As my body was about to hit the ground, my entire life was flashing in front of my eyes. All the events that had occurred in my life, I could clearly see them, my first day at school, my first gold medal, the day I lost my parents, the day I met Sneha and made her the reason for my existence, the day she proposed to me and the day she cheated. Three seconds back I was leaning down from the terrace and I pushed myself in order to be free from all these memories and this miserable thing which commonly people call as life. I landed on the concrete with a thud but it felt like I was invincible, as I felt no pain and then suddenly there was a flash of light and everything turned white.
I felt a slap and I gained my senses quickly. There was a man sitting in front of me wearing a black tuxedo, I looked around and the entire place looked like an office. ‘Is this heaven’ I asked while rubbing my eyes and clearing my vision. The person sitting in front of me replied with a smirk ‘nope, this sir is your last interview’.
My face had the expression of a big question mark, I had committed suicide one minute ago and now I was sitting inside an office with a man in a tux for my interview. All this had no sense at all. I was about to raise a question in order to get a logical explanation for all these things, but just before I could ask, my interviewer was aware of my query and answered me. ‘Well sir’ he said with a smile ‘congratulations, you have successfully killed yourself, your spirit is about to leave the mortal world and enter either heaven or hell, in order to let your spirit leave the mortal world and enter heaven or hell it is compulsory for you to be aware of the answers to all the questions asked in the following interview, this interview is to decide wether your spirit enters heaven or hell.’ While taking out a file from under the desk with my name on it he exclaimed ‘Welcome to your last interview’.
Most of you will find this stupid but I was amazed, this system very appropriate according to me. The only thought which was echoing in my mind was ‘superb!!! I have not harmed anyone and will easily get heaven and have some peace finally.’ I was sure that in my entire life of 32 years I had been nice to each and everyone, and this interview is going to be super easy for me, heaven here I come.
The first question he asked me was ‘why did you committed suicide?’
I answered him with full confidence ‘I was tired of this life, I had been nice to everyone and in return all these people were always taking advantage of me, so I ended my life which was not benefiting me but only the greedy people around me.’
The second question was ‘What you think will be the reaction of your friends and family members after they hear about your suicide?’
I quickly answered that ‘I had a family, before I lost my parents and after their demise there was no one who was concerned about me and I was on my own.’ and about my friends ‘they are very busy in their own life, when I was there with them all they did was ask me for favours and help and never cared about my.’ ‘Now that I am gone, well this will not bother them for sure.’
The interviewer glanced at me for a second and continued with the next question, ‘what do you expect from this interview?’
I was eagerly waiting for this question and quickly replied ‘heaven for sure’, I can bet that at this moment, most of you will have these questions in your head, Is this guy for real? is he happy after killing himself? Was killing himself a joke for this guy?
I have a common answer to all of you, put yourself in my shoes for a moment and think, what would you have done. I was tortured and tested my entire life, I was alone and no one cared about me, the people who were there for me lied to me and cheated on me, I was at my best behaviour with all these people at all times of my life and all I got in return was loneliness, unfaithfulness and people with two faces. I had every right to expect heaven, everyone deserves some peace, and I literally killed myself for mine.
The interviewer smirked again and asked me, ‘how are you so sure about heaven, even after committing all these murders?’
Hold on, I have the same doubt, Murders with an “s”, seriously! I could feel the goosebumps rise from my legs to my wrists. ‘What murders?’ I asked in surprise, ‘I killed, who killed, me I killing someone.. murder!’ I was stammering and had no clue.
The interviewer started reading from the file ‘number one, you have killed the expectations of all the people who were around you and were dependent on you or were related to you in any manner lately,’ ‘number two, you have murdered the pride that your father had on his son,’ ‘you have murdered all the dreams that your mother had seen for you,’ ‘even if someone is not with you or around you all the time does not implies that you they will not be affected by your decisions.’ ‘last but not the least you have murdered your own future and killed all the things that were attached to it.’
I have always been bad at arguing with anyone over anything, but one thing was for sure that all these points were accurate and had no counters. I was speechless and was staring at the interviewer with a wide open mouth. It was like a slap of reality for me that all this time I was the one who was not fighting back and making my life miserable, I was the one who was not trying to help myself and was happy being the victim. Suicide was not the only option I had, I could have done so many other things. I was so sure that I was not harming anyone, but after this interview, I was aware of the level of hurt I was causing to each and everyone connected to me in any manner.
How can I be so unjust to myself, ‘I wish had one more chance,’ I said to myself in despair, ‘well that is not possible now sir’ the interviewer answered me with an expression that I can easily understand whatever is going in your head at the moment. ‘This brings us to the final question’ the interviewer exclaimed ‘this decision of committing suicide, was this worth it?’
I took a small pause and said in a very weak and sad tone ‘I don’t know.’
‘Come one, you were doing so good until now’ the interviewer cried out in dissatisfaction, I was about to ask him that what was this reaction? and where did I went wrong?
Even before I could open my mouth, the interviewer said ‘as stated before that in order to let your spirit leave the mortal world and enter heaven or hell it is compulsory for you to be aware of the answers to all the questions asked in the following interview, therefore you must be aware of all the answers,’ and as I was not aware of the answer for the last question, I had failed the interview.
The interviewer snapped his fingers and I landed back on the concrete but, I was not lying dead on the floor but standing near my corpse with interviewer, I was all confused and in shock and the interviewer exclaimed ‘ next time, please try and be aware of all the answers, or rather avoid killing yourself ‘ saying this he snapped his fingers again and I landed on the terrace leaning down to the concrete. I jolted backwards and sat on the terrace for a while, I found a small piece of paper stuck to the bottom of my foot which read, ” thank you for your time, YOU FAILED, The Last Interview.