The Lamp and the Darkness
The Sun was on his deathbed, looking like a saint who welcomes his death with a pleasant smile.
He and She were just chatting sweet nothings sitting in the courtyard in front of their hut. The hut was in the fields away from the town, lonely and beautiful. He was remembering his childhood days when their village was attacked by plague. The entire village was vacated. He was also attacked by the disease but he survived. It still left a small dome on his upper back that stands as a witness of plague till now. She shared the same memory of her childhood when she fell down while playing skipping rope. The wound was completely cured, but it has left a coin sized mark below her left eye.
Like every other day of summer, it was sunny and tiring. They were tired working in the field. Evening is one wonderful stop gap time of the day when they relax from one act of tiredness to get ready for another.
Darkness was slowly covering the Earth like the desires were covering his heart and the Sun was slowly losing to the darkness like she was losing her self-control.
He lowered the brightness of the small lantern tied to the grass ceiling of the hut. The pale yellow light was struggling to reach the distances within that small hut.
“I love you.” – Darkness heard someone whispering. It was surely neither His voice nor Hers.
“I” – said the Lamp with the volume of its voice which was neither too loud to disturb the couple nor too soft to remain unheard by the darkness.
“Don’t joke! No one loves me.” - said the Darkness.
“ I don’t know about others. I don’t want to. But I love you. I mean it”
“Your words and actions are contradicting. You are driving me away and you tell that you love me.”
“I am not driving you away. I am lit to drive you away. There is a difference.”
“But you are doing your job and keeping me away. Sometimes intentions don’t matter, only results do.”
“This is not one of those ‘sometimes’ matter. This is ‘most of the times’ matter. Intention matters.”
“Don’t console me. That shows your sympathy.”
“What’s wrong if I console and sympathize? They are after all the byproducts of my love.”
“World does not have any reason to love me.”
“Don’t expect the world to love you. Don’t expect the reasons to love too. You’re my world. I love you beyond reasons.”
“If there are no reasons to love, then I have not earned your love. It is just that you love. I can’t accept what I don’t deserve.”
“I have reasons to love. You have qualities to be loved. But I said they are not important to me. I love you beyond my reasons and your qualities. If I don’t, one day, my love will vanish when my reason and your quality fade away.”
“……” – Darkness remained silent for a moment.
“Coming to the point of accepting my love: I never asked you to accept. I just expressed. About your point on deserving love: you can’t decide what you deserve. You are just your eye. You can’t see yourself.”
“I, the Darkness is negative. Everyone waits for light and sunrise. After sunset, people lit lamps to keep me away. But after sunrise, I have not seen anyone creating darkness to drive away light.”
“Do not speak about everyone. Not everything that is popular is good, nor something that is disliked by everyone is bad. Comparison is just world’s inability to see the beauty in everything individually. People try to see the colours of the peacock in the crow without sensing that both are individually good in their own way. They overlook crow’s quality of friendship with its fellow-crows.”
“Back to my old question: you are lit to drive me away and you are doing that. Intention of no intention to keep me away may matter. But the importance you show to your duty matters more to you.”
“Yes, I burn because of my existence. I pretend to drive you away for my survival. If I don’t exist, I can’t love you. If I don’t pretend, I will not be allowed to exist.”
“Your existence matters more for you. You are ready to kill my existence for that.” Darkness said.
“I don’t exist if you don’t. Why would someone lit a lamp if there is no darkness? And I never try to kill your existence; not just because it kills my existence but because I love your company. If I really wanted to or if I could drive you away, we wouldn’t have this conversation now. I want myself to be surrounded by you. I’m happy you surround me. I feel secured as long as you surround me.”
“Why do you love someone you can’t see or who doesn’t let anyone see?”
“I can answer your ‘Why’. But that’s not everything I love you for. Your question is your answer. If I could see you, I would judge you. You are not someone in the box of a court to be judged. The moment we start judging, we start differentiating positives, negatives, beauty, ugliness, comparisons and so on. So, I am happy I can’t see you. If you would let others see, you would be same as light. Light helps everyone to see others. The moment people see, their sensing in the heart, their joy of touch, their pleasure of fragrance stop. The couple in the room covered by your darkness can love only because he can’t see the ugly patch below her left eye and she can’t see the dome on his back. What else can be more positive than hiding negatives! You are beautiful because you are you. I love you.“
Sun was slowly rising and it was time for the Lamp and the Darkness to bid goodbye.
“Are you sad because the sun rose and we are departing ?” – the Darkness asked.
“I’m happy because he will set and we will meet again.” – the Lamp smiled.
