I am very fond of watching movies and reading books which commence their stories with nature scenes. I have always considered such movies and books tele-porters. They can teleport anyone to lush green parks, tree laden forests or on a journey around a lake or a river which has birds chirping on its banks and flowers blooming and smiling at everyone.
These images were forever etched in my mind. For me nature meant green grass, blue sky, chirping birds, colourful flowers and clean water. This was true until I visited the bank of River Ghaggar in Panchkula again. Again? Means when I first visited it, the story was different?
Ok, let me take you few decades back.
This love story starts at the time when I was 8 yrs old, my family had just moved from Chandigarh to Panchkula. I was a super shy and an introvert child. I did not know how to make friends, so all I used to do in my free time was pick my bicycle and go riding on it all around. One day I went cycling and met a river.
No one had mentioned that we are moving so close to a river, just 5 mins away. I had never seen a river in real life. I had visited Sukhna Lake many times with my parents but never had I ever seen a river. In my art class, I learnt to draw a scenery with mountains and blue river coming from them, green grassland for its bank but I had never fathomed that a river would be my neighbour.
A neighbour who would soon become my best friend and a love for life. I used to park my cycle on the road and run to its bank. Its soothing water and cool breeze were magical. There were trees around and I would sit under a tree and just listen to the waves of the river. The river was always welcoming and flowing beautifully around me. But, as with all great love stories, time passed, I made a few friends and stopped visiting the river bank. I almost forgot my best friend and first love, River Ghaggar.
But first love never goes away, it always stayed in my heart and after decades, when I visited Ghaggar bank again I was shocked. Never in my dreams had I seen such a drastic change. There was litter, infact mountains of litter piled all around. The stink was sharp and foul. The water was anything but clean. I had come there to walk, however I could not keep one foot in front of other due to polythenes and bags and garbage lying around. The trees were gone. There was just garbage in the scenery.
My picture perfect image was shattered,forget green and blue, the only colour visible was brown. The river had reduced to a brown thin stream which was full of polythenes, bags, cloth and all types of garbage. The bank where I used to sit for hours was almost like a dumping yard. It seemed that someone had taken my heart out and choked it in a polythene. I wanted to hug the river and say sorry that I had long forgotten her. I felt guilty for having neglected my first friend and love for such a long time.
However, not everything was lost, there was hope, even though it was not the same river I had met decades back, it was still my dearest friend and I still loved her dearly.
This is how I met the love of my life, almost lost her and met her again.
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