The lost fragrance

The lost fragrance.

The lost fragrance

I studied in a village school located at the lap of a mountain overlooking the silvery waters of a river that meandered along the wavy frills of the mount flowing gracefully on the bouldered bed. My school was unique for its location as it was ensconced in between a river, a mountain and the sprawling rice fields. Going to school walking on the river embankment hair loiteringly flying in the wind was a pleasurable experience. Very often the road would be isolated, monitored by trees standing at uneven intervals, bushes entwined to form an unbroken strip of green laced with smiling little flowers. My journey to the school would be an eventless affair had there not been that stretch of road that was flanked by those closely standing trees, caressing each other’s bosom bearing a number of flaming flowers. That floral patch would emit an ethereal fragrance from the colorful canopy of the trees that glistened with multiple hues with the golden touch of the sunbeam. The fragrance as it would come from different trees wouldn’t be the same as it varied in sweetness and richness. That   pampered my senses and delighted my mood even though I was clueless what those flowers were. One thing that always enthralled me was the transformative power of that fragrance that instantly sparked a feeling of well being in me. On many occasions I would miss that endearing whiff of bliss when change of season or inclement weather played spoilsport, but still that fragrance lingered in my thoughts and delighted me.

Time rolled on, and the days of childhood paddled back into the dead sea of past. The trace of that fragrance was swept away in the raunchy winds that blew over my life. The road that led to my school along with those trees that fondly carried the flowers of my memory lost their existence. But the hours I spent with them stays inalienably with me in a shining groove of my consciousness.

In the meantime current of time took the ship of my life to different isles, anchor on different shores, but nowhere I could sniff that fragrance I left on the way to my school, until a day before as it wafted as if form heaven into the place I was sitting. I was at the farm house of a friend in the suburb of the city. I  felt a maddening desire to rush out and I did. I went sideways where his well manicured garden had forked out a narrow path to the densely standing trees at the rear, a yonder away. Light was dim there and  I couldn’t identify the trees as the black coverlet of night had eclipsed the view.   , but I could inhale that sweet fragrance that once greeted me every day on those tender days of my life. I stood there a little and returned back. Pages of a lost chapter of my life were slowly flipping back. I felt nostalgic. I thought to come back next day to ask if my friend knew the names of that tree. That remains still a desire. I know my friend will tell me the name of that tree, but I wonder if I would be happy knowing that or would like to leave it as a mystery. If the fragrance I daily came along couldn’t trigger that curiosity to know the identity then despite giving me immense joy, should I know it now and lose that mystic glow attached with it to satisfy my grown up urge? I decided, I wont, I wont ever ask the name even if I visit there again and leave the fragrance nameless, free from any defining constraint and unspoiled in its essence without having it scrutinized by my knowledge. I thought to keep the fragrance in my cells with that pristine purity. I felt happy and only that I wish that those days could fly back into my life and  I turned that little boy without the blemishes that time that has left over my bossom.

The danseuse

Layers of dense fog had smudged the tranquil beauty of the morning as life remained cloistered in the drowsy forewalls of the city. The cackle of birds was yet to rouse lazy denizens out of the hypnotic spell of the night. Trees-tall and short, shrubs, bushes and plants in the gardens –all had shrunk into a reclusive fold of solitude. The skyline was still monochrome as the rays of the sun were yet to paint the clouds with the golden tint of joyfulness. A few birds, sitting atop a spire on a building with their feathers drenched in dew were preening their wings to take flight into the sky.

Curling up on the bed under the warmth of a quilt, Preyasi was waiting for the intimation of dawn which invariably comes to her from the tolls of the bells from a nearby temple. The clangs of the bell, reverberates in the nook of her heart and plucks a celestial note in the strings of her heart.  From the time she was a child she would be entranced by the music of nature strummed up in the croons of the birds, in the whispers of the breeze, in the voice of the rain drops. She would be listening to the waves in the sea talking to the stoic sands on the shore and leaping up on to his bosom.

The love in her for the music of nature led her to explore the various shades of her mood which made her sing the song of her heart. She would spend hours watching her blithesome moves forming up coherent displays of joyful spectacles.    She would be watching the clouds flirting with the moon, Watch the sway of trees in rhythm with the ascending breeze; see the birds soaring high in the air with the lissome wings  .She would witness a pristine joy expressed through her cryptic smile.

It was the harmony she witnessed in her discordant notes, the symmetry and a mysterious purpose in the apparent chaos that prod her to look into the depth of her own self where she sought to find a poise and order amidst her raging passions and unbridled desires. A desire piqued by a calling,untraced by its roots overwhelmed her as she trembled with an unconstrained urge to manifest the force ,coiling within her through her limbs and it was what that defined her acts and her course in life.

Soon she found herself possessed by that irresistible passion and made it a mission of her life. Her guardians noticing her religious zeal and devotion to the art laid a path for her to flower and flourish.

Years passed, she had by now found the rhythm of her moves with the pulse of nature. The cosmic scheme of things, the grand play of nature, she found enacted within herself. She found a unity and an alignment of her inner self with the cosmic principles that governed the world.

Dance now was not only an aesthetic display of synchronous movement of limbs, but an unerring medium for the expression of the joys of nature. She had found the goal of her life in decoding the mysterious will of nature.

The years that she spent on her meditative act of passion, had widen her vision and broadened her heart. Fulfillment of self had now ignited in her a desire to reveal before the world the discovery that would inspire and enthrall a larger group of people. She had now thought of transmitting to people her art and insights to sublimate their lives.

And time consented to her will and she travelled around the globe, sharing her art and wisdom, enriching lives and laying a different path for them towards truth and enlightenment.

Was it love ?

At the end of a long sultry day, sapped of my vitals, I needed to unwind somewhere in the greens under the expanse of the blue sky. With no particular destination in mind, I rambled along the street, throwing my gaze around, watching trees and plants slowly swinging, fondly cuddled by the evening breeze. Butterflies of multiple hues were flipping their wings around a creeper which had numerous clusters of little flowers on its bosom. Sometimes going a little farther and then trailing back again. I slowly ambled along till I found the place I was looking for- behind a thick ring of trees, with branches interlocked as if to camouflage something very valuable. It was a small children’s park where a few children in colorful attires were engaged in the act of merriment, frolicking and prancing, enlivening the ambience with their joyfulness. On the pavement, that surrounded the square landscape of the main park area, a few elderly men were strolling with an unconcerned look and a dispassionate gait.  I walked upto a bench standing a few yards away from me and took my seat comfortably. Lying back to me was a thin strip of land that circled around the pathway bordering the boundary of the park and there were thick bushes intertwined to form a long and curvy stretch.

 

Just while I was limbering up, to relax my strained muscles, my angular vision caught a splash of color waving from a corner,  I lifted my gaze and what my sight beheld was a delightful spectacle- sashaying towards me, was a pretty girl.. a sculpturesque  beauty, oozing charms of a full moon  and freshness of a dewdrop. Her hair swept by the mischievous evening breeze were straying up her shoulders and falling scattered nonchalantly over her beauteous face. She was at pains to ward off those trespassing hair strands, wading her fingers through, over her cheeks and lifting those from her eyes to keep her face to the full view of the world surrounding her. She was coming, like a fairy with silken wings, her effervescence cascading around, towards the place I was sitting. Now I had to lower my eyes and turn aside, as she came tantalizingly close, lest I could be mistaken as an ogler. Still, I managed somehow to keep her movements within my peripheral sight. The air was carrying a whiff of fragrance that I could sniff and it was from her that it was stolen from. Now she came closer, and I had to let go off that demureness   to have a closer look at her well contoured mien. . And I did…  and to my utter delight I saw a wave of smile laving through her lips, perhaps due to the titillation of a fond memory of any of her sweeter moments. I looked up,   when she was fairly a yard away form me, and yes.. it was a revelation, the effulgence she exuded with the glow of her honeydew smooth skin blanked out my sense partially,  for a moment , all thoughts disappeared, and what remained was the glory of her beauty. I looked into her eyes and our eyes met just for a fraction of a moment, and it was enough for my residual sense to be lost in that ultimate spot of beauty.  She walked past me, and for a few seconds, I couldn’t realize that ecstatic moment is past. She was walking away from me, and with every inch of distance, my heart got heavier. She didn’t look back, and with the steps of a danseuse, meandered out of my view. A strange silence engulfed me, a few minutes before, neither was she nor was the moment I passed through, but in the intervening period she blessed me with that rare moment.  For once, I understood that it was a moment what we all call by the name ‘Nirvana’. May be it was for a few seconds, I felt.

 

I returned home, but with her sweet memory etched in my mind, and heart enriched with the experience. I didn’t think about her later nor do I wish to see her again for I know a desire for recurrence entraps one in its vortex ultimately. But I am still inconclusive about the nature of that feel. It was definitely not infatuation, crush or obsession, but was it LOVE?

The princess of the red mount

 

The claustrophobic settings in the room and its adjoining ambience were a catalyst of painful experiences that the man was not accustomed with. The darkness had wrapped around him a thin veil through which he could hardly see or feel the happenings taking place outside. Since he was forcibly confined to that chamber a few days before, the world for him had shrunk into a few yards of inverted space where despite his best efforts, he was unable to free his thoughts from the claws of the asphyxiating surroundings. The air in the cell had the  putrid smell of something stinking that he was unable to breath in.  The darkness was slowly sinking into him as the light of hope of an early rescue was slowly fading out.

This sudden shift of his fate in a span of few days had left him wondering about the nonchalance and indifference with which providence strikes. He had no premonition before that the fall of ones fate can be so swift and sweeping. The ceiling and the walls of the cell was the safe roving zones of a number of insects and lizards. He looked up above, but couldn’t see anything as the movements of the creatures were hidden behind a dense layer of darkness. He was envious of them, as they were free from any shackle and had their freedom to roam with their wish. He sat down on the floor,it was cold and hard like the time he was going through.

This time he heard some sound outside pitching up towards the place he was sitting. It was the footsteps of a man that was approaching him. He became a little alert, a wave of unease swept him off his poise. The man seemed stopping just at the other side of the closed door. There was a silent intermission..his wandering thoughts paused for a moment before engaging in a dialogue within. With a soft push..the door opened, he lifted his head and looked up at the shadowy image standing a few yards away. It moved slowly towards him, in step with his anxious moments as he felt the voice of his clamorous thoughts shrilling down. Just this time things around him appeared out of the wraps of  darkness as a slice of light disrobed them of their black veil they were swaddled in.  There was a dim flood of light as the person had lit a lamp that seemed to bring with it a light of freedom for him. He looked up towards the flickering lamp that was glowing with its glimmering glory. The bearer of the lamp was now revealed to his vision as the mist of suspense had vanished with the fleeing darkness. He looked up towards the man. All at once the unrolling mask of suspense unveiled before him a lightening flash of surprise. Standing before him was the clone of his hijacked dream cast in a shade of grey indifference.  It was not a man with any mysterious mission, but was the moon of his dark days who once had slipped under a cloud with a promise to return one day, but was lost in its darkness. ….

…..He was there in the mountains, amidst the verdant sprawl of the abounding greens. Anytime he felt the rhythm of his life ruptured by the rumpling note of discord, he would retire to the hills to cast off his worries and to lift up his spirit. He would listen to the hymns of silence and the jingles of the jungles under the sagely gaze of the mountains. He would feel . the forests and the mounts touching. Healing his frazzled nerves and bring to his mind the poise of a peak and the solace of a sea.

One day as he wandered into the jungle, allured by the beguiling charm of the sylvan beauty, way led to her embrace and merged deeper to her depth, he discovered in her bosom the pulsating beats of violence and passion. Her peaceful abode had turned into a den of demons where they dwelled with their devilish delight. In her silence they buried smiles of numerous men who served the land and brought peace upon it. Beneath the facade of angels were hidden insane satans sworn to violence and visceral vices.  A vain ideal defined their vision and they were blind to the pain and plight of the bleeding souls left behind by the victims of their slaughters.  The prophets of doom preached the pretense of freedom among the credulous men and lured them away from the lap of their homes to the lanes of wilderness. Mirthful youth for them had to bow before the myth of martyrdom and its beauty had to be burnt in the flames of some dubious duty.

The glamour of glory caught in its trap,not only the men who had to prove their valour, but tender young girls whose wings of freedom were clipped  and laughter  caged. She had to put on the mask of the night on a delightful day and had to hide her beauty under the guise of moron piety.

One day, as he was off to a break amidst the greens, forgetful of the hustles and dins of the city and had trekked to the summit of the mount, tuned on to the music of silence , he found a groove cut into its calm that sweetened to its notes and brought melody to his mood. The songs of silence he was listening in the chirps and tweets of the birds, in the rustle of the leaves as they whispered to the air now had changed to the crooning cackles of a  group  of girls who were coming up towards the place he was sitting. Unaware of his presence ,they came closer and were caught in surprise seeing an alien amongst them. They were maidens of a little hamlet on the lap of the mountain and had nature as their estate to nurture them up. They looked at him with a suspicious gaze as they tried to find out a known face in him. One amongst them had the shine of the moon  and seemed to be made in the same mood by nature when the flowers and birds were made and in to whose eyes the beauty of the place had condensed into.  In a moment they swerved their way down the curvy creepy path of the hills and  went out of his sight. Beauty he thought builds her nest in a capricious way, at her whim and at places she loves to sit.  He looked at the place she was standing before and felt a moaning emptiness. He sensed a mild ripple of joy in the air which was subtly perceptible to him. Her after image seemed to hang in the air for moments and slowly dispersed into his thought. He returned back with a disquieting unease.

Next day spending the day in the confines of the room, he set out for his tryst with the nature as the noon mellowed down. It was soon that he reached the spot where he was , the day before form where he could see the pristine beauty of nature fanning out beyond the shores of his sight.  On the side up the stiff curvaceous road climbing upto a raised cliff was a boulder, shaped like a seat as if waiting for a way led guest. Besides  the path wild plants crept up to the bosom of the other, lying interlaced  were trying to flaunt their subdued beauty to some indifferent traveler. He sat atop the stone, looking around at the vast sprawling greens ,birds in flight as they curved across the sky in moving patterns in the skyscape above the forests lending a mystic touch to the beauty of the woods. A few moments later, feeling a prod in his conscious self,called upon by the songs of the birds he moved ahead on an undiscovered path laid along the ways till he stopped by a huge tree ,standing a little aloof from the rest of their race.It was half way the slope of the mount and the green rim had just girdled around its waist.  A little farther ,he found someone standing with her rear towards him , a few unkempt strands of hair breaching out of a knot lying playfully down her necks on her back. He moved towards her with cautious steps..but she sensed someone coming from her back and turned round..now she could see her and she him.. for a moment none uttered a word… it was  she..who he had seen yesterday…and for whom his thoughts had  put on the color of joy . he stared into her eyes ..and she into his..a  sweet smile swam across her lips. She was not  scared,,neither was she disturbed.

“Do you stay here” ..he asked  in a soft voice

Awake to attention..she looked up towards of him, sweeping with her fingers strayed hairs that were fondling her face, clasping her lips she answered with a nod.

“But who are you” she asked with a voice that resounded musically in the mountain airs..

“I have come here to stay in this place..to be with you” here on the hills.

She pulled her eyebrows in disbelief and that wrinkled her forehead

The drift of thoughts on her mind was visible out on her face.

He moved a step closer

“Wont you let me live here” he said in a tender tone

In the afternoon sun, their shadows had started lengthening and  coming closer.

She felt a flutter in her heart as he slowly climbed up in her thought.

This place is for everyone..for all. who love us,our hills, our forests, our flowers, our birds

She said with a fervent flush of passion.

Then looking up towards the sky..she said” see, the birds are flying so happily, undisturbed..have they ever asked if they could fly in the sky?

He looked surprised at her face..a fluid innocence had washed her face off any signs of fear , anger or anything that torments the human soul..

The sweetness of her voice, her simplicity, the exuberance of her spirit enthralled him

Here is a girl…he thought far from the gilded glamour , away from the snooty splendor of the cities from the snobbish crowd .

At once she seemed to him like an image of his imagination, the blunted edges of his fancy  evened out by  her silent and sublime charm and  her benign looks.

The freedom of her spirit unfastened the knotty webs of conflicting thoughts in his mind as they melted into the breeze that was now fragrant with the budding flower of his love.

It was not only the beauty of her flesh, but the beauty that surrounded her, the glow of her innocence, her lively spirit, her uncorrupt heart that kept his thoughts bound up to her.

 

Days passed….The hills and the jungles watched gleefully their tale of love  unfolding on their foreyard  and  the  bliss of love enfolding their souls.

But as it was to be…their acts were noticed not only by the hills and the jungles, but by the demons who were hiding in its caves and  under its hoods of safety.

One day..as he was  waiting for her like everyday as it was now  turned to a ritual for them..she didn’t come…he waited for hours…but no..she didn’t turn up…afternoon turned into evening and evening into night. His wait lengthened beyond the nights for several days thereafter until he found one day  falling into the abyss of this hell. His sudden disappearance followed by his capture had sewn a veil of mystery before his eyes. He was still grappling with this unexpected downturn of his fate and the descent of misfortune in his life.  The shadow of gloom had darkened his mind and after days…

today it was disappearing with the light of the lamp she was holding out before him.

He looked up at  her…her face had no trace of surprise or anxiety on it. She was aware that the person with whom she had left her heart with was now captive in the cage by her callous clan of men.

My good sense..he said looking up towards her face that was pale with pain and grief.

“Where did you vanish’ he asked in a  frazzled voice, with anxiety and unease etched across his face

Her golden glow had tanned down to blotches of blue.

She was clad in a rugged attire that resembled a battle fatigue and which had eclipsed her beauty and roughened up her looks.

Sensing his surprise she said” We are fighting with our foes..to free ourselves from the shackles of our bonds. We are fighting for our life, our land and our love.

our soldiers have brought you here..she roted out the words as if under a spell.

“Aren’t you one amongst of them who want to throw us out from our homes, from our hills and from our founts of pleasure”

There was pain in her voice that were pouring out as her words..

He was shocked and  perplexed

“ Throw you out”? his words spilled out of his mouth without  any thought

Why should I  my  dear and how could I as you are there in the shrine of my heart..he said  after a pause

‘ Did you leave me because you thought like that…his voice was now tempered with pain

 

She felt a little shy and said” No..but our leader told us so.. “there was a feeling of guilt in her voice and the cloud of sorrow in her voice was slowly disappearing.

It took him some time listening from her the story that followed after their split

It was the the mischief of her men, who had  put on the mask of angels to inflict mindless pain on men, cutting their limbs, cutting their throats in the name of serving for a larger good. It was they who had misled her and had poisoned her mind and in whose traps he was caught.

He had to untwist  her  mind  from the knot of these lies , free her from her flawed thought and purify her mind. He told her how his men are spreading fear, spilling blood, killing and maiming men and all these for their ignorance and their belief in violence. They are not helping men leading a life of joy,but a life of fear, sorrow and pain and that they are spreading evil far beyond their domains.

His words started sinking into her as she found truth in his voice.

‘Come” he said with the spark of smile back on her face…with me and lets leave this place and fly beyond to a place where there would be none to badger us,  tease us and  cause pain to us. ‘

‘No”..he told..I cant put you in trouble..never..they will torture you if they catch you with me’

Iam not worried for me, but cant  put you in pain for any of my acts

It s not you..we would leave the place “ she said ..would you live me alone  here ? filling each of my moments with pricks of pain.”

There was nothing more for her to say

She put out the lamp and  clasped his hand in her hands and slowly led her out of the chamber of darkness, along the passway to an open land. In the light out,  under the vastness of the sky, he rediscovered his lost freedom and love. He felt  a wing stitched to his dreams.

From the rocky stone paved road they came down to the long stretched pitch black road that seemed waiting  to take them beyond the valley of vile and violence.

They found a vehicle coming towards them..and as it stopped, they boarded it without uttering a word ..she looked at him..he was all smiles ..she leaned her head against her shoulder..as if  seeking rest for the rest of her life..away from the illusions of glory of  martyr hood. He kissed her foreheads and touched her lips as if touching a bud of rose that promises to bloom to a beautiful flower next day.

The princess,the tiger and a little nymph

 

Long long ago, there was a king who ruled over a large kingdom. He had a beautiful daughter whose fame for her beauty had spread far and wide. Princes from nearby states and from afar were very desirous to marry her and make her queen. The princes were handsome, chivalrous and possessed all skills of warfare. But the princess was never fond of all this, for she was not enamored of these transient things that would give her fleeting pleasure as she had much of those before. The royal way of life, the regalia, had built around her an unseen wall within which she was asphyxiated. She didn’t want to move from one confinement to another. What she wanted was to fly like a bird, run like a gazelle and play with the flowers and plants, the butterflies and drench under the open sky when it rained. She would talk to the birds and when they chirped she would bubble up into joys. Nothing as such, of the royal pleasures could excite her as her unbridled spirit explored vastness of the space, trailed the flight of the birds and roamed in the meadows, in the valleys, in the jungles and swerved up to the mountain tops.  At the daybreak, the princess, awake from her slumber, with the sweet fragrance of her body lingering in the folds of her garments, would stroll up to the terrace to look beyond at the infant sun rising far at the horizon, her eyes still drowsy, waiting for the warm touch of the sunbeam to spark them into their beauty.  She would look at the sprawling greens at a yonder, not far from the palace, shining lustrous, draped in the golden robes of the morning light and watch the reverie of the birds up in the sky on the lap of drifting clouds.

 

Such was the princess, whose dreams of freedom was caged in the stone ramparts of the palace and her will leashed to the royal codes of living. On occasions, the king would let her wander out of the palace, accompanied with her friends for a pleasure trip to the royal gardens lying at the fringes of the city. The garden was so laid as to merge into the forest nearby only with a narrow stream lying in between, not meant to be a formidable barrier. Sometimes the stream would be shallow enough facilitating cross-trespassing of the inhabitants.

 

Once. as the princess was on such a trip, immersed in her own fancies and ambling her way around, she reached near the stream and in her impish joyfulness, waded through the waters and crossed to the other side. Her friends were left far behind. She walked into the thick of the forest, bemused by its sylvan charm, captivated by the multi-hued splendor of the flowers up on the trees and strewn along the path like a carpet as if to welcome her royal highness. Forgetful of her self and unaware of the approaching dusk, she was sunk in beatific bliss and had let her spirit free to roam in the vast wilderness.

 

But as it was to be, dusk descended and as the sun plunged down the horizon, the remnants of the day melted into the darkness of the night and the beauty that so far enthralled the princess looked ominous to her. She was back to her sense. but it was too late for her to trace back her steps as she had forgotten the route she traversed. Looking around, she could barely notice the semblance of a mound somewhere at a distance. She walked to up to the place cautiously and found a stack of woods atop a heap of stones and pebbles. She stooped down to let her lissome body find some rest as she felt tired after a long romance with the woods. Night deepened, and the song of silence began; little insects hidden in the leaves, holes and crevices of the woods plucked the notes and played the symphony of joy and their music accentuated the depth of silence. A crescent moon appeared in the sky flirting from behind the cluster of undulating leaves caressed by the mild northern breeze.

 

A few moments passed… and the princess was still sitting dazed. Just now she could hear the rustling of dry leaves from a distance, the sound became distinct and she could now feel somebody coming towards her discreetly.. She stood up and cast her gaze around, and all of a sudden looked stupefyingly at the sight she beheld. A few yards from her, was standing the prince of the jungle, a huge striped beast with all his might and splendor – a tiger. The princess squirmed as fear engulfed her doe eyes as the beast looked menacingly at her. She was silent… the tiger was approaching her soft-footedly. And then he stopped….as if under a mystic spell, and kept staring her with his fearsome eyes. With a grunt that resounded through the silence of the forest, he squatted before her on the ground as if to block her way. The tiger was puzzled and had a probing look as if to find something that seemed to him missing. In fact, he was…  a few days before he had an encounter with a nymph …and she had wings with which she badgered him a lot… sometimes sitting on his back and  then floating aloft , and then with his little wings flying around and above him, but always out of his reach.  After having much fun and mischief, she had vanished leaving the tiger fuming and fretting.  Somehow, she mistook the princess as the fairy and was probing in her the missing wings he saw last time. “Why are you not flying up to the air and sit on those trees” the tiger asked'” you caused me a lot of misery that day, and it is my turn now” he said with a voice that was less violent and more humorous.  The princess looked amused even as traces of discomfort were still lurking on her face. “I dont fly”… the princess said in her mellifluous voice. The ferocity in the looks of the tiger softened a bit, just like the music mellows down one’s rage. He looked her in disbelief as he probed her once more. “But you flew last time” his voice this time was tempered with restlessness. “And you did irk me a lot” he was certain.

The princess sighed, “I wish I could”   she said in a voice filled with anguish and laced with despair. Living in a palace.. akin to a prison for her.. she had always sought for the freedom of the birds and the butterflies… wished for their wings and sought for a fancied flight.

 

Just about the time, a flutter of laughter reverberated in the air…. the princess and the tiger looked up above.. and to their delight… flapping her little wings.. the nymph was there, smiling impishly ,afloat in the air.  The tiger looked once up at the air and again at the princess. Sensing his discomfort, the nymph alighted.  “I am here,’ and it was me too that day” she said ,  with a mischievous smile and  naughty nonchalance. The tiger was silent…”she is the princess” the nymph said holding her hand “and she is the loveliest amongst all beings”  be it of humans, of your animal kingdom or be it our fairyland. The tiger’s eyes shined with reverence… for a moment he forgot that humans are his enemies as he looked at the princess with awe and wonder. “She has lost her path”. the nymph continued…. leave her  at her home if you are the true prince of the jungle . The tiger felt pampered and his eyes sparkled.  “I will” he grunted, and squatted before the princess again. The princess was happy.. a wave of smile rippled through her lips.. She looked at the little nymph and she nodded smilingly. The princess embarked on the tiger and he moved slowly and silently through the jungle towards the stream from where she had lost her way into the forests. The nymph was all along with her through the journey. At last the tiger reached the spot.  The princess could see a crowd of people gathered at a distance.. it was a royal contingent who were there searching for the missing princess. She asked the tiger to halt as she alighted from his back. She feared people might see him and may kill him if they saw him with the princess.  She looked at him and fondly caressed his back. The tiger looked pleasingly and the princess smiled back at him. It was time for her to depart. The little nymph waved at her from a perch atop a tree as she primed her wings to fly away.. The princess stood still as the tiger turned his back and ploddingly moved away forms her. In no time he disappeared into the thickness of the jungle.  She returned to the palace along with her parents, her brief spell of freedom cut short, but she was not as that sad, for she had seen a new dimension of life where love was not bound by any earthly laws, but by a golden cord of supernal consciousness.

The traveler and the princess

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.

The princess and a golden cage

She was crying sitting atop a mound of  gold. There was glitter all around-the sparkles, the splatters of joy, the clangs of metals, glasses, bouts of laughter and inaudible whispers-all had blended into the tune of the of the boisterous celebration that was on. The venue had borne the splendid signature of the splendour around. The music that was assuming an ascendant note, had failed to stem the tide of tears streaming down her cheeks. Flowing down with her tears was the debris of her dreams and the remains of her freedom. The frenzy, the manic dance of lucre and the bubbling air of the ostentatious show had under its veils, a poignant tale of a ravaged dream wrought upon by the merchants of ego in the market of honour. The drops of her tear, supposed to be the pearls of her happiness was washing away the petals of her love into the ocean of sorrow. The guards of the garden whose flower was she, and who left her to her freedom to be caressed by the bees, to be kissed by the breeze and to romance with the moon had shackled her will in the cage of their wish.

The voice of her pain melted in the noise of the night that cast its ominous shadow beyond the hours of thrill that everyone was immersed in.  In the glitz, glow and the grandeur of the ambience, she was left alone to witness the vanishing trail of her freedom and the subjugation of her will to the tyrant titan of fate.  The whispering cloud of her sighs drifting in the dreary air of her anguish was dripping down as drops of despair and drizzles of grief. Never had she felt the stinging pricks of her lonely thoughts wounding her heart and bleeding her soul. The sprightly sparrows swarming the place with their golden wings and diamond beaks had failed to bring cheer in their r chirps to lend music to her mood.

The razzmatazz, the streaks of purple and gold and the riotous raptures did little to lift the black hood of gloom from her angelic face. Uncoiling within her was the smoke rolls of her golden days, unfaded by the blurring brushes of time. She looked beyond the sprawling palace hosting the last rites of her crushed dream.

She was happy with the love buzz in her life, content with the croons of the love bird nestled in her heart and the swell of delight brimming in spate in her life. The flower of love that blossomed in her life on the nurturing soil of her sweet sensibilities had painted her life with the beauty of its hues.

The star she sought to fall from the heaven one day to fulfil her wish had gifted her a full moon to light up her path in the journey of her life. Her unspealt desires hummed in by the brooding bees turned into the song of her life to be murmured by the muse of her soul. The flickers of passion wavering in the high winds of restraint blazed into a flame, sparked by his warm touch, undousable by any freakish whims of a satanic force.  Her unfelt feelings hidden in the cloistered recess of her heart erupted in cascades drenching her entire being with the nectar of bliss. He weaved wings in her will to fly beyond the rigid realities and live in a dreamland unspoilt by the maddening meddles of restless men. He would carry her wishes on a golden aisle to the castle of her dream to pamper them with his tender touch of his redemptive care.

But the castle of her dream had to be shattered by the catastrophic assault of the scions of the Satan, Its majestic splendour to be robbed by the ravenous raid of the peddlers of gloom. Her freedom was to be pledged for a vacuous vanity and vain reverence. She had to be the golden coin to purchase pride from a pirate prince. The saviours of her honour had mortgaged her freedom to buy a golden cage for her to live a life of torture and torment.  Today is the day for her wings to be clipped and her freedom buried.

She looked up at the decked up pillars at a distance, down the arch of the marquee. There like an exhumed statue..pale and lifeless, stood the mascot of her freedom, her joy and her love..his eyes tearful..but shining like the tinted waves of the ocean..lustrous with the sunbeam and there too was reflected the vast blue sky with its limitless expanse.  She looked at him beseechingly..her imploring eyes prayed him to rescue her from the prison and lift her to the unreachable heights of the heavens where she will be free with her freedom to live with her love.

The distance was not unbreachable..but the  wall of silence that kept them apart was insurmountable. The curtain was slowly falling on the show with a tragic denouement. The sirens of split were blowing deafeningly in the air. She was taken away to the altar to solemnize the ultimate sacrifice.  He stood there as the dark night sky bent down to shield him from the heartrending sight being enacted there.  His eyes were open..but there was a thick darkness ahead..the stars in the sky had hidden behind the cloaks of the clouds…the shadow of the night crept onto his soul..he felt blank..like a little black spot, far away in the void..unexplorable and untraceable.

A few moments passed..he was standing there unnoticed..lost in the lonely lane of solitude. A train of retinues rushed past him to a place where a small crowd was building up. The crowd was colorful and noisy. They were free birds with rich plumage and dazzling feathers who had come to witness incarceration of one of their kind into a golden cage. They had gathered around her to bid her farewell.. over the path of her smothered wishes and slain desires. He saw her..her eyes wet , washed by the waves of a million sorrows..cast down by the weight of her inexpressible  pain. He couldn’t see more…and rushed out of the precincts to the road that waited to  take her princess away from him. Leaning against a pole he raised his hands towards the sky  wishing to disappear in its broad bosoms.  He stood still there.  A fleet of vehicles were coming out of the porch. In the lawn…wending  their way along to the road outside..behind those was a floral carriage …with the most beautiful flower withered inside,. It was carrying  her princess. .stealing her from the garden of his sight to a distant isle of loneliness.  It rolled down upto him and he caught a final glimpse of  his golden dream.  The dragon was taking the princess away and he was helpless to fight the might of his force. His dream had flown away..but only to land in a golden cage.

The princess and the priest

 

The wide steps of the temple had a thick layer of densely strewn leaves. The squall last night had violently shaken the column of trees lining up along and aside the steps to the porch of the temple .They stood helplessly, unable to tame the mighty whips of the storm that disrobed it of its beauty, unstringing the cluster of leaves of their sleepy anchor on the stems. Scattered twigs from the broken nests were lying, torn apart by the indifferent blow of the gale, unplugged from their snug shelter on the trees.

The rage of the gusty wind had mellowed down to the chilled swish of the breeze as it rustled over passively over the heap of withered leaves stretched up to the doorway of the temple. A few yards away down from the lap of the stairs, through a thinly laid strip of grass was the garden that served the temple with flowers used for the service of the deity and that too had borne the brunt of the gale that swooped down over it with its brutal fury.   Soft and tender bosoms of the flowers meant to be offered at the service of the deity in the morning were lying squeezed, wilted with their fragrance sunk into the heart of the soil and beauty back into the unbloomed buds.

The priest, living in the precincts of the temple for years, had seen it many times, the mood of nature painted with joy swinging wildly, her temper turning tempestuous  and bringing curse on the land.  A stoic silence surrounded the place, from the hedge of the garden to the bells in the temple. A little squirrel crept up hurriedly onto a tree casting a curious glance around as a few butterflies circled above the plants in search of a source of nectar. A flock of pigeons from the outer niches of the temple flew down flapping their wings and alighted on the circumambulatory pathway and on the flight of steps running down to the foot of the temple.

The priest, strolling in the garden, looked up at a distance at the bush, where a slice of darkness still made things invisible.  It was in the far corner of the garden, beyond which there was a pond, full with blooming lilies. He ambled around and plucked some flowers still sticking to the battered plants, leaning mournfully to the ground.  He has a distinct and deft way of plucking flowers, carefully and unhurriedly. He would look at them as if they mirror the image of God; He considers those as the subtlest and sublime expressions of the divine will, for him they were the messengers of God to teach humanity the idea of beauty.

His belief of divinity lying in beauty had a different origin though. Many years back in time, this temple was a witness to the initiation to his faith. It was a time, when dreams were spun out of the yarns of fancy, mind longing for the stars far away and the heart for a princess to elope into the dreamland. Living not far from the temple, he would come here anytime to unknot his mind and offload his stress and to pray at the lotus feet of the presiding goddess.

On one such occasion, while he was there and sitting a few steps down the flight, he could see a car screeching to a halt on the road that wended along the foots of the temple into the city, a mile there off. His eyes that so far stared vacantly at the random views unfolding before him, switched to the sight that slowly unrolled before him mesmerizingly.   With swing steps of a gazelle and a wing sways of a dove, he saw a girl waving up the steps, in dark rose attire with moonlight charm and a regal grace. As she approached like a breeze swept tulip undulating mirthfully in the cuddlesome air up to the place he was sitting, he felt like the world around him shrinking to a golden flash of light, hewn in the image of a princess by the dream-touch of a celestial sculptor. As she went past him smilingly, along onto the steps up ahead, he felt a wave of flutter in his heart and it ruffled his poise. He turned aside..a  bevy of thoughts flew past his mind..She had stirred his musings and cut a groove in his heart and the ethereal charm she oozed off was sinking into it.

Lost in himself amidst a stampede of thoughts, he was awakened to the ring of the bail that resounded in the air and echoed in his heart. He rushed up the stairs..the bell was still swinging, …on the floor, before the deity she saw her-squatting, Knees down and eyes closed and with a murmur on her lips. He stood behind, yards away..near a pillar that was festooned with flowers, perhaps for a ceremonial cause. A few seconds later, she stood up and on turn, for a moment, cast an indifferent glance at him as he stood demurely. But it was the spark that had lit up his dream. He kept looking at her, till she climbed down the stairs and leapt out of his sight. He came down slowly and ploddingly as a string of feelings of different hues was laced in the weft of his thought.

What is it..he thought, that filled his spirit with unbound joy?what is it that streamed into him waves of delight?What is it that opened his heart to the ocean of bliss? A few travellers passing by looked at him curiously as he stood dazed. The sun was  plunging down the horizons as the evening descended on the wings of darkness.

He returned home. The time was limping lazily through an overstretched night. And as it dawned he felt relieved..he became restless..Would it be possible, he thought for the event last evening to re-enact itself? With a drove of thoughts striking discordant notes, he rushed to the temple ignoring the call of his reason. On reaching there, he ran up to the sanctum. A painful silence was hovering over there..the bell  was still..the deity..the presiding Goddess of the city looked at him compassionately and with a motherly gaze. With folded hands, tears breaching the shores of his eyes, he kneeled down, imploring the Mother for her grace and the eternal presence of the princess in his life. He stood up and lighted up  an earthen lamp and offered it to the deity. He looked again at the mother and saw her eyes sparkling with divine compassion and love.

He returned back..a  few destitutes were asking for alms at the fringe of the steps..he gave away whatever he had .   A few yards away, across the road, a litter of pups were playing merrily with their mother..they all looked happy, content and at peace.

Time passed by..Visiting the temple almost became a second nature to him. A few days later, in course of time..he was offered the priesthood of the temple. Having a spiritual mind and a never ending quest for realization of truth, he accepted the offer. Since then for fourteen years, he has been here, at the service of the deity, ascending levels on his march towards the realization of truth and waiting for the descent of the final wisdom. Today he is unruffled, poised and calm..having come across tumultuous periods in his life. He now has an ennobled mind and the vision of the seer. The shenanigans of nature and her acts are no more cryptic, but lie exposed before his enlightened self. He came slowly out of the garden and climbed up the steps amidst a mystic silence.  Just this time, the monotonous silence was shattered by the toll of the temple bell. He stopped for a moment.. he was not expecting anybody to visit the temple  so early after the devastating tempest. He went ahead and entered the porch. From a distance, he saw a lady standing with her back to him, with a bowing head, with her hair swept up her necks and tied in a lock. She was offering her prayers to the deity.  He stood silently. A few moments after..she turned her face around..the light of the morning had still not dispel led the clump  of darkness inside. She was coming along to the place where he was standing..a   jet of light had  made things a little more visible there. As she reached near him and on lifting her head..both of their eyes met. She looked at him..and he at her. A hazy image flashed on his mind as he tried to demist through the cloudy layers of the past.  A strange feeling of joy overwhelmed him. He stood overawed.  The vibes linked him up to the event fourteen years back. It was she..the princess of her dream who had sown in his heart the seeds of love years back and which had grown to be a massive tree borne with fruits of wisdom. He came back to his sense..he saw her smiling and  she gestured with her eyes to make for her way. He turned aside.. and she moved on..Climbing down the steps. He kept watching her till she disappeared out of his sight, etching few more strokes on the image of the princess. Once again a pensive silence descended on him but it was peaceful and redemptive.  He walked up to the sanctum and looked at the deity. She was happy..looking as compassionate as ever, but a little more loving.  There was a garland flowing from over her necks, beautifully and carefully stringed and the fragrance had permeated in the air. He was not surprised. He bowed down before her. The sun had climbed a few steps up in the heaven. The temple was more lighted up now.