SS: Salaam Namaste -LAST PART pg117(01/16) - Page 53

*Note : I am making Stephanie is Debbie's (arjun's collegue) daughter. That way it will be easy for me to show arjun and Stephanie relation and also to write about Stephanie and her family.

** Abbas & Stephanie are catalysts to put arjun in the situation that will lead towards the end. So even if it gets boring and heavy please hang in 😊

Part 11

While the weather was still bearable to go out Arjun went to explore the city. Chicago was truly a survivor, after a great fire destroyed the city's major busine10ss district, the city went through a rapid architectural and economic growth. The skyline was amazing. The famous Willis(Sears) tower soared high up. The birds eye view from the top was something to be experienced. Walking through the downtown loop Arjun witnessed the spirit of the city. The Lake Michigan majestically stood between the two states. He had read about the Manitou islands, which were far off in the lake not visible from the city, but the legend associated with it had disturbed him. He wished to see the dunes on the other side of the lake, that formed the legend.

He visited the Bahai Temple, a place of worship that is open to all religions. The architecture had nine sides with a tomb in the center. Inside was a huge hall with seats arranged in a circular fashion. There were no images , pictures or idols inside. Anyone could go in and meditate, pray and observe silence. Arjun found great peace being there. Many people - hindus , muslims, Christians, jews, Buddhists, Sikhs - were scattered among the seats and were praying silently. Outdoors of the temple was pleasant with flowers still in bloom. The lady tending to the plants greeted him in Arabic. He offered his greetings and praised the upkeep of the surroundings and the interiors of the temple. That he was disturbed by the legend that was associated with Manitou islands, seemed to diminish with the peace found here. Both the times, all the time, Arohi being in his thoughts had doubled the intensity of both the feelings.

With winter setting in his going for morning walks and jogs had stopped. He once or twice saw Stephanie waiting for her morning bus and waved at her on his way to work. A new tenant had moved in the building, whom he also happened to see at the Islamic Center, the same person he had bumped into the other day. Not so friendly he thought, since his greeting was returned with a quick 'walaikum salaam' and he had left giving no further means for conversation.

Winter as it came with heavy snow and longer nights, had made the loneliness more terrible for Arjun. Seeing the white spread everywhere around him he only thought of being with Arohi, the warmth of her thoughts was the only way he could withstand the cold nights. As if she knew how he felt she was in his dreams wearing and orange colored saree, a symbol of warmth. They were lying on the snow in a place where there was very thin shoreline and a glimpse of land visible from where they slept. Her head was settled on his arm. His other arm under his own head. She had her hands clasped against her stomach. Both of them crossed the foot of their own legs. Even with the little distance between them and the chilling cold air, without any winter clothing, they were warm. They inhaled the fresh pure cold air. 'Kitna sundar hai yeh jagah' she said. 'hmmm' 'tum roz aate ho yaha?' 'mere shehar se bahut door hai, roz nahi aata, aaj tum aayi ho toh tumhe dikhane lekar aaya hoon' 'kitna snow gira hua hai, zameen dikhta bhi nahi, aur feel bhi nahi hota, humare yaha bhi aisa girta toh kitna accha hota' 'tumhe zameen isliye feel nahi ho raha hai kyunki iss snow ke neeche burf hai, aur barf ke neeche paani' 'paani matlab?' 'matlab hum ek lake ke upar hai' 'kyaa?' she jumped up her feet and suddenly panicked to stand straight on it. He had to hold her. He laughed at her making her angry at him. 'kuch nahi hoga, puri tarah freeze ho chukka hai, tum chahe toh bhi nahi girogi'. It took a while for her compose and get used to the idea of standing on a lake. 'itna bada' she said amazed. 'hmm' 'abhi hum lake ke upar chal rahe hai?' 'haan' 'are wah, kaash hum aise apna lake par chal sakte' 'kya pata hum ek din durgam cheruvu par bhi chal sakte hai' 'haan kya pata. sapne mein toh kuch bhi kar sakte hai'. He held her by the waist as she leaned her head on his chest. They walked looking around. As they reached a small stretch of island she asked him. 'woh kya hai' 'woh manitou island hai. iske peeche ek kahani hai, sunogi? ek bhaloo tha aur uske do bacche the. ek din jaha woh rehte the waha aag lag gayi, bachne ke liye maa apne dono bacchon ke sath yaha lake mein kud ke shore ki taraf tairne lage. bada bhaloo pahunch gaya, par dono chote bhaloo nahi pahunch paye. maa bhaloo yaha khade hoke intezaar karti rahi. intezaar karte karte ret ke neeche dab gayi. great sprit ne yeh dekhkar dono chote bhaloo ke liye ye do chote islands banaye. aur maa bhaloo ret ke neeche sote huye intezaar kar rahi hai, isiliye uss jagah ka naam sleeping bear sand dunes rakha gaya' 'intezaar karna kitna mushkil aur dard bhara hota hai' she sighed as her heart felt heavy listening to the legend of the bear. He gathered her in his arms to comfort her. The disturbance he had felt when he first read about it resurfaced. They settled on the edge of the island strecthing their legs on the lake, lost in thoughts.

Arohi was oblivious of her surroundings at work. For her work was just a way to keep herself going until the year was over. With just Arjun's thoughts in her mind and heart she failed to notice the interest shown by Madhav. It was only on a rainy day that she realized there is something more to the extra polite behavior of him. That evening it was raining heavily and to her luck there were no autos to be seen. She couldnot think of going to the busstop in that rain which was at a fairly walkable distance. Madhav offered to drop her. She could not refuse, she asked him it will be enough if he drops her to the nearest busstop or an auto stand, she would go from there. But he did not stop and insisted he drop her home. She looked outside and the pouring rain made her accept it. Dropping her off at her home and her mom coming out to check if arohi was coming, happened together. Her mom wanted to see who it and insisted that he come in. She was pleansantly surprised that it was Arohi's boss who was so young. Her instincts told her he was also an eligible bachelor. Soon she offered a hot cup of coffee which no one could have resisted in that weather. Much to Arohi's discomfort, her mother catered wholeheartedly to their new guest. Soon she had enough information, he is from the same community but a different subsect but that should not matter, he is in top management at an young age, earns handsome, well educated. For now that was enough. A half hour later an elated Madhav left their house, for him it was evident Arohi's mom had shown considerable interest in him. Arohi on the other hand quickly forgot that someone had even come home and soon she was going into Arjun land without any disruptions.

One evening Debbie, arjun's collegue, said her daughter was here and she wanted to introduce him. It turned out to be Stephanie who was excited again to see him. She could not believe that Arjun was her mom's collegue. He did see a warm smile that was usually not present on Debbie's face, while talking to her daughter. He now recognised the little girl with debbie in the pics on the wall next to her. He did not give it much thought as to why he had not seen Debbie with stephanie anytime and why she was not living at the same place. Stephanie was excited when debbie said she had something for her. When stephanie saw it she was visibly so happy that she shrieked and hugged her mother. 'A letter from pranii' I have been waiting for this' she turned to arjun without him asking 'she is my best friend pranita, she moved back to her native country Nepal recently, I am mad at her for leaving after being my classmate for 8 years' she would have continued talking if she did not have a letter to read, she settled in a chair to read. Arjun and Debbie went about their work as well.

Stephanie was excited to read, her friend wrote letters as a dairy of thoughts, like she was narrating the incidents that happened sitting next to her, discussing her views in the letters. Quickly she got engrossed in it. It read'..

(this article from the part 'an excerpt from my dairy' is written by our very own pranii 😃, she had shared it the other day and I felt it perfectly fits in the story , and that it will be a perfect lead to the next part. I asked her if I can use it in my ff and she agreed. Please do read, it is an awesome piece of writing👏, it is in grey font, she requested me not to mention her name but I wanted the sweet members of our forum to know who wrote it 😳)

'Dear Steffi,

Hope your anger at me has gone down wee bit atleast, from last time. I repeat I will make it upto you when you visit me. Your letter to me did wonders as it put me in the best mood just before the exams, and I did pretty well, so I think. But the happenings around us here and everywhere are not so pleasant , don't you think. I wish you were here to share my thoughts. I would have called you but today I felt like writing, not for my sake, but because I know how a letter from me makes you happier. I want to share with you what I wrote in my dairy today.

An Excerpt from My Diary

Today, April 16, 2009, was like any other normal day. I went to college, spent quality time with m family and friends, made lots of noise in the class, attended all the classes however boring and this day too, I quarreled with my brother. That brother of mine! He is never going to stop irritating me. I can't understand why he enjoys fighting with me so much. Well, I can't deny that I too have fun doing so. All these happenings, from going to college to arguing with my brother, were quite usual. However a mostly ignored incident, common in today's world has made this day a little more than just ordinary.

After spending a hectic day in college, completing all my assignments and revising my lessons, I thought of watching TV for recreation. As I was surfing the channels, I came across a news channel which was showing a news report about youths being kidnapped by the terrorists in our neighboring country, India. These terrorists, they had made a video of the kidnapped young men being viciously tortured and had sent those videos to the respective family members of the captives. The kidnappers, i.e. the terrorists, had asked a hundred and fifty million rupees as the ransom from each captive's family and had threatened to kill the young men if their demand remained unfulfilled.

Terrorism and kidnapping have surely become a normal happening in today's world. What an easy way they have sorted out to emotionally blackmail the family members who have already been mentally disturbed and earn a huge amount of money! What an inhumane behavior they have shown! Seeing those captives being so brutally tormented, anyone would have definitely been moved.

Surely the world is advancing day by day. But what I can see now is only its advancement towards destruction. The above incident has really shaken me. How cheap someone's life is! There is no worth now of this once valuable life. How can the world take such a turn? Where has men's sanity and emotions gone? Why has money taken the position higher than humanity? Why have people become so violent and destructive? Is there any end to all these demolition? And if there is then when will the end arrive? And how long has my list of questions gone! All day I had cracked my brain to sort out answers to these questions. No wonder I've been suffering from severe headache in the entire day.

Seriously, the last three hours have taught me quite a great deal of things. For this I'm thankful since I got a chance to come out of my illusive world and get in touch with today's reality. Though it was just simple news clipping which we see often, today it took me to such greater depth of thoughts and actuality that even I am surprised. Having seen this entire thing, I feel miserable and insecure. I see no security anywhere. If the terror has already spread throughout the world, how long will it take to invade Nepal? We go to school, study all day, and the whole year, in hope of a better future tomorrow. But do we really have a future left? Will the better things and a better world be able to survive this war and terror and provide us a better future? Will we truly get to live a future of our dreams? Today's incident has really put my dreams into doubts.
But why be so pessimistic? If there is a problem then there surely lies a solution somewhere. May be some thoughtful minds are working on it. Probably, these problems will end soon if the solution is approached unitedly. Who knows what will happen tomorrow. If it rained today then hopefully tomorrow will be a brighter day. So before resting my pen, I pray that along with a bright new day, let tomorrow bring a new light of hope. Next day, let the rays fall on a new world, free from terror and destruction, on a world of peace and harmony.

We need that world steffi , for now and for future.

Missing you .

Love

Pranii.

The same questions went through stephanie's mind, she agreed with her friend. Why was it so hard for this world to be peaceful. Why man is greedy, seeks revenge, becomes selfish, hurts others , why. Why the countries are always at war, why people are rendered homeless, why she inspite of having parents has to live with her grandmother, why her father had to be an alcoholic, why she is taken to a counsellor every week, why her mother has to work twice as hard to meet the ends, these were not world problems but her own, but why were they there. Why cannot she like all kids be simply happy. Why cannot everyone be happy. Why is terror taking over, when will it stop, who has to stop, will it ever stop. She let out her thoughts loudly this time.

'when will all this stop, who has to stop? Someone has to stop first' she said. Her mother looked at her what it was all about. 'this terrorism, when will it stop? Who started it? Who is going to end it?'. Arjun too stopped as she was talking to both of them. 'why should innocent people die?' she asked again. 'it is deeprooted, it originates from a series of events, it is hardly in anyone's hands to stop it, it is wide spread, it is uncontrollable, it is like an outbreak, everywhere' he said 'no country is spared from it' 'but someone has to stop' stephanie said. 'yes, someone has to, but it is not so simple, unless and until each and every person involved realises that what they are ruining today in the name of terrorism and war is irreparable that there is no gain from this, that noone can be a winner in this, why is religion a root cause for so many hurdles, why people want to prove that their religion is above others, why cannot there be a unity in agreement that each religion is great in its own. Why is one country waging war on other, why cannot conflicts be solved peacfully'. All three present there knew it is not as simple but it was frustrating to know that they cannot do anything about it.

That Arjun was going to get a chance to do something about it was not known to them yet.

Originally posted by: -vrshn-

RES.

Someone tell me if this is a happy or sad chapter... then i'll read :P

That Arjun was going to get a chance to do something about it was not known to them yet. -