It was thirteen minutes past midnight. A cold chilly wind gushed through the open half of the window and made him shiver. Unable to sleep, he got up and closed the window firmly. He pulled the curtains to ward off the least speck of light that came from a far away skyscraper. He thoroughly inspected his small one bedroom-kitchen flat and ensured that nothing can wake up his three year old daughter who was fast asleep.  Feeling satisfied, he went to bed.

He was feeling uneasy that night. It was not unusual, but that night the intensity of uneasiness was higher than other nights. That night he was thinking about his whole life. How luck had deserted him at every step in his life. How throughout his life he had struggled for every penny.  A deadly typhoid during the final year of his college exams made him repeat a whole year. Getting a descent job became almost impossible. His father’s friend gave him one.  He married and soon had a beautiful daughter. But peace in life was difficult to find.  The recession crept in and he was the first one to lose his job, even though he was the most diligent one. Others had contacts and perhaps were not so naive. He tried very hard to find another one, but it was worse than finding water in Sahara. Someone suggested starting something of his one. He tried, but lost most of his savings in the process. Finally, unable to bear the pain of sitting at home when the whole world was going to work, he settled for a low profile job of working at a Gas station. But expenses were mounting with the rise in prices and the burden of life started appearing unbearable. His friends also stopped providing credit as he was repeatedly defaulting on them. Finally that morning, he heard that the Gas station was on fire. He rushed to the spot. He could not go nearby because of the tremendous heat. Hundreds of people have gathered. Police had cordoned off the area. The traffic was being diverted. The fire-fighters were trying their level best. Everything was on flames. Nearby he saw the owner sitting down on the road with his head bowed down. Ruing over the loss, he was crying “Everything’s finished, everything’s finished”.

That night was the first night of hunger. It was a day without money and night without food. Whatever they had was fed to the little child. He and his wife decided to go to bed without food.  He woke up and slowly went to the kitchen. He turned on the knob of the oven. His whole life flashed in front of his eyes as they filled with tears. He felt the futility of battling a life which could not provide the minimum to his child whom he loved so much. He was horrified to think of the day when his daughter would also have to go without food. What a father would he be? The words of the owner echoed in his ears “Everything’s finished, everything’s finished”. After an hour or so, when the whole house reeked of gas, he took the matchbox in his hands. He went to the room and kissed his daughter’s forehead.  Taking a last deep breath, with trembling hands he struck the matchstick.

“…end. The world would come to an end. If thou can, save thine own a**.” God was never so forthright. This time, Noah realized, He meant business. “Go build yourself an Ark”, He advised. “What about the Kyoto Protocol? The environmentalists would sue me if I fell so many trees…”, asked Noah. “Don’t care, neither would they be there, nor would there be any Environment… Ha ha ha”… and by sounding these thunderous laughters He vanished into thin air.

Noah opened his eyes. He could not believe himself. Can God be so cruel to ask him to build an Ark at the age of 600? He wanted to go back to God, but did not know where He lived. So, he searched in Google, but even Google could not answer. God’s home was nowhere found in Google Maps and even his GPS (God Positioning System) failed!

Cursing his bad luck, Noah sat down brooding. A tall well-built young boy with too many muscles, was passing by. On seeing Noah crying, he asked, “Hey Ol’Gran’pa… why’re u cryin?” On listening to  Noah’s story he agreed to help. He introduced himself as Arnold T-O. “God has sent me to save Humanity for Judgement Day”, he added.

So with Arnold’s help Noah built an Ark. Now he was supposed to wait for the doomsday. Days passed, weeks passed, and even months passed, nothing happened.  Finally one day, when he had almost given up, the earth beneath his feet started shaking. He realized that the doomsday has come. Hurriedly taking all the birds, animals, and Arnold inside, he closed the doors of the Ark. The sky was getting darker, and violent winds were blowing from all corners of the earth. Noah realized, everything that has a beginning has to come to an end. And then after the violent earthquake, the Great Tsunami came and pounced on Noah’s Ark. For days and nights the Ark floated and floated, and one day it landed on the Mountains of Ararat. Noah sent out a dove and it did not return. The water has subsided. He opened the gates of his Ark and came out to see the bright sunshine on the lush green fields of the earth. Trees have grown and fruits were ripe. Fresh breeze carrying the scent of blossoming flowers filled his heart. It was Spring again. “After every End there is a new Beginning”, Noah said to himself.

Mother gave him the name of Isaac, but he preferred calling himself by the English surname Newton.  It sounded somewhat like the unit of Force, and imparted his name some Gravity, he used to say. Day and night he played hide and seek with the sun, the moon and other celestial bodies, and tried to contemplate their movements and advances. One day in such a contemplative mood, while sitting in the Garden of Eden, under an apple tree, he fell asleep.  Satan seemed to pass by when he saw Newton asleep. By his very satanic nature he decided to bring eternal tribulations on mankind. He took the shape of a Cupid and climbed up the tree and one by one dropped three red apples on Newton’s head. And that was the day in human history, when miseries of hard intangible mathematics were written on every newborn’s immature forehead.  Newton fell in love with those apples. He brought them home and placed them at the centre of his table. Every day he used to muse at them, and whenever he ran out of ideas, he used to take a bite and shout, “How do you like them apples?”