Diamond Hearts (Volume I & II)

37. Snow fights and laughter

Mahil :

It had started to snow. White fairies danced in sky landing on the ground. City lights embellished their feathery appearance imparting golden - blue, purple and crimson shades on a distant road. Through my balcony, I could see American Elms, Buckthorns and Maples welcoming the colds of infinite sky in the embrace of lush green leaves, their brown stems being snowman themselves. Sipping onto hot chocolate, I sat there flipping through pages of Gita.

Later that evening when I came across Kuhoo, she acknowledged me with bare minimum smile. I returned the same before resuming reading.

"Still reading Gita?" She asked.

"I'm actually re-reading it. Earlier a few things went totally above my head. So, I'm trying to interpret their meaning now," I shrugged.

She smiled being surprised, "And how is that going?"

Scratching the head, I chuckled embarrassed, "Not the way I expected. First I read it, I had some... Urggh... Some..." Sliding my tongue over lips, I bit the lower one trying to find a right word.

She stared at the sky thinking.

I clicked my fingers, suddenly remembering it. At the same time, Kuhoo nodded realizing meaning behind my unsaid words. Both of us exclaimed, "Goosebumps moments!"

Shaking the head, I chuckled while placing a hair strand behind her ear; she stared at ground flabbergasted before looking back in my direction. Then we went silent, air around us being a subtle amalgamation of awkwardness and stupefaction.

"You know there was a time when I wished for a person who could complete my words and understand me and just be there. But now that I have you, I don't know how to convince you regarding the same," I released a jagged breath holding her gaze. Although for an infinitesimally small moment but emotions that surfaced in her eyes felt like an icing to the aching wounds of my heart.

Why she was doing this to us, I still couldn't comprehend. I already did everything in my power. So, I was going to wait for her to take a step towards me, towards us. Perhaps, it would be wrong to pester her to the point where she would call me 'obsessed'.

"You know what happens after that Mahil? That someone you are talking about, one with whom you believe you can share everything; be it worries or happiness, sorrows or fears and take up all the challenges that life throws at you. Once you experience what is it to live with that person, then it is difficult exist without them. They leave and moments start to seem incomplete, you know how they would act if they were there, you want it again, all of it, but it's gone," Her blank eyes stared at distant trees slowly getting covered in snow as she went down memory lane.

Clearing the throat, I added, "So, I was saying that I can't interpret meaning behind a few verses, actually a lot of them. Some seemed like they were talking about my own life, personally relatable but others were just words to me."

Kuhoo smiled, "Certainly. You can't expect to understand everything told in Gita just by reading it once, right? Read it in different phases of life and you'll interpret it differently. As a kid when I was introduced to Gita for the first time, I didn't understand a thing. A few verses from 'Vishwarupa darshan yoga' used to fascinate me when my dadi would narrate the story how Krishna had shown his 'Virat Rupa' to Arjuna on the field of Kurukhestra. As I grew up and joined my course, I found 'Karma yoga' relatable. May be in old age, I would understand other chapters better. That's the beauty of Gita; it has something for every individual. What matters is if you can see it."

"That sounds like a long way to go." I sighed.

"Just another way to live life. So, about what you told me in the morning, I was... I was thinking," Kuhoo took a step back scratching back of her neck. I stared at her inquisitively before she met my eyes asking, "Dinner?"