She lives in the eastern part of the globe. He lives in the western part of the same globe. When she wakes up, the first thing she says to him is “Good night”. And before he closes his eyes to sleep, the last thing he says to her is “Good morning! And, have a good day”. When it’s time for her to sleep, she promises to meet him in her dream. And, the next day, they talk about their meeting in their respective dreams. She says she came to meet him in the form of the wind. He says he was standing outside the restaurant where he works just to feel her. He says he danced like crazy when the musical wind that carried her fragrance blew his long and silky hair. And in his dream, the boy goes to meet her in the form of food. She chews the food very slowly in her college canteen at

break time and devours it fully as she can taste and smell the heady fragrance of his clean body in every bite.

She loves to eat. He loves to drink. She loves to sing. He loves to dance. She loves to read. He loves to write. They both love each other. They talk about love and life. She asks some profound questions regarding life and he ponders for a long time before he rep-lies. She is always satisfied with his answer. He answers in such a way that the questions dissolve on their own. When there are no more questions, there is no need for the answer as well. She tells him that he is her teacher. She requests him to be his ‘mind-guard’.

“If we were together, I would make you my body guard,” she says.

“Why would you take such a risk?” he says, “If there ever were to be an emergency, it would be you who would be protecting me. I know you are stronger than me, for you eat more than I do.”

She laughs like crazy. And, he joins her. And both of them laugh so hard that the birds sleeping in the branches of peepal trees wake up and flutter their wings in irritation. Some neighbours even mistake the laugher for a thunder storm and go out to check the sky.

“Will you be my permanent friend?” she asks seriously.

“Like the permanent marker?” he turns it into a joke and tries to make her laugh.

But this time she is serious, and says, “I asked because you know nothing in this world lasts forever. Everything is impermanent. I always pray to god that our friendship lasts forever.”

“Yes, you are right. I will accept everything that happens in my life. Even if we might not be ‘permanent friends’, I will accept it. What I can assure you is that my acceptance will be permanent,” he replies after contemplating for long time.

Sometimes he shares his beautiful poems about life with her and she is filled with happiness and joy. She likes to read every word he writes.

“I once asked a stone,

‘Would you fly if God were to give you wings?’

And she said, ‘I am in love with the Earth.

She reads it and a smile forms on her lips. Her face brightens. “Wow!” she   muses.

“How do you manage to write such beautiful poems?” she asks.

“You are my inspiration,” he says. “When I think of you, my imagination runs fiercely, like a wild horse, my creative energy begins to overflow, every cell in my body feels warm and begins to dance. Not able to contain such bliss, I try sharing it by writing poetry.”

“I felt happy to know that I am your inspiration. Perhaps, I became your inspiration because you always inspire me to be inspiring. Dear, the truth is that we inspire one another and that’s the beauty of our friendship.”

“I wonder how wonderful it would be if the word friendship were actually friendkiss. It makes more sense—one friend kissing another, one friend helping another, one friend inspiring another,” he says.

“Haudey,” she says. Crazy.

Sometimes she asks him to share his thoughts on the problems she has with the people and circumstances around her.

“How would you act if one of your friends gets proudly all of a sudden and puts you in a state where you feel you are uncounted? And, in addition to this, that person makes you feel bad about yourself?” she asks. “I want to get heart soothing advice from you.”

“Oh! If you want advice that soothes your heart, I can give you many. But if you want to be honest with yourself then that’s not the right choice. What is reality? Reality is what you are experiencing right now. To want to hear good and encouraging answers means you don’t want to face the realities—like accepting feelings of being uncounted or ignored. If you try to find some ways to hide these feelings then it might make you feel good for now, but there will come times and situations in life where all these bad feelings, emotions and thoughts will come flooding back, and again you will have to search for a way out of it. So my genuine advice is—do nothing. Be open to everything that is happening within and without you. Don’t try to repress those bad feelings. Let them appear and pass. Feel bad so completely that there is only the feeling there, not a separate feeler,” he advises.

“Your answer is satisfactory,” she says.

“Welcome... I will always be there to welcome you all... I welcome happiness, joy, fun, excitement, love, compassion, wisdom, insight... I welcome sadness, misery, suffering, hatred, delusion, jealousy... All of you are equally alive energies... This should be your attitude,” he says.

“Stop lecturing now,” she says smilingly. “Haudey”

You, the handsome boy, returns home from work. It’s already midnight. On the way, you look up towards the sky and see thousands of stars and a beautiful full moon. “How generous the stars and moon are!” he thinks. “The stars keep twinkling and the moon keeps shining no matter what I think or how I act. How unconditional the love is.” He remembers the famous poem by Hafiz.

“Even after all this time

The Sun never says to the Earth,

“You owe me.”

Look what happens with a love like thatIt lights the whole sky.”

He reaches home, takes a shower and makes himself some strong black coffee. He lies on his bed, deep in thought. He runs his

eyes around all directions of the ceiling and finds nothing that could grasp his attention. Today, he is a bit sentimental. He might spend the entire night writing poetry, who knows?

Something is happening to him, something beautiful. His heart feels wet. Every cell in his body feels awakened. Though his body is fully exhausted, his inner system seems to be working calmly. All of a sudden he has this strong urge to hug and kiss all the seven billion people of the world. There occurred an explosion inside him, the seed of love finally broke and bloomed into a giant flower full of fragrance. He is drowning into the ocean of love. And nobody can save him.

“You know what,” he says. “I want our relationship to be like that of The Sun and The Earth.”

She remains silent. There is no reply and this makes his heart ache.

All of a sudden, he senses the wind that carried her fragrance blowing silently right inside his room. And the wind whispers something inside his right ear that surprises him so much that he remains awake the entire night…