STORYMIRROR

The Shallow Well

The Shallow Well

4 mins
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When I was a child, a giant void in the ground was my friend. People called it “The shallow well”.

Well!! It was a well. A shallow one with no water in it.

I was 8-9 years old, I used to take my bicycle out, in a garden full of mango trees and drive it around the well, I am sure the well admired my style. It remain quiet almost all the time, sometimes creatures from its empty bosom spoke to me in a tongue I did not understand. But they did say something, walls of well were covered with green grass, they told me that it is fine to bathe only when it’s raining. I told the void that I’ve been told otherwise.

It was a summer evening. I went outside to ride my metal-stallion, my precious bicycle.

I was showing off my skills to my only available admirer and friend in the immediate vicinity “the shallow well”. It was singing with me, I could hear the sacred fig tree, the only child of the well, radiating in strange voices. I know, I was too high on the soothing wind and aroma created by so many mango trees around me.

I could hear the beautiful flower from the pond near by , full of black sewer water, singing and buzzing in same melancholic tune. Even though I hated that pond for not returning my cricket balls countless times. I was happy to hear all of them sing with me and all of sudden I lost control of my stallion and it took me straight in to the belly of the shallow well.

I was hurt, it took me a while to get up and look at the sky for help. I could see how dark and dirty the well was, full of broken glasses and other stingy stuff. The roots of the baby-sacred fig tree were looking like snake. A chill rushed through my veins, I implored for help from my friends, the well, the stinky pond and its beautiful flower, the birds of the blue heaven I asked goddess Kali, who had a temple of her own nearby(I had heard that Kali has superpowers), to take a few steps towards her right and she will find me, to help me.

My wounds were bleeding and the bruises were aching and none of my friends were lending a helping hand and the worst part it was getting dark, I could see the rat’s were crawling in the well, I w

as scared. I shouted loudly, asked for help, no one was there to answer my call. I was so scared and mad at all my friends. How they can abandon me when I’m in desperate need of help. I cried for a while.

The shallow well knew the sense of hopelessness I was experiencing in the dark well, with dangerous creatures, with their hungry bosoms and intent to eat my flesh. Hopelessness affects me differently. It has always instilled me with more power to turn the situation around, it may sound weird but I can be exceptional when I experience extreme of hopelessness.

The well spoke to me, offered me the aid I needed. It told me that I can help my self, I have all the power I need to get out of the cylindrical abyss. The well was buzzing as usual but in that moment somehow I was able to decipher its enigmatic language. I wiped my tears, I decided to help my self as I believed no one will come for my rescue. I took my bicycle and lifted it, my friend’s words were my guide, I was hopeless and empowered too. I knew what to do. With some exhausting endeavour, at a snails pace, with some more bruises, I managed to throw the bicycle out of the well. The crevices in the well’s wall helped me climb out of it.

When I was out, breathing better air and realising that it’s already too dark for me to be out side my house. I wanted to yell at every thing and every one, I never felt that kind of hopelessness before, which had almost scared me to death. That was the very firsts experience of my life of such kind.

The birds and wind exhorted my efforts, I could sense the glee in their voices. I was happy too, to be able to come out of such life threatening situation. On my ways back to my home, which was not very far, I was thinking about all that shallow well, with no water, taught me. I learned that hopelessness and a tough situation is not bad at all. In the end your own endeavour will save your voyage.

If you will believe in your self and put the right effort, you will always get out of all the troubles you’ll come across. There is so much more I’d learnt, that day. Some day I’ll tell you all of it and some day you’ll understand.


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