As a child, Maya would sit alone for hours looking up at the skies, her eyes would call for someone she didn't know. She would feel a terrible sense of separation and then a soothing all encompassing presence, both at the same time. She would create lyrics to the songs she had never heard, think about faces she had never seen, feel about events that never happened. It wasn't that Maya was gifted with some mystic powers - she was a normal child, with average IQ and average looks.She had however always felt that she was closer to a higher power than anybody else. Whatever she wished for would be granted in a way or other. Like an average person she would thank god for the moment and then forget about it.
Even after two decades, Maya has remained in an awe of her mystic powers. In a moment she would be able to use them and then in other they are all gone, leaving her bare to confront the harsh realities of the world.
This particular morning was however a rosy one, when Maya felt she had all her powers and she could transform a worm to a butterfly with the blink of an eye. She started the day with her regular prayer hoping her list of want-to-be's would be sanctioned soon. Not that those were the only things she wanted from life, it was just a test she wanted to put her powers through. Maya had always felt attuned to the idea that the whole cosmos is made of love.
High with the booze of her mystic powers, Maya gets down from the bed and looks out of the window to see the clear sky. Icy clouds had given the way to sunlight that Maya felt had just happened when she opened her eyes. Everything looked so bright and clear that it was almost blinding. The creek looked even more beautiful and prominent with the framing of snow.
Maya immediately knew that something special was about to happen, either to her or in her life which would transform the course of things.
The village was celebrating the festival of "Navikaran," meaning renewal. The villagers believed that each year during monsoons, the goddess of "Navikriti" would bless them and renew the soil for better crop. The villagers had built a temple for the goddess at the peak of "Parambachi" mountain. To mark the festival, each year the villagers will trek for two days and take an older item from their household and take it to the mountain top temple and offer to the goddess. Only the priest of the temple and his family could use the older things once they were offered to the goddess or discard them. At the end of the festival, the villagers will buy an exactly same but new item.
Maya felt that there was a deeper significance to the festival. She knew it was more about the renewal of the body, mind and soul than giving away the material things and replacing them with the new ones. That's why when her mother Champa asked her to pull out an older saree from her closet, she dismissed the idea. Champa moved on to the kitchen closet and took out an old brass pot which was missing one of the handles and declared, "I wanted a new pot anyway."
Chapter - 2
She was taking her breakfast when she heard her parents talking about how Maya was just a baby and now she has reached 'that stage' where she will leave them and go to someone else's house. She heard her mother confronting her father. "It can wait..she still has the mind of a baby..she doesn't know anything about the real world."
"Did you know?," her father replied as he smiled and shrugged off her mother's concerns. "All mothers feel the same, I guess. This is just your affection for her and even I am not ready."
"But people are talking and now I have energy and money to give her a good send off."
"Where am I going?," inquires Maya still munching on the pancakes made by her mother.
"Darling, we are thinking that we find you a person just as caring as your father and who can take you places and fulfill all your dreams," her mother replied, who had now came from the kitchen and sat next to her as she holds her hand between her warm palms.
This was something new for Maya. Her mother had always been so busy with her household chores that she almost never sat with her like that before.
"No wait, this has happened before, when I was sick with measles," Maya thought as her mind starts to recount every single event when her mother was by her side. Her eyes began filling up as she recalled falling from the bike, spat with a friend, scolding from the teacher and numerous such incidents when her mother held her hand just like that.
"I am not going anywhere," declares Maya, without even caring to ask what the plans were. Still pearly eyed, she finishes off her breakfast and rushes out of the house. "I am going to Kalpana's house and won't come back until evening. We have plenty of topics to cover for the big exam tomorrow."
Even after two decades, Maya has remained in an awe of her mystic powers. In a moment she would be able to use them and then in other they are all gone, leaving her bare to confront the harsh realities of the world.
This particular morning was however a rosy one, when Maya felt she had all her powers and she could transform a worm to a butterfly with the blink of an eye. She started the day with her regular prayer hoping her list of want-to-be's would be sanctioned soon. Not that those were the only things she wanted from life, it was just a test she wanted to put her powers through. Maya had always felt attuned to the idea that the whole cosmos is made of love.
High with the booze of her mystic powers, Maya gets down from the bed and looks out of the window to see the clear sky. Icy clouds had given the way to sunlight that Maya felt had just happened when she opened her eyes. Everything looked so bright and clear that it was almost blinding. The creek looked even more beautiful and prominent with the framing of snow.
Maya immediately knew that something special was about to happen, either to her or in her life which would transform the course of things.
The village was celebrating the festival of "Navikaran," meaning renewal. The villagers believed that each year during monsoons, the goddess of "Navikriti" would bless them and renew the soil for better crop. The villagers had built a temple for the goddess at the peak of "Parambachi" mountain. To mark the festival, each year the villagers will trek for two days and take an older item from their household and take it to the mountain top temple and offer to the goddess. Only the priest of the temple and his family could use the older things once they were offered to the goddess or discard them. At the end of the festival, the villagers will buy an exactly same but new item.
Maya felt that there was a deeper significance to the festival. She knew it was more about the renewal of the body, mind and soul than giving away the material things and replacing them with the new ones. That's why when her mother Champa asked her to pull out an older saree from her closet, she dismissed the idea. Champa moved on to the kitchen closet and took out an old brass pot which was missing one of the handles and declared, "I wanted a new pot anyway."
Champa asked Maya to call her father Rujal from the neighbor's house so they all could proceed for the temple as it was safer to start the trek in the morning light.
The trek to the mountain top was scenic but treacherous. The last night's monsoon storm had pelted parts of the trek and the path was slippery and hard to get grip on. Maya was however more focused on the stunningly green ferns and rare flora that were in their best blossom and only appear during that part of the year. Passing through the orchid valley she was completely lost in the rainbow of colors and her feet were mindlessly following the footsteps of her parents. Champa had to prompt her several times to tread carefully or she will slip into the valley.
Chapter - 2
She was taking her breakfast when she heard her parents talking about how Maya was just a baby and now she has reached 'that stage' where she will leave them and go to someone else's house. She heard her mother confronting her father. "It can wait..she still has the mind of a baby..she doesn't know anything about the real world."
"Did you know?," her father replied as he smiled and shrugged off her mother's concerns. "All mothers feel the same, I guess. This is just your affection for her and even I am not ready."
"But people are talking and now I have energy and money to give her a good send off."
"Where am I going?," inquires Maya still munching on the pancakes made by her mother.
"Darling, we are thinking that we find you a person just as caring as your father and who can take you places and fulfill all your dreams," her mother replied, who had now came from the kitchen and sat next to her as she holds her hand between her warm palms.
This was something new for Maya. Her mother had always been so busy with her household chores that she almost never sat with her like that before.
"No wait, this has happened before, when I was sick with measles," Maya thought as her mind starts to recount every single event when her mother was by her side. Her eyes began filling up as she recalled falling from the bike, spat with a friend, scolding from the teacher and numerous such incidents when her mother held her hand just like that.
"I am not going anywhere," declares Maya, without even caring to ask what the plans were. Still pearly eyed, she finishes off her breakfast and rushes out of the house. "I am going to Kalpana's house and won't come back until evening. We have plenty of topics to cover for the big exam tomorrow."
