The traveler was alone. The long torturous day had wound up leaving in his memory a few resplendent moments sprung out of his eternal infatuation with the mystic beauty of life. There would never be a moment .when the world around him fails to bedazzle him, there would never be an object where he can’t discover a trace of beauty. From the pebble down his feet to the sky kissing mounts, from the flicker of an earthen lamp to the full moon in the sky, from the oft ignored little flower abloom on a nondescript wild plant on the pathway to the much loved red rose nurtured in a garden and from a rain burrowed narrow stream flowing in a village alley to the vast expanse of the ocean, everything sparked a flash of joy in his heart. The world was his friend and every creature or object in being was a brook of joy. Amidst this fullness of being, there was a still an unexplored corner in his heart that needed to be lit up and in the quest of that light he had embarked upon his journey.
He was looking into the sunset. Nest bound birds in flocks were flying past the multi hued evening sky. The bustle of the day was melting into the silence of the evening. He was standing atop the hillock overlooking the city with the feisty river flowing curvaceously at its feet. For a moment he was in a trance and on realization of the impending darkness, he set his foot down towards his abode for the night,- a mansion, once built by a noble of a royal household and now, with the flight of time, converted to an inn by the city administrators. He walked slowly into the premises of that building…a whiff of fragrance was wafted away from an unknown corner in the garden, oozed off the flowers lying ensconced in the languid embrace of the drooping leaves of the plants. A few light masts poled in the lawns and a shard of light breaching out of the interiors of the building through the windows and the air outlets had spread on the ground in the garden where the advancing night was fanning out the wings of darkness. A carpet of fallen leaves, stirred to rustle by the capricious evening breeze and the ascending notes played by the unseen night creatures accentuated the deepening silence surrounding the place.
He stood for a moment at the portals of the building that opened to the corridors through a few stairs up. Some men were loitering on the corridor casting indifferent looks at the strangers and sometimes looking farther at the remote end of the precincts. He walked slowly along up to a flight of steps that crept onto the upper floor where he had to stay. After a few lazy steps up, he entered into his room. It was designed in ethnics with strands of modernity interwoven in its decors. The lightings still set to reflect the broody mood of the evening had lent a somber look to the ambience. Reclining against a divan that faced the window, he looked into the sky whose view was being eclipsed intermittently by the waving curtain playing amorously with the cuddlesome breeze. He walked up to the terrace and gazed up into the dark sky draped up in the silvery silken fabric of moonlight. Standing quiet for a while, untwisting his inter-looped thoughts and emptying the litters sunk into his mind in the day time into the darkness of the void, he returned inside unburdened of the irksome pangs of mundane thoughts.
An hour passed…the intervening time restored him to his vivacity as the strains of the day tapered off his nerves. He moved around a little, from the rear patio to the corridor in front and then in between, with a new string of thought spinning out of his rendezvous with the novelty around. All that he saw was new …the faces, the structures and the ambience. At this stroke of the moment, with the discord of movement in his thought and feet widening and his reason yielding to the lure of fancy, he was awakened to a tinkling tune that seemed ringing from the clanks of an anklet. As he turned back to trace the path of that chiming music that was mellowing away, he beheld of a sculptresque image in a throbbing frame of flesh prancing along, swinging in the shadows, her garment flown flutteringly in the air, lifted up to her ankle by the cleft of her fingers . Her anklets clutching lovingly to the crest of her feet, kissing the hemlines of her robes was murmuring to the ground she strolled by about her joyous romance with the lady that owned them. As she turned aside to enter into her room, a beam of light shined upon the marmoreal crown of her cheeks and the pendants she worn and he had the first glimpse of the beauty that was in bloom in her lissome bod. Her image leapt out of his sight, but its contours were engraved in his heart, to be shaped up in his dream and painted by his fancy. He stood there for a while, the bubble of delight disappearing into the moonlit night that sprang up that moment of mirth. He looked at the spring in the garden in an island of grass rimmed in by colorful stones, cascading diamond droplets around. Drops of dew strewn atop the blades of grasses were shining with the silken glow of the moonlight. He walked a few steps further on the corridor where the lights were dim and the shadows of the columns were darker. Squeals of a few nocturnal birds ruptured the silence as they flew past above the skies of the mansion. He felt restless. Should he move and probe to find who the damsel was who ruffled his poise and tickled his heart. Is she the glimmer of hope who can brighten up the recess of his heart and who he can crown as the princess of his dreams? His thoughts were in a flux. What’s a flower with all its color and charm and less its fragrance? What is intellect if it doesn’t ignite that spark of love in you and what is wealth if it fails to lay the path to the castle of your princess? He thought, and with anxious steps moved towards the doors of the chamber where the image he saw had disappeared into. As he reached at the front of the room, he found to his anguish that the door was closed. From the panes of the window, he could see some blurry shadows lurking about inside the room. Unsure of what to do, he withdrew from that place and stood reclined against a pillar a few yards away that afforded him a view about the movements in the room.
An hour or so passed as his heart brimming with anxiety waited for the reappearance of that pleasant sight. But no.. it was not to happen. With a sigh of desperation, he retracted his steps and retreated to his room. Lying on the bed, a sense of emptiness enfolded him in its grip. The train of events that happened in the day recoiled before him agonizingly. He couldn’t make out whether what he saw was a mirage or a dream. Will his life ever be graced by the exalted presence of the princess? Could he ever trail the flowery path that is laid up to her sanctum? Will there be any moments in his life fragrant with the sprinkles of her love? The ebb and flow of thoughts on the shores of his mind replayed till the northern breeze calmed down his nerves and sailed him adrift in to the ocean of slumber.
The night passed. At the break of dawn, as he was awakened to the cheerful chirps of birds… the infant sun had already begun his toddle in the eastern horizons. Het got up in a jerk as the events of last night flashed on his mind. Not thinking twice, he walked up towards the room where he had dreamt to meet his princess. He reached there.. it was not closed..A sliver of light was winking out from inside the room. The door was part closed. He moved ahead and opened the door. All at once the room was lit up in the gushing lights of the day. There was silence. Everything was in its place –the furniture, the chandeliers, the portraits on the walls and all decors, but all of those seemed swaddled in strange sense of gloom. He stood there for a moment and walked resignedly into the room. Yes..There was none inside. He walked up to the bed… the flowers in the pot kept beside the bed had wilted, but a faint fragrance was still lingering that permeated in the room and had sunk into him amplifying his agonizing sense of loss. A few crushed petals were lying scattered on the crumpled sheets on the bed and some on the pillows twined with some silken strands of hair. He plucked one and put that on his palm and watched that closely He felt as if the princess was sitting before him in a royal pink gown, with her debonair charm and angelic smile, her lustrous hairs lying fondly on her svelte sculpted mien. All at once he could feel the cloud of sorrow disappearing from the firmament of his heart and an effulgent shine overwhelming it. He could feel the wave of joy rippling in his heart. He understood that there was no cleaves in the seamless flow of joy and love. Distance to him appeared a smokescreen to be demisted at the sight of light which is wisdom and love. He turned back to return to his room and resume his journey with the princess crowned in the hallowed throne of his heart to rule and reign for ever.
writingsublime 
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