The letter

It arrived in the morning. He did not expect it at this moment.

The criminal had made up his mind. He was happy until he read the letter. He was happy with the way things turned out to be.

He had met several counsellors and had a little idea about what the electric chair is. At first the electric chair - the word itself - gave him creeps.

He was analysing the crime he had done. He was the innocent party. But the gods did not smile at him - he had no evidence to prove his innocence. May be he was being retributed to something he had done in a previous birth. Is that how he came to believe in Kamma?

The criminal had not committed the crime, it was the truth. But he was no peaceful person either.

He was aggressive and held radical opinions.

He never believed in any religion. Not even in atheism. Apparently the happiness was alien to him. He had a knack for passing on the feelings of depression. So the verdict came to him as a shock: he was found guilty and electric chair was his destiny.

He tried to give life to the dead without knowing the body had no life left. His fingerprints betrayed him.

And that’s how he became a criminal.

The criminal slowly got used to his environs. His behaviour changed slowly. He got various books to read. In those pages, he could see a new world. When you let go of everything, you will be happy.

Happiness, the criminal breathed with a relief.

He knew he had been missing it all throughout his life. And now he is ready to accept it graciously.

At last happiness it out there to embrace him, the criminal felt. He was discovering the two main things to go for happiness: help others and let go of things.

He could slowly forget his past memories. However wonderful they were, he could forget them now. He started free lessons for the inmates. The criminal was a teacher of Social Science. So he started enlightening his inmates. But it was not the Social Science that he taught originally. No, it was not the Social Science you get to find in textbooks. It was a different Social Science.

It was the world he had read in the books, fused into his own experiences. He had purposely forgotten the original Social Science he had taught in the school.

Teaching others gave him joy. He was now ready for the electric chair.

When you let go of things of past, it is easy to face death. When you let go of the pain, it is easy to face electric chair. His mind was becoming calm with no distracted feelings.

He was feeling as if he is a prophet of his own school.

He did not harbour any feelings about the electric chair. He learnt to enjoy this moment itself - neither what happened in the past nor what will await him in the future. He was happy.

All this crumbled down when the letter arrived. It was from his wife.

My dear sweetheart,

Every morning I wake up with a glum feeling. How could it have happened to us? No we do not deserve this kind of punishment? How beautiful was the life we had together?

Remember the first day of our wedding? It was such a wonderful day. All of us celebrated the feast. And then the day we had our first baby. It was the most wonderful moment I had in my life.

I always feel that you do not deserve this.

The criminal stopped reading the letter. The empire he had built all throughout was crumbling down. It’s so difficult to build an empire, and it is easy to crumble it down in a few seconds.

The fear engulfed him. Electric chair, death, they all crept in like demons. It took a moment to regain his senses.

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