Nisa lived across the street from Adin in the fabled city of Bangalore, and had been for quite a few months, but they were still strangers. They could see each other's rooms through their windows, and Nisa had hoped it would lead to a friendship or more but it hadn't because Adin never looked. Too scared to give him a visit, she was losing hope when a brilliant idea struck her - she got a pair of binoculars delivered to his house.
She was sure this would get them started because she had given him not only the permission to look, but also the very device he could use. This wasn’t an offer he could refuse. But she had forgotten to consider that there were other windows besides hers in the locality.
He started using the binoculars to look at another woman who lived at the third vertex from them. This was terrible, and Nisa decided that men couldn't be trusted - they could use your presents for other women. She would have given up but he was the only man she had ever sent binoculars to, and you can only send binoculars once. She hit upon another idea - she ordered food at his address and bribed the delivery guy to carry a meal she'd cooked for Adin, with a note. Again, to her horror as soon as he got the meal, he invited over the other woman. She saw them eating the meal together and afterwards when the lights went out in his house, she felt she would die.
So she decided, "to hell with him." After this she went on to try out a number of men, and over the next few weeks the lights went out a number of times in her room too, but Adin either didn't notice or didn't care. Soon, she got tired of her little nightly excitements and felt the other men were nothing more than needles that she was using only as brief distractions. She got off them, and thought she had many nights of lonely despair ahead of her when she got another great idea.
She got books delivered to his house and would dress up as the heroines in those stories and stand at her window. The first was Romeo and Juliet. It took him a week to read it, and guessing what scene he could be reading, she dressed in the different attires of Juliet. Sure enough, he came to his window again and again and looking in at her, found his imagination personified. This was powerful. He would never get this Juliet out of his mind. Next was Layla and Majnu. And then Salim and Anarkali. And then Orpheus and Eurydice. Seeing that all these had ended badly, she finally sent him Pride and Prejudice. Emboldened, perhaps by the happy ending, Adin finally made the long walk across the street to Nisa's house.
It rained for a month from the night they first met. He couldn't go back to his house. In fact they couldn't go anywhere outside of her house. Soon there was a flood in the city and everyone in their locality left on the relief boats that came. But Nisa and Adin neither saw the boats nor any need of leaving. They didn't eat or drink for a month. Their only nutrition was each other, the heroes and heroines they played, and the never-ending rain. Soon they were the only people in the city.
After a month, the rain stopped. At the same time, Adin told Nisa he could no longer see those ancient heroines in her - what had she done to them? Nisa had dismissed those roles as childish and couldn't turn them on anymore. She didn't recall why she had decided this wouldn't trouble them. Adin, receiving no response, decided that women couldn't be trusted - they charmed you with roles they couldn't keep up. He went back to his house.
The next night, as he sat alone in his room in the abandoned city, he had a strong urge to go back to her, but decided to wait a few months to let her become as distant from him as Juliet, Layla, Anarkali, Eurydice and Elizabeth, and as charming.
The next few months were unbearably hot, and Adin spent his time clearing the city of debris. When he went back to Nisa's house, she looked sick. When he looked closer he saw that she was expecting a child. He felt angry at her for not telling him, almost stealing his child away from him for so long. But he never saw his own house again.
The child was born a few months later, and they named her Nida. After Nida was born, Nisa and Adin did not get a chance to talk to each other for four years. Nida tossed around on the bed all night between them, and ran round and round all day in the house. Nisa and Adin had to keep their eyes on her all the time. All they saw of each other were their distorted reflections in child's lustrous skin.
As soon as she turned four, Nida stopped tossing around on the bed and running around the house. By now, people had started returning and rebuilding the city. Nida left home, and only visited Nisa and Adin now and then.
Nisa and Adin realized they had become strangers again. They involved themselves in household chores and felt uncomfortable in each other's company. Nisa spent a lot of time sitting alone. She became extremely sensitive to small changes in her surroundings. She could hear insects crawling on plants. She could feel the extremely uneven texture of the smooth marble floor. She reached her limit when one afternoon, sitting in her chair in her dark room, she felt the earth going round and round and round. It felt like death. She got up and ran out of the house.
She did not return for a year and Adin began to think she never would, when he saw her driving in a huge truck full of plants. She looked much younger as she told him she had gone around the world and collected one thousand and one saplings that they would plant around their home. When Adin asked her why, she told him about that afternoon one year ago and that the one thousand and one trees would slow down the rotation of the earth, and they would never have to hear it again.
"But I've been listening to the rotation ever since I was a teenager," Adin said.
Nisa, surprised, asked, "But how can you bear it, it is horrible."
"I made peace with it a long time back," Adin said.
Nisa felt she could never do that, and went ahead in her garden to plant the saplings. She worked all day, day after day. When Adin saw her now he remembered her as when she used to dress up like the ancient heroines and stand in her window. He wondered if they were following a cycle of coming closer and growing apart, like heavenly bodies in a helpless orbit.
But seeing her today, he felt she was now completing the second line of a couplet, the first line of which they had written during the month of the never-ending rain. And the rhyme that this second line completed made him feel once again the way he had felt then. He could hear the song of their life now, and it was beautiful. Their life was a poem, and as one line ended, they would have to work on the next line, completely new and tiring to begin with, but which would continue the rhyme and rhythm of their past. Like a poem, their days would be fresh and recurring at the same time. And he ran out in the garden to work with her.
Out of the one thousand and one trees, only a hundred and one could survive the Indian climate. But these one hundred and one flourished with Nisa and Adin's hard work, and very soon they found themselves living in a forest. And no one was able to find a way to them now except Nida, who also lost them after a while. Today, they don't hear the machinery of earth's rotation anymore. They only hear the rustling of leaves, the chattering of birds, and a thousand other sounds of pleasure that I haven't heard and can't describe. It is said they found their way back to Eden, and the last heroine Nisa played was Eve, and the last hero Adin played was Adam.
She was sure this would get them started because she had given him not only the permission to look, but also the very device he could use. This wasn’t an offer he could refuse. But she had forgotten to consider that there were other windows besides hers in the locality.
He started using the binoculars to look at another woman who lived at the third vertex from them. This was terrible, and Nisa decided that men couldn't be trusted - they could use your presents for other women. She would have given up but he was the only man she had ever sent binoculars to, and you can only send binoculars once. She hit upon another idea - she ordered food at his address and bribed the delivery guy to carry a meal she'd cooked for Adin, with a note. Again, to her horror as soon as he got the meal, he invited over the other woman. She saw them eating the meal together and afterwards when the lights went out in his house, she felt she would die.
So she decided, "to hell with him." After this she went on to try out a number of men, and over the next few weeks the lights went out a number of times in her room too, but Adin either didn't notice or didn't care. Soon, she got tired of her little nightly excitements and felt the other men were nothing more than needles that she was using only as brief distractions. She got off them, and thought she had many nights of lonely despair ahead of her when she got another great idea.
She got books delivered to his house and would dress up as the heroines in those stories and stand at her window. The first was Romeo and Juliet. It took him a week to read it, and guessing what scene he could be reading, she dressed in the different attires of Juliet. Sure enough, he came to his window again and again and looking in at her, found his imagination personified. This was powerful. He would never get this Juliet out of his mind. Next was Layla and Majnu. And then Salim and Anarkali. And then Orpheus and Eurydice. Seeing that all these had ended badly, she finally sent him Pride and Prejudice. Emboldened, perhaps by the happy ending, Adin finally made the long walk across the street to Nisa's house.
It rained for a month from the night they first met. He couldn't go back to his house. In fact they couldn't go anywhere outside of her house. Soon there was a flood in the city and everyone in their locality left on the relief boats that came. But Nisa and Adin neither saw the boats nor any need of leaving. They didn't eat or drink for a month. Their only nutrition was each other, the heroes and heroines they played, and the never-ending rain. Soon they were the only people in the city.
After a month, the rain stopped. At the same time, Adin told Nisa he could no longer see those ancient heroines in her - what had she done to them? Nisa had dismissed those roles as childish and couldn't turn them on anymore. She didn't recall why she had decided this wouldn't trouble them. Adin, receiving no response, decided that women couldn't be trusted - they charmed you with roles they couldn't keep up. He went back to his house.
The next night, as he sat alone in his room in the abandoned city, he had a strong urge to go back to her, but decided to wait a few months to let her become as distant from him as Juliet, Layla, Anarkali, Eurydice and Elizabeth, and as charming.
The next few months were unbearably hot, and Adin spent his time clearing the city of debris. When he went back to Nisa's house, she looked sick. When he looked closer he saw that she was expecting a child. He felt angry at her for not telling him, almost stealing his child away from him for so long. But he never saw his own house again.
The child was born a few months later, and they named her Nida. After Nida was born, Nisa and Adin did not get a chance to talk to each other for four years. Nida tossed around on the bed all night between them, and ran round and round all day in the house. Nisa and Adin had to keep their eyes on her all the time. All they saw of each other were their distorted reflections in child's lustrous skin.
As soon as she turned four, Nida stopped tossing around on the bed and running around the house. By now, people had started returning and rebuilding the city. Nida left home, and only visited Nisa and Adin now and then.
Nisa and Adin realized they had become strangers again. They involved themselves in household chores and felt uncomfortable in each other's company. Nisa spent a lot of time sitting alone. She became extremely sensitive to small changes in her surroundings. She could hear insects crawling on plants. She could feel the extremely uneven texture of the smooth marble floor. She reached her limit when one afternoon, sitting in her chair in her dark room, she felt the earth going round and round and round. It felt like death. She got up and ran out of the house.
She did not return for a year and Adin began to think she never would, when he saw her driving in a huge truck full of plants. She looked much younger as she told him she had gone around the world and collected one thousand and one saplings that they would plant around their home. When Adin asked her why, she told him about that afternoon one year ago and that the one thousand and one trees would slow down the rotation of the earth, and they would never have to hear it again.
"But I've been listening to the rotation ever since I was a teenager," Adin said.
Nisa, surprised, asked, "But how can you bear it, it is horrible."
"I made peace with it a long time back," Adin said.
Nisa felt she could never do that, and went ahead in her garden to plant the saplings. She worked all day, day after day. When Adin saw her now he remembered her as when she used to dress up like the ancient heroines and stand in her window. He wondered if they were following a cycle of coming closer and growing apart, like heavenly bodies in a helpless orbit.
But seeing her today, he felt she was now completing the second line of a couplet, the first line of which they had written during the month of the never-ending rain. And the rhyme that this second line completed made him feel once again the way he had felt then. He could hear the song of their life now, and it was beautiful. Their life was a poem, and as one line ended, they would have to work on the next line, completely new and tiring to begin with, but which would continue the rhyme and rhythm of their past. Like a poem, their days would be fresh and recurring at the same time. And he ran out in the garden to work with her.
Out of the one thousand and one trees, only a hundred and one could survive the Indian climate. But these one hundred and one flourished with Nisa and Adin's hard work, and very soon they found themselves living in a forest. And no one was able to find a way to them now except Nida, who also lost them after a while. Today, they don't hear the machinery of earth's rotation anymore. They only hear the rustling of leaves, the chattering of birds, and a thousand other sounds of pleasure that I haven't heard and can't describe. It is said they found their way back to Eden, and the last heroine Nisa played was Eve, and the last hero Adin played was Adam.
