September 22, 2009

Megh, Aakash, Brishti

Megh waited by the sea. She had finally been able to get through to Aakash. Otherwise, he was always sounding busy and preoccupied in his work. She remembered the last few times she had called. He had lost the usual charm in his voice. He was no longer the attentive friend that she once had. He was never rude, never out of place and yet she knew he was becoming distant.


Finally, today he gave in. He sounded busy as usual, but she was relentless. At last, he agreed to meet her. Their conversations were bland and uninteresting these days. She remembered the days when she spoke for hours and he listened, always understanding, always at her side. These days their conversations were at best “dangling conversations”.


They walked together by the sea comfortable in each other’s company but then the spirit within Megh began to feel suffocated. She knew the feeling. After they had parted ways, she had begun to realize the power Aakash always exerted on her. He came in only to devour the very independence that Megh desired. He wanted to be a part of every bit of her life. He wanted everything or nothing but Megh had grown up from her dreamy teenager days. Today, she valued her independence more than anything else. Aakash never seemed to realize it.


When he cared, he seemed paternal. When he scolded, he seemed patronizing. When he was silent, she knew he was scanning her very existence for that tiny speck of sorrow that she might have hidden from him. If he could, he would closet her up so that nothing in this world could ever harm her. He cared for her in a silent but ferocious way that always seemed too much for the free spirit Megh had become. And sometimes it was scary, like losing one’s own identity in the love of someone else.


They were silently sipping on their coffee. And suddenly they remembered how as kids the open terraces were their haunts for the mid afternoon escapades. They walked up again the same old stairs and looked up.


What went on in their minds, perhaps even they did not really comprehend.


Megh was furious with herself the next day. Why did she have to ask Aakash to come back? She knew that it was her fault and only she was to blame. Slowly Megh started building the walls around her again, walls that she had so deliberately built and broken down. The phone kept on ringing. Aakash was calling.


Aakash smiled. Megh was again not answering his calls. He seemed to understand what was going on in Megh’s mind. He just hoped Megh would get over it. He knew they had drifted apart and yet they were connected. She would miss him, he would miss her and yet sparks flew when they met.


The very confident Aakash lost his logic when he was with Megh. She was the only person in the world who could make him forget all else and come running to her. Aakash knew, the problem started there. A call from Megh meant Aakash would run like a free wind and in his momentum would sweep Megh off her feet, in a manner she once loved but now resisted.


Brishti smiled to herself. Bith Aakash and Megh had called her up. She never understood what the two wanted from each other. Perhaps even they didn’t know.


Aakash and Megh - when they meet it often results in tears. And in those tears, a new story is formed


(Started during the incessant weekend rains which hinders cycling but enables writing. And I thought what best to write about if not the hide and seek of the rain clouds on the vast sky. Then it got lost somewhere and suddenly it rained again)


6 comments:

ramya kumar said...

I had to look up brishti but I enjoyed the allegorical description.

Abilin Mukherjee said...

bhalo likhechish... ego golpo ta... the megh akash brishti allusion is beautiful... keep it subtle and it will continue being great

Kavity said...

Hey real cool post! Amazing metaphors! Though I need to admit that I had to look up Brishti, it being a wonder that I even understood Megh and Akash

Shreya said...

:) SFS - your Kajol is gone, replaced by DoCoMo :(
Nice post.

Madhurjya (Banjo) Banerjee said...

@ Ramya and Kavity - Thanks :)

@ Abilinda - The story can't move on till I know what happens to them :(

@ Shreya - :( My Kajol!!! :(

Krishna Sweta said...

Very well written Madhurjya.