ON THE EVE OF 5TH MARRIAGE ANNIVERSARY.....

FROM THE PEN APN

Five years back she did not know me, nor did I. But one day my parents took me to her home. She came nervously and sat before me. She smiled a little and then spoke a little. 

Her smiles and little cute figure melted my heart. So in next two months we moved around the fire-altar and solemnized our marriage. All our family members were happy, relatives were happy. My friends danced and now I continuously dance at the song of that girl (of course ‘that girl’ is now my wife and she has every right to make me so and I do not mind it)

And recently we cut a cake celebrating our 5 years of togetherness. But the first piece of the cake she gave to a 3 year old child and then came my turn. Now I am the second person in her life and that child is the first person. But I and my wife share something common. We both call that child as ‘OUR SON’.

THE TASK OF WRITING ONE PAGE..........From the pen APN

I felt nostalgic when I heard the song. It was the very song which I had listened 13 years back during the Annual function of my college. I was the secretary of students’ union and I had chosen that song to energize the mood of celebration during the function.

Today, by chance, when I stumbled upon that song, in a restaurant, I was silenced. My tea began to become cold as I journeyed into the past. The music played on and refreshed some of my fond memories. With the melody of the song many beautiful creatures who had once occupied my mind and heart became alive. Their vibrant smiles and youthful appeals once again flashed in my memory. I relived the moments when I was a teenager and a college student.

I remembered about Miss Mishra who was the most beautiful girl of my class. But I never talked with her because I never wanted to show my weakness for her. I was respected among my friends for my integrity and I had never let it go. In the last days of our college she had wished me good luck for a good result. But that day also I remained cold. I saw her eyes and they told me that she loved me. In reply I wanted to say her that she was the most beautiful girl I had ever met but I stopped with a short, “Thank You.”. She took her LADYBIRD cycle and slowly disintegrated from college campus and also from my life. UNSPOKEN LOVE NEVER DIES.

With the glide of time I have moved to different spheres. But when I look back to those days, from where I stand now, I feel those times as brilliant as sunshine. INNOCENCE IS PURE JOY.

With some books and notebooks I would climb the upstairs to attend my classes and some of my classmates would come downstairs. In the mid-way a momentary stay, exchange of words, glances or just waving of hands were sufficient to make the day going. FRIENDSHIP REALLY RECHARGES YOU.

In those times colleges were without uniforms and the girls and boys would come in all coloured outfits. So the colleges used to be more colourful then now.  Those days are gone now.......IN THE PLEA OF UNIFORM WE ARE COMPULSORILY MADE COLOUR BLIND.

In those times a college student could easily recognize his/her beloved from half a kilometre by the colour of his/her dress. But now that sense perception is missing. 

I had a good friend. One day he expressed his love to a beautiful girl of my class. The girl’s face turned red. Before the girl could speak anything my friend left the place out of fear. The next day my friend saw that the girl had come wearing the best dress. Seeing my friend, she gave a beautiful smile. In happiness now my friend’s feet did not touch earth. Out of joy and celebration he took me to the nearby restaurant and gave me a marvelous treat. That day I ate ice cream, cakes and chenapoda in the restaurant and my friend had paid the bill.

After six months, I discovered that the girl considered my friend as one among her many college friends and nothing more. By that time my friend had 3 papers back.

I remembered how my seniors used to hang out in a particular place in the upper floor. The place was less crowded and gave a good view of the college. We used to call that place ‘Lovers’ Point’.

 THE TASK OF WRITING ONE PAGE IS OVER AND DEAR READERS DO NOT TAKE THE THINGS AS REAL.

Someone’s LOVE SHOWED ME THE WAY.......

The previous night I had stayed in a small village for first time with my wife. I had gone there to have a break from my day to day life. A distant relative of mine was there. The next day I had some work in the district head quarters and decided to go alone leaving my family with my relative’s.

So in the morning I rode from that small village on its dirt road for 4 kilometers. The road runs through the woods and then meets the state highway. I had to cover another 35 kilometers from the point the dirt road meets the highway. The sun was beaming and through the rows of tall Sall trees I moved ahead on my bike.

I am telling you about a district which has the dubious distinction of being one of the most underdeveloped districts of the country. So it is needless to describe further the ill-conditions of the roads. Journey on them is both painful and extremely risky.

However, I reached the point where I would catch the state highway and would take a right turn to reach the district headquarters. While taking the turn, at the meeting point of the two roads, I saw a culvert. And on the cemented low wall of the culvert two names were written with a big plus mark (+) in between them and a big heart shape had encircled them all.

I thanked the education system of my country which had reached such interior pockets and now gleaming prominently with the shiny petals of love. Next moment I became a little conscious of my age and then raised my eyebrows and giving a supercilious smile, I went ahead.

Our society is still orthodox in the matters of love. We believe that love has to be made or expressed privately. So the big heart symbol and the names on the culvert dazzling publicly made me feel a bit negative about the writer(s). I raised my eyebrows and then took the turn and went ahead on my way.

That day I had a lot of engagements in the district head quarters. So I was very late. I had to return in the late hours of the night. So some of my friends even advised me not to take such a risky journey in the night but I did not heed their words.

The road was extremely lonely and dark. To reach the village on my way back I had to take a left turn leaving the highway. But I was very much confused in the dark of the night. At every half a kilometer a similar dirt road was found. I could not decide which road to take but soon my confusion ended. The big heart shape and the names of the love pair showed me the way. I undoubtedly took the road and reached home safely.

Someone’s LOVE SHOWED ME THE WAY.......

“A moment of understanding can flood your life with meaning.”

With my hands crossed I was reclining on a chair. I was silent and thinking deeply. I was thinking with a prayerful heart. 

 

I was in the farewell meeting where the juniors were bidding farewell to the seniors. The situation was bursting with emotions. Everyone was speaking from the heart. The words from the young hearts were replete with the deepest and the strongest of human emotions. They were like live incandescent lamps which were an awesome feast both to the soul and the heart. The sparkling tear drops of the departing students were the finest signature of Love. 

Their high emotions slowly and slowly started melting me. I melted into a valley of deep thoughts. In my thought I saw I have miles to go before I can say I am an ideal teacher. Each word uttered by the departing students pushed me more and more to undertake a rigorous self analysis. The more I thought, the more stable and self-controlled I felt. I also felt a bit sad because I could have been better if I had known that my students felt so deeply about me.  

The evening gave me a new understanding of human heart. I came out of the circumference of mundane profit and loss and valued the brilliance of teenager emotions in a truly human perspective.

I experienced a new dawn of goodness in me. I beheld a rising sun spreading the light of self-righteousness. And I heard a life-changing voice echoing in my inner-world that proclaimed, “Yes! Let me be a teacher and not a preacher. Because....because.....a preacher preaches but a teacher teaches by living the best ideas and the highest ideals of humanity-in thoughts, words and deeds.”