Beyond The Water
(Translation of Hindi Novel - Jal Tu Jalal Tu)
(15)
But just as parents do not allow their children to wear their cast off garments in the same way the new generation does not want to stay in the rooms of their predecessors unless there is some compulsion. The youth have their own style of living and would not like to see the expressions it might bring in their elder’s eyes. Hence it is out of respect for them and not due to disobedience or disrespect to them that they want their own space.
The date of Della’s arrival was drawing closer and there was a buzz of excitement all around. The elated Della sent latest information’s about her mission and her parents and daughters were counting days when she would be landing in America. Kinjan and Perina were busy in making the place as comfortable as they could for her husband and friends and Sona and Silva were busy in beautifications. After all the couple was coming from such a far off country with their friends after such a long times.
The people with whom Della was working at present were very dedicated and enthusiastic towards their cause. All the friends were very dedicated and enthusiastic towards their cause. All the friends were Chinese; they launched new products and tried to search market for them with proper demos. Their Company was making progress with leaps and bounds and sky was the limit.
The company had just one condition… secrecy their plans were absolutely confidential with no publicity with no hubbub. They did not want a soul to know what they were planning to do till they were successful. Their axiom was, ‘see the performers on the stage, not in green room.’
That was the main reason Sona and Silva known nothing about the purpose of their parents visit and it did not really matter. Was it not enough that they were coming?
Sona was the case with Kinjan and Perina. The home coming of their daughter and son-in-law was no less than a festival for them. That was all, no ifs and buts, no signs of punctuations.
In an Indian household, if KHEER is being prepared the housewife’s only concern is about the proper ingredients and dry fruits that are to be put into it. Who bothers what festival it is, Krishna Janmashtmi, Ram Navmi or Lord Shiva’s birthday! And why in India only, Sweets always remain the main course during celebrations throughout the world. Who is going to eat cake with no sugar during x-mas? The only ‘MUST’ for a ‘halwa’ whether it is of wheat of moong of potato or carrot is that it has to be sweet. The guests may be diabetic, but the mouth-watering sweets are an expression of ecstasy the host feels who no mood to nurse the guest is.
Hence the two things were entirely different who the performer was and who was the spectator in the upcoming fair.
Buffalo City was the destination of quests so there people started making plans to show them around and even take them to distant places that around and even take them to distant places that interested tourists. Previously when Della used to come, her role object used to be spend as much time as she could afford with her people during her short stay. And she never came with her husband.
But all that was going to happen now. There was enough time; she could go around with her daughters. Everyone was waiting for the moment when their aircraft would land on American soil.
When Wooden, Della and their three Chinese friends alighted from the aircraft in New York, Sona and Silva, bubbling with excitement bounced around in elation and presented the most beautiful bouquets to the guests. Their eyes were fixed on the handsome man, their father. They kept on gazing at him for a long time and forgot that their mother existed too.
After some time, Silva was at the steering of their luxury car that was speeding towards Buffalo. Sixty year old HO, fifty seven year old Chum and Yuvan who was twenty one were as excited as children as they looked out of the window at the American landscape, the fleeting panorama. Della and Sona were constantly talking in hushed tones, as if they had so much to say to each other while tome and words were limited.
For Wooden, the mere thought was thrilling that his daughter, who was as soft as small as a kitten when he had lost seen her was driving the car so deftly and taking them to Buffalo.
The three guests were busy in clicking their Cameras.
The wholehearted welcome the guests got from enthusiastic Perina and Kinjan was beyond their expectations. China or America could not even dream of such a welcome from each other. The shy young man Yuvan was sure his stay in America was going to be memorable with friends like Sona and Silva.
Buffalo City was divided into two parts. One side had majority of locals residing in it and the second one was crowded with tourists who came to see the Niagras from all over the world. The business of supplying different types of food in accordance with the ratio of tourists from different communities flourished.
Mister Ho told Kinjan that he was the owner of a stadium in a small district where children were trained to participate in renowned games and sports competition. Transforming small kinds into famous athletes was not his hobby but profession. Parents handed over their kinds to him and were confident their future was secure. He on his part made every effort to transform the children into men if steel. He turned their interest in sports into an obsession and charged heavy amount for his art and patience.
Mr. Chum was the financer of international sports.
Sona and Silva were glad to know that Yuvan was a swimmer of international level.
The company owned by three guest admitted children, trained them at some secret location without any publicity and brought them in public eye only when their achievement was significant.
The family mixed with the guest and day seemed to fly.
Within a few days Della and her friends combed every nook and cranny of Buffalo with attractive photographs of different paces they tried their best to adorn the memories of their visit. Kinjan and Perina told them about their honeymoon trip to the Ashram one day. Della had already related how the Ashram was devastated year back in an earthquake (a storm) and how by a coincidence, she had got that diary.
One fine evening when after dinner they sat and were enjoying the freshness of the garden near the gleaming waterfall, they had an argument and started discussing whether there was any weight in the theory that after death a person can wonder around as a soul, or was it just a figment of imagination, a fanciful thinking or just a topic for entertainment. During the debate Kinjan was un usually quiet. He was very much surprised that his guest too had felt or rather experienced the presence of a departed person in some way or the other.
Chum related how such souls had helped him during adversity. He believed their souls have good disposition so they help people. They are of those usually powerful and great people who have the potential to interfere in matters of the world. He had no experience where the souls of some distressed or helpless person was seen wandering around.
Everyone was flabbergasted when Yuvan stated that during crucial moments while swimming he came across super natured powers and was helped by them.
Sona and Silva just listened with interest as they had nothing to say. Everyone was surprised when they realized that during the whole discussion wooden was lying on lawn in deep slumber and had not heard a single ward.
Yuvan related an interesting incident. When he was just fourteen and was swimming in deep water of a stream in a forest. He was entrapped in bushes that had moss all around them. He shouted for help but got none. Suddenly he saw a big fish coming towards him. Seeing the monstrous fish with sharp pointed teeth and thorn like growth on its fat thick skin advancing nearer and nearer, he screamed. But suddenly, he saw very clearly that the fish clearing the bushes with its thorny skin, made way for him so that he escaped with not a single bruise on his body. His friends later told him it must have been a vegetarian fish that lived on bushes and other vegetation under, but Yuvan knew in his heart that the fish was an angel that came to save him when death was so close, almost looming on his head. Then, very softly he added, the impression of the eye of that fish was still implanted in his mind.
After dinner, coffee and chatting when the guest finally left them to go to bed and Kinjan and Rerina entered their bedroom, both were rather ill at ease but for different reason.
Kinjan somehow was not very comfortable and assured where the guests were concerned. In the beginning the days were quite exciting because they had come with wooden and Della and were from the same company hence they were their guests but gradually when they were freer with them he started doubting their intentions. He could sense they were domineering and arrogant. He got auspicious and was a bit jealous too. He felt they would harm him. They tried to make him feet small and neglected. When his own daughter joined them, it was intolerable. Her intimacy with them gave him no comfort. Wooden were self centered and neutral type who wasn’t concerned at all nor it made any difference to him that his wife Della was much involved in the projects and plans of their Chinese friends and during conversations enthusiastically supported their cause.
Kinjan secretly nourished the desire to see Yuvan as a life partner for Sona or Silva. Though no one can predict future yet he knew that yuvan was della’s favorite too.
Perina was perturbed due to some other reason. Why only women’s soul roamed around aimlessly, she thought with vexation. She had never heard that after death a boy or some man’s soul was wandering around, only girls or women’s souls were seen at times, souls that were frustrated or dissatisfied! Who distributes contentment, what are his yard-slicks, who gets the herring of a full life and who gets just a part of it? It she could find the answers to these questions that were pricking her in some books. she would read it throughout the night! But since there was no such book, she now concentrated on what she would serve the guests in breakfast.
She told Kinjan that not only Della but the guests also were never tired of complimenting Kinjan on making their comfortable room look so attractive and furnishing them so well. Sona an Silva were also quite impressed by the guests and were eager to go to their country Kinjan often reflected had he formed his opinion about the guests too hurriedly?
Next morning when they were having tea in the garden and Mr. no gave him a standing invitation to visit China, even offered to take him along with himself Kinjan was very much touched and impressed.
It was a Formality that was expressed prematurely, Kinjan and Ho, both were aware of it.
When Kinjan heard that Ho and Chum were planning to go and see the ruins of the Ashram near Grove City had been blown to bits, he was surprised. And above it, they knew much about it through some documents.
Yuvan was enjoying Sona and Silva’s company so much that nothing else seemed to matter. This trio was really having all the fun.
So for some days the guests stayed out of Buffalo City.
***
