Stories

A Colony with Everything, but ...

... Life can Change Anytime

Once upon a time there was a colony named Som Vihar. It had everything, every facility a man could need to lead a comfortable life. It had a swimming pool, a doctor, a barber and playing area for children. It was a huge colony and it also had a school inside its campus. It was an army colony so all the Generals, Colonels and others had started living here after their retirement. The buildings were till the ninth floor. Some of the buildings had few offices too. No one went outside the colony because it had everything they needed. All the children, their parents and their grandparents lived happily inside the campus of Som Vihar.

Over the years a lot of development happened in Som Vihar. Many trees were cut and ground cleared for more buildings to be constructed. Soon the last few trees left in the garden were also cut because they wanted to add a science lab for the scientists and a Police Station. One year later everything was built.

Now no more trees were left in the colony. The air got polluted and it was difficult to step out of the houses. The children had difficulty going to school. People started to complain about this but no one listened. There was no rainfall and the grass and the shrubs all dried up. The people who were staying on rent left the colony. Some of my friends also had to shift. No one was happy because of the polluted environment.

All the residents signed a petition to the government asking for help, but no one listened to their appeal. They also went to the Chief Minister but he also declined to help them. Few more years passed and more people left the colony. The temperature inside the colony’s campus rose, and even with powerful air conditioners the heat was unbearable.

Finally, the people realised their mistake and planted more trees. Eco-friendly measures like rain water harvesting and use of clean energy from solar power panels were installed. Soon, the environment was back to normal and everyone who had left, returned to this colony and lived happily ever after!


Mr. Ahluwalia’s Special Tea Party

It was 6 o’ clock in the morning when someone rang the doorbell. It was Mr. Ahluwalia. Mr. Ahluwalia was a person who could come anytime at your house for having tea. It could be 2.00 am, could be 4.00 am, it could be anytime. Today, without even asking why he had come we told him to sit and wait till we made tea. But Mr. Ahluwalia refused to have tea. He said that he had come to invite us for his special tea party and he told us to remember that it was ‘Special’. We asked him what was so special about this tea party and he said that we would soon know when we attend his party. He gave us the invitation card and requested us once again to attend his party before leaving our house. We were all shocked that Mr. Ahluwalia was giving a tea party. Mr. Ahluwalia could mix anything inside the tea and then drink it as well. Last time when he came to our house at 3.15 am he mixed the pichkoo tomato sauce inside his tea.

We were not sure of the party timings as Mr. Ahluwalia had written simply 5.30 in the invitation card, without mentioning whether he wanted the tea party in the morning or in the evening. Mr. Ahluwalia’s tea party could be either at 5.30 am or at 5.30 pm because Mr. Ahluwalia had no time management. So we rang him up and asked him the party timings. Thankfully, the party was at 5.30 pm!

We were getting ready for the party when Mr. Ahluwalia called to say that the party was beginning at 9.00 pm. He also said that he would be serving us dinner as well. We went at 9.00 pm to his house but except Mr. Ahluwalia no one was there. We asked him why there were no other guests present. He replied that they had all gone home. We were puzzled but, still sat and waited for the tea. When Mr. Ahluwalia brought the tea it appeared normal from its colour. But when we had it, we really had it! We asked him what was in the tea. He said, with an innocent smile on his face, that he had mixed pudine ki chatni and sarson ka saag with some water.

We did not feel hungry after having the tea. We made an excuse and returned to our house. All of us could not sleep that night and we made a promise to ourselves that we would never go for Mr. Ahluwalia’s tea party again!

02-Nov-2019

More by :  Harsh Vardhan Joshi

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