Well, everyone knows that I am Princess Jasmine, so the title might make them think I'll be writing about some pink and silver princessy-stuff, but no. Though I love to be a princess and I love to have "magic carpet" rides, today I am thinking of something different...but it has got to do with dreams...dreaming of the past.
If I had a time machine, where in time would I love to go to?? This is a very difficult question for me to answer...I love Egypt during the Pharaohs, I love India during the Golden age...I even love late 19th century England...so I dont know where I'd want to go...hey wait!! I do know...I want to go back to my ancestral village...I want to be born in the same family but...but...but...250 years ago!!! That sounds weird...doesn't it?? Yeah...that's why I said you need to follow my dreams.
This thought came into my mind one evening when I was washing rice at the sink of my little kitchen of Denman Hall. Clad in "tinkerbell print" pyjamas and my hair tied in a pig-tail, I definitely had no resemblance to the girl from mid- 18th century Bengal. She was the youngest grand-daughter of a very wealthy landlord from the Ganga- deltaic lush green plains of eastern India.
There was a huge mansion beside a river in the place called Jessore (now in Bangladesh), and that belonged to the Ghosh family. They migrated there in like 1750s from the western part of Bengal. The mansion had orchards surrounding it and beyond the orchards were rice fields...and then the river. This girl is in my imagination, but I can see her whenever I want to. She's beautiful, with long black hair and large black eyes and the sarees she wore were light colored. In the summer evenings, she walked by the side of the lake...and you could hear her humming some tunes under her breath...the tunes filled the cool wind that blew from the southern seas and rustled among the leaves of the coconut and palm trees. Sometimes she just sat and thought...her mind wandered off to places she's never been to...
One day, she met a traveller...he was coming from some other part of the country and he was playing his flute...the girl could not stop herself from going and talking to the traveller though she was not permitted to do so. He told her stories of different places and the girl's dreamy eyes followed the traveller's tales...he'd been to Ceylon on a ship and had seen the raging waters...he's met different people from many places, merchants from many countries...he changed her world...she was fascinated.
But dreams are not forever...they dont last long...so the girl had to go back to her house among the other women, she couldn't live her life the way she wanted....the traveller went his own way... they never met again. He remained in her memories forever.
No, please...this is NOT a sad love story...this is the way our lives are...we meet some people and they fascinate us, but we are all travellers walking on our own tracks...sometimes our roads merge and we find some fellow companions...but they are not forever. We talk and feel good that someone is with us, but they will leave us sometime, and we are not supposed to leave our roads and go with others....cherish the moments you are happy and bring back the memories when you are lonely...and "if you can dream" you can always let your mind wander to nice places and in that way you can always feel happy...that's how we can enjoy life.
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