A LETTER FROM A BOY TO HIS GIRL DESCRIBING HIS EARLY MORNING DREAM….
Dear,
After a very long gap of 10 yrs , we were back in contact and as per your wish we visit an old temple in the city outskirts. You were in yellow Salwar and i was in white kurtha. On our way to temple, the broken roads and thick forest with various adventurous creatures all over the wall cravings was all together a different context to our present world. Somehow we reached the place, the temple looked very old and there wasn’t any signs of maintenance. The temple was in first floor and it’s a big hall with some old age statues which I couldn’t recognize and in the ground floor is inhabited by a very old couple who takes care of the temple.
There were very few people in the Temple. We were sitting in one corner and waiting for the old couple to come and do the pooja. Since you were reluctant to sit close to me, you opted to sit in some distance. Unusually the place was very cool and some unique fragrance creates a subtle divine atmosphere.
Not knowing what to do until the Dharshan , I took my mobile and was flipping through the images which I captured on our way to this place. Suddenly I realised a old woman’s was walking towards me. I looked at her and smiled. The old woman took the mobile from my hand and very politely said “ Please don’t use Mobile Phone here”. She was trying to use my mobile and she showed me the image of Nataraja statue in my mobile and she left. I was wondering how I got this image of Nataraja because I didn’t have any such Gods image in my mobile. As I was showing you the image, I was little surprised and shocked by the things happening around us. Meanwhile, An old man who looked so thin and weak and was walking towards the deity to perform the pooja, we were on our course to the dharshan.
Pooja was going on at one corner of the temple with rare unrecognizable idols and I tried to concentrate by not deviating my thoughts. Then, a girl around 5 yrs came running into the temple and she looked like an Angel wearing Long Frilled White Frock. After 10 minutes pooja got over and the old man approached me and asked to accompany him to get some sack bags which was 200 mts away.
I asked you to accompany the old woman and I went with the old man. I managed to pick few bags and was walking towards the temple. All of a sudden the old man looked restless and his eyes were filled up with tears. Before I could ask him anything ,he started to explain that they are Brahmins and the Little Girl whom we saw in the temple is their granddaughter. I interrupted and asked about the little girl’s parents...
He told that they had only one daughter and she was working in an MNC in Bangalore. She was in love with her colleague who belonged to Andhra. These people were not happy about her daughter marrying other caste guy, but she convinced them and married that guy. The married couple settled in banglore and after 3 years they both got an Onsite opportunity to London. Since it was a rare opportunity they both didn’t want to miss, so they left the daughter here with grandparents - that’s the little girl. The flight in which they travelled was crashed and this grandparents never told this little girl (grand daughter) anything about the tragedy. As he was narrating the past , he was unable to control his tears and with so much pain in his voice, he told that he is concerned about his grand daughters future because he is too old now and worried who will take care of her in future.
Seeing his tears and concern, I was emotionally moved and tried my best to comfort the old man. Meanwhile we reached the doorstep of the temple and the old man sat on the staircase and I too sat beside him. By seeing us - you , the little Angel and the old woman were walking towards the doorstep. The old man held my hands and thanked me for listening to him patiently. He suddenly looked deep into my eyes and asked me – “do u know why you people came to this place today and heard my sufferings?” . I was just wondering.. Then he asked me to look into his eyes deeply.... i did.. in few seconds i was mesmerised. I was not aware what was happening….. then I heard you and grandma crying hard ... the old man was in my lap lost his breath... it took me few seconds to realize that he was dead and i was crying loud and hard papa, papa, papa.....
He was holding his breath for this moment and he felt the little girl will be safe in our hands so he stopped breathing.......I was totally in a different world, Slowly something made me to believe that somewhere long long ago and in some generation he was my dad......yes my DAD........
From the time my mom woke me up with the coffee in the morning and upto now, i am still wondering whether the dream sequence was true or am I writing this letter to you in dream… whatever it is , it is a different… DREAM WORLD!!!
With Luv,
MANESH.L
