Once upon a time, I had a dream…
I was walking on a lonesome lane, snowflakes around and the mist. It was dark and the birds were enjoying the warmth of their nest, amid the melody of silence I got passed the white leaves quivering in the chill of the night when I entered a garden, a garden of secrets, a garden of lies. Lies that tempted me to accept them as truth.
Aroma of roses, black roses they were sparkling and elegant welcomed me with their presence. A tender voice it was, the voice of that tranquil rose, expressed her wish to be mine and I separated it from her life. It smiled and gestured me that the aim of her life is now fulfilled as it is adorning my hand lying there cold and dead but sparkled beauty. I looked at other flowers and they were saying a good-bye. A farewell to me, a farewell to that rose. I looked around and gradually the garden faded away into nothing. It was gone, gone were its flowers. I was standing there all alone knowing not what to do, where to go, whom to call.
I was still wondering when I saw a young lady with indescribable beauty, sitting alone by a white frozen brook and the sky turned green. She looked at me, her eyes heavy and bright. With snowy white flood like hair and lips like a blooming bud of red rose she gradually levitated and with an unearthly soothing voice called my name. Mesmerised I was oh I had no choice for it was divinity-in-form, calling my name.I walked to her and stood there for sometime, speechless.
I asked in my mind who she was. With a celestial voice and waving presence, she spoke ” I am the moon, the separated diamond of your earth. Oh the earth, called me with all its beauty and charm, made me descend from my abode, the space where I dwell, alone and silent. I want to merge into this lake but oh…today its frozen. Look into my eyes, do you feel the sorrow, do you see the misfortune and the agony! People look at me and forget my existence, oh who cares looking into the sky. Now that I descended, I don’t want to go. I wish to be here for eternity, a place full of life and laughter. But I am cursed, I am cursed to return to my dark arid abode. How can I forget, for the world I have to shine. It was I who called you into this dream. Live it, remember it. I wanted someone to listen to me, to look at me and never forget. I want to reside in someone’s memory, in someone’s heart. Always remember, I am life, I am beauty, I am love and I too have a dream.”
Saying this she looked around as if absorbing every possible thing into her heart, as if extracting the joy from everything to give her warmth of memory when she returns to her life.
She looked at me tenderly, then with grave cold eyes looked into the sky. Her expressions became serious and spreading her arms wide, she levitated high towards the sky with a shriek and dazzle..
Today, after 50 years of that dream I still wait for her, sitting by a brook in the night beside a garden. But Oh everything is there but her.Every night, I waited, with a false irrational hope, that she might descend again into this world and call out my name…But may be it all ended with that dream, with that one night… though her wish came true. She still resides in my heart, in my mind.
Today, sitting under a tree, when I looked at her, there she was, in the dark sky, making the night look beautiful, I decided one thing.. Now that I am awake, let me take a pen and in this night, under her light…. Let me write…Let me write a tale about my endless quest for a beauty which was captured once upon a time by my fortunate eyes.
-kaavya