PART ONE

Three months since the blast, no significant improvement and life is slowly getting back to same.

With colonel never seen like this before; over cautious and always walking with a question on his face, he came in the dispensary asking the ward, “What about the letters? Posted or still in progress?”

One attendant replied, “Sir, five letters have been posted and one is remaining. We are not able to locate the address to which it can be delivered; neither the social network is helping.”

Colonel, “And if I am not wrong that letter belongs to Kulraj Singh Rathore.”

Attendant responded, “Yes, sir.”

“Please call Amrita and Vikram,” colonel said in a low pitch voice.

Colonel – “You always told me that I stopped you from putting your feet out of the cradle. And I am a much blamed father in this whole battalion, thanks to you my daughter (Amrita) and your always useless friend Vikram.”

Amrita and Vikram were listening with all ears. It was the month of October and provided the vicinity of the place they were living in, far up North, the air was cold as always and the ambience did help a sensible conversation to go well received and amended in a right way. I am giving you this duty.

Post this letter to the person named Rumi, you will have to locate her address and give this to her. For your guidance I can only help you with this.

This is Kul’s diary and I can trust you with this in terms that you will not read it. The pages that can help you are already pre folded. Remember one thing Amrita, if you are able to deliver this I will consider your request of studying abroad and yours so preserved wish since childhood, to get at least 100 post stamps affixed on your passport.”

It was a tough task, to locate the whereabouts of the person who never believed in the past. For Amrita and Vikram this whole thing was no less than an adventure and also something difficult to achieve. In her maiden voyage to meet her dreams at the end of the journey, there were many obstacles viz. reaching to Kul’s family, locating Nirdosh, Shelja and Aratrika and his teachers in college.

But she didn’t want to back down and the only thing that kept her going was the letter. She kept her promise not to read the diary but she advocated the fact that she read the letter.

She ran to Vikram saying, “A piece of paper can make someone feel good and unfortunate at the same time. I want to know his previous life; I want to know each and every bit of it. Remember how I used to tell you about an officer that my tough rude father always admired, he is the guy.

And now I have this question, how someone can live rather luggage whole life in the name of the past that was not justified to him, yet he had the courage to choose life rather than running from it.”

They (Vikram and Amrita) ran into Mrs. Sharma, only to learn this-

He never said anything about his family, never discussed his whereabouts and add to this, he had been ardent kind of person who believed in the beauty of the present. For him, future was just a curtained present. Whenever somebody tried to ask about his past- he always answered with a smile, saying, “The only good thing about my past is I am here because of that time.”

Even at the base camp he would go to sleep early. He always helped his fellows, viz. teaching them how to use tech devices or making them learn the use of Internet and in turn asking only one usual favor from them, living a part of his life in a village for some months. Because, as he said, “I have lived my life till now in a city that does all the chores, plays with human emotions and is completed with the forsakenness towards each other and I have never seen any such thing in these villages.

Here people are more than friends to each other and everyone is a family in itself.”

To be Continued!!

This is the Third Chapter (Part One) of the story. Links to the rest – Chap One, Chap Two.