Posters
There were posters around the whole city today and people were shouting and calling each other, telling about this mess. Kids were on unofficial holyday due to these situations. Parents didn’t force nobody.
There were thousands of posters. And there were different matters on these.
People were extreme because of these pieces of papers. They were reading these everywhere. Children were reading these, adults were reading these, teachers were reading, students were reading, doctors, engineers, drivers, officers and everyone. Newspapers were absent today for unknown reasons. Weekly magazines were absent. There was nothing to satisfy the morning hunger of reading except these posters. And people were really excited because these were different from each other and everyone was reading these with curiosity.
Posters were of different colors. Orange, green, red and white, pink, black and magenta, purple, green etc. Paper of the posters was high quality which kids and architects use in projects and charts. It wasn’t usual kite paper. Meant that lots of money was involved in this madness. Lots of money and lots of people because not one person could create such a huge spread in the short time of one single night.
There were things written on the posters and over many were pictures and photographs. There were photographs of circles that were circular in strange square-curvy way which was producing stress in mind if someone would look at it for more than a few seconds with interest. And there were many other shapes on many other posters. Irregular shapes of polygon-hexagon, unknown unseen animals which were bonded and separated from one another in a violent manner. Horrible-terrible graphics which could have been a good inspiration for science fiction movies. On some papers there were only dots, big and small, joined with one another in an unusual fashion which was irritating people because of its complexity and some strange kind of attraction.
It was more than the common interest of people which was bounding them to involve in this senseless activity. Sometimes animals over the posters seemed to be moving and children were so excited watching these. Some charts were blank deliberately as if someone wanted to give a break for thoughts to settle down and prepare for new dimensions.
Posters were flying in the sky due to the air at some places. Posters were on walls and schools and homes and roads, streets shops. Police were out everywhere in few minutes after getting this breaking news. All the television channels were showing people the contents of the sheets and hyping the whole matter hundred-thousand times, blaming it on neighbor country and local gangs or perhaps wicked propaganda of some political party.
Municipal Corporation was worried because it was their responsibility to keep the city clean and it was going to be so hard now. Thought, they could earn the money by selling too much of quality paper but it was secondary. First they had to go through this situation which was barely behind being a national red-alert. All the workers were in action and collecting the posters one by one. Sometimes they stopped to take a look at it. Those were interesting indeed but cleaning the city was more important. There were clouds over the sky and if it would be raining before all these sorted out then it would be bad-luck because severs couldn’t endure so much dump. They didn’t want to call it dump. It was so artistic. These papers. Sad that they had to remove these.
One of the cleaners tried to take a poster from a busy reader and it resulted in a fight which cost the reader a broken nose because hands of the cleaner were really hard. Things were really getting hotter. Police started investigating and asking every poster-maker to discover the truth. Even beating some low profile poster-makers after summoning them to the police station. Still nobody knew who was behind all this. It was more than a joke now. It was intentional but nobody could guess the exact intention behind this craziness.
There were jumble words in the newly found posters around central Delhi. Jumble words and one-liners. One-liners and revelations. Revelations and threats. threats and poems. Poems and slogans. There wasn’t a person in the city who wasn’t excited or scared. Nobody heard or thought that anything like that could happen. And all of it seemed like a dream. Words on the paper were - Mouth. Mad. Grow. Storm. Claw. Duster. Face. Cloth. Gas. Etc. Some of the words were more extreme like- kill. Betray. Change (people hate this word more than any other one). Cut. Poison. Rape. Hell. Heart.
One liners were :- someone is watching you, things are straight, hocus-pokus, triple makes a one, princess at night (there was a picture of nude princess below it), wooden trees cry more, hell of a stranger, gross roads are everywhere, etc.
Police had to force people to send them to their businesses. It was harder than it seemed because all the roads were blocked with traffic-jams, people and janitors. Everyone was busy in useless reading and looking at this craziness.
It was a new color of the city revealing itself. Psychology of the place seemed to be changed in one night. Nobody wanted to know anything or to go anywhere. They were like children stuck to watch the toys. One could see anything at that time. They were prepared for any magic or disaster now. If this could happen anything could happen. There could be a flying elephant nearby waiting to be seen (who knows).
And it was not enough.
Far away a person fell down while reading the matter of the poster. And it wouldn’t stop with him. People started falling like wet cloths or something. Doctors, engineers and mechanics fell down. Teachers, students and house wives. Office workers (who hadn’t reached offices yet and wouldn’t now). Share brokers. Shop-keepers. People who were lazy and sleepy were still sleeping or watching television. Rest had been fallen down. All who were outside and reading the posters. Some janitors and boring people who were less curious than others and who were workaholics remained standing. Now they were really happy for their quality of being bore and uncurious whole life. They were proud of themselves. They were laughing at others who were lying on the road helplessly. They were laughing at the people who had laughed at them everyday. Every dog has its day.
But the whole city was stopped because police, leaders and all the major movers and shakers who ran the city were still near posters with eyes closed and mouth opened. Many were in their cars and others were in their offices. One common thing was that posters were everywhere now and no one to handle those things except a few bore and incurious workaholics. They were bored too much with this paper work and they decided to go back home because everyone was sleeping inside and outside the offices and tea shops. So they went home to watch television. It didn’t bother them much that so many people were sleeping. Body needs rest sometimes. And a normal person can get sleepy anytime. This is normal. All is normal. Posters on the streets were normal and police man lying near the water sewer was normal. A jeep on its head with four people inside was normal. Flying elephant and Santa was normal.
People in the jails and hostels were awake. They weren’t lucky enough to get posters. They were having fun. They went outside somehow and started jumping and shouting. They kicked police officers and teachers. They kicked dogs. They kissed and molested girls. They jumped on the sleeping people to offend them. And some of those read the posters and started sleeping to join the club. It was the content that was making everybody sleep. Not any substance, pollution or tiredness, some intelligent awake people suspected. Then they showed more intelligence and tied clothes on their eyes and noses. And they went to their rooms and closed all the windows and doors. They threw the phones on the floors and they decided to be there for the rest of their lives. Genius. Thought, it was hard because they felt pee right after this great decision. Decisions are easy but living those decisions is hard. They felt hungry, thirsty and horny. They wanted to eat chicken-rice and cream delight for the first time. They felt like walking, running, driving, throwing, dancing and all the other things which had no hope in their rooms. It was strong desire that made them cry and they started praying to the God with both ha
nds toward sky. Some started laughing. They weren’t intelligent anymore. They joined the crowd without falling asleep.
Small children were playing on their curious mothers. And curious fathers were on the offices and roads. Curious girls were laying on curious boys and vice-versa. It seemed like dogs are boring and stupid sometimes but right at the moment some dogs were sleeping too. God knows that these slept with instinct or reading. Who cares? It was normal.
Many people got killed in this paper problem. Now it was a national issue but only a few members of parliament and prime-minister was awake to understand its seriousness. Prime-ministers don’t read posters. So many people were in the wheels of the busses whose drivers were enough curious to read strange posters while driving. People were dead and broken. Driver was sleeping. Sleeping while driving is against all the laws of humanity and constitution but the policemen were sleeping or dead too. And awaken intelligent people were inside their rooms sweating and chewing the cloths.
Then raining started and all the sleepers woke-up. Some sleepers who were below the tires of buses and trains couldn’t wake up. But most of the sleepers were waking-up happily as from a nice dream. They started working with a new energy and freshness as if nothing had actually happened. Everyone wanted to remain ignorant by all this. Even police called the dumpsters and cranes to take away the waste and destruction it caused as soon as possible without trying to investigate further. There was winking and whispering as a signal to dump dead bodies along with the paper and other shit. Television news reporters went to report on lighter kind of other news which were more important for the progress of news channel like theft of an old painting and wedding preparations of a celebrity couple.
Raining blocked the sewers but solved a major problem. And it wasn’t completely fair to call it a problem. It was only a sleep after all. Normal morning sleep. people shake their heads thinking about it. It must be something else. They might be overstressed or over-worked these days. Or the rainy weather or fast-food. Posters don’t make people sleepy. They rejected this idea. They might not have seen any posters today. Whatever. Intelligent people were still in their rooms hopeless, covered with sheets and cloths, prepared to see flying elephants.
They were normal people and they liked normal things. They were usual in usual business. And they were famous to move on. So they moved on leaving behind remaining posters and dead bodies of few friends and dogs. Students were sad because teachers were awake now. And prisoners were happy because they were free now. Police was sad because of prisoners and posters. It is normal that people become happy and sad. It is part of life. Police beat some people and threw them in jail for a new start. Prisoners resumed their jobs. Hostellers went to sleep again because they felt tired and worthless.
And some kilometers away a girly figure had a bag full of posters. Her work was finished because of the rain today. But the damage was done and so was his job. What was the use? Who cares. She had this big brown cheap bag with posters. She put the bag right there and went away slowly. Bag was wetting and colors of the posters were mixing-up with water. It made a strong combination. All the colors were making white. Strong white.
Neena
Name – Neena Dhavan
Age – 23
Education – high school
Marital status – single
Occupation – unemployed
Hobbies – none
Batch of 1999 Page 20