Aakash was a living creature residing near our farm house in the Barda mountain range. I can not put him in the category of “Boys” as he was too different from human beings save his physic and his looks. His parents were blessed with a child after a long wait. I knew him since Childhood. He was my best village buddy though he was 6 years younger to me.
In weekends we used to go to our farm house and then it would be the most difficult task for our parents to find us, as we would be roaming anywhere in the jungle and on the hills. The searching would begin from the backyard and end at the branch of some tree. Once, he took me a bit far from the Ness (a small village of 20 to 30 families) and to my surprise, he showed me his own discovery, a small beautiful stream. He explained me the characteristics of the stream (as we learn in the environment):
“During hot sunny noon, the stream seems to be like a crystal and in the morning and evening; the flow of the stream turns to graceful golden.” He didn’t know about the color of the stream during the night as he was not allowed to step out of his place at night.
“In summer, when there is less water in the pump-well of the farm, the stream becomes too thin and sometimes it turns to a puddle. In monsoon, it becomes too furious that even a glimpse of it would be scary for us to cross it.”
He shared his secret discovery with me only as he was not willing to allow others to come there and pollute his own discovery. He used to sit there for hours together to chat with the birds and rabbits and squirrels. According to him, the stream came from Aakash. Actually, all the things which he couldn’t understand belonged to the sky only. This is how, he was proud of his name.
Every Saturday, a monk used to come to the Ness for his weekly food. The Monk was gifted with green eyes which was centre of attraction for many of us. They were sometimes scary but we liked them otherwise. Usually when a child does not sleep, the mother says: “Soja varna Bawa aa jayega!” But Aakash’s mother used to tell him: “Soja varna Bawaji nahi aayenge!” He told me that the bawaji was blessed with “Chamatkari Shakti” (miraculous powers). His aashram is near to the heaven in the sky where he used to sit for the whole week and on Saturday he comes down. Then again in the evening he climbs a coconut tree to go back to his place.
I told you earlier that he was not a human who has reasoning mind but a strange creature who believed all Buddhu things. And his mind-made questions added an edge to his Buddhu personality:
Aakash : How does the crop grow in the farm?
Maa : Mother Nature nurtures the seeds we saw and grows it . to a plant.
Aakash: If everything is done by the Mother Nature, why does papa go to the farm and disturb the process of Mother Nature.
Maa : ………….
Aakash : Maa, the calf is one year younger then me no?
Maa : Haa baccha..
Aakash : then why does it grow faster then me??
What if I too start having the grass which you feed them? Will I too grow faster?
Maa : ……
Aakash : Where do the white elephants stay?
Will they be my friends?
Aakash : Maa, why don’t you make the calf and the cow wear clothes?
Why do you let them stay out at nights and scold me if I wish to?
Aakash : Why Dadaji has white hairs and I have black?
Why Papa does shave and I need not to?
Aakash : Maa, why don’t you wear my shirt trousers and get me dressed in your yellow sari? It will suit me surely...
Aakash : Maa, is the plane made of simple paper or hard paper?
Won’t it get crashed with the plane of God and Goddess?
And in reply he used to get “Someday you’ll understand everything.”
And his day of understanding came to him too soon. The Diwali vacation had just begun and we went to the farm house. I had got a new pair of clothes for him but I was told that he was caught by the deadly swine flue, so I was not allowed to go out with him or to go to see him.
It was Saturday morning when his mother came to call me saying Aakash desperately wanted to see me. I went with her, wearing a mask to prevent the infection. I met him and gifted him the pair which I had bought for him. There was a cute smile on his pale face on seeing the gift. He asked his mother to put him on the new clothes. He was looking so cute, so charming in them. I sat there for more than an hour and chatted with him a lot. I talked about my school and he about his stream and hills.
He explained his worry about the stream and his other buddies to me. I promised him that in the evening I would go there and tell them about him and would also tell them that he missed them a lot but he interrupted me. He was like “why should I bind them to me just because of my love and care for them? If you go there, just give my regards.” During our talk, very often he was peeping out of the door. On my asking, he said, “Bawaji has not yet arrived. I think there is some thing wrong with him... I have to go to his aashram to inquire about him. The only problem is I don’t know how to climb the coconut tree or to fly. When I will get cured, I’ll ask the eagle to teach me to fly. And then I’ll go there and will find the root of the stream too.”
After a few hours I left him, Aakash silently came to me and took me with him to the stream. Bawaji was waiting for him there. He asked me to take care of all his friends including me and went to the Bawaji. He holed his hand and they started flowing in reverse of the stream flow and disappeared in a moment. Suddenly our door was knocked. There was a man who told us that Aakash had left the earth and had started his journey towards Aakash.
I was shocked... I even couldn’t cry. Hiding myself from others, I rushed to the stream he had discovered. All his deeds were passing in front of my eyes. His innocent face was the only thing I could see at that time. On reaching the stream, I busted into tears. Looking at the sky I shouted: - “See, Aakash!! It is not that the stream flows only from the sky. It can also flow from my eyes… Similarity is both the streams belong to you only.”
