CHAPTER 5. FALLEN HOPES

The sun had lost its spite and zephyr was blowing across the desert; may be it felt that pleasant because she strode beside me adding such freshness to the evening winds that would only accompany morning breeze. We had left the jeep at the other side of the sand dune and were following the trails of Ram Daas who was strolling in such sharp patterns in a spotless desert as if he was walking through some unmarked streets. Each time my eyes met the sight of her face, she passed me a glowing smile with a playful squint.

If there was any certainty in my mind until last night about the way she felt about me had evaporated in mid air by now; I couldn’t tell if her smiles came to her lips because of me or the atypical image consultant she just met. In an absolute inactive place where there was nothing but sand, a few thuds here and there of wandering feet and an air marred with fervid rays of the sun, her smiles were thrilling. As long as I walked beside her I felt suspended in mid air, weightless, worriless; I even forgot my purpose of being in such God forsaken place until I heard a tired yet joyous shout.

“I think I have found it” it was Ram Daas who yelled in a dry voice and I saw Rahim Daad running downhill with an agility of a fifteen year old. He kept on amazing me ever since I met him.

Eeman uttered a slight scream of joy like a warrior who was ready to feast after a long day’s battle; I ran after her towards Ram Daas who had marked a slightly think colored surface covering an area of no more than seven square feet.

“I think I have found it” Ram Daas repeated those words, this time with a softer and more firm voice, “you see, at this place, the sand changes its color. This happens only because of two reasons; either there was a pond here that dried only a few weeks back or there is water underneath the surface.”

“Yes and since there hasn’t been any rain for years now; it cant be the dried pool” Rahim Daad contemplated.

“And this means that there is a water reservoir here” Eeman said with a heavy breath mixed in happy tone.

“Yes!” Ram Daas said with a faint shine of yet another accomplishment entering his eyes.

“But there is this one problem” I was continuously thinking of a disturbing fact.

They looked at me with utterly fretful expressions on their faces. I was about to mess with their joy.

“If the surface has changed color due to water reservoir then isn’t there a possibility that this reservoir is not deep, its closer to the surface and for that reason its not in abundance?” I asked with utmost reluctance in my words.

Eeman quickly turned her face towards Ram Daas for a quick answer to this and I was certain she was looking for a more favorable answer to such disappointing query.

“Yes. It is quite possible that water here would not run deep and thus might only last a few months” he said slowly, emphasizing on each word he said.

I saw shades of sunset appearing on Eeman’s face.

“But we could be wrong as well, so unless we are sure about the water resources here, we will add this place to our list of possible reservoirs” I said to make up for ushering too much reality into their moments of success.

A somewhat muted calm returned to their faces and we decided to go back to Fazal Daad’s place before the sun would set. Nothing much was spoken between any of us during our ride back; I somehow felt I was being a little too realistic in my quest for water. I had to allow a little more consideration in my words and gesture; I started thinking of ways in which I could do that.

There were still some shadows outstretched ahead of us as we dismounted and walked towards Fazal Daad’s house; those shadows of silence were equally long. Fazal Daad had heard the roar of the jeep and was standing outside the door to welcome us. He had been waiting for Rahim Chacha anxiously I guessed and as soon as Rahim Daad was in his range he clutched his hand politely and took him inside towards his private quarters. While Ram Daas, Eeman and I stepped into the little hut that was allotted to us for rest.

Ram Daas spread his tired body over the charpoy and in a few minutes had fallen asleep. We remained silent for a while; I was still thinking of something interesting to say, something that would fall away from the day’s routine. I hadn’t even reached the middle of my thoughts when she spoke up.

“I never really knew that such trivial thing would be of such significance for some people” she spoke with a polite but dismayed voice.

“Neither did I. It feels like I had been living in a fabricated world where things happen regardless of your efforts. But here, nothing happens in a lifetime unless you give it your life” I said something without paying any attention to my words; may be that’s why they didn’t make any sense.

“Isn’t there any other way? Like a water pipeline, just like they spread all those oil pipelines?” I could clearly see she had put her heart to this quest for sweet water.

“Yeah but even with that they remain dependent upon others; that’s not the kind of solution these people will accept. They are looking for something more sustainable, something they know is there with them and they can control it” I tried to explain to her as much as I understood of the situation.

“Yeah, if I were them I would do the same” she said nodding her head and I knew she understood what I tried to mean, “Today when Ram Daas found that place I thought we had done this, I thought we were there, but then you turned the picture upside down; for a moment there I hated you for being so skeptical but when we were coming back I thought about it. Its not just about two people trying to find water; it’s a lot more serious than that; its about life of generations.”

I kept listening to her; for a moment there I fell in love with her. She had such sincerity in her tone, such consideration in her words. She wasn’t just another rich girl who would talk about her belongings or her disappointment or disillusions in life; she didn’t talk to me about lonely and sad parts of her life but she talked about others; she talked about life that wasn’t hers but she knew the worth of it. She had such scintillating thoughts, such caring ideas that for those few moments when I listened to her and stared at her, I was in absolute love with her.

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