By Rishikesh Chhabra.

It was a dark and stormy night. [Clichéd beginning / a classic if there ever was one, if I may say so myself…:p]. The wind lashed out against the windowpanes as a torrential downpour kept howling out yonder. I was quietly sipping a steaming mug of cocoa, as I lay nestled snugly in a soft, warm quilt, rereading that dog-eared copy of war and peace for the fifth time this month. Yes, indeed it was the epitome of monotony, and yet there was a deep sense of satisfaction associated with the situation.

For the first time in my life, I was at peace with myself, savoring that serene solitude – that exquisite sense of well-being associated with the simpler things in life.

I found myself in a contemplative mood, reflecting on the many and varied experiences that I had gone through in the relatively short span of some three plus decades that these eyes had witnessed. I was a child of the rocket age, so to speak. Mankind had already set foot on the moon and was expanding his horizon, in a heady era of explosive growth and scientific excellence. The cold war was in full swing, and on both sides, the global superpowers were jostling for supremacy on all fronts.

All this was far removed from where I was. Back in Rangoon, there was a different kind of mood. The seeds of a quiet revolution was just being sowed, one that would grow quietly, gnawing at the foundations of the inept socialist military state, that gave birth to it, the pressure increasing slowly until one day, just a mere decade and a half later, it would detonate in a show of massive people power – one that would bring down the entire country to a grinding halt, and change the direction of the country forever. The surface though, exhibited a disconcertingly deceptive and calm facade and we were none the wiser. [Need reworking!!!]

—————————————

First time I met her, was at a get-together at Capt. Ne Win’s Dig. It was a bit of a drag, and I was moping around, biting my nails, wishing it was all over, and I could go back home, to TV and the reliable Atari. Just when I decided, I couldn’t take it any longer, in walks in this apparition. Long dark hair, laughing eyes, and the cutest dimples that ever graced a pair of cheeks. She tossed her hair across her shoulders, smiled at the room in general, and I was be-smitten! Sigh…first love can be wishy washy, but you ain’t ever gonna forget it.