24 years after 1984

He was sitting in his bed. Lights off. The music was playing at the loudest possible volume. Or maybe it were just the earphones which were creating such effect. Yes it had to be from earphones. Because it was already 11:30 pm and no-one was supposed to play music or even stay awake beyond 11:30 pm in night. The police believed that it was the best way to decrease crime rate in the city. He was sitting by a wall in the darkness. He didn't switch off lights to follow the rules, he just chose to stay in darkness. Maybe he didn't want to see dark stains on the world which used to appear clear and flawless to others. Oh yes maybe the floaters in his eyes are to be blamed for this. Maybe...
And he hummed while he was holding the newspaper in his hands.
"You are nearly a laugh, But you're really a cry"

He didn't need light to read what was there in the newspaper. He had already spent the whole day reading the same thing everytime hoping that it was all the way he had always wanted it to be. Hoping that the truth of past couple of years could be nothing but a passing dream. A nightmare.
And he tried to recall what he remembered word by word by now. The MarathaManus state(Maharashtra name was changed some years back) had just built a wall around itself to restrict the animals from neighbouring state from entering into the state. The dispute was over the height, the state development sena was arguing that the wall should be few feets higher so that the passage of birds from neighbouring state can be minimized. One of the proposals stated that animals should also be issued visa similar to humans. They were not under threat of entry of animals from Bihar because it was too far for animals to travel. Humans from Bihar anyways were not allowed as they were a special threat to MarathaManus state. Similarly all the other states had introduced the concept of Internal Visa for visit.

He was staying in Bengaluru on a work permit for which he had to undergo a rigorous examination on Kannada language and culture. He was also not allowed to use any vehicle as outsiders' vehicles congested the roads and were considered to be spoiling the culture of the city.

As he thought about all this, a faint smile occured to the corners of his face. He threw the newspaper in the adjacently lying stack of newspapers. And he switched on the light. In the corner was lying another newspaper which read some news about Bihar. Yes thats the state he hailed from. The column was by some activist from Bengaluru who expressed pity on the disturbed state of Bihar amidst fresh naxal violence.
He went right upto his music player increased the volume to full and pressed play button. Within a few minutes the police was there and they charged him of ruining the culture by playing non-kannada music, of listening to music in the night after 11:30 and helping the robbers by giving them a chance to rob him by staying awake. As they declared the charges he broke into laughter. He kept on laughing till they started beating him up and fined him heavily for misbehaving. And then they threw him into the bed, switched off his lights and left the place.

He plugged the earphones back into his ears. His laughters were heard whole night by the neighbours. They knew that he had done it again.