Age and Experience

The gnarled tree reaches out seeking the blessed light,

its limbs wizened and withered with its age unspoken,

and it can see in the next yard the next batch of young ones,

planted as harbingers of the future that looks more certain.

And yet each year, the tree gives up its fruit for the picking,

berries ripe red and in the early morning dew, glistening,

even as the new plants take root and rise proud and straight,

and soak up all the attention of the men like sponges swelling.

As they cluck regarding the fall in yield of the older trees,

the trees themselves stand and think of that they witnessed,

the whites as they came and went and the others that passed,

the traditions that had changed and the waves of cultures.

And wonder what is of greater value to the man that plants,

the quantity of berries they give out each year unfailingly,

or the legacy that each of them bore, the endless summers

and winters that like rings of honour that they each wore.

While the tree pondered on the reasons for his existence,

a sudden swich precedes the thwack of the blade that bites,

deep into its trunk and cuts it’s very life out, a dark scythe,

that puts a swift ruthless end to its proud existence in a trice.

The Firefly

A speck of wandering yellow paints a eye catching streak,

in the dark hued multi layered palette of the still night,

as the firefly wanders around in seemingly random patterns,

that whisper life into those minute patches that it touches.

A magic wand of winking light that travels freely where it wills,

that weaves a unique pattern that lights up the heavy heart,

pulling the rabbit of hope and joy out of the hat of abject despair,

leaving a lightness of mind that was not possible ‘ere it passed.

As it starts its unceasing routine each hot humid evening,

winking its way through each brush and bough tirelessly,

shining on like a beacon into the shadowy depths of the forest,

a mirage that is there one second and disappears the next.

A neon trail that paints your mind’s eye in psychedelic light,

a dotted line that seemingly connects your wandering thoughts,

a honey guide that leads a parched soul to a river of ambrosia,

the firefly unthinkingly winks its way into the depths of your soul.

Until finally the solitary seeking light is joined by another similar,

and a ballet of luminescence plays itself out on a dark stage,

as the firefly finds the mate that it untiringly shone its beacon for,

 shaming the cynicism that cloaks the life around this heliograph.

Return to Life

It is a frozen tableau that frames one’s vision, who dares,

a lake nestled within a protective circle of bristly trees,

it’s surface a cold layer of ice inches deep, still and opaque,

protecting the water beneath from prying unwanted eyes.

The ice holding all life in the lake within its embrace,

nurtured within its depths cold and still as the air outside,

the mist that rises from its surface in the break of dawn,

the only sign that it does exist below the cold armor.

The pine trees with their needles pricking any visitor,

while the tree in its dormancy waits out the winter cold,

the brambles’ thorns cutting deep into skin to deter advances,

as they try to make the lake an invincible impregnable fortress.

The milieu plays itself out as the winter runs its frigid course,

the bushes and trees gradually cloaked in the white of snow,

as the lake seeks to disappear and pretend not to even exist,

reclusive and withdrawn, almost antisocial, brooding in isolation.

Till one day the chickadee starts whistling in merry celebration,

heralding the onset of the warm winds of spring that bring life,

and healing to the bower, warming the ice out of its frozen veins,

thawing the snow till green peeks from underneath the white blanket.

The chain mail of ice develops a chink as the sun’s rays warm,

the cockles of the lake’s frozen heart and the weed rises timid,

venturing out into the first signs of the oncoming life of spring,

as the lake itself lets its waters venture out to breathe in life.

As the days pass, the blanket of white creeps back in sad defeat,

and the lake, emboldened by its successful return, returns to vigor,

clear and glistening in the sunshine that now bathes the bower,

bringing it back to the glorious abandon that its life is and should be.

The Tail Tales - Chapter 3 - The Valley of Flowers

Andy sat there for some time trying to figure out what had happened. He was a little dazed at what had happened and could not understand it at all. Ael remained standing by his side staring at the opening of the cave. The burst of flame had died down and all that remained was a thin spiral of smoke that rose up in the air over the opening. All other traces of the whole episode had vanished and Andy felt like he had dreamed it all. The hill side was curiously quiet in the morning sun which glowed yellow orange over the horizon.

They walked down the hill side to the plains where they had come from yesterday. As they came down, Andy saw what looked like a pathway leading off from the bottom of the hill. This pathway went in a completely different direction from the one that they had come from. In fact it seemed to lead around the hill, going back somewhere. The trail bent around the hill and then disappeared from sight. Andy was not sure whether to take this new pathway or retrace their steps back through the plain. He stood there undecided and tried to think of what he should do. In the meantime, Ael had continued walking ahead.

Suddenly she seemed to realise that Andy was no longer following her and turned to look for him. It was at that precise moment that her foot landed on a loose stone that rolled. And down she went in one rolling tumbling heap. Andy got woken up from his thoughts by her scream and saw her rolling down the hill. She came to rest at the bottom exactly at the place where the new pathway started. She sat up and shook her head as if trying to clear it. He ran down to where she was sitting and asked her if she was ok. She nodded her head without speaking, almost as if speaking was not possible at that moment.

He sat down besides her waiting for her to collect her breath. It was at that moment that his eye fell on the black stone. At first he thought that the stone that he had been carrying around had fallen out of his pocket. But as he put his hand into his pocket to check, he found that the stone was still there. The stone on the ground appeared to be another one just like the one he had, though a little larger. This was big enough that he could not carry it in his pocket. As he stared at it, the stone seemed to shake a little, almost like a vibration. And then, just as quickly as it had happened, the shaking stopped. Andy thought he must have been imagining it. He turned back to Ael to see that she was examining her foot which had a kind of gash on it just above the ankle. The metallic skin that had covered her leg had torn and so had the skin underneath.

Ael was running her hands over the metallic skin almost as if she was smoothening out a wrinkle in the fabric. As she did so, the skin seemed to heat up and glow. She continued the rubbing and slowly the glow from the metallic skin seemed to be working in some way on the gash in her leg. The glow seemed to transfer itself to the wound and slowly filled it up. She then stopped rubbing and the wound slowly started closing itself. As it healed, the skin expanded and closed the tear as well. In a couple of minutes, there was no trace of either the tear or the wound at all.

Andy had forgotten to close his mouth while he had been staring at Ael’s leg and now as she turned to him, his mouth still hung open in surprise. Ael asked him, “What are you staring at?” And he muttered “N-N-Nothing, just that your wound just healed by itself!” She said “So?” as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He took some time to understand and she helped by answering what seemed like twenty thousand questions that asked. It finally turned out that the metallic skin that she wore had a double use – it was for protection and healing. The skin was almost alive and transmitted healing radiations that accelerated healing processes till it was almost instantaneous.

After having taken his time to digest this information, Andy finally brought himself back to the present and the problem they were in. He left Ael sitting there and wandered down the pathway to some distance. He could see that the path was downward sloping, starting gently at first but when it turned around the side of the hill, quite sharply so. He stood and surveyed the way down and found that it was quite steep in places and then led off to a sheer drop where it disappeared into what appeared to be a cover of clouds, purple blue in colour. He could not see the end of the path. He assumed that the clouds were actually some sort of low level mist that was carpeting the ground. He turned and walked back to Ael. And found her examining the Black Stone. She turned it around and looked at it from all sides and then shook it. Almost in response to her shaking, the stone started vibrating in her hand. It shook hard enough for her to grow alarmed and drop it.

The stone continued to vibrate even after it fell on the ground – almost as if it were caught up in some kind of a tremor. The vibration intensified and as it did, it started emitting a curious yellowish red glow. The glow started in the centre; at the heart of the stone and radiated outwards. The vibration and the glow; both built up into some kind of a crescendo. As the glow seemed to consume the entire stone, the heart of the stone seemed to explode into a radiating shining ball. Within this ball, they could clearly see a creature of some sorts. It had a snout, a pair of fledgling wings and a tail with a pointed arrow end. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the whole thing came to an end. The vibration stopped and so did the glow and the stone returned to its smooth black shape. Ael stepped forward and tentatively touched the stone, expecting it to be hot. But the stone was cool to the touch.

Ael picked up the stone in one hand and with the other, unzipped some kind of a built in pouch on her metallic skin at her hip. She dropped the stone into it and the skin became whole again. The funny thing was that the stone did not show at all anymore – not even as a bulge in the metallic skin pocket or whatever it was. Andy stared at her hip where the stone had disappeared. Ael seemed unconcerned by all that happened and asked him “Now what?” Andy broke from his trance of staring at her hip and then asked her if she was able to walk. She replied “Of course. Where are we going?” Andy then led the way down the path, around the hill. They came to the spot where he had stopped earlier. By now the sun had climbed in the sky and with its light and warmth, had made a nice hole in the mist carpet that Andy had seen.

Only it was no mist carpet. It had indeed been a cloud cover and had been clinging to the side of the hill. Through the opening in the cloud cover, Andy saw that the pathway led quite a way down and that the “hill” they were on was actually some kind of a cliff that dropped off sharply into a valley below. Midway down the path, some kind of a stream cut across and then started running alongside the pathway. Andy looked at Ael and she said “Let’s go.” He started walking first and she followed. They descended down the pathway, walking down at first. Then as the slope started to become steeper, they sat down and climbed down using any kind of holds for their hands and legs. There were places where it was so sheer that they just had to slide down to the next landing spot. Ael almost missed her footing the first time they did this and came close to falling off. Andy grabbed hold of her hand and steadied her until she was stable enough to continue.

They clambered down like this until they arrived at the place where the stream crossed the path. Only, this was no stream. The water was quite fast and though the stream appeared shallow enough for them to walk, Andy was not sure if they would actually be able to cross it on foot without being swept away. As he stood there, Andy saw a big leaf, large enough for him to have sat on, coming down the stream. It bobbed and spun its way down the stream and soon vanished out of sight. He wondered for a moment at how such a large leaf could have existed. But the thought quickly vanished as he saw another leaf, even larger this time, coming down the stream. He called out to Ael and explained the idea to her. Both of them stood at the very edge of the water and waited. Andy hoped that this leaf would also come close to the bank on which they were standing. The leaf came down towards them, moved towards the opposite bank and then bounced off as the stream turned inwards and then came straight at them. Andy waited and at the last moment yelled “Jump.”

He and Ael jumped holding hands and they landed on the edge of the leaf. As Andy fought to regain his balance, the leaf started to spin around. The spinning motion pushed both of them inwards and they tumbled down into the centre of the leaf, landing in a heap. After separating themselves, they fought to regain their breath only to find that the leaf had now started moving faster down the stream. The drop was now almost completely vertical and the water was gaining a lot of speed. As they went through the first vertical drop, they almost fell out of the leaf which seemed to float in the air. At the last moment, they grabbed the edge of the leaf and held on for dear life.

The leaf landed in a pool of water and they got soaked in it. They just had time to pull themselves onto the leaf before it started its downward journey once again. There were seven such drops like this, each larger than the previous one. By then they had both got completely drenched, had swallowed quite a lot of water and were tired to the bone. They did not have time to look where they were at all during these drops. When they hit the last drop which was the largest one, Andy could no longer hold onto the leaf. As they fell, Ael still held on while Andy got separated from the leaf and went into free fall. He hit the water with a solid thwack that drove the wind from his lungs. As he went under the water, he started to lose consciousness.

Ael fell with the leaf and though she was jarred by the impact, she managed to stay afloat. She saw Andy landing in the water and waited for him to reappear. When he did not, she quickly jumped in to the water. She found the water surprisingly shallow. Andy was lying at the bottom of the pool. She grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him upwards. After getting him to the surface, she struck out towards the side of the pool. When she reached land, she found that lifting him was not that easy. She finally had to settle for pulling him half out of the water. Then she put her hands on his chest and pushed down once, twice. The second time around, Andy woke up sputtering and spitting out water. After a prolonged bout of coughing, he settled down and started breathing normally.

He realised that Ael had rescued him and muttered weakly “Thanks.” She simply smiled in reply. He closed his eyes and lay there for a while, getting his strength back. Ael, in the meantime, started looking around. She found that they were at the bottom of the cliff. The pool was in the middle of a clearing and the water in it was sparkling clear. She drew up a handful and tasted it to find that it was surprisingly tasteless. The sand on which Andy lay was whitish and crystalline. It sparkled in the sun glinting like a million small diamonds strewn around. She walked away from the water and found that the sand grew less and less grainy as she got closer to the shrubbery. It also seemed to change into an orange brown colour. The shrubbery itself was dense and the leaves shaped like hearts, light green in colour, almost transparent. She pushed the leaves aside to find that more of the same was behind it. The shrubbery was so dense that she could not pass through it. She decided to go back to where Andy lay.

Andy had recovered by then and was looking around too. He stood up and found that the shrubbery was taller than he was and that he could not see beyond it. He looked around for something to cut down the leaves with but could find nothing that would help. As he searched, Ael came back. She asked him “Have you lost something?” He said “No, I am looking for something to cut the leaves with so that we can go through them.” Ael then unzipped the pouch at her hip and pulled out what seemed to be a flat knife of medium length. Andy was once more surprised that the pocket could have held something like that without it being seen from outside. Ael noticed his surprised stare and asked him “Is there something wrong with my hip?” Andy answered “What kind of a pocket is that? It seems to be like a magician’s hat. Only you are pulling out or putting things and not rabbits.” Ael looked puzzled by what he had said and asked him what a magician or a rabbit was. Andy found after trying several times that he could not explain either of the words and tried to ask her instead as to how things that went into her pocket disappeared.

Ael replied that her pocket was really a small warp in space into which she was putting things. The things she put into the pocket actually were moved to a separate dimension and were stored there and she could retrieve them when she wanted. Andy replied “Cool!” To which Ael said “It does not have any temperature.” Andy explained to her that “cool” was an expression used to express admiration or praise. She seemed to understand. Andy then took the knife from her and started hacking at the shrubs. In a little time, he had almost completely made his way through the shrubs. He found that he could see through the last layer of leaves and that there seemed to be nothing on the other side. That is, he could not see anything particular except open space.

He hacked through the last layer and stepped forward only to find that his foot landed in empty space. He lost his balance and fell forward, rolling down a small slope. Ael met with a similar fate since she was following him close behind. They both rolled down a little distance and came to rest in what seemed like grass. Andy got up and dusted himself. He had got enough of rolling and falling for a long time and swore to be more careful from now on. He looked around and found that they were now at the bottom. He could see for what appeared to be miles. All around, there seemed to be plants with all sorts of flowers on them – flowers of many different shapes and colours. He could see the ones that were close distinctly. But as he lifted his head, the flowers appeared as though they were a carpet of multiple colours that kept merging into one another at intervals. The effect was quite dizzying and his head spun. He put out a hand to steady himself. And found Ael standing next to him. She did not seem to get affected by the colour and seemed to be quite comfortable looking at the coloured carpet around them. Andy shut his eyes and counted to ten. He opened them and found that he could now see the colours without getting affected. The trick was to look at them but not too hard.

As he stood there, Andy became aware of a peculiar smell. It reminded him of some medicinal herbs that his grandmother had used once when he had a bad stomach. The taste had nearly killed him. The same medicinal smell seemed to come from the plants around him. He felt suddenly nauseous and giddy once again. He ran back into the shrubbery and to the pool and drank some of the water. It helped clear his head and he then went back. He found that Ael was on her knees examining a greenish red flower. He shielded his eyes and tried to look at whether there was something beyond the flowers but could not make out anything.

Ael was fascinated by the flower that she held. The petals seemed to be having a life of their own, moving independently from the flower. This created a unique wavy motion that was almost hypnotic. She then noticed that the centre of the flower which was red in colour was somehow receding and exposing a hollow core in the flower. As she watched, the hollow core became fully exposed and seemed to be leading all the way down the flower into the plant. She leaned forward to have a better look when something small but sharp flew out of the hollow and struck her in the cheek. She felt an intense pain at the spot where she had got hit and a burning sensation that seemed to be spreading from her cheek to her entire face. Along with the burning sensation, a feeling of numbness followed. The sensation spread from her face to her arms and then her upper body. She found that she could no longer stand and fell forward onto the ground. As she lay there, she discovered that all her senses were perfectly intact but she could not use any of the muscles in her body – she could not blink, she could not open her mouth or speak, she could not lift even her little finger. 

The Tail Tales - Chapter 2 - The Cave of Flames

Andy nodded off again. When he woke up, it was almost dusk, the sky an orange yellow hue with ink blackness spreading from the other side. The yellow berries had taken on a golden orange colour and now looked even more attractive. He realised with a start that he was very hungry. A loud rumble from his stomach supported his point of view. He remembered his dad telling him about berries and their colours. He decided that the berries did not look poisonous after all. As he moved to stand up, he suddenly noticed that the girl was not there. He realised that he still did not know her name and had no clue how to call for her. He decided to play it safe and yelled ‘Heeeyyyyy’. The cry echoed back in waves and he realised that shouting like that was not a safe thing to do when you are running away from a creature that resembled a dragon.

But the cry had its effect. Over the crop of a hill some distance away he saw a metallic shape topped up with a red shock of hair. It was her. For some reason Andy felt a little relieved not to be alone out here. She came closer and he saw that she was carrying some tender green shoots like onion stalks. She dropped them on the grass and then proceeded to separate out the stalks from the roots. He asked her what they were and she replied that they were some kind of a juicy stem but a little pungent. He took one up and smelt it. The smell was slightly tangy and somehow earthy. A little bit of dust got into Andy’s nose and he sneezed, a loud noise that startled her. After that, he went into a long sneezing fit, bad enough for tears to start streaming down his cheeks. He simply could not stop himself. Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind and his nostrils and mouth tightly clamped by arms encased in metallic skin. She was trying to kill him!

Andy struggled to free himself but it was to no end. Finally, he gave up and subsided and she then released him. He immediately scooted away to the other side of the tree, ready to run if she attacked him once again. But he stopped short when he saw her laughing silently. He asked ‘Was killing me that funny?’ She shook her head and said ‘Look what has happened to your sneezes now!’ He realised that in all his struggling, the hold that she had applied had somehow stopped his sneezing completely. He muttered ‘Thanks’ and went to help her with the stalks. They made a meal of the stalks and some of the berries. They had no water but the juice from the berries helped.

When they finished, the sky was almost completely dark and visibility had dropped to a very low level. Beyond some distance, they could only make out hazy shapes. Andy suggested that they look for some cover for the night. The girl agreed and suggested that they make for the hills where they might find some caves. They walked quickly in the direction of the hills. As they reached the foot of the hills, Andy saw some distance away, higher up on the hill, a dark opening. He pointed it out and they both ran for it. As they reached the entrance however, Andy felt a slight tremor – the hill appeared to be trembling. This was accompanied by a rumbling noise that seemed to come from the opening. The noise appeared to be coming from something very deep inside the hill.

Andy stopped short and put his hand out for the girl to stop. They advanced cautiously towards the entrance. The rumbling suddenly stopped as did the tremors. Andy felt that they should probably find another place to hide out. But it was already very dark and the chances of being caught out in the open in the darkness appeared high. So he decided to enter the cave. The girl followed close behind. The entrance to the cave was tall enough for about 10 full grown men. After the entrance, the cave seemed to grow larger. The floor seemed to slope down into the heart of the hill while the roof rose upwards along the hill’s slope. Curiously, the inside of the cave seemed to be made of a dark rock with streaks of white.

Suddenly Andy realised that he could see inside the cave when in fact he should not have been able to. There seemed to be a curious bluish coloured light coming off the walls with the dark rocks. The light was strong enough to light up the inside of the cave very well. The deeper they went however, the light seemed to fade. After wandering some distance into the cave, Andy saw a curious set of marks – like paw marks – only these were big enough for him to stand in and then have some space to move around in. One set of these were about 10 feet apart and another larger set were about 20 feet apart. He would have missed the second set except that at one point the cave curved towards the right and he came across one of these larger paw marks closer to the wall. In between these two sets of paw marks, there was a wavy mark of something having dragged on the floor – like a snake – only much larger.

Alarm bells went off in Andy’s head. He searched for a place to hide inside the cave. The girl first caught sight of the small alcove next to the turn in the cave. It had been formed by a partial rock fall and now offered a small cubby hole walled off by the rocks. The entrance and exit was through  a small opening near the base of the rock fall. The rocks inside did not glow and so were dark, giving the advantage of shadow. Both of them squeezed inside. It was a slightly narrow space and they were both squeezed up. But this seemed infinitely better than the deeper portion of the cave or the plains outside.

As they settled in, the rumbling and tremors started once again. The rumbling seemed to be coming from somewhere behind them and the walls were shaking with the noise. The rumble seemed to increase in intensity and loudness. Andy found his hand being grabbed by the girl and squeezed in a painful grip. He looked at her and in the gloom; her green eyes were swimming with panic. He put his hand over hers and they held on like that for what seemed like forever. Finally the rumble died down and so did the echoes. The girl hesitantly removed her grip and whispered something to him. Andy did not understand and said ‘What?’ She repeated the words but he still could not make out. He bent his head to listen closer just as she tried to come closer to him. The result was a loud knock as their heads banged together. Both of them yelled out in pain and their yells got magnified and echoed through the cave.

Andy motioned for the girl to be quiet. They waited to see if someone or something had heard them. Suddenly, there was a whoosh much like air escaping from a large balloon. The gust swept past their alcove. It was warm and almost hot. The air also smelled very foul. The girl started to say something when suddenly a sound like a bellow came from inside the cave and suddenly a great wave of fire shot through the cave lighting up everything around. This was followed by another longer burst which set fire to anything flammable inside the cave. Since they were protected by the rockfall, Andy and the girl escaped the brunt of the flame. But Andy put his hand on the rock in front of him and found that it was hot to touch.

They drew back inside the alcove and waited. Nothing further happened, there was no more noise or fire. Andy looked at the girl and found that she was exhausted. He decided to let her sleep while he watched and told her to make herself as comfortable as she could. As her eyelids drooped, Andy once again remembered that he did not know her name and asked her. She sleepily muttered that her name was Aelia and that she was called Ael for short. With that the conversation died down and she slept. Andy kept watching the cave for any signs of movement. In some time, Andy’s own tiredness caught up with him and he nodded off.

What he had not realised was that the black stone had fallen out of his pocket and lay on the ground at the entrance to the alcove. And with the noise and the gusts of fire, the stone had started glowing, unseen by both Andy and Ael. A reddish orange glow seemed to be coming out of the stone mixed with flashes of yellow. Amidst the flashes could clearly be seen some kind of a tail that whipped around inside the stone. At one stage, a small snout became clearly visible next to the surface but quickly disappeared. As the noise and fire died down, so did the stone. It went back to being the smooth black that it had been and lay there waiting.

Andy woke up with a start suddenly and realised that he must have slept the night away. Ael was still fast asleep, curled into a tight little ball next to him. It was now daylight outside and it had lit up the inside of the cave as well. In the light, Andy suddenly saw that the dark rocks on the walls of the cave were actually crystals of some sort and the white streaks appeared to be some kind of silvery metal. He remembered reading about phosphorescence in school and thought that the crystals were in some way absorbing the light and emitting it slowly. He slowly came out of the alcove. As he started walking, his foot struck the black stone which had fallen out of his pocket and it went bouncing ahead of him deeper into the cave. He decided to follow it, somehow gathering more strength from the daylight than he could find at night. There had been no noise or tremors at all after the flames came and he thought it would be a good time to explore.

He found the black stone ahead on the path, picked it up and put it back in his pocket. It felt warm to his touch but he assumed that it must have got heated up by the flames in the night. He then walked deeper into the cave cautiously. The floor continued to slope to his right and down into the earth. He continued to walk into the cave for the next 10 – 15 minutes. As he walked in, the air inside the cave started smelling stale and musty. The daylight which had helped him get his courage back; started failing with the depth and the curvature of the cave walls. Finally, he came to a point where the floor seemed to almost drop off like the edge of a cliff. He could not make out much in the gloom. He looked as hard as he could but could not make out what was below or see the bottom of the fall.

Andy looked around for a stone and found a small one which he then threw down. He knelt down at the edge of the drop and waited to listen to the sound of the rock hitting the bottom. The sound never came. Instead, after a couple of minutes, a sound of it hitting something soft but solid came. As Andy peered into the blackness below, he suddenly saw a large yellow gold light open up. It was an eye of some sorts and was far below him. But the sheer size of the eye was enough to leave him shaking in fear. He stood up and ran all the way back down the cave. Reaching the alcove, he shook Ael awake and pulled her out. He ran out of the cave and she stumbled behind him still half asleep. As they exited the cave, the tremors and the rumbling of the previous night started. This time, the noise was much louder almost as if whoever was making the noise was somehow angry.

Andy did not stop to look back and ran down the hill with Ael. As they reached the bottom, the noise reached a peak and a bellow sounded. With this, a huge burst of flame came out of the mouth of the cave. The flame shot high in the air and then rolled back into the cave leaving a trail of black smoke behind it. Andy sank to the ground as his legs were trembling with the effort. Ael was now wide awake and stood open mouthed watching the cave in wonder.  

The Tail Tales - Chapter 1 - The Stone and The Gateway

It all started with the stone.

Andy was walking home from school, his uniform dirty after the fight with the boy who had teased him about his father running the old corner shop. His hair was all out of place with the pulling and his shirt half out of the trouser where it had been tucked in. His tie had curiously remained intact in all the proceedings. He was angry at his face having been rubbed in the dirt by the boy.  He took out his anger by kicking at anything available.

It was then that he noticed the smooth oval jet black stone lying on the side of the road. It was almost magnetic, drawing his scuffed shoes forward until he was within kicking range. And then there was a satisfying thwack as his shoe connected with the stone. The stone then sailed through the air, spinning on end like a rock in outer space. Only this time, it suddenly disappeared like into a black hole. The stone was there one moment, spinning and hanging in mid air, moving like a smoothly sailing Frisbee. And in the twinkle of an eye, it was gone. Disappeared, vanished into thin air.

There was a small ripple in the air where the stone had been before it disappeared like when he had thrown a stone into the lake. He stood with his mouth open, waiting for something to happen. A few moments passed like that and then a surprised “Ow” came from the very same spot where the stone disappeared. Then a surprised and shocked girlish voice said “Who was that?” And then to his even bigger surprise, the stone reappeared and this time, it was moving in the opposite direction – towards him. He was too surprised to move and the stone struck his shin. Now his “Ow” and his one legged dance while he hopped about rubbing his shin added to the activity. The stone now lay still; quiet and unmoving.

He yelled into space “Who is that throwing stones at me?” And then he almost jumped out of his skin when a voice very close by said “And who threw the stone first?” It was the same girlish voice and he realized that he had walked closer to the spot where the stone had disappeared. He stopped rubbing his shin and walked closer to “the spot” as he had begun to refer to it in his head. It was nothing – just a point in the air about a foot off the ground. As he stood and stared into what seemed to be nothing, there was a slight shimmer in the air, a gentle wave much like the one before. Curious, he extended a finger nervously. As his finger reached the exact spot, it seemed to disappear, almost as if there was some surface into which it had moved. But he still could not see anything. No, that was wrong; he could see everything on the other side of the spot except his finger. It was strangely cut off in mid air.

Suddenly, the voice came again, “Stop with the pointing or I will cut your finger off”. He hastily withdrew his finger, looking at it just in case. He remained silent, thinking about what he could do next to find out what this “spot” was when the voice returned “Oi?” He responded with what he hoped was a polite “Ya?” especially after having thrown a stone at the girl in question. “I cannot see you” the voice said. “Where exactly are you hiding?” it asked. In answer, he put his hand forward into the spot and waved it in a greeting. A sharp slap on his arm and a stinging pain made him draw it back suddenly and he asked “What was that for?” The voice responded “I told you not to point.” And then there appeared a leg through the spot. It was thin and long like legs usually were. But what was unusual was that the leg was clothed in some kind of a metallic skin. He thought it was skin because it stuck to every dent and curve in the leg. More of the leg followed and then a hip followed by the top half of the body, still clothed in the metallic skin and then a pointed nose, sharp and upturned followed by a strong chin and a shocking mop of red hair and the greenest eyes he had ever seen.

Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, Scotland

The eyes gave him a thorough look and flashed disapprovingly at his condition. This made him angry and he asked “Who might you be?” She replied, “You first.” A warning bell went off somewhere in his head though he could not understand why. He told her his name, Andrew, Andy for short and that he came from Kirkmichael. “Where is that?” was the response. He was puzzled and said “You are standing there.” The green eyes looked confused and for a moment, her proud manner slipped as she looked around in mild alarm. He realized that she had no clue of where she was. She took a few hesitant steps in one direction and then another and then stood still fighting in her mind with the fact that she was lost.

She headed back to where she had come from. The air about the spot shimmered now like in a heat haze. She stepped into it and disappeared from view. He could hear steps on the other side of whatever it was. And then her voice called out in alarm “This is not my home.” He did not know what that meant and waited for more of an explanation. It came shortly. “Can you help me? I am not sure where I am any more. This is not where I came from” she said. He decided to help more out of curiosity than anything else. He decided to leave his bag behind and hid it behind a bush on the side of the road.

As he walked back, his shoe struck the black stone that had started it all. He picked it up, put it into his trouser pocket and walked towards the spot. He slowly put his hand inside to make sure there were no surprises this time. And he had to follow his hand in a hurry as it was gripped and pulled quite rudely from the other side. He bumped into the girl and landed on her. They both went down in a heap on what appeared to be sand. He got the sand in his mouth and nose while trying to get back to an upright position. He finally managed to stand up, dusting himself and spitting out the sand furiously.

She was doing the same thing and after they finally got over with dusting, he looked around and found that they were on the shore of what appeared to be an ocean. Except this ocean had yellowish green water where it met the black sand that they were standing on. The orange red sun cast a peculiar glow on the water and the combined effect of this was like a normal sketch that had got colored by a five year old – unreal at best. But there he was in this world of unreal colors and so was she at his side, equally puzzled. He decided that the best action would be to go back to where he was and made for the gateway. She followed him. They both went through the gateway and then the whole thing became crazy.

They found themselves staring at what appeared to be a huge pair of eyes, yellow gold in color and a sloping brown nose below it almost like a snout leading to a pair of large holes that resembled nostrils below which was a wide gaping slash of a mouth decorated with jagged teeth that were extremely large. Andy and the girl jumped back in alarm and the eyes turned to them, narrowing as they focused. The head seemed to take a long time to turn around and follow the eyes. The nostrils widened as the creature smelt them and then the mouth started opening as it decided that they were good enough to eat.

The head came forward slowly towards them and the mouth started looking like a football stadium in size. Andy did what came naturally and ran the other way. The girl followed close behind. The creature’s mouth clashed closed over empty space and it roared in frustration. The roar was like a volcano wakening from a long sleep – angry and very, very loud. The head swung around again exactly as Andy looked back and he almost froze in shock. He saw that the creature was almost as tall as a sky scraper and if he did not know better, resembled pictures of dragons he had seen in some books. The creature decided to chase its snack and followed them. He realized that they could never outrun it and looked around for another way of escape as they kept running.

He saw a small cave like opening next to a rock screened by a bush and ran towards it. He looked back to ensure that the girl was following and found that she had been slow to react to the change in direction and was struggling. He ran back and grabbed her hand, almost dragging her into the rocky opening. It was a small depression in the middle of some rocks but it was too small for the creature to reach them. The creature reached the cave and tried to nudge the rocks aside with its snout but they were part of a larger rock face buried under the sand and so did not budge. It grew frustrated at its attempts and finally drew in a deep breath. Something warned Andy to react and he pulled her deep into the cave running inside. The creature let go a snort and a burst of flames. The flames blackened the opening to the cave and reached inside till some distance but they had gone deep inside by then.

The creature seemed to have been satisfied with its effort at roasting them and now turned away. They cautiously went forward and saw a long scaly arrow tipped tail swishing behind it as it smashed its way through brush and trees. The impression that he had just seen a dragon grew stronger by the minute. But how could that be? Dragons belonged in books and were mythical creatures that did not exist. Yet somehow, here he was, having faced a living, fire breathing dragon. They cautiously made their way out of the cave to look around and saw that they were on a meadow of some sorts, stretching as far as the eye could see on one side and bordered by a steep mountain rising on the other. He realized that in all the excitement, they had simply run away from the gateway through which they had come and now had no clue where it was or how to go back to where they had come from. 

The same thought must have hit the girl as she asked him “What do we do now?” He had no ready answer and suggested that they walk the way they had come and that maybe they would find the gateway. They began walking quickly at first and then struggled their way through dense brush that pulled at them and slowed down their progress. They soon realized that there were no landmarks or signs to indicate where they had come from and that for all they knew, they were heading in the completely opposite direction. They decided to rest under a tree, large and leafy with some yellow green berries. He remembered his father telling him that colored berries were usually poisonous and decided to resist the temptation though his stomach growled at him.

He leaned against the tree and sat down trying to think of what to do. He woke up with a start and realized that he must have nodded off. He looked around and found that the girl was curled up in exhaustion, fast asleep. He realized that he did not even know her name yet or where she came from. Then the same warmth that woke him up made itself felt again. It seemed to come from his pocket. He put his hand in and felt the smooth black stone now warm to the touch. It seemed to grow warmer as he held it. He took it out of his pocket and as he was looking, saw a flash of light inside the stone. He almost dropped it in alarm, catching it by sheer reflexes. The flash happened yet again and he could swear that he saw the shadow of an arrow shaped tail inside the stone. As quickly as it had happened, the flash died down and the stone was once again cool to his touch. He caught himself thinking that he had imagined the whole thing from start to end and shook his head at his own stupidity as he returned the stone to his pocket.

A Walk in The Rain

I took a long walk in the gentle rain today,

and let it wash and scatter my worries away,

the light shower dampening my dry skin,

leaving me curiously empty and light within.

The dark clouds drawing on those of my own,

their depths rippling, a pond when a stone thrown,

the gentle shower a balm that comforts and soothes,

the frown that creases my brow that it slowly smooths.

I raise my face to the moist breeze and the load,

it carries as my weary feet carry me down this road,

laden with the drops that fall when I raise my head,

and leave all my cares behind with each tread.

Are the very heavens weeping in my stead,

so that any unbidden tears I do not ever shed,

careworn and weary though I might sometimes feel,
resolute I must be, standing by my path, my ideal.

The Bubble

Happiness is this bubble that we keep chasing,

like a kid who has found something amazing,

the sunlight glinting off its surface does beckon,

                        as we run behind it single minded and in abandon,

                        and suddenly this gust of wind pushes it past,

                        our outstretched finger tips that reach out to grasp,

                        this bubble that holds us completely in thrall,

                        for in it lies the elusive key to the mystery of it all.

                        And lately there is this feeling that the naughty wind,

                        has been blowing the bubble further as it skimmed,

                        away on a gust that bounces it dangerously close,

                        to this bouquet of thorns that adorn the solitary rose,

                        that draws the bubble in like a doomed moth to a flame,

                        and seeks to impale it in a semblance of a cruel game,

                        in which there is only one victor to whom the spoils go,

                        the rose that stands proudly next to the thorns that grow. 

The Afternoon Shower

I finally found why this afternoon rain

came around gusty and strong again

bringing blessed relief from the shroud

brought on by the dark oppressive cloud

it just gave a touch to this beautiful bower

a wet freshness brought on by the shower

Two Halves of a Whole - Part II

Mumbai, the city that makes a person feel the loneliest in a crowd. The small town boy had arrived in the city, had an argument with a local taxi wallah and finally had found his way to the stay set up by his company. He made his way to an apartment which he shared with 3 other freshmen. At first he maintained his distance from them but gradually warmed up to their company though not completely a part of their “gang”. At work, he was almost maniacal, driven to an extreme extent that almost scared his peers. His superiors were quick to notice the spark that set fire to the tinder box and fanned it with their words of praise and recognition.

He had remained moody and gruff through the early days still smarting from what had happened back in his town, her face had still been haunting him with her desolate, lost look. But as time had passed, the memory morphed into a faded image much like the yellowed dog-eared black and white photograph of his grandparents. His immersion into work had helped cauterize the raw edges of his emotion and helped the scars form. His work schedule had taken up a disproportionate amount of his time as he had thrown himself headlong off the cliff of his normal life in the jungle that was and had joined the rat race in almost a feeding frenzy.

At first the people had disturbed him with their blank unseeing looks, seeming apathy and the noise that was all around. He had gotten used to it over time, returning the blank uninterested looks with his own, bumping and nudging while being bumped and nudged, being enveloped in a warm cocoon of the noise all around, a hubbub that signified life itself in that city. He had grown the like the feeling of semi detachment that became the trademark of the city person. Women had been the other shock, their dress sense and their frank forthright behavior took some getting used to. He had still been the shy guy from the small town and never really got to grips with this part of the city. Men and women there were like ships crossing each other in the ocean of humanity, some bumping into each other for a while and then moving on. His looks had drawn some stares and his shy smile had gotten a few conversations started. He had gone steady with a girl for about a year and a half and then broke up. Spent another half year as a single guy and then found another girl again.

His work had gotten him noticed and in about three years, he had been offered a job with another firm that involved extensive travel – both overseas and in the country. His visits had taken up too much time away from base and he had become a corporate nomad wandering the sands of various clients trying to tie up as much revenue as he could within the shortest span of time. This had left little if any time for a personal life and he had pretty much an on/off girlfriend that he sometimes met on the weekends, sometimes preferring the solitude of a walk to a nearby hill than any company.

While he had been busy building the foundations of his career, she had not been exactly idle either. His sudden departure without a word and the rebuff of her gesture had numbed her to the point of becoming a social recluse. Her boyfriend had been unsympathetic, not understanding the boiling cauldron of her emotions and her confusion, and moved onto other more willing pastures. She had painstakingly rebuilt her life inch by inch, day by day, seeking desperate comfort in the routines that she laid out for herself in school and afterwards. She turned to her studies much the same way that he had buried himself in work. Finding it to be an easy victory, she had gone onto to excel beyond expectations of teachers or her parents.

College had come and she had chosen to go with engineering much to the surprise of her mother who had assumed that she would choose a creative outlet for expression. She had chosen a college in Delhi. Her initial experiences had been similar to his with the added disgust of the way men treated girls and women in the city. Her experiences had turned her stomach and had made her very wary of men in general, seeking the comfort of a few of her college mates. One of them, an open faced nice kid had charmed his way past her wall of defense and soon they were going steady. However, she let nothing get in the way of her academics, continuing her pursuit with a single minded dedication.

This saga continued, two trains that were hurtling down parallel tracks completely oblivious of each other. Tracks that were ever so slightly but surely converging,  but neither of them conscious of the move.

Mumbai. Six years later. He was sitting with his on and off girlfriend at a café one Sunday evening near the beach sipping on a coffee. Suddenly he saw her, or thought he saw her. The same gait, the same curve of the face as it was turned away from him. She was with a group and was laughing at something, her unique wild laugh came to him across the street. He almost got out of his chair in a flash, his girlfriend’s peeved voice holding him back. He was distracted for the rest of the evening adding to his girlfriend’s annoyance. He dropped her off, silent and withdrawn, her pointed remarks hardly drawing a response from him. He drove to his apartment in silence and found himself remembering more than ever the past that he had almost put behind him. Those dark eyes seemed to have returned to haunt him again. He spent a sleepless night waking up to her voice in his head several times over.

He went back to the café several times after that but could not see her again. He put the episode down to a misplaced sense of nostalgia that had made him see things. Why it should have happened now after so many years, a little voice in his head asked him with no answer. But he threw himself back into his work schedule with a vengeance and in a few days, had no time or energy to think of the episode, which was what he had started calling the incident in his head. Somehow after the incident, he could not face his girlfriend at all and kept putting off meeting her on one pretext or the other.

He fell back to his normal routine, including his calls home. He had not mentioned the little episode to his parents at all except that the particular phone call was very curt and had worried his parents no end. Shortly thereafter, he had returned to his normal self and his parents had put it down to a bad day at work. Life went back to normal, well almost, except for the fact that his dreams were strangely filled with a pair of dark accusing eyes.

Then one day he got a surprise call at work from home. His mother was on the phone, strangely tense and worried. She mentioned that “aunty” wanted to speak to him. “Aunty” came on the line and spoke in halting teary tones. She told him that there had been no news from her daughter for over a week now and that she had not been answering her phone. He tried to calm her down and between questions and placations learnt that the owner of the dark accusing eyes was in Mumbai, had been in Mumbai for the last 6 months. He noted down her address and promised to check on her immediately and call back.

He left office in a hurry, a strange flutter in the pit of his stomach, a churn that had nothing to do with a simple worry for an acquaintance or a friend. He swore at traffic, unusually agitated and bad tempered; a bear with a thorn in its paw, only it did not know that the thorn was there. He finally reached the address that he had noted down. It was an apartment complex downtown, a few kilometers from where he lived. He asked the watchman only to find that there were three girls living in the apartment and that the watchman did not know who he was referring to and would not let him in unless one of the tenants was willing to admit him in. On further questioning he learnt that none of the tenants were in currently and that they would return in the evening only.

He decided to stay where he was and called home to tell them that he had come to the apartment and that the watchman did not report anything unusual and therefore there was unlikely to be a problem. His mother told him to stay where he was and to call back as soon as he met with her. It was an unnecessary piece of advice since he had decided the same anyway. He made himself comfortable in a tea shop a little down the road and amidst several watered down bitter coffees that laced the back of his throat with a grimy aftertaste, he thought back to his events of the day. Apart from the phone call and the happenings after, he could remember nothing else. He was filled with a curious anticipation and every time an autorickshaw or a car entered the apartment, he would go over and check with the guard at the gate.

As he approached the apartment, the guard told him that one of the girls had just come in. He made the phone call to the apartment only to be told that the girl in question was not yet in. He decided to wait outside once again. Another of the girls returned with the same results. His stomach was now growling and he decided to subject it to some more coffee for now. He finally parked his car near the guard and sat inside listening to some inane song on the radio. Finally at about 11 PM, an autorickshaw stopped at the gate and the subject of his enquiry stepped out lugging a big suitcase, almost stumbling under the load. She paid off the auto driver and then tottered with the suitcase. The guard was fast asleep and of no use. He stepped out of the car and locked it. The noise startled her and she turned around, not quite able to make out his identity in the darkness. He finally stepped into the pool of light thrown by the lamp and stopped. Her eyes widened in alarm first and then recognition.

Without a word, he stepped forward and took the suitcase from her hand and she mutely let him. Pushing open the gate, he made way for her to walk ahead of him. In the lift and all the way to her door, they did not say a word. She opened the door to the apartment and let him in. They stepped into a central living room which led off into three apparent bedrooms, a balcony and a kitchen. All the bedrooms were shut. She stood there in the middle of the living room, her dark eyes assuming the same calmness that he had been seeing all his life, as if it was natural that he was here in her apartment at this time and like this and what happened next was the most natural thing in the world too.

He turned and put down the luggage in a corner and when he turned back, he walked into her hug. It was almost as if he had come full circle from the last time she had hugged him like this. An eternity ago it seemed, another lifetime with another two people that they had been. And he had then resisted an impulse that he regretted then and continued to regret many times over since. His arms rose of their own accord and hugged her close, feeling her warmth and smelling her citrusy tangy essence that was unique to her. They stayed that way for several moments until a sudden noise from one of the rooms made them step apart. An uneasy silence prevailed broken by her roommate who was surprised on finding male company, embarrassed to be seen in her night clothes and retreated with a curse and exclamation. This caused both of them to burst out laughing, the laugh breaking what had become a strained and stretched moment between them.

The laugh did what nothing else could have. It rolled back several years to when they had shared similar gusts of laughter, hers wild and carefree, his more restrained and toned. He helped her put the suitcase in her room, noting that the room was quite bare as if she had recently moved in and was living out of a suitcase. He stopped at her dresser and was surprised to see a snap of his as a kid next to her clock. He turned around to find her looking at him expectantly waiting for him to say something. He did not rise up to the occasion this time. Walking into the hall, he waited for her and when she came back to the room, he told her all about the phone call and the lack of response. She had apparently lost her phone on the trip and filed a complaint. She had planned to replace the phone and activate the number on return. He made the call home and she talked at length to her mother. Finally his mother took charge and asked him to keep an eye on the “little girl”.

After the phone call, the uneasiness returned and he decided to leave as she would be tired. Making an excuse about having an early meeting the next morning, he made to leave when she stopped him and asked him if he wanted to take a walk. He found himself agreeing and they walked out into the garden where they strolled. A sudden cascade of words came, a long pending eruption as she narrated the events since he had left and brought him to speed. He was always never good at this and she had to push and prod him to reveal his trail of events. Having been updated on each other’s lives, they sat down on a bench in the garden and just looked at the moon, a throwback to similar nights that they had spent as kids. Her hand crept into his almost as naturally as it had those nights many years ago. They sat there in comfortable silence holding each other’s hands.

Finally her tiredness caught up and a series of jaw breaking yawns later, he was saying goodbye to her at her door, her hand still in his, somehow, the connection too strong to break. Finally, he led her in to her room and then let himself out after locking it. He found himself smiling on the drive back, strangely at peace, a sense of home coming, a return to a place long lost. He slept well that night though for a short while. Waking up, his first thought was that he did not have her number and so could not contact her. He started early in office to make up for his early exit the day before and before long found himself doodling a pair of dark doe eyes on the page. At the end of the day, an end which he seemed to have been looking forward to in fifteen minute intervals, he was driving back home when he suddenly decided to swing by her place.

The guard waved him in with the familiarity of the hours he had spent the previous day and as he knocked on the door, the smile returned unbidden. The smile was rudely wiped off when a man opened the door. On asking he was let in and the man walked into her room and she returned shortly thereafter. She stopped short on seeing him, stunned disbelief and something resembling embarrassment on her face. He was studiedly neutral and detached in his manner and asked if she was ok so that he could call home. He left quickly and drove back in a tearing hurry. He called his girlfriend and went out to dinner, almost to spite the memory that lashed him.

He actually could not face the fact that he was insanely jealous of the man who was with her. After all, what had he expected? For her to stage a sit down wait for him while he did what he wanted? Even as he fought to explain his sense of betrayal, his rational thinking sought to justify what had happened. Finally he was left with a curious mix of tragic loss and sheepishness at his own behavior. His girlfriend was getting upset at the fact that he was virtually not there though physically sitting opposite her. A bitter argument ensued and he drove her back in a strained silence. He drove back home feeling completely drained and numb. As he drove into his apartment, he saw her sitting near the gate waiting for him.

He stopped and opened the car door to let her in. Reversing, he drove out of the apartment, considering it safer to be out in the open rather than be with her in a closed space. All his rationalization and pragmatism seemed to have evaporated now that he was with her. The black head of jealousy reared again, striking deeply and viciously. His anger burst its limits and boiled over as he struggled to maintain control on his emotions. All his good intentions had seemingly evaporated like the morning dew in the face of the rising sun. Words turned vicious tarred by the black jealousy. And he could barely bite back the irrational references to the man in her life rather than her being like the way she was.

She could sense the turmoil in him and her calm dark eyes seemed to understand. Her hand crept into his once again and he could feel his anger seeping away, seemingly absorbed by the sponge that was her. He drew her warmth like a cold man drinking in sunshine. He calmed down. He started to apologise for his behavior when she stopped him. She started telling him about the initial days when she had come to Mumbai and how he had gone out of his way to make her feel normal and had been there for her at every twist and every turn. She said that she was not sure about whether she loved him but she wanted to be with him.

Her frank admission took the wind out of his sails. He sat silent listening to the breeze blow his anger away and felt a gradual return to his senses. It was as if her ocean had swept away the ramparts of the sand castle in a trice. He told her then about his life too, his work, his nonexistent personal life and his girlfriend. After that they both lapsed into silence, each lost in their own thoughts and analyzing their own dilemmas. Their hands still joined were their only connect to each other but it was more than enough. Neither questioned the fact that they were both in different relationships but was sitting here holding hands. The question was there at the back of both of their minds along with a million other questions relating to the way they were reacting to each other, the way their emotions seemed to at the edge, the way they seemed to be irrationally provoked by the other. Each of them was almost afraid to take the road that would answer these questions. It was almost as if they were terrified of the explanation.

He drove her back and took her number this time. A day later, he was scheduled to travel out of the country and left. He was half tempted to tell her that he was going but then thought the better of it, putting the impulse down to a stupid reaction that might show him in poor light. A couple of days into the travel, he woke up one morning to see a couple of messages from her asking him how he was and what he was doing. He messaged back that he was great leaving out the fact that he was abroad. They continued to message telling each other inane details. Finally, he told her that he had to leave for work and then to her surprised question, had to reveal that he was abroad. The conversation took a terrible turn after that and it was almost as if she stepped back and was now aloof, and they said bye soon after. He put this down to her being busy or sleepy and pushed the thought away.

He returned a day later and that weekend got a message from her asking if he would like to meet up. They met at the beach front café where he had thought he had seen her. She seemed angry and a little upset. He tried to understand what it was that was bothering her but did not have a clue. They sat in an uncomfortable silence. The waiter took a long time coming with their coffees and when he finally arrived, she burst out at him. This was not normal at all for her and as soon as the waiter left, the silence became even more strained. He finally broke it, asking her what was irritating her. Her brush offs made him even more certain that something was wrong and he stuck to pushing her to tell him. Finally, she admitted that she was angry that he had gone abroad without telling her that he was leaving.

He almost sighed in relief and told her that he almost had messaged her and then had stopped himself thinking it was a stupid thing to do. His admission broke the tension and finally after a lot of arguing back and forth as to what was stupid and what was not, they resolved that they would always tell each other what they were doing and where they were. They took a walk down the beach after the coffee and the mood improved dramatically. Her hand found its way into his naturally and they strolled hand in hand down the beach. To anyone who was looking, they seemed like a couple in love. He kept stealing glances at her, the wind blowing her hair around her face and causing her to struggle with it and smile. On one such occasion, she looked up at him while he was almost staring and flashed him a brilliant smile, enough to make him stop in his tracks. The moment was magical as they stood and looked at each other, everything around them receding into nothingness.

The moment was broken when her phone rang. It was her boyfriend. He walked away some distance and stood at the edge of the water and watched the waves lap at his shoes drenching them thoroughly. She came and stood at his side after she finished talking but she now seemed somewhere else. He realized that the probably needed to go and suggested that they leave. He drove back to her apartment, his attempts at making conversation meeting with a complete lack of response as she seemed to be struggling with some problem. He considered asking her about it and then stopped himself. Dropping her at the apartment, he was a little worried at the creases on her brow and asked her if she was ok. An absent smile and her polite reassurance did nothing to make him feel better. He finally decided to bite the bullet and ask her what was wrong. After initial rebuffs which were now becoming the norm between them, she said that her boyfriend had seen them at the beach walking hand in hand and was extremely angry with her and was threatening to break it off. Guiltily she added that it was a relief that he had not seen them holding hands.

That remark destroyed whatever bond of intimacy they had built and he withdrew into his shell shocked at the manner of her relief and the importance she placed on the perception of their relationship. He muttered something polite about hoping that they make it up between themselves. He invented a quick errand that he needed to run, suddenly realizing that he did not want to be there anymore. He drove away from a very surprised and very quizzical look on her face that he did not seek to explain.

He reached home late that evening choosing to keep driving around and when he finally did, he realized that he had received a message from her – a simple question as to why he had run away like that. He was of two minds as to whether to explain to her or not and finally chose to respond neutrally stating that he had forgotten something that he had to do. It appeared that she had reached home and she continued messaging him till late asking him questions about his work, his dreams – talk similar to the ones they had sitting under the tree in her backyard a million years ago. He opened up gradually, more drawn by the portrait of her own dreams and aspirations. When they finally bid each other goodbye, it was well past one.

From then on, this became a ritual of sorts for them, waking up and asking each other how they were and then telling each other through the day what they were doing and then in the evening, describing how the day went. Even when he was travelling and in another time zone, he would do this, realizing that the day felt empty when he did not complete this routine of his. They met each other briefly at times choosing safe ground and crowded places. He consciously avoided any opportunity for them to become physically close or hold hands. That particular incident was still deeply etched in his mind.

Then a long pending volcano erupted – his girlfriend decided that she had had enough. She left him a brief note and said that she was leaving for Delhi. He was not particularly sad about her leaving and this in itself puzzled him. That evening when he went through his routine message chat on the phone, he happened to mention that he had broken up with his girlfriend that day. Immediately she decided that she wanted to see him and said that she was coming over. She came about an hour later to his apartment, her first visit to his place. As he opened the door to let her in, the worry on her face struck him as odd. She looked at his quasi normal face and was kind of relieved. Her instant balm for the hurt came into play and she stepped close and hugged him. The hug was warm, comforting and intense.

Neither of them wanted to break away and when finally he heard voices in the corridor, he broke off to lock the door and let her in. He stepped back only to be welcomed by the hug again. This time, there was a change in the tone of the hug, something different, something that he could not pin point and something that was very physical. He became aware of her intensely and was dumb struck at his own reaction. Her arms were still around him when he finally gave in to an impulse that seemed as out of place as his earlier reaction, he bent down and kissed her. Her response was a shock at first and then she responded wholly. The kiss deepened into an intense meeting of their souls and when they finally broke, each was gasping for breath as if they had run a long way.

The embarrassment was palpable after and she finally broke it with a self mocking laugh stating that she had come there to console him and that she had forgotten that in the entire hustle bustle. That set them both off and the laughter helped ease the tension. They sat down and she held his hand as naturally as if it was something that they normally did. He explained to her that he was feeling strangely free after the breakup and had none of the heart break that she was worried about. She probed for a while and then was satisfied that he was none the worse for wear.

He drove her back to her apartment and walked her to the door. She opened the door and was about to go in, she suddenly turned and gave him a quick buzz on his lips. He stood  there long after the door had closed behind her, his lips still tingling and wondering what had happened. He was still in a daze when he got back and went to bed. A little while later he got a message from her – a simple one and yet one fraught with a whole world of possibilities – “I like kissing you”. She was in a relationship with someone else and try as he might, he could not shake the feeling of wrong doing in this.  Finally he resolved that he would bring the equation back to an even keel. Little did he know that he was only fooling himself.

Their daily routine of chatting with each other continued. However, a new tension had crept in between them which neither could ignore but neither was willing to face. All his resolve of putting their relationship back on a platonic basis was nothing but a puff of a cloud in the face of the gusty gales of his emotion. It took him a while but he finally admitted that he was physically attracted to this “kid” that he had grown up with.

They were chatting one evening when she suddenly went silent for a while. He guessed that she was in company. She messaged back irregularly and he replied. Suddenly she messaged if he could come by a local hangout and pick her up. He went there immediately to find her standing outside waiting for him. He opened the car door and she got in without a word except for asking him to drive to his place. She was a little troubled and so he asked her if everything was ok. She told him that she had been with her boyfriend at the hangout and was feeling bored. As she messaged him, her boyfriend got jealous and demanded to know who she was messaging. When told, he went into a blind rage and threw a tantrum. She decided to walk out and had called him. They reached his place and he fixed her some tea. He was still not sure what to say and made some comment that she should give her boyfriend a call and make up with him. She only smiled at that, a cheeky carefree smile that was completely out of place for someone who had just had a fight with her boyfriend. He decided to brave the smile and ask her. The answer totally stunned him. She had not just walked out on her boyfriend; she had broken up with him.

After a few minutes of silence, he mustered up courage to ask her why and her flirty response deepened his response. A quick flash of a glance from the dark eyes and a mischievous smile accompanied the remark that she did not need her boyfriend when she had him. That was it. No questions were asked any further. She stayed over at his place that night and the transition was made from a struggling platonic relationship to a gloriously wonderful meeting of equals. A change in the equation that was strangely so comfortable that neither of them felt the slightest bit uncomfortable the next day. The excitement of having found each other exuded like an aura from each of them and the bubble was conspicuous in each of their lives as they went through their days. Their need to stay in constant touch was manic like an addiction. They could hardly separate in the morning and ran back to each other in the evening.

Then he had to go away on a trip abroad – five whole days that were a nightmare for either of them. Even hour long phone calls did nothing to assuage the feeling of loneliness. He was struck dumb by his need for her – to see her, to hear her and to touch her. He could not wait to get back, feeling grouchy like a bear with a thorn in his paw through the day and struggling between wanting to talk to her and not disturbing her at work through the night. The flight was interminable – not being able to talk to her for that long was like intolerable cruelty. He stepped out of the flight at 3 AM in the morning, cursed and fumed at the queues and delays in immigration at the baggage carousel. When he finally stepped out of the gate and hurried towards the taxi stand, he was startled to see a shadow detaching itself from the crowd and running towards him. It was her, unbelievably and unimaginably her. He folded her in an embrace that almost crushed her. There were no complaints from her, her ferocity in holding him, matching his own. The ride back was sweet; they were almost stuck to each other, not wanting even a breath’s respite from each other.

They finally admitted to each other that they were now inseparable, two peas in a pod, two halves of a whole that had been separated a lifetime ago but had now found each other. The twine that bound them had frayed, almost broken and finally had become a bond that was stronger than time itself.