A shaking Rainbow. Maybe the sunshine enters from the small hole of the door , falls on the glass , which is on the table, at the corner of the room. With all the seven colours of the rainbow, the shadow of the glass falls on the wall behind it , forming an image like a shaking Rainbow.

Like an unseen light , the electric wire curled and comes down from the ceiling. At it's head is the inside hidden bulb, the two curtains which are shaking vigorously with anxious excitement, the rainbow and along these , with same music , same rhythm and same lyrics , shaking my heart too.

Silence of noon. Far from the busy city , in an solitary place , there is my home on the top of a hillock. Though small but pretty. There are many beautiful flowers surrounding with grasses in the front and many huge trees. Below the roots of the trees lies the wild glorious " Daphne" flowers. From the spaces between the trees , we can see the breezy and sparkling water of river "Dihing"( a river of Assam)and the pretty sailing boats that floats on the heart of this beloved river.

The sun is about to set. I am sitting between the garden flowers , my eyes are covered with a handkerchief. Butterfly herself tied the handkerchief with her two little hands. Butterfly is my four years old daughter. She is playing with me. Like an white butterfly, she is looking gorgeous in her cotton-like white frock and golden bangles on her hand. The flower petals stuck on her messy hair are too white. As my eyes are closed that's why may be i can see the real her.

Sometimes in between the flower gaps she comes towards me and asked loudly , " Where am I ?" Wanted to touch a nearby flower softly and said, "here ,between my arms". "Wrong......" Laughing eagerly and fly far away. And again come towards me and asked , " Where am I?" I replied, " here , between my heart."

Maya is sitting on the stairs of the garden. The nearby flowers on the pots are dancing due to blow of air as if they are playing the same game as me and my butterfly with Maya's pallu( the loose end of a saree). She is busy in knitting. Two- three hairs in the front of her bun hair are shaking as those blue curtains. Sometimes she upped her head to see whether we are there or not and with no worries she again starts knitting.

In between the game, butterfly sometimes remind her mother that though after getting me , she is not forgetting her mother. When we see towards Maya , we get to see her smiling , the same everydays beautiful smile .

Saying butterfly to sit , am going to sit beside Maya. I sit beside her: " Maya, when i see this smile on your face , how i feel u know?"

"How.......?"

"l feel like , there's no any sadness , dissatisfaction in your life, as if you are satisfied in all ways .

Maya smiled. I hold her hand .

Suddenly Maya's hand is shaking between my hands. I am realising am too shaking, the stairs too are shaking, whole house is shaking. But why? Earthquake-----surely earthquake ! Whole earth is trembling due to earthquake. Maya's hand got seperated from my hand. Butterfly disappeared between the flowers. I screamed -----"Maya! Maya ......!"

"O'h hang your Maya." The trembling earth gave me a rude reply.

I opened my eyes. Between the false , there is only one truth i received------ am sleeping on a bed at the corner of a room. The two curtains on the window are true but not blue. Am not in a garden , instead am in an old house.

I don't want to see anymore ----- don't know, from heaven to hell or hell to heaven i arrived. I wept my eyes and saw my 4 bestfriends beside me. They are my childhood friends : Ajith , Pojir , Dilip and Phukan. Now between them, one is a professor, one poet, one doctor and Phukan is same as me , Admission councelor of a college. After college we all moved on different paths. After a long time we are meeting again.

Doctor looked around the room and squeeze his nose : "Disgraceful B.M ........!"

I laughed------"What disgraceful Doc. Me or my sleepiness or the beautiness of this room ? What?

"Everything.....now get up......!"

Before getting up , professor buddy asked funnily: " Hey! Whom were you shouting as Maya Maya ?"

With deepness i replied ------- "Er......... no one professor!" blah blah blah............

"Shut up. Get up."

Helping me to getting up he said: " All are ready." We will start our voyage early morning tomorrow. Have you got your holiday ? "

" Yes. But not for excursion on the water of river " Dihing". Borababu gave me these holidays to rest and sleep.

" Hang your Borababu! Why we want to know about your old ostrich? We are meeting again after so long years not for sleeping idiot . You are damn stupid !"

"Sure, Otherwise how can i be your friend?....... anyways tell us about the stuffs to pack.

"Everything. A big boat , sailor, a tent with net window, gun, first - aid , camera, film, torch, clothes and food all are ready. Above all "pro" i mean professor's guitar, doctor's ukulele, poet's flute, my dance and your song..... "

"Best best , continue, continue, and tiger's roar , elephant's shout, bear's smiling .......

" What do you want ? what else do you want ?

" Many. There is nothing in your packings, no romance , no poems. Listen, if you want me to leave this bed then i want a small boat , a sail as white as an whooping crane, baskets of various fruits, a bouquet of different flowers and the time should be a soft sunshine and peace , deep , endless noon.

"Ok as you wish my father !" but don't scream Maya Maya anymore hahaha."

"Now packed my stuff professor. I will trial the boat at night . But right now , I'll go to order tea for us."

By shouting the servent i came outside the room..............

TO BE CONTINUED

Sunday has passed. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday too passed. By tearing up the heart of river Dihing , we are going at the same speed. We left behind flowing water , the forests at the two shores, big - small many villages.

Firstly we saw many villages at the shores but now they are rarely to see. From 7 days we aren't seeing any villages. But we don't care coz we are free now. No tensions of work, no need to worry about things , no loneliness ,

nothing. We stopped as we want , we sailed again as we want. We enjoyed every seconds of this journey.

In these days , we haven't realized how far we came . ..... It's a new life!

......We are behaving the same way as we did in our school- life as a child, shouting without any fear, dancing with all our strength, singing with all our heart and so on.....

Phukan's excitement is the most . As if by shouting with all his strength, breaking the forests, he'll fly far away with his wings. No tiredness, No tensions.

.......Like this 15 days have passed. Suddenly we saw some huts on one shore. We didn't expected to find people in this quiet place. We are surprised. We thought they are going to kill us. But they aren't killing us. But they are living as we humans do. We understood , they are actually "Tribals". They came near us and we thought to be friends with them.

We spent our night with them.

It's a beautiful day today. We are heading to our boat by thanking the tribals. We are just sailing the boat that a voice falls in our ears:" ......Friends, be careful ....... it's a dangerous place! You may don't believe, but we do. It's a cursed place."

But we sailed our boat. The image of the old man saying those sentences still in our mind.

4 hours we sailed our boat continuously and at noon we stopped at a place. We rested there for sometime and again sailed our boat.

Slowly slowly we're getting to see dark and deep forests. We saw a beautiful pair of peafowl , the peacock was trying to agree the peahen. It was a very beautiful scene. We took some photos of them and again sailed our boat. We expect , we will get to see more living organisms on our path , but we didn't.

To break the silence, we started to sing. How much we sung don't know . Suddenly we all heard a sound, we shocked and feared. After that, to erase the shyness out of fear , I laughed very hardly. Everybody's attention came towards me . They asked: "What happened? Why did you laughed? What was that sound?"

I replied:" With that fearness with you , you all came to excursion? How stupid!

Again a sound came from nowhere. Doctor took the gun and shout : " Who? Who is there ? Tell quickly or I'll shoot......"

No answer......

We sailed the boat as fast as we can to come out from that dark scary place.

After sometime, we got to see a bright light at some distance like a window in a dark house . After a while we reached near the bright light and the light was too bright that our eyes couldn't control it and we were forced to closed our eyes.

After that, when we opened our eyes, what we saw was unexpected and unexplainable..........

TO BE CONTINUED.........