Skyland was beutiful, just like a fairy-tale land, located more than 150 kilometres from the main city of Heaven Falls on the rim of the border. Apart from the the Yaarbal , a local rivulet, Skyland housed gorgeous paddy fields that looked like a sheet of green during summers and were stripped bare during the winters, when we often played cricket on the frozen acres. Icicles drooping down from the ***** branches of the apple trees were often chomped greedily, making a crunching sound whenever we took a bite.

During the summers we often sat down on the muddy pavements flanking the fields and watched the man work tirelessly for the whole day. In the middle of the day, women accompanied by their little girls brought boxes full of rice and mutton. The hungry workers ate heartily and often pounced on the food like famished dragons. Quite customarily, we too joined them in the feast. The view of the paddy fields that streched on for acres _ until it was stopped by the sweep of the mountains _ often flavoured the food. At four in the afternoon, it is the time for the nun_chai(satly tea). Homemade ghee chapattis were consumed along with the traditional satt.

My friends and i often sat down on the banks of the local rivulet that snaked it's way through our village. We would often watch the waters, arguring as to whether snakes inhabited the Yaarbal or not. 'I have seen a black snake in this water,' one of my friends would often say. We would in turn laugh at him and often wonder what made our village so beautiful. We would sit down with Showket , one of my friends who would smoking his Panama cigarettes bought at the local grocery store. Occasionally, we would take a puff too, but Showket would warn us against taking more than one.

The summer was also the season when we would spend most of our time waiting for the girls who would accompany their mothers to the fields. The girls would habitually catch hold of their mothers' arms and walk adjacent to them. I would wait for a girl, Sumera, who had this flair and flamboyance that was hers alone. As she entered her adolescence, she often covered her head with a round scarf, wrapping it so tightly as to stop even a small strand of hair from peeping out. She would sit between her father and mother under the shade of the green-apple tree; and as her father tore into the mutton pieces, she would sit their quietly looking at him. I would often climb the tree overhead before they sat underneath it so that I could catch a closer glimpse of Sumera.

to be continue...

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They never seemed to notice my presence overhead even though I would keep munching the toffees i had in my pocket . I would wait there until lunch was over; and after both the mother and daughter disappeared, i would slowly crawl down and run towards my friends who would then laugh at my daredevilry. When nun-chai time came , i followed the same routine once again. It was during these days when Sumera first noticed me .

One day, she saw me climbing the tree and my secret adventure of looking at her no longer remained a secret.

Sumera often played with her girlfriends in the big kitchen garden of Habib-Kaka. I often saw them playing hopstotch or house-house while i peeped from the small hole in the wooden door of the kitchen garden. She often came to the Yaarbal to play in the water and i would often reach there before her.

Finally, after so much hardwork on my part, she too began to look at me with her almond-shaped green eyes and i felt love in the air. I followed the same routine during the day and she too reciprocated by looking back at me most elegantly. It often made me go wild.

After the day was over, i would often sing alone in my own room in a low voice. Ours was a typical Muslim village that outlawed any sort of western culture.

We never had a television, but we did had an old radio that my Grandfather had brought when he had gone for his Hajj pilgrimage. I would often strike a conversation with my grandfather about Islam and then concur with his views to keep him in good humour, so that he often lend me his radio for the night .

Sumera:

Sumera would often search for me with her eyes while playing hopstotch on the days when i didn't come to the Yaarbal or the fields. I observed this as I lay hidden behind some obstacle to watch her movements . After my eighteenth birthday, Sumera suddenly vanished .

I had never talked to her, but not seeing her for days began to make me as restless as a child. Now she wouldn't come to the fields, the Yaarbal or the kitchen garden.

I searched for her everywhere and spent many sleepless nights on the bed thinking about her and wondering at her sudden desertion. Her green eyes began to fill my imagination and the thought of her being confined to some place made me sad.

A month passed and then another . I spent the days roaming around in search of her . I had already explored the places she visited regularly but i did not give up.

Finally, after three months of being deprived of her presence , i caught a glimpse of her.

I was sitting on the concrete stairs that formed a path up to the Yaarbal when i noticed a girl dressed in complete burqa on the other side.

I recognised her____ those almond-shaped green eyes were speaking to me, asking me a question.

She wasn't alone at Yaarbal. The other girls formed a circular barricade around her. We couldn't look at each other directly, but i found a way to look at her.

I was continuously staring at her reflection on the shiny waters of the Yaarbal.

Abir: