DAY 3:

“…..The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove……” is all I remember of murmuring early morning when I heard my mom’s platonic voice asking me to get up. ‘2 mins, I’m having a nice dream’ I replied. Get up if you want breakfast is what she snarled. I instantly got up, man I would anything for food!!! What I forgot to mention to you all was the tense situation brewing up in my hometown due to a community clash. There were rivers of blood oozing out in practical brutality, but that day it was uneasily quiet outside. As my dad handed me the car’s keys, I noticed that my dad wasn’t particularly happy about travelling to our ancestral home, but the function next day was something we couldn’t miss. The main purpose of my visit down home wasn’t any soul searching, it was this function only. It was a pretty interesting long drive, in the uneasy calmness of the road lurked the darkness of an unpredictable future. Whatever that feeling was I managed to safely park my car after the long drive at our ancestral home. I could see close relatives around and youngest of my cousins ran to greet me.

As I carried him in my arms and walked towards the pandal I heard a sweet voice singing one of the popular local rhymes. My heart raced and so did my legs to know the source of the sound. A smile lit up on my face when the sweet lavender fragrance lured me again. As she finished her song my cousin sister ( well I’m lucky I’ve many cousins with so good friends ;) )introduced me to the supposed to be stranger friends of her. “You sing beautifully. I thought……” I couldn’t complete the sentence as my dad’s presence held me uneasily. I walked out to play with all my cousins who had gathered there. My face was glowing with happiness as I was especially glad I was there. We all were engrossed in a game of football outside the pandal when suddenly sanjana came and joined us in the game. Man! Gal+football, things were getting weirdly interesting. We all sweated it out in the really hot tropical weather. We were thoroughly engrossed and wouldn’t have stopped unless our parents really ordered us to march off. The day ended pretty fast, and as night set in, I found I couldn’t catch any sleep. I was tossing around until I noticed her wide awake in the adjacent room. I called her out, and we both found ourselves taking a quiet walk on a calm night. It wasn’t exactly full moon, but it was pretty bright. But we both enjoyed the brisk walk holding each others hand in fields nearby. We shared few light moments and walked back so that we wouldn’t have someone searching for us. The night set in pretty deep, and so did sleep.