Bubbles

I had left the cocoon of family, of my known world three years back, but this city had someone, as though waiting to embrace me and say “I am here for you sweetheart!!” An unknown place, an unknown culture, I was not sure how to react and what those words really meant. I was touched; yet, I was hesitant to accept all the affection that was being showered on me. I felt like a Princess as Jerry calls me, but I had to fight to remain grounded to the reality that I am an alien to this place.

Jerry had lost his daughter Natalie years back, a loss that is only corporal. Natalie is like sunshine, a zillion bubble of light, which might be shrouded in the dark clouds some days, but persists to shower life on her world, all day, every day. I do not have her dazzle but I do have the strength, strong as that of wind. May be that was what Jerry found in me – he said I was his daughter, the Indian Princess!! A day, a moment was engraved in my life. Did Jerry find the Wind to blow his Bubble?!

It was scheduled to be a day of celebration, a day of donation to the cause of wetland research. A boat, named ORWNatalie was destined to float on the Olentangy River, to carry the researchers closer to the troubled Nature!! The boat named after Natalie was to bring new life afloat. Somehow, at some moments of remembrance by all that knew this lovely lady, a teardrop reached my cheeks. I had never seen a father in such loss, a mother so grievous, a brother so proud of his sister but in so much pain as his quivering voice. I had never been with a family that mourned and remembered the loss of their daughter!!!

But there I was, thousands of miles away from my family, embraced by a new family. I felt helpless, I felt distressed. Can I ever make it up for them? I am no gymnast, not a winning danseur, but I am a daughter and I can be a daughter.

Light passes through Bubbles and Light passes through Wind, too…..

Photography by Jaideep Banerjee