Ravine - Not A Fairy Tale(Satnampreet Pandher) 4th March 2021,

“We will come soon my dear….listen carefully to me, I and your father are going to a very important work so we might come late but don’t fear lock all the doors and windows of our house and don’t open the door if any unfamiliar person is outside,” My mom said. Be fearless mom now I am grown up! Bye, mom and dad. My mother and father left the house and went outside for work. I quickly closed all the windows of the house and sat on a chair. I am very fond of expressing and writing my thoughts and poetries in my diary. It was 8 pm and my cartoon show was going to start.

I started watching the T.V. These cartoon characters made my body and mind relax….It seems like these characters were my siblings as I was not having any siblings in reality. The show was now over and it was 9 pm now. I was puzzled that what to do. Trinnnn… A phone call was there on my mobile “Hello!” I answered. “Is the Ravine speaking from 210?” someone said and then I replied, “Yes, I am”. After a 3-minute conversation, the phone falls down from my hand. I did not know what had happened!
My neighbor came into my house….giving me a blessing for the rest of my life. My parents were no more…they were badly killed in their car accident.

5th April 2023,

Now it had been more than 2 years living without my parents but with my stepparents…Everyone refused to be bothered by me but a person named James Morris cared for me. He lived with his wife. He loved me a lot but not his wife…
10thApril,23
James said to me by holding my hands,” Ravine…Pack up your bag we are going out!” I said, “Where Papa?” “In fact, we are going to a hill station…far away from pollution and stress…and there I am having a little work in my office so I will do the work and you can enjoy…..and I know you are a good poet so you will get a good aura for writing and expressing your thoughts on paper,” He said with a smile. I packed my bag….I took my clothes, toys and of course my Diary!
And the Journey begins…..
Papa started the car and I opened the window of my car but then I remembered my mom she once said not to open the window. I kept it close. I was sitting in the back seat. The reflection of the trees on my car window made me more excited to go to the hill station…The sunlight coming into the car made me write the poem and I wrote:

Shapeshifting images
Of a time-traveling mind
Flying through the sky
In the blink of an eye…

We started our journey at 10:13 pm and finally arrived at 3:40 pm. I opened the door and what did I see!
A bleak and barren land full of dead trees and creepers. A dirty house was full of dirt. My prospect was wrong. Not a single blossomed tree and not a single butterfly I could see. I wondered why this place is very dissimilar as it was spring season and there were no new flowers and no new leaves on the trees and suddenly my stepfather called me. I, my stepfather as well as my stepmother started unpacking cases from the car. When I came into our house so the house was awful. I wondered how I will live in this house.

Only 2 bedrooms and a kitchen and a bathroom. The words are less to express the condition of the house. My stepmother served our dinner. It was biryani and raita (Indian dishes). My favorite and my mother’s too. When the dinner was over so my stepfather left the house because he went to examine something because he was a scientist. Our new house was very old……A barren ravine in front of it and a hushed road.
Now it was night….

I was endlessly listening to the tic tic tic of the clock on the wall and tip tip tip of a tap’s drop. I was having trouble….I can’t sleep alone. Usually, my stepfather sleeps with me but now he is not there. My stepmother doesn’t love me and she was sleeping next door. It was 12:00pm and I had not slept yet. I came out of the house with my diary. I was not afraid because there was no one around the house. I went inside the barren ravine. There was total pin-drop stillness, not a single sound. I sat on a stone and opened my diary. I said,” No one listens to my thinking….oh, I have an Idea! Let you all be my first audience. I started speaking my poems in front of the barren trees. I spoke:

When the leaves dance and
A new wind blows.
When the bird sings and
A new song is composed...

The trees let go of their autumn leaves…
When I was completed suddenly winds started flowing. The trees started blossoming new leaves. The creepers started to grow and the barren ravine was now full green. I was very scared and I pinched myself to reveal that it is a dream or reality! But it was reality! I started running away but the creepers were not allowing me to escape. Suddenly someone started speaking. “Hello, My dear we are Ravine,” someone said.

I said, “Who are You Please leave me” and then someone again replied to my question,” We are cursed, we want that our new generation could see the beauty of the world but due to a curse it is impossible…..we are barren at the day time and alive at the night time and we need someone who can help us and our new generations” I was scared and I was not knowing that what to say!. I bite the creeper and started running to my house and suddenly a car came in my way because I was in the focus of the road.

I was just to be crushed by the car but the driver turned his car. The driver was drunk because his driving skills were far from satisfactory. I come into the house and I fall down on the floor and I was not having enough energy to stand up and go to the bedroom and I slept their only.

11th April 2023,

I listened to the sound of birds chirping outside and I woke up. I looked at the ravine but it was barren. I went to my bedroom and sat on my bed. I tried to think about what went before time but there was extreme pain in my head. My stepmother called me and said,” Eat your breakfast and I am going to James to give him his breakfast” I ate my breakfast and I was very confused and I was feeling very sleepy. I sat on my bed and slept.
My dreams were also very disturbing.

I started writing about my experience in my diary. My stepmother came into the house and for the whole day, I was thinking about the horrible incident only. My stepfather was not in the house yet because he was very busy with his investigations. It was night now and I was changing and wearing my night dress and then suddenly creepers came into my room through the window and hold my face.

I was not able to speak. The creeper took me to the ravine. I said,” Please leave me I am a blameless girl please leave me”. A tree started speaking because at night the ravine becomes alive at night and the tree said,” We know that it is the wrong way to ask for help from anyone but we are not having any extra choice” I replied,” Do you want help! From me so why me only? There are many people around you” He said,” We want that a nature lover should help us. There should be depth and essence of love in his or her thoughts and when we all listened to your poem so we come to know that she is a real nature love” The creeper which was holding me made me sit on a stone and then the ravine requested me to help them. I agreed to help them all but I asked that” How can I help you?” The creepers said,” We want that you can take us to a safe and sound place where there are full availability of resources and no risk to be cut off.

I then replied,” But I am also new here and I am not having any knowledge about these places” When I said this so suddenly my shadow start growing taller and taller, and then my shadow said,” I know the ways and I know where all these roads go,” I asked,” How do you know this because you were with me every time? He replied,” When the sun was to set so my height was very tall so I came to know about the ways of this place If you want I can help you and I can take you all to s a safe place where no one will cut you and water availability is also there,” I asked him that where is this place which you are describing. The shadow told me the way and it was far. Talking to my shadow was a little bit weird but I liked talking to him. There were 4 huge trees, 2 creepers with many spikes, and more than 10 different species of flower. I told to everyone that tomorrow we will start our journey and the adventure which I can never forget. They all smiled and said,”
Thanks my dear, Thanks a lot…..you are the only one who is helping us. Then I asked them that at night you can walk and talk but at the day you are nothing instead of trash. They all replied that they were cursed by someone 12 years ago. I asked them to tell their story

12 years ago….
This ravine was full of people, and animals. Many People came from different places here just to spend time with nature but as technology increased so people became careless towards us. People started polluting the environment and instead of spending time with us now, they were spending time with mobile phones. A wise man that cared for us a lot. He tried a lot to save us but no one listened to him and one day he took his last breath and gave us a curse that we will be alive at night time but barren during the day. We were the only resource for the people of the valley but as we were barren in the daytime and useless so people started migrating from the place and now no one lives here.
“So sad,” I said. At last, they all said thanks to me. A sun ray stroked my arm and in a second whole the ravine became barren. I started planning and I packed all the essential materials like first aid and my diary to write my adventure of a lifetime.

12th April 2023,

When I was done with packing so I unexpectedly listened to the sound of a Tractor. I peeped out of the window and I saw a tractor and a man sitting on it. The man started the tractor and he was cutting the trees off the ravine I jumped out of the window and I started shouting. I screamed,” Don’t cut these trees, please…Please don’t cut them” The man didn’t listen to me. Then suddenly an initiative came into my mind. I picked up the creeper full of spikes and placed iron nails on the path of the tractor. When the tractor started cutting trees so the tires of the tractor busted due to the spikes and I became so happy. The man stopped his work and went to call someone to toe his tractor. When I looked at the ravine so it felt like they were thanking me. The stars and the Moon were above me and now it was night.

I and my shadow were ready to go for an unexpected adventure of a lifetime. All the trees, both of the creepers, and all the flowers became ready. We started our journey to take the ravine to a safe place and peaceful place. The ravine started singing because they were very happy and glad and I also joined them. Now we were on our halfway and In front of us there was a lake. I said, “We need to cross it to go take you to a safe place.
My shadow said,” To reach our destination cross this pond”
The creepers said,” We both will go inside the lake and we will check its depth. As the creepers went inside to check the depth and when they returned from the lake so they said,” The depth is too less we all can cross it” Everyone became happy. We started crossing the lake but we unexpectedly listened the sound of running water and we saw that an extraordinarily big wave of water is going to strike us. We all tried to cross the lake as soon as possible but the speed of the water was too fast and we all fall down the waterfall. We all sink down but the flowers, my shadow, and I were not heavy so we came out of the waterfall but the wisest tree sank down and died because he was too heavy and don’t know how to swim.

Now there were only 2 trees, 2creepers, and 5 Plants. I was too scared because I haven’t experienced this thing before. I felt that we need to end this journey here only. Everyone became so sad and requested me to help them. We were wet so the plants made a bonfire to keep their and my body dry and warm. I said,” We need to end this journey here only because it’s too risky. The sprouts of the trees left their hopes. Both the tress said to me,” Just think that when you will grow up and will be married so suppose how would you feel to be alive just at night and died in the day” When I listened to this line so my heart melted and I said to resume our journey with a huge smile on my face. Everyone became happy and we started our journey. We walked and walked. I was hungry now and the food which I had packed was wet and was not good to eat then I suddenly saw a house. I ran towards the house to search for food.

It was not a house it was a hut. A strange man came out, I asked him for water and food but he didn’t understand me. He took his weapon and pointed at me. I became scared and ran towards my ravine. In a blink, the second man came to us pointing his weapons at us. I looked at my watch and what did I see! It was going to be 4 am and the sun was going to rise. I wondered in nervousness that if a single ray of sunlight touched the body of trees so they will be no more alive and can’t move.

I requested both of them that please let us go we are not your enemies we are your friend. Both of the trees also requested them but they replied that” Oh! They are the speaking tress, If we would catch them so we will get limitless money and we can enjoy our life” I said in anger,” N0! Don’t dare to them they are mine. They took a Mashaal and gave us a last warning to end our expedition and give the talking ravine to them. I shouted Run Ravine! We all started running and one of the men started burning all the trees which were around us and they said,” If the ravine will is not ours so we will burn them alive” We kept on running and one of the trees caught fire and we all jumped from the hill but that tree burnt completely.

I thought that I am taking my last breaths because I will be not alive when I’ll land but with a bit of luck we landed on trees now only 1 tree is left the second was burnt alive. It was sad for me because I was not booming to complete my task but the creepers, flowers, and the tree said,” There is nothing to worry about because you have completed your promise and given us all a new life” and the shadow said,” Yes! You have completed the journey and this is place is our destination….this is the place we were talking about” and then suddenly a ray of light strike on my hand. The roots of the trees get buried inside the soil the flower’s root was also buried and now my shadow, as well as the whole ravine, was not alive now. I smiled and dropped my face. I was happy because I had saved the lives of the new generation of the ravine….but now how I will go home?

I was so confused regarding this but then I suddenly saw my stepfather searching and investigating something. I called him and He said,” Ravine! What are you doing here?” I replied,” Dad it is a long long long story ill tell us but now I am very hungry let's go home” He happily said, ”Ok ravine let's go home…..but promise me you will not go out at night from the house” “ Ok Ok papa now let’s go home”
I said,
When I and my dad was going back home…I saw the ravine….I smiled and I wrote about my great adventure in my diary as a poem. After a long time. I was now 22. I returned back to the same safe place where my great journey ended. I sat on the grass. Opened my diary and I remembered my journey. Suddenly many leaves started to fall. It seems like they are happy here.

The End

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