Carve your own journey #Episode 22

A Few Months Ago

In the midst of the fourth largest city of the Indian state Gujarat, Rajkot, laid a small but lively cottage. It acutely crafted right angles with the Jubilee Gardens and in the street beside it was the ancient Watson Museum, which had the magnificent essence of the glory of ancient India.

?The atmosphere had the morning fresh essence mingled with the sweat and the aroma of the clusters from the nearby unkal gardens.? In that tiny, but lively cottage, a young lady was dressing up her pitch dark auburn hair. Her translucent ivory complexion and mischievous blue eyes were adding glamour to her yellow, positively radiant dress . She stood there admiring her portrait on the mirror as she fit her glass bangles on her narrow hands, and gently traced her fingers through her silken, long hair. Her name was Vaidehi which meant princess of videhas and she, oblivious to the reality, looked as beauteous as one as she tied her golden earrings in her ear holes which indeed gratified her senses.

?She grabbed her handbag and initiated weaving her trail towards her college. Her M.A course was on the verge of ending and later she would lead a happy married life just like any woman in the state, but her tiny heart possessed a secret desire.

Passing through the dingy rundown streets, these thoughts were knitting in her mind. The sky was dyed with palettes of orange and yellow. With the heavy sling on her tender shoulder, she trotted towards her destination. The deep cutting wind blew on the lanes, beside the railway station. Young birds vividly flew towards their nests, carrying raw worms under their beaks. The brittle leaves on the trees were, briskly, shivering in the cold, morning breeze.?

?When she made it to her class room, she found an empty seat beside her friend Aarohi, who was busy digging up the books from her bag.?

“Hey. Guess what? My engagement got hooked on the 23rd of the following month,” Aarohi said as she slid a twine of hair behind her ears.

“Oh wow, Satyendra Banerjee is the lucky guy, isn’t it?” Vaidehi politely enquired as she leapt out in sheer joy

“YESS... Well I am extremely buoyant. There are hardly fifteen days left....,” Her voice trailed away as she swallowed her words to bow in a greeting gesture.

??Aarohi was unable to cease her words as their teacher Mrs. Shrimati Thapar ventured into the class. All the classmates bowed unanimously, the chairs squeaked as they sat down.

“Good morning class...Well, today is the last day of our tedious routine ,I contemplate that you all have worked on your assignment with the very depth of your heart as its your last one so please make it your wisest,” She instructed with a gleam.

?One by one the classmates read out their dramatic writings. When it was Vaidehi’s turn she stood frozen for a split second and beads of perspiration were seen on her temples as adrenaline jostled in her blood. She wasn’t accustomed to facing the entire class and speaking out aloud .However she had worked on the assignment with all her heart. Clearing her throat, She began

“Looking into his eyes, I establish my Ron, BUT then ponder over the realization that I could never be his Hermione.

“When I close my eyes I see your Bright emerald eyes igniting the dark blinds of my eyelids...

“I am used to seeing your fingers filling someone else’s gaps, knowing that they can never fill them better than mine......

“My eyes are fond of you and the keep finding you in the crowd, but deviate back seeing your eyes lost in someone else’s.....

?“In your eyes i find my wonderland, but I can’t get lost in it like ALICE...

“Previously, also my speculations would wander in the gardens of love, romance and everything but what’s happening now is not usual...

?“Me, my soul, and my world are all esteemed above you and lie unlatched for you in the divine brightness of daylight and in the inauspicious black curtains of night...

“Without you I’m like Harry without specs, Hermione without books, Ron without food and Ginny without Quidditch...

“Your portrait will always remain carved on my fovea centralis, your voice in my cochlea, Your aroma in my nostrils and your smooth touch on my epidermis...

“Wow” exclaimed Aarohi. “It’s the best I have ever heard in the short life span of twenty-three years.By the way, who do you dedicate this to? It’s unquestionably someone exceptional,” She raised her eyebrow as she teasingly winked.

Vaidehi was abided by silence but a blushing scarlet smile was formed on her warm cheeks. She had penned this in her school life and it was dedicated to her adolescent crush Kabir Although she had practically forgotten about him yet one corner of her heart was lit by his sanguine smile. Before being her crush, he was a boyfriend. But a wide space continues to exist between those two words.

It was already one and the sun was heavily glowing on the busy streets. In the scorching heat, Vaidehi settled to take a bus to her home. She entered the first bus which was visible by her fovea centralis (retina) occupied the nearest window seat and commenced reading the novel ‘Gently Falls the Bakula’ By Sudha Murthy.

The novel gently explores human relationships. It was about a marriage that lost its path as ambitions and self-interests took their toll. Her eyes were already swollen up with tears as she read the last words of the novel “The same Shrimati who had stood by the side of Shrikant in the same Shravan rains for ten years had now left him all alone.”

Being engrossed in reading, she didn’t realize a young, tall handsome man had taken the seat beside her. His shirt was drenched with sweat and his trousers were badly crumpled up. The shoelaces of his shoes were dangerously undone. His thick black hair drooped over his forehead and sprinkleda few amounts of dandruff on his right shoulder. His dense eyes were hidden by his sunglasses? He was none other, but? Kabir Gala. When the realization darted upon her, she didn’t want to remain sitting there a minute longer being afraid to fall again . But it wasn’t in her favour, to abruptly leave.