Paan ki Dukaan at the Edge of the World

There stands a Paan ki Dukaan at the edge of the world. The sun perpetually remains there at its 4 o'clock position. The land that stretches up to the horizon, everywhere one can see, looks deserted and almost ruined. There are patches of grass here and there amidst the muddy fields. Some patches of the fields remain hard and difficult, as if 1000 trucks walked specifically there and left their marks on the dried yellow soil. Only a dry-mud unpaved path is the actual road that one could take to reach the paan wala’s place at the world’s edge. Now, don't get me wrong, the world’s a sphere; I'm not a flat-earther. But by the paanwala’s stand at some distance is a void, beyond which, Ramesh, the paanwala says, lies the nowhere-land. ‘Kuccho Naye hai uske paar’, he says. One day, by the effect of some peculiar obstruction, J and Y reached the paanwala’s stand via the unpaved dry mud road. Being quite baffled by the scene of the black-starry entrance of the void, they got off their bike for a while there. They were also adequately overwhelmed by the stretch of dry, meaningless field in one odd position, of which stood the paanwala’s little shop. Y asked Ramesh about the nearest petrol pump. Ramesh says that ahead in the path, that is, in front of Ramesh’s stand and left to the unpaved road (for between which, ahead of the unpaved road, lies the void), there is no petrol pump for far distances. So, Y concluded he would have to get back to the one on the way that they saw earlier. J says he will stay here until Y returns. Y takes the bike and leaves. J asks for a classic connect and lights it with the hanging lighter. Ramesh, without asking, pours some chai into a kulhad and passes it to J. The latter doesn’t mind. Turning away from the little stand, he looks in the direction of the setting sun—the sun only creates the illusion that it would set, but never progresses to do the same. Thankfully for J, the time alteration didn’t seem bizarre, for it was already around 3 pm when he last checked the time. So according to him, the sun was consistent with its behaviour. J, intrigued, asked Ramesh about the void. Ramesh said the same customary line, beyond it, is nothing. J asks if it'd be ok if he peeked. Ramesh answers that yes, it'd be okay but then he wouldn't be able to return. J curled up his lips in dissatisfaction. Ramesh told a story for reconciliation, that when the void's entrance first appeared, his old, curious mother went up to it smiling and leaned her neck in to see. She had only put inside her neck in her perspective, but for Ramesh, she was already gone. The old woman must have turned back to tell Ramesh about the nowhere land but in turn, she must have found the same void behind her as in front. She was forever stuck in there. So, Ramesh says, he has concluded it to be his duty that he shall always stand here and guard the entrance to warn people about the anomaly. That's why he never moved from the strange, abandoned land. J mused upon the story of Ramesh silently while looking up to the horizon. He wondered why the sun was so slow in its descent today. Thankfully, Y came back, with a full tank of course; he stopped at the right angle spot in front of the paan ki dukaan for J to get on. By then, J was done with his kulhad-wali chai and cigarette. He asked if Y would like some, but Y said he was fine and that they were getting late. Y too hadn't noticed the time inside this odd realm and had only checked it to be around 4 pm at the petrol pump. J crushed the remnant of the cigarette, threw the kulhad in the dustbin, paid for the purchases and got on the bike. They proceeded on their journey towards the left of the unpaved path. J waved bye to Ramesh, and Ramesh waved back.