Ponpur,the moth

It was the cold Chillaekalan night of Kashmir and the electricity bid an early farewell tonight because the wires couldn't bear the load of heavy snow and were lying on the ground, all damaged. Abud watched the snow falling quietly and softly but soon realised that he had bigger fish to fry. He quickly closed the window, covering it with white curtains with almond shaped designs crafted on them.

Having hot sips of golden Kong Kehwa, a Kashmir drink with Kanger (firepot) under his Pheran (Kashmiri winter attire) , Abud started turning pages of what looked like an old leather covered, brown paged novel under the candle light, because tomorrow he was to appear for the examination of Literature paper. He was so exhausted reading the boring novel with tens & hundreds of characters to mug up, that too in near darkness and sleep captured his eyes but soon he woke up, upon hearing buzzing of a moth which was circling around the candle flame and would continue dancing with an acceleration whenever Abud's eyes would long to sleep, as if it too wished him to prepare and pass in exams thus keeping him awake and sort of active throughout the whole night and eventually Abud almost completed the revision of his tomorrow's paper . Just one page was left to be read. He was confidently ready for the exams. All thanks to this nocturnal creature's fascinating dance; he whispered with a smile and sighed with relief. By this time, the candle was about to melt, it's wax droplets were dripling on the maroon carpet and the flame was blazing with much large and bright light. He was about to blew it off but thought of first reading the left out last novel page. He saw the tired moth resting on the candle base .

And then all of a sudden, it started circling around but Alas! got it's wings burn't.

Hurriedly, Abud extinguished the candle and tried rescuing the moth but couldn't save his exam preparation companion. Only if he had blew off the candle, a minute earlier or so, his insect friend would have been alive with him. He took it in his hands and cried in regret, and the dead Ponpur's delicate body was all soaked with his tears.

Abud couldn't dare to throw away this dearest creature's body in the snow and kept it in a glass bottle on his Almirah top.

 As the dawn of the next day arrived, it was pleasant and the sun rays made their way through the clouds. Abud appeared for the exams and wrote his paper very well. After exams, he looked relaxed but not happy as he regretted the death of his yesternight's friend. As he returned home, he cleared a portion of his garden covered with snow to bury his dead friend. He reached out to his room and stared at the Ponpur and what he saw filled him with awe. He saw that the moth was slowly moving it's left antennae which meant that the nector of life still existed within it. So unbelievable it was! The moth had survived the heat shock. His joy knew no bounds upon seeing it alive and quickly he removed it out of the bottle . It looked weak so he fed it with honey water and sugar syrup for some days till it became healthy once again. Although it couldn't fly, yet with it's appendages slowly and gradually, it started locomoting and managed surviving the winters.

Winter passed and spring arrived yet Abud continued taking its care and it continued taking his, ever and always through out their lives, especially during the exam nights!