“Hurry up buddy! There is no single occasion now to wait.”

Back out of the villa there spread a blanket of roses. Roses in their utmost beauty took pride in their own creation. Morning fresh mist gently touched the red blanket; seemed the nearest approach between them. The mist whispering into the ears of roses, A ROSY MORNING. The roses reciprocated the warmth with a blush as deep as its own.
“Lily Dumbo!. Come here for once. I have something to calm down and soothe your senses. Something really fixed for your sixth sense even…...Ha Ha Ha. Come on! TAKE TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES. It is tax free and trust me no hidden costs this time.” Rosy made fun of her elder sister Lily. Lily was elder to Rosy by three years. She shared a bubbly attitude with a layer of hardcore instincts and seriousness;a sense of responsibility and love for the fellow beings. She was very down to earth and a real extrovert. Paid no heed to the material world. Lived always in her world of fantasy- brooding over the bleeding sky, laughing at the stars beneath her feet( the way she always thought of), ….why do buses run on roads- why is she named Lily- why the roads are painted in jet black- why the crossing lines on the road are called zebra crossing and why not giraffe crossing-why everyone eats to gluttony when it never grounds itself in the belly for permanent- why the water is in liquid state- when the investment is in the form of a small brown seed , how come the output is a herbaceous green tendril and upon maturity why the returns are in the form of colorful flowers- there seemed no LOC to her terrorism of thoughts.

She always appreciated singing a song for her soul…..
I FEEL A FUNNY FEEL
A FUNNY FEEL I FEEL
YOU FEEL THE FEEL I FEEL
I FEEL THE FEEL YOU FEEL……….

Lily always dreamt of an animated world; where everything is under control. She always cherished thinking if at all there was anything discontentment or ill phase in life, one can cut the frame from the main reel. She related this very much to terrorism. She discovered that animation is the key to evil stoppage. Life in adversity always pinched her soul.- How ludicrous ! how wistful….

Rosy loved calling her sister, “Lily Dumbo.” What made her say that…
Though she called Lily, a Dumbo, she always found herself dumb heeding to her sister. She took delight in everything that interested her sister. Lily’s thoughts dismissed her thoughts. There were umpteen moments which made Rosy to imagine herself as a research scholar assisting a kind of genius soul in her research project- A project for the betterment of mankind. Trying to save something perilous- The dawn of civilization. Rosy had always mocked her sister-the way Lily expressed her soul, her inner being, the facial curves she drew; every second shifting between the blinks. Rosy found herself dumped deep in the wild bewilderment whenever Lily eyed her with a void in her mind space.

One fine August, Lily happened to be nascent and preoccupied with all tangential mind waves. Death- the deadly word in her dictionary ,feared her the most. In contrast, she was inspired by the same stretch of alphabets to live life to the fullest. With all this stuff heavily crammed into her cranium, she rested on the scrubby grass. The cool light of the moon; her own ruling sign cloaked the darkness beneath. “Death a Blissful Celebration” last words she whispered that night. The gentle breeze swung over her moon lit body.With all the highness of the world at her feet, slept she the majestic way. All the Angels from heaven dawned .She lost her self…Her thoughts rested at last in dead silence. The agitation in her head had no momentum then.

“Hurry up buddy! There is no single occasion now to wait.” The first utterances. Quite awakening. Her instincts haunted her all from the moment her senses woke up that morning. She was almost a ZERO. Skipping her morning oats, she stood quite stiff in mind and body.
Lily held rosy with her hand and dragged her into the living room. “ Enough of smelling. Let some fragrance remain over them. Anything excess is very dangerous. Have pity on your Os Nasale. Now let us scoot- High time Rosy”
Lily and Rosy marched their way to bus station. Row of florists busy beautifying the bouquets, haunted Rosy’s senses. Pettifogging at the sequel of shops annoyed Lily very much.. “TAKE TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES.” Rosy exclaimed. She found Lily’s expression very complex and concerned. Her beautiful eyes belied the harshness of her expression. “Take a chill pill Dumbo.Oh! Again the same niggling worry. It never suited you anyways. Hey wear this.”
“What’s that”- perplexed Lily. “A MILLION DOLLAR SMILE” Rosy giggled.
Though the sisters were seemingly alike, there was a relic trace of separateness in their minds. The elder one sensed the conspiratorial gloom around her. At one corner of the station there was a ragtag and bobtail. Soon merged into huge mounds; which intimidated the sisters. Lily soon felt the heavy set of massiveness in her chest.
“Rosy something is really wrong there. We need to……” .
“We need to…..what Dumbo?” Without even answering the anxiety of Rosy, she took her and broke off to the crowd. All she could see there was an inexorable gloom. A stick-thin figure laid horizontal on the ground covered with a white new cloth, garland of roses, dying smoke of incense sticks, flies kissing the dead skin and mosquitoes sucking hard the hardened cold blood. Rosy held her sister very tightly and close to her soul. “We are already late Dumbo. Let us move.” Rosy explained the moment.
“TAKE TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES, Rosy. Wait for some more time. It is a garland of roses out there on the dead .You failed to observe, I guess.” Lily justified in a taunting way. The pathetic sarcasm…

“Mourning over such things, do not push away your living. Cheer up! Dumbo.” Consoled Rosy.Lily’s eye caught over a LITTLE ANGEL, a kid of hardly 6 years old. She was on slightly darker side of complexion with her beautiful black beady eyes and her hair-straw-berry blonde. Somebody asked the kid- “What happened to your mother- was she sick- what is your name dear- where are you from?” She was spell bound.
Every question shot, failed to evoke a response. Lily waited hard for the kid to open up. She could not bear the silence and walked straight to the girl. The kid eyed Lily with a bit of humor and innocence in her expression. Poor kid displayed helplessness on her part. “My mamma is still sleeping. I am trying to wake her up but she is adamant on her own stand. Now I am feeling hungry. She is not at all heeding to my needs.” The innocence bewitched Lily. No more could she think of the next move- Lily got a food packet for the kid and boarded her way to college with her sister.
“What happened to you Dumbo?” Rosy yelled at her sister in vexation. Lily was dead mute. After a pause-“Rosy, why was she killed? Why not me and you-how’ll the little Angel survive- who’ll take care of her – who’ll offer her daily bread and clothing-who’ll love her?” Both the sisters exchanged vision with tears in their eyes. Ignorant of what to do next, they ran towards the same grief spot, ramming the ground hard. But there was nothing left out to feel for. Upon questioning, a petty shop owner sufficed saying, “The municipality people have taken the corpse for electric cremation.” When asked about the kid- the shop owner just shrugged his shoulders.
Rosy looked at her sister. “Muster up courage Dumbo. It happens. It is all over. We are helpless in this regard.”
Lily uttered not a word- “ You mud, you peanut, you scatter brained, you dunderhead…..speak up!. Cry out your soul. OMG……your silence is killing me Dumbo”. Rosy embraced her with sisterly affection. Resting head over her sister’s warm shoulder blades, Lily lost herself with salt lake flowing down over her cheeks; passed and drenched Rosy’s broad pink collar. “Yes. She messed up my laundry and my conscience.” Rosy thought.
Lily struggled to ask her sister whether she took time to smell the garland of roses on the dead or not. The answer was- “Nope! But I spared to smell the dead hard enough that it infused my rhinals thoroughly. How about you? Still feeling a funny feel as usual?”
“Nope” was the stern reply from Lily.

At night both the sisters shared the same bed as usual and same thoughts unusual.. They slept cuddled. Lily was in slumber with her battle of conscience still on the play. She murmured out her soul the whole night. This offered no single wink of sleep to Rosy.
“Good Morning Dumbo”- Rosy waved at her, smelling the morning roses. “TAKE TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES. What was that song?. .Again a funny feel or….”
Lily just shut her dazzled eyes against the sun’s brilliance and walked away. “What happened to you Dumbo?”
Lily deep into introspection-
“I FEEL A GUILTY FEEL
A GUILTY FEEL I FEEL
YOU FEEL THE GUILT I FEEL
I FEEL THE GUILT YOU FEEL”…….hummed Lily relentlessly.

“Yes dear!
I FELT A FUNNY FEEL
A GUILT FEEL, I AM IN NOW.
BEYOND THE VEIL, YOU REVEAL
OF DIRE SHAME, IN FRONT OF YOU, I BOW”…Rosy in ignominy.

Lily!…….Rosy!……anybody there? Echo……….
“Granny” startled the sisters.” Oh my dear children! How are you all? Where is that million dollar smile?”
To this, Lily blushed elegantly. Granny, a woman who had seen the world in absolute and literally was associated with a NGO, professionally. Rosy narrated everything to granny. About the rose garland on the dead- lily’s trauma- little angel- pathos-agony……..
Granny took both the sisters in her arms and explained to them, saying……”Dear! Nobody is responsible for our deeds and end results. We ourselves are responsible for every happening in our life.. If something is bound to happen, it will for sure and if something is against His will, it’ll never happen how hard one may try. Don’t harbor guilt. It will not fetch you anything. Not even a single inch of peace to your mind. You have played your role perfectly when weighed against your experience. Try your best and leave the rest. Do not grizzle. But let me tell you one thing dear. It is never too late, still an instance to act prompt. Life has many more cruel blows in store. Be prepared for that. Do not take a second chance. React the very moment. Stop being emotional and think practical. Use your presence of mind. Being emotional is not at all bad but emotions should not deprive you of your social duties. Avail every little chance to help His lesser children. Feel confident and move ahead in life to serve the mankind. when you are not ignorant of your duties as a fellow being, why worry and why rethink.. Act the very situation.

Just as spring arrives bringing new life, freshness and color to the world,
death is like a cool rain that brings life to the parched men again.Death is not a painful experience.It is a BLISSFUL CELEBRATION.

Granny’s words made a permanent rock hard impression on the young minds. Lily without being asked for, offered a worthy MILLION DOLLAR SMILE.