Short Story: Forest of Shadows

Meenakshi Jauhari shares a powerful story on environmental degradation and large-scale destruction of key ecosystems. 

I have met many unusual people in my life, as I recall now that I sit down to tell the scribe my life story. He waits patiently. It’s a final lesson, I believe, from an old and now blind teacher to a diligent student, before life’s design sweeps him up and away.

“Have you laid out everything, Buland, my boy?” I ask him, as memory takes wing.

“Yes, ustadji. I’m ready…whenever you’re ready to tell…!”

A hush descends, and I let my mind soar into the vast sky… where do I begin? What is it that wants to be told first? Through the long voyage of my seventy-odd years, which kahani stands out and beckons my heart? 

Memory is a bird, now soaking the warm sunlight amid silky clusters of clouds. It tries to identify an experience that deserves to be the first frame of my life story. After some random meanderings, my mind’s eye focuses on an image …hazy at first, then clearer: The jungle of shadows. 

“Start writing, my boy…” I instruct, and in response, I hear a soft scraping and shuffling of paper as Buland’s pen positions itself.