Skip to main content

Imaginary Paradises

Imaginary Paradises and Real Hells

Fiction

Aziz raised the machine gun and pumped a million bullets into the heart of his frustrations.

            Firoz lay dead in a pool of warm blood which exuded a smell that strangely reminded Aziz of the chemistry lab in his college.  Soon he would be lying in a similar pool of blood, his own blood, Aziz knew.  He had killed one of the top leaders of the organisation and he would be a fool to hope that he could get away with it.

            What would be the smell of my blood?  He asked himself.  Will it smell of the deodorant whose seductiveness is what first drew him to Miriam?

            “Miriam will be a suicide bomber,” Firoz had decided.

            Miriam was Maria.  Maria Joseph of St Antony’s College whose humid corridors carried various odours one of which was the seductive fragrance that wafted whenever Maria Joseph of B.Sc. (Bio) came along.  Aziz was a B.Sc. (Chem) student of the same batch. 

            When Firoz suggested to make a non-Muslim girl fall in love with him, it was the fragrance of Maria that rushed into his veins and made him blush.

            But why? He wondered. “Why should I fall in love with a kafir?”  He asked.

            “Who’s asking you to love anybody?” He growled. “The girl should fall.  In love.  With you.”

            But why?

            Our mission.

            Firoz explained.  A new world, a totally different world, emerged in Aziz’s imagination as Firoz spoke.  A paradise on earth.  One god, one religion, one Caliphate.  All infidels will be converted.  Or else eliminated.

            Miriam’s duty was to eliminate.  She would be a suicide bomber.  A martyr.  Firdaws, nothing less, awaited her.

            “But we thought we would be creating the paradise on the earth!” exclaimed Aziz.

            “Yes.  Paradise on earth requires martyrs and their work on the foundation.  Miriam is fortunate to have been chosen to be a martyr.”

            “But I love her,” Aziz protested in spite of all the training that they were given over months.   They were taught to forget earthly attachments until the mission is accomplished.  Once the mission is accomplished, their rewards would be manifold, so much more than they could ever have imagined.

            “In the meanwhile you can get another girl to fall in love with you,” Firoz grinned.

            It was then Aziz grabbed the machine gun.  To hell with Firdaws and Paradise.

            He flung the smoking gun and walked out. 

            He saw a drugged Miriam get into the driver’s seat of a car.  Suicide bomber.

            “Miriam!”  He wanted to call.  But his voice died in his throat as he became aware of the steel barrel of a pistol behind his head.  “Allah! Mercy!”

Comments

  1. The steel that comes between Allah's mercy and Aziz is the steel of irrationality of fanaticism that is wrecking our world. This is in sync with your previous post - youth being misled, willingly or otherwise. I am glad you came back with short story, your forte....:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fiction is the ideal form when emotions are high.

      Delete
  2. Very nicely written short story!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am having goosebumps after reading this! Short, action and emotion packed! I wish the truth was far away from the fiction you have written but sadly, it happens to be the bitter truth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately it is the bitter truth. Perhaps, truth is even more bitter!

      Delete
  4. A very well written short story!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's a short story hiding a great plot for thinking. It Gives light on end of many terrorist groups. They will be wiped off due to their internal quarrel. Like Jesus said "for all those who draw sword shall die by it". The plot of the story is an important issue in the near future. Many girls even from our small Kerala has been abducted and used by such terrorist groups. So its the time to think..

    ReplyDelete
  6. Terrorism is the bane of mankind.The day it ends,humanity will triumph

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The world has reached at a conflict between humanity and terrorism. Which will triumph is the question.

      Delete
  7. Truth it is. A compact story touching so many things in this short span; love zihad, the frustrations of numerous Azizs, the pseudo- religious reasons which the terrorists put in favour of the massacre...very well-written, Sir....:-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Maniparna. What exactly drives Azizes to terrorism is still a mystery.

      Delete
  8. Power packed story in sync with the present scenario where youth are lured into these acts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A lot of youngsters are being misled, unfortunately. The idealism of youth is being mischannelled.

      Delete
  9. Such a strong message in few words...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Powerful story! Fiction reflects reality and a bitter truth.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Some say it is because of not wearing a skull cap that make them do such heinous acts. I say it is all written in the holy book that makes them have their own interpretations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If all the holy books perish in a mysterious fire or something, the world may be redeemed.

      Delete
  12. A great story, sir! Misleading youth in the name of religion is perhaps the biggest socioreligious problem in today's world. However, I am unable to understand how highly educated people from educated, liberal and well-to-do families get influenced by such radical thoughts and become so violent in the name of religion!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are big discussions going on in the Malayalam mass media about this issue. One Muslim educator has done some field study too and his hypothesis is that there is a mental disorder that's gripping some of the youth today because of various psycho-social problems. Some are of the opinion that it's a politico-social problem which in other words means it's about power. Islam is trying to impose its power on everybody. But why educated people from liberal families should fall prey to that power game is a question which may be answered only by the mental disorder hypothesis!

      Delete
  13. Indeed a powerful one, and, enough to shake our senses within.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prelude to AtoZ

  From Garden of 5 Senses, Delhi [file pic] Hindsight gives an unearthly charm and order to the past. There can be pain too. A lot of things could have been different, much better, if only we possessed the wisdom of our old age back in those days. As a writer put it, Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear and a lot of those guys must have thought, “I wish I had known this some time ago.” Life is a series of errors with intermittent achievements. The only usefulness of the errors may be the lessons they teach us. Probably, that is their purpose too. We are created to err so that we learn, I dare to put it that way. I turn 64 in a month’s time. It’s not inappropriate to look back at some of the people whom life brought into my life so that I would learn certain lessons. No, I don’t mean to say that life has any such purpose or design or anything. Life is absurd. People come into your life as haphazardly as vehicles ply on your road or birds poop on your head. Some of these people change the chemist

Why I won’t vote

From Deshabhimani , Malayalam weekly Exactly a month from today is the Parliamentary election in my state of Kerala. This time, I’m not going to vote. Bernard Shaw defined democracy , with his characteristic cynicism, as “ a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve .” We elect our government in a democracy. And the government invariably sucks our blood – whichever the party is. The BJP and the Congress are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee though the former makes all sorts of other claims day in and day out. BJP = Congress + the holy cow. The holy cow has turned out to be quite a vampire and that makes a difference, no doubt. In our Prime Minister’s algebra, it is: (a+b) 2 which should be equal to a 2 and b 2 . There is an extra 2ab which is the holy cow. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm , the animals revolt against the human master and set up their own nationalist republic. Soon politics develops in the republic and some pigs become leaders. The porcine

How Arvind Kejriwal can save himself

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have a clear vision. Eliminate all opposition. Decimate them or absorb them. My previous post [link below] showed a few people decimated by them. Today let’s look at the others: those who are saved by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. 1. Himanta Biswa Sarma  This guy was in Congress and faced serious charges related to the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. He also faced corruption charges related to drinking water supply in Guwahati. His house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI]. Then he switched over to BJP and all his crimes just vanished. It’s as simple as taking a dip in the Ganga and all your sins are forgiven. Today he is the chief minister of Assam. Nothing is heard of all the charges that were levelled against him. 2. Amarinder Singh  This former Captain in the Indian Army was a Congressman until Modi’s Enforcement Directorate [ED] started raiding him, his son and his son-in-law. He put an end to all those raid

The Good Old World

Book Review Title: Dukhi Dadiba and irony of fate Author: Dadi Edulji Taraporewala Translators: Aban Mukherji and Tulsi Vatsal Publisher: Ratna Books, Delhi, 2023 Pages: 314 If you want to return to the good old days of the late 19 th century, this is an ideal novel for you. This was published originally in Gujarati in 1913. It appeared as a serial before that from 1898 onwards in a periodical. The conflict between good and evil is the dominant motif though there is romance, betrayal, disappointment, regret, and pretty much of traditional morality. Reading this novel is quite like watching an old Bollywood movie, 1960s style. Ardeshir Bahadurshah, a wealthy Parsi aristocrat in Surat, dies having obligated his son Jehangir to find out his long-lost brother Rustom. Rustom was Bahadurshah’s son in his first marriage. The mother died when the boy was too small and the nurse who looked after the child vanished with it one day. Ratanmai, Bahadurshah’s present wife, takes her

Kejriwal’s Arrest in Modi’s Kurukshetra

For some mysterious reason, Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest reminded me of Haren Pandya. Maybe, because Pandya’s 21 st death anniversary is approaching (26 March). Have you forgotten Haren Pandya? He was the Home Minister of Gujarat before Narendra Modi assumed dictatorial powers in that state. Modi chose to teach humility to Pandya by making him the Minister of State for revenue. Pandya chose not to learn humility from Modi and resigned from that post in Aug 2002. Remember Gujarat of 2002? You should. A fire engulfed a train on 27 Feb 2002 killing 58 Hindu pilgrims who were returning from Ayodhya where they had gone to discover their god, not very unlike Christopher Columbus undertaking a voyage to discover India and messing it all up. What caused the fire in the train? Lord Ram knows probably. The upshot was that there was a riot in Gujarat by Hindus against Muslims. Haren Pandya is one of the BJP leaders who gave statements in many places indicting Modi for the riots. He asser