First Snowfall

Siya, “Winter has come Anay and look I’m here.”

Siya and Anay were one of a kind. They had this silly ritual that no matter where they were they would meet in their home town whenever the first snow would fall.

They were born in the beautiful town of Manali and had known each other from the time since they were little kids. They went to school together, studied in the same class, shared the same desk but more than anything they had shared their entire lives with each other. There wasn’t anything that they both didn’t know about each other. They would share every tiny to every huge thing with each other. The universe had already given them that one thing that most can’t find even in a lifetime. Everyone including their parents were aware about the bond that existing between the two and everyone pictured them together, always.

Life moved on and the days passed by soon, little Siya and Anay had now grown up and so had their bond. But unfortunately, time had come when both had to part ways and go ahead in the world to build their own paths and their own careers. Siya moved to Bangalore for a job in a finance firm and Anay moved to Mumbai to be a software engineer. Initial few months were very difficult for both because this was the first time that they had stayed apart for so long. But as days passed they got busier in their lives and started getting used to their new way of life.

It was 20^th August, Siya’s birthday. First birthday away from her soulmate, her friend, Anay. The clock had already hit 12:00 AM but she didn’t get a call from Anay, not even a message. She became sad but kept on waiting until she dozed off. She woke up next day and to her wonders, Anay was sitting there in her living room with a bouquet full of Siya’s favorite orchids. Siya was baffled! She ran and hugged him.

She asked him,” What are you doing here so far from Mumbai?”

Anay very sweetly replied, “How could I miss your birthday.”

They had a lot of fun that day. They went out for shopping, watched a movie together and caught up on each other’s lives. Finally, it was the time for Anay to leave.

Before leaving Anay said to Siya,” Do you remember how much we both loved the first snowfall of Manali.”

To which Siya excitedly replied,” Yes!”

Anay continued, “Let’s make a pact, no matter wherever in the world we both are, we will meet in Manali every year after the first snowfall. No call, no messages and no planning regarding this but we need to be there. We would directly meet in Manali. Every year for the rest of our lives.”

Siya asked interestingly,” But where would we meet?”

Anay thought a little and replied, “Whoever reaches first will have to go to other’s home.”

“You got yourself a deal buddy.” Replied Siya.

Anay left for Mumbai and Siya went back to her apartment. Days went by and it was the month of December, the time for the first snowfall in Manali. Siya had just landed back in Manali and was excited to meet Anay. But Anay was already there waiting for her outside her home with an Orchid bouquet in his hands. Siya rushed towards him and hugged him tightly.

They had lived up to the first year of their deal!

Life moved on, 2 more years passed and Anay and Siya kept on visiting each other regularly and both fulfilled their promise of meeting whenever the first snowfall happened in Manali.

Everything was going great when one-day on their daily catchup calls Siya told Anay, “There is this really cute guy Tarun in my office and I think I like him.”

Anay sounded alarmed and replied, “Forget about him and tell me something else.”

Siya just skipped the topic and they started talking about something else. After a few days Siya noticed that whenever Siya tried to talk about Tarun, Anay would change the topic. This disturbed Siya as she was not able to understand that what was going on with Anay.

Siya decided to visit Anay in Mumbai and confront him. She went to Mumbai and met Anay.

“What is going on Anay” questioned Siya.

“Going on what?” replied Anay.

Siya further questioned, “See whenever I talk about Tarun, you act weird. I just want to know what is wrong.”

Anay replied, “Nothing is wrong just that I don’t like talking about him. And neither do I like you talking to that looser.”

Siya sounded furious, “Why Anay? You are my best friend and we have shared everything from childhood. There is this guy I might end up with and I like him because he is really nice and cute so what is wrong in that? It is fine that you don’t want to talk about him but why are you calling him a looser? I just came over because I thought that you might be disturbed because of something but here you are talking shit about people you don’t even know. What is wrong with you?”

Anay shouted, “I love you! This is what is wrong with me. I can’t stand the thought of you being with someone else, this is what is wrong with me. I have loved you from the very first day that I saw you in kindergarten Siya and having gone away from you has just increased this love, this feeling of being with you a hundred folds. I know you Siya, better than you do. I know that you don’t love me which is the very reason that I didn’t confess my love for you. I wanted to wait. I wanted to wait till the time you would also develop the same feelings for me and then this Tarun comes in from nowhere and wants to take you away from me. How can I be normal about it? How can I let you go? And how can I hear you talking about someone else? You tell me!”

Siya was astounded. A long silence. Siya could hear Anay breathe heavily. And then Siya said, “I love you, I have always loved you but not in the way that you want.” Siya left.

Siya took her flight to Bangalore and didn’t look back after that. She concentrated on her career and stopped talking to Anay. Anay tried reaching out many times to her but she never replied. That year she did not go to catch the first snowfall with Anay and neither did she go the next year. She stopped visiting Manali altogether.  Slowly, she stopped getting any calls and messages from Anay. But she never stopped thinking about him. She had loved him deep down. Maybe she wasn’t ready to accept it in front of Anay when he asked but she also had loved him. But now it was too late, 5 years too late! Too late to go back and ask for the love that she had so ruthlessly rejected. Slowly the thought of meeting Anay kept on growing deep inside that she couldn’t resist it anymore. That year she decided that she would visit Manali when the first snowfall hits Manali. And she did make it. She landed in Manali and went to Anay’s home to see if he had come to keep his promise or not.

And there she is now, sitting in Anay’s home, in his room, in front of his photo, which has a garland on it.

Siya was thinking about all the beautiful and tough times she had seen with Anay when tears rolled out of her eyes. Anay’s mother had told her that Anay had died 3 years back in a car accident, 2 years after they stopped talking.

Anay’s mother held Siya’s hand and said, “You know he really loved you. He never told me but I always knew. You remember your first day together in school? He came back home that day and told me that Mumma, today I saw a fairy in my class, she sits with me on my desk and she is beautiful. And he told me that one day he was going to marry you.”

Tears flooded out of Siya’s eyes while Anay’s mother continued, “He told me that you two had stopped talking. Although he made me promise not to talk to you about it. He really loved you dear. He wanted you to be happy. I wish he was here today to tell you all this but I think that I can ask for one thing from you. Stay happy Siya because this is what Anay ever wanted. Now you have to be happy for my son too.”

Siya left Anay’s home with a deep regret in her heart. She had lost someone she had loved the most. She had lost her soulmate. It made her wonder that how difficult is to get someone whom you truly love and who truly loves you back, but how easy it is to loose them.

So, spend whatever time you have with the one’s you love so that even if someone must go, you have no regrets!

-by Ambuj

A Letter from my Diary!!!

“What the fuck is wrong with them?” he yelled.

She kept her hand on his shoulder and replied empathetically, “It will pass!”

Life was turning out to be Charon’s boat for both of them. What they had considered to be their salvation was turning out to be damnation for them. Days kept on passing and every coming day was heavier than the previous. They had almost lost hope but they never let the darkness swallow them because their aspirations were high and their values were stronger than they had ever realized. Days turned to months and soon a year had ended, doing nothing but just adding to the exasperation.

They had almost adapted to this way of living, when like many other days she asked him with desolation on her face, “Will this ever end? Is there any end to this helplessness?”

He himself didn’t believe in his words but he had to comfort her. So he replied, “There’s Gold in them hills!”

“What does that even mean?” she questioned.

He smiled and said, “This means hold on, don’t give up! Keep on swimming, we’ll find the shore someday.”

Although she wasn’t convinced, she shook her head into a Yes.

The beauty of their relationship was that both of them were in the same soup and both couldn’t help each other but only they could truly understand each other’s position. They would just encourage each other to keep going so that they could reach to their separate destinations.  The little talks fortified their positive spirits and the amity muffled their beliefs.

The feelings that they shared were tiny but strong and helped them get through the strenuous times in life. Today, they are standing on a point in life where their hardships are about to come to an end and their good times are about to begin. Everything has turned out well. Their strong will, deep beliefs, endurance and edifying friendship had finally paid off. Soon they will be on their separate roads to happiness and wholeness. Everything that they wished for each other had been achieved, but something was lost, just one thing, the togetherness which helped them survive was about to end.

This is a little gloomy because if life gives you something it asks you to pay for it. They were no different; they also had to pay the price. That’s life as they say it and that’s what happens in the end. No ending, completely is a happy ending because where you think it has ended, something new is just waiting to begin!

- by Ambuj

Unknown Number

In continuation to 'Tea in Snow" - http://caravanchala.blogspot.in/2017/03/tea-in-snow.html

Richa was standing on the door waiting for her dad’s car to arrive. The car finally reached and Tanya stepped out of the car.

“You’re a complete dumbo” said Richa and hugged Tanya.

Tanya was so tired because of the whole incident that she had nothing to say and she just smiled back. Richa escorted Tanya towards her room.

“Here is the bathroom, you just freshen up and then let’s have dinner “said Richa.

Tanya went inside the bathroom and stood below the shower. The warm water was washing away her tiredness and she was coming to her senses.  She was just thinking about all that happened with her the entire day and was hooked onto the thoughts of the guy who helped her. She was just wondering how fate helped her by sending that boy in the hour of need and how he was so helpful when she was totally stranded. She was just thinking all this when Richa called her, “Tanya… Hurry up!”

Tanya got ready and rushed towards the dining room. Richa’s mother served the food and the four of them started eating. Richa’s mother said, “Tanya we were so worried! You should be a little more careful when you are travelling to some unknown place.”

Tanya replied empathetically, “I understand that aunty. It’s just that my battery died and there were no phone booths nearby?”

Richa’s father replied in a serious tone, “You kids are careless. You would use your mobile phones for everything, music, games, shopping and what not? But you won’t use it for the one thing that it is made for… Calling!”

Richa interrupted, “Come on you both! Let her have her dinner. We can have this preaching later!”

Everyone laughed on this and concentrated on their plates. But Tanya was still thinking about that boy.

So now Richa and Tanya were alone in Richa’s room.

Richa asked Tanya, “So how’s work?”

Tanya replied, “Fine” while looking towards the window.

Richa again hit her with a question, “Was the bus comfortable?”

Tanya replied, “Yeah” still while looking towards the window.

To which Richa promptly replied, “Shall I drop you back at that tea shop?”

This grabbed Tanya’s attention. She asked with a blush on her face, “What?”

“No, I can see that you are virtually still at that tea shop. You are not talking properly, dodging my questions and top of that paying zero attention to my new hairstyle!” said Richa.

Tanya giggled and replied, “It’s nothing like that. I am just tired and by the way that hairstyle is awesome.”

“Thanks for the compliment. But I know something is wrong with you. Are you thinking about the chai wala? I guess you have fallen for him?” mocked Richa.

Tanya replied, “HA HA HA! Very funny”

“So are you going to talk about it or are we just going to waste time?” questioned Richa.

Tanya blushed and told the whole story to Richa. She continued, “That guy was a life saver. And I wasn’t even able to thank him for what he did for me.”

“So it is all about thanking him?” asked Richa.

Tanya replied in a confused tone, “Maybe!” She continued “That guy was so gentle Richa. He helped me out and didn’t even ask my name. His eyes were so clean. I just can’t stop thinking about him.”

“Was he cute?” asked Richa.

“Indeed” Tanya smirked.

They both laughed wickedly on this.

“What was his name?” asked Richa.

“I didn’t ask his name!” said Tanya.

Richa laughed on this and said, “You are such a retard! You spend so much time with him. Borrowed his phone and everything but you didn’t ask for his name?”

“No” said Tanya hesitantly. 

“HAHAHA! God help you dumbo” said Richa.

Tanya threw the pillow at Richa and said, “Alright it’s enough. I am tired, let’s go to sleep.”

It was getting late and they decided to sleep.  Both of them lay down on their cozy beds which were separated by a small side table.

Just 10 minutes later Richa’s phone rang loudly on the table disturbing the sleep of both of them.

Tanya asked irritatingly, “Who is it?”

“Unknown number!” replied Richa. 

-by AMbuj

Tea in Snow

It was snowing outside. While all his friends were muffled in their cozy beds, he decided to take a walk down the alley. The roads were covered with white, soft snow and the ugly tar roads were looking the best they could ever have been. The birds were all silent and the sky was all clear. Just feathery snowflakes were flowing everywhere. He saw a dog hiding under a porch trying to cuddle a jute sack that it was sleeping on. Everything looked so pious and beautiful. He saw a tea shop and went towards the shop while still rubbing cold off his hands. He ordered a cup of tea.

The tea vendor gave him tea in a steal glass and said, “Sir please come inside”.

To which he just smiled and shook his head in a No to the vendor as he loved standing in the falling snowflakes. He brought the steal glass close to his lips and was about to have his first sip when, “Sneeze!!!” A loud sneezing sound came from inside of the shop followed by a light pitched sound which said, “Please give me one more cup!”

This pulled his attention and he turned towards the shop. Sitting there was a girl, wearing a Red coat with a pair of black jeans and long brown boots. Her eyes were trenched in the black color of Kajal which made her eyes look as if they were engraved on her beautiful face. Her face was so bright and lips were in complete agreement with the redness of her red coat. She definitely was the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen.  It seemed as if time has come to a point where nothing more could happen. He thought to himself, “Is this is the time where all this comes to a conclusion? Is this the moment for which I ever existed“

He kept his tea glass on the counter and moved towards the girl. The vendor smirked as he moved inside. He went and sat to the table next to hers’.  He was gathering strength from his ancestors so that he could approach her. He was about to say something when he heard something, “Excuse me!”

Confused he looked here and there until he realized that the girl had said the magical words again, “Excuse me!”

He asked her, “Me!”

“Yes!” she smiled.

He further questioned, “How can I help you?”

“I am Tanya” she continued, “I came here to meet my friend. Her address was stored in my mobile device but unfortunately my battery is dead.” Tears rolled down her cheeks, “Can you please help me?”

“Don’t worry. First have some tea and then check if you have her number somewhere” he asked.

“Yes, I have it written in my diary.” she replied.

He handed over his phone to her and she took out the number from her diary. She dialed the number and someone picked up the phone within 2 rings.

“Richa! Tanya this side!” said Tanya.

Richa asked in a worried tone, “Where are you? You should have reached by now. Dad has gone out looking for you. Tell me….”

“Hold on…” Tanya cut her and continued, “This is a long story and I’ll tell you once I reach just ask your dad to pick me up from here. I have reached an hour ago and I am scared now!”

“But where are you?” Richa enquired.

“Where…. Psstt!! Can you please tell my friend the address of this place”, Tanya requested him.

He told Richa the address and Richa told them that her father will pick Tanya up in 20 minutes.

“What a relief!” exclaimed Tanya and thanked him while returning the phone.

“But what exactly happened?” he asked

She made a puppy face and replied,” My bus broke down and they asked us to de-board the bus here itself! And when I checked my phone after getting off the bus, the battery was gone! This tea vendor said he doesn’t have a phone but you truly saved my life today!”

He blushed and asked “But what are you doing here?”

“I am a photographer and came here to my friend for a vacation. But unluckily everything went wrong.” She replied.

“Don’t wor…” baaannnnnnnn… he was cut down by the car horn.

“Ohh my God! Uncle is here” she exclaimed and just rushed out of the shop.

He was just sitting there thinking she would notice him. But by the time he could get off his brain train, the she was gone in her uncle’s car.

He was a little taken back as everything happened to fast. He settled the tea vendor’s bill and came out Hof the shop. Thinking all his dreams lived a short lifespan of a few minutes. He started walking back towards his home when he suddenly realized that he had Richa’s number in his phone. He quickly saved the number and put the phone in his pocket. He has something in mind which he wishes to do later but for now he had a tea of a lifetime in the snow!

-by AMbuj

Society: Paralyzing generations, from generations

Sometimes while sleeping you must have felt a great pressure on your chest. It feels like someone is sitting on your chest and pushing you down. You are partially awake, can’t speak and can’t even move. This phenomenon is called sleep paralysis in scientific terms. During sleep paralysis you feel powerless, afraid to your guts and to the worse you feel helpless because you apply all your strength to push yourself out of your bed but you cannot. To those who have experienced it, sleep paralysis is worse of the worst nightmares. Now imagine a scenario where you are sleep paralytic 24*7. You are well in your senses going through a routine day but you are in a condition where you feel the same fear and pain that you feel in sleep paralysis. They both were facing that pain daily!

Aryan and Tanya were a routine couple. They were deeply in love and they could have never asked for anything more. All the little or more that they had achieved in their lives was well earned. They had worked hard through tough times and had proved their mantel in their own world. They never had any luxury dreams. They believed that happiness and luxury are two different dimensions and they just wanted a normal and decent life full of love.

They almost had it all figured out but just one thing, the great Indian society! Being millennials and living their life in the globalized world they had almost forgotten that they belonged to the same orthodox and hypocritical society which still believes that it is the best in the world. Aryan and Tanya decided to get married and similar to any other Indian adults, this decision was not theirs afterall.  The same old Indian family story repeated itself where at first the girls’ parents wouldn’t approve of the wedding and by the time they do the boy’s parents would also have flipped sides. Aryan and Tanya also had fallen into the same loop. The reasons for the disapproval varied from time to time, starting from caste and then to society and then finally getting blocked on the famous astro-match point.

Now the point here is not to share the same old story but to take a step back and think of the sleep paralysis that the society is giving to its own children. From the society’s perspective, Aryan and Tanya are being selfish and they only have one thing to take care of which is being married. But from Aryan’s and Tanya’s perspective is this only thing that they need to worry about? No. They both are in their twenties wherein they are trying to focus on building up their lives. They have to build up careers; they have to earn the basic needs of theirs which includes their livelihood, house and car etc. They have one thing sorted out which is love. But the society decides that this love relationship is not good for both of them in the longer run and they should part ways.  One could just imagine the amount of burden that this would have brought to lives of both of them. How could they focus on other important things when the most important thing in their life is in jeopardy? And not to mention he impact that would be on their personalities and their lives. The so called self-proclaimed and self-idealistic beliefs of our society have turned out to be such oppression on the silly lives of Aryan and Tanya. What could be worse to having felt sleep paralysis even when you are awake? This is like you are living a paralytic life. You can do everything but not that one thing that you want to do the most.

What the society does not understand is that life is NOT a set of disintegrated blocks wherein you can pull any block any time if you don’t like it. What the society needs to understand is that life is a STACK of blocks. If you take out one block from the middle, the whole stack falls. Love is a building block in one’s life. If you pull it off, whole life falls apart. Now if love is removed from Aryan’s and Tanya’s life their focus from all other things will automatically shift and the results will be cataclysmic. So basically in the quest for the greater good, their own people would lead Aryan and Tanya into a life of failure and darkness.

The fate of many such Aryan and Tanya dangles in the dingles of the society. The discussion is endless and the conclusion is not even near but I wish that our society would have the strength to accept what is actually good for the future then to be over protective and judgmental. Our society needs to understand that the ideas that they cherish are gone with the passing days and they need to evolve. Then only there could be a true society that does not holds its future that is not bonded to crutches of the past. Then only the society can awake from this paralysis. 

-by Ambuj