Hey guys,
Well, since I am not writing anything right now, just thought of posting the story I had submitted for the Valentines' day contest!!! It's a short story; and sad too…I hope you will like it!!!!
I wanted to see "The Passion of the Christ" since a long time and finally I got to see it today, it is a very violent film depicting the crucifixion of Jesus. I just can't stand violence of any kind, but I don't how I sat through the entire film without even bilking an eyelid…Christ was a messenger of God and he took all of the sins of mankind and sacrificed his life, proving the world that the true follower of God is the one who believes in love and sacrifice… …if you people are not faint-hearted please do try and see the film, you will almost cry (I felt a rush suddenly). I feel Christianity like any other religion has been misused and misinterpreted… and there are a lot of divides created by man himself (The Pope, the Catholics etc…) the core beauty and its Holy Spirit has been lost somewhere.
I am a secular person, different religions fascinate me, they are some really intriguing facts about mythology, and after fairly knowing most of them (I am still reading about a lot of things or watch discovery) it feels all the say the same thing…it's just the way we look at it…When will people get this message and stop fighting on religious grounds, God only knows!!! Hail us Lord!!!!
On this worthy occasion of Good Friday pray that the holy Christ cleanses all our sins and restores peace in this scrambled world of mortals and enlighten us with the light of knowledge dispelling the darkness of ignorance…Amen!!!!
ENJOY!!!!
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The Promise…
"Promises are like the full moon, if they are not kept at once they diminish day by day"
"I will come back 'Bani…" jai said..looking into her crystal clear hazel eyes…the beautiful eyes which mirrored her unblemished heart and soul…
"Promise…" bani asked, uncertainty clouding her mind…the thought of separation brought a mountain of grief to her, for the last entire week she had been wetting the pillow…crying all night…
"Promise'" jai said lovingly…his thumb reached out to whisk away the ugly tear which was in the process of forming in the corner of right eye… …
Bani burst out into a fountain of tears…her cheeks tinged with red, wet with the flowing tears…his heart pricked to see her like that, lost and broken…but he had no choice…he cupped her face and brought it closer to him…his lips moved over her soft face kissing away those tears… …bani gasped…
"I promise Bani…I will come back'" he whispered leaving her oval white face…
"I will wait…" she said softly…as she saw him leave…holding his backpack…he turned around one last time to fill his mind with her pretty face…he smiled…she smiled back hiccupping…he was going back…to from where he had come… …
Bani bent down the brick lane of the terrace to catch a glimpse of him as he sat inside the taxi…she kept looking at the moving taxi until its image disappeared around the curving allay…
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Jai jerked out of his revive… the sharp chill of the morning sent shivers down his spine…he pulled his jacket…he watched the empty streets through the open window of his BMW…it was too early for the bustling market to open…he was reaching his destination…the place was still the same…just that it was a bit more crowded with the mushrooming of the shops and concrete constructions…the narrow streets seemed narrower than before…the shouts of the neighborhood children still echoed in the silent street…through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where smells arose from the ashpits, to the hayed dark odorous stables of cows and buffaloes which had nothing else to do but to keep chewing the same stack of grass…everything seemed as if they were just a day old… …
He smiled as he remembered the times he had spent in the warm and earthy confines of his ancestral home with his grandmother…his car stopped with a screeching halt before the cobwebbed ancient wooden doors of the palatal house, it seemed almost in ruins, clearly testifying the lack of care it received over a prolonged period of time…holding the heavy metal handles, he pushed the door a jar…a creaking sound echoed, giving an eerily feel…the images of the bright sunny afternoon floated before his eyes when he had first crossed the entrance…
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"Daadi…"an over-enthusiastic voice crowed as he jumped from the bullock-cart over to the stony steps…
"Jaiii…." Krishna screamed as she saw her grandson…her silver hair shone in the sunrays, clad in an all white avatar she personified the winter landscape of the west…jai touched her feet and proceeded to lift her up…
"Neeche utaar muhje…badmash'" Krishna yelped…finally putting her down, he pecked her cheek…
"Kaisi ho aap'" he asked fondly…as they proceeded to walk inside…it was always his grandmother who came to visit them in Mumbai, but this time he decided to pay a trip to his homeland…
"Main theek hoon, tu bata…achanak..woh bhi bailgadi main'"
"Arre, who koi taxi nahin mil rahi thi toh, iss main aana pada…aur main aapse milne nahin aa sakta kya'"
"Aa sakta hain, par na koi chitti, na phone…"
"Woh mera college khatam hogaya hain, papa office join karne ko keh rahen the, maine soch thode din ghoomu phir toh kaam hi karna hain na…"
"Acha kiya jo tu aagaya…teri bohot yaad aa rahin thi…"
"Bohot yaad aa rahin thi, na koi chitti, phone bhi nahin kiya…aap hamare saath kyun nahin rehti, iss baar toh main aapko leke hi jaaoonga…"
"Arre…in boodhi hadiyon main abhi jaan kahaan, main yahin theek hoon…sheher main mujhse raha nahin jaayega baba…"
"Main kuch nahin sunna chahta, aap bas aa rahin hain…keh diya na toh keh diya…"
"Bilku apne dadaji par gaya hain, woh bhi aise hi zidd karte the…theek hain aaungi…chal haath moo dhole…teri manpasand cheez banati hoon'"
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Jai walked inside the house, examining every corner with affection…time was so fast…you never know when it slipped away like a stealthy thief…it was a rude shock that his lovely grandmother had passed away two years ago…though people went away but their memories lived on…those who we love never go away, they walk beside us every day, unseen and unheard, still near, still loved, still missed and still very dear… ….every steep corner of the house mouthed the bittersweet moments spent…he stopped in his tracks as his eyes fell on the framed picture hung on the wall…he took out his kerchief and wiped the thick layer of dust…revealing the picture perfect couple of his grandmother and grandfather when they were newly married…his grandfather held his wife by her shoulder while his grandmother smiled shyly…jai smiled as he pictured himself and bani alongside him smiling in a similar … ….
He walked to the backyard…the stables were empty, the tulsi pot dried with only a mound of dry mud covering it...bani's laughter reverberated as he stood near the mango tree…she used to always climb it to pluck unripe green mangoes…munching the sour pulp with great pleasure…sitting on one of the branches…
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Bani came rushing into Krishna's house…jai choked his aloo paratha listening to the loud banter...he felt as if a mini earthquake had come…while Krishna gave a knowing look, shaking her head….
"Bani…bagal waali ghar main rehti hain…toofaan mail hain…" Krishna said affectionately…
"Daadi…kache aam lage hain…" bani said as she barged in…with a catapult in her hand…
"Haan haan pata hain…" Krishna said knowing fully well what she intended to do…
"Tod loon…" bani said making a puppy face…her eyes big as a burrow…
"Toofan mail ko koi rok sakta hain bhala…" Krishna said…bani gave a dimpled smile and hugged Krishna, she was about to leap into the backyard…when she returned back...giving jai a curious look who was blankly watching the hurricane girl who entered the small room…bani raised her eye-brows…
"Yeh kaun hain daadi…" she asked still eyeing jai in a peculiar manner…her hands resting on her hips…
"Mera pota…jai...Mumbai se aaya hain…" Krishna replied…
"Hi!!!" jai greeted her…bani wriggled her nose…throwing her long pleated pony around her neck she sprinted away…jai kept watching her, he felt something incredulous inside, his heart beat increased suddenly…he knew the girl had stolen his heart…he had never seen someone like her ever before…and he knew he was about to fall in love…he leaned back smiling to himself…the next two months of his holidays were going to be interesting, very interesting…while bani nervously climbed the mango tree, knotting the duppata across herself…she felt a bubbling sensation inside her, she had never felt so nice, it was more her spontaneous excitement than snobbishness not to acknowledge him…sitting on the tree branch, her legs on either side…she peeped through the canopy of the green leaves inside the house to catch a glimpse of the attractive stranger…he was not visible, she frowned, she moved her head in other direction only to face his steel grey eyes fixed on her, he was standing at the doorway of the backyard, leaning casually…he passed a smile at her, she blushed furiously and hid her face behind the curtain of mango leaves… …
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Jai moved around the widespread terrace….the awkward meeting had turned into a friendship and slowly into love…the house was spread with their constant din, always fighting over something or the other…the million times they argued, joked and laughed sitting on the terrace for endless hours…and unknowingly they had foolishly fallen in love with each other. Jai leaned on the boundary wall, it was almost crumpling… …her fragrance still mingled in the crisp air which blew…he could smell…his eyes wandered to the terrace of her house…it was empty…even the ropes tied to dry the were missing, he was desperate to go and see her…but it was too early, just eight in the morning…as he descended down the steps he remembered the way she swung as she moved, her soft rope of hair tossed from side to side… …
Jai came down, walking on the soft soiled ground, he reached the well…it seemed to be still the same, filled with water, but the meniscus had decreased and the surface was littered with dried leaves and twigs swimming afloat carelessly…he moved behind it, there lay a clear patch of dry earth, her mother and his grandmother together had gone out that day to a local …it was the very same place where they had made love…under a moonless sky, in the dark watches of the night with just the faint glow of the lantern kept aside…she had looked ethereal especially with the soft light casting shadows on her nubile bodily contours, she glowed like a diya…enchanting, the process was brief…clumsy…hurried too… she was too shy to even open her eyes, he too was inexperienced…but the feeling was wonderful, to have loved someone and to have been loved by someone so intimately and deeply… …
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They lay under the watchful eye of the mangosteen tree, the broad well shielding them from any intruding eye…the white termites on their way back home, the white ladybirds on their way home, the white beetles burrowing away from the light, the white grasshoppers with whitewood violins playing white music…all gone….one by one…he drew her lengthy, thick hair around them like a tent…small stones pressed into their skins… the adhesive soil particles sticking to their slick, sweaty bodies…she lay against him…over him, their legs intervened, trying to steady her frenzied emotions, while he ran his fingers through her hair, his puffing chest refusing to slow down… …
"I love you…." jai whispered breathlessly for the first time ever…gathering courage and ignoring her bashfulness she kissed his heart…whispering the same back to him… …
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Jai came out of the house; his nervous steps leading him to next door, a whale of questions ran through his numb mind…How would she be? How would she look? What would she say? What would he say? With all those questions he knocked the door…impatiently he knocked it again…a bit loudly this time…he pressed the palms of his hands together until they trembled…murmuring to stop the torture he was putting them through…his impatience and anxiety grew with each passing second, after which seemed an eternity to him, an old man opened the door…he didn't recognize him…the man pierced through jai via his old-fashioned spectacles…which was constantly slipping down his crooked nose… …
"Kya chahiye…"he asked in a toothless voice…
"Jee…woh yahaan….bani…mera matlab…Suriji rehte hain…" jai asked…optimistically, his face looking inside…
"Suri…" the old man thought for a second…
"Oh!!! Woh toh chale gaye…"
"Chalegaye…" jai looked shocked…he gulped down…
"Haan, ek, ded saal hogaya shayaad…"
"Kahaan hain…"
"Pata nahin'"
"Aur unki beti…"
"Pichle saal hi uski shaadi hogayi…kahin videsh main rehti hain…koi…Lodon…"
A cold sweat drenched jai, he felt helpless, orphaned, a sort of despair haunted him…
"London'" he mumbled…
"Haan, haan wahin…"
Jai turned back, his feet guiding him to destination unknown…he had been so embroiled in his moribund city life…swept away by the invisible tide of time that he never ever could keep in touch with bani…he had never been able to break those strands of complacency which had coiled around him…he was too busy and preoccupied…but she had always been on his mind and in his heart…he bitterly smiled at his fate… …
In lieu of his promise… she had waited, he had fulfilled his promise too…but it was too late…time had won the race… …
Driving back in his car he passed the same narrower streets…going back to the place…from where he had come… …
"And be these juggling friends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear
And break it to our hope'"
~William Shakespeare
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God bless
Dhani
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