a truthful and lie-free world. a new era will begin; an era of truth being devoid of lies. this is my dream.

The man had come knocking on my doorstep the morning i had put the ad in the local newspaper that i was giving the top floor of my house on rent. it had been obnly ten in the morning and i had my first client. that hardly ever was the case ever since i had put my house's top floor on rent. i asked for the rentals that were not so small an amount but i sure did justice to my clients for my house was not like the most ordinary ones.

my parents had left me this mansion of a house when they died and i got lonely so i put its third or top floor on rent. the previous family who rented my house were like my onw family but they had to move in with some other relatives so i had to put an ad in the newspaper. it had only been almost three hours since the newspaper got out and a man had knocked on my door.

he seemed quite in a hurry to sign the contract and other major stuff so i asked if he had thought this through to which he gruffly replied that it was no concern of mine and that he was very well aware of the rent i had put up. he appeared some kind of a dealer. his appearance only sent negative wibes to the audience. but since he put no request and seemed that he would be minding his own business so i let him stay. i showed hi around the house and when i was finished he just shut the door on my face; like he owned the place. but time passed and he did not cause any disturbance. it seemed wierd how he was never late in paying the rentals. at the start of every month, there was an envelope with the proposed amount(of the rentals) sitting on my kitchen counter. my suspicions never died but one morning when i got up a little early i could hear footsteps coming down the stairs. he came down and had three other men with him and they were deeply in conversation. he was scolding them about some shipment not being on time when i heard one of them mention the names of some drugs. thats when i realised where all the money was coming from and why he sounded so suspicious from the start.they saw me dashing for the phone. i called the police and informed them about the situation when one of the men grabbed me by the arm and threw me to the floor. he started beating me and moments later i blacked out.

When i opened my eyes i was in a hospital and my renter was there standing with a doctor and a police officer. what they said next completely took me by surprise; the man who had rented my house was actually working as a spy for the police and had brought a very dangerous drug mafia to the surface. he had been working with the dealers to gain their trust so that he could expose them properly to the world.

they thanked me for all i did although i do not doing anything in helping them but i accepted their gratitude nonetheless. it was really a lot to take in. my head throbbed and that is when the doctor injected some kind of medicine into my arm and i blacked out again. some days later there was news of a gang being exposed and they said the police thanks a young girl for her precious contribution; and they were all saying my name and for some unknown reason thanking me.

LOVE. This four letter word has almost the entire world dancing on its finger tips. We all have loved or deeply cared about someone rather it be our family, friends or someone entirely different but what we have not considered is that how easily we have overlooked

the reasons behind the blossoming of the feelings; the sentiments we have valued over dear life. We forgot the reason behind this unprecented affection we somewhat unknowingly developed. Why we loved is still beyond the most minds dwelling in this universe for they are so packed up in the crises they created for themselves to even look beyond what is not going to be in their favour.

At the same time, there are some who still recognise the purpose of us being sent to this world; to create love within ourselves and among the people of this world. We love so that we may have a reason for striving in this world for this love gives us the provocation we are most deliberately eager to find. This inexplicable love gives us a reason to live and to fight for it resides within the deepest recesses of our conscience. so that is what she said to them;

" love unconditionally for we truly live to love"

it happened on the day of my last exam when i had a rough night. when i woke up to get ready for school, mother and father told me that they were going out of station and will be back the next day, i had to hail a taxi. the moment it stopped outside the institute i opened the door and was about to get out when my cell phone accidently slipped from my hand and slid under the seat. i bent down to retrieve it and was about to step out of the vehicle when when a bike crashed into the open car door. the rider on the bike collapsed on the ground and his bike's peddle hit his calf which caused him to limp. there in front of my eyes were the bike and the taxi driver lashing each other with i could not guess what for my mind had gone numb. if i had come out at that moment i would have faced an entirely different fate. consequently, the warden came to resolve the situation and i took it as my indication to leave.

that day, i do not know what i wrote in my exam. when i came out of the exam hall, my friend engulfed me in a hug. we had not had a chance to talk since the finals had neered and it was about three week ago. sho noticed my tense stature and raised her eyebrows asking what had caused this mood of mine. i told her and what she said next made me realize how grateful i should be to the creator for granting me this blessed life.

she said, "then i think i'll have to tell the world how gratefull i am for you being part of me for there will always be a part of you in me. always"

that day i realized how much i have loved and should value my life.

At a distance.

When she closes her eyes, she sees everything; everything that she ever wanted to see. Whatever she felt was missing she could always see it, and almost feel it when she closed her eyes from the world. Something being beyond her reach did not mean that she could not be there in her imagination for imagination could sometimes lead to profound and vivid aspects of living that could somehow not be explored otherwise.

Her imagination made many things come to the surface for it was the only place where nobody bothered her; distracted her from her interests. She could travel through the places of her desire with the most amazing panoramas and no one was there to spoil anything. Imagination made many things clear to her. She always imagined dialogues about situations that troubled or rattled her, not always clear why but by those imagined dialogues she found some peace and ease. And tranquility.

The Dream.

It was during our vacation that strange things started happening, things that I could not exactly explain. It first happened when I along with my mother and father reached the hotel where we were going to stay during our trip to the valley. I was fifteen. We entered the hotel and got the keys for the suite father had booked. It was all not very lush but I had not even wanted a very expensive one so I was happy. Then, as I was about to enter, following my parents someone grabbed my hand. I looked down and there was nobody. I could still feel the grasp of a hand, cold and hard, the grasp getting tighter and tighter. I tried to move my hand but I couldn't. I had only one option left. Scream. And the moment I did, my parents came running out followed by the manager who had heard my scream. The moment they came my hand went free and all was back to normal. Except when I looked at my hand. It was red and my palm bled. Mother instantly took me inside and wrapped a bandage around my palm after treating it with some first aid stuff. By this time my hand was swollen. Now mother asked, "what happened? how did you get your hand injured so bad?" father was standing beside her, looking at my hand. "I don't know mother, I was just following you when I felt someone grab my hand but I saw nobody. It wouldn't even move and it was so tight I could not bear it so I screamed but the moment you came it got loose but it still pained. After that, you know." Mother looked worried but father said, "you must have hit somewhere,it's alright. Get some rest and you'll be fine."

I went to sleep. That night I had a vexing dream that swept all the sleep away from me. In the dream, I was with my mother and father on a vacation and during a hike to the mountain, I got some distance behind my parents. They called to me and I said I'll be there. But then I saw something. Or someone. It stood behind a tree on which was carved something but I could not read it. On the foot of the tree there were pictures of me and my parents on our vacation six years ago but we had come home early than as planned because mother had fallen ill. Then the marks on the tree started to clear up. A name. Mother's. I put my hand over it and somebody grabbed it. It was a dream but I could feel the pain surging through my hand and travel all the way to my body. And I woke up. It was a dream.  But then I screamed, real loud which made my parents come running. As they came, they saw me pointing to the wall in front of me while blood dripped from my bandaged hand. Mother turned on the light. There was on the wall the exactly what I saw in my dream. Mother almost screamed on seeing my injured hand and father gazed at the wall, his face becoming pale. 

The next moment I was telling them what I saw in my dream. When I finished, mother said,"do you remember six years ago when we went on that vacation vacation and had to come home early because i was ill?"she paused, "well, I was not ill. You see, what you saw in your dream was actually part of the reasons we had come home. You see, what is happening with you was exactly what started happening to me when we came here. Someone, we do not know who, but someone was using dark spirits to hurt us really bad. This time, they are doing it through you. Someone is after us. We thought we could be safe after all these years, but we were wrong. And now they are trying to get to you, and through you, get to us." Just as mother stopped, father's phone rang. After putting it down he said, "Our house. The farms. The storehouse. Somebody's put it all on fire."

Yet.

The last time I saw her she was going up the stairs to the second floor where the others were  already waiting for her. I was sitting at the floor of the stairs, staring on the wall in front of me; waiting for her. She came. I got up to greet her, she shook my hand, gave the forced smile and then climbed up the stairs. I stood there, my hand stationary in mid air just as she had left it. I was baffled. Dazed. I had been waiting for her for an hour sweating in the scorching heat of June and yet she just walked away. Hitherto she had always known what my gestures meant but this time she did not say she understood. 

I needed to hear her voice, to hear her say that she cared. To see that tacit expression of hers that made my existence seem real. 

I stared at her as she silently walked away, her hair moving behind her as she climbed the stairs.Those were the longest ten seconds of my life. I stood there in confusion, forgetting that I was at the edge of one of the steps. As she reached the the second floor, she stopped there and turned and looked back at me. She was sad. Her face said it. She held out a paper in her hand, wrote something on it and folded it. She looked back at me one last time and then disappeared. 

Later that evening, a man came to my house. "I was asked to deliver this to you." It was an envelope. "May I get you something?" "No, no,"he said, "I should be going."And he left.

The envelope had a note inside it. It said;

"I'm sorry. And yes, I understand."

Beyond all.

"What do you think beauty means?" I asked her. Smiling, she raised an eyebrow, "what made you ask me this,"she said, smiling,"look there." She pointed to one of my paintings on the wall."You drew the view of the street you get from your window just before dawn, why did you paint it?"  "I do not know, I liked it I guess that is why,"I said. Then she said,"you see, you painted it because you saw something in it that made you put it on the canvas. Beauty is not in something or in someone. It is in the eyes." 

She was beautiful, but nobody saw her. She saw everybody but nobody saw her, at least not truly. She loved everybody but never got the rightly deserved care and love. The spring in her tread, the quiet gleam of her eyes, the subtle softness of her stare were all so beautiful to fall for but never did she receive much praise that could be given to her. She would stand and look around her; taking in all that she wished to remember. They all said good words in front of her but in reality they despised her. Hated her, saying that she was not beautiful but pathetic, that she was not their class. Beauty was what could be seen in her, in her ways. She always said that the courage she got for work came from the all the people who loved and respected her, prayed for her. 

I always wondered how she could not know what the people really thought of her. She was simple but not blind to not know the real faces of the community. She was what you could actually call as being human because she cared for morals and emotions.

I remember one day when during the rain she slipped while rushing for her house, a neighbor saw her but did not come to help, pretending not to have noticed. They all lied to her, forgetting that she too was alive, with a beating heart.With every crossing day she became lonely for she lived alone in the house and nobody ever payed much attention to her when she talked about her philosophies. One day, a man came to speak with the important members of the community, and said that a girl who lived in their neighborhood recently passed away and that she left somethings for them. Everyone received something of her that they were jealous of. She left a statement for everyone; "Give. So that you may get a chance to accept."

They never accepted her beauty, but she accepted all they said about her. Gradually, she entered into that cloud of despair that took her away from us. Far away.

He/She woke up.....

She woke up to the sound of something breaking to the floor. It felt like it came from the kitchen. She went and saw the little duckling sculpture crashed to the floor. Somebody moved behind her. She turned but saw nothing.

 She went to her room; the lights had been turned on though she remembered turning them off. As she got back into bed, she could not pull the sheets over her. Yawning, she shifted to the other side and in the moonlight shining through the window, she saw the back of a dark shadowy figure. She rushed and switched on the lights but the bed was empty. She let out a breath. She peered out through the door and there was the shadow, its back towards her. It pointed to the kitchen, all the lights had somehow been turned on. When she didn't move, it pushed her straight to the kitchen right in front of the duckling sculpture on the shelf; apiece."But how?"she put a finger on it and the lights went out.

The next moment she was falling and landed somewhere real hard. A hand on her shoulder. She turned and screamed, then silence fell.