"Jacob"
"Jacob"
"Jacob"
"Jacob" "Jacob"
Jacob
got up startled from his chair as the voice transformed from a distant noise to
a yell.
"What
are you mulling over dear, sitting here in isolation? I have been calling you
for almost 5 minutes. You could come down and enjoy the early morning rays of
the sun. What a grueling winter we had this time. I wish we have a
never ending summer.", said Rosah.
"How
stark are the contrasts in nature. When you just start feeling better and
comfortable with what you have around, it shakes you up. On contrary, when you
get vexed with it, it makes you feel comfortable with something better in
store. The vagaries of nature are beyond comprehension" replied Jacob.
Rosah
and he had been married for almost six months now. Jacob worked with a
multinational company in Ontario and Rosah was a Human Rights Activist. She
met him on one of his conferences in the United States and through a common
friend, they got closer and thereafter, entered into a wedlock.
"Enough
of daydreaming" she retorted, to his incoherent statements. "Shall we
go out for a walk?"
"Well,
it was not a day dream. It was probably the worst nightmare in my life"
replied Jacob.
------ x ------
20
years ago...
It
was May, the mid-summer month. In a remote village somewhere in the
South-Eastern corner of India, a young lad set out to play cricket with his
friends. Though it lied close to the Bay of Bengal, the local inhabitants often
referred it as the hottest place on earth, due to its extreme temperatures
& high humidity.
He
lost his parents at an early age and hence lived with his grandmother who
earned enough to make their ends meet. The lad studied in the local school run
by the state. Though summer was always hot, he merrily welcomed it for a
variety of reasons. To him, summer meant vacation, long hours of cricket with
his friends, juicy mangoes, tasty ice-creams, unlimited sugarcane juice &
tender coconut water, and many more. That year too, he was equally excited.
His
summer morning started with his grandmother struggling to wake him up. He
always found pleasure in seeing her get irritated by his not getting up early.
Finally when she got fed up and almost retorted to cane him, he used to jump
out of his bed and run for cover. Finally when she stopped, unable to chase
him, he used to get back to her, apologize and pick her to feed him. After his
breakfast, he left to play cricket with his friends, never to be seen till late
evening. Whenever the boys felt hungry, they smuggled themselves into the
nearby mango orchard and stole some of those juicy fruits ensuring that they
were never seen by the gatekeeper. Later in the afternoon, they went for a swim
in the nearby lake and rested under the trees till the sun went down and the
cows came home.
However,
the best part he enjoyed was the meeting with an old man who came there every
afternoon. No one in the village knew his whereabouts, but everyone called him
'Thatha' (grandfather). He used to go door to door and everyone fed him with
something or the other. Every afternoon, he came to the lake and shared some
time with the boys resting there. He narrated them various stories, some
mythology, some fiction and some, from his own experiences. The young lad
always asked him a lot of questions and the old man patiently answered all of
them. He felt he gained a lot of knowledge from the chats he had, with the old
man. Both of them had developed a very strange kind of a bond.
That
day was more hotter than usual and the boys retired to the lake much earlier
than usual. After a swim, they came to the tree and rested. The young lad was
looking out for the old man but he found no sight of him. After waiting for
long, he was about to lie down when he heard someone in a distance shouting
'Thatha'. He ran in that direction for about half a kilometre when he saw a
crowd in the distance. He could not understand what was going on, but kept
running. As he came closer, he could just hear whispers 'Thatha'. He pushed
himself through the crowds and went ahead only to find 'Thatha' lying dead. He
got to know that 'Thatha' died of sunstroke.
He never felt so lost even when his parents died, for he was too young when it happened. The loss of this old man, who was totally unrelated to him, shook the young boy. As if this was not enough, that summer, three of his other villagers also died of the same sunstroke. And the summer, while bidding good bye for the year, also took his grandmother away.
He
was left devastated. A twelve year old boy, who lost his parents even before he
knew what losing someone meant, was then left alone. Just one summer ago, he felt
he had everything in life. He was very happy. He played with his friends,
teased his grandmother, learnt his lessons from the old man, played cricket all
day, swam to his heart’s content in the lake, and did what not. His village was
his world and in just a matter of one season, ONE HOT SEASON, he became an
orphan. For him, it seemed to be a never ending summer.
That
twelve year old boy is none other than the man who is narrating you this tale.
------ x ------
“Oh
my God!” exclaimed Rosah. “You just told me that you were an orphan. But I
never knew that you had such a tough past.”
Well,
that was the reason I always hated summer. To me, it took away everything of
mine. Thereafter, I moved out of that ghastly village and underwent a lot of
hardships before I became what I am today. All through, I carried my hatred
towards summer. But then, things changed.
Few
years back, when I moved to Ontario, I realized how important summer is and
what positive change it brings into life. I always looked at it in absolute
terms and hated it just for the reason that it took away everything from me. But
then Life is not really about absolutes. Everything is seen relative to
something else. You can appreciate the day only because you have the night. And
since then, my perspective changed.
And
last but not the least, summer gave me YOU. I can never forget our first
meeting last summer. And this summer, I got the opportunity to walk hand in
hand with you.
So,
shall we…?”
Hand in hand, they came downstairs together, to welcome the warmth of the sun-kissed morning.
P.S. The image has been sourced from here. All due credits to whosoever clicked this one.
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