Reminiscence......

All of a sudden a forgotten dream comes back with much loved promise. But it’s like mirage. Like a butterfly....you run behind it like insane, you keep chasing....never to find it. You look back to collect the broken pieces.....of your heart!!

She sat near the window seat, her favorite seat; it was even more special if he sat next to her. But today an old woman sat in his seat. A old woman with thousand wrinkles, each wrinkle with a story. She smiled at the old woman, the lady smiled back. A connection was formed. Some connections happen instantly and some take years!!

The bus was not crowded, she liked it this way. The breeze through the window blew away her hair, she closed her eyes...suddenly like a shooting pain she missed him. It was so fierce; she could feel the pain physically. Some pains are like that, they are always raw no matter how many years eclipse. Some pains vanish as soon as you feel it.

Tears welled up, she looked away to stop them, old lady looked at her with a look which meant she understood her pains. She smiled though her tears. The trees outside looked so familiar and yet so new. She saw the trees everyday, they were her sole companions. They never bored her; she could look at them hours together. That was the immense power of nature. She wished infinite times-I wish he was at least one of the trees. When they traveled together, they both wanted to be the mango tree. They promised each other, after their marriage they would plant a mango sapling as their wedding gift.

It took her back to 6 years, 10 months 15 days ....the day they saw each other. He looked like a phantom....unkempt hair, stubble and always in kurta pyjama with a novel. He had Leo Tolstoy’s 'resurrection'. If not for that novel, she would have brushed him off thinking him as one of those 'good for nothing guys kind'.

After some days, they met in library......after much silence they initially nodded at each other which led to formal greetings to conversations to coffee houses to poems to love letters...after they were in love is when silence again engulfed them. They sat hours together on the park bench without speaking a word or slept on the beach looking at stars without letting words disturb their eloquence. She understood then that deep emotions are felt without speaking or words would set boundaries to their feelings...to their love. Through their silence, they understood how much they loved one another.

Everything was perfect. Completely perfect. They were soul mates. They were each other’s mirror. He began the conversation and she completed.

Fortunately both their families agreed to their perfect match. They understood. They thought they looked picture perfect. Like lovers in the paintings.

One fine day, they decided to meet in the morning without any reason. They never required a reason to meet. As soon as they reached their favorite destination, everything was normal, they ordered by-two cup coffee. They failed to see the fire beneath the normal surroundings, out of nowhere came thousands of people with hockey sticks and many more weapons, she did not even know names of. It’s when she saw the angry mob; she understood the fury of hatred. It burned people, hearts, lives..... People across shouted- run for your life. The fury, the anger, the hostility was called- 'communal riots'. When a man is angry, when he is vengeful without love is when he loses the mask of humanity, he would tear apart his fellow being without mercy, cut across pregnant woman's womb and kill the foetus within. He would rape a woman in front of her son. Would drink his so called enemy’s blood and look around for another prey. Abhorrence destroys self, another soul, it destroys mankind.

She and her lover hid them self in a strange man's house for god knows how many hours. After the riots police came to clean the mess, the dead body and people's broken hearts. They abruptly barged into the strange man's house kicking everything in their way and pulled away her lover and saw his vulnerability. Perfect scapegoat. She froze on the spot, reading the cop's mind. She pleaded, begged, fell to his feet claiming his innocence. They had no time and mercy to hear her pleas, press conference was scheduled in the evening, and they wanted to show to the world that they captured at least a suspect. They had done their duty!!! They took away a man full of love making him culprit for the hatred of other men.

They took him away that day...... he turned back to look at her, deep into her eyes which stirred her soul. That was the last she saw him.

Everyday since then she read about encounters. She did not want to read about it.
Every time she remembered him...she went to their favorite place where she last saw him....she went there everyday since then.

Jael