The Lie


He was very happy about the little kitten that his father got for him. It had half a jet-black face, and the rest of it was pure white. From the moment the kitten and the boy had seen each other, they had grown fond. They played for long hours, the kitten was almost always by the boy's side, and he even let the kitten sleep in his bed. His parents were very glad about the newfound friendship, and the whole house was happy.

That night, his parents had gone out to the market, leaving him alone at home for the first time. He was a bit scared about the prospect of being left alone at home, but the thoughts of being able to do anything that he wanted to do was too overwhelming. So, he told his mother that he would be fine at home, with the kitten. Before they left, they told him not to go anywhere near the kitchen, that it was a dangerous place to be alone, and they told him that they would come back very soon.

Finally alone in the house, he had a strange feeling of freedom. He could do anything he wanted! The only living thing part of the family left in the house, was his very close friend, the kitten. He waited a few moments to let that feeling of freedom to sink in, and when he finally couldn't bear it anymore, he jumped with joy, a huge grin lighting up his face. He could run all over the house, he could flush the toilet as many times that he wanted to, he could even go into the kitchen. His parents had asked him not to go there, but they would never know. The kitten looked at him with accusatory eyes, but he knew she'd never tell anyone.

Tentatively, he opened the kitchen door and walked inside. Steel utensils shone at him, the cutlery glinted. Knives, forks, spoons, ladles… he had stumbled across a shining pile of treasure! He carefully moved towards the spoons and knives, itching to touch one of them. The cold steel felt alive at his touch, and it made him shiver, right from the finger touching the knife down to the un-slippered feet. He didn't like the knives all that much, although they were pretty to look at from a distance.

He saw a knob on the stove, and remembered how his mother could control fire with that small black knob. His mother had been cooking, and the knob was still warm at the touch. With a leaping heart, he turned the knob. Nothing happened, except a faint hiss that issued from the stove. No blue flames leapt up, no warmth was generated. Disappointed, he turned the knob a little more, but still nothing happened, except that the hiss grew a little louder. Exasperated, he left the stove alone, and turned around, and found that the kitten had managed to climb on to the shelf with a big jar of Complan resting on it. He waved at the kitten to come down, who promptly jumped from the shelf and rocked the jar of Complan. It fell to the ground, and shattered into a million pieces, spreading glass all over the kitchen floor and the hallway. Scared, he ran out of the kitchen, bolting the door, leaving behind a chocolaty mess, and a hissing stove.

About an hour later, his parents came home. His father went into the kitchen, and as he was walking barefoot he cut his foot on a small piece of broken glass. He recognized it to be of a bottle, and he asked him if he had been anywhere near the kitchen. He lied that he hadn't, that it probably was the kitten that broke the jar. The kitten stared at him, but didn't say anything. He gave a sigh of relief, as his father bought the story and went into the kitchen to see the extent of the damage. As he turned on the incandescent bulb, there was a huge blast, and a ball of fire swallowed his father. He screamed, but he couldn't hear anything. He saw a few charred remains of the kitchen, but couldn't recognize any of it. His mother came running, but it was too late. There was nothing left in the kitchen, except ash and smoke, and a lingering smell.

Two hours later, the firemen told his uncle that the fire was caused due to the LPG. His uncle asked him if he had been anywhere near the kitchen, and he lied again that he hadn't. But this time, he started sobbing, because he knew his father would not come back. His uncle picked him up in his arms, and took him to his Mother. She was sitting quietly, unmoving. The kitten was nowhere to be seen.

It was a few weeks before he went back to school after the incident. Before he left, he looked into his mother's eyes and made a promise. "Ma, I'm never going to lie again."

***

10 years later, he was coming home from a bar after having his first smoke. When he reached home, his mother smelt the cigarette smoke on him, and asked him if he'd been out smoking.

"No, Ma! I don't smoke," he said.

***

Image Courtesy danwk71

34 comments :: The Lie

  1. Amazing piece!
    I remember the excitement of being alone at home! But I was quite an obidient kid and never did what I was warned not to do!

    Actually, ocne they left my li'l bro at home alone and he created a mess in the kitchen, and even got hurt :( He attempted to play with matchsticks.

  2. @ akanksha... Yet again, you were the first one to comment on this one. Thanks a lot...

  3. Well... I think the blaring truth here is tht despite everything-we are still humans!!!!!.... We never learn from our mistakes.. do we????... We always think that we are right and think that we can take life for granted... Sad and ironic!!!!

  4. We will never learn! That excitement of a child being alone at home was captured beautifully! Good one! Keep going! :)

  5. @ Diva... I guess sometimes we don't, sometime's it's really ironic that life just cannot teach us the lessons we should learn the most. Life is too precious to be taken for granted...

    Thanks for your viewpoints, your comment, and for reading the post :)

  6. @ Tara... Irony has a very close relationship with us humans.

    The excitement of being left alone was something I think everyone has felt as a kid... thanks for the comments, keep reading :)

  7. I was about to post a comment on "Lies" but I would not have been able to put it accross like this.. Some lessons don't go into our head even the harder way..
    I wonder what it takes to send across the right message.
    We humans, only god can understand us.

    Well written :)

  8. well....wat we are ask nt to do...we will do dat only..bt it was a nice lesson we all should learn..bt one thing, nobody can stop lieng..

  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
  10. @ Netika... would love to see that post too, write it. And yes, there are some things about us that, unfortunately, no one can understand...

    Thanks for visiting...

  11. @ shreya... You're right, no one can stop lying no doubt, but then we fail to understand the implications small lies can have...

    Nice to see you here by the way ;)

  12. The whole time I was redaing this I was reminded of a similar incident (well, it wasn't ,quite as similar) which eventually lead me to decide that "I shall never lie again." Needless to say, a feeling of guilt engulfs me right now.

    Well written as always. :)

  13. @ bondgal... I remember you telling me about that incident. Don't feel guilty about it, 'coz at the end of the day you stuck to that decision of yours, of never lying...

    Glad you liked it... :)

  14. Again a good one but here..beleive me this time i have gussed as soon as wen u mentioned about the Kitchen.. i thought probably mother or Father will die...
    but i liked the after 10year wala tooo..
    need not to tell uu ....Well Written...

  15. well written dude... I know its fiction but I hate that guy... liars for that matter... good one mate...

    take care... have a nice day... cheers...

  16. @ Pallav... I think it's time for me to change the way I write, eh? Good to see that you keep revisiting... keep reading, and writing, cheers.

  17. @ Arv... Thanks a lot. In the end, we are human, and like someone said before too, lying is a very human thing.

    Let's not get into that here though, the conversation would go on forever... cheers.

  18. Pleasure is always mine....
    hey!!! need not to change for anyone.
    this wht first time i guessed...
    anyways..looking forward for another nice post from your endd...
    keep it uppp
    Cheersss toooo

  19. Hey! Thxs a ton for following me !! I love your blog :) Lovely post!

  20. @ Pallav... Na, I've seriously noticed that lately the stuff I've been writing is growing a bit stereotypical... and I hate that myself. So, that's what I'm trying to do now...

  21. @ Cursed... Thanks a lot for reading, hope there'd be some new material soon so that you can come back... :)

  22. very well written piece! :)

  23. @ Pheonix... Thanks a lot :)

  24. I second what you said above - Irony isn't new to humankind.

    We make optimum use of two statements viz.
    1. To err is human
    2. To forgive is divine

    Long live.

    Peace.

    ---
    Not been around blogsville much. Gotta update my page too...

    See you around.

  25. @ Kartz... Thanks for reading. In a way, I do believe those two sentences, but then again we're just humans, and that's probably why it's not always possible for us to forgive...

    Welcome back to blogsville. Will go through the new stuff on your blog. Peace...

  26. Bingo. We are humans. That pretty much sums it up. Just that, these days we are so *eager* to stay human rather than search for the *truth*.

    Yours was a thought provoking composition...

    And thanks for the welcome.

    Regarding what you said - yes, I do know your views, dude. It pleases me to no end that I am interacting with someone who is the grandson of a freedom fighter. My grandfather and his elder brother were freedom fighters too. Just that... You know... I found Lal-Bal-Pal, Bhagat Singh and the other extremists more radical... A long story. We could discuss it sometime.

    Take care.

    Peace.

  27. @ Kartz... I guess that's where the problem starts, the fact that we get content being just the way we are... and we accept manipulating the truth to suit our requirements. And the hypocrisy of the situation is that sometimes, even I do that... sad...

  28. Interesting very Interesting ..

    We as kids and even as adults get into the habit of lying without a reason and this habit has an avalanche affect sooner or later ..
    The thing is we learn only from our mistakes or perhaps not even then..

  29. This comment has been removed by the author.
  30. @ Arnav... Thanks... and it's very true that the lies cascade into bigger lies, and somehow the cycle never ends... it's easy to say all these things now, on a platform like this, but when it's really happening to someone, they really wouldn't hesitate to lie!

  31. Touching arnab...very much....

    Kabhi kabhi kuch accidents haalaki hamein sikha to deti hai,par effective tarikhe se nahi sikha pati aur waqt ke saath jo hua use hum bhool jate hai...

    Agar yeh banda bhi kuch aise hi haalat se guzarta to baat kuch aur hoti...

    Whatever your story had a punch line...
    thanks for visiting my space..

    keep writing..:)
    you are in my blogroll so i will be visiting you again..:)

  32. @ Mahesh... Good to see someone going through the blog this religiously. Thanks :)

    Sometimes, even life can't teach us the lessons we ought to learn, and more often than not, it's the lies that spark off the troubles in life...

  33. Some people just want to be safe, for the time being, no matter at what cost.. These are the kind of people whose art of lying matures to 'I am not the murderer'

    U write well, Arnab :-)

  34. @ Shruti... Yes, people can be that selfish at times. It's really unfortunate, but then again it's a human quality... being selfish to the extent of being short sighted. Thanks for your comments, cheers...