Hope on

     There is light at the end of the tunnel, it is said. How long the tunnel is, no one said.

     Even when he hangs by a thread a person clings to hope.

     The incredible tensile strength of the thread in the previous statement makes for a good metaphor for hope. The man is so proud of his super power (more specifically, a mutation) to hope until the metaphor morphs into reality and the thread snaps.

     As he falls he spots a figure climbing over the cliff. That figure was also hanging by a thread. That figure also hoped. ‘What was the difference?’ the man asks moments before his head is crushed. ‘Hope doesn’t promise; hope doesn’t deliver. Hope only hopes’ the figure from above replies to the corpse below.

     ‘Do not lose hope’ a woman was told once. She wasn’t sure if she had any hope left to lose but she was a human and humans have the tendency to dig out hope from unknown depths. The hope thus discovered mysteriously gave her enough strength to get up and enter the box cart of a train with impeccable punctuality. The fact that only a few days ago animals were transported in the same cart was hidden from her observation by hope or hope masked it as just another hurdle. She began to hope for food, water, a blanket, home, may be some music, warm sun, joy, love and by now she was so elated that she vocalised her gratefulness to hope. After basking in this euphoria for long enough she got down the box cart and joined the line towards the chimney.

     But hope was faithful. It did not leave her side until the suffocation started. Only when she was disoriented and confused was she free of hope.

     The Northern horizon looked like somewhere they could start afresh. The family packed all they could carry and a fist full of hope. The boat may be crowded but the shore is vast, they hoped. The waves may be high but the land is serene, they hoped. They may be hungry now but the future is plentiful, they hoped. The boat may have capsized but the shore might be near, they hoped. They couldn’t breathe but they hoped. They thought of heaven and for one last time they hoped.

     It seems there were two farmers who prayed for rain. You could say that they, with a very human instinct, also hoped for rain. One went ahead and ploughed his land in preparation for his hoped-for rain. He truly believed they say. It is yet to be discovered and established what happened later. Did it rain to honour the one true believer between the two? Did the sky go blank to punish the other? Bizarrely but quite possibly, did it rain only in the believer’s field? Did hope deliver? Or don’t the crops don’t matter at all as long as you believe?

      I would like to guess that the true believer continued to hope until it rained in the precise season forty years later and that the other went mad and killed himself after thirty nine.

     A man who was walking through the darkest tunnel was asked by a voice out of nowhere where he was headed. ‘I’m headed towards the light at the end,’ he replied. ‘What will you do with the light?’ the question came from the dark. ‘I don’t know! I hope it is something good’ he put together an answer. ‘All the best!’ the voice from the dark concludes. The man muttered ‘Thank you’ and went ahead. He made it to the light and seeing that it was good he shouted through the tunnel, ‘Man this is great! You must come see this!’ There was no response. He blamed his mind and started basking in the light.

     Another man finds himself in the darkest tunnel. ‘Where are you headed?’ a dull voice came out of nowhere. ‘To the light at the end. Heard good things. Hope they are true’ he responded with confidence. ‘All the best!’ the words came as the voice became duller. The man struggled to the light at the end and seeing that it is good he shouted back to the nameless voice, ‘This is amazing. You must come see this!’ The darkness was more silent than ever. The man looked at the bright and pleasant light, turned back and proceeded into the tunnel. In a quiet obscure corner he found the source of the voice, put him on his shoulder and made the familiar journey towards the all-good-light.

      

-Sam