THE SECRET CHAMBER

Dominic M Sangma

He was not the kind of man who would visit museum and appreciate the work of art or old artifacts installed in it, but he just had to tag along because visiting museum was in their tour program, in fact he was not a kind of man who would take time out to visit any city for recreation, the truth was, he has never been a tourist before, he never had that luxury of being one, he didn’t even thought of being one someday, its not that he didn’t wish to be one, its just that he found it pointless to think about it when he struggles everyday to give a better life to his family, but at this moment he was not only in a new city but he was also in a new country; he was one of the lucky employee to get a sponsored trip for  one week to  visit this country- in the entrance of one of its’ museum he was standing along with his colleagues and other tourists; God knows from which part of the world, they decided to diverse from this point of the entrance and explore the museum by themselves and converge at this same point again after two hours, he walked leisurely among the crowd, observing the spectators rather than what was displayed on the wall, throwing cursory glance through the paintings on the wall  he move forward, nothing really caught his interest, he was simply fulfilling the itinerary of the day, so that  he could tell his wife and children once he was back home; that this museum was in the list of his visited spot, he found no logical reason for people visiting museum in such throng ,that too by paying exorbitant entrance fee, but something caught his interest more than the paintings  on the wall and the spellbound spectators; in the corner of the room sits an elderly guard beside the mysterious looking door which was covered by a thick blue satin curtain, nobody paid attention to the elderly guard neither to the door, as if they were meant to be there for no special purpose, he sees no one walking in through the door nor walking out of it, he was not sure whether it can be entered by anyone or it was reserved only for some special dignitaries,  or may be the entry was restricted only for the museum staff, but there was no prohibition sign either, in spite of all these speculation he inched towards the door hoping to see some change of expression in the deadpan face of an elderly guard so that he could change his course of action and divert his attention to something else, but the guard wear no special expression  that  would hint at him not to enter through the door, so he walked in coyly passing through the elderly guard and as soon as he slide through the thick blue satin curtain; a soft music filtered in to the chamber and the semi dark room started to brighten up; highlighting the larger-than-life size painting displayed on the wall, he stood there transfixed observing the painting; slowly revealed by the brightening light. As if extracted from reality and placed on the realm of dream he felt timelessness, and for sure he knew that this was what eternity feels like- the union of alpha and omega, and he no more remembers that he was inside the museum, he watched the painting came to life as the light became stable, the music seems to be wafting from the harp and the flute playing by the girls depicted in the painting among other things, he was gripped by strange feelings hitherto unknown to him, and as he concentrate on the paintings he was not sure anymore whether it was really a painting or some moving images or it was a life itself that was bound by the gilded frame, they are alive he mumbled to himself, with that he was no more a spectator but became a part of the paintings, he was elated to be among the people in the painting and  their warm welcome made him feel at home, the whole atmosphere was suffused with joy  and the sense of harmonies that exist between men, animal and nature was what humans were always aspiring for on earth or at least propagate to aspire for, for the better future of human race, the joy inside his heart became unbearable therefore he looked for any familiar faces  that he might know; to be able to share this joy, but he recognized none  among the people, and whoever was there, none of them seems  needed to know what he feels, for in their face he could see the same joy, he simply walked around immersing himself in this bliss, such joy is unbearable to take it alone, he felt this  realization at the core of his existence, he missed his wife and children, wish they were here with me, he whispered to himself,  he could not clearly discern his feelings, it definitely was something to do with bliss but at the same time with the sorrow as well, he didn’t know whether to smile or to sob and the urge to share this emotion surge out from his heart lest he would be smother by it, and not being able to content the unknown joy, O God ! he gasped and squat on the ground tightly embracing himself, once he open his eyes, the light was already dimmed out and the music was gone and he became aware of this space again, he didn’t realize how much time had passed, and the room was engulfed  with darkness, what was it that I just saw, he thought to himself, he deeply regretted for entering this space alone, if he would have entered with one of his colleague or friend they could have at least talked about it or share this moment together- that this beauty would not have annihilate the way it did to him now, now he was not even sure what exactly it was, he failed to describe it  with words even to himself forget about describing it to his colleague once he would meet them, but the strange part of all was that , not a single soul intrude that chamber when he was experiencing this soul stirring epiphany, Am I hallucinating? He doubted himself, I have to bring in someone, I have to share this experience, I will put all my effort to bring my wife and children to experience this sometime in the future, or at least I have to bring in my colleagues and friends now, so he rushed out of the chamber passing by the elderly guard who was still sitting there with deadpan face, he could find none of his friends and colleagues inside the museum, in fact there are only few people in the museum standing here and there in front of this paintings or that, he was gripped with fear  to think that they might have left him alone and he has no idea how to go back to his hotel neither could he speak the language of this country, he cursed himself for entering the chamber alone, and walked briskly towards the entrance praying silently inside his heart to find at least one of his colleague waiting for him, he did not have any idea how much hours had gone by then, he doesn’t wear wrist watch and he left his mobile phone in the hotel, but his anxiety turned into joy  to see one of his colleague standing at that point waiting for him, his colleague reproached  him for being careless and childish and promised never ever to recommend his name to the company for another tour, but instead of apologizing, he insisted his colleague, almost shoving and pulling him to go inside the museum with him, to see what he saw, his colleague had to comply with him to avoid making a scene in front of the already staring crowd, seeing these two, approaching towards the door, the elderly guard stood up in the middle of the door resolutely, with his hand gripped on the stick strapped on his belt, with full expression of warning not to enter the door, he thought the guard was pretending and pulling his colleague’s hand he tried to enter the door, the guard pulled out the stick and block their way and told him that the chamber can be entered only by him, he laughed at the words of the elderly guard in disbelief and asked why would anybody build anything like that solely for him? That’s not for me to answer, the elderly guard replied, he became irritated with his answer and pulled out whatever currency notes he had from his pocket and shove it in his hand but the guard out rightly refused to take it and told him to back off or else he would call other security guards to throw him out of the museum or put him behind the bar for security breach, realizing the seriousness of his words, he begged the elderly guard to at least allow his colleague to enter the chamber alone, but the guard straight away refused his request and told them not to waste his time and explained that the door of that chamber  would not open for anybody, not even for his wife or his children except for him and he would be allowed to enter any time of the day or any time of the year,  enraged by the absurdity of his talk, he pushed the elderly guard away from his way and tried to enter the chamber with his colleague, but true to the words of the guard the door remained shut and to his dismay several other guards rushed towards them and cordoned off from all side, he was on the verged of tears and begged the security guards to have pity on him and allow them to enter together even for a few seconds, none of them were affected by his request, even his colleague persuaded him to return back to the hotel and reprimanded him to stop all this nonsense and spare him from going behind the bar along with him, the elderly guard told him that they would be more than happy to let him enter alone, but he has no courage to enter the chamber alone, for he was sure that he would not survive the second blow, he was already devastated by the first one, he explained to them how important it was for him to let his colleague enter with him and share the experienced he had inside the room or else it would be impossible for him to go on living, they all seem to understood what he was trying to tell them but they simply said no to his request, he started shouting at them to draw the attention of the few visitor who were walking around inside the museum and accused the security guards of playing prank on him, but nobody paid any attention to his complaint, in fact they looked at him as if he was a laughing stock and nuisance to  museum goer, the guards had enough of his tantrum, they seized him, gagged his mouth and dragged him away from the spot and threw him out of the entrance and shut the gate. He stood there, sobbing, feeling alone and abandoned, regretted for coming to this city, he cursed his colleague for recommending his name for the tour and bringing him to this museum, he was satisfied with the way of his life but he was no more sure whether he could go on living that way from now on.