Neera’s eyes were glued to her son’s cherubic countenance. Anirban, her son, was engrossed with his sand castle… He diligently mounded sand, tried to give it a castle like shape... With his little hands, he kept heaping sand to make it larger and bigger.
Neera thought how guileless he was. Anirban , didn’t know that his castle was ephemeral. He had no clue that the slightest wave of the sea would demolish it, leaving not even the smallest trace of it. He thought it would last forever and that he would visit it everyday and heap more sand to it to make it larger than before.
For a moment, Neera felt if she could stop the sea , raise a wall to protect her son’s castle from its waves. She knew, how disappointed Anirban would be to see the sea devouring his prized belonging. She didn’t want to see a tear in his eyes. She wanted to take him away, before a wave could perish his creation.
Anirban, caught his mother’s sight. He smiled at her and resumed his work again. She felt a warmth in her heart to see her child smiling. She wanted time to stop forever for she never wanted him to grow up. She wanted to treasure that very moment, she wished if he could continue building the castle and she could keep watching him, happily engrossed in his work forever. She wanted his innocence never to fade away... She wanted him in her bosom at that very moment… She wanted him to stay far, far away from the cudgels of time, from the brutalities of the world, from the harsh realities of life. She wanted to savor that very moment when life’s race appeared to take halt and everything was as tranquil as the sea.
While she thought about such things that were beyond the scope of practicality, she heard him calling her.
“Mumma , mumma, how does my castle look?”
She fervently exclaimed, “Beautiful!”
She went to him, stroked his hair and kissed his cheeks.
He felt rewarded. He thought his efforts have been paid. He hugged his mother tightly.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sea, seemed to look at the castle, with a devouring hunger. Its waves, like raven claws, relentlessly endeavored to pounce on it. It continued to eat away the castle little by little and then the sea, with one lashing wave, annihilated the entire structure. The sand heap fell decapitated and was entirely pulverized. The sinister wave, after satiating its evil hunger, retracted, as if its contrivance had been successfully executed.
Anirban, witnessed it all and so did Neera. She felt her heart torn asunder. She saw a tear drop trickling from her son’s eyes. He rubbed it soon, however.
“Lets go Ani”, she said in a mellowed voice.
“Why are you sad, Mamma? I would make you a stronger castle tomorrow.”
Pointing with his little fingers at a place where the waves were not creeping in, he remarked “I shall make it there and the waves won’t be able to touch it.”
He smiled at her consolingly, reassured her that nothing had been lost.
She kept gazing at him. She wondered, “Perhaps, he is growing up. Perhaps, it’s me who is relying on him. Perhaps, time doesn’t always decay things.”
He took her hands and she grabbed his little fingers.
She found herself guided by him all the way to their home.
No comments:
Post a Comment