Namaskar!, I am a Diet Coke can. Presently I am lying crushed and crumbled on the sidewalk beside G.T. Road, north of Liberty Gate, Chandernagor. Today the weather was overcast and there were few pedestrians on the road. I keep staring at the ever-changing dynamism around me and reminisced about the old times.

 

I was born deep below the earth, in Sambalpur district of Odisha. I belonged to the family of Bauxite. It was very dark inside. Me and my fellow companions were squeezed together…, until one fine afternoon, I heard a loud explosion which blew the walls of my cave apart.  Me and my family members were strewn apart. I saw daylight for the first time but witnessed my crumbled family for the last time. Over the following months I was extracted from my ore; it was so cool outside. The rock that embedded me was crushed and pulverized, and I was thoroughly concentrated and cleansed. Then I was refined in an electric chamber, where it was so hot, that I got melted. I never had this experience before. I was cooled, hammered and rolled along with my new friends into thin sheets. We were sold off to West Bengal.

 

Again, my journey began in the dark. For weeks I was inside a long trailer truck, that often jumped and trembled on its way. In the meantime, I learnt that the Electrifying process of my refinement, had a fancy name – the Hall-Heroult’s Process.

It’s been 2 years since, I left my birthplace. I was then modeled in  a new cylindrical shape, filled with a Brown-Fizzy liquid, which was entitled for consumption for dieters. I had been kept inside a cold glass shelf, with a transparent door. BrrH! It’s freezing man! One fine afternoon, a young, lean and tall lad entered the shop (where I was kept) and the shopkeeper handed me to him.

I was astonished by the fact – Why does he need to diet?! Okay, Nevermind- His life, His choice. After a while, he drank the liquid inside me and started juggling me with his foot. I felt nauseous! Eventually he kicked me aimed at the trash-bin, but my trajectory destined the other way, and I landed on the sidewalk. He walked away, scrolling on his phone.

 

After an hour or so, the sun was setting, streetlights beamed, a litter of puppies came running to see the mysterious black shiny object(me). They rolled, licked and stamped over me. Trying to bite me, with their new teeth. Soon a big black boncho dog came barking and shooed the puppies away. He sniffed at me for quite a while and turned around- lifted his right leg and pissed on me.  AWFUL!

 

Days went by, my color faded away…. Pedestrians- aimed and aimless, stamped and kicked me knowingly and unknowingly, aiding me in my locomotion to my current dwelling – sidewalk beside the Grand Trunk Road, and here I am 18th of March, 2023.

 

I keep hoping, for a Teen-a-Louha-Bhanga (scrap-man)to pass by and spot me. Thus, when I am picked up, a new chapter of my life awaits…