My girlfriend was doing the chit-chat with some other dude. They were spontaneous. They were playing like kids in the toll plaza area. In front of the toll plaza there was the road, but no car was there. She had one long binoni in her back, when the dude was teasing her with words, she responded more quickly and amazingly and her binoni was moving too, blowing in the wind as if it could fly ; fly like his words. They were not standing in one place; they were changing their position in every moment. Walking, talking, crossing themselves, getting back, coming over, smiling and giggling and all these blah blah blah was happening. Obviously there was no physical touching. They were immortal being, beyond their physical existence.

I was sitting in the audience loop. The man sat besides my seat was getting jealous; I can feel his tension; he was anxious – will there be any physical touch? I don’t have any such tension. Because I knew for sure, there will be no such thing. They were just enjoying their moments. And I was enjoying too.

But I was enjoying too much. I felt that as an audience I was also part of this stage show. There was one man in the ATM booth, picking up his money from the machine. He was quite slow. I was curious why was he so slow, what the hell he is waiting for? Besides the ATM Booth, there was a closed door. When I make my appearance in front of that door suddenly the door opened. I saw the eyes of the elephant. It looked like it was angry. I didn’t know why. Was it angry at me? I tried to look in to its eyes, but I couldn’t find where its eyes were. Suddenly the conversation between my girlfriend (who was an actress actually) and the dude stopped. It seemed like I had come in to the scene. I was also part of the play. This somehow frightened me.

The elephant drove me the right-hand corner of the stage. It was a long road. There was a similar door there. A man was standing there long before. One ordinary man. But when I came near to him, I saw that he had a pagri in his head and he slowly made his hand visible from behind. There was a small sword in his hand. I was in front of him. The elephant was behind me. The man stabbed me from the front. There was no sound. No blood. No pain. I was just feeling weak.

The man dragged me in to the door. There were staircases. I just rolled down in the bottom. Before I was going down, I saw the dude with his happy face, like mission accomplished. Was it a bank robbery? He was smiling. Maybe he was saying congratulation to the man. The elephant also came through the door. It made a space for itself behind the wall. I was stabbed and couldn’t get-up, fallen on the last staircase. I was feeling so tired.

But I can see the elephant was gazing at me. Maybe it will continue to gaze at me for the rest of my life.

2.

Everything has its own ending. I had no sense of time. But there was a time when I had a feeling that, this situation was also approaching towards an end. I was feeling relieved. Maybe it took at least two hours to cross a year. Some years were obviously longer which were eventful, mostly these were the recent years and some years were passed by only forty or even thirty minutes; but thank God, it was going to be over. The elephant seemed to be asleep. Maybe I was in a coma, may be I just had a simple trauma, but I get over and back to the stage again. Yes, I gonna play the play! (Maybe Jullian Brans will not be too much critical on that exclamatory sign…)

But what will I do? After climbing through the stairs and opening the door will I be expecting another elephant to be emerged? I think, this will not happen.  Once I had seen an elephant, next time I can see a scary deer or a silent cow; maybe they will frighten me, too. In fact, there were circles beyond circles and no center at all. In any of the circle maybe the scary deer or the silent cow is an elephant also. Whatever it is, I didn’t feel like, I should think too much. I got the freedom and I should do something to show that I am free. I was back on the stage now!

There were lots of car in the road. (As this was a stage-drama 4/5 cars will be enough.) All cars were sedan and only couples were sitting in the front seats. Couples of different ages, but age gap were high – old man and young woman, young man and old woman; which indicated that ‘anything’ (mostly to indicate an erotic sign) is possible in this world.

But I was feeling bad. Maybe I was still tired. I need something to make my excuse strong. Again I went to the ATM booth and I was accusing it for cheating – why did you lie to me? You have no money, but how did you claim yourself an ATM machine? Shall I cry, now?

People were busy in their cars. Not that they were having sex. As they were couple, obviously they could do that. Only condition is that, they must have their marriage certificate with them. But they were only appearing themselves as bored couples in the traffic jam.

Still nobody listened to me.

Maybe I was demanding democracy in the time of economic development.

3.

What I could remember is that, I fall for a reluctant nymphomaniac. The actress, the goddess on the stage reminded me about that incident. Maybe I was imagining another story and on that story I was seeing a nymph who was trying to catch a butterfly. I was trying to look too deep in its color and couldn’t identify what color it was. Then I could awake.

Now her hair is open and I could see no other person in the stage.

In the background, music was playing… akash eto meghla, jeo nako ekla…

Since there was music, this was definitely the end of the play.

Everyone in the auditorium was standing up, so did I. In the stage, all actors came together, made a line in the front and bow their heads. People were clapping. Their performance was good. So I clapped for them, too. It was a nice evening.

I came out from the auditorium. Ironically, I saw there was an elephant in the road. It was brought in the city for tomorrow’s grand event, opening of a govt. project. I light my cigarette and smiled at it. Maybe it saw me too or maybe not. It was lifting its trunk and making an unusual sound as its master instructed. People were amused. I went back home.

4.

The day after that evening I did my usual work and in the following day while having my breakfast, I saw the picture of the elephant in the newspaper. I could recognize it. Maybe the event was a great one; otherwise it wouldn’t make its appearance in the newspaper.