THE BLOOMING FLOWER

By G.Bhargava Phani Krishna

as the spinning of earth continues and the sunlight preceding the dusk started to appear, the birds flying high in the sky started to return to their nests with their final gatherings of the day, the food stalls over the street serving hot chats got busy with the customers and the dogs are gathering around the stalls to get the leftovers of the food. Vendors calling out their goods aloud while pushing their trolley, the giant peepal tree of the locality stayed calm as usual witnessing the things going around.

locking down his pile of insecurities deep down in the heart, enacting as a most desirable man around, blindfolded by scarf of stupidity and trying figure out the puzzles of his own life Kairav entered the coffee shop looking out for his dads friend who was already there siting at the table around the corner.

While he was sitting Mr.Vihaan asked his young friend "what took you so long...?"

"Just met a passionate girl on the way, who is waiting for the help that can be done only by me" said Kairav trying to mask his sarcastic expressions.

"You still fantasizing that dream...? that will take you nowhere nearer to the girl of your dreams" said Mr.Vihaan sipping his tea simultaneously having a bite of the samosa and continued “make yourself comfortable and order something for you, this was our favorite place to hang out in college days”

"no wonder my dad told you about that fantasy of mine, and I am just waiting for someone who is passionate enough, by the way, why did my dad asked me to meet you..?" asked Kairav after ordering the tea for him.

"Because he thought I could help you” replied Mr.Vihaan in a soft tone.

“Well in what way you could help me…?” questioned Kairav.

“By clearing the snow on the glass you looking through” said Mr.Vihaan.

“Well let’s figure out whose glass has snow on it” said Kairav sounding a bit over confident.

“Yeah…I am sure you will figure out soon, by the way there are really some passionate women out there, ever tried to express yourself to them..?"

"May be they aren’t passionate enough" said Kairav.

"You are a jerk and one day you will get plucked like an unopened lotus and get rotten at the feet of the stony idols".

After a short pause, controlling his anger and trying to understand this old guy’s words Kairav said "uncle…I am not a jerk and you are being rude, all I am looking for someone who is passionate enough as me."

After noticing the sad face Mr.Vihaan said "sorry for calling you a jerk and being rude, but do you really think you are passionate enough...?"

"Yes... I am" said Kairav without thinking for a second.

"No…you aren’t" said Mr.Vihaan without any hesitation.

"What made you to say so..?" said Kairav with a doubtful face.

"Will come to that in a moment, first tell me the difference between perfection and passion" questioned Mr.Vihaan.

"I know they both aren’t same" said Kairav.

"Then tell me the difference" asked Mr.Vihaan.

"Ahh.... I can’t figure out the answer right now, but I’ll definitely answer that question" answered Kairav losing his confidence.

"No... you can’t, because for you those both are same, not only you, there are many youngsters who fell in web of illusions not knowing which string sets them free and keep trying to pull every string they find attractive".

"But how do we come out of the web..?"

"It’s simple, just imagine there isn’t any web".

"But there is web..!"

"And that’s called illusion and now tell me what are you passionate about..?"

Kairav nodded his head as a sign of acceptance to what his uncle said while still resisting it in his mind and replied "I am passionate about everything" said Kairav without any hesitation, while trying to figure out an answer for that question.

"Be more specific" asked Mr.Vihaan.

"I am passionate about almost everything, like literature, music, movies etc..and literature tops the chart." said Kairav with a grin of confidence.

“There are many people who are passionate about many things, what’s the difference between you and them..?" asked Mr.Vihaan.

"I don’t know...never met any of them" said Kairav.

“Okay…you said literature tops your chart in your list of passionate things, so you wrote something like a novel or any short story…?” asked Mr.Vihaan.

“Actually I am working on a novel” said Kairav with a pride on his face.

“Good to hear that, how long have you been working on it and what is it about…?” questioned Mr.Vihaan.

“For over six months and it’s a romantic love story”

“How close are you to finish it…?” questioned Mr.Vihaan doubting his ability to finish it.

“Still a long way to go, I haven’t ended the first chapter yet, I am stuck remodeling the first meet of the characters again and again”

"See...that’s what I am trying to say" said Mr.Vihaan.

"What...?" questioned Kairav.

"the people who are passionate about something or other, work on their ways to fulfil their passion, where as you just enjoy those people’s perfection and criticize their work if you don’t feel it perfect" and continued "you like things that are perfect and you are passionate about those things, it only helps you to dive in the direction of perfect waves and at some point you’ll not find any perfect wave and you drive yourself crazy, it’s okay to admire the perfection but it is not okay if you don’t embrace the imperfection, the moment you open the gates to embrace them, is the moment you embrace yourself and you will start working towards your passion".

"Wow....you just cleared the snow of my glasses" said Kairav with a thankful expression.

"I am not done yet… I got this video for you. I want you to watch, it was made by one of my student, and I really appreciated her work, hope it’ll help you in differentiating perfection and passion."

"After all this conversation we had, I would remain as a fool if I don’t watch it" said Kairav taking the pen drive from his uncle.

“My work is done for now, and I am leaving now” said Mr.Vihaan paying the bill for the snack they had.

“Uncle wait…! When can I meet you again, I mean I should meet you at least to return the pen drive right…?” asked Kairav.

“Well if your vision is clear and senses are uplifted you can meet me any time from dawn to dusk” and continued “and return the drive to your dad, he knows where to find me” said Mr.Vihaan and continued “by the way don’t expect too much from that video, because higher the expectations, deeper will be the disappointments” and left the café.

Wiping his specs with the tissue, looking around with the clearer glasses on his eyes, Kairav walked down to the grocery shop, after getting the necessary items for his home, he continued to his home hoping to spend his night with the video he just got.

As he put down the grocery in their respective racks, Kairav told his mom that he got the list of items she gave him to bring and asked her to prepare the dinner little early as he had some work to do. Hopping on to his bed with laptop on his laps Kairav started to browse about some random movies and hollywood actors, he thought of passing time on internet till his mother call him for dinner. He is little enthusiastic about the video he got and thought of watching it after dinner, so that he won’t get interrupted by dinner call while watching the video.

After browsing and watching videos online for an hour and hearing the words “dinner isn’t ready yet” for over five times he finally heard his mom calling him for dinner, as soon as he heard the words he is waiting to hear, he rushed into the kitchen and started serving the steamy hot dinner from the cooking utensil and started eating it while still hot. Meanwhile his mother said him to be careful or else he may get the burnt tongue in harsh tone. Kairav soon finished his dinner and went back to his room to get occupied with the video he has been eagerly waiting to watch for past 2 hours.

He told himself “higher the expectations, deeper the disappointments” multiple times before hitting the play button on the video.

As the wait is over and the video started to play, the glasses he is looking through appeared much clearer. Without any formal introduction the screen showed the sky before sunrise and focusing on a pond with full of lotuses, and zooming on to a single unbloomed lotus which appeared dull and wither and with faded petals outside compared to its neighboring flowers which are perfect and beautiful.

The video ran for several minutes focusing on this one unbloomed flower and simultaneously recording the chirps and shrieks of the early morning birds, as time passed by the sunrays started to pass through the clouds making the sky bright, and the morning stars hid themselves deep in the space from the shining light. As the light become brighter, the faded petals of the unbloomed lotus started to expose the beauty of its inner row of petals. As the video continued the petals of the lotus started to open for the bright light of the sun to come and lighten its dark inner soul. As all the rows of petals opening one after the other, the rays hitting the inner part of the flower helping to bloom completely, as the light becoming brighter the blooming of the flower looks more beautiful making it to attract the bees around. As the beautiful scenic view continued on the screen for a while, a bee came around to suck the nectar from the blooming lotus, as the camera zoomed out a swarm of bees striving for nectar came across the pond going through all the blooming flowers across the pond and the title displayed saying “thanks for watching” – Madhukarika.

Realizing his obsession towards perfection and accepting it as his layer of faded petals and being mesmerized by the video he amused and questioned himself “why…? Why all these days I didn’t watch this video”. Soon he got Mr.Vihaan’s mobile number from his dad and called him at the same moment. The middle aged man answered the call at its final ring and said “who is this..?”

“Uncle it’s me, Kairav”.

“ya.. Kairav what’s the emergency to call at 1am..? Is everything fine…?”

“Is it 1am..? Sorry I didn’t know that, I just completed the video, I was mesmerized by it, called to thank you for such a wonderful video, I didn’t mean to disturb your sleep, good night uncle.”

“Glad that you liked it, take care, good night”.

Feeling stupid for what he done just now and surprised to know that video duration was almost 3 hours. He was even more amused, when he figured out how deeply he involved in watching 3hour video of a blooming flower.

While trying to get out of this video from his mind and couldn’t, Kairav started to search the name Madhukarika on social media, his mind filled with a million questions like “why I didn’t met this girl all these days..? What kind of girl is she..? Which type of girl spend 3 hours early in the morning to make a video on a blooming lotus..?” as he figured that he couldn’t find her on social media, he gave up the search on social media thinking to get her details from Mr.Vihaan the following day. Soon his uncle’s words popped into his mind about the difference between perfection and passion. He realized that the video is focused on one imperfect flower in the pond while there are many perfect ones around and questioned himself why did she framed the imperfect one and couldn’t find the answer. He called the day off with unsolved question buzzing his electrified nerves throughout his sleep.

With half opened eyes, and responding to inaudible muttering Kairav replied “just 10 more minutes ma…I slept late in the night”

“Wake up kiddo, it is already 9am.” Called out his dad.

With laziness filled in mind Kairav reluctantly woke up from his bed on hearing his dad’s voice, and walked towards restroom to get freshened. After he got ready for the busy day to come ahead, he sat down in hall reading a newspaper while waiting for his breakfast to be served.

Thinking of the video he watched the other night, Kairav had his breakfast and was about to go and meet Mr.Vihaan. As he opened the front door, he saw this young lady who is going to press the calling bell switch and stopped doing it, as the door was opened. While Kairav still confused about his next move she introduced herself saying “hi…I am Madhukarika, student of Mr.Vihaan, you may call me Madhu.”

With the pleasant looks on her eyes, and an enigmatic smile on her face, covering her treasures with elegant churidhar and hiding her intelligence behind the expressions of gratitude and waiting for Kairav to respond who is awestruck observing her charm. After coming down to reality on his own Kairav said “please come in and by the way I am Kairav.” he said.

As they both sat right angle to each other in the living room and Kairav asked “would you like to have some coffee or tea…?” avoiding eye contact as much as possible even though he likes starring at her eyes for as long as he can.

“No thanks, I will be comfortable with water” she said trying to make an eye contact with him.

He brought a bottle of water with the glass offering her some and said “so…Mr.Vihaan gave me the video of yours yesterday, I saw it and got mesmerized by it” and continued “is it you who made that video…?” asked to confirm with her.

She nodded yes and thanked with a smile simultaneously and said “Actually that’s the reason I came for, I was supposed to give the different pendrive to him, unfortunately I gave him the wrong one. I came here to give the original one and take back the wrong one from you, I informed about this to Mr.Vihaan, you can check with him if you want.”

“That’s not a problem at all, I will get back your drive and will take the new one. The problem is you gave him the wrong one and he gave me the same, unfortunately I spent three hours watching it and thought it is the best work I have ever seen” and continued “now what is in this new pendrive..?” asked Kairav pretending as he is starring at the newspaper.

“Oh yeah..thanks for your appreciation and I can’t believe you watched whole three hours starring at the screen with lotus pond” and continued “and this pendrive has a short film I made about a person who is obsessed with perfection, get helped by his friend to discover the beauty of the world and find out the miracles of the life and pursue his dreams.” she said handing over the pendrive.

“I really liked the lotus pond video, Mr.Vihaan actually wants to help me to get motivated and stay focused, so he is trying to introduce me to some inspirational stuff, the truth is I already gained inspiration as well as motivation I needed through the video you gave him by mistake, so you can keep both pendrives with you, and by the way I copied that video to my laptop, and I would delete it if you don’t want me to have it.” Said Kairav and continued “But I had some questions regarding the video” handing her both the pendrives.

“I will be glad to answer your queries” she replied.

“When there are so many perfect lotuses in the pond, what made you to focus on the lotus with faded petals…?” asked Kairav.

Knowing how much he liked the lotus pond video, lead to light the spark in the heart of madhu and it is easily visible through her eyes, forgetting she is the visitor to the house, ignoring his parents in the next room, losing her levels of consciousness, giving up all the morals she learnt till now, she stood up and pulled him towards her, holding his face with her hands, closing her eyes unknowingly and started to stick her lips in between his, Kairav was shocked for a second and continued with her, after sharing their aura for over a minute those two were interrupted with a sound of vessel drop from the kitchen. They both ignoring what just happened sat back in their respective seats, Kairav being more uncomfortable in his own house than ever and was wondering what just happened..?

Madhu interrupted him by saying “Look, I am sorry for what I did instead of answering your question, I think it is time for me to leave.” and is about to leave.

“Wait…can I walk with you…?” requested Kairav.

“You can, but you shouldn’t bring anything related to what just happened.”

Kairav agreed for the condition and they both left the house, and continued to walk towards Madhu’s home, “so…what do u do…?” asked madhu.

“Finished my graduation 2 years back, I wanted to be a writer, and I am struggling to write a story, at some point I got obsessed with perfection and started rewriting the same story again and again without ending it, the conversation with Mr.Vihaan and your video on lotus pond had cleared my vision about perfection and passion.” said Kairav.

“Oh…I see, glad that my video helped you in pursuing your dreams.”

“Yeah…it did helped me, but you didn’t answer my question about framing the faded lotus” asked Kairav.

“I don’t like to sound philosophic but here is my version of answer, while the world is busy in appreciating the beauty of perfection, I just want to make an effort to show that it is equally worth enough to have the layers of imperfection just like the faded petals of the lotus.” said madhu.

“You just blown my mind. I never got a chance to ask what do you do..? Are you a film maker..?” he asked.

She nodded no and said “no I am not a film maker, I just enjoy capturing the beauty of the nature, and that short film about the narrow minded guy, Mr.Vihaan requested me to make it. He was my maths teacher in school, and helped to pursue my dreams. Right now I am masters in agricultural sciences.”

“Okay…what other videos of nature you captured…?” asked Kairav.

“I captured a lot of them, but all the copies are at my home town, I kept this lotus pond video with me because I can’t forgot the struggle I took to get it and I’m not ready to lose it.”

“Yeah…anyone who is into that video can feel your struggle” he replied and asked “can you tell me about the struggle you took to capture that video..?”

“Sure..why not..!, it was those days of September, I went to visit my grandma in her village, there was this pond I used to walk by to reach her home. I have been seeing this pond since my childhood, but I never seen this pond so beautiful filled with blooming lotuses, I fell in love with the scenic view, I don’t have any camera equipment at that time to capture it.”

“Then when did you captured..?” asked Kairav with excitement.

“Coming to that, as I couldn’t travel back at that time to get camera, I waited for a year, bought my camera, visited the pond continuously for 10 dawns in the ending and starting days of September and October. And finally when I felt the pond bloomed to its maximum, I shot the video”

Once again amused by her passion Kairav couldn’t blink for a while and said “wow”.

As they both walked for over 20 more minutes talking about each other interests, Madhu realized that they reached their destination.

“This is my house, thanks for the walk, would you like to have something like coffee or tea..?” asked madhu while unlocking the front door.

“No thanks, but I would like to watch the video with you once again, right now if you are free..?” asked Kairav.

“Are you sure..? I guess you will get bored” she said as they enter the living room of her house.

“No.. I will not get bored, not after hearing your passsion about making it” he replied.

While Kairav made ready the television set to watch the video, she arranged the couch and got some snacks for munching while enjoying the video. As Kairav about hit the play button she interrupted him by asking “don’t you want to know about the incident happened at your home..?” trying to hide her embarrassing smile.

“I felt like doing the same the moment I heard your name, I am afraid I will lose my control and kiss you at that moment, that’s the reason I avoided looking at you while we are talking” said Kairav and the video started playing as he hit the play button.

They both hiding their embarrassing smiles and trying hard to focus on the video in order to forget the special moment they had a while ago. As the video going on, their senses got uplifted, the spark was lightened in their souls and they made an eye contact, this time they both are seeing each other deep down into their hearts through their eyes. In a spur of moment, the lightened sparks of their souls pushed them towards each other, making them to repeat the moment that their souls are craving for.

As the sounds of chirps and shrieks going on and faded petals dropping down they became naked revealing their beauty to one another. As the brightness of their souls lightening the dark sides of each other they embraced their darkness while still holding on to spark that united them. Their bodies flowing in the rhythm ignoring the universe around them and seeking the depths of the miraculous act that they have never seen before. The blowing winds, the storming rains, the raging fire, the falling sky, the moving earth were all became inaudible to their senses while they were busy exchanging their warm breaths. Covered with sweat of each other, those two just discovered their route to share their state of trance. The nectar of love flowing down from their naked bodies and the sacred act continued forming inseparable souls out of their separable bodies leaving the bee sucking out the nectar on the screen. While their souls become inseparable, and the universe stayed calm witnessing the act, their bodies calmed down and fell apart, leaving their sweaty marks over the carpet. As the tears rolling down his cheeks, she embraced him from behind, resting her face on his hair.

After taking shower in her house, Kairav left to his home searching his rack for the old stories he left unfinished. Taking a deep breath and giving a glance about the things he wrote, and smiling at himself for the stupid things he has been working all these days, he tore them apart all of his undone work. With heart filled with confidence, vision clearer than ever and mind full of passion he wrote the title “THE BLOOMING LOTUS” in the blank note book with a leather cover which he hid it in the closet for past four years.

By G.Bhargava Phani Krishna