Seven Deadly Sins
Immortality is a curse, but being mortal is no fun. Things go worse, if it's a Grad. life. A grad student, GVR, was leading his life(Mind you I avoided adjective 'happily') and one day he died. According to a common belief, a mortal leaves all worries and tensions behind, but even the death proved unfair to poor GVR. He met one Immortal who changed his life, I mean his death, or should I say his life after death? Whatever! it was no fun facing that stuff after his mortal flesh was deeply buried or burned to ashes. If you are a Grad student, read this and consider yourself warned. If you are not one, you may want to experience commonplace trauma a grad student is gifted to.

A bag of bricks and a bottle of wine!
It's a beautiful day. The earth looks stunning. He is staring at the blue perl, not blinking his eyes, but not admiring the beauty. He can't appreciate it, because appreciation grows to affection and affection results in attachment. And when one is attached to something mortal, eternity is to be deprived of. He is an Immortal. He was an Immortal, and will be one. Perception of time vanishes with concept of eternity. He has been watching the very earth from its birth. He might have witnessed the big-bang-theory, provided this hypothetical concept really occurred. He may, too, see the probable destruction of earth. He can't appreciate its beauty, neither can he pity at its probable destruction. And that's why immortality is a curse, you have got only single eternal expression. Expression of peace. This peace is his color, this eternity is his figure. He is made of smoke, a white smoke. A figure that hangs around. He has got long hair, a broad chest, and muscular shoulders, all crafted in smoke. He doesn't have legs, it is all smoke like tail that goes down his waist. It may sound weird, but he is peaceful, calm and eternal, and he is just watching the earth, without any feelings.

“Hey Dude! What's up?”, his new guest, another figure carved in white smoke, has just arrived. Its smoke is not as white as his. It is neither as peaceful as his white smoke is.

“You just died”, the Immortal conveys the horrible message without any sympathy.

“I know, thanks!”, the mortal replies. His name was GVR in his life, and he was a grad student.

Generally dead mortals tremble upon the thought of dying. They, sometimes, start crying and beg for some more life. But this mortal looks different.

“You look happy!” the Immortal expresses himself.

“Ya! Thanks man! you saved me from QE (Qualifying Exam), I was gonna appear tomorrow. You are man!”

The immortal realizes that his new guest is a grad student. He already knew this fact, but he just realized. Process of knowing is different than process of realizing. For example, a grad student always knows the fact that he is a grad student, but he only realizes it when he appears for QE, waits for QE results, applies for Funding, goes to job-fair, looks into trash for some free stuff, counts days for free-pizza parties, wastes his time on weekdays surfing net, and weekends repenting no progress in research. Actually he realizes the fact all the time. Okay, grad student is not a good example for this theory. A grad student is good for nothing. The theory, still, remains valid that the process of knowing is different than the process of realizing.

“So when am I going to hell?”, GVR asks while the immortal is busy doing some calculations.

“There is no hell.”

“You mean, hell is full, so I may be sent to heaven”, GVR never believed he would be lucky here too. His luck never ditched him in his life. He was always the first to arrive at the right trash to pick-up free furniture. He got a pizza in all call-out sessions while his other grad friends, sometimes, missed the last bite by nano-seconds.

“Or are you planning to send me back to school?”, it was a horrible thought, but he has never been this lucky in his life. He made into the best school, but never got the best lab to work in. He worked with some fundo prof, but never able to publish something original. The fear was valid, and the future looked dark, more horrible than being in hell.

“I said there is no hell, neither any heaven around here”, the immortal clarifies.

“What the hell is going on? Am I not completely dead, or am I just sleeping and this is just a weird dream, where I am gonna revert some fundamental belief we are hanging on for ages... I once reverted newton's laws of physics, published dozen of papers, and gonna receive a nobel prize, but my roomie kicked my ass and waked me up.”

“No. This is not a dream. Death is your new color. There is no hell or heaven up here. It was a goof-up humans created to second their binary logic.”, the immortal explains.

“WTF! I am sorry. I shouldn't use such kind of language”, GVR apologizes, realizing his words can be counted as blasphemy, and the immortal can send him to the Hell.

“Bingo! If there is no hell, what am I afraid of? you can't send me to hell, can you?”, GVR realizes the absence of hell, though he has learnt the fact earlier.

The immortal nods and resumes calculating something.

“Pretty balanced!” the immortal finally comments.

“What?”

“You have got a decent amount of virtues against your sins.”

“But there is no hell. Why do you keep this account?”

“So that I can give you enough wine and bricks”, and the immortal starts counting bricks. GVR didn't notice them earlier. There, actually, are some bricks lying there, so are bottle of wines.

“For every sin you committed in your life, you will get a brick. Every virtue will give you a drop of wine. All you need to do is to carry your bricks in a bag, and wine with you, and walk on an endless road?”, the immortal starts explaining him.

“What? Am I appearing for Microsoft interview???? Whatever you are talking, sounds like some puzzle.... Ohh man! Did I die to solve some puzzle?” disappointed GVR looks in the sky, and realizes that he is up here, so there is no point looking somewhere else.

“This is same for all dead mortals. You have committed sins in your life, and now is the time to look back, think of your evil deeds and repent them. You can have upto seven kinds of bricks in your bag, and they are heavy. Each kind represents a deadly sin. Every time you realize your sin, reflect and repent it, the brick will disappear, and your bag will become lighter. You can drink wine, if you are tired. But spend it wisely, because if you finish your wine before emptying the bag, you will send back to earth.”

GVR is listening to him, “This sounds fun. I am in.”

“But I have couple of doubts?”

“If all I need to reflect and repent, then why should I walk?”, a grad student is always this lazy.

“Because you may meet some other dead mortals while walking, and talk to them. This will help you realize your sins.”

“Ohh! you mean I am still a human, a so called social beast... Sir! I am a grad student, and grad students don't socialize.... No.. Never!! I hardly know names of all guys working in my lab”, although he knows everything about all girls there.

“You were a graduate student. Now you are dead.”

“What if I run out of wine, will the remaining bricks carry-over to my next-trip here?”, recursive functions always scare GVR.

“No. They won't, but your next life will be based upon the number of remaining bricks.”

“Man! Last time, I must have drunk my wine in one shot, that's why I got this Grad life” GVR thinks.

“Where will I go if I successfully solve this puzzle?”, another question is pondered.

“Wait and watch.”

Then GVR asks some more questions, and gets everything clarified once again. He is ready to embark on an exciting journey.

“How can I contact you, if I have some doubt?”, a grad student always asks for office hours.

“Just think about me, and ask your question.”

“Is it that easy?”, he was half assured that he would get some toll-free number, out-sourced to Asian countries.

Finally the immortal hands him his bag and the bottle of wine. Then he gives him a book.

“What's this? A holy book?”, GVR looks puzzled.

“No! It's a Dictionary.”
“A Dictionary! Why? Sir, I am a grad student, okay, I was a grad student to be more precise, and I cleared GRE for that. I scored 1470 in damn G. R. E. Do you really think that I need a dictionary?”, he puts a valid reason.

“Barrons is no substitute for dictionary, my son! Keep it, you may need it. It's not heavy.”, and his reason is corrected again.

“Okay, put the heavy bag on me! I am ready for it. I used to work-out daily. I love my body”, a white lie, he hated his body. His belly was growing, and he always blamed his out-of-shape body for not having a girl-friend. He was worried that he wouldn't ever get a good match for arranged marriage too. This was the only fear sending him to gym daily.

GVR completes his sentence, and looks at his muscles to see the hard work he has done at Gym.

“AAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhh! WTF! What is this?” his own smoky figure scares him. His hard-work has vanished. There is no sign of strong biceps.

“You are dead, dude!”, the immortal reminds him. GVR finally realizes the fact he came to know couple of hours back. He takes his bag, dictionary and the bottle of wine and heads towards a big white gate.

And the journey begins!
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