Pelora Valley

 

Pelora Valley

This was an unexpected visit for Arya but rather expected for her colleagues. Getting late for the office, dozing off in meetings, and messing up with files had become her routine for a week.

On one of those uncertain days, the manager of the sales department called Arya and advised her to either take a vacation or work from home.  Arya was more than happy to choose a vacation.

But it wasn’t going to be a vacation in any way. Arya’s grandfather who lived in the Pelora Valley had fallen seriously ill. Which had become a point of misery for Arya too.

The same day she left for the Pelora Valley. In the eastern part of the country, beyond the vast stretches of tea gardens there, lay this small Valley, with a population of around 500 people and thousands of untold stories.

When Arya entered the gloomy little house which her grandfather had made after his retirement from the Indian Army, what she saw was unexpected. While her last visit two years back her grandfather had been fine as a young man but now she could see him from the hall in the bedroom lying with a bag of ice and taking his pills.

The visit was a surprise for her grandfather too. He sat up on his bed and waved with a weak smile.

Arya ran up to hug him. His body was warm in the cold weather of Pelora Valley.

The next ten days went by in high spirits, Grandpa was recovering at a nice pace now. He used to tell Arya her childhood stories and his experience being an army officer. Arya also found a comfortable space to express her emotions. “Dada, maybe I should leave my job and come here, we’ll open a candy shop in front of the house” Grandpa laughed “Maybe you should wait until you retire”

On the eleventh day, Arya went for a walk, her mind clearer. It was a beautiful day and she could not resist it, the birds chirped, and a small stream was flowing near the unruly road. She could imagine the six-year-old herself learning to ride a bicycle with her grandfather, falling, and then getting helped by her grandfather who was then, as fit as a twenty-year-old.

In the last two years, no one but Grandpa had grown like two decades.

She heard a thud as she entered the house and ran to the bedroom. Grandpa had fallen while trying to go to the kitchen, the maid had also come to help, but Grandpa didn’t need two people to help him sit, he was now as light as a bundle of clothes. Apparently, he was feeling dizzy and had taken a break for a nap.

At around 2pm Grandpa called Arya “I don’t think I’ll be able to live anymore Arya”

“Why do you say that?”

“I know you have to leave in two days beta, the last time you left, I transformed from a twenty-year-old to a ninety-year-old, and the next time you will come for my death rite. I can’t walk and there have been days and I haven’t even stepped out of the house”

Arya sat quietly, and within one hour Grandpa was asleep again.

This time she took a walk to clear her mind. She was formidable now, maybe Grandpa is right…

She sat at the edge of the street where the stream was flowing straight from the Himalayas and separating from a much bigger river. As she looked at the stream her thoughts started to clear up, and ideas started to come up.

She immediately ran back to the house and asked the maid where the metal workshop was, unfortunately, there was no such workshop nearby, but Arya considered an alternate way and asked where the carpenter worked, it was nearby. She also asked where the PCO was so that she could call her brother, parents, and the office manager. She asked the maid to not leave Grandpa until she returns.

While returning from the carpenter in the evening, she saw children playing by a small field. Just then a girl fell down and her knee started to bleed. Fortunately, she had some extra Band-Aid and cotton in her purse. The reason for the injury was a big stone embedded in the ground.

When Arya returned, Grandpa was asleep and had already had his dinner. Arya lit some candles and went to the field behind the house which Grandpa owned but never used. She took some tools and cleaned the field from the stones and ferns. She also tightened the fences and also replaced the wires with a strong fabric rope. In the roof shed, she put a table that her grandpa never used and set a stone board.

She knew Grandpa loved children and taught them with crucifixion. And this would prove to bring life back to him and give her back the strong man she always wanted to be like.  

The next morning Grandpa woke up to the sound of chortling children, he sat on his bed and put his glasses on. There was a wooden wheelchair with an Indian Army symbol. Tears flooded his eyes and he tried to sit in the wheelchair but lost control, in a split second there were two strong hands holding his arms, at first he thought they were of Arya’s or of the maid, the hands helped him sit on the wheelchair.  

But when he looked up he saw the smiling face of his grandson, Mitesh. Mitesh took him to the backyard of the house.   

Arya and the valley children were playing ball but as he appeared they all sat in rows as if out of fear of a teacher and said in a union in broken English – “Good morning sir”. Grandpa touched the chalks and the duster on the table with child-like enthusiasm as he teared up. 

“Why don’t you give them a lesson or two dada?”, Mitesh said

The smile Arya saw next was one of hope and a declaration of not one but many new lives....


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