From 'Pink' to 'Off-white'

"Why do we always tend to pick up the cup cake with the highest density of chocolate chip on the surface? Is it greed or judgement? Or is it just the fact that we want the first few bites to taste as good as possible?", she thought to herself as she pondered over what had been happening in her life over the past few months.

Having had the first boyfriend of her life just three months back, she was already giving some hints of reversal. The questions had started to get bigger. Even bigger than her own happiness. Had she gone into it too early? Was she beginning to feel the 'pink' getting 'off-white'? She wanted to shut her mind for a while but it was all too overwhelming for her mind to put aside. Not knowing what she was up to, she decided to go out and just 'see' the outer world for a while. She was not even sure if she wanted to observe her surroundings or did she want to kick the weird questions out of her mind.

The first step outside her house brought a huge sigh of relief with it. She could sense that the world outside had much more happening in it as compared to her own tiny world. Deciding to do the math, she realized that there was exactly 6.7 billion times as much drama in the world as she had in her life. The world appeared like a book with billions of pages and she started to feel as if she had restricted herself to just one page - the one that read her personal worries only.

She was surprised to notice how stepping out of home had actually help her stray from her worries. "WTH!", she whispered to herself. This very thought had brought her back to where she started her little contemplation journey. She was thinking about the same thing again which she had been thinking of for the past week. The two very familiar faces started making the same noise in her mind which had compelled her to leave home. The worst part however, was that it was coming back in the exact precise sequence. She could recall how she had met Karthik at the subway and how quickly they had gotten close to each other. The first encounter was followed by a series of planned and unplanned encounters before 'it' happened. The first two months had probably been the best two months of her life before the confusion started to creep in. It was terribly disturbing at first as it was more of a taboo to her than being a stimulus for excitement. The sense of taboo gradually started to vanish as she realized that running away from herself was too much of an ask for her. She had given in and decided to play along as she let her secret, but massive crush, Rajesh manifest within herself. Her feelings for Rajesh had now developed into a strong craving backed by Raj's looks, money and charisma. The fantasies, which took off from walking in the rain, holding hands with him, had now become strong enough for her to imagine Raj having her in the rear of his Escalade. The worst thing about this recap of events was that the most bitter of the confusions came at the end and left her with nail marks on her palms as she had unconsciously clenched her fists real hard.

A slight noise suddenly shook her as she raised her head to see an 11 years old kid leave the small kite that he was already flying and run after a huge kite that was falling from the skies. He ran as if the kite was all he wanted and getting the huge kite would leave him with all the happiness in the world. The kite fell about 30 yards away from where she was standing and it appeared that the kid had made it. What seemed weird though was that there was a sudden sign of disappointment on the kid's face followed by a sharp glance towards the spot where he was previously flying his kite from. This added to the disappointment on his face as his little kite was nowhere to be seen in the skies now. She could now make out that the bigger kite, which he had chased so hard, had a broken straw and there was no way that it could be mended.

This brought a clear hint of knowing-ness on her face as she turned back and headed for her home. She was not confused anymore as she had learnt the most important lesson of her life from an 11 years old. She most certainly did not want to see the 'pink' fading to 'off-white' again.

The Blue Marble

Hello, my name is Terra. I am 4.55 billion years old. I totally understand that this is not how a person as old as I am would start narrating something, but then again, age is just a number. I am innocent enough to splash mud and this pretty much qualifies this start as valid. Anyways, let's get on with it.
I am the third of us eight. Four sisters (commonly referred to as the terrestrials) and four brothers (the Jovians). Our parents separated ages back and since then our mother, Sun, has been through tonnes of hardships. She had always been exceptionally fond of me and I always received the most desirable treatment from my family. She was absolutely shattered by the separation, yet, the warmth that she gave me was ideal for according to my siblings. All of us were given a special dress to wear called the Atmosphere. Who knew that it would one day cause sheer turmoil.
Evidence suggests that it started some 3.7 billion years yet, but the symptoms started surfacing some three thousand years back. I noticed that what I always thought to be goosebumps were now resulting into agony. Not only had I caught fever, but there was severe itching and ache in various parts of me. I was not disconcerted by the problem at all until one day, I started getting burns on my skin. It was the 6th of August some 100 years back when I received a severe burn on my thigh. It was not just a burn. It seemed more like a bullet hole. My mother suggested that it was high time that I see a doctor and this was exactly what I decided to do.
Satan, being our family doctor, was the first person that came to my mind and I went straight to him. The clinic now boasted of lavish furniture and painting - not something that I remembered from my last visit. I was told to take off my clothes and he closely examined my burns and their surroundings. What I heard next really banged my virgin ears hard. I had caught a virus which Satan called 'life'.
Upon inquiring, I was told that this was the most dangerous virus discovered to date and could do all the undesirable things to a person other than killing him. Symptoms varied from victim to victim but were never pleasant. It could shoot you in the brain and not kill you. I had various types of 'life' germs on me. The most dangerous of them all were humans. They were the ones causing the itching, ache and burns. The burns occurred when the germs tried to kill each other. My skin itched when they built castles for security. The aches were a result of transportation of germs from one part of my body to another.
I decided to wind the discussion up by asking for a cure. The answer was not far from surprising by any means. I was asked to repeat a spell that would 'increase' the symptoms. I was also told that this would accelerate the pace of reproduction of humans and there will be a viscous increase in the number of humans. They'll keep killing the rest of the germs until they completely vanish. The next round of the healing process would involve the elimination of humans from my skin. This, however, would not be gradual but sudden. He also told me to ask all my siblings to take off their Atmospheres or they'd catch the virus too. I quickly got up and rushed home.
I cried a river that night because I somehow had a soft corner for the germs. This feeling hurt even more. I recalled the spell and tried to make out what it actually meant. It talked about the carnage of something called religion. It further stated that religion was something that was aimed at the harmony and well-being of humans and brought them closer to their creator, God. I was more than stunned. Was I on the right path?
I would never want to read a spell that killed living beings but the agony didn't let me go with my instinct. The pain forced me to repeat the spell as suggested by Satan. The symptoms increased. The agony was worse than hell but I was determined to get rid of 'life'. My body temperature kept rising until it hit 65 degrees. It was then one day that even the coolest parts of my body started sweating. Soon, whole of my body was covered with sweat and I was as restless as an excited electron.
Once, however, that the sweat started evaporating, I realized that I was feeling better. I had actually gotten rid of the virus and was now healthy. I raised my hands in prayer and asked my Master to judge those humans for what they did to me for thousands of years and called that day 'the day of judgement'.