❣ Encounter ❣

Chapter~1

 ❆ Ayesha's Story ❆

Like every other day, Ayesha put her glasses on the table and sat by the window wearily and looked out. it was her favorite time of the day. Just before dusk, when the last sunlight of the day reflects below the horizon, the rays of sunlight are clearly seen coming through the clouds , making it look like a painting outside the window .There was only a grassland  outside this portion of the house , hence it was a wide, magnificent view of the sun kissing the hills and dusk falling over the town. Ayesha closed her eyes and sighed. Ayesha turned 24 last week, yet she hadn't grown even one inch taller than five feet , made her really upset sometimes. Ayesha was introvert, shy girl so the attic has become her  beautiful, little world. She used to live with her aunt in Shillong. It was a family of three until Ayesha was sent here when she was 14. It was her parental uncle's house and her room once used to belong to uncle's son , Purav who resented her for taking away his room.

©Dayeetachaudhuri

She used to live in Kolkata with her parents. She was the only child . Ayesha's father used to work in a factory as a mechanic.  With his insufficient salary, their family was  happy. She was 13 when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She was too young to know how fatal the disease was or what the upshot could be. Her mother was kept under the supervision of doctors and also had to undergo a surgery. Doctors said it was caused by a tumor in her left chest. It used to cause chest ache which she completely ignored and it resulted in cancer. Treatment was expensive so his father had to borrow a large amount money from various lenders in order to save Ayesha's mother though everybody knew all the effort was not of any use. She kept fighting with cancer for several months, her body kept aching more and more as time passed, even after receiving chemotherapy her body gave up and she passed away in the hospital bed. Ayesha saw everything, her mother struggling, crying every time she saw Ayesha at the hospital, longing to go back home till the moment she took her last breath. Ayesha saw her mother's eyes full of desire to live.

That was a hard time for her and her father. Few days after the funeral, Ayesha became 14. In her mother’s absence  ,she used to take care of all the household works. Father used to work overtime. So Ayesha gradually learnt to stay alone at home. Every time she got scared or feel lonely, she used to comfort herself , saying "one day, everything will be fine."

But, nothing was fine. The worst was yet to come. Her father was running into debts. Lenders were putting pressure on him, few young boys used to come home often and shout at him, asking him for the debt repayment.  Ayesha used to see all this happening from behind the kitchen door. Father was miserable.

There was always awful silence in the house. When , winter came that year, father decided to send Ayesha to her uncle's place . Ayesha happily agreed when dad said , " why don't go spend few days at your uncle's ?"

" Really? " She smiled.

©Kinjalachaudhuri

They were sitting on a torn mat on the roof, father was having tea and Ayesha was gladly looking at him. Not everyday father takes time of his work and relaxes and talks to her like this. But little did she know that father was fired for he could not pay the money back which he took from office, moreover this poor man yelled and cried out of agony and grief .

“Your uncle is coming, tomorrow. I have already talked to him. Your better start packing now. And make sure you take everything with you. All your necessities.  “He patted her back and said, “It’s going to be a long vacation."

Ayesha's smile faded away,"you are not coming?"

"No. Father has to go to work. He cannot take leave now."

“For how many days?" Ayesha asked.

"Huh?"

"For how long will I stay there?" Ayesha repeated.

“For few weeks....just go, enjoy, live with your uncle and aunt. You will have your brother there, you won't be lonely. No workloads and only fun. Only work and no fun has made my baby so unhappy. So I decided to send you there. "

"Send me ? What do you mean by that? You will live alone? Take care of the house and do all the work by yourself? You hardly can do a work or cook. I won't leave you. No." Ayesha shouted.

"You will go . Don't forget I am the one who makes the decisions and you will do as I say and that's final. And it is for your own good. "That was the first time she saw her father so angry and sad.

Ayesha still remember the next day when uncle came to take her , she was not crying, she was angry, her father was sending her away on purpose.

So many years have passed, she had turned 24 now. Father used to call sometimes , once in a week , then twice in a month, then suddenly stopped calling her. She knew uncle and father talks on the phone often but it's been so long since uncle heard from him. Ayesha often smiled looking at herself in the mirror ..."quite a vacation".

Shillong is a one of the smallest states in the northeastern part of India. The city lies in the middle of plateau surrounded by rolling hills, that once used to remind the Europeans of Scotland. That's why it is also  called 'Scotland of the east'.

©Dayeetachaudhuri

Uncle had a little house in Shillong. It was one storeyed brick masonry, making it look like a bungalow with a front porch ,a wide space decorated with aunt's flower pots and few vegetables she planted. This was the house where father spent his childhood days with his parents and brothers, therefore, one portion in the front of the house where the kitchen ends , the bricks were broken, the soil was craggy and there was a swing-set once that fell into disuse, had  collected rust in all these years. Main road was outside the metal gate at the entrance and  grassland on the opposite side of the house. The road ended at the house then the extensive meadow went  straight down to the foot of Meghalayan hills.

Ayesha liked the room .It's a small yet cozy space tucked away on the roof. It had a children's bed comfortable enough for Ayesha at the end of the room on the left of door.  There was a dormer window on the opposite of door , used to provide a great view of the widespread meadow meeting the foothills, far from the chaos of the town. There was a small,  dressing unit uncle brought with an oval mirror on it. She gave a little touch of her own decoration , in one part of the closet she put the collection of her books which outnumbered her clothes and somehow managed to put all her clothes in the rest of space and there is a table beside it. Books were her companion in her happy days, in her blues, in loneliness . When things were going wrong , father was in pain , Ayesha stopped going to school and used to read books for long hours ,sitting in the kitchen. That was how the bookworm was born.

Uncle, Niketan Dutta was a high school teacher. He used to  spend most of the time in Assam for work , 4hours 30 mins from Shillong. He always wanted to become a poet. But, poverty triumphed over pen. They were four brothers and grandpa earned very little, father was a school go-er when other two elder brothers fought over a failed business and both left the house with their wives to start new career and moved to new cities in order to start fresh. Therefore, uncle became a teacher and stood by his father's side and a poet stopped dreaming from then on. So, he writes poetry at his leisure now. Last year he published his second book and was praised by so many poetry lovers. Ayesha read the first book he brought for her , she liked it.

Aunt and brother never used to hover over her. Mrs. Dutta used to suffer from a pain in her right knee. Doing all the works at home, walking back and forth often made her ill. She was annoyed, when she came to know Ayesha would be living with them but gradually they became good friends when Mrs. Dutta found a lovely,helpful ally in Ayesha. Ayesha's life was unlike any Cinderella story. Aunt never tormented her nor asked her to work , instead she chose to take care of her own duties and she also looks after her brother when aunt is sick.

 Uncle used to come home every weekend. Hence, weekends were the days when she got to stay alone at home since three of them used to go out to have their own family time together. There were many lakes, parks to visit in Shillong, inundated with tourists and local people. She never regreted saying"no" , everytime she was asked if she wanted to join them, because somewhere she had always felt that her presence could bother their family time. Rather those days were her happy days, she stayed at home, she got to read the books she used to bring from the library every sunday.

©kinjalachaudhuri

the next was sunday, Ayesha had to go to the library to bring a new book , so she decided to have dinner early. She spent long time sitting by the window, thinking about - what else ? Mum and pappa. Finally she got up and put on another sweater. It was colder that day . During the month of February to march it used to remain cold and nights were freezing.  She picked up the lotion and started rubbing it on her hand. "  It's the valentine's week. " She told herself,looked up at the mirror and realized her hair had grown long, her ivory skin had become paler due to dry weather and cheeks had become chubbier. Round, maroon glasses on her small, snub nose and big brown eyes with natural, long lashes made her look no beautiful. Who would fall for such a doll face? 
Mum was her best friend . Ever since she lost her mother she had felt so lonely that sometimes in that small room it used to become hard to breathe, felt like an unfamiliar solitude choking her. Father didn't keep in touch anymore. Though it had been so many years, she never could fraternize well with uncle's family. Loneliness was all she had now but that didn't bother her anymore. But the heart wants what it wants. Somewhere there was a blank space she longed for someone to come and fill up.

"Ayesha, please take your dinner ." Aunt's voice paused Ayesha's thoughts, she ran downstairs.

TO BE CONTINUED------->Chapter~2(Click to continue read)