A bend in the road - Vol 1

6. Letting go

She left work place early that evening and went to the company guest house quite late.

Her field visit was done for the day and since she was feeling restless, she decided to work from home. However, the restlessness she felt was strangely nagging her, and since the site where the Chopra residential homes were constructed was further away from the heart of Dehradun, and the company accommodation was almost in the woods, in Rajpur, which was an hour away, she decided to walk along to clear her head before heading home.

One thing she loved about Dehradun was its people. Amidst a sea of strangers, she still felt many friendly faces. Each city embraces you differently. While Delhi hadn’t been all bed of roses to her, and had made her meet quite some challenges, in the form of people who were as different as they could be from those she knew from Hoshiyarpur, in one way Delhi had been good to her.

Dehradun, however was surprising her at every step. There were no Sashas at workplace here who hated her for no reason. There were nobody who would judge her for the clothes she wears, or would make her feel she sticks as a sore thumb amidst them all.

There were no Maan sirs, who would…

Her thoughts trailed off midway, as she let her mind stuck to that one thought again and again.

There was no Maan sir here.

“Madam” she heard the voice of the driver who called out to her, to tell her that her destination arrived.

She got down and stopped at the small gate that opened up towards a path lined with flowers of all colors, planted on the pathway.

When she looked up, she had found a golden Buddha statue that beckoned her.

She had no clue why had she chosen to come here, to Buddhist monastery of all the places…

She had no clue why had she climbed up the steps and went closer to the Buddha, her eyes strictly over his golden feet.

From this elevation, she could feel the wind, and apart from the sound of children somewhere away, she could hear nothing else. Nothing but her beating heart.

And it was then she had felt tears in her eyes.

As she sat down on the cold marble floor, at the foot of the Buddha, she let out all the grief she never let out, and it was the goodbye she needed to give, before she could truly move on.