Punarjanma - The Rebirth of two cursed souls

• 5 •

In Pune City, Shashi's neighborhood :

It was late in the evening. Inderjeet was tensed. He was with Shashi for about eight years now. But he had never seen the lights of his house off till late evening. He decided to go and inspect the matter on his own.

He had an extra key for Shashi's home. He opened the door only to find the house in complete mess. It seemed like no one had cleaned the house in two days. It had been almost three days since Shashi had returned from Jejuri, but he hardly stepped out of his house. Now Inderjeeet started to doubt that whether he was in the house or not.

Inderjeet was about to return when his attention went towards a faint light coming from the guest room. The room was upstairs and Shashi barely sat there. He felt the situation little suspicious and decided to inspect it. He went upstairs. He expected to face the worst situation he can imagine, but what he saw, shook him. His brain refused to accept what he saw.

He saw Shashi there, sleeping on the corner of the bed and holding some sort of long fabric in his hands. His face looked pale and it seemed like he had cried a lot. There were two plates, probably he ate in those, on the table. Inderjeet went towards the bed and more surprizes were awaiting for him.

Little did anyone knew, Shashi was a great artist. He was an excellent Painter and he wrote poems with unparalleled skills. He was sleeping besides a portrait of a woman upon which he had written a poem. but the woman's face wasn't visible. it seemed like Shashi saw her side face and tried to draw her or he imagined her like so. Inderjeet was totally confused on his behaviour. He decided to wake him up.

"Oye Shashi yaara, uth ja... Ye kaise haalat bana rakhi hai tune apne aap ki (Ohh Shashi bro, wake up... Look what a mess you'e made up of yourself...)" he said as Shashi opened his eyes.

"Sakhi (friend), is that you?" He askd as he rubbed his eyes.

"Sakhi nahi parantu aapka Sakha hai yaha. Sach sach bata, pyaar vyaar ke chakkar me toh nahi phasa na tu? (Not any female friend but your best friend is here... Tell me the truth, you've not fallen in love with anybody, or have you?)" Inderjeet said as he sat besides Shashi.

"No man. Shashi and love, impossible..." Shashi said as he looked at him.

"I don't think so. And by the way, who's this lucky lady, jiske liye sakshat Shashi ki paintbrush almari se bahar aayi hai? (Who's this lucky lady, for whom the rarely sighted Shashi's paintbrush has freed itself from the cupboard after ages?)" Inderjeet asked as he picked up that 'Suspicious Woman's painting'.

"Inder, keep that down. No one's allowed to touch my Sakhi's painting." Shashi said as he grabed the portrait.

He got up and hanged the picture on the wall behind the bed. That's when Inderjeet had a look at the words written on the picture -

"प्रेम तू,
आनंद तू,
जीवनाचा अर्थ तू,
(You are the love of my life,
Lies within you the joy of my life,
You are the meaning of my life...)

गीत मी, संगीत तू,
निरभ्र आकाश मी,
त्यात रंग भरणारी,
इंद्रधनू तू,
(If I write the words,
You tie them together with your melody,
If I'm the plain, lifeless sky,
You are the colourful rainbow,
Painting the sky in your colours of joy...)

प्रेमाचा क्षुधित मी,
अनंत प्रेमाचा झरा तू,
या दगडाला पाझर फुटतो,
त्याचे मधुर कारण तू,
(If I'm hungry for love,
You're the one who can satisfy my soul,
You're the sweet reason for this rock,
To melt it's heart and soul...)