Chapter 1: The day he ends his life (1)

In a room lit with only red lights and filled with smoke four people can be seen sitting at the corners of a king-sized wooden bed passing a joint in cycle after each of them took three puffs. Soothing music of Comfortable Numb by Pink Floyd can be heard inside the room as they kept on passing the joints without uttering a single word as they all had an agreement that speaking while a requested song is playing is a strict no-no. Finally, after around five minutes the joint was budded on the ashtray. Arnav, a six feet tall guy with a hulk of a body broke the silence as he said

"Well, we need to crush and make another joint, so who is going to make this one?"

As expected, no one chose to do the needed work as they only wanted to chill and relax. Seeing the familiar reaction Arnav said, since it is Joy's birthday tonight, he will be excluded, and I made the previous joint so either Roy or Kenny will make this one and the other the next. After three rounds of rock-paper-scissors Roy won by 2-1, so Kenny started making the joint.

Joy who was gazing at the stars through the balcony of his 20th storey apartment looked completely void of emotions as he was deep in contemplating something that he couldn't put his thoughts around. Seeing Joy zoned out, Arnav asked him

"What are you thinking, bro? It's your birthday tonight why don't you cheer up some more. On second thought how old are you going to be tonight?"

Joy finally anchored himself to the present as he calmly replied

"26, I will be 26 tonight. And I was thinking about some philosophical stuff, I don't want to bore you guys with my non-sense."

Hearing their conversation Roy who was watching Kenny making the next joint suddenly said

"Try me, maybe I will also be interested in your philosophical thoughts."

To which Joy replied

"I was just pondering on the meaning of life, what is our purpose, even if we humans don't exist, the world will keep existing, to be honest the world will be much better without humans, we have extracted more resources from mother earth then we required. We polluted the land, the sea, and the skies. Most of the wealth of the world is hoarded by a mere 1% of the population.

Countries are warring against each other for mere border disputes, while weapon manufacturers are earning in billions, the common people are suffering the most. Those in power hide in their protected shelters giving pretentious speeches and false promises to the general populous. And people are just like cogs in a machine, most of their destinations are determined at birth. Those being born in a rich family in a developed nation has a higher chance in becoming successful with some moderate effort, while those being born in a war-torn country, or an under-developed country must work their asses off and still needs a god send opportunity to achieve success.

Sometimes I feel the world is so unfair and there is no purpose of life, we are just like breeding machines and our only objective is to reproduce offspring and keep the social status-quo stable so that our next generation can have a working society to live in. This is what the previous generation did and now we are doing the same for the next generation and this cycle will continue in the future. Look at the people in disease prone counties where children don't even have water and food to eat and dies due to malnourishment before another virus can kill them. While we are eating junk foods and wasting water without any second thoughts.

Ahhhh! My mind is filled with such thoughts, and I don't have an answer for it."

After hearing Joy speaking his heart out the room fell silent, even Kenny who was rolling the joint fell silent and all three of them took a minute to think and process what they just heard.

Finally, it was Roy who spoke first

"I don't have the answers either, yes, the world is unfair but so what we can't just give up on life because there is so much misery. We need to focus on what we can do and enjoy the little moments in life that we have, just as I am doing with you guys now. A moment of peace is enough for me to go through with my 10 hours of boring office work and the tiresome 2 hours of travel from work and home. At least I have you three with me so that I have something to look forward to when I return home. I won't say that I am happy but atleast it is not the worst-case scenario."

Arnav joined in after Roy with a smile

"Yo bro, we will always be there for each other. And Joy what you said is too heavy for me to process right now, I am so goddam stoned and I can't think clearly but I will just say I enjoy my life, working out in the morning, then going to college and dates in the evening, life is perfect and I don't have much pressure on finding a job after engineering ends, I am just 24 right now and my father said I will join his company after graduation and a few years later I will marry a girl my family arranges and will expand our business even more."

Joy chimed in as he watched Arnav flexing his muscles in front of the mirror

"Not everyone is as lucky as you to be born with a silver spoon, I don't even know my father was and the only hope of my life my mom passed away when I was 20. My relatives don't contact me and my five years long relationship broke when I found out that my ex cheated on me. Damn I even kept myself away from other girls so that she doesn't feel uncomfortable or fear that I will cheat on her and at the end what did I get. A big face slap. Life is crap and the world is shit, I don't care if the world burns to ashes right now."

Turning around and finding Joy frustrated Arnav pacified him

"Yes, I was born with a silver spoon, I won't refute it because it is the truth. My starting line is different from most people. But you see not everything that is visible in the surface is the complete truth, unlike most people my choices are not mine, my family decides everything for me. From my clothes to the food I eat, my course of education and even the girl that I will marry is all decided by my family. I never wanted to do engineering, never had an interest in it, I always wanted to be a musician and a live performer, but when I told my father about my dreams, he just said, son we can hire any performer you want to perform for you. You just need to have enough money, and everything can be bought. My life is like a book that is already written by my family, and I am just a character that is playing its script."

Looking at the gloomy atmosphere Kenny said for the first time

"Guys, the joint is ready who wants to boom it?"