Mithra

Half an hour later, Roja was outside the house staring at the snowfall. She, always wondered at the star-like structure that was conventionally used to indicate snow. But that day when she looked at snow on Mr. Wahib’s car, she noticed that the structure did exactly look like the hexagonal snow symbol. She took some pictures with Pradyuman while the others vacated their rooms and all the luggage bags were placed in the living room. Meanwhile Zayed arrived and it took him a while to turn the vehicle around. The snow showed no signs of ceasing. Quickly everyone loaded their bags into the tempo traveller. Mr. Wahib and his wife gave them a warm send-off. While looking out of the window, Roja saw that the entire city looked completely different from what she had seen until the previous day. The roofs of houses and buildings were covered with snow. The naked branches of trees were coated with snow. It looked like a view straight out of fantasy land. The entire face of the city had changed i...

  The sunshine was a paradox to the cold weather in Gulmarg. Although most of the year had been spent indoors due to COVID-19, people seemed to have forgotten all about the pandemic. Roja was so immersed in the beauty of the place that she did not notice Agnivesh approaching her. Nakul and Pradyuman had gone to pay for the snow-bike ride. ‘Roja!’ called out Agnivesh as he neared her. She turned around in surprise to find a visibly angry Agnivesh. ‘What's wrong?’ she asked casually.   ‘You will not go on that hideous snow-bike,’ he declared. ‘What is this? An order again? But I have to disappoint you because I will ride that bike.’ ‘Don't be such an idiot. It is dangerous.’ ‘I am sure that it is certainly less dangerous than you. Will you please stop being ridiculously angry for no reason?’ she said letting out a sigh. Agnivesh moved closer to her and held her arm. ‘I cannot let you get hurt, Roja. Why don't you understand? I care for you,’ he said tenderly. ...

  One whole minute of silence passed but Roja stood frozen in her place. The smile had vanished from her face. Pradyuman watched her cautiously without making any movement. The next word from her mouth could break his heart or fill it with boundless happiness. ‘Roja, did I ask you something that I should not have asked?’ He could no longer bear the suspense. ‘No, of course not. It is just that I did not see it coming. It was out of the blue,’ she said putting her towel on the chair to dry. ‘So, what do you think?’ he asked trying to read the emotions on her face. But her face was blank. ‘Pranu. we both know how much we love each other and. I am so happy that you came here for me. But I need time to think about marriage. This is a big decision for me and I would really be grateful if you would please give me some time.’ She was quite honest with him. Once again, she was not going to make the mistake of making a decision to please someone dese. This time, she was going to...