‘Don’t go up there. come down.’ Granny shouted, seeing Maria climb up to the terrace. ‘You never let me go up there.’ Maria complained as she descended from the stairs. ‘Listen to me child. If you want to remain young and beautiful then you will never go up there. You see what has happened to me. How old and weak I have become. I had once made the mistake of seeing the terrace, not listening to my mother. And God took away my shine from me. You don’t want that to happen to you, do you? Now go and play with Aria.’
The town of Mislanabad is heavenly. Olives, oranges and lemons grow in every backyard. Bougainvillea climbing up the white washed walls is a signature to every dwelling. Maria has grown up to be a young girl amongst all this. Her parents are no longer alive. But her grandmother's overwhelming love has quietly buried the fact. Maria kept on growing beautiful until one day her grandmother fell seriously ill and was bedridden for days.
Maria climbed the stairs in perfect stillness. Granny was dosing away in the hot afternoon. The entrance to the terrace was locked. But she had laid her hands on the keys the other night. She unlocked the gate silently. The wood creaked and a gush of warm air filled the floor. Her nimble body shivered on seeing the terrace for the first time. It was a lovely view of the outside. The entire locality was visible. There was Aria playing in her backyard with her dog, Maria noticed as she looked around. She had never experienced so many colors at once. She wondered why Grandma had kept her away from the terrace. Looking around she found a staircase leading to a water tank higher up. Carefully she climbed a few steps and looked around again. This time the view was a little different. The houses at the far end seemed to be dissolving into barren land. There was nothing beyond twenty homes. Maria counted again. She tried to raise her view, climbed a few more steps – hurriedly. Her heart sank. The wind grew chilly. A lonely feeling overtook her thoughts. She was in the midst of a desert. She recalled her parents for the first time in ten years. Why had they not told her anything? Why had grandma not told her anything? Or had she tried telling her all this in her own way. Maria lost her innocent smile and her cheeks became grave. She was living in a place where girls are not told little secrets about their own country. She sighed and kept looking into the horizon.
