The Story

“What are you doing Raka ji?” the dulcet voice asked as it noticed a delay in reply from the other side of the phone. She too has gotten accustomed to these long night talks with him. The talks, which in itself has no meaning attached, but serves a very special purpose for both of them as an answer to the ever pestering desire to know that the other one exists. A desire that has no valid comprehendible justification. It is present in their minds all the time and that’s it.

“I was just browsing through your pics on orkut”, he said and stopped shuffling through her album at his favorite pic of her’s. He looks at her pic for a while and then stops, feeling guilty of committing a crime against his own virtues. He believed that he must only be attracted to the person that she is, to the entity that is present inside her physical being, to her soul. And hence attraction to any tangible part of her was an offense, a futile crime that may seem to achieve the ultimate closeness to her but will always lead to a few steps short of her. A deeper intrigue about this un-ending desire made him understand that it had no physical reason attached to it. The desire was born out of his curiosity to know the person behind that beautiful face. It was a projection of his urge to be with her, to know her and to unite with the ultimate source of that beauty. It was only when he established this in his mind in clear formed words that his desire was pure off and un-adulterated with any physical proportion that he continued… “I want to see more pics of your’s Sirka ji”.

“I don’t have any more photographs to show you. You have seen almost all my pics now.”

“But I want to see…. I want to see more of you.”

“None of my photographs is able to satisfy you. That worries me.” She replied in a sober tone. “Anyway, you were to tell me a story today”.

“Oh yes I remember…” and continued even though he didn’t had any story in his mind.

“There was once a couple called Raka & Sirka. They both loved each other a lot. Raka was a bit demanding as a lover.” She smiled in agreement. “He always used to ask Sirka to show her pics, she did… but his demand was never ending. He would ask for another one every other day. This used to make Sirka very uncomfortable as she wanted to fulfill every desire of Raka out of her unconditional love for him. So one day, she went to god, dismayed at her inability to serve Raka’s desire. God asked her about what made such a beautiful girl sad. So she went on to explain the problem to HIM and asked for a camera who’s picture could satisfy Raka’s desire.” he paused for a while in anticipation of her inevitable question.

”Then what did HE said?” she asked her question and then he continued.

“God smiled and said Dear Sirka, there is no camera in this whole world whose photographs could satisfy Raka. The answer to his desire is you.” She smiled at her acknowledgement of the logic he had been trying to show her.

“Ohk I got you”, she said as if the story had only been an argument against her dismay. The story, although targeted at this particular situation, served another purpose in-situ. Sirka has been harried by the thoughts that she might never be able to keep in line with Raka’s urge. That her ‘show of affection’ and her ‘confession of love’ will someday stop pleasing him, that someday he will grow bored and demand further closeness (not of bodies but of souls) to which she will have no answer. But this story had obliterated all these doubts by evincing her the one truth that stood tall and confident at its ability to thrash any counter argument to the ground in a single jolt of its logic. The truth that it was ‘She’ that Raka desired and nothing more and that the only thing she was required to do was to be herself. Relieved by this understanding, she continued “But this wasn’t a story, this was extempore”.

“Believe me Sirka ji, this is the most important chapter of our story”, and indeed it was…