THE OPEN WINDOW

A pack of brightly colored playing cards lay within my reach
The design & color inviting, but the prospect of putting them to some sort of use was...well: Boring.

Anyway I finally picked them up, and sat shuffling the deck
It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be...

And before I knew it I was keen to do much more with them... But I hadn’t really decided what...
I mulled over it for a while... and finally mustered enough courage to lay down my own (house of cards)

From the outset itself, the plan was flawed... (I had expected too much)

Beautiful yet fragile... (Never the less I took a chance)....

I started one level at a time...with a narrow structure initially... (I didn’t think I wanted anything more at the moment)

Was unsure of how far I could go and really how far I wanted to... (We decided to live the moment)

But as I got through the first few levels, (my confidence grew).... I began beefing up the foundation... Adding more layers horizontally....

It had to be strong like... (Like any relationship)....it was the only way I was going to finish all the way to the top....

I was sure I would make it to the top... against all odds.... (I knew we would make it. I had begun to believe it)

And almost suddenly.... as if out of the blue (it all ended...)

Something had let the wind in... brought my house down with it... (As they say...it all came down like a pack of cards)

I sat there on the floor looking helplessly at the cards... (A mess)

The myriad colors, no better than a blur... (Each memory- vivid, yet strangely fuzzy)

As I picked myself up, I realised that (‘I had made all but 1 mistake’)...

A mistake that took everything I’d built away from me... All in 1 single instance...

I saw myself staring at the window...An otherwise ordinary sight on most days... I realised that something was amiss on that day...

I suddenly felt cold... I had left the window Open... (I had hoped for too much...)

Maybe the result was predictable from the very beginning... the nature of the construction itself made it impossible to complete... (I had been forewarned, but I chose to pay no heed...)

But someone or something had to be blamed...And on that day, unfortunately it was the poor window’s turn... Ordinarily you would have thought anything less harmless too would have caused the same result...

But had the window not been Open.... (At least I’d be protected...)

Just when i thought i had...

I walked for a very long time...
They stood by the sidelines egging me on... ‘Go on go for it... your almost there...just a few more steps & you’ll be there'
But every time I’d get closer... they’d say that I needed to walk a little more or chide me for having lost my way....

The journey had been eventful, lots to learn - I’d slip, I’d fall, made friends who’d break my fall... but with each event that set me back I knew I had to dust myself off, look ahead and walk on... I had to.. I had to get to that finish line remember?
The light had begun to fade... Faster than I had expected...But I knew where I was going... I could see the finish line clearly...

It’s been a while since I started walking... 3 long years ...and I thought I had almost reached the finish line... A victory undoubtedly...That’s what they’d told me they’d call it....

I am here now.. at the finish line... But, there’s no one. They’d told me they’d be there to celebrate my victory... But...I am all alone...

I should have guessed; it was only the 1st Goal post... & there were more up ahead..

No wonder there wasn’t any fan fare.

How silly of me to even expect it... (i thought to myself)

But.....

Didn’t I finish?

Or....

Did no one Notice?