Chapter 12: chapter 12

Jogya asked her,"Tell me about your relationship with your husband Neelesh. I would love to know the person who swept my love off her feet and married her later!""He was a nice guy and initially I felt the luckiest girl on this earth when he made my life beautiful with his sweet gestures and nice behaviour. He never raised his voice at me. Till, I did something which ended up hurting him badly!" Jamuni told him as she stopped for sometime before completing her story."So, what happened tell me in detail, I am really curious to know about your life so far!""What will you do after knowing everything about me?" Jamuni said to him with a smile.Jogya kissed her lips as he remembered those days when he could be with her without any guilt or fear.He asked her, "Tell me rest of your story and I will feed you these delicious berries from this enchanted forest!"Jamuni sucked the berry and tasted the delicious juice and said to Jogya,"Jog, how I wish that my story was different from the one, I am going to share with you now! I was having a dream marriage till I saw a letter written by a woman called, 'Maya' who was his love interest since his college days. Neelesh got married to me so that he could keep Maya happy as she wanted to continue her illicit affair with him even though she was married to a CEO. I stormed out of my marriage and took refuge under the protection of a rich and powerful man called, 'Jiten' but it was the biggest mistake of my life as he destroyed my life, completely!"Jogya told her as he wiped the juice stain from the corner of her mouth,"Jamu, I feel that you should simply forget your past as it seems to me quite painful and heartbreaking!"Jamuni started crying as she told him,"Jog, you have no idea, what I went through after leaving this village, city life looks exciting but the truth is that it gives people lot of stress and challenges as people are forced to work twelve hours a day in order to feed their family!"Jogya nodded his head as he agreed with her.He was thinking that his sweet Jamuni has gone through a lot of transformation after leaving her native village far behind as she scaled the heights of wealth and success while experiencing lot of pain and agony in the process.Jogya always knew that city life looks attractive from a distance but is miserable for those who never believe in compromising their values in order to become rich and successful by adopting shortcuts to achieve success in life.He knew that Jamuni was a carefree girl when she left her village which was pure and innocent like a mountain river.As she crossed the mountains and valleys, she became messy as she soaked all the polluting thoughts and deeds of others around her just like a river gets polluted due to selfish deeds of men and women around her.As she moved a little further in the journey of her life, she brought flood and end up drowning those whom she loved just like a mighty river does in the monsoon season.Jogya felt that after her trials and turbulence, she has entered the final phase of her journey, in which she wants to initiate a cleansing process to filter each and every life experience before she becomes one with her destiny!Jamuni's journey paralleled the journey of a river, which becomes calm and meditative before entering a samadhi as she surrenders herself to the mighty ocean!Jamuni has also taken a similar path before saying goodbye to her love and her real home, her village!Jamuni saw Jogya contemplating about something very seriously, so she decided to yawn in order to break his reverie.Jogya asked her, "Are you tired, dear! Ok, let's go to our house and prepare something delicious for you. I have kept everything in my  house as I knew somewhere in my heart that you will return to me and this village, one day!"Jamuni told him,"You were hopeful but I was hopeless as I was struggling each day very hard not to lose my sanity and goodness after going through many life changing experiences!"Jogya prepared fish curry and rice for them.As he was chopping wood for keeping them warm at night,  Jamuni looked at his well toned muscular body which was natural and strong as he had worked all his life in fields doing a lot of manual work with his bare hands.Every vein of his strong arms was visible as he was busy chopping wood while sweating profusely.Jamuni missed her true love and was looking forward to be in his arms before dying in them one day, in near future!Jogya looked at Jamuni and smiled at her. His laugh lines made him look handsome and sublime.He picked all the wood pieces and stocked them in his room.He served the dinner and kept looking at her while she was having her food.Jamuni told him, "Do you believe in past life connection kind of thing, Jog?"He became serious as he always believed in it.He nodded his head while looking at the burning pieces of wood in the fireplace.He realised that his moments of loneliness were going to be burnt as they were going to be replaced with new moments of bliss.He was waiting impatiently to hold Jamuni in his arms as she will fall asleep with him on the same bed for the first time in his whole life!He was nervous and restless as he could not wait any longer and  hurriedly finished his dinner as Jamuni was tired after a long day and was almost on the verge of a deep sleep as her eyelids were dropping again and again while she was finding it near impossible to keep herself awake.As she fell asleep on the dinner table, Jogya carried her in his arms to her bed, his bed, their bed!