THE ANGEL'S TASK

Once upon a time, waking up early morning with a smile on his face and a steaming tea to look forward to was something Arun enjoyed, now, such expectations were wishful thinking. Arun Sharma, a 17 year old boy in his first year at college was less of a sportsman and more of a nerd. His day started at 5 am and ended at 2 in the night. What an ordinary, boring life. But today was special. Today he was going to sit for his 1st semester finals and even as he woke up and rubbed his eyes, one hand searching for his glasses, he knew he was dead.
Being in his 1st year at law course of 5 years, the pressures upon Arun were enormous. He was supposed to score well in a paper the kind of which he had never sat before.
This is the problem with being a nerd… you’re never satisfied. Clearing his paper of CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) he had entered this college of world renown, NLSIU, Bangalore.
It was the best law school in India and hence the pressures were way more than any other place. Arun being thoroughly career oriented had been working like a donkey to get through to this law school, but now he had to work like that for five years. Today was his first exam, and he knew he’d never pass well in legal history. He knew for a fact he didn’t remember the names and the dates…
Slowly, feeling dead, he rose and walked up to his cupboard and changed. Life sucked.
Even as he got ready and came out of his room into the corridor beyond, he saw his roommate Arjun running up to him, looking shaken.
“Bro! I’ve not done anything! I’m gonna fail!”, said Arjun.
“Why? I bet you were studying all night”, said Arun.
“No-no-no! I don’t remember a thing!”, came Arjun’s reply.
He’s a bigger nerd than Arun is, and thus even more concerned about his marks.
Anyways, this conversation holds little interest for us, many of whom are not law students, hence we fast forward it and a little more of the events that followed where Arun quickly went down to the mess, swallowed some food, revised a little and  decided for certain he was going to fail.
“Oh god, I shall do anything! Just let me miss this paper somehow! I don’t want to sit for it! Why have you always done this to me!?”, Arun cried out in anger, looking up at the heavens as he walked in the grass of the lawns of NLSIU. He was all alone here, no one would mind. “You’ve put me in a place where I know I’ll die! How would anyone survive like this? It’s pathetic! How can I work like that!”, he raged at the heavens.
Losing all fight in him and even surprising himself, he fell down on the grass, beside himself with rage. He had always been a good scorer, always in control of his studies, but this time he knew he was not going to make it. Frustration bubbled inside him and he literally fought tears. For so many days this mad fear had haunted him, and alas! It was facing him.
He looked up at the skies again…why? He thought, why did you do this to me god…why…
And then suddenly everything seemed to disappear! He was surrounded by bright light all around. He shielded his eyes and cried out in fear, “What-!”
And then he saw her. A beautiful woman draped in a beautiful red cloak walking up to him. Her golden hair glowed in the whiteness that engulfed them. She had a kind smile on her face and her entire form seemed to emit an aura of absolute purity.
Arun gaped at her, all thought lost. He did not know what to do… but somewhere inside him, his fear subsided. He knew this woman won’t harm him.
She slowly walked up to him from the front and he was just rooted to the spot…then he looked down and again fear enveloped him. He was surrounded by whiteness all around because below him were the clouds! He was hundreds of feet up in the air… past the clouds, past anything that could touch him from the earth.  He was floating…
“Don’t be scared”, the woman said softly. She had a girly voice, adding to her feminine persona. “I’m not going to harm you son”.
Son?  Really?  She wasn’t that old.
“Who are you?”, Arun asked shakily. “Where am i ?”
“You are in the clouds…away from the earth…with me. And I am an Angel. You needn’t know more about me, you’re not supposed to”, she said. “But I heard your crying and your anguish and am here to ask for its cause. You can treat me as god’s representative.”
Something clicked inside Arun. “Yes! I have complained and cried because god hasn’t been fair to me! I have spent my life working hard but again and again I am faced with such moments where I may slog and slog some more but to no avail!”
The Angel smiled. “You do know you’re not the only one complaining don’t you?”
“I don’t care”.
The Angel looked at him a little sadly and said, “Okay Arun, I see your mind. You’re adamant. I will now set you a task. I will put you into the lives of a person. If you can adjust there, I shall grant you any wish you want. I shall personally free you of your studies and grant you all that you wish for.”
Arun considered this. Nobody’s life could possibly be worse than his. There was no way it could be!
“Okay”.
And barely had he uttered the word that the world began to swivel, everything changed and once again he was in a new environment.
He was draped in torn clothes the kinds he had never even touched; there was mud on his hands. He looked around and saw that he was in a stable. There were horses all around and even more straw. He slowly rose up and walked to the stable door. Where was he?
“Arun!?”, came a voice from nearby.
He started. How did people know his name here?
“THERE YOU ARE! YOU FOOL, I ASKED YOU TO CLEAN THE HOUSE! YOU’RE STILL STUCK HERE!”, a fat lady came barging in, yelling at the top of her voice.
Arun backed off, scared.
“NOW DON’T YOU LOOK ALL THAT INNOCENT, YOU WORTHLESS PILE OF DUNG!”, she roared. She had a huge frame and an abnormally large head. She came straight up to Arun and held his arm.
“I WANT THIS MESS TO BE CLEARED IN ONE HOUR!”, she roared. “YOU WILL WISH YOU WERE NEVER BORN BOY, IF YOU FAIL!”
And with that she turned around and stormed out of the stable. Arun was left shaking. What had he landed himself in? Then he remembered that he was probably in someone else’s life. Yes, he had to come over this task and h could then ask for anything at all! No more work, no more studies, no more pressure! He just had to do this.
So he looked around and realized that all the straw that was spread over the floor had to be cleaned and piled up. That’s how stables were, weren’t they? So heaving a slight sigh, he started quickly assembling the straw and piling it up uniformly all around. The stable was unbearably messy. He cleaned as much of the straw as he could and once he had done that, realized that there was a lot of dirt all around too. Looking around he found a mop and started scrubbing the floors. How much time passed he didn’t know, but he hadn’t worked this hard ever. His back ached and sweat poured down his face. It was the worst day of his life!
So after scrubbing the floors and piling up the straw (he seemed to know what to do somehow! Maybe that was the Angel’s magic) he slumped down on the floor. But no sooner had he settled down than he heard footsteps coming on towards the stable.
“YOU USELESS BOY! SITTING AND ENJOYING THE BREEZE! I THINK YOU SHOULD HAVE HAD THE COMMON SENSE TO INFORM ME ONCE YOU WERE DONE!”, the lady roared. “GET UP RIGHT NOW, WORTHLESS! AND COME INSIDE THE HOUSE!”
Arun sprang up, his back hurting and hurried on as the woman left the stable, mumbling to herself. Following her through the stable he emerged into a huge garden. It had the most beautiful plants he had ever seen. But he followed her as he seemed to have no time to admire their beauty. They now faced an enormous house. These people were clearly very rich. The house was painted white and had a grand look about it. The lady went in through double doors of oak and Arun followed suit.
They walked through a magnificent lobby and entered the living room having a carpeted floor and beautiful tapestries to adorn the walls. Here the woman stopped and turned.
“Now, you listen to me boy. Some guests are coming tonight. You have to cook for them. It’s very important. If you mess up we’ll flog you like hell.  Your master and I have a great value for those guests and under no circumstances should they go unattended. Cook paneer masala, dum-aloo, missi rotis and raita.”
“Y-yes m- ma’am”, Arun stuttered. He was very scared of this woman. She seemed to be the cruelest creature he had ever met.
“SO WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR! Go and COOK!”, she suddenly erupted.
Arun jumped and hurried off towards the kitchen. How he knew the way, he didn’t know, but he seemed to know what to do. Maybe because he was in someone else’s life…or maybe because the Angel guided him, he seemed to know everything.
So, he found the vegetables and slowly started cutting them up. He first had to mash the cottage cheese to make paneer masala…then fry it in the pan. While that cooked he cut up the potatoes to make dum-aloo. There was a lot of work to be done…and even though surprisingly he knew what the recipes were and knew what he had to do…he had never worked so hard. His already paining back now got the companionship of an aching head. As he grounded the dough, making missi rotis, he wondered how much more he would have to go through. Making raita was another major job. He carefully mixed up the ingredients in the heat and waited as the boiling kitchen grew stuffier.
Finally when the dishes were prepared, he got them all into little bowls, feeling a little relieved and waited for his mistress.
“ARUN!”, came her voice.
“YES MA’AM!”, he replied and went running out.
“Have you cooked so far or not!?”, she asked.
“It is done ma’am”.
“Okay. Ring it out and lay it on the table. The guests are going to be here any moment.”
So Arun went back in and started getting the dishes one by one and laying them on the splendid table of oak. He first came with the paneer and then with the aloo preparation.
Finally, feeling like even that weighed a ton, he got the bowl of raita.
He was walking towards the table… but suddenly something came under his foot! He stumbled, and fell. All he raita flew around and over the floor. He himself landed hard on his head and  stars immediately popped up in front of his eyes.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!”, a voice roared at him from some place. He wasn’t quite thinking right.
Then suddenly he received a sharp blow to the head. He cried out in pain and looked up. A big man with a huge mustache faced him, looking berserk.
“YOU IDIOT! IS THIS WHAT WE’VE KEPT YOU FOR!”
Arun rubbed his head and looked at the floor. A little toy was over what he had stumbled.
“S-sir, I’m sorry I fell over the toy!”, he said earnestly.
SLAP! SLAP! He got two slaps to his face and felt it grow hot and glow red.
The man took him by the collar and dragged him to the doors. No one had ever treated him that way.
Suddenly, he received a sharp pain in his gut and realized that the man had just kicked him. He dragged Arun all the way to the door and threw him out of the house.
“GET LOST!”, the man roared. “DON’T YOU DARE LET ME SEE YOU HERE!”
Arun rose up without wasting a second and ran at the main gates…he was scared more than he had ever been in his life. He jumped our the gates and ran….ran down the cobbled street …where, he did not know… but he knew one thing for certain, he had no house, no job, no food… he knew he wasn’t the same Arun…knew he was lost forever now…he had lost the only source of livelihood he had.
And then everything around him disappeared. Everything went pure white. He was once again in the clouds.
This time, he welcomed it. He looked at his hands and clothes and saw to his great pleasure that they had been restored to their normal state. Looking around, he saw the Angel looking at him in peace.
“See?”, she quietly asked. “This is the life a boy of your age lives… his mother died when he was six. His father left him in the streets and went off. He has been going around working in houses and stables and railway stations since he was seven. He has never enjoyed a full meal in his life. Yet, he works hard.”
Arun did not know what to say. He could only listen.
“The life you couldn’t survive in for a day, he has survived on for 13 years”, the Angel spoke. “While you played, he suffered. He never got the childhood he deserved, never had any friends. And yet, he doesn’t give up. He works hard and earns and one day, he’ll be a big and successful man. He’ll grow out of this state like many do.”
“Not everyone is born lucky Arun. You were. Still you complain. You complain because you have to work hard on your studies. Yet you are into good college, you know you’ll never go hungry. There are people who work day and night for salaries lesser than your pocket money. So tell me son, why do you complain? Have you not heard that hard work is the key to success? Can you not work hard and gain yourself anything? Must you depend always on luck and chance?  The best of people slogged through their early lives and lived grandly through the rest. The choice is yours’. You could keep complaining and shirking away, or you could face life as it comes. Not everyone’s life is a bed of roses…but here, if you have got faith in you…you’ll make it.”
The Angel finished, smiling.
“I…I am very...very sorry…”, Arun said, feeling ashamed. He had never known the kind of life the poor people lived. There were so many like the poor boy who’s life he had entered. Did he also not have a domestic servant? “I will…work hard…I will never give up. I may fail…but I will fight back….thank you great soul…you have enlightened me…”
The Angel moved slowly towards him and kept her hand on his forehead, it felt cool. And then even as she continued to smile, everything faded….
“ARUN! WAKE UP DUMBO! IT’S TIME FOR THE PAPER”, came a shout from nearby.
“HUH!? WHAT?”, Arun said groggily. He was still in bed.
Arjun came skidding into sight. “I said wake up…fifteen minutes for the paper!”
Something clicked. It had been a dream.
“WHAT!?”, Arun exclaimed. “OH DAMN! Okay man I’m on it!”
He jumped out of bed and hurried to the bathroom. But even as he dressed at full speed and got ready to face his fear…he knew it hadn’t been a dream. It had seemed too real…taught him too much… he was fearing today’s exam…but he wasn’t running away. Even if he failed, he would fight back again and again…
Getting ready he picked up his pencil case, totally prepared for anything and thanking god for the life he had…
And even as he wore shoes he saw it, straw sticking to their bases. He stared at it for a second. Then slowly his face split into a smile…and smiling to himself… he left with his best friend for the day’s test…