Deadline

Death shows up in a skull t-shirt and hands you six months. A memento-mori meditation wearing a Deadpool costume.

Would you want to know you are going to die before hand or die suddenly without warning?

Day 0:

I've heard that when Death comes knocking on your door you shouldn't try to close it. From what I've understood about that phrase, it was basically that death is inevitable, yada yada yada, live life, embrace death, we all die etc etc.


So when I heard someone knocking on my door at 3:15 a.m. on the 12th of December, 2018, my first response was to utter a string of obscenities and mentally obliterate the person who'd dared intrude into my highly intriguing dream of a high stakes poker match with a dozen cats for a chance to defeat Thanos and win a lifetime pass for free pizza(As I said, highly intriguing dream. And I was this close to a Full House. This close!)


Of all the people/things/beings I expected to be knocking on my door, Death wouldn't even have been on the list. Seeing as he's an abstract concept and all. I think. Took the Death knocking on your door to a literal level there. How did I know he's Death you say? Probably his pitch black tshirt with the caption saying, "Yes, it's really me. I am Mr. Death. No, I left my robes at home during the 18th Century." as well as the skull tattoo on his arms and the super duper sharp and curvy looking sword(I later found out, it's called a scythe. I guess I should have paid more attention in English class.), he was holding should have been my first clue in today's edition of "Guess Who?"

Of course, he legit gave the game away by saying, "Yo bro. It's me Death. No, I'm not messing around with you. Let's just skip all the disbelieving phase and get straight to the point, shall we?"
Still in a half dazed, disbelieving, sleep filled stupor, I could only nod my assent.
Satisfied with that, the dark haired hunk continued, "You see, just had a chit chat with the Higher Authorities and Universal Forces and they've finally given me the green signal for my new experiment. Your name was the 12th randomly generated soul from the machine, so I'd like to give you the heads up. On June 18th, 2019, around noon to evening, depending on the traffic for soul collections that day, I shall pay you your second and final visit i.e. the day you die."

I suddenly realize what's happening. This is just another dream playing in my hyperactive mind! Seemed like a step down from the Poker dream, but beggars can't be choosers I guess. Upon arriving to this pleasant conclusion, I decide to play along and see where this goes.
"Die, you say? What could you mean, Mr. Death?"
"It's pretty simple really. Between now and the 18th, you're basically damage proof. You can't die no matter what. When payday arrives, I'll just pop along, collect you and off we go! Spend your next six months doing whatever you want. Sounds fun, aye?"

At this point, I'm almost in tears trying to control my laughter. Nodding, I say, "I totally agree. Sounds fantastic. In fact, I'm DYING to get started!" Saying this, I collapse on the floor, howling with laughter. Such terrible puns. It's too much to bear.
Death gazed upon my antics with a quiet smile on his face. It was an old face. As if he'd seen such reactions and more for all of eternity. Which, now that I think back to, must definitely be true.
He said, "I'm glad to see the enthusiasm within you. Sure does refresh the soul. So I guess, I'll leave you right to it, eh? But before I leave, I definitely have to give you the demo that this is a 100% authentic scheme, backed by the Higher Ups as well as quench any misconception in your mind about this being a dream. It's part of the deal with the Big One up there. No hard feelings, okay?"


Saying this, he stabbed me through the chest with a miniature knife that he legit seemed to have pulled from thin air. As I fell to the floor in pain and surprise, the last thing I remembered him saying, before I blacked out was, "So long Rishi. Time's a ticking. Till the next time we meet, buddy!"

Day 1:

Being stabbed, right through the chest, is a total pain. In most cases, people stabbed generally happen to bleed out and die or end up dying the moment they got stabbed. Being a regenerating, semi immortal with an expiry date, I can offer unpractical views to normally fatal scenarios. Such that while being stabbed is a total pain in the chest(duhh), I'd still choose that over being run over by a vehicle. My arm kinda broke in three places and ended up regenerating wrong, which meant I had to break it all over again to heal it.


But I'm getting kinda ahead of myself. Let's jump to the introductions shall we?

The name's Tiwari. Rishi Tiwari. 30 Revolutions old. Network Analyst at NW Securities, Delhi.
You think you have a boring job? You probably do. I'm not going to console you saying it's not and stuff.. I know I do. All I did was legit scan and debug networks all day and do other intricate mumbo jumbo code stuff that y'all probably wouldn't understand. Boring. And that's what I've been doing for the past 5 years since I graduated from college with my Master's when I was 25. 
I graduated with my B.Tech when I was 22 and worked for a year at this low tier, software corp before resigning and completing my Master's.
It's been a dredge. The same routine, day in and day out. The monotony of it. Just kill me(Not possible until expiry date, nuh uh.)

Speaking of kill me, I opened my eyes the next morning to the sight of a knife, embedded in my chest. I jumped up screaming and thinking I would die now. It's only on closer inspection that I noticed that, while my t-shirt was entirely bloodied, the stab wound was already closing up in front of my eyes. And when I kept the knife on the shelf beside me in disbelief, it turned to smoke and vanished back to wherever Death must have gone. Probably arrived in time to stab the next person as a part of his "demo". Wait was that what happened to me? Was that hygienic? What sort of diseases could one get from being stabbed by a godly, disappearing knife? Probably isn't a good, mental choice to figure that one out.

After all this, I only had two options in front of me. 
Either I had totally gone loco. Lost my coconuts. All nuts, no bolts. Foundation shaky upstairs. Seemed unlikely. One doesn't lose their mind and imagine this level of details all in the span of a day.
Or, everything about the previous night was true. And that I had a deadline ahead of me.
A literal DEADLINE.

Day 4:

Spent the last few days pondering and wringing my head out about what's happening in the carnival, that's my life.

Turns out, what Mr. Death said was absolutely and irrefutably correct. I can't seem to die. For now at least. Oh and I seem to be like some kind of Deadpool. I can heal from anything. Chopped a finger off? No problem! Another one shall take its place. Fractured your ankle because you jumped too hard when you saw your chopped off finger regenerating? No problemo! It shalt be healed.

I've been thinking a lot these past few days. To be completely candid with you, I lead a monotonous and boring life. All I do is work. 
Have a couple of "work friends". Lost in touch with all those "college friends" and "school friends" who seemed to be an integral part of life back then. Love life is a tragedy and absolutely dead. In short, I'm just a zombie going about his daily life.
Wake up, eat, work, eat, work, eat, sleep. I don't even get time to read or write anymore. Things that I used to love and adore. No time anymore. What am I even working for? Who am I saving all this money for? There's no person here. Only a robot. And it's only got a few more months of battery left.

Day 5:

We're all caught in this cycle. 
"Aage kya karoge?"

What will you do in the future?
This is how a typical person goes through life:
Birth→Studies→10th Boards→12th Boards/Coaching→College→Job→Marriage→ Kids→Retire→Death.
Routine. Monotony. Boring. Trapped.
Looking back, I realize that I was doomed to repeat that cycle. To just clear each level in that cycle. And never fulfill any of my dreams.
Well guess what? I'm going to break this cycle. I thought long and hard about this. This predicament of mine. And the more I think of it, the less it looks like a predicament and more it looks like a fresh beginning.

It's time. I've moped for enough days. Time to make up for all the time I've been wasting these past few years and make use of my last few months. 
After all, what have I got to lose?

It's time to chase some dreams.

Day 72:

I still couldn't believe I did that. Taken that plunge. If something would have gone wrong, if the parachute hadn't opened, I'd have been splattered like a bug on a windshield. Don't want to find out the hard way whether there are limits to my supposed immortality.

Well, I can check sky diving off my list now. My palms are still sweaty and my knees weak. Maybe, I should focus on the tamer parts of the bucket list for a while. Like finishing one of those jumbo, 10 footlong hot dogs being served in that restaurant at Indiana. 
Sounds like a way better plan than jumping out of a plane, trusting a piece of fabric to open up on time and not letting you plunge to your demise.

Maybe I should try something tamer next. Scuba diving seems like a calmer option. A tank of oxygen and the vast, unexplored ocean to traverse in. What could possibly go wrong?

Day 86:

Remember how I said being run over is the worst? Yeah, that happened today. Rebreaking those bones, nearly made me see the afterlife due to the amount of pain rushing through me.

Ugh, need to escape. The driver who ran me over cannot believe I'm alright and insists on calling the ambulance. The last thing I need is the hospital to try making cuts on me and see them regenerating right in front of their eyes. Being a lab rat is definitely NOT on the list.
Hey, maybe I should try a short stint of being a superhero. Wonder what I should call myself?

6 Month Man?

Sounds like the name of a bad D-rated movie.

Day 154:

That smile. Mysterious. Elusive. What secret does she hide?

Standing in front of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, I was truly in awe. Never truly being an artistic person, I rarely attended or visited any art galleries or exhibitions. But with time running out and wanting to find out all the fuss regarding paintings and sculptures, I'd taken to travelling around and visiting all the major art works recently. To my surprise, I found out there was something about these masterpieces, painted by a soul from ages ago, which just seemed to call to me. 
To be able to create something from your mind using your passion, that survived the ages and creates an impact in people, long after you've gone. That's truly a superpower. If only I had time to do something like that. If only I hadn't wasted all these years of my life running behind money and promotion but rather just followed some passion of mine. What all could I have done? It's useless to regret about something you can't change. What's past, is prologue. We've only the present to create the epilogue for the future.

"She's beautiful, isn't she? Been enchanted by her, ever since I saw her as a wee lad at 18. Made it an annual tradition since then, to come back every year to see her. Come hell or high water. Made sense to meet her one last time before death prevents us from our annual tryst." I turn to the 50 something year old next to me and ask, "Death? What do you mean by that exactly?"

He smiles and says, "It's a long story. How about I tell you about it over some coffee?"

Day 155:

Jerry says that life is just a collection of moments. Happy, sad, etc. But no matter what, the memories stay forever.

Who's Jerry you ask? The dude who eerily spoke about the Mona Lisa. That was super creepy. Almost thought he was Death come to give some philosophical talks just like how it's in the novels. Then on second glance, seeing how he wasn't carrying a scythe nor rocking a skull t-shirt, I wondered whether he was a fellow mate like me, handed a death sentence by Death too. Wait, do we all have some radar thingy to sense other living-to-soon-be-dead folks like ourselves? Definitely gotta test it out.
Nice chap though, this Jerry. Turns out he too has a deadline, just not like how I have it.

Brain tumor he says. Got it diagnosed pretty late. Nothing the Doc's can do about it, so they claim. All those fancy degrees and they can't detect a thing that's growing to be the size of a potato during regular checkups till it's too late. Noobs.
Says he's got around 6 months to live. Before he's hospitalized. Die before a year is over. It's depressing. To me. 
Not him though. This guy, I got to admit. Is something else. That positivity, it's like a breath of fresh air.

"Don't you have any regrets?", I ask him. "Wouldn't you like to do things with the time you've left? Explore the world? Fulfill those unfulfilled desires? Leave a mark? Die knowing you accomplished something in your life?" I desperately wished to know, how he could be so calm and laid back, knowing he had such little time left. Because these very questions ran through my mind too. I didn't want to approach my death, knowing I had done nothing but waste my time. Waste my life.
"Nah, not really." he said. "I mean, in life, you'll always have regrets. It's inevitable. Things that could have gone some other way had you done something else. You just gotta make peace with it and live on. As for leaving my mark, it doesn't bother me much. I lived my life how I wanted to. I might have wasted my time many a times. But it doesn't matter. I did what I loved. Whether it was sleeping during a Sunday when I could have been out travelling or having a dinner of cereals and binging on a show when I could have gone out and tried other cuisines. It's the little things that matter, those small moments to look back upon. And smile."

I finally asked the question that has been on my mind for a long time, since this whole ordeal of You're-going-to-die-soon-ciao-buddy-see-you-soon thing started.
"Do you wish sometimes that you'd just died without any prior warning? No heads up at all. Rather than being told that you have these many days left. Or are you glad you had this foreknowledge. About when you're going to die. "
"Well, to be honest with you, it doesn't really matter. If I didn't have foreknowledge about my death, I'm pretty sure, I'd have lived it exactly the way I am living right now. I wouldn't have changed a thing. It's all in the small moments. That's what truly matters."

Day 167:

I finally learned how to ride a bike today. All these years and fears of meeting an accident because of some of the stunts my friends pulled in college had me learn to drive a car rather than riding a bike. I thought it would be safer option. I never considered the freedom. 
Feeling the wind on your face. The urge to explore. It's magic. Glad I learnt while I could.

Maybe I should do that Goa trip. Better late than dead.

Day 186:

I spent most of the past few days, just lazing around at home. Watching those shows and movies which IMDB desperately recommends. And this show which I found out about recently. Sense8.

Holy forces of the universe. Why in the world had I never watched it before? Why did they cancel it? The injustice makes me weep. I should have gone over to Netflix and thrown the person who gave the order to axe it, out of the window.

Maybe. Definitely.

Day 187:

It's June 17th. One more day before Death arrives. Wonder how it's gonna be? Am I going to have a freak accident like in Final Destination and end up dying? Or is he just going to pull my soul and leave my body there? Or just pull me along, body and all and leave no evidence that I died? Gah, I should have asked him for specifics. 
I did a lot of things these past 6 months. In a way, I'm glad. The heads up, really helped. I could do those things which I might never have gotten around to. I might have probably spent all my days, worrying about trivial matters like my next paycheck and status and things like that.

Sometimes, I guess we all need a wake up call. That there are more things to life out there. And that we just need to go out and live a bit. Or as Jerry said, to cuddle up in a couch and appreciate those small moments of absolute boredom and laziness.

I've also been writing. About everything that's happened in this diary. Chronicling everything from the moment I received my deadline up until now. It's just that incase my body does disappear, I want to leave some story behind. Like, hello folks! Yes, I died. This is what might have happened. Also, if some Final Destination stuff happens, I definitely want to point out, I'm not clumsy like how it might show up as my cause of death. Just supernatural forces targeting me, ya know. Chill stuff.

That's it I guess. Time to sign off. Ciao, my fictional audience. Off to sleep, which I know I'll fail to do so. I'm going to die tomorrow, ahahaha. I'll be lying if I said I wasn't anxious or nervous.

But I'm ready I guess. Let's get it over with. 

Day 188:

Food for thought.

What if there's some rebirth thingy? How cool would that be.

Guess I'll find out eh?