Smile Please!

“Oh! Excuse me, is this your Camera?” The lady seated next to that seat shrugged in dismay.

Aarav raised his voice, “Hello! Whose property is this?” No one seems to take an interest. Since no one seemed to respond, he kept it aside.

The train was running late, sitting at the Railways waiting room, Aarav put on his earplugs and played his favourite musical track and dozed off a bit. When he opened his eyes, he saw the entire waiting room was empty. The entire place gave him an eerie feeling. Thinking he might have overslept, Aarav ignored that weird feeling, quickly took his luggage, and came out. He saw that the train was about to leave. Luckily, he managed to get on the train.

Next morning, the doorbell ranged, “What a surprise my child, I thought you might not be able to make it for Rohit’s wedding”.

Aarav smiled and gave a warm hug to his aunt, “How can I miss his wedding.”

His aunt reciprocated with a smile, “Come inside my dear, go and meet Rohit. He’s been waiting for you since yesterday evening”. The entire house was filled with relatives and friends. He went upstairs and both the brothers greeted each other and had a long conversation about the entire program that has been scheduled for the wedding.

After a while, Rohit said, “why don’t you get freshen up, I will get back to you in a while”.

Aarav nodded and quickly took a warm shower. He opened his luggage and was surprised to see the same Camera which he had seen at the Railway’s waiting room.

Aarav to himself, “how come this Camera is in my luggage. I left it just beside that seat”. Though the Camera was very old but Aarav felt a sudden attraction towards that old gadget. It looked like an antique collection. Very surprisingly, Aarav noticed that a reel was already inserted. In this new digital world hardly, anyone uses this kind of old version of Camera.

Aarav looked at the life size mirror hanging on the wall and quickly took his own picture. In no time he decided that he will take some of the wedding pictures from this Camera.

A beautiful event took place, exactly the way Rohit had narrated. Aarav captured those lovely moments in his Camera and decided to get the photographs developed, once he reaches his hometown.

After a week, Aarav collected the developed snaps from his Photo Developer Studio while returning from office. He quickly took a shower and very enthusiastically opened the envelop to watch the pictures of the wedding. The first few pictures had come out well. After changing the next picture, he noticed in all the pictures his aunt was missing. Aarav murmured softly to himself, “there must be some printing issue, because I very well remember that aunt was there in most of the pictures”.

On a second thought Aarav said to himself,” this antique Camera is useless! Anyways, I will get better pictures from Rohit later”.

After a couple of days, Aarav received a call from Rohit. Watching his name displaying on the mobile screen Aarav said happily, “Hello brother, how have you been?”

Rohit replied “Hello, Aarav”.

Sensing the sudden calmness in his voice, he asked,” is everything, alright?”

Rohit replied, “Mom is no more”.

Aarav quickly grasped the chair and sat, as his knee went weak. He raised his eyebrows, eyes filled with fear and slowly looked at the antique Camera lying at his desk. As if, its smiling back at Aarav.

So, what do you think, all antique Cameras are useless? Think about it!

Sweta Gupta