When Air became Heavy

Short story of a red balloon.

There are many things we take it for granted in life. We live of memories and routines overlooking the obvious. We make ourselves comfortable putting things perfectly into the slots. We forget to notice things as if we are looking at it as a 2 year old. How beautiful ? Everything as if its first time.

00:30 hrs

A cab is waiting at the gate. The driver with a long beard and skull cap is out and stretching. He didn’t call me or is not annoyed that I’m late. He is taking this as an excuse to take a break from the wear and tear of Bangalore’s traffic. I put my heavy suitcase in the boot. With a long hug, I’m prepared to get in. That is when Nandini tells me there is a friend who is coming to see me.

—

00:40 hrs

I see another cab coming and my friend Naveen gets down with a red balloon in hand. I thought he was coming from a party. He gives me a balloon saying adios. I said thanks and gave him a hug. After exchanging few words about future, I’m preparing to get into the cab. I was hinting to give the balloon to Nandini. Naveen objected and indeed asked me to take to Berlin.

—

00:45 AM, Weight of the Balloon became 1Kg.

Denial, Who carries a balloon abroad ? Is he serious ? The questions lingered in my mind. The thought I’m tagged to it. The thought Naveen challenged me. The thought that I should respect his feelings, increased the weight of the balloon. I started to see it as a nonsense.

—

1:30 AM, Balloon weight : 5Kg

I tied the balloon to the suitcase to keep my hands free. I could hear people at the airport waiting for their relatives, talking and laughing about it. It looked like newly wed’s car. May be people were thinking it is my first time to fly abroad. Oh! what a shame? How could they think like that. It is so normal for me. These thoughts and the embarrassment added more weight.

I had more reasons to discard it.

—

Balloon weight : 7Kg

Time doesn’t matter anymore, so does the weight of the balloon because I have decided to keep it. So what, if I’m first time traveller? I have been once too. Why not someone should celebrate their first time travel abroad? What if it is the biggest achievement in ones life? For many it might be the only achievement.

I was judged by people, who look into thin air when confronted. Their looks and prejudice have added a decent weight.

—

10Kg

The ground crew from the flight carrier asked me about the balloon with a wicked smile. I said I wanted to check how far it could go. She replied that it wouldn’t make it beyond the security check.

How could it go beyond? It doesn’t make sense. It didn’t fit the norm. It is out of the box and out of the comfort zone. It was a much needed relief for a man looking reasons to be stereotypical. No more reasons to be judged by others.

By now the balloon almost became 10Kg that I”m more than willing to get rid off. Since anyways I’m losing it, why not try to get through the scanner?

—

20Kg

I was preparing myself to be called aside. To be answering the questions of the security police. Should I say it is a gift by my daughter? Should I tell the truth that it is a challenge by my friend?

Moments like these push us into weird imaginations. I was thrilled to go to the next level like in a cheap video game.

To my pleasant surprise it passed through the scanner without any questions. The red balloon looked like a small child coming through the school gate with a broad smile.

Little bit of love was growing towards the balloon.

—

35Kg

I started thinking, how couldn’t the security think of the balloon as a threat to safety? May be it had poisonous gas or a sedative or laughing gas or bio weapon.. The fear that someone would stop me and question started to grow.

I think we suffer more from our imaginations than our reality.

The fear in my mind and the curiosity fellow travellers increased its weight. I started to hide it in a bag and taking care it wouldn’t burst.

I was afraid what if the balloon bursts mid-air and cause panic to fellow passengers. I placed it securely in the cabin, hoping to see it alive after I land at Doha.

—

45Kg

To my surprise it survived all the turbulence, the low air pressure, the pressure from the over ambitious bag of a stranger. It fought like a warrior clinging to the sword and the breath.

I took it dearly and travelled with it across different terminals. It almost became my friend, a companion. I remembered the ball from Cast Away movie.

What life holds onto in the moments of hardship is to the feeling of comfort that something or someone is going through the same pain and can relate to us.

—

60 Kg

There comes another security check. This time I was certain it wouldn’t pass. It is international police. They wouldn’t expect strange people with strange beliefs like in India.

**Drum roll**

My balloon comes through like a man. No one could deter its path to glory. It almost became the weight of a full grown man.

Then I left it alone. Why ?

—

75Kg

There is no challenge.

There is no fear.

There is no embarrassment.

There is no curiosity.

I couldn’t bear the weight of boredom.

After a long wandering, I returned to the spot where I left it. With a feeling to at least complete that task for the sake of it.

It was missing.

May be this experience exposed the dark side of me, that I get bored easily when things become predictable. I give up easily when things get dull. There is nothing else to motivate me.

I felt the mission is accomplished. I felt I overcame everything my friend wanted to test me.

But I failed him.

I didn’t overcome the biggest burden of boredom. However.

By the weight of denial, embarrassment, fear, judgement and boredom the balloon became heavier than ever for me to be retracted into the norm of a conventional life. Only breaking those gave me a freedom to roam like a two year old seeing as if everything for the first time. It uncovered the aspects of existentialism. To define our own meaning out of life and acting to our will.

Thanks to Naveen Indala for gifting a lesson.