I was walking along the gravel filled dust road that day, groping for the wall that ran along the side of the road I knew so well. The wall was important, because there were stones and boulders on the road, and my stick had broken a day before, so the only way to get home safely was to feel and walk along the wall, and the path was relatively safer there. So I was walking along this gravel road groping for the wall, when suddenly I felt a strong essence nearby. The scent of a woman.
So strong it was, not exactly a perfume, but a woman's inherent smell, which I had learn t to recognize over the years with precise practice, that it nearly blinded me all over again. You know, they say we cant see reality, but in reality we can see a lot. The drops of rain can tell us the terrain of a land, the morphic features of a beautiful face when the different drops sizzle over it, and the aroma to tell a man from a woman.. the touch to tell the attitude and the nature, and so on. Every stone has a tale to tell to us, and so does every bit of life.
I walked on and the essence seemed to walk on with me by my side. She seemed to be going in the same direction as me. I was totally lost in her perfumes. She was like a morning angel, although it was just dawn, I knew that her smell would haunt me all day. I was thinking of all that, when disaster struck.
So engrossed was I, that I had deviated from my wall, and fallen right into a ditch! Damn it pained like hell! But part of it was numbed by the embarrassing feeling that I was nurturing. I prided myself in deceiving onlookers of my blindness, they usually never came to know that I was blind. And so used was I to the road and routine, that I was practically adroit at every step. I used the stick I had only for the morning walks as this one, because it was a fairly new start, which anyway I was not carrying today.
A sweet scent came from the depths of my darkness. It was so sweet that I could not imagine ever having smelt such a fairy odor. She was there, she had uttered nothing, yet she seemed to be laughing at me with her aroma. To my dismay I realized she was watching me. I was embarrassed furthermore.
But her footsteps came nearer, and suddenly her hand grabbed my arm and pulled me up. My leg hurt, but the touch of her hand was like a current of electrical activity in me. Her single feel spread warmth all over me, just like the right morning sunshine often warms us early in the morning through our windows. It was an ecstatic feeling I could not deny. I suddenly knew that for the first time, I was in love.
Now being in love as a blind man isn't a great deal I suppose, as we aren't used to being cared for. However, it was a first time for me, I had not experienced it before. I passively let her lift me up from the gutter, and both of us stood up alongside, not sure whether I was facing her or not. I thought I should go, but I muttered something like thanks, which even I didn't comprehend properly. And I started walking homeward.
To my surprise she also started walking with me. Her smell lingered for the next 5 minutes. I was utterly confused. I stopped. It seemed like she stopped too. The I thought it was time to clear out the confusion.
"Why are you following me?" I asked.
She did not reply. Instead she came closer to me and took my arm. My heart was beating rapidly. She pressed my arm as if to say lead on, I will drop you home. My mind was bubbling with half love and half ego at the fact she had realized I was blind and was trying to do me a favor. Love won, and I obliged.
I had never walked hand in hand with a girl before. This was an amazing feeling really! I mean it! When you can walk with her, saying nothing, holding her hand, feeling her fragrance, and listening to her breath, even if you cant see her, maybe especially if you cant see her (haha!!), its heaven. The road I hadn't seen, but I had been told that the place was picturesque and surrounded by woods which, at this time I suspected, would be pierced from the East by broken rays of the rising sun.
And we walked. It was like walking on the clouds, my feet I couldn't feel at all. The pain seemed long lost. She never spoke once, and I thought she might not be interested in a blind man, but her touch was so caring, that I did not dare say a word.. lest she should leave me and go away.
The walk soon was about to end. The smell of the air changed, and the familiar smell of relative pollution and dust, coupled with the noise levels told me I was almost home. I felt the gravel road with my feet discreetly, and identified my landmarks, and finally I had reached level to my gate. I led her to the same, and then turned back to face to her, her hand still fingered with mine. The touch of her fingers were so Celestine that I was at a loss for words. I knew that this was the only time I may see her. I turned to face her the way I imagined her to be standing, and raised to my face so that I thought our eyes must have locked. The moisture in the air suddenly turned my dreams true.
As the rain pelted down and the drops hit her face, I saw her face in the blue light of my mind. She was utterly beautiful and was looking at me. Her lips slightly parted, she was an angel of anyone's desire.
But destiny has a way with things no one can tell. The rain left just as magically it had come, and I was left bereft to think that maybe it was only for me to see her. And I suddenly realized by the tug of her fingers that she was beckoning me to let go.
There are certain things which are seemingly impossible to man, and yet we often do it in totally strange and unbelievable times. Hopelessness and love when combined can extract man's hidden courage and defeat his ego. I looked straight at her eyes where the rain had left impressions in my mind and said,
"Please don't go away from my life. You have brought light to my life. I have fallen in love with you."
A long silence followed when I could feel her breaths drawing rapidly. She slowly and ruthlessly took her hand off mine. In the moments that followed I could feel that she still stood there, but again she didn't speak. Suddenly her hand out of nowhere pushed me on the chest. I fell down past the threshold of my home on the ground. In a moment she was gone, as I heard her brisk steps walk swiftly along the road we had once walked hand in hand.
Sometimes fate is really cruel. If she didn't have to accept me, why didn't she just tell me, why did she have to push me down to the dust? I really don't understand life. Its been fifty years to that incident today, and I'm ..er honestly.. ok I'm really 70 years old now, but how I remember that day and her so flawlessly well. Because the last 50 years I have really spent most of my life on my veranda waiting for her, along the same road my blind eyes have been locked. The noise, the life that is exuberant by my family (my brother's family) has really never turned me on. And yet today when there was no hope in this world left, why did I once again smell the same fragrance that once had lit up my life. I stood up from my chair with the help of my stick and looked out (as if I could) into the distance towards our gates.
The scent of the woman came and went, and I was sure it was her. Chintu was playing in the garden betwixt us, and I called him pronto and he ran to me, "Yes Dadaji?"
"Beta Chintu who was that at the gate? There was a woman na? Who was she? Just a moment ago!!"
"What woman Dadaji? There was an old lady there. Do you mean her? She is the common village housekeeper, she was looking for work. She's a deaf mute Dadaji. We don't want anything to do with her. Mom signaled her to get lost. Now can I go?"
Before I could stop him he was away into the garden and back to his playing.
As I said, every life has a story to tell.
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Full Version: # Strange Paths #
aaawww.... beautiful !
* every life has a story ~ Every stone has a tale *
and feelings are immortal
* every life has a story ~ Every stone has a tale *
and feelings are immortal
QUOTE(Uncertainty @ Nov 13 2007, 12:22 PM) 
aaawww.... beautiful !
* every life has a story ~ Every stone has a tale *
and feelings are immortal
* every life has a story ~ Every stone has a tale *
and feelings are immortal
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