The Forbidden
Mountain
The spark of youth had died down in me a long time ago; the
taste of life was now quite stale on my lips. Till a few days ago, I hardly
know what I wanted from life, or why failure to get it blocked the light from
the sky above me. All the same, there was a crimson glow in the sky following
the sunset that day. She leaned on me for a moment. I could feel her heart
pounding with the thrill and ecstasy she had discovered in the past few hours.
She let her hand lie in mine as a parting favour smiling
adorably at me. It made me feel vaguely embarrassed considering the presence of
a dozen relatives in the room. It certainly wasn’t the ideal place for such
sentimental musings, but we didn’t have a choice. The centripetal force that
pulled her towards her parents only a few hours ago had been replaced by an
intimate attraction towards me now.
Something throbbed between us now. We were smiling at each other
like two naughty children who have climbed up a forbidden mountain atop which
they discover a new world. The real world was at our feet now; it was gradually
fading into ignominy. The real world would be before us as and when the novelty
of our experience fades rubs itself off, we knew. It is a bad bad world out
there, but we hoped to make the most of the ecstasy we had discovered in each
other’s company the day before.
We were practically lost in the wild maze of inarticulate
happiness we had discovered in the past few hours. We did spend some time in
extracting some sentimental comforts from the
wedding-presents we unpacked. All the same, the exquisite experiences of
the past few hours trembled in our veins like the Rajdhani Express; every drop
of our blood extended an invitation to happiness. It was like discovering a
novelty again and again.
The fact is there had been a stiff opposition to our
alliance quite similar to what is seen in Hindi movies. Even though we have
waded into the 21st century, differences of caste and class continue
to divide the Indian society. These divisions have certainly made life a bit
easy for most of us, but for those in love, these differences have made life
quite tough.
A solitude had been tacitly created for her in the crowded
world. She was from an upper-caste family. It was a golden cage in which she
sat huddled. It was like being in a water-tight bottle. She could clearly see
birds flying freely in the world outside. She did feel a bit jealous.
The opposition to our union gathered momentum when my
unemployed status came before her parents. They couldn’t trust their daughter’s
happiness to me. I respected their mistrust; moreover, there was also a great
difference in our ages that threatened to push our relationship to a nadir
everyday. It was a love-story punctuated by innumerable commas, semi-colons and
dashes. We didn’t want it to have a full-stop too.
We had to take some tough decisions. Such decisions are
never easy when you are in love. You are torn between the values of the society
you are brought up in and your love. The ideals, norms and values of the
society seem to ask for their share in the deal to let you live happily in it.
The forbidden mountain is the only place where there are no
divisions of cast and no questions of age and employment are asked. This is
where happiness and laughter reign without being challenge. Let us see how long
they rule the world on the forbidden mountain.
The day did end more favourably than it had begun.
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