Part 11 (1/2)

Her eyes looked like a morning whose dew is still in the air.

I stood silent for some time till I said, ”Have you lost all the great burden of your tears?”

She smiled and said nothing. I felt that her tears had had time to learn the language of smiles.

”Once you said,” she whispered, ”that you would cherish your grief for ever.”

I blushed and said, ”Yes, but years have pa.s.sed and I forget.”

Then I took her hand in mine and said, ”But you have changed.”

”What was sorrow once has now become peace,” she said.

28

Our life sails on the uncrossed sea whose waves chase each other in an eternal hide-and-seek.

It is the restless sea of change, feeding its foaming flocks to lose them over and over again, beating its hands against the calm of the sky.

Love, in the centre of this circling war-dance of light and dark, yours is that green island, where the sun kisses the shy forest shade and silence is wooed by birds' singing.

29

AMA AND VINAYAKA

AMA AND VINAYAKA

_Night on the battlefield:_ AMA _meets her father_ VINAYAKA.

AMA

Father!

VINAYAKA

Shameless wanton, you call me ”Father”! you who did not shrink from a Mussulman husband!

AMA

Though you have treacherously killed my husband, yet you are my father; and I hold back a widow's tears, lest they bring G.o.d's curse on you. Since we have met on this battlefield after years of separation, let me bow to your feet and take my last leave!