HOPE....

My eyes failed to see the innocuous sign-board posted on an obscure part of the road…thus I trudged on, halting at intervals to consult my weathered road map, squinting my tired eyes to locate the minimized replica of the rickety causeway on it and instantaneously, sighing in defeat. Night was fast approaching…’night’-this was an ominous word for me…it sent a spine-chilling cube of ice, sliding mercilessly down my back. As the fiery red and yellow globule dropped cunningly behind the majestic mountains, the world seemed to be plunged into a massive ink-pot, dark and dreary…The sight was a confounding one, like the wicked flash of the camera, the blinding flash, followed by a shocking darkness…But I was prepared for all adversities…hundreds of angry fireflies remained imprisoned in my glass jar, shaking furious wings at me as I carried the jar in my hand…Nature tortured into submission yet again…Thus I walked on.
Thud! What lay at my blistered feet was a stubborn old sack, lying in the middle of the road with the irritating defiance of a deaf man who has been asked to put his hearing aid on, but refuses to do so on the pretext that it deafens his ear!...Sitting on my hunches, I turned the sack upside down and the word- HOPE stared back boldly at me…In spite of its unattractive outer appearance, the bowels of the sack promised rewards of the highest order…My eyes were drawn towards it…with shaking hands I untied the silver string constricting the neck of the sack…in sank my eager hands into the gaping pit…Right! Left! Right! Left!...like a hunting dog, my hand sniffed out every nook and corner of the sack…and finally, what emerged from the alluring mine was, dull, suffocating misery….the sack was empty after all…Yet, some unintelligible force kept pushing me on…pushing me, egging me on…to Hope…Time and again, I met with crushing defeat…waited patiently by the letter-box for some tidings of reciprocated love to arrive…and kept waiting all my life…Hope, as I saw her, was wicked and vile… a sadist to the core and yet, the soft feminine jingle of her colourful glass bangles softened my heart, restored my faith and there I was again…hoping against hope once again…yet again…again and again…and again.
One fine summer morning, taking the long walk back towards the gate of Infinity, I happened to see the obscure sign-post that I had overlooked earlier….It read in bold red letterings- HOPE…BUT IN VAIN.