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US-PAR

 So much  has  passed  between this moment  and the preceding  ones. The time takes  away the chunks but leaves the fragments to linger on. 

It  were those afternoons when her mother used  to take day time snooze, and  she would slip out quietly  trying  at the same time,  not to wake her mother up which  could  infuriate  her  and she could end up being beaten up  badly.  She   had turned expert in opening the door and closing it after her  without noise. She would  lift the door panel  slightly and push it open without letting it creek. 

 Outside  the   world opened  to her,  a free world  where she could do what she wanted .The hot summer afternoons were   no hinderance. The bright blazing sky sent waves of  heat  but she was least  bothered. She would explore the entire stretch of the roof covering the entire length of the quarters  where she lived.  The little objects she  found  filled her with  joy  and unlimited imagination. She forgot that she was the captive of closed spaces. She frolicked  like an untethered lamb. This was the  girl of eight year old precocious and  full of dreams.

In her deep memory  of those days there was one clear image of a book  which  still appears  before her eyes  time and again. The book  was  one of the course books of her mother . She happened to pick it up once out of curiosity,  It was a One Act play in Hindi. She  even  remembers  the name  of the book, it   being : Us Par . She even remembers  the  names of  some  characters  which fascinated her,  one being  Aprajita  and the other Lavanglata. This book  took her into the fascinating world of  strange passions of dreams and beautiful people . She entered a different realm  which was angelic and away from the sordid  and mundane.  A world full of fairies flowers and beautiful people .  Unknowingly  she was suffused  with a dreamy aura of grandeur  and joy, a new sort of passion which was  not well  delineated to her at that time.  It   haunted her and gradually led her into  the  magical world of books and literature. Yet the joy and sensation of that first  book  never left her. She, unconsciously was in search of that same magic  and euphoria when suddenly one fine day  she happened to get hold of one of the books  by a prominent  French writers: Marcel Proust,  It  struck  the chord. .Its where  her  search ended, its when she fell in love with  his   Magnus  Opus: In Search Of Lost Time  A novel of several volumes  ...and with it ended  her  childhood  search of  her   dreamy Us- Par...

 

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