There is an old Shiva temple perched at the base of a nearby mountain. A tiny waterfall drizzles misty water on top of the Shivling. It's a two km trek from Solang & you start to see the temple a kilometre into it. I trekked there today. Every step that I took, I felt the mountain was just 50 metres away, only to be disappointed. You see, mountains are farther than they appear.
When we were together, we never went to temples. Being lazy believers who only remembered God while writing fiction or answers, it never occurred to us that temples could serve a purpose other than eloping & marrying. We did visit churches, however. Even made out in an abandoned one near Connaught Place, turning Jesus into a voyeur. You had enough grit for the two of us. What if someone catches us? I'd mumbled. You grabbed my shivering hand and brought it closer to your chest. Layers were slowly pulled away. Clumsy, clammy and clandestine, the back of my hand felt your heart beat. So close, for the first time. It was relaxed, confident, as if believing of a future together. I believed it too.
Only today during the trek it dawned on me that like mountains, even hearts are farther than they appear to be.
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