I am here to tell you the story about ME. I have seen the ‘ups and downs’ of life. There is nothing left to be seen but a lot to be said.
I was born in a dingy little place devoid of proper lighting. The moment I was born, I was undulating in mirth and gaiety. My life seemed to be completely perfect. My body was so supple that it felt like I was a born-gymnast. My skin was glowing like radium in a dark room. My colour was so dazzling that it was as though God created me to showcase his mastery. People around me were completely and overwhelmingly besotted by my beauty. Everyone around me had just one word to describe me – Delightful. I was cynosure of all the eyes around. There was so much attention towards me that I felt like GOD. But the irony was that despite all the attention that I had they said that I was an orphan…. !!!!!!!
My joy knew no bounds when I was adopted by a magnanimous gentleman. He considered me to be so precious that he always kept me near his heart. I could feel his heartbeat as he went about his work. He was a very hard-working and busy man but still he kept really good care of me. He didn’t ever allow even a single fold on my skin. He was very very careful with the way he handled me. He ensured that I was always ‘spic-and-span’. And I was proud of it.
But life is full of glorious uncertainties. My master had to send me to one of his friend’s place. He was unhappy to let go of me but he had to do it reluctantly. His friend appeared to be a lousy man at first sight. And he really was. He never cared for me. He pierced a needle-like object into my heart for no fault of mine. It pained me a lot. He pierced the object with a lot of force and left me gasping for breath. Blood oozed out of my heart but it didn’t deter him. The pain and torture was unbearable. I was yelping in pain and pleading for help. But it all fell on deaf ears. I was later told that he did this to make me stick together with children of my age. All of us were bound together with this needle-like object. All the fellow kids were crying along with me. But the cruel and heartless man just went about his work. And I was left cursing my destiny.
The next morning seemed unusually pleasant. I was in a completely new place. This was warm and cozy. That was when I realized that my adopted father’s friend had shifted me to a new place. The owner of this place was a lovely lady in her 30s. She seemed a kind-hearted and genteel woman. This lady carefully took the needle-like object out of my heart. Then she bandaged the area. She used some elastic bandage over the wound. She put this bandage over all the other fellow kids as well. And then she took a pen and tattooed something on my skin. I felt a tingling sensation when she was tattooing on my body. After she finished I was surprised to see that she made a 100 using the pen on my skin. I couldn’t understand why she made it but then I was happy that I had a tattoo on my body. I was eager to flaunt it before my friends. But before I could flaunt it in front of my friends, her husband came and scribbled something on my skin. He used a pen to cut off the 100 and wrote something in a strange language. I could not understand what it was. My beautiful skin now became completely pathetic and dirty.
Days went by and I kept changing my house every other day. It was more like a routine every day. I was habituated now to keep changing my house. That’s possibly the reason why people hate to be an orphan. No one wanted to be with me. I had to fend for myself. But the tough weather and conditions had started taking toll on me. My skin was not as glowing as it used to be earlier. Even the suppleness of my body seemed to be on the wane. My body was beginning to get crooked up right through the middle. There were numerous holes on my heart made by the pricking of innumerable needle-like objects over the days. Now pain seemed to be an integral part of my body. In fact, my body didn’t respond to pain. It had now become a way of life.
One such day, as I was going along with my new owner I saw that there was some kind of fervour in the air. There was excitement all around. People looked very happy and were throwing colour at each other. There were lots of colours all around - Pink, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Orange. Looking at people made one feel as though one was looking at real-life replicas of rainbow. I had never seen such an environment ever before in my life. My new master too was enjoying his time out there. He too was resplendent in bright colours. He was splurging colour at everyone around. Although I was happy looking at the happiness around, I was still unable to fathom the fact as to why these people were splashing colours at each other. I asked one of my friends about it. He told me that this was an Indian festival called Holi and people celebrate it by playing with colours. I was happy to know about it and was in a trance when it happened all of a sudden. Someone came in front of my master and threw large quantity of colour on him. As he ran for cover, I bore the brunt of the entire colour. I was completely soaked in pink-coloured liquid. It was nauseating. I felt like vomiting as the colour went into my mouth. I choked for a moment. But then, gathered my breath and tried to dry myself. It took me two hours to be completely dry. I was happy that I was now dry. But oh no… What was this???? My body was completely pink. This colour stuck to me. It was not ready to leave me. I was completely pink now. My beautiful colour was all lost now. I was looking very ugly. An unbearable stench was emanating from me. I was devastated.
My pink-coloured body kept on shifting hands. I was moving from one house to other. Not many were now ready to adopt me. Many a time people shunned me. Also, the vicious attack on ‘Holi’ had left deep scars on my skin. It had begun to break up. Also, once my leg got stuck up in a zipper and it got mutilated. People didn’t want to take me as they despised my mutilated body. Then one day, a good Samaritan applied a plastic bandage on it. At least now, it appeared as though I had normal legs but the pink colour was still on. Some people didn’t notice the abnormal legs and bandage and took me over but then began cursing me as soon as they found out that I was a crippled fellow. I used to be very unhappy hearing all this about me. But then I had no other option. I had to stay on with them until some other careless person took me over.
One fine day, a person took me to a dingy little place devoid of light. This place felt eerily familiar to me. As I turned around and saw the length and breadth of the room, it became apparent that in fact this was the very room where I was born. I was happy to get back to my place of birth. I had been hoping to come to this place one more time before I die. Now I was here. There were many mutilated people like me all around me. As the man who brought me here came towards me with an object containing many sharp edges, it became seemingly apparent that my end was very near. He slowly brought the object towards me. And then, with a surgical precision he pushed me into the depths of the object. My body writhed in pain. I was shred into a million pieces and I was gone, gone forever into the depths of oblivion.
You would be curious to know as to who I am. Well….you have been listening to the story of an Indian currency note. Yes, I am the 100 rupee currency note…..!!!!!!!
