Story#43 : The Dark Room
“Mama, what is a dark room?” Mollykkutty asked ker mother Sobha when she is back from her school.
Mollykkutty is second standard in “Vidyashree English Medium Matriculation School” at Ernakulam in Kerala. Her Mother Shoba is a homemaker and her father is a chartered accountant who has set up his own practice in the city.
“Where did you hear this” asked Sobha.
“In school, today teacher told us that, those who don’t complete the homework will be put in dark room. We are all scared. I asked few of my friends and they said it is a very bad place where there will be ghosts roaming around. If you are put there, by the time you come out, all your blood will be sucked out. I am very scared Mama, I sometimes miss homework” said Mollykkutty.
“Thts is not the case Molly… Your teachers are just scaring you to make sure that, you complete your work on time. There is nothing called dark room” said Sobha.
Mollykkutty was not convinced. She was still scared of the dark room.
“Have you been to any dark room Mama?” asked Mollykkutty.
“No, but a dark room is not something which you need to be scared about. There are no ghosts in a dark room. Also, there are people who live in dark room permanently” said Sobha.
“Really?” asked Mollykkutty.
Shoba didn’t answer that.
On that weekend, Mollykkutty, Shoba and Mollykkutty’s father Ravindran went to a mall. After doing some shopping, they decided to go for lunch. In the basement of the mall, there was a restaurant. On seeing the name of the restaurant, Mollykkutty had chill in her spine. It was written “Restaurant Dark Room”.
“I am not coming there” said Mollykkutty.
“Don’t worry. You hold Papa’s and Mama’s hand. We will hold your hands and we will not let anything happen to you” said Shoba.
They entered into the restaurant and the door closed behind them. It was pitch-dark. Mollykkutty tightened her grip on her parents’ hands.
“This way sir, let me hold your hand” said a voice.
“Sure!” she heard her father saying..
Is it a ghost talking to Papa, she wondered. She could hear the sound of few people talking and she also could hear sound of plates and spoons. Are they ghosts? Are they drawing out the blood and drinking from the plates? Mollykkutty was not sure.
After walking for a minute, the voice said “Make yourself comfortable sir. This is your table. You can feel the chairs. Please sit. We don’t have a menu here. We serve same food to everybody”.
“Is it a ghost?” asked Mollykkutty.
“No Molly. They are real people like us. Only difference is, all the employees in this restaurant are blind. For us, this is dark room. But, for them, there is no difference. They are permanently in darkness.
I brought you here to feel that when your Mama told me that, you are afraid of dark room. There are other people sitting in this restaurant. They are having their food. Our food will come now. You cannot see your food. You cannot see the waiter, me or your mama. You can only feel it.
From my voice, you know we are here. And that’s how those blind employees are living. They have not seen people. They know people by their voice. They make food with their hand and check whether food is good by smell. Just enjoy the food” said Ravindran.
They sat there for few minutes until their food arrived. Molikkutty’s mind went into imagination. She started thinking. How on earth these people are living! What did they see in their life! Without seeing anything how can they make food! How lucky I am that, I have eyes to see the world! Then she thought about her friends, school, relatives, parent etc.
Mollykkutty started feeling comfortable in darkness. After few minutes, the food arrived. The food had great smell. The waiters served the food. Mollykkutty started eating.
“Do you see your food Molly?” asked Shoba.
“No!” said said Mollykkutty.
“Then how are you eating?” asked Shoba.
“Because I know it is there. And when I use my hands, I can feel it. I can also taste it” said Mollykkutty.
“Exactly Molly… Certain things are there, they cannot be seen. They can only be felt. And see, these employees are living only on that feeling.” Said Sobha.
They didn’t talk much during the food. They went to their own worlds. They processed their thoughts and put them in the right folders in their minds.
After the lunch, they came out. Mollykkutty saw a different world from the one she saw before going to the restaurant. She was changed kid. She is no more afraid of darkness. The darkness allowed her to align her thoughts and appreciate what she had. It changed her perception about life..
They went to that restaurant few more times and each time, Mollykkutty found it more and more enlightening.
After that, whenever she felt tensed, depressed or dejected, she went to a room and made it black by drawing curtains and swtiching off lights, sat there for some time, aligned her thoughts and came out as relieved person.
Now, Mollykkutty likes Dark Room.
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Biju Vargheese (Pazhayedathu Paramban)
