somewhere tucked away by Moinak Dutta

somewhere tucked away

by Moinak Dutta

About a decade and half
                         must have passed through in between
when one day the man
                          arrived at his town one wintry evening,
the bus stop where
                          he got down with his sack was not the same,
for he found there
                          no more that homegrown feel of a small town
the rows of deodars
                           were not there too and the road seemed full
of people not known
                           'where had that house gone to?' he thought
from the porch of which
                             there hung coils of ivy in poesy wrought,
thinking all these
                             the man walked the road till he stopped
in front of a little
                               cosy looking bustling coffeeshop,
at the counter
                            there was a man he thought did he know
for he had that cut
                           on his forehead just over his left brow,
'You have grown old'
                           was the first thing that he said to the man
who looked up
                           with curious eyes and disbelief in his mind,
'you? our own Ayush?'
                             the man lunged forward to him greet,
his hands he held
                            and their eyes glistened quiet as they did meet,
'after so many years,
                            how come here mate?' the man in tears
                            uttered with joy asked him straight,
'well, I had received
                            a letter from someone here unexpected,'
saying this he
                          out from his coat's pocket did bring
a piece of a paper
                          almost blank barring a few words written
in a known too known hand,
                        'I know you have gone away to a faraway land
but please for the sake
                           of all the follies and the mistakes,
come at least once,
                           now that the war had ended and peace
had been declared
                            all through the country now that there are
no more sounds of sirens
                             and alarms of wildly ringing bells,
now that all the fire
                           had been doused and buried for at least
quite a few months,
                            come to my humble house if there is any chance;'

'Oh! you silly man! how you've come
            covering thousand acres green
and a few deserts of sands,'
           said the man with a trembling voice,
'Mate,you've come right, but you've lost that choice
that girl who cared to write such a thing
                         which she never dared
                    to say to you in person
had been to the another
                          land by the dictates sent,
the land where you could
never possibly go
                           for there lives she with her friends and a hoe,
there she has settled
                           with her garden to bloom and grow,'

Ayush heard it all
keeping quiet and low

and he thought he missed nothing
     other than those deodars and rows
                        of trees that lined the way
            and that girl who had somewhere
                       kept a story tucked away.

© Moinak Dutta 2016

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