Lost In Theft
A short story by Prabhanjan Sharma

He opened the door to the House of Strife (his mind). He knocked the door for dramatic effect and walked in with an evil laughter. The House of Strife was empty otherwise for the great fortune he came looking after. He was beyond ecstatic as he was very close to laying his hands on a fortune that were to last him a lifetime!
As he entered with his mind racing with excitement, he came across a board which read:
Kehne ko hum pass hai par
Kitni doori hai
Yeh bhi kaisi mazboori hai
He was confused at first but then figured out these are the lyrics of the song Doori from Gully Boy. He ignored the board and was all ready to dig deep into the treasure of the House of Strife. He went in to the locker room, skillfully broke the lock and was overwhelmed. There were 6 lockers and he just knew that he had won a jackpot. The house was eerily quiet as he was alone and was floating in the thoughts of riches and his desires. There was no limit to his endless thoughts. He was about to break the lockers but noticed something was written on each one of them. He zoomed in through his eyes to see the lockers. It had names written on a piece of paper which looked like a ticket. All the six lockers were in different colors. He read the six tickets and they were named as Ticket to Lust, Ticket to Anger, Ticket to attachment, Ticket to greed, Ticket to Pride and Ticket to jealousy. When he took a closer look at each of the tickets, he noticed that they had small words written all over them which read as Kaliyuga, Life and Paramathma (Supreme Soul). He was clueless and honestly least bothered. He was in a mood to steal and he had no interest to understand what these were. He ignored these and was about to break the lockers when a sudden sound left him startled. He looked around but saw no one. He shrugged it off thinking his mind must have been playing tricks on him. But he heard the sound again. This time he was scared for life! It sounded like a knock of the door. He hesitated for a bit but decided to follow the sound. He stopped in front of a small cupboard from where he heard the knocking sound. There was something again written on the door of it. It read,
Tumse hum dardi bhi
Nahi kar sakta main
Mere bas ki baat nahi hai
Main yeh bahte aansu pochun
Utni meri aukaat nahi hai
He freaked out as this seemed spooky. He had no clue why was the song of doori being put up there. The knocking increased. He slowly opened the door while his heart kept pounding. The cupboard was very small and when he opened the door he was taken aback. He saw a girl sitting there. She was the most beautiful lady he had seen in his entire life. She popped out of the cupboard and he fainted at the sight of her. She didn’t know what to do. She sprinkled some water and he regained consciousness. He was spell bound! She was completely naked but strikingly beautiful. She owned her nudity with grace. Her smile was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. He just saw himself, he was wearing a branded hoodie with an Air Jordan sneaker and a fancy Levis Jeans. He didn’t know what to say or what to do. He was unable to digest the fact that she was naked while he was clothed in the priciest clothes. He leaned forward to her and asked, “who are you? How are you so clean even by staying inside a cupboard? Why are you not wearing anything?” She didn’t understand anything. But she went inside the cupboard took a paper and wrote, “I am deaf and dumb, I can just see and I am hear to steal too”. His joy knew know bounds. He was excited and wrote down to ask “what are you hear to steal?” She pulled him towards the cupboard and showed some lockers. They had the same tickets but with different names: Ticket to happiness, Ticket to self-love, Ticket to dreams, Ticket to stories. He was confused and found himself getting increasingly uncomfortable and restless. The mind of his got insecure, the beauty which he saw sometime back was no longer there. He had a sharp knife which had ’life’ written on it he took it out as he was breathing heavily and was about to stab……
He wakes up, he was sweating and he had shivers. He gets off his bed to stand in front of the mirror and both the characters kept flashing in front of him. He was all confused, goes to the balcony lights up a cigarette and takes a drag as he sets his eyes on the headlines of a leading daily on his table. It read “A gruesome murder by a thief of a pretty lady’ at House of Strife.“. He was stunned to see it. He moves his eyes away from the paper in frustration only to see two envelopes on the table,
one which read ‘Offer Letter’ with a package of 15 LPA and the other read Ticket to Your Dreams. He bangs the door in frustration and on the door he sees:
Main bhi yahin hoon Tum bhi yahin ho
Par sach ye hai Main hoon kahin
Tum aur kahin Kehne ko hum pass hai par
Kitni doori hai Ye bhi kaisi mazboori hai