Fly And Catch Your Imagination

Parvathi:

I look outside the window. The beautiful flowers swaying through the breeze. Big coconut trees with eagles on the branches. My cow Neeli mooing through my backyard. As I move towards my desk in my room, I remember the times I used to play with my cousins in the same house I am going to leave today. My parents died in a plane crash a few years ago and my brother Madhav never talked to me after that. He always thought I was the reason my parents died because I was excited for them to go for the movie awards function. I will never forget that night ever in my life. I have a baby sister named Kalyani who loves me the most. I don’t think she still understands that our parents are no more and I am her only hope.

 As I walked out of my bedroom and said, “See you never. You were the best part of my life, and I will miss you.” Suddenly, my foster mom, Madhu called out for me, as she packed for us to leave to Trivandrum, my dream place to live in. I never understood the reason why I ever wanted to visit Trivandrum, but something was attracting me to that place. A place which I have never seen, except in movies and photos. I always had a feeling that I was destined to go there, but I will still miss this house. This village was my home and leaving my friends, this whole house, and my beautiful memories were hard - as I was daydreaming about my future life, my brother Madhav suddenly called out my name ‘Parvathi!’ after 4 days.

     

4 days before, my brother had called out my name to tell my foster mom (Amma) about him going out with his friends because I was her(Madhu-foster mom) favorite.

     

I went up to Madhav and asked him what happened, and he replied, “I know I have been hard on you for so long but we are going to start a new chapter in Trivandrum with new school friends and a new environment. Don’t ever think I am avoiding you but I love you.” Hearing this from him, tears were dripping from my eyes like a fountain full of water. He suddenly hugged me and I realized that the life I have ahead is going to be the best.

Madhav: 

As my sister hugged me, a sudden shock in my body and I fell on the floor unconscious. I don’t know what happened after that, just a glimpse of Parvathi shouting “Anna!”. When I wake up now, I was in a weird hospital filled with bottles of medicines that look like potions and herbs. The room was in a light purple color and the curtains draped on the windows were a bright neon yellow which hurt my eyes and I almost fell down, but I controlled. Parvathi was sitting on a bench in a corner of the room reading a book from one of her favorite authors ‘Supriya Kelkar’.

     

When she saw me, tears started sprinkling from her eyes and she came running to me helping me up to sit on the bed. The bed was cozy with 2 fluffy pillows and a thick blanket spread over me. I was surprised to now that I fell unconscious. I asked Parvathi, “where are we? Why I am laying on a bed in a hospital?” After hearing me, Parvathi started crying once more. She started muttering bad things to herself and that’s when I knew something was wrong. Parvathi always had the habit to mutter to herself when she was in sorrow or anger. She replied sobbing, “You fell suddenly on the floor and we brought you to this place, ‘Suresh mama’ had suggested to Appa (foster father: Mukesh).”

     

Our foster dad Mukesh loves us a lot and he is a very gentle person. Appa has freckles in his cheeks which make him look different than others and have a dimple on one side of his cheek when he smiles. A big chest that pumps out when he is serious and a loving character we all love in the house. 

Parvathi:

I was very sad to tell Anna about his problem but I did. I told him, “Anna, you have a kidney problem and the doctor said it may take a few months until you are safe from danger. The doctor has still not found out the reason why, but I am sure you are strong to keep up hope. Nothing will happen to you.” I told these words to keep up my brother’s hopes that he would survive. But, I didn’t tell him the real reason.

Madhav:

Shocked after what I heard, I still felt there was something Parvathi was not telling me. but I will wait till the truth spills out. I didn’t want her to get stressed and disturb her at this moment.             

 

Parvathi:

I knew Anna suspected me that I wasn’t telling him the truth but it is all for the better. It’s been a few days since we’ve talked and Anna looks all pale and he looked sicker than before. Blue veins shone in the sides of his cheeks. Whenever I see his eyes, pain surges through my spine. Life has been very confusing after coming to the hospital. I didn’t move to my new house yet, and we have booked a hotel near the hospital for 2-3 weeks by the time Anna is ready to get discharged. 

     

One day, I enter the room and I couldn’t find Anna on the bed. I rush and look for him everywhere, but he is nowhere to be seen. Finally, I find him in a room surrounded by many windows. The room looked old and dusty. I saw him stare outside one window, but I couldn’t see anything outside. My brother turned and looked towards me. He said, “Look at that old man sitting in a bench below the maple tree. Doesn’t his face have some features of our father?” I looked out and saw nothing. I was shocked to see my brother look at things I couldn’t see. I went up to the doctor’s office in a rush - I was almost going to fall and bang my head on a long metal standing on the wall. I bang the door and rushed inside, and sat down not waiting for the doctor to reply. “Something is wrong with my brother. He is seeing things I can’t see. Can you accompany me, I will show you, doctor.” 

     

As the doctor walked beside me to the room, he was writing something on a piece of paper. When we entered the room, the doctor stood next to my brother and stared out at the window. To my surprise, he said, “What a lovely person that man is. He always comes to the orphanage next to our hospital building. He is Mr.Subramanian and he comes every day to the orphanage sits on the bench and waits till he meets all the children from the orphanage. Don’t you see him Parvathi?” I was too confused to answer, that I just rushed back to the hotel by taking an auto and I jumped on to my bed and sank into my deep thoughts. 

Madhav:

Something was wrong with Parvathi today. I thought of the incidents that occurred today as I slept on my comfortable bed and slowly my eyes closed. My dream was very messed up with images of my childhood and a sudden noise woke me up. As I slowly opened my eyes, I saw Kalyani next to me shouting, “Anna! Are you Okay?”, she jumped over me and hugged me. After a few minutes, I looked around but Parvathi was nowhere to be seen.

Kalyani’s mind:

I know I am just a kid but my mind works well. I understand the situations but I don’t talk about it. An hour ago, my elder sister Parvathi Akka talked to me. She told me what had occurred in the hospital and I was also confused to understand. 

Parvathi:

After the incident in the hospital, I tried to find out what was wrong with me. I researched some of my symptoms and I understood that my life was different. The reason was all my imagination. My imagination is more than others and that’s why I saw a void left behind, instead of a man sitting on the bench. I read a lot but I don’t care about the characters in the book but I care about the characters I make. The next day itself I went to a psychiatrist and told my problems. He replied, “I am sorry my child but we can’t do anything about this problem. Your mind is filled with so much imagination, and imagination is what no one can take from you. It stays within yourself.

Kalyani:

After 20 years of her life, my sister has realized and expressed her feelings with me. That all these problems of my brother and all that has happened are just her imagination. I talked to her and told her what really happened when she was out in her bed 20 years ago dreaming and imagining such a story for 1 whole week. 

     

That was when I realized that no one can take your imagination away and sometimes it can control you. 

*Anna: elder brother, *Akka: elder sister, *Amma: mother, *Appa: father, *Mama: uncle