The magic stone - I

The sun was yet to rise and I had just stepped on the jogging track. The misty morning was behaving like an Arabian lady; cuddling me throughout. Just when I stepped on the track, there was this stone – a colorful on one side and coal-black on the other. It stopped me, it took my gaze. There were other health-conscious people on the track but most of them didn’t bother to see that and who had it looked, just saw the black part of the stone. But I could see it all, from all the sides, all angles and all corners.

Suddenly to my utter surprise, it started talking to me. ‘You’ve been to lot of places, I was there with you; but you couldn’t recognize me.’ A smile of mock surrounded my lips. A stone, a mere stone was there with me and I need to recognize! What a waste of this hazy morning! I thought of leaving that right behind and get into my regular jog. But there was some sort of attraction which didn’t allow me to take a single step forward. And the stone started talking again.

‘I was there with you on that drizzling evening at Bhandardara; within the massive sculptures of Ellora; on the tides of Kashid; on the same horse that you were riding to Baisaran and even to that desert of Bikaner where you were enjoying the full moon. Remember me? You won’t, because I was just a mere stone. Even now, I’m a mere stone; but at least you can see the other sides of me, and therefore you are listening to me!’

I was startled; my legs were as if fixed on the ground and I felt there wasn’t anybody even at the longest vicinity. Slowly I sat on the ground, on the wet grasses and looked at the stone. Do I know you? If not, then how you know about me? I started giving a magnifying look and after a prolonged one, I could recall. Probably not in this life, but the previous one or the other one before that, I knew it. Perhaps a million years have passed by now, but this stone could recognize me!

Slowly I moved my hand forward to it, and it seemed like it shelved itself by my touch. A whisper came out – ‘don’t try to take me home, I’m happily surviving with the rain, the fog and the sun. I’ll be there wherever you wish for some more million years.’

The red sun was out from the fog by now and it was time for me to return.