Onlyness by Santosh Jha (red white and royal blue hardcover .txt) 📕

She now knows, Shiv was saying it right when he said, there were so many cultural conventions, we all followed, which actually served us in a limited way. Even when she spent hours with him, she never felt the need to ask anything about Shiv’s life and past. And now, she has made him her good friend, knowing nothing about him. Shiv was right, she accepts, you do not ask the name, address and other facts to a river or a mountain. Melissa remembers her moments when she was sitting on the boulder midstream the Ganges. She visualizes herself as the river and Shiv as the tall Himalayan mountains surrounding the river. The female-male elements are beginning to find its symbiotic symmetry. She is oblivious of the alchemy of cosmic charisma. The river, which sources its flow from the mountain top glaciers, is perennial and creator of civilizations. The river-mountain symbiosis is cosmic chemistry. Elements just line up in reverence of the energy of this alchemy.

**

CHAPTER 7

Late night, Melissa gets a phone call from her dad, which makes her concerned. The evening tabloids in London carried a picture of Melissa making Indian sweet at a shop on their front page. The picture was credited to an international news agency. Her dad cautioned her that as the picture caption identified the place as Rishikesh, the paparazzi might soon find her and trouble her peace.

Melissa becomes nervous. Now that the media knows where she is, within a day they will get to find about her stay in the ashram. She has been so happy with her peaceful stay here. She fears, the media would create unpalatable stories about her stay in a yoga ashram. A month back, she had enough of it when media speculations made a circus out of her plight. She is not sure, how to handle this situation. She decides, she will wake up Shiv, tell him everything about her past and the latest developments. She is confident Shiv will help her.

“Shiv, I am sorry, I troubled you with all this but I had to”, she says after briefing him about everything about her life and the mishap in her life.

“Melissa, it is me who should say sorry to you. I took you to the town and this trouble for you happened because of me.”

“No Shiv, it is not your fault. It is my trouble and I have created every bit of it.”

“What do you want now? I mean, why you seem so nervous about media knowing where you are and what you are doing.”

“Shiv, you don’t know them. They are so intrusive. They shall follow me everywhere and take my pictures. It becomes impossible for you to breathe when they chase you like a prey.”

“You are right Melissa, I have never faced them in my life so I cannot even imagine. I have only read about them. However, my point is, you are here in our ashram and having peaceful time with yourself; it is not something wrong or weird. Everyone has the right to go anywhere and do whatever one likes. So, you can call a press conference here, allow the media to take pictures and tell them that you are here to spend some peaceful time and they should respect your privacy.”

“Shiv, you cannot understand all these celebrity business and gossip news hunt. Nobody is interested in what I say. They are not like you Shiv. They do not sit near a river asking nothing. They jump into the river, stomp every inch of it, drain every drop of water out of it and then dig into the dry riverbed to find gossip materials. People do not accept celebrities as anyone. They do not associate anything normal and regular with them. That is why gossips about celebrities are read and believed more than their own words. I have travelled thousands of kilometers to run away from them. I cannot just give up.”

“Melissa, if you are sure, you do not want them, then, there is only one solution to this trouble.”

“No Shiv, please. I do not want this solution. I do not wish to run away from here. I have found my precious peace and poise here. I feel rejuvenated here. I have just found you as my good friend. I still have to learn a lot from you. How can I run away from this place?”

“Okay Melissa, if you do not want this option, you have to consider a way out, which shall need your courage, trust on me and permission from your father. I tell you the option; you think about it calmly, share it with your father and seek his opinion.”

Melissa looks at him expectantly. She desperately wants to get out of this situation.

“Melissa, suppose, there is a magic, which transports you and me to a place, which is even better than this ashram and where nobody can trouble you, I think you should be happy. I can assure you, this new place is many times more beautiful, serene, splendid lap of nature and people around will be few and simple like rivers. There you will have the perfect peace and poise to continue your rejuvenation and learning.”

“Shiv, unleash the magic right now and take me to the place.”

“Melissa, you cannot hurry with your decision. You have to ask for your father’s permission. I shall have to seek permission from Acharya. Your mother too needs to be informed. The local police official comes daily to enquire about you as Embassy people have instructed him for daily reports about your well-being here. We cannot just move away. You just need to trust me. We can manage the whole situation very well. I own the responsibility of this trouble and believe me, I can manage it all.”

Melissa watches Shiv in admiration as he briefs her about a place 150 kilometers north of Rishikesh town, where there is a small village in the lap of a beautiful valley. This is the paternal village of Acharya and he has a small wooden house there. The village is not in the tourist map and the village has only around 25 houses. He tells her that in Acharya’s house, his brother’s family of four lives in the ground floor and the upper floor is kept locked for Acharya, who visits once every year in summers. He assures her that she would feel safe and secure with the family, who will take good care of her. He tells her that he would live in another household. The district town is only 25 kilometers away and she can visit it whenever she has to call her family, mail them or buy anything. Only Acharya will have the information about this, so she can stay there till she likes.

Melissa nods like a little girl, carefully listening to him and feeling so relaxed. Inside, she is so happy to find that Shiv is taking extra care to convince her that she shall be safe in the new place and there shall be good and simple people taking care of all her comforts. She can feel that Shiv wants to ensure that she has every small information and support to make her confident about taking her decision to move away from the place. She wants to tell Shiv that she does not need them as she has total confidence and faith in him. She wants to tell him that a woman can sense the evil in a man within seconds and she is now sure, her new friend is as reliable as her family. However, as she is relaxed now and very confident that she has come out of the trouble, she decides to tease him a bit. The woman in her comes forward and plays pranks with the man she has found the trust in.

“Shiv, you know, I have an afterthought. These media people are also humans, and they do it for their living. I cannot deny them their precious livelihood. I think; I should give them some nice and racy gossips. If I escape from this place without telling anybody, riding on your motorbike right now, this shall become great news for paparazzi, when they shall arrive here, looking for me. There will be headlines in tabloids and newspapers all over – Hollywood star runs away with a Yogi! This shall be good feedstock for series of wild gossips for at least a week. After all, the paparazzi will have to spend so much money coming here looking for stuffs and I am a celebrity, I have a responsibility towards them!”

Shiv smiles and looks at her affectionately. He is happy that Melissa is now relaxed and in good mood. It is time he paid her back for her innocence and trust she showed on him. He moves close to her, grabs her hands and gently drags her towards the door.

“Madam Celebrity, in 34 years of my life, I have never been to jail and it would not be a great headline when the same tabloids will say – Yogi hauled and jailed for kidnapping Hollywood star.”

“What a brilliant idea Shiv! This is even better! Now I really want to run away with you right away. You do not understand Shiv, you will become a celebrity yogi, once you land in prison. It is all the more better for me because the paparazzi would then chase you and I shall live in lasting peace!”

Shiv affectionately pulls her out of his room, even as Melissa keeps dragging her feet back and keeps teasing him about how it is good for both of them to run away without telling anyone. Shiv takes her to her cottage and makes her call her father first; who agrees to the plan as if he was actually waiting for it. Her mother gets irritated by the news and asks her to take whatever steps, which could keep the media from gossips as it would be trouble for her political career. She is confident that as Melissa’s father has okayed the plan, it would be safe for her. Shiv then takes her to the bed, switches off the lights and turns towards the door.

“Do not rise early, sleep well. We shall move late in the day.”

‘Shiv, can I ask you a question?”

“Melissa, the journey tomorrow will take seven hours and you can ask as many questions as you want then. You must sleep now. You need lots of rest for…”

“Are you taking all these troubles for me and helping me out just because my father has been a benefactor to this ashram”, Melissa interrupts him.

“Melissa, the answer is there but it may not be available now. Keep the question alive and I promise, you shall get the right answer later. Meanwhile, you can accept a smart answer, which is – it is a friend paying his friend back because she manufactured the most amazing jalebee in the world for him.”

“Shiv, you are such a bad friend”, she says in mock anger. “You too keep this threat alive that someday, I shall runaway with you and land you in prison. And then I shall visit you in jail everyday with more amazing jalebees, which I shall make especially for you.”

“Madam Celebrity, I never have any doubts about your genius.”

“Shiv, I am hungry, I want poori sabzi and jalebees now”, Melissa persists with her teasing mood. She is in no mood to let Shiv slip away.

“Close your eyes and you shall find plenty of them in your dreams. Good night!”

Shiv shuts the door of her cottage behind him.

Melissa sleeps minutes after he leaves. A woman assured of wellness has no place for dreams in her sleep. Melissa sleeps like a kid. Shiv however does not.

Shiv is slightly concerned. The day with Melissa and the way she presented herself with him makes him think of everything. There is an instinctive design in everyone. It works and the mechanism does not usually manifest it to the person as most things are