THE
OUTSIDER
She saw before her a vast stretch of landscape.
A huge garden stretching out to vast spaces .It
turminated
at the farthest end where one could see a wide and deep well. The well
looked ancient and deeply ambushed
by the exotic growths around it. It almost took an
idyllic hue. It had the old water hauling contraption. A long tilted wooden pole with a bucket hanging
on the other end. She would pull at the
rope and push the bucket slowly inside
the well. She could not see it going down in the darkness of the deep down. It
was quite scary. She always waited for the bucket to hit the surface of the
water. A deep somber sound of chapaak would emanate from the unknown depths for which she waited with bated breath. It was mesmerizing. It
seemed as if some gigantic creature was aroused from his deep slumber . She would go very close to the edge
of the well to explore a bit more. Fear had not entered her as yet
perhaps her psyche was at the
nascent stage. It was dark inside but she was bold enough to bend
from the precarious edge of the well to have a closer view. It was
very daring for a girl of her age. Her voice echoed in the dark interiors
enveloping it fully. She saw the dark mossy walls inside. She peered into it more and could see the dark bottom. It looked mysterious with a dark mass of undulating waters –mercurial and
opaque. She pulled up the half- filled
bucket and splashed it over the stony platform which was quite inclined and
from there the water took its course to its
assigned areas. She
observed the snaky stream of water meandering around the
plantations. She very carefully tread upon
the bunds around the plantations where
grew a variety of vegetables.
She looked up. The brightness of the Sun and the blue sky dazed
her eyes. She had no tab on the time. She only waited for her grandfather who would
take her along for the inspection
of the garden. He would never question
her over her safety regarding the well but get busy in mending the broken
ridges around the beds to facilitate the equitable distribution of water. He would
show her the hidden buds and blossoms of
pumpkin and melon which remained
shielded by their creeping stems laden fully with big round leaves. She knew the pumpkin would grow to its full size which would be
enormous with its golden yellow sheen and dark green stripes and the fragrant sweetness of the melon. They
sat snuggled there away from the prying eyes .Both looked at them with warmth
and endearment. Her grandfather was always in that one cloak which fitted him
loosely. He wore wooden sandals and his gait was regal. His half open mouth and his looks emanated
a warmth which unconsciously made her feel wanted and she felt happy in his company. She loved to be very close to him because he
always smelled of sandal.He never looked at her but she could feel his complete
empathy with her. He surveyed each and every cultivated part of the garden while she broke into a sort of merry go round. She raced past the rows of growing pea plants
the bushes of garden cucumber carefully passing by the myriad small
cruciferous growth. They were the pearls
and jewels peeping through the weeds which grew in abandon on the
side ways. And thus her rendevouz with the garden would be over.She would sally
through the garden door and enter the house.
After this a big hiatus.
She was standing before the vegetable section of a high ended
mall of the metropolitan city. She saw
the vegetables arranged in boxes where they sat snug being tossed and turned by
the discerning customers. They seemed to
be yielding themselves
to the robotic humen who scrutinized them to the extent of leaving
them bruised. Their carts were overflowing and they were heaping it more
so rapaciously. She suddenly visualized the slothful slumbering creature of that deep
well sprawled out and giving out soulful groans which got submerged in the
clamor of the evolved humans of the evolved
times..She saw the heaped - up carts and
the striking dichotomy between the child and the parent. There seemed to be no connect between the two.
The clock chimed and she felt the prick on her ear. She
thought she heard the deep chapaak of the bucket and her grandfather looking at the ripples in the flowing narrow streams eager to seep the earth. She saw herself being almost
overlapped by the huge persona of her grandfather while walking alongside.
She came out of her
reverie. Today she had a dream .It was the dream of the distant white expanse of a beach shorn of people- expansive and meeting so silently the corrugated waves of the
receding sea. The air was almost comatose with the dazzling brightness of various hues and
suddenly she woke up with a lark in her heart and a spring in her feet. She was there living in the
moment when the past and the present seemed to be subsumed by that moment.
Was it the Nirvan ?
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