Hello ppl, nice to see your at my weekend... π Hope u all are having a blast... IPL is in a very fiery state... Bangalore, I guess have already been eliminated... I really liked Graeme Smith's six which fall on the roof of Shamiyana... It was too good six... Sehwag was hitting in his very form... as usual he gave a chance for the opposition to send him to pavilion. The opposition dint make use of the chance... Now... I guess they are gonna pay for it... But as of now, the match is stopped due to rain... π
Coming to the update, I guess this also gonna be short... I am posting this Journey into Bani's thoughts in short parts so that it would be easy for me to write. Two or three parts are remaining. As such, I want to finish these part within this weekend. I wanna concentrate on the present in the next part. Let me c whether I follow the schedule or not...
Previous Parts:
Part 1 - Page 1; Part 2 - Page 3; Part 3 - Page 6; Part 4 - Page 9; Part 5 - Page 12;
Flashback 1: (1.1-1.3) - Page 16; 1.4 - Page 23; 1.5 - Page 26; 1.6 - Page 30; 1.7 - Page 33; 1.8 - Page 35; 1.9 - Page 38; 1.10 - Page 41; 1.11 - Page 45;
Part 6 - Page 48; Part 7 - Page 53; Part 8 - Page 58;
Flashback 2 - Page 62;
Part 9 - Page 65; Part 10 - Page 68;
Flashback 3 A - Page 73; 3B - Page 76; 3C - Page 79; 3D - Page 81; 3E - Page 86; 3F - Page 89;
Part 11 - Page 94; Part 12 - Page 97;
Flashback 4 - Page 97
Part 13 - Page 103;
Journey into Bani's thoughts: 1 - Page 107;
Here goes the next part:
Journey into Bani's thoughts - 2
Jai pulled the papers out of the cover carefully. The colour of the papers said that they were years old. He looked at the side of the set of papers. He found that not all were papers but there was a notebook too without its hardcover. He separated the notebook from the set of papers and placed the papers down below the diary. He looked at the notebook and turned both the sides. On one side of the notebook, he found something written in the corner. He turned in proper direction and saw "Bani" written in the top right corner of the notebook. He turned the first page.
It was a drawing, very amateurish sketch. The page was rubbed so many times before the drawing was completed. He looked at it β he found looking at a lady washing clothesβ¦ in the backyard of her houseβ¦. The house was visibleβ¦ there were many plants in the backyardβ¦ there was a tap and a washing stoneβ¦ there were even ropes tied between trees to dry the clothesβ¦ It reminded him his house in Aligarh. He smiled absent-mindedly. Then, suddenly it struck himβ¦ that it was backyard of his home in Aligarh. The lady wasβ¦ He looked at the picture carefully againβ¦ His mother and his masi were the two persons who used to wash clothes at their houseβ¦ Then who was it? He looked at the lady keenly. The lady was wearing a 'bindi' on her forehead. His Masi doesn't wear any 'bindi'. Then it wasβ¦ It was his motherβ¦ Suddenly, for Jai, the drawing looked perfect. He could clearly visualize his home in the drawingβ¦ He missed his home a lotβ¦ but now, even if he goes there, it would be the sameβ¦ Many things have changed nowβ¦
He turned the page. There was nothing. He turned to next page. There was a coloured drawing. It gave a happy feeling to him. The drawing was made in the background of blue-black, with someβ¦ some stars!!!! Yesβ¦ stars on the dark skyβ¦ and the bottom of the pictureβ¦ there was a manβ¦ Man? 'From where did he come?' Jai thought. He was facing him in the drawing. The man was wearing white dressβ¦ Suddenly, Jai laughed slightly at the drawingβ¦ In the dark moonless night, where there is darkness everyone, the man was looking bright. He laughed at Bani's innocence. He suddenly remembered the fairy tale stories that he had heard in his childhood about angels coming to the earth at night to fulfill the wishes. He wondered if Bani was also thinking in the same way when she painted it. Alas! He failed to understand that it was him and that's how they saw each other in a moonless night β new moon day was approachingβ¦ The fact was Bani was just trying to draw him, having no other thoughts in her mind. But atlast, the drawing came out soβ¦ She still considered the man was Jaiβ¦ and Jai considered the man as some angelβ¦ But the fact wasβ¦ They both were right on their stands, but they failed to guess the other's point of view.
Jai turned the page. There was nothing. He turned the page till the next drawing arrived. It was an incomplete drawing and it was crossed. Jai turned the page. Jai's jaw dropped at the drawing. He was looking at⦠at his cycle⦠His cycle because⦠there were two spokes broken in the front wheel of his cycle and three spokes broken in the back wheel of the cycle. Looking at the page, it was clear that she had drawn and redrawn the picture till the final product formed. He was surprised and shocked at the same time that Bani observed things so keenly to reproduce it into a drawing. He traced his cycle on the paper and tried to relive the day when he used to roam around in the cycle carefree.
He turned the page to arrive at the next drawing. It was a sunrise⦠coloured well⦠actually from a viewer's point of view, a nice improvement. She had even drawn a lonely bird flying against the reddish orange sky. (But Bani did not know that birds generally never fly alone, unless it was adult or carnivore. Otherwise, the birds always flew in pairs or in groups. But, it was she who was depicted in the drawing, not a normal bird.) But Jai failed to understand that it was she, who was flying in the free sky like a free bird.
Jai turned the page. Two pages later, there was a drawing β a parrot in a cage. It would be found only if observed keenly that the caged parrot was fluttering its wings. But Jai was far away to understand it.
He turned the page to next drawing. Jai's eyes widened. It was a man sitting on the swing. He could make up that it was the same swing in their house looking at the arrangement of the bars at the top and at the sides. 'Who was the man?' Jai wondered. He noticed a cup placed near the person in the swing. Jai shook his head and turned to the next drawing. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he looked back at the drawing. Then, it struck that it was actually him sitting on the swing with a cup of tea. Jai froze at the drawing. Bani was becoming a puzzle to him. He fell into a dilemma whether to continue with viewing the drawings or not. Then his mind told that he had begun exploring Bani, he needed to finish it.
Jai went through all the drawings. Nearly all the drawings were related to him or his family in some or other way.
There was a drawing of some strange design of colours.
There was a drawing of a dress design.
There was a drawing of rainy day.
The last drawing was a girl sitting on the steps of the entrance of the house as if expecting something. The girl was sitting with her elbows placed on her knees and her palms cupping her face. It affected Jai somewhere in his mind. This was exactly how he had seen Bani in his dreams. He touched Bani in the drawing as if to reach her. After few minutes, he wiped two drops of tears which had fallen from his eyes.
He turned the pages to find more drawing, but it was the last. He closed the notebook and kept it beside him.
Thanks for reading π³
Edited by abhilashasharma - 17 years ago