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Words : 2700

Target : 120 Votes

Audio Theme : Tango To Evora (Remastered)

https://youtu.be/qPrxfFElLX4

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49 | Maple Leaves

14 Years Ago

May 22, 2009

Friday

"So? Just a little more time left before my little one leaves for college, huh?" She ran her fingers through his hair.

"Yeah." He sighed as his long digits toyed with the maple leaf he was grasping.

Mischief coursed through the warm pair of aureate swirls.

"Will you miss her?" Darshana teased her nephew with a raised brow.

"Didaa." He kept a straight face, so done with her frequent teasing.

She laughed. "What? Was it not love at first sight for you?"

Mahadevan sighed. "Didaa, she must be barely twelve or thirteen, and I'll turn nineteen this year." He kept the maple leaf back on the ground. "You clearly make me sound like a pedophile."

"Then you tell me. What is it that draws you towards her? What drives you to that park, to watching her from afar, even though she remains blissfully unaware of your presence?" She fired off the questions she had been holding back, her voice steady and unwavering.

Mahadevan scratched his chin and shifted his gaze towards the Gulmohar tree erect on the ground, some distance away from the maple tree they were sitting under in the maple grove behind the manor.

"It was never love at first sight. In fact, in my belief, love can never be at first sight. Rather, I would say it was curiosity at first sight. The urge to know more, to learn everything about her, and to never look away." He slowly trailed, a hint of vulnerability lingering in his voice. "You know why?"

"Why?" Darshana whispered, quietly following the direction of his gaze to peer at the Gulmohar tree.

The atmosphere was alive with a mild breeze, causing the leaves above to tremble and rustle softly, as if sharing secrets with the wind.

"Because we share a common ground of contrasts and commonalities." The tone of voice turned a few shades gentler as he smiled softly. "I don't know if you do, but I do feel the hollowness within me. The lack of freedom, have you ever felt it?" He looked at her.

She turned her eyes away, avoiding his penetrating look.

He continued to smile. "I do. Like needles continuously pricking my skin, I do feel the lack of freedom we have. The manor may be worth all the gold and jewels in the world, but then again, at times, it feels like a cage of gold. The inability to go and roam around wherever I want, the continuous tailing around of the security professionals, the expectation of acting in a certain way in front of the high society, to dress in a certain way, to follow proper eating and drinking etiquette, to follow the security protocol even while going to school or while meeting Tapan and the others-I wonder if I am the only one who feels this suffocation or is there someone else as well. You won't believe me, didaa, but the only time I break the protocols is when I sneak to that park with Karim's help, just to catch a glimpse of her." His gaze remained fixed on the Gulmohar tree, unblinking and lost in thought.

Darshana lifted her hand to caress her nephew's cheek.

No one could understand the underlying sadness in his words better than her. She was a victim herself after all. In fact, every other inhabitant of the Dogra manor was, up to varying degrees.

Mahadevan sighed softly and carried on. "And in the heart of all this turmoil, there exists her. The girl with pigtails, nestled beneath the sprawling branches of that Gulmohar tree, lost in her own little universe as she diligently works on her school assignments. In that moment, she is untouched by the world around her, free from the nagging reminders to sit up straight or to nibble her snacks with decorum. Unlike me, she isn't shadowed by a legion of guards scrutinizing her every move. I get to sneak to that place only three days a week Didaa-Sundays, Fridays, and Tuesdays-yet I am sure she gets the chance to go there whenever she wants. She smiles freely, she laughs wholeheartedly, and she plays at her own accord. There is no pretense because there is simply no one there to judge her as well."

Averting his gaze from the tree, he looked at her again. "That's how different we are. Because she has always had something, I never had."

"Yet, we are similar at the same time." He chuckled sardonically. "Didaa, You had to leave for college, so you left. Grandpa, no doubt he cares a lot about me; still, he was either busy inside his office here in the manor or back at the corporation. As for Maa and Papa, I don't even want to talk about them." He gulped. "Daman and Ira, I don't know, but the dynamics between us three have always been so complicated. I never really understood the kind of sibling relationship we three had. Neither close nor distant. Too confusing. On top of this, I am allowed to meet Tapan and the others only once in a while outside the school or when I am in school. But even school is over now." He wetted his lips. "I feel lonely. I feel left out. The stillness in the manor makes me want to hide myself somewhere and never come out, and in a trice, like a violent wind gushing in through an open window I am reminded of the fact that indeed, I live in a gilded cage. A quiet and lonely gilded cage." From his peripheral vision, he noticed a bright rubicund Gulmohar blossom feathering down on the brown Earth. "But it's also when I see her alone under that tree that I am also reminded of another fact. I am not the only one who is lonely, because even in the freeness of all her actions, her smiles and laughter, I see a kind of loneliness that even I am accustomed to. And this is what has always drawn me to her-the paradox of our lives. The similarity yet the dissimilarity. The urge to earn the kind of freedom she has yet the thirst to know what has caused her to be so forlorn. Gradually, it just turned into a habit, a respite or an escape perhaps that slowly turned into momentary warmth."

"Come here." She ushered him into her embrace, cooing him into a motherly warmth. "I am sorry. I am so sorry." A tear dabbled down her cheek. "I am so sorry for leaving you behind."

"You shouldn't be Didaa; its not your fault." He consoled her. "I guess it's just in our surname. Both the boon and the bane of our existence, all enclosed in one word-Dogra." He concluded.

Silence followed, accompanied by the occasional rustling of leaves and the delicate blowing of breezes in between.

Roughly, half an hour later, Darshana looked on as Karim patiently warmed his shoes on the drive, standing beside a car.

Her eyes averted to the teen sitting in the gargantuan porch of the manor, just beside her, patiently waiting for his parents to say a last goodbye.

Placing her arm around his back, she rested her head against his shoulder. "Do you know that maple leaves turn red and start shedding only in autumn?"

"I do." He answered. "They shed in the month I was born in."

"Then, did it never cross your mind, how do the leaves of just that one maple tree back in the manor grove, that you like to sit under, turn red and start shedding every year in summer itself? While the others remain green and shed in autumn only."

He nodded. "I noticed. I even asked Karim to get someone to check if that tree had some disease or something. In the end, we found nothing. Moreover, it's not the only maple tree that sheds its leaves in summer."

"What do you mean?" Scrunching her brows together, she asked, appearing confused.

"Nothing." He whispered back.

"Anyway, maybe I know the reason behind their early shedding. Quite unrealistic it is!" She suggested, quite excitedly. "But I won't tell you, because you will find it yourself someday in the future." She paused. "By the way, you planted that Gulmohar tree back in the grove, didn't you?" She asked with a raised brow.

He nodded again.

"I knew it!"

He let out a gentle laugh, his head shaking in amused resignation.

"Devi." She called, suddenly turning all serious.

"Yes?"

"Leaves that fall from their trees in autumn signify something very important in life." She smiled.

"What?" He glanced at her.

"Because those leaves grow in some season, they take up a new shade in some other season, then they fall, and a year later, a new set of leaves grow up on that same tree. And the cycle continues." She trailed. "Just like in life, we grow, we fight, we fall, we hurt, we heal, and then we grow again. And the cycle continues."

"Yes." His lips curled up.

"As you dive into college life, you will find a number of things that won't match your expectations. The mess food, for example, for a matter of fact, won't be up to your liking. You will feel like cursing the food and the mess manager at times. You will feel like calling them names, which is something understandable because that's human nature. But then, you will have to understand this at the same time that the food you are cursing might be someone's sole purpose of offering prayers to the almighty. Every grain you curse might be an empty stomach's desperate need. The shower heads in the hostel bathrooms might be broken, the toilet seats might be unclean, the rooms might be dirty, and the study tables and chairs might be old, broken, and dusty. There would be a number of problems and inconveniences awaiting your presence there, but you must never lose your patience. Learn to keep calm at all times. If you are wrong, make it a habit that you bow your head and apologize. I know you face problems while controlling your anger, but then, your anger is just one facet of your persona. Learn to subdue it as much as possible."

Heaving her head away from his shoulder, she looked at him. Their eyes clashed. The motherly warmth of aureate against the youthful and lucid brown of earth.

"I don't know if you have any dreams or goals of your own as of now. But if ever you do see one later on in life and find that it's too unconventional for you to work for and achieve, just remember this: unconventional dreams demand unconventional choices along with an unconventional path. A path that will demand from you to soak in loneliness itself at times."

He nodded.

"My sweet little child." She petted the crown of his head. "Never ever back down from facing a problem. Face it and bash on regardless." She planted a kiss on his forehead. "Remember what Grandpa said?"

"No guts, no glory." He recollected, placing his head on her lap.

"Very good!" She held him on her lap, close to her stomach, warm and comforting.

She stared ahead, as if gazing at the vast emptiness before her, a world of unfulfilled dreams. "Your life might not be how you wanted it to be, Devi. But the choice lies within you-to make the right choices, to fight it head on, and to change it for the good, forever."

If not me, then at least you.

She wanted to add, but then she kept quiet.

"I guess, it's time Ma'am. We need to leave or else we will miss the flight." Karim remarked, wading his way towards them.

Darshana looked down at the teenager resting his head on her lap. The irritating itch in her eyes and nose grew. She rubbed her face. "Get up." Cooing into his ear, she held his shoulder. Her dupatta fluttered in the gentle breeze.

Mahadevan lifted his head slowly, and stood up on the porch, a sense of finality washing over him. He turned his gaze to the vast gravel driveway for one last time, with his heart racing as he searched for the elusive and unmistakable shape of his father's black Rolls Royce.

"Did they forget?" He asked, glancing at his aunt.

Darshana's frame turned helpless. She had absolutely no answer.

"There is a big merger happening today. They must have gotten busy there." Karim jumped in to handle the situation. "Sahib and Madam have been really stressed these days."

Mahadevan turned around to look at the manor.

Just then, two loud shouts echoed from some distance.

"Wait, you idiot!"

"Bhai!"

Mahadevan looked on as his siblings rushed towards him from inside the manor, and within a second, he was engulfed in a bear hug from both sides. One held onto his abdomen due to her height, while the other one tightly pressed his chest against his own.

He jumped on his feet as he felt a punch on his abdomen. "You were leaving without telling us you, moron!" Aridaman hollered out.

"Don't punch him, you hooligan! He is leaving!" Nirjhara countered.

Darshana chortled and shook her head.

Karim smiled.

The siblings stayed like that for some moments. Mahadevan smiled ever so lightly. His eyes turned watery as he engulfed them both in his arms.

Ten minutes later, Karim drove the car out of the main gate of the Dogra Manor as the siblings and Darshana looked on.

"D square, Bhai will come to meet us in holidays, right?" Nirjhara asked, glancing at her aunt.

"He will." Darshana assured, stroking her hair. "my love."

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A week had passed since her nephew left for college. Darshana was supposed to leave for the US in the evening.

She was leisurely strolling through the maple grove behind the manor.

Her eyes wandered to the maple tree her nephew always liked to sit under. Suddenly, a striking red leaf spiraled down, settling gracefully on the ground next to her left foot.

She quickly crouched down to pick it up.

Out of nowhere, the crisp and dried leaves around her on the ground crunched loudly, breaking the silence. She spun around, her breath hitching, and found herself face to face with a pair of rugged combat boots, their owner hidden from view.

She slowly raised her gaze, her breath momentarily stolen.

"Jai?"

The name escaped her in a soft murmur.

Hands still inside the pockets, the man standing before her smiled ever so lightly. The dimples popped up in a second as the honey-hued eyes gleamed under the bright sunlight.

"Long time, no see, my love."

She leapt to her feet, her eyes fixed on him, the silence stretching out painfully.

"You won't say anything?" He asked, a hint of desperation in his tone.

"Allow me to look at you a little more, Major."

Tears trickled down the aureate pair of eyes as melancholia hit them like a truck.

He inched closer, wounding his arms around her waist and tugging her closer to his chest.

"Did you say yes to his proposal?" He probed.

"Yes." Came her soft reply.

Quietude followed like a blanket of sorrow, heavy with unspoken grief.

"Is there no other way out?"

"No." Her lips wobbled as she fought back tears.

"Tell me, how much more time do we have?" He gulped.

"Two hours and twenty minutes." She whispered. "My flight is at six. I will leave for the airport at four."

Major Jaidev Kanwar struggled to steady his racing heart and the lump in his throat. Detaching himself from her, his eyes softly took in sight of the woman he was in love with.

Smiling at her, he cradled her cheeks in his palms as teardrops slithered down the bridge of his nose.

"Come, let's celebrate the last two hours and twenty minutes of our togetherness." He paused as his hands shivered. "That's all we have after all."

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Target : 120 Votes

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