A 23-year-old male model named Zeesh had finally made to the list of ‘The Top 10 Handsome Men’. He won several awards at a young age, becoming the first person to set the record of a youngest successful male model in Guinness world records. He was content with his life and enjoying what he did until he realized something that changed his whole life.
One day he got an offer from the International film industry to play the role of the male lead in their film. His happiness knew no bounds. He could feel himself floating over on the cloud nine. He had always wished for this moment. He got this opportunity out of the blue as he had not even gone for the audition. So, how did he make it? He thought it could be due to his fame, or maybe due to his luck. He stopped focusing on the reason behind it. Soon, the queen had invited Zeesh to have dinner with her at her palace. It was another unexpected thing. He could have only imagined but never thought that it would become true one day. Gradually all the events that he could only imagine about started turning into reality. He becomes suspicious day by day. He realized that all the things he achieved to date were what he had always imagined. He did not have any inkling or clue about how he made through it when he had not taken much of efforts for it. He was clueless about the reason behind this and comforting himself by thinking that he got a bit of great luck.
But his life took a turning point when he was wandering around the bookstore near his home. A book named ‘Escape To Reality’ somehow caught his attention. He realized that the main character of the novel is more like him or maybe him. He could feel the pulses of his heart beating against his chest while the book fell from his hand to the floor with the pages open.
When he came out of the book store, he realized all the things moving around him suddenly came to a halt. No one was moving around, and he could not hear a single sound. He got frightened as to what was happening around him. How did such diverse and extreme changes take place all of a sudden? His mind was full of questions and anxiety. Without wasting his time, he ran towards his house to the intricacy of the situation. He was still setback in a dilemma. But on returning, he found that the housekeepers who were doing their chores stop moving, the gardener who was watering the plant was still, even the water was not dripping off. His dog that was barking when the world halted had grown still in that position. Zeesh no longer had the powers over his conscious.
He locked himself in his room and cried his eyes out the entire day. His eyes swollen and worn soon could not hold the weight of his eyelids, leading him to sleep. He wanted this to be a dream. But when he wakes up, nothing has changed around him. He slapped himself to come to sense, but it was of no help. He tried to remain calm amidst the turmoil inside him, took deep breaths. Without wasting his time, he went back to the same book store where he was reading the novel he found which had not even moved by an inch. The opened page was shining too bright. It was visible from a distance outside the book store. Suddenly the weather around him turned darker. He ran as fast as he could to grab the book. Panting when he touched the page, his hand got immersed inside the book. He was able to find a link, a gateway to another world. The moment he looked around, he could see the complete view in the distance turning black as if it was erasing.
He plunged on to the leap of faith and dived into the book only to find himself lying on the hospital bed. His mother kept on sobbing when he gained his consciousness. He could recollect some memories in flashbacks. The memories came flooding back when he realized that he got into an accident 10 years ago. He had been in a coma since the past 10 years! The doctor was about to remove the life support after an hour as they had lost all the hopes. They had waited long enough for him to make any movement. The imaginative world of his unconscious had finally been broken. He now had to live the reality.
“Always be observant, brave and accept the reality.”
– Jaya Gupta
Utkarshini Journal 