First Ecstasy

...It was around 8:30 in the evening, and the precocious six-year old No-no had completed his homework. So, like other days, he turned to his favourite set of books - "Finding Out" - a periodical for children.
Of late he had been reading stories from the Odyssey - appearing as a serial in Finding Out.
Some time back he had read about the sad love of Calypso for Odysseus... infact if you looked at it, the whole Odyssey itself was a saga of sadness. Sometimes hope grew, only to be crushed at the last moment by human folly, or Nature's unpredictibility, or, as the Greeks would say, the "wrath of the Gods".
But today was different. Odysseus, at the very bottom of his luck, had reached Phaecia, shipwrecked, alone, sans food, clothing, or material possessions. He was lying unconscious on the beach, having somehow reached some bushes, and hiding amongst them, when Fate smiled on him- (Not that he knew it then ofcourse) - the Princess of Phaecia, Nausicaa, found him. And rescued him. And took him back to the palace. They gave him everything, everything that Nature and the Gods had taken away from him. And they sent him on his way.
No-no was pleased. No, he was happy. Suddenly, as he came to the end of the episode, he looked up. He felt different, like he had never felt before. There was no-one else in the room, Mother was about to return from her Clinic, Pushpa the maid was in a different room, sister was somewhere in the house, Father at the Hospital. He was Alone. Just him, the book, and Silence. There was the swishing sound of the fan ofcourse, but it only accentuated the Silence. School, work, play, friends, these were all Silent. No-one was pursuing him in his mind. Of nobody was he afraid, of none infatuated, of nobody was he jealous, of none pitiful. The world was quiet. As quiet as his mind.
He was at Peace. He was Happy. Nothing mattered. Nothing else mattered. Time stopped.

And then there was the sound of the gate, as Mom arrived, and the spell was broken.
Years later, looking back at this, he would remember the experience. And he would call it - The First Ecstasy.
He would struggle to repeat it, struggle to experience it, again and again. It would colour his thoughts, his actions, his whole approach to life. Seeming irrational to the world, they would all be directed towards this one end- to experience again what he had experienced, more often if possible, more intensely if possible. One experience of joy would be a precursor to countless experiences of pain, and he would have to bear it all, like a mad lover. But No-no did not know all this. All he knew was that he was Happy.