Shalin Jain’s Little Red Couch

My First Short Story

It was a cold morning. “Vishnu, wake up” my grand mother screeched in her high-pitched voice. I woke up in sheer disappointment. “Amma, you should have let me sleep, I was having a wonderful dream”. She gave me a deaf ear and went about doing her daily chore. I helped her every morning in the garden. I actually enjoyed doing it. I liked to watch her talk to the little plants. She was very compassionate and loving. She often became my source of inspiration.

It was my last holiday for the season. I decided to spend it out, exploring the woods few miles away from home. I have always enjoyed visiting unseen places. And it’s best when you do it alone. Amma always encouraged me to be with nature. She believes that it the purest form of life on earth. I couldn’t comprehend it right the first time she told me but have been experiencing it since then.

“Amma, I am going out for a while, will be back soon”. Amma acknowledged my message with a pleasing smile. She probably knew what I was up to. This was another reason I loved to stay with her for my holiday. She would leave me carefree.

I was wearing my blue sweater. I loved the very feel of it. Amma knitted my name on it. I strolled down the street. I was feeling very special. I didn’t know why but it felt like I was heading for my best ever discovery. I soon reached Raghav chacha’s grocery shop. He used to come home at times to deliver some grocery and meet Amma. He was very talkative, he probably knew all the people residing on the hill. I wanted to make sure I didn’t get involved in a conversation with him. But there he was. “Hey Vishnu, where are you heading?” “Pranam chacha” I replied. He offered me to sit. He seemed jobless for the moment. I thought I would ask him a bit about the woods before I embark my journey. But he would hardly allow me to speak. He threw questions one after the other and finally he said: “Vishnu you hardly speak, would you like to have some coffee?” Guess what, he didn’t allow me to answer that too. He immediately commanded “Mira, get Vishnu a cup of coffee”. Mira was Raghav chacha’s younger brother’s daughter. She lived in a town close by and had come over for a short vacation. “And Vishnu, you should come here every time you have vacations, don’t u like the place?” I managed to reply promptly this time. “Yes, it’s beautiful and calm here, its heaven”.

Mira brought me a hot cup of coffee. “Vishnu, coffee for you” she said in her mellow voice. Mira was short, shorter than me, to say. I was wondering if she could speak as much as Chacha did. She went in soon after, even before I could see her enough. I thought she was shy.

“Vishnu, would you mind sitting here for a while, I need to deliver few things”. I was more than glad. “Mira, why don’t you get Vishnu something to munch” he added. Soon he was gone. Mira brought me few biscuits this time. I was about to finish my coffee by then. Mira was looking at my name on my sweater. “Well, Amma knitted this for me; isn’t it nice?” I asked her. She replied “Yes, it is.”

Mira was a good painter and usually came over to spend time painting and sketching. We spoke for an hour or so. She also showed me some of her recent work. I was impressed. Her paintings portrayed the hill with a difference. It beautifully depicted how human life is inspired by nature. She told me “the more we get closer to Mother Nature the more closer we get to understanding life”. It did sound very philosophical to me. But I could easily relate to what she meant. By now I felt, I had been to the woods already. I had never been influenced and inspired by someone like this before. I thought it was the best moment of my vacation.

I took a bus to the city same evening. Mira was on my mind. It felt to me that meeting her was all I did this vacation. And I was already dreaming my next visit to the hill.