Into Wonderland...

The darkness was shattered by the wild lights emanating from the mild laser at the corner of the room. Shimmering and shining, the two colors danced together, in harmony; moving hand-in-hand in a passionate embrace. A mix of human chatter, shouts and screams of excitement, and a steady beat from the ghetto blaster placed at the corner rose from the chamber. There was just fun to be had; it was Meera’s birthday!

A loud cheer rose from the gathering as Surjeet walked in, a bouquet in hand. Meera rushed forward to greet him, and thank him for his presence at this joyful moment of hers; and smiles reigned.  As they walked into the celebration together, familiar faces moved forward to greet Surjeet, and soon he was surrounded by a crowd. Extracting himself from them all, he moved off to his first love; the one he adored, and praised above them all, the one he enjoyed being with- food.

So there he stood, a round figure near the flat table; surrounded, once again, but this time by his love, dressed in exquisite colors, and reeling out succulent smells, and making him feel proud of his eternal love.

The exquisite smell of your perfume,

Your soft feel on my lips,

And your electric touch on my hand,

Is something I will never forget.

This is what attracts me to you,

As I make this solemn promise,

That I will forever be,

With you.

“Surjeet, what was that? You should say that to someone who replies to that,” laughed Sameer Gupta as he handed me a plate. “But, that did sound romantic, seriously,” he continued with a wink.

“You stop talking to me, and lemme enjoy with my girlfriend. You go and fly kites brother, that’s your job,” Surjeet said feigning anger and impatience, and hinting at a short dialogue which Sameer kept using in his pieces.

A slight silence followed as they looked at each other for a minute, and with a sudden laugh, they hugged each other tightly.

“Ohh man, it’s been so long a time since we met. We should seriously go and thank Meera,” said Sameer with a large beaming smile.

“Thank me for what guys,” asked Meera as she walked towards us, her eyes raised in curiosity.

“Just for bringing us together, beautiful,” Surjeet said.

“You could thank me by enjoying here guys! And Surjeet, this is shocking! You are holding an empty plate,” Meera exclaimed as she placed large pieces of cake on the boys’ plates.

“This girl’s strong ways will never change,” said Sameer with a mocking sigh.

Surjeet picked up the piece of delicious looking cake from the ornate plate and took the large mountain of chocolate to his mouth. The gooey chocolate trickled down the majestic mountain and made its way back to the opulent plate. As the gigantic cave opened to let in the dark dessert, the sweet smell intoxicated him, and he held it there.

As your presence ventures,

Into my confines,

And your smell intoxicates me,

I cannot find rhymes in my lines.

As your sweet boughs melt in my hands,

And your face flows into my smile,

There is the happiness,

Which could give me enough strength to cross the crocodile infested Nile.

With these words developing in his mind, Surjeet bit the piece, and his eyes closed to enjoy the feeling of ecstasy, and happiness.

His sharp black eyes opened to take in the second bite when he realized that the dark ambience of the room had transformed to complete darkness. But the darkness was peculiar, it was brownish, and had a unique aura surrounding it. As his eyes adjusted to the absence of light, it hit him that he was in a new place, and the party was gone, or maybe he was gone from the party.

Lost, I am in a new place,

Brown and bland,

It is yet colorful,

It makes me wonder where is this mystic land.

With these lines popping into his creative mind, Surjeet looked around. He could hear the gush of water in the distance, and as he tried to make his way towards it, he sensed a resistance against his movement. He felt something dribble down his soaking pants, and as he looked down, his eyes widened in shock, and amazement.

His black pants and leather shoes were coated in smooth brown melted chocolate. Surjeet looked around, and he the location he was in came rushing to him. He was in the magic land where everything was crafted out of chocolate- Charlie’s world which had been constructed by Mr. Willy Wonka.

Surjeet tramped out of the chocolaty sludge and towards the largest building which he could see in the distance- an ancient factory, long closed down he thought, but as he neared, he could see the musty smoke still rising heavily. He knocked on the rickety door and waited for some movement to overwhelm him.

Had to search through my old books for this one

A whoosh sounded and the Great Glass Elevator we all know about plunked hard on the ground beside the stunned Surjeet. Out walked a damsel of a man, dressed in green pants, a yellow shirt, a pink blazer on that, and topped with a polka-dotted bowtie and a magician’s hat. Here he was, out directly from the cover of Roald Dahl’s book, Mr. Willy Wonka.

“Hello Mr. Surjeet, I welcome you to my factory. You must be thinking you will be lucky like young Charlie boy to get the factory, but I must disappoint you. You are here due to a mistake I made in Lady Meera’s cake. The cake was meant to provide happiness and to induce a feeling of being the happiest person on Earth, but my Oompa-Loompas fudged up. Two of them had a fight, and it all ended with an extra drop of my secret potion falling on the treasured cake. I got this news just now, and I realized I was too late. You had already ingested the extra drop.”

Surjeet stood there, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

“I will surely provide you some gifts as compensation, but there are some ground rules you will have to heed. First and foremost, you will not tell anything about this visit to anyone, especially Lady Meera. Secondly, I insist that you always follow rule 1. Third, if any of the above rules is broken, then all of your gifts will vanish.”

“How do you know Meera? And what gift will I be getting?”

“Ahh, finally a good question. You will be getting a month’s supply of Wonka’s Whipple-Scrumptious Fudge-mallow Delights, which will be delivered to you in 3 working days. And regarding the other question, that is something I am not at liberty to disclose. Now if you could follow me, I will lead you back to your party venue.”

Surjeet’s legs worked of their own accord and the round Singh moved behind the teeny-tiny Mr. Wonka. As the door of the lift opened up, the sounds appeared in the distance.

Surjeet Singh, Surjeet Singh,

He is a fat lucky thing,

He just ate a cake,

But it was our mistake,

That brought him here,

Away from his near and dear,

Confusion has taken him down,

But we have to send him back to town,

Now as we bid him our customary good-byes,

There is shock in his wide eyes,

Bye Surjeet, Bye Surjeet,

Our only hope is to never again meet.

The voices died down in the whoosh of the Great Glass Elevator, and as Surjeet looked down, he saw the chocolate world diminishing fastidiously. He blinked, and saw that his original world had returned. His hands searched sheepishly for the invisible glass, and his black unfocussed eyes searched for the wiry Willy Wonka, but there was no one. There was one person, and he was staring intently at him, his mouth curved in a sneer- Sameer.

“Where were you lost man and what are you trying to find? I have now understood that love does drive people crazy,” smirked Sameer with a smile.

But Surjeet kept smiling.

This post is a part of the game ‘Nibble Promptly’ in the birthday party at A Rat’s Nibble.