Mritunjay opened his eyes. A minute ago, a terrible blinding pain seized all his senses – he had never felt anything like it ever before. And now, nothing – absolutely blissful! He could have sworn that the pain would kill him, and now he feels as good as new! Or wait, did he just die?
He looked around – he was sitting in a small but clean room, which resembled a waiting hall. He would have marveled at how clean the room was, had he not been preoccupied with far more important concerns. On the far left, there was a lady sitting behind a desk, gazing at him through her spectacles. And just behind her was a signboard which stated: "The Department of Afterlife"
Is this a joke, or a dream, or is he really dead? A sudden fear gripped him – he wanted to walk up to the receptionist and enquire further, but he was pretty sure his legs would start trembling and eventually fail him. But something had to be done!
Wishing frantically that it was just a dream, he tried standing up. To his surprise, it wasn't difficult at all! In fact, as he approached the desk, it felt as if he was gliding rather than walking towards it. The lady smiled at him as he approached her, and spoke, "Someone will be here with you shortly, sir".
He could swear that he had never met the lady before, but her smile was eerily similar to someone he knew very well. Failing to acknowledge her statement, he got lost in his thoughts, trying extremely hard to remember the person her smile reminded him of. His train of thoughts got derailed before it could reach the correct station, when he felt a tap on his shoulders. He looked around and there was a man, who very politely requested to follow him. Still disturbed by the setting and the sequence of events, Mritunjay decided to follow him. By now, he was a little certain that it was a dream and he would be waking up any minute. But then, if this was really a dream, would he know about it while being a part of it?
"Am I dead?", he blurted out as soon as they entered a room and the man gestured him to sit on a chair in front of him. Without waiting for his answer, he continued:
- "Or is this a dream? What kind of sick joke is this – The Department of Afterlife? Is it even a thing? I didn't know things would be so official even after we die!"
He couldn't feel a lot of control on his words – none of these questions made any sense and yet he couldn't stop himself from asking them.
The man smiled and gestured him to take a seat. He sat, trying extremely hard not to utter another word before he got a few answers first.
- "My name is Hirak. And yes, you are dead."
- "Oh.". That was all that he could muster. For some reason, it made perfect sense and he knew there wasn't any waking up from this.
- "And as far as this setup is concerned, it's all you! This is how you imagined it to be, and we're all playing a part to take you where you need to be".
- "Wait, is this really happening, or is this my imagination?".
- "Nothing here is real, and yet, everything is. You see, it's a lot different from the life you have led so far, and it's a difficult transition. To make it easier, we let the person choose where they want to be, how they want to interact and then we take them through the journey ahead. Does that make sense?"
- "I don't know. I want to say yes, but then again it's difficult to believe any of it".
- "Quite natural, sir. You'll get used to it as we move ahead".
- "So, what am I? A ghost without a body?". He could feel how stupid the question sounded, but all his inhibitions clearly didn't make it with him to the afterlife.
- "Well, there's no such thing as a ghost, I'm afraid", Hirak replied without any prejudice towards the nature of the question. "You're a soul without a body. You won't feel any of your physical pain here".
- "So, why do I still feel dread and sadness?"
- "Your bodily sufferings are a thing of your past. But your soul is scarred. Life takes you through a lot of experiences, and some create scars that do not go away with death".
- "Hmm. You mean, all the times I've been wronged, mistreated, cheated on?"
- "That, yes. And all those times when you've wronged people, cheated or mistreated them. It's quite natural to assume that our scars are wounds caused by others, but scar ourselves even worse when we are in the wrong of things."
- "Hmm. So, what's next?"
- "We will embark on a journey – the journey of your life, and we'll analyze all those moments where you got scarred. Then, we'll discuss if you're fit to retire or you still need to go through the grind".
- "What do you mean – go through the grind? Is it really heaven and hell then?"
- "There's no such thing as heaven or hell.", Hirak smiled again. "There's just life and afterlife. If it's deemed that you're not ready to retire, you'll go back and start all over again – a fresh new life".
- "And who decides that, and on what grounds?"
- "You'll decide that. You see, you're not Mrityunjay anymore. The journey that we'll take will be the journey your past self already has been on. But now, you'll see a lot more – you'll see all the souls and how they were impacted. The best part is, you won't feel the urge to defend yourself or anyone of your close ones."
- "It's gonna take a long time to go through all these years."
- "No, it won't. And we'll not be going through every moment of your journey. There are only a few experiences, few moments that decide our journey and our destination. The rest either doesn't concern you or doesn't change its course based on what you do".
