Future

His life has little meaning left now. And he knew of this before long.

Some people have a great interest in knowing their future : he was one of them, exceptionally motivated to find out the means of knowing what was written in his fate. But no more so.

All his sorrows began one fine day at his home. He was having his regular morning tea, and flipping through newspaper reporting the stale news of the day before. He would always start at page one, then move on to the last, sports page before his eyes settled on the "today's fortune" column. He was somewhat irritated at the prediction of a particularly bad day ahead. He wanted to forget about it and hope nothing bad would happen that day. He had observed that bad-day-ahead predictions usually would not turn up right, and the day would pass without much notable incidents. And resting his hopes upon his past experiences, he relaxed and finished the last sip of Red Label Tea left in his cup. After his daily walk in the lush green garden in the neighbourhood, and pondering upon the need for better traffic management of the city, he returned home only more cheerful than when he had left.

And then he found the parcel lying on his desk. The morning mail had brought in a bright coloured, heavy parcel for him. He was disappointed to find nobody under "from" heading, and trying to guess the sender, went in his study to get his paper-knife. He had his misgivings about opening the packet for it could have been a mischief, even harmful. But his curiosity overcame his misgivings and finally he started to open up the parcel, carefully as not to do any damage to the contents. To his surprise (and maybe some disappointment) he found only a thick bundle of papers, bound neatly, bearing nice curved letters, "Your Future".

This was strange. He checked the calendar - it was not April the first, and certainly the sender had taken a lot of efforts to create and send this amusing parcel to him. He checked the envelope again, in case he had missed a fine print revealing the sender's identity. But there was none, not even the postal stamp of the originating post office. After much thought he finally opened the first page of the thick booklet.

"You will open this book precisely at 10:46:23, October 27th, 1989", read the first sentence. He was taken aback. The wall-clock with ever rhythmic pendulum (his grandfather's possession) showed near about 10:45, and there was no way to find out the exact number of seconds. He read on. "Don't bother, the wall-clock may not have confirmed the time of the above sentence for you, but you could believe these words, that surely that was the time when you read the above sentence". This was getting interesting. "Now you will go ahead with the rest of the book", and he did so. (or was it his destiny that he would do so?)

The booklet was no mischief. It was the book of future. He was overwhelmed to see his dream come true. Never was a day spent without a thought of what the future had in store. And this parcel containing the incredible booklet revealed as much as he wanted to know.

"You will finish reading this booklet at 12:33:08, the same day", and the book concluded. He did not bother to look at the wall-clock again. He was sure that it was true. All he had ever longed for, he had got today. He knew his future. Every nook and corner life would take him to. All the troubles and sorrows he would encounter, happiness and glory he would achieve in the days to come, he knew everything now.

Maybe it was fate that whatever he had read in that small booklet of Future actually turned out to be true. The days passed the way they were slated to pass. The life continued, and the future that he had known slowly dissolved into the past. The excitement of the knowledge started to wear off. He wondered, if he had not read the booklet, would the things have turned out the same way? Maybe yes, maybe not. And then he knew the meaning of the little warnings on the later pages of the booklet. "Do you really want to read further?", they asked him. "Continue as you will, but it may destroy your life." If only he had paid heed to those warnings!

He had lost all the interest in his life. He knew what was to come, and it became a mere formality to undergo it, and convert the present into past. There was no excitement of unknown, unexpected events in the day. He wished that he had never read the booklet beyond a certain point - the point after which the warnings had become severe, and had explained a mindset, which was a reality only now.

Only one hope keeps him going today - may the book fail once. He would treasure that unknown moment for the next 27 years, 3 months and 8 days, till the end of his days... And sadly, it is no surprise to him that such a hope would keep him alive!