A Brief Eternity

||Go quietly; a dream When done, should leave no trace That it has lived, except a gleam Across the dreamer’s face.||

-Countee Cullen.

My friend, his wife Manju—also a friend of mine—two mutual friends, and I trekked up a mountain.

An intermittent drizzle accompanied our uphill walk through the ancient forest.

‘Look there. Your cousin has recognized you. A reunion moment.’

One of my friends teased me, pointing at a lion-tailed macaque as it hopped across the branches of a wild tree.

Our teasing and politically incorrect banter seamlessly energized our walk along the path strewn with pointed stones. As we ventured deeper into the jungle, the thin folds of mist that wrapped the forest gradually thickened around us.

The forest effortlessly stripped away the manners and inhibition that civilization had stitched onto us. The thin, permeable membrane between the human and the prehuman faded as we flowed deeper into the wilderness, like a river returning to its forgotten course.

Rain, earthy scent, and ripening citrus perfumed the life-giving air; scattered orchids flashed red, blue, and yellow. Our cameras photographed the view; our eyes kept the feeling.

We took a break in the undergrowth and deposited our salts to the earth. Reels were recorded, photographs were taken, and posts were uploaded without edits.

The wild waters rejuvenated us, and we shook hands with the forest's creatures.

The path was adventurous and food for memories. Together, we reached the summit. Then we scattered. Within the cave of mist, each of us opened our own private world.

In the ecstasy of freedom, we brought forth the forbidden and suppressed traits that had long lain hidden within us.

We were caught in the mountain’s hypnotic embrace and closed our eyes as a somnolent melody drenched us. For many moments, we were transported into another world and disappeared from the maquillage of mortal life.

Courtesy: Gemini

After that brief trance, I woke beside Manju, standing at the edge of the mountain, together drinking in the picturesque view of the enchanting greenery that stretched before us. Its surface undulated like green ocean waves. From our vantage point, the valleys and mountains across the horizon stirred our primitive instincts.

Manju was a slender woman. Beyond the delicate outline of her frame, little in her body proclaimed her femininity. Yet her jovial nature and expressive manner compensated for the fineness of her frame and brought her femininity into full bloom. She was so fragile that a strong push seemed enough to move her, like a delicate branch studded with golden dewdrops swaying to and fro in the breeze. However, her eyes and the gentle curve of her lips possessed a beauty that had escaped the frailty of her frame.

The breeze wafted around us, while the prevailing wind blew directly at us from the panorama before us.

Then, a breeze swept over us, intoxicating and abrupt. My eyes glided from the vast panorama and perched on her.

She stood right beside me, her thin, silky black hair whipping in the wind. She raised her white, slender fingers and gathered the wild strands. As she tucked them behind her ear, her side profile slowly revealed itself to me.

Then she turned completely and faced me. A thin, opaque wall of fog seemed to stand between us. She stood a universe apart.

The arrows of my warm, intent gaze pierced it.

Beyond the dissolving veil, her face slowly unveiled like a coffee blossom as a gentle breeze skimmed the mist off its glossy petals.

She became the universe.

Our eyes met.

For a brief moment, neither of us looked away.

Then her eyes smiled.

A moment later, the smile descended to her red rosebud lips.

A glistening smile.

It all happened in a heartbeat.

For a fleeting instant I believed we fell in love. Like a dewdrop kissing a petal we dissolve into oblivion. Though the epic lasted only a moment, the feeling was momentous.

There are millions of love stories leaving their signatures around us. Being unromantic creatures, we have failed to develop the faculties needed to perceive those fleeting epics.

An irresistible urge arose within me—to touch her, to embrace her, and exchange signatures in the language of a kiss. Without resistance, I surrendered to the love that had taken hold of me.

Nature, at the height of its beauty, seemed to have merely placed a jewel upon this woman's enchanting aura. The dense, cold breeze that rose from the mighty river below and swept through the surrounding forest, changing in strength and direction, failed to extinguish the warmth kindled by her presence.

However,

I stood still like an unanswering forest deity.

I knew the bitter reality that, in the very next moment, my feelings would die and my longing would fade away. I wanted to move; my feet would not obey. I began to feel guilty for having sentenced that epic moment to lifelong imprisonment within me for a crime it had never committed.

Had she felt the same?

Was the spark glistening in her eyes merely the reflection of my own illusion, or was it the echo of the same feeling that had overwhelmed me? Was she too struggling to suppress an irresistible urge?

She was blushing.

Her rosy face deepened in colour.

The outline of the tiny beads that framed her temples seemed indistinct. Was she sweating like me, or was it merely the footfalls of the misty wind?

Like an evening curtain descending across the sky, our fleeting moment slowly receded into darkness, yielding once more to the confines of the human-made social cage.

We turned back together to the sounds that were drawing nearer.

From reality, I awoke into a dream draped in veils. The solitude dissolved in the presence of others. Her husband—my friend—stood between us. Against the backdrop of the green, beautiful, yet suddenly lifeless mountains, the three of us posed for a selfie.

-13 June 2026