Shimmering Memories

Balancing a guitar, the coke bottle, and themselves…

… trying not to trip over the rocks, trying to steady nature to suit their unsteadiness.

“yeh shaam phir nahin aai gi…”, voices lilted, wobbled, and carried in the wind, fading out slowing over the moonlit ocean. The waves splashed the rocks gently, and the fine mist was spray after spray of pleasure.

“mein tumharey kareeb…tum mere paas ho..aur kuch ho na ho, buss yeh ehsaas ho..” … Nothing could take away the perfectness of that moment.. Three solitary figures, perched on smoother surfaces where the wind had sandpapered away sediments, over hundreds of thousands of years. The waves beat against the rocks with the swell of the tide, like the lashings of clothes being washed by an old washerwoman whos penchant for cleanliness persisted with a passion.

“hont khamosh hon..aankhein kehti rahein..” – They stood in the distance, drinking in the horizon one last time. The bags were packed, the trunks were loaded – they gazed at the scene before them in an unsaid farewell – the short stint of sanity, away from the hubbub of normal life, was over…

In that unspeakable moment, standing absolutely still, unmoving, they saw – The distance between the ground and the sky didnt seem so far apart. IT was like peering into a painting..The moon was a flashlight peering through a hole in the sky, illuminating dimly all that surrounded them. The colours and textures changed, from rocky ground underfoot, to sand filled dust… to soothing cool wind that whipped the hair out of their eyes, framing them like rugged red indians in their native spirited costumes.. To the silky sheen of the sky, where there shone a lone star.

The night was alive.. An irridescent energy glowed about them. There seemed to be this perfectness – the spotlight shone down in a steady orb, widening to encompass the tan sands, and the silhouette of the rocks the jut out of silvery waters. Every nuance, rivet, bump in the dark dark landscape stood out, poised as a ballerina in her perfect pose.

He smiled, and held out his hand… as if to say it was time to go…The other kindred spirit had already started on the journey back…

She stood still, almost as if pleading.. just two minutes more… Just a little more…

At last, with a sigh, she savoured the last moments…

She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes tightly shut, and opened them suddenly again – almost as if taking a picture, capturing the memory forever, in her pensieve of dreams…