..he had always settled for mediocrity.. life seemed to have given him all that he wished for.. laying down low expectations meant that he was satisfied more often than not.. and whenever things exceeded expectations, it was a pleasant surprise.. that had been his mantra.. the downside was, he wasn't trained to take failures.. life had not taught him to handle defeats.. every little thing that happened to him was treated as victory.. call it innocence or naivety, he was confined to his own sweet cage of happiness... circumstances however played with him and lured him to the road of expectations.. the road which needed a hard heart and courage... ignorant of this, the man took a detour and the path seemed smooth.. every step took him to uncharted territory, showering loads of happiness and trouncing the mediocrity in him.. after this long.. the joyride seemed to be lasting forever and the bar of expectations was continuously being raised... he regretted at not having chosen this path earlier.. days later, the joyride had reached a point where it needed that little bit more 'extra' in order to keep it going.. a wee bit of courage would've done the trick... quite sad, it was never there... he realized he had been gliding with the wind all this while and when the situation demanded a bit of fuel with the destination within touching distance, he felt like an impotent twat.. the fall to the ground from dizzy heights was battering.. the crash landing wrecked him.. he could not call the wind, 'wicked' for letting him down.. he had not earned the rights to do so cos he had not even given it a shot... all he could do is get up, fake a pain-concealing smile to his mom, lie on the lap of his granny craving for some temporary solace... the once humble he had been cruelly humbled... all lost, he just headed into the shower.. to shed those tears which would be no different from the water inside ... he had been stoned.. stoned and washed...the wind ironically seemed to be blowing harder... the tears though, never seemed to dry..