There was a moment when I thought this was the end. I was still holding on to my camera. Just then, I felt something hard and knotty, and grabbed it with my other hand. I don’t know how long I held on to that thing, my body completely immersed in water and my head barely above it. At some point I felt the water around me being sucked back. My head emerged fully above the water and I saw I was holding on to the thick branch of a tree that had miraculously escaped being uprooted. The water was receding fast, leaving behind bits of human bodies that lay strewn all over the beach. Those who could use their limbs got up slowly and began to comb the beach for their loved ones. The children’s mother from our group and our driver had disappeared. The others survived but are in a critical condition in the hospital. I honestly don’t know how I was saved, but I came through without a scratch. I don’t know yet if my camera has been saved. If it has been, it carries some incredible footage of the end of the world.

Shankar

42

Feroze puts the last touch on Annihilation II at three o’clock on the morning of 29 December. He has photographed the bits and pieces of Annihilation I in different exposures, screen-printed them on the canvas and painted an enormous stunted tree in one corner. He looks at the result now in high excitement. He has never done anything like this before. But he can now see unlimited possibilities in this way of working. He feels the urge to share his excitement with somebody, this minute. He’d like it to be Anima. But he can’t wake her at this hour. Haridas then. He might be awake or he can be woken up, saala.

‘Who is this?’ It is Maya’s sleepy voice at the other end. Feroze is all stutter and stumble at his goof-up. ‘So sorry, Maya. Feroze here.’

Haridas comes on the line. ‘Can’t a man sleep peacefully in his own home?’

‘Sorry, Hari.’

‘Did you call to say sorry or do you have something else to say?’

‘I’ve had an idea. We should all go to Matheran for New Year’s Eve.’

‘Right. Anything else?’

‘No, nothing else. You can go back to sleep.’

‘Much obliged.’

Feroze looks at the phone, thoroughly confused. What was all that about? How did Matheran get in? He was supposed to talk about his painting. Maya’s voice threw him. But come to think of it, Matheran is a brilliant idea. Jijabhau can come along to help Pandurang with the extra work.