It was a cold rainy and windy morning when he let Rani fly. The rains ploughed the wet ground and Raka stood there, threw a glance at the angry clouds and let Rani take its course.
Rani had been with Raka since last five years. The pristine white dove was a messenger from his beloved, the beautiful, doe eyed Noori, the daughter of the clan leader. Noori, brought up within the confines of the patriarchal household, was never familiar with the world that existed beyond the windows of her little room. The great Rann stretched for miles and she wondered what it would be like, to run across the dunes, hide from her father and cross the desert, to a newer world, if any.
During lonely nights she longed to hear her mother’s voice among the twinkling stars. Her mother had become one of those stars just after Noori took birth. That is what was explained to her, by her grandmother. After her grandmother left to join the stars, the shroud of loneliness covered her and she remained inside it, never knowing the smell of the rain on the ground.
Raka, the camel keeper delivered provisions to the clan leader’s house. They were just in their teens when Raka and Noori first met. Raka followed his father to the daily chores at Noori’s house and the two eyes met and the time took the youngsters to a different plane. They met every day, with a shy glance, at Noori’s house. Her father was too confident of the boundaries laid by him and was oblivion to the lights dancing in his young daughter’s eyes whenever Raka came in.
In the huge mansion guarded by high walls, Noori and Raka did not have difficulty in finding solitude for those few moments when the love blossomed.
Noori’s pet bird Rani then played messengers to the lovers. They sent little love messages to each other, while the world went on without any knowledge of the love that was now ready to come to a full bloom.
But…. Noori was married off. She was already 15 and it was a concern for the honorable Sardar to have his daughter unmarried even at this age. The two could not utter a word and in no time their world came down crashing under the harsh storm of providence.
Before leaving for her new home, Noori sent Rani forever, to Raka.
And Rani stayed with him. For Raka, Rani symbolized everything that Noori was. Childhood love, youthful desires, lost companionship and woes of a bleeding heart.
Rani stayed with Raka throughout the years. Rani stayed with Raka when Noori crossed the desert to build a new home. Rani stayed with him when Noori devoted herself to her marital duties. Rani stayed with Raka when Noori was sent back to her father’s home as a punishment for bearing two baby girls within three years. Noori’s family could no more take the ‘misfortune’ the bride had brought to the family by bearing girl children. So she was sent back.
Raka built little hopes about asking Noori’s hands in matrimony from the Sardar. He also willed to take care of the little girls. Only if…only if..the Sardar agreed.
Only Rani saw the delicate heart beneath the tough exterior of the dark tall rustic camel rearer.
Raka would lie under the scorching sun waiting for Noori while Rani gave him company. He would lie under the stars and hope Noori would one day break all bondages and run into his arms and he would take her away from all her worries. Rani seemed to know all that.
But Noori never came. She submitted to the shackles gifted to her by her life. And one day Noori left again, once again to her husband’s home after some negotiations between the two clans.
The empty heart of Raka kept beating like drums and Rani heard it all.
And one day clouds gathered and like an army, broke through the vast Rann. The big raindrops ploughed out the wounds from the heart of the earth.
Then the news travelled fast, like a lightning, through the dunes to Raka that his beloved was now one among those stars in the sky. She left the unjust world, soon after making her family proud; after giving birth to a healthy boy.
Raka stood atop a dune, tried to scream and tear the earth and the skies. From somewhere Rani flew to his shoulders. Did he have a message still to be sent to his beloved?
He let it fly…..across the Rann, to the horizon….for good.
“Good bye and God Bless my Rani….till we meet someday, among those stars”
May God bless the messenger
