Moments..

“No! no more rotis for me”, Sameer replied when his mother asked out from the kitchen.
He would feel sleepy if he filled his tummy. “A nice question to be put to the chemistry teacher”, he thought “Why do we feel sleepy after eating too much”
However, it was time to study physics now as he had a test at the tuition early morning – Fluid Mechanics and Optics.
It was a routine now from the past one year. Class 11 and now 12th – the pressure had been unceasing. Tests everyday - one day it was maths, next day chemistry, then physics and so on as the vicious cycle carried on..
Sameer climbed up to the stairs to his room. He had an exclusive or rather reclusive room on the top floor of his 3 floor house. There was just 1 room on the expansive roof top with an attached bath. Besides that, a small artificial garden had been constructed decorated with beautiful flowers, pots giving a green look to one corner of the barren roof.
As he reached the top, a lovely fragrance came floating towards him. It was heavenly. Only a slight aroma, tantalizing the smell buds coming with a smooth breeze.
How he wished he could just sit there forever. But he had a test tomorrow. “Need to be back among the fluids again.”
He marched towards his room, with his heart and brain still in a tussle. “Why can’t be there a moment when I can just think of nothing but sit outside smelling the flowers and watching the sky”. He loved the openness and the hugeness of a night sky with million starts twinkling to him – forming different patterns and molding them any way you wanted them to look like. But the time to do all that was becoming lesser by the day. As he entered the room, the uneasiness increased further – seeing the similar old setting – a study table in front with a book rack on its side – lined with thick science books. On the left was a single bed with a poster about “Positve Thinking” hanging above it. A simple 2 –in -1 in a corner completed the room. There were many days when he just hated to come to this room. He had the option of taking his books outside and study under the sky but it was too distracting. The simple setting of the room took away all the distractions.
Today was again one such day when he felt that uneasiness creeping in. He took out ‘H.C Verma’ – the larger than life book on physics. Soon he will be immersed in fluids studying about the Eureka of Archimedes and forget all about the stupid smells and the light breezes.
Before he could turn to the chapter on optics, it became black all around. Instead of “oooooohh shit!!”, it was “oooh yeah!!!” today. He happily closed his book and got out to be with the good ol’ sky, lovely smells and the breeze which, noticing that the light had gone, picked up some speed. Sameer took out a chair, put his feet on the parapet and sat there looking at the sky – forming imaginary images. The flowers, gently caressed by the breeze, gave out pleasant fragrances which acted as lullaby.
Slowly, Sameer went into a trance – enjoying the free moments of life wishing them to never cease.
And then as suddenly as it had left, the light came back. The trance broke, breeze slowed down, stars became invisible and Sameer, with a heavy heart, headed back to the table.