Crime and Punishment

I was in my young days and I was traveling in a bus reading a book. I was innocent and absent from the world, completely engrossed in the captivating read the author was presenting word after word, sentence after sentence. No sooner I raised my head than the fellow passenger sitting in front of me caught my attention by saying, "You wouldn't be able to finish the book!"

Days passed, weeks passed to that conversation and it is running in months now and yet, I am struggling to finish the book, Crime and Punishment. As per my fellow passenger, the book grows on to the reader and can take the frolic away from the soul with every turn of the page, until voluntarily, the reader seals the book, forever.

Retrospecting all the grueling days, I get an heightened urge to quell the read every time I pick it up to read. But, only 100 pages are left, and I will put myself through the litmus test. It is indeed a punishment to witness the Crime and Punishment. I am testing my endurance. I am not going to break in middle. I will finish it tonight, even if I have to punish myself the entire night by not sleeping!