A SILENCED DISTURBANCE.
The blaring headphones kept on playing the whole night as Akash continued working on his presentation. ‘If I don’t finish my presentation by tonight, this job too will slip out of my hands,’ Akash thought as he continued typing on his keyboard vigorously. However, there was another sound he could hear in the distance. The sound of a breaking glass. ‘I think I am just hallucinating again. It’s time for my medicines.’
It’s 4 in the morning. Akash goes out and makes coffee for himself in the kitchen. Everything seems to be in place like always. There was not a sign of any disturbance in the house. Akash was 5 when he first realized the presence of certain noises in the background each night. His parents would always put him to bed with his headphones on so that he could listen to his favorite lullabies and sleep. At night when he would be in deep sleep, his mother would come and take them off. That had been the tradition since Akash’s mom had started working and was unable to give him all her time and attention. She had recorded his favorite lullabies and he used to listen to them every night to go off to sleep. But often between the songs he would hear a chaotic sound outside, as if somebody was quarreling. At times the noises would resemble those of someone hitting another person with different kind of objects— glass, metal, or any other showpiece that he or she could lay their hands upon. Whenever, Akash would try coming out of his room he would find his room locked. Finally when the noises continued for a good one year, Akash asked his mom about where they came from. It was then that Nita decided to take him to his uncle, who was a renowned psychiatrist.
Akash always remained aloof from the rest of his age people. He never talked to anyone, as he wasn’t exactly what one would call an ‘extrovert.’ In fact, he never understood how to communicate with the others. At home, he was mostly kept engaged with his headphones to keep him away from the disturbances. And he had never seen his parents utter a word to each other in front of him.
Akash could not present his work to the interviewers. This was the sixth time this happened to him. Each time Akash would take his medicines he would fall asleep, and lose his entire recollection of whatever happened during the next few hours. It was a vicious cycle he was trapped in without having any knowledge of it. All he could understand and make out of the situation was that he just did not have the capability of completing any of his assignments since childhood. His mother would always request the teachers and professors to extend the deadline for him. But that isn’t how placements worked unfortunately. Though his mother tried to talk to the employers too, she could not convince them to extend the deadline even by a day. She was torn between the devil and the deep blue sea. She did not have an option of leaving her husband as she knew her son did not have the ability to handle such a trauma. And staying with him meant he would create a chaos like every other night of the year.
Akash’s father was a jobless drunkard. He had nothing to contribute to the family. All he did in the house was beat up his wife to take away money from her for the alcohol he needed. His son had hardly seen him around since he was born. He would remain outside the house for the entire day getting drunk, and would only come back at night when his mom would lock his room and hide the key away.
He had lost all hopes as he failed at another attempt of his. In the morning, neither his presentation was over nor could he muster the confidence to communicate with his bosses. There was a weird numbness in his eyes. They seemed lifeless beneath those thick glasses he wore.
As he came home, he took his medicines again. Since he was more upset than he usually got, he took few extra pills, put on his headphones and went to sleep. And he never woke up again.
