The Un-forgiven Road

The man walked as he used to walk. This was the day he came over a road. It was like in his dreams. The trees and other roadside stuff crept up with the flashing red lights. The greyish of the road seemed new and wet. Then the uninvited events happened. The dust settled fast on the road. Its make was getting old month by month, year by year. The beautiful trees beside it rusted and grew old and weak like it.

It had not been trodden over for years and it was devoid of any wetness as rain ignored it and its surroundings. Its length was pretty long but even a walk on it was scarce. This made the road sad each day as it longed for someone or something to come. Even the animals and birds neglected it and the nearby trees.

This man carried a book and was walking on this road. A really hot wind blew and with it a lot of dust. The dust caught up with him and he lost a few pages as the book fell. These flew over and rested itself on the road.

The road did not seem to notice at first but then as a few more pages flew with their flapping noise and then it became aware of its surroundings.

It looked up to see at the papers laying all over it. It told a tale of a road all broken and tired which was where it the “new” road was made. That old road had had many mis-happenings like death, accidents, and many others like them.

The new road had been made on its place with a new feeling and vigour that people may be encouraged by the newness but all seemed hopeless as people feared this path and in years forgot about it.

The man knew about this and so had come here to cheer up this lonely road and to see its unreasonable and sad plight. He bowed down and collected his papers. The moment he touched the road he could feel its sadness.

Suddenly, tiny drops of water fell from what felt like clouds of heavy matter and slowly the rain poured with gentleness and might. The weak plants and trees nearby got strength and became rejuvenated with the freshness. The man was a famous road builder or a road rejuvenator as he was called. He gave new hope to this road and in years to come this road became one of the best passageways on Earth.

The road had been forgiven for its ancestor’s wrongs… And his bad dreams laid to rest.

© Aditya Subramanian, 2020