Fall from space

I was so high up that I could get a panoramic view of the city. It looked beautiful in the setting sun. I have been living in Toronto for over three months but I had no idea there were so many trees in Toronto. I wish I had made the most of the chance and taken in more of this beautiful city but when you are so far above the ground with the intention of jumping off, enjoying the vista is the last thing on your mind. I don't remember if there was anything on mind at all. The only emotion I was aware of was extreme nervousness.

I wasn't the only one to be nervous. Shiva and Ashish were nervous too. They were so nervous that neither of them spoke a word for a while. If you know how talkative both these guys are, you will understand what it means. We locked arms. I was in the middle and Shiva to my right. We were ready.

"I am not quite sure whether our decision was right," spoke Shiva at last, breaking the silence.

"Too late to think of it. We can't undo what we have done now," I replied.

Silence fell again. A little while passed before the silence was broken again.

"I wonder why so many people have gathered to watch us die," remarked Ashish, good-humouredly.

That's when I noticed that there were about fifty people, eagerly looking skywards to catch a glimpse of three guys being pulled down by the force of gravity from so high up. Some of them had whipped their cameras out and were recording the moment. Why would anyone want of snap pictures of unknown guys doing something foolish, I wondered.

"Look at those guys taking our snap," said Shiva, reading my mind. "Our photos will be all over Facebook. Thousands of people will "like" the videos and photos of three damn fools doing a foolish act."

"Pity you don't have a Facebook account, " Ashish said to me. "But I don't think that will matter anymore." 


"I don't know how rotten it's going to be, but this might be our last photograph ever. We might as well put a big smile on our faces,"  I said, forcing myself to grin.

Both of them followed suit and we jumped off.

What ensued in the next one minute was the most exhilarating moment of my life.

At the end of it, I opened my mental check-list and ticked off "Do sky-flying".