The time was 8:30 pm. The street lights worked in rhythm with the malls around to spread light into the areas.
People walking on the footpaths heading to a variety of purposes. The cars, buses and other vehicles ran besides. One of the cars was being driven by Darsh.
Darsh drove around looking for a place to park. It was Saturday evening, the presence of a large number of people in the area was anticipated due to four malls being located here. They offered a variety of reasons for people to tamper with their savings. But the problem was that there were a lot more people than what Darsh had thought, uncomfortably more.
The malls had parking spaces of their own but they were surprisingly full, all of them.
The security guards of the mall stood informing people in cars about it. The roads were uncomfortable to drive with intense traffic.
‘What is happening?’ wondered Darsh, he was here after a long while but he used to come here very frequently during his college days. He had never seen so many people here before, he hadn’t seen so many people anywhere. It’s like all of a sudden people had rained down from the sky.
Darsh slowly drove the car near one of the guards.
“Hello, can you suggest a place where I might find a place to park my car?” asked Darsh
The guard, too busy and seemingly tired with the rush today, didn’t look at Darsh but he suggested, “there is a multilevel parking ahead”, and he walked away.
Darsh drove ahead thinking, ‘It would have been convenient if he told me where this multilevel parking is’. He drove slowly for another forty minutes in the slow traffic. Crows of people trying to cross the road showing their hands to stop the cars.
“Where in the world is the traffic police? This is utter chaos,” Darsh said loudly
Darsh received a call from his friend waiting in one of the malls and explained to him the current situation.
“Things inside the mall are not good as well,” said Darsh’s friend on the phone, “It’s just too crowded. I came here from the other mall thinking there might be less people, but no luck. All right I am waiting, park the car and come fast.”
Then, Darsh saw cars slowly proceeding in a line ahead and instinctively guessed that it was for the parking. He slowly followed the line and as he went ahead, he looked up the windshield to look at how tall the parking building was.
‘Wow, it is quite tall,’ Darsh thought as he narrowed his eyes, ‘it is as if there is no end to how high it has been built’
Slowly the cars proceeded in and so did Darsh until he reached the entry and received a slip showing the time of his entry.
Darsh drove his car in, as expected there was no free space on this floor and the condition was same on the next and then the next and the one after as well.
‘I hope they won’t charge me for not finding a spot and returning,’ Darsh thought while driving.
The condition did not change on the next floor or the floor that followed and from the next floor onwards, the number of the floors were not written but the parking continued to be full with what looked like the cars waiting in godown to be sent to the showrooms.
Darsh became startled and felt uneasy at thinking about the increasing number of people and wondering how much might be enough to tend to them all. He looked in the rear-view mirror and there was a line of cars back there and so was there in front.
The cars drove on above and above like ants up the ant hill. Darsh had lost count of the floors. The phone had lost its network.
‘I am definitely going back down, there is no use parking here,’ Darsh thought
Time went by and Darsh tried to see the expression on the face of the person driving behind, but was unable to see it due to the dim lighting in the parking lot.
Then the car in front of him stopped and Darsh pulled down the window and leaned sidewards to see what was happening. He saw a man standing in the blue uniform of the parking. The man in blue uniform was guiding the cars left one by one while the next car waited.
‘So, there is parking space here finally?’ scoffed Darsh and when he reached near the man Darsh said, “I would like to go down the parking, outside.”
The man smiled, “Well sir, the way is up ahead.”
“Is this the final floor or are there more above?” Darsh asked
The man still smiling spoke, “There is nothing beyond here,” and then he raised his right hand to allow Harsh to proceed.
Darsh turned left and drove on a way between two rows of parked cars, he could see a big opening in front but he could not find any way to go down or anywhere else. He drove on till he was near the opening.
‘What’s going on?’ Darsh thought, ‘there is no space to park and there is no way to go back down’
There was a knock on the window, it was another man in blue uniform, Darsh pulled down the window.
The man smiled, “Sir, please proceed, you are blocking the way”
Darsh looked back and the next car was not in sight, just the man he had met before. Then he answered, “but there is nothing ahead, it’s an opening, where am I supposed to go?”
The expression on the man’s face turned serious and he said, “You people think there will be no end to more and more of you crowding the world till there is no space to even breathe. But we won’t let it happen,” and then the man smiled again and screamed in a pressed voice, “Ahead! Go Ahead Now!”
Darsh was horrified realising the meaning behind the words, ‘they are going to kill me’ he thought, ‘how can they do that, who are they?’ he frantically tried to open the door but the man wouldn’t let him. There were four more blue uniformed men behind and they pushed the car ahead.
“No, nooo!” Harsh screamed, as the car was pushed ahead and ahead and down and away.
Early Morning Memories 
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