It was dawn and the early morning sunrays appeared like glittering diamonds, more than just normal precious stones. The only spaces between the mighty area covered by leaves of the mighty Banyan tree gave an entirely different entity to the usually so normal sunrays. The diamonds were few but appeared to be precious, very precious indeed, perhaps even more than the one that shone on the hand other than the one which held hers. She glanced, twice, towards the glittering diamonds above and just once towards the one on the other hand. Her one glance towards the one that shone on the hand was enough to confirm that it had something more in it. What was it that made it even more precious than the ones above she wondered.
“Dad!!” she exclaimed.
Eager to know why the one on his hand shone more and what did it have that the ones above didn’t, she asked in her usual questioning tone,
“Why is your diamond shining more?”
Dad, who was in his early thirties with ample happiness since the birth of his angel, 5 years old now, was a bit taken aback by the sudden enquiring tone from his angel.
He glanced at her face and tried to read her eyes, innocent as they usually were, would give a straight insight on what her heart was up to. He stared at her eyes just for a second, which itself seemed like an eternity. At first, in the first quarter of what seemed like an eternity, he could see just the innocence in her eyes, however, in the later quarters of the eternity, he could read nothing but immense love and care in her heart. Such love and care from his angel’s heart dilated his pupils a tad bit.
“Dad!!” she exclaimed once again.
“What happened?”
Curious soul she was, he thought. An honest curious soul, his heart corrected his thoughts. Reviving himself from his angel’s questions, getting down on his knees he replied,
“What made you change your tone my angel?”
“I saw your eyes dilating and I do not want them to dilate right now.”
“When you’ll understand why they dilated, be assured my angel, you shall realise how blessed I am to have you in my life.”
Her curiosity grew. However, she felt that knowing why the diamond on his hand shone more is of greater importance. She again pleaded,
“Dad, will you please tell me why the diamond on your hand is shining more?”
He didn’t want her to be irritated in such early hours of the day. He requested her,
“I will dear. I will.”
“But please promise me that you shall never tell the story I am about to tell you, to anyone.”
“To none?” she enquired for confirmation.
“Yes my dear, to none.”
“Ok Dad!! I promise.”
His one glance towards her eyes gave him even more assurance that his secret story was about to fall on to the safest ears on earth. He heaved a sigh of relief. His angel was however getting anxious and her curiosity was growing by every passing moment. He was about to reveal the Bliss he had experienced, which no one except his better half knew. To calm his excited angel, he took out the only bar of chocolate from his pocket and handed it to his angel. He stated,
“Eat it. It’ll calm you down. The story should fall on calm hearts free from all thoughts.”
“I’ll have half and you have the other half” she said.
“You also seem to be excited. You too must calm down.”
Both ate their respective chocolate bars. Both loved chocolates. Once they were done with the last bit of the bar, he made his angel sit underneath the Banyan tree.
“Won’t you sit beside me?” she queried.
“I shall always be beside you my dear. Always.”
“Now shall I start with the revelation?” he enquired.
“Please Dad, Please” she pleaded with an honest smile.
He again kneeled before her, held both her palms onto his right and covered them with his left palm.
“Close your eyes dear.”
She closed her eyes.
He noticed how happy his angel was on what was about to be revealed. He closed his eyes too.
SWOOOOOSH.
He opened his eyes. He also asked his angel to open her eyes, slowly, very slowly.
She opened her eyelids slowly. She was a bit surprised. The place appeared to be same as the one before she had closed her eyes, but there was something different about this place. Nothing visually different, but it definitely felt different.
As she opened her eyes, the first object her eyesight fell on was the ground. The ground was the same, with denser and cleaner grass. She also realised that the ground was softer than the earlier one. The second object her eyesight fell on was her surroundings. Surroundings seemed happier, how, she couldn’t yet realise. Then she saw the Banyan tree. The Banyan tree appeared huge, perhaps bigger than the one she had seen earlier. She also realised, there was no sunlight. But the entire area was illuminated, however the source of the illumination remained unknown. Then her eyes observed the leaves shed by the Banyan tree. The leaves, they too were different. They were perfectly beautiful and flew on to the ground in a manner she had never noticed. Their flight down towards the earth seemed like a choreographed dance, however, the choreographer remained unknown.
“Dad, where are we?” she enquired.
“There’s something even more important dear”.
“What?” she questioned.
“The year in which we have just arrived.”
* * *
“What?” she exclaimed.
“Shush my little angel.” He tried to calm her down.
“Where and when do you think we have arrived?”
“We are at the same place, but it feels different. Feels happier and the tree, leaves, illumination are different from the one where I closed my eyes” she explained with a bit concern.
“Perfect my angel. I couldn’t have expected you to guess all of them correctly.”
“Dad, will you please tell me where we are and the year in which we have arrived.”
“I want you to understand it all by yourself dear. It’s totally worth you see.”
“Ok, if you say so Dad.” She seemed calmed down. She liked puzzles and riddles.
“Hold my hand and you shall understand it sooner.”
She held his hand. His touch felt different. She felt as if she was touching a hand of her own. She felt it strange, but the feeling was too good to be termed as strange. She began thinking of where and in which year they could possibly be in. In a moment or two, she experienced her thoughts were dragging the two of them to some place nearby. She couldn’t understand where her thoughts were drawing both of them to.
Her Dad, being the man he was, didn’t give the slightest clue to his angel to understand where and in which year they were.
After a walk which was dragged by her thoughts for about 12 minutes, they reached a place similar to one where their house existed. The difference being, the house had brighter colours, paints on grills were black at its best, the trees and plants in gardens were dancing on a choreographed song, the song and choreographer both unknown and lastly, again the source of illumination was not sunlight.
Strange as it might have seemed to her, they didn’t have to knock the door to get into the house, nor did they walk through the doors as she had seen in a couple of movies. The doors flew open at the instant they stepped onto the last step of its plinth.
As they entered their house, for the first time, for the very first time she experienced the coming home feeling. She felt happy, much happier than what she usually used to feel whenever she entered their house. She couldn’t yet realise why she had this strange feeling today, or whatever day they had arrived on.
All this while she was constantly trying to think, think and overthink on where they actually were and why was she having all strange feelings. However, she couldn’t just realise. Intelligent and Confident as she was, she didn’t give up. She had her patience levels developed during the various riddles and puzzles her Dad gave her to solve in his free time.
As they entered the living room of their house, without realising what she was doing, she straightaway sat on the biggest and the best chair, her Dad used to always sit on. She didn’t realise what she had just done. However, her Dad, knowing all the rules, calmly sat on the chair besides the biggest and the best one.
“So Dad. Now what?”
“Now we wait for some time.”
To test his angel’s intelligence, he asked her,
“What’s your favourite colour dear?”
Without knowing what she was about to speak, her lips muttered,
“Blue.”
No. That was not her favourite colour. But why did she say Blue then. She was left a bit dazzled. But her Dad wasn’t. He had realised that he had precisely brought his angel to the exact place where she would understand why the diamond in his ring shone more.
To make something more out of the time spent, she noticed a magazine lying on the coffee table. It had date on it. The date was precisely a month later than her actual birth date. She immediately realised that her Dad had brought her to the time when she was born. She immediately realised why the Banyan tree appeared huge, why the leaves seemed perfectly beautiful, why the house seemed to have brighter colours and so on. She felt a couple of stones rolling in her tummy. She had got what she wanted to.
In the same excitement, she glanced towards her Dad who simply waved at her acknowledging her discovery was great but there was much more left to be discovered. She got back into scanning the other books and magazines nearby but she didn’t find anything relevant.
After around 10 minutes, her Dad asked her to come closer to him. She came and sat on the biggest and her Dad’s favourite chair. He said,
“It’s time to know why the diamond in my ring shines more.”
Just as her Dad said so, she saw her Dad, who was younger than the one sitting right beside her and her Mom who too appeared younger. She realised why they appeared younger. As they were in the year she was born.
Wait a minute she said, who is following them she thought.
It was her own self, in baby trolley, coming right back after a stride in the garden she realised.
“Dad? Can’t they see us?”
“No” he replied calmly.
“And in some time, you too will realise why.”
The younger Mom, Dad and herself walked into the bedroom. The older Angel asked her Dad,
“Shall we follow?”
“Yes Off course!”
“Honey, I want to give you the most precious thing I’ve ever received” said her Mom.
“What is it dear?”
“It’s a diamond ring, my Dad gave me when we were married.” She said while taking the ring out from the cupboard.
“What’s so special about this ring that makes it the most precious thing you’ve ever received?”
“It shone whenever my Dad made me feel happy. To be honest, I was always happy whenever he was around, so the ring never actually stopped shining. The other day when you were playing with our angel, she was giggling. At the same time, I happened to open the cupboard and to my surprise, noticed the ring was shining. I never realised how it worked, but it did work for me. I think it is already working for you and our angel too.”
“Honey, I am pretty sure I’ll always be able to make our angel happy. I do not want your ring as a proof for the same.”
“Honey, it works otherwise too. Whenever she’ll feel happy about you, the ring shall shine. It might help you in your rough times too.”
With this he accepted the ring. He then hugged her on receiving the ring.
The angel felt strange. She felt immense love and care for her mom. Not in a maternal sense, but as if she was in her father’s shoes. At the same time, she felt immense love and care for herself, this time these were paternal feelings.
She had realised where and when they were.
SWOOOOOSH.
Before her Dad asked her to open her eyes, she felt tears rolling out of her eyes. She said,
“Not a single word Dad. Not a single word.”
“I know the Banyan tree and its shed leaves were dancing to your tune. I now know why I felt my thoughts were dragging us towards our house. I now also know that the trees and plants in our garden were dancing to your tune. I now realise why I felt all the surroundings happier then. I now know why we didn’t have to knock on the door before entering it. I now know how happy you feel when you reach home. I also know now why I sat on the biggest and the best chair in our living room, where you always sit. I now know why I said my favourite colour was Blue. I also felt what you feel for Mom. I now also know what you feel for me. More importantly, I now know that the light of your heart is so bright that it doesn’t even need sunlight.”
“And last but not the least, I now know why the Diamond in your ring shines.”
“The tears in my eyes not only show that I have understood how blessed you are to have me in your life, but also show how blessed I am to have you in my life.”
Her Dad gave a big hug, which probably either shall never forget.
The diamond in his ring shone at its brightest.
