Hello Good Times exerpts..

Up above the sky, the diminutive sunrays were then casually caressing the cumulonimbus clouds, maybe assuring them of clearing all dark by the next morning. Down below, the breeze of the autumn kept varying its pace to keep the mango orchard wondering as when to murmur and when not. A little far aside, the thin road through the meadows showed a line of homecoming farmers, depicting the life around as regular and mellowing in the horizon.

A man sat beneath a mango tree, close to the bank of a pond that was there in the center of the orchard, hemmed with herbs all around. Now a faint rustle caught his attention, and soon he had to focus on the dilemma that started brewing in him from the moment he found about its source. He didn't try to be poetic, yet the words like, 'to be, or not to be', or, 'she might doesn’t know that I'm here', started doing rounds in his head. That made him more immobilized than getting into action, except letting his eyes to follow the woman who was then approaching towards the pond, clad in a yellow sari that made her prominent even under the dying lights.

Splassshhhh! Soon she turned a water baby, deftly paddling through the pond, whirling and swirling with her swimming skills, mesmerizing him like a snake mesmerizes its prey. He tried to ignore that impact by thinking 'everyone has something unique to present', while picking up the book that he spent his afternoon with, 'Education and Social Order' by Bertrand Russell. No, he didn't try to read it in the dark; he only clutched it close to his heart, as if to shift his mind from the present scene to the utopias where he had been for so long with the book.

But that seemed impossible, as he found at a glance that the woman approaching towards this end of the pond, close to where he was sitting. For once he thought to make a quiet exit, but had to change his mind, as she swam fast to be close enough to find anyone making a move there. A little tension gripped him now, even as he tried to placate his mind by saying, she might be unaware of me here!

Keeping him in dark, she took a casual turn and swam towards the landing of the pond that was a few meters away from where he sat, and then started ascending through its stairs, in between pausing for a while to manage her hair and momentarily becoming still while looking at the sky.

All along stealing the moments from her behind, now he felt the call of the sensation that was radiating from her full-grown body, with curves magnetizing her wet sari to her skin. Once for a while he thought to let his desire win over his fence, much like recognizing the form over content, and bask in its fragrance of beauty for some time. A beauty that travels beyond the realm of touch to reach the core of realization! A magical, parabolic journey before a crash-landing! What's the harm in it? After all, life itself is ephemeral! He argued within, momentarily away from the chain of worries around him, but not for long, as she turned and started approaching towards where he sat. A veiled fireball, he couldn't help the idea coming in him, a fireball veiled in wet sari!

He still hoped that she hadn't seen him and would pass-by, but that was not to be!

"Pipida!" Her soft, husky voice soon flowed to him as she stopped just before him. That made him rising on his feet in an instant, though taking some time to find his words.

"I've been here all afternoon. Was reading this," he waved the book in his hand.

"I know. You wouldn't be here to see me. I don't have that luck."

"Why to bring up such a topic, Juhi! Look, I'm a stranger here, all right? Luckily I've got a shelter at Doctorda's house. You don't know, I'll have to move out any day, any time."

"But why someone like you would have to be on the run? What have you done? Are you an extremist? I don't believe that! A criminal? Even more impossible. Then what it could be?"

She came a step forward and perhaps that was augured by a sudden spell of breeze, all seemed picture perfect to embrace her as she was that close and inviting at that, oozing an ancient charm that men have been falling with all the time. But Pipi chose to move back by a step; I must keep my calm, he chanted within, almost violating the steaming order of the nature within, overturning his renewed craving for a feminine touch that he had been missing since he left Deepa in Kolkata. I have to be firm. I have to be out of this, at once! He stalked his nerves before saying, "That's a private story, and I don't want to share it with anyone."

"Not even with the person who wants to share her life with you?"

"I've nothing to do with a woman at this point, Juhi. I said you that I'm in a problem and I need to get out of it soon, that's all."

"Why so? I could also be of some help!"

"No, you cannot, and by they way I have someone I love."

"Ohh! But you never said that before!"

"Why the heck would I discuss my life with you?" Realizing that he pitched a bit higher than usual, he toned down, "I'm sorry Juhi. I didn't have any design to cheat anybody, or to hurt. All I want for now is a little space to think and make my way. Please help me."

"You! You're terrible! Why, why did you have to come here? Why? Oh God!" She turned hysteric in a moment, and then, backing out step by step, she hissed, "You'll never see me again! I promise you that!"

In an instant she turned back and ran, soon vanishing in the mosaic of the mango orchard, while he returned to his seat, but now choosing to lie on his back, looking at the stars that seemed brighter in this suburb, free of pollution and city-smog like Kolkata. Yet their brightness seemed unreal to him, much like his own life that had been for the past fortnight, and he desperately wanted to go back amid the hustle and bustle of his city, wanted to return to that unkempt yet cozy room of his own, where he would have time with Deepa, his love, or maybe with a blank space to write whatever comes to his mind- anything. Anything but this exile!

 

He thought on and gradually found tears trickling down his cheeks, and so he wept a while, then felt a strange surge of anger filling in him. It made him stand on his feet and resolving then and there: I must stop what's been happening to me. I must first go out.....

---------------------

It was early morning the next day when Dr. Mitra took the to roads to the mango orchard, a routine affair if he didn't have any emergency assignment. He was a fitness freak and would seldom miss out a chance to have his quota of walk and exercises.

He was walking a bit slower than his usual style, visibly perturbed from the happenings of the yesterday, as Pipi didn't return to his house after Bhola saw him for the last time on the road, waiting for someone to come. Though he tried to wear a casual look with the incidence, yet agony was showing in the folds of his forehead.

It was about a fortnight Pipi came to his place from the local hospital, but within that little spell he made a space of himself here with his good nature and academic aura. Pipi was a source of delight whenever put into a conversation, and especially at something philosophical, which to Dr. Mitra was rarely available in this suburb. And it was first time in his life he checked his mind to be inquisitive about someone staying in his own home, while declining to divulge the basic details about himself, except that little name, Pipi. Yes, Pipi hadn't told anything about him in detail, except only that he fell from the train while going to Siliguri, with his office colleagues to do some survey jobs at the forests in and around the hilly areas of Darjeeling.

Dr. Mitra followed his hunch that this fellow might have fallen in some trouble and he doesn't want to reveal that to anyone for any reason whatsoever, and so he also didn't dig at that. But off late, he felt a little worried about another prospect, which was pricking him from inside to know more about Pipi. And, that prospect evolved out of Juhi's growing interest on Pipi, which he easily understood from her changed appearance. He didn't see any wrong in it, on the contrary, hoped faintly to see a relationship between them, as he found both serving perfect match for the other, academically as well as physical charm. Now that wish died prematurely and Dr. Mitra was feeling sorry for Juhi.

The swans now quacked from their pen. They had woken up to start the day, and Dr. Mitra changed his track to reach there and release them. It was a rather narrow lane through the shrubs and a few steps after he found a torn blouse lay on the pathway. That was unusual, and so he stopped there and looked around, and suddenly he froze after seeing something amid the long strands of grass, of which only a little portion was up for view. It was a hand, a soft-skinned, beautiful hand with its palm facing the sky, slightly folded, as if wanting to keep a slice of sky in it, was up for view.

Being a physician he witnessed many deaths in his life, but this one was something special, it shook his spine from the minute after he saw the dead body and identified it as Juhi, lying with only petticoat on, her dead face was still looking beautiful, in spite of bearing marks of injury.

Who done it? Pipi? But why? He knelt down almost in a trance and touched Juhi's cold hand but that was all before he fell unconscious close to Juhi's body. The two lay on the ground, while the swans became restless to be freed from the pen.

....................

The moment Pipi alighted from the rickshaw to enter Chotogram railway station it started raining. He thanked God, because had that been started a bit earlier, the rickshaw puller wouldn't have been agreed to pedal under rain. And it came in torrents by minutes, reverberating all around in one fixed rhythm. Pipi thanked God also for that, as that sudden unleash of forceful rain had made the people lolling on the platform hastily running for a shelter, shifting from their usual carefree mood, which otherwise could have pried on someone like Pipi with prominent stitch-marks on forehead and almost limping, all the while wearing a shirt and a track-pant that anyone could tell that those were borrowed.

He stood at the edge of the corrugated shade of Chotogram station, isolated from the crowd that found a better option under a bigger roof at the other end of the station. The train to New Jalpaiguri, for which he was waiting was due to arrive soon according to its schedule, but he wished it arrived even before that, as his body pain was rising with every passing second, while chilled breeze was making his hands and feet numb with cold. For a while he thought he wouldn't be able to bear anymore, and looked around haplessly, feeling his vision getting blurred, and it was right at that moment, the signal post beside the railway track turned green, while the announcement was aired, "239 Up NJP Express is arriving on time.."

This announcement pulled him up from the trance as he stepped out from the shade and approached to the edge of the platform under that heavy downpour, and that did the magic, the sudden shock of chill overrode his pain for a while as he saw the train now entering platform. He knew he would have to find a general compartment or rather a vendor's one, since he had an ordinary passenger’s ticked, and that thought again depressed him, as he was now certain that if he could not walk a few more steps further, save running.

But to his surprise, a vendor's compartment stopped just before him and more surprise, it was half empty, with only two aged man guarding the stacks of vegetables covering the other half. He thanked God again and held the long rod and with a jerk jacked him up, and made it, and then fell down, then crawled a bit, but that far and no further, he fell unconscious there. Taken aback by his state, the two men in the compartment quickly came forward to help him, and to their horror they discovered the patches of blood that was then started coming out from the wound of his chest; like Good Samaritans they gently set Pipi inside and one of them started nursing his wound with an ointment that he had with him, while the other brought out his own clothes and a sheet to cover him.

Pipi was then dreaming. It was then late afternoon and he was playfully running with a little Pomeranian who he was addressing as Koko. It was a beautiful place, with a calm lake at one side and a big hill at the other, leaving a stretch of habitable space in between.

Koko was running faster than him, and now he stopped before a castle-shaped house and settled at its stoned pathway, waiting for Pipi. Soon he joined, panting all the way and then pushed open one of the big iron gates of that house and entered the sprawling courtyard, that hold an octagonal edifice made of shining green marbles at its center. He stood there for a while to catch his breath, and right then a deep, haunting sound of a bell echoed all around and instantly after, two well-built men came out from one of the rooms holding two huge oil lamps seemingly made of gold with heavy ornamentation. The two men held them with utmost reverence and slowly approached to the middle of the courtyard in unison. Both of them were shaven-headed and wore gilt-edged, brown robes, just like Pipi himself.

Pipi looked upward at the verandahs of the rectangular house, which resembled a monastery, and waved at the congregation that was adding up there with shaven-headed men, all wearing same robes, and soon they covered all the three rows of verandahs of that three-storied monastery. They silently waved back to him and stood in a disciplined manner with hands folded close to their chest.

Down at the courtyard, the two men stopped just beside the edifice and then stopped there like two statues.

"Buddham sharanam gachchami," Pipi said to them.

"Buddham sharanam gachchami," Both echoed his words.

"Sangham sharanam gachchami," Pipi said again.

"Sangham sharanam gachchami," They echoed again.

Now Pipi raised one of his hand and with that signal, the two monks moved gracefully and placed those huge lamps on top of the edifice and lighted them; the afternoon light was then fading out fast and soon the lights of those huge lamps illuminated the courtyard.

Now the two men took about turn and marched back to the entrance from where they came and then disappeared, leaving Pipi and Koko in the courtyard. Now Pipi bowed once to all and sat on the floor on his heels and again raise one hand for once, and that brought out a chorus of "Buddham sharanam gachchami, sangham sharanam gachchami" from the congregation above, which went on for some time, after which the next lot of slokas were started.