The Gandharaj tree, *

Surabhi upon going out, felt the drizzles on her face.
She remembered how once much like today, a morning, catching a cab, she felt drizzles like that upon her face.
The cabbie then told her,
'Khidki uthayiey madam...'
( pull the window up...)
Surabhi remembered how she asked then the cabbie to take her to that place where
the gandharaj tree had broken into white blossoms. She remembered the aroma of life then.
She remembered how her love once found a mother there.
She could see every bit of that tree,
The Gandharaj
With its white blossoms

And how then winter came down upon her, and how the gandharaj came and told her what life is all about.
What God is.
What Love is.

Surabhi remembered all that.

'Aap ek kam ki jiye...'(do one thing...)
Surabhi told the cabbie this time.

'Take me to that bridge near the port...'

'Ji...'
The cabbie replied.
The drizzle was coming through the window.
Surabhi pulled it half way.
She wanted the drizzle to numb her.

'That tree might not be there, but the land might be there...that land where the tree once stood...'
Surabhi was thinking.

(* The Gandharaj tree , was used as a motif, a symbol, in a novella written by me, my debut one, titled 'Pestilence', which was published in 2009)