Magic of Belief

Aparna Nagda posted under Flash Fiction QuinTale-24 on 2020-11-09



Surya turned around the first round of the stiff white bandage stuck on the patient’s wound. A thin stream of fine perspiration trickled down from the margin of his tensed face. He dared not to look into the anxious eyes of the patient. He wasn’t a novice in the field of surgery, yet today felt like the first day of a surgical class. It seemed like ages that he was rolling open the hidden world. *** Curtains fell open and a smiling Manohar was seen with his magical wonders.  Meherban kadardan.....welcome to the world of magic. Watch the cards turn into currency. The butterflies into pigeons and the mouse into a beautiful lady! With this, the ebullient hands of the mesmerised audiences clapped incessantly. True to his words, Manohar did create magic at the end of aabra ka dabra gilli gilli chooo.....No one really understood the tricks of his trade. But they all knew that as the black tall hat fell upside down over something, it’s fate would change for sure and of course for better. What Surya failed to understand was why the black tall hat never fell upside down on his grotesquely shaped food plate? Why Baba never used his magic wand to fill up empty bowls with curries and growling stomachs with satisfaction? The black hat can’t enter our hut. It only listens to me on the stage.  The perennial answer of Baba annoyed him. Once Surya kept his poorly performed marksheet, under Baba’s hat on the stage just before a show. You foolish boy!! You added your failure to mine. Today you drill it sharply across your skull into the bullshit within that, THERE IS NOTHING CALLED AS MAGIC!!  The real lesson was far more repugnant than the outrageous admonishment.  After this day, he never accompanied Baba to his fake shows. Never did he look in the betraying eyes of that black hat again.  *** Today as he was about to unwind the last drape of bandage from the eager eyes of a five year old, his soul desperately searched for that tall black hat. As the medical world had given up on this case of genetic blindness, Surya had dared to attempt a magic. With a lot of courage, he had used his skills in an upside down manner. Reversed the old book techniques to open a window of light for the blind boy.  Hence, at this hour he badly needed that tall black hat to be turned upside down on the boy’s eyes and create magic. He wished his Baba could take the stage and with an aabra ka dabra gilli gilli choo make this boy see the magic of the creator.  The last cotton ball lifted. The wink opened. Doctor uncle, why are you crying? 

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