Love stories by the lake
Punam Khaira Sidhu
WHAT is it about a water body that attracts lovers by the droves to its sides? Think of a love story and the picture that flashes on the mind’s eye is that of couples walking arm-in-arm by the Seine in Paris, the Thames in London, the Muskova in Moscow, and closer home, by the beautiful Sukhna.
The Sukhna Lake lies nestled in the foothills of the Shivaliks. For as the eye can see, there is uninterrupted greenery. At its outer edge, the sky vaults over to meet the lake at the horizon. The sky is like a huge concave mirror reflecting the waters of the lake, mostly a glorious palette of blue and gold. When it rains, the waters can turn muddy and the smooth surface of the water, becomes a mass of waves lashing the sides. As raindrops drizzle gently, an occasional rainbow, fractures the dull grey of the sky, connecting the heavens and the horizon.
The Sukhna by moonlight is spectacular. On a clear night, you can see the lights of Shimla, Barog and Kasauli in the hills. The streetlights cast long shadows over the waters. The stars spangled across the sky wink with silver reflections in the lake. There are hooded lights, mellow piped music and comfortable benches dotting the periphery of the lake. Do you wonder then that Love is definitely in the air by the Sukhna morning and night?
On my daily walk by the Sukhna, I dwell on the people thronging its sides. As I look around for the lovers by the lake, I mentally group them into four broad sociopsychological categories: the young uns, the newly-weds, the householders and the silver anniversarians.
The young uns; school and college going youngsters, are easily identifiable. Their interactions hurried, yet tentative, their eyes and heads bent furtively to avoid recognition, as they explore forbidden relationships. They are the ones who sit on the benches late into the night, their silences speaking louder than words ever can.
The newly-weds are identifiable from a mile. The young woman’s choora invariably a give away, as much as is the possessive air of her male escort. There is no furtiveness here; they are legally wed. Their gestures are open and articulate as they forge their conjugal bonds in the balmy ambience of the Sukhna.
The householders are the married couples where some years of togetherness have taken the shine off the conjugal bond. These couples are few and far between. Read at a psychological plane, love appears to wane with time and marriage. The men and women in this category come separately; there are hardly any couples. Spouses either do not have the time or the inclination, or else parental and professional responsibilities keep them apart. Couples in this age group, sitting or walking by the lake, are usually there to resolve differences. Husband’s counsel and assuage complaining wives, trying to defuse stresses generated by or in a joint family/family set-up. In either case most wives and husbands go about their constitutional separately.
The silver anniversarians are the older couples, most of whom would have celebrated or would be celebrating their silver anniversaries. Advancing years appear to yield to a comfortable companionship, a mutual inter-dependence. They walk together regularly and peacefully by the shimmering expanse of the Sukhna. They stop at intervals, to exchange greetings with their friends. There’s a warm aura of friendly companionship, an easy unspoken understanding between these couples where, as we put it in Punjabi, an akh da ishara is all it would take to convey the others intentions.
In this category falls my favourite love story by the lake. This silver grey haired couple drives up together in a vintage Fiat. The man puts out her wheel chair, then lifts her out of the car and settles her in it. He arranges her clothes, straightens her bindi and then wheels her out to the waiting vistas of the lake. Sometimes they just sit and talk, and other times he leaves her sitting there, watching the thronging crowds, while he completes a quick chukker. There’s radiance that surrounds them, a peace that transcends the noise, the bustle and the mundane realities of every day life. Its love at its best, “.....in sickness and in health, till death do us part”. Amen.
