Because I don't want to forget

I know of a little sleepy town in the moon’s bindi,
Where people who are separated, get to finally meet.

A man looking out of a window, a camera in his hands, smiling. A woman on a hammock. Two children running towards her. Time stood still.

In this holiday, I remember looking over our villa with happiness, and then opening the doors outside in curiosity. The scene outside took my breath away. Green grass and palm trees. Powerful sounds of sea waves crashing on the beach. Birds chirping, and butterflies flitting by. The sky heavy with blue gray clouds.
And a hammock.

I stared at the hammock in delight – it was an ordinary looking hammock tied between two trees, lazily shaking in the breeze. In one instant I was running barefoot, toward the hammock, calling out to the children. They heard my excited voice and that’s all the invitation they needed. They ran out and stood in the verandah uncertainly, and stared in complete surprise as they saw me falling on the hammock, arms outstretched, squinting at the sky, laughing at the universe. The next moment, they were running towards me, shouting, asking me to get out of the hammock so that they could have their turn.

I wonder what happened at that instant. Who was looking at us ? Someone or something was. Maybe it was God, smiling. Does God make all of us, people, blades of grass, leaves, birds, butterflies at different moments and sometimes in one instant, just puts us together to make one beautiful picture ?

I did not know Naval when I was born, nor did I know Alma and Sitab. I was just a part of the universe, and so are they. We are as temporary and as timeless as the sky above. We probably knew, and remembered each other since many lifetimes. We had a karmic memory of each other. And one by one, we found each other on this earth. And now we live together. We are together, in this one instant. But I do not know for how long. Maybe we will go in different directions, as time passes. But this moment was ours, and ours alone.

At that instant, I knew that maybe better and bigger moments have already passed me by, or maybe they will now come in my life, yet this moment will never come back. The children will grow up, and will never remain the same. I will grow too, and will change too. This moment, in all its uniqueness and innocence will become a memory. I don’t want to forget it. Not now, not ever.

After four days, we were leaving. As we rushed about, packing clothes, shoes and books, we forgot everything except that we need to catch that flight in that airport, which is bustling with life. A flight which will take us back to the place which we call home, where careers, friends, colleagues, schools and real life await us.

Amidst all the confusion, I happened to look out at the garden. I saw the hammock, lonely and forgotten. Something told me that I was moving on from that moment which was mine yesterday, and has slipped out of my reach today. I could not help it. Ignoring all the tasks I needed to do, I stepped out in the pouring rain, grabbed my camera and clicked a snap of the lonely hammock. As I stood there, getting wet in the rain, I could still hear the shouts of the children and our laughter, frozen in time. I do not know if I shall visit the same place in my life again, and if I do, it will never be the same again, because time passes so fast and changes things so much. Yet, something tells me that we exist there, in that place and that time, somehow, even when we are gone.

We were in the sleepy little town in the moon's bindi for sometime, and we can now visit that town whenever we feel like. All we have to do is close our eyes, and we shall be transported there.

The children will grow up, but they will always remain the eleven and twelve year olds in that town, in my memory.

Because I don’t want to forget. I never want to forget

.