Translated from the Original Hindi by

Kanwar Dinesh Singh

The girl was a little sad that day. The boy was aware of this, but he couldn’t understand the reason. They were both sitting on the terrace. Bracing her hands on her cheeks, the girl was looking at the sky with empty eyes. The boy would sometimes see her face, sometimes the people around them.

It was not an ordinary roof. It was the top of a magnificent palace, reclining against a turret of which the two were seated. Both were silent. When the boy said something, the girl just nodded her head. Suddenly the girl got up and said, “Come on, let’s go inside.” The boy followed her like a machine. They would see the faces of the people, see the crowd and also see the carvings of the palace. After some time, they got tired of walking.

On the stairs of the top floor, the girl looked at the boy somewhat curiously. Perhaps he read her mind. There was something that distracted her attention. She needed something; but perhaps even she might not know what it was. The boy knew very well how to bring her out of all this. There was a lot of crowd outside. Soon both were walking amid the crowd.

Suddenly coming near the girl’s ear, he started saying repeatedly ― “I love you, I love you . . .” He kept whispering these words incessantly. It seemed as if he had spilled his soul into his words. Descended from the girl’s ear, his words started spreading in her body. She got lost―just listening to him. When the boy’s lips closed, she said, “When you speak like this, I go into meditation. Everything from the body to the soul disentangles. I think I am dying and as you whisper in my ear like this, I shall evade the noose of Yamraja and come back to you.”

The fog had vanished. Both were laughing under the blue sky.

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Contact:Dr. Kanwar Dinesh Singh,Writer, Poet, Storyteller, Translator

Associate Professor of English & Editor: Hyphen

Email: kanwardineshsingh@gmail.com