The Winds of Dalhousie – Love Short Story
Photo credit: Schick from morguefile.com
Dalhousie, a small town nestled in the hills of North India, all curvy roads lead to the small lake in the heart of this paradise and it’s here that love blossoms and grows into a beautiful flower with a long stem full of thorns- a characteristic common in all love stories, each flower unique with different fragrances that inspire other flowers and five motivation to blossom, to stand the test of times and to kiss the sky.
These sun kissed flowers envelope the harshest terrains and add colours to your life, one such flower was sown by Ayan-his is a love story straight out of a Nicholas Sparks novel.
Ayan was 5 years old when his father who was in the air-force and was posted in this quaint little paradise, he had seen almost all of india, and each place would capture his heart with unique diversity but there was something about this town that was extra-ordinary and his life was about to change for better or for worse. Having all the privileges of a good life style, love , great environment , there was one thing that was lacking –other humans.
At his age, friendship-something he didn’t know existed, thanks to his homeschooling and his mother’s over protective nature that sometimes translated into over empowering, never really giving him a chance to explore the real world on his own terms but to believe everything she told him including what he saw on T.V to what he read in the news papers, his world was like that of Jim Carrey from the film ‘The Truman Show’, but it was only her love, the fact that she wanted him to enjoy only the good things in life and not be made fun of, due to the polio he suffered from, she was reluctant to put him school due to the fact that a school a place where young boys who rarely sit and are always on the run pulling pranks and being caught, he wouldn’t fit in, he will always be the last one and that would isolate him , he was a gifted boy, he used to practice music to keep himself busy and music’s what gave him inner peace but this was all about to change, magical things were going to happen.
He was in Dalhousie, where the clouds and the sun play hide and seek, the mist covers the beautiful greens dotted along the rockies that lead to the most peaceful waters, it is here that he would spend all his evenings taking inspiration from the surroundings and dedicating verses to his muse, one day he saw the reflection of what was possibly a girl as if extending a hand of friendship to him, the nearer he went the winds seem to have taken her away from him, not paying much attention he continued admiring the sun set and captured the vivid colours of twilight in his heart and with a deep breadth went back home. This became a routine until one day when he followed her shadow into the forest that led to a light house, a whole new world of amazement stood before him, there she was smiling, inviting him in, ‘I’m Kavita’, not having dealt with people before he didn’t know how to react, so he went back hurriedly, pondered over it the whole night, went to his mother to seek advice but was put down and not allowed to go to the lake for a week.
But soon a week passed by, he was getting anxious and couldn’t wait to go to his favourite and the only place outside he was allowed, also hoping somewhere deep down ‘she’ will be waiting, he waited for quiet some time but no shadows. He decided to follow the path and go to the light house instead, he could see a dim light piercing through the small opening and falling on his feet, little beeds of sweat trickled down his face as he took the steps and he could hear slight sounds emitting from inside, and there he saw what he had never seen in 15 years of his life a group of girls and boys all his age, a dash of silence took over the tiny now defunct light house.
There was Kavita with her friends who went to the same and the only school and would come here often to practice for the inter- state school band event that would bring the winning school a cool 10K and scholarship to train in music, their only chance of making it big and going to big city to be stars, which they already were in their school.
But the town didn’t take them seriously if they knew they were practicing for this ‘western culture’ they would have to deal with serious consequences and so they went underground and would practice here. Her friends were reluctant of him, they didn’t get along well, dealing with so many people all at once was a big deal for him too. 6 months had passed since then they were all friends, along side was love brewing between Ayan and Kavita, call it teen-age love but it was a small bud blossoming into a big flower.
It was only 1 week before the ultimate face-off but as destiny or the winds of this town would have it the lead singer fell ill, their only hope was Ayan, he’d join in the jam sessions since music was what gave him inner peace and decided to make him their lead, but it wasn’t as easy as replacing a cherry with a straw berry on a cake, they would have to deal with his mother. He would have to deal with people in general, the town’s wrath and the fear of them being right gave them the cold feet.
But Kavita went to her principal who was very supportive and the one to enrol them for the competition, but the 1st rule was that kids to be of the same school, they had the biggest task before them to convince Ayan’s mother to enrol him in the school, the principal was willing to consider this special case knowing that he was a gifted boy. God knew no way to control her anger when she came to know what had been happening behind her back and confined Ayan to his room forever, she could not fathom sharing her boy’s love and attention with others.
The town celebrated the school’s and the young ones loss and dashed all their dreams, holidays started, Ayan and his mother shifted to the neighbouring town , Kavita meanwhile started preparing for her university entrances and applied to many foreign universities. They had kept in touch all this while via mail and exchanged love notes just like the olden days, she got her acceptance letter from London School of Arts and he was dealing with the loss of his mother, all alone out there
Not having an idea of knowledge he took to music and started teaching at the local primary school for a while.
It’s been four years, Kavita is an Arts historian Major and Ayan is a music composer at the fim industry, they both decide to take this a step further, and decide to meet at the same place. He goes two days before her, and prepares a sumptuous meal, designs an itinerary for her. Dalhousie is a changed town now, with a cafe that holds concerts and amateur music events, the wind is still the same, this rose tinted town is now more of a fuscia coloured cultural hub, with neighbouring town people coming here to celebrate the music fest held every year on the 10th of Jan the very same day 6 years back where there would’ve been the ultimate face-off and the man behind this is none other than Kavita’s principal who resisted the back lash of people and made this happen.
The day was here, he had asked her to meet him at the light house directly. The weather that day wasn’t good and people were asked to stay home fearing a cyclone and heavy showers , but he was way too eager to pop the question and couldn’t wait. He saw her coming near from the peep whole just as he was preparing to get down on his knees, one of the hinges of the tree house he’d built next to the light house where they’d have dinner later, gave away and due to heavy rainfalls the previous night the soil was wet and she slipped and the pillar knocked her unconscious on the floor.
He came running down, she had a huge smile on her face happy to see him, and there she lay in his arms and her last words
“few are lucky to go to heaven, I found mine in your arms I can peacefully go to even hell now, see you up there. I’ll be waiting and watching over you, see that shinning star? Well, that’s me, won’t leave you that easily and I lov…..”
Before she could complete the winds took her away, and this love story never really had a happily ever after. Not many are lucky to have the one’s they love with all their heart be by their side at all times, but the winds of Dalhousie still takes Ayan back to that place.
It’s been 40 years since that night, and Kavita was and still is the only one for him and he keeps going back to that place every night, like they say some flowers never die.
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