Even if lovers die... Their love is eternel...

Chapter 3

PART 3 : AMAN

"Ladies & gentlemen, passengers from A312 New Delhi-Paris, we'll start the descent to Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in a few minutes. Local time 23:15, outside temperature is 19 °. You please shall return to your seats and fasten your belts. The Idian Airlines Company thanks you for choosing us and wishes you a pleasant stay"
Paris ... from above through a small circle of glass, Paris seems to be so peaceful in the late evening. The streets are almost deserted and the buildings give the impression of dozing quietly in the cool breeze of this mid-August In the midst of summer vacation, most of Parisians have chosen destinations ... more hot.
Only the Eiffel Tower, as usual, shines as the moon in the vastness of the sky, surrounded by a few stars here and there ... Big Bear scintillating, or the distant thin unknown galaxies.
The Seine ... peaceful and unruffled continues its course uninterested by the burdens it carries and bears nonchalantly. The Paris Opera shines tonight with a thousand lights in the sky and projects the four colors that it was asked to wear: light zones of white, green, saffron and navy blue are silloning the sky above it.
"19 °! ... 19 °! ... How far is our sunshine, right? "
The tap on the shoulder with one hand too pressing enough wakes him up from his dreamings. . Ah! that nice Sikh whith his turban and beard ...! an unpleasant impression of having had him in the legs throughout the journey and yet he is just his seatmate. He wonders what is worse, his snoring or his voice too high and his inexhaustible flow of speech! he is however nice it is not the problem, but how can he be so sticky?!
"Well ... it's dark night, it's normal that the sun is far away indeed...."
Trying to smile kindly, he stands up in his seat and buckle his belt by removing the tray before him, and folding a magazine he had in his hands. But the neighbor comes back again to the charge.
- "Really! it is too cold for August ... I remember in the country, in such evenings, we would dress very lightly ... you know what ? Back home, for National Day we would make ... "
- "Uh ... your belt ..." he cuts it in the middle and moves away his shoulder which was beginning to damn hurt him and nods toward the little red box that was flashing in front of them to remember that the belt was still not closed. Moreover, a flight attendant will soon come to say it too. She glances to check the passenger's seatbelts, seeing that it was done she grinned a becky smile, focusing too much on him, he thought .
* - * - *
Three quarters of an hour later, he left the hall of the airport with his bag on his shoulder . He heads the taxi stands but see that many families who were with him on the plane were fighting to be first served, he gets a little away, having an amused smile on the lips, thinking that even thousands miles away from home ... nothing changed!
Half an hour passes before the station was empty of customers, a taxi pulls up at the moment and he steps forward to take it...
"-Oh it's you! "
UNBELIEVABLE! he thinks ... but hey, his shoulder would recognize this hand among a thousand!
"- If you go in the neighborhood of Indian streets, we can share the taxi! "
He stares at him for a while, before putting his bag on his back and opening the door to let the man in:
- "No ... Go ahead, I am in no hurry! "
- "But ..."
- "No but... don't worry, I'll reach my place by myself, I live not far from here...."
A quick glance at his watch tells him it is almost one a.m. This time there is nobody around.... a taxi finally arrives, he rushes into it, sighing from relief.
- "Rue des Indes, please."
Enjoying the comfort of the seat for his back hurt by the journey, he rests his head on the seat cushion and opens the window, aiming for fresh air whipping his face. Bizarrely, suddenly the fast scrolling landscape seems to be a bit drab, tinged with grey and without enough color. Was it the contrast with the colorful images printed on his mind from his trip? He shook his head to blow away that thought.
-"Sir? here we've reached the beginning of the street, where exactly do you want me to drop you ?"
Awaken from his kind of trance, he took a few euros from his pocket and gave it to the driver and smiled :
- "Right here ... you can not go any further tonight!"
Closing the door behind him, he heard the driver yelling:
- "Happy festival anyway ... and namaste!
- Thank you!"
Oh! that sort of obligation for people to say words in your native language when it is the only line they know ... he feel he can never get used to it. However, how to blame them ? So much racket while it is almost three in the morning ... In addition, they are lucky tomorrow is the weekend.
He rushes into the narrow lane with a smile on his face; and walks, truing his best to avoid people who could know him and have the idea of asking him to join their party. There are children playing with sticks sparks, some others have improvised a play of the output of English army from India. The merchants of traditional dishes and sweets still shout in a crowd that never ends. Women are out of their little temple holding trays in their hands. He takes a bow respectfully before them. In every corner people dance to music sometimes traditional, sometimes out of bollywood movies ... Ahh! Bollywood! A projection of classic films about Independance also draws the crowd in an improvised movie theater outdoors.
Here there are little guys busy to scare the girls playing with their fireworks ... this old man here narrates for the tenth time his experience under the British domintation and how he had been shot in the buttocks by stealing a gun from a soldier, in front of the laughter of his audience who knew that the ball flight was the result of stealing the fruits in the garden of an English hunter!
There is also a bar where he gets to see the dancers entertaining their fans by removing the flags of England surrounding their waits...
A piper has a few snakes dancing from a basket before the bewildered eyes of some children and two wrestlers are increasing the bets around there...
Passing by the small mosque where the imam was giving a sermon, he said, shaking his hand :
- "Salam alaikom"
Some old ladies sitting in circles greet him too. He smiles and turns around one last time to watch his ​​neighborhood, the place where he lives. He thinks it must be the only part of this country, where it's day even at night.
Walking a few steps more and he finds an elderly lady sitting alone on a stool outside his door. Dressed in a simple beige sari with red borders, her round face framed by hair more grey than black, her small black eyes with a little wrinkled contours reflect how worried is her heart while she is staring at nothing..... But her lips stretch into a smile that lights her face when she sees a shadow beding down to touch her feet.
- AMAN !!
Her voice is shaky from her joy she feels, she puts her hand on his head to bless him and raises his chin to look at his face and his large eyes glistening with tears. His wide smile of a prince which reveals his dimples and shows his teeth slightly overlapped on each other, it makes her heart swell with love and tenderness. She relies on her hand to get up and he takes this opportunity to kiss the back of it and touching it with his forehead before drawing her into his hug, and submits a tender kiss in the line of her hair; he tightens his hug, holding her while she is shaking in his arms, soothing her tears in his muscular chest by caressing tenderly her hair. She eventually emerges to take a better look on him, pressing her hand on his cheek and says :
- "You've lost some weight!" Thinking that makes him smile because he knows that only a mother's eyes can see such nonsense ... though it's true that with the climate change in India, he has not eaten so much during in his trip  

 It is true that in his light blue denim jeans and brown-cashmered jacket, you could easily guess his athletic body with his squared shoulders and the shape of the jacket around his arms, not to mention his T-shirt that without being tight, let appear the shape of his chest and abs ... besides, the air hostess had not missed a detail of this!
He erased this memory by nodding slightly his head and surrounded her mother's shoulders with his arms to guide her inside their house.
- "You did not come by the main entry!? "
- "No Ma, I knew that tonight there is the outdoor theater installed there, the entrance is blocked anyway. "
- "Indeed ..."
While talking, she gets rid of his jacket, begins to unpack his belongings while he goes for a quick shower in the bathroom. She puts clean clothes in the closet, others end up in the laundry basket and she takes carefully his Mus'haf which she puts in its case.
- "Besides ... you're not there? you love this play and you never miss it! "
He comes out from the bathroom wearing jeans and a T-shirt brushing his hair which are dripping water, trying to put them in order with his hands.  

"I didn't feel like having fun since you were away from me! "
Despite her smile, she fails to prevent a tear from running down her cheek. A tear she quicklu wipes, knowing how much he hates to see her crying.
- "I'm here now ... let's go! "
- "No, you 're just back, you must be dead tired, plus you don't like these kinds of celebrations ... and then I'll warm your dinner, you must be ..."
- "... Ma... Ma , Ma... (approaching her and taking her in his arms) ... I'm here now and I'm not hungry, I ate on the plane ... plus, I want to see whether the old Chuni even managed to get a bit worst again in his acting . " he adds to make her smile....
Few minutes later, they were in the small theater, a play about the history of India from its beginning. They settle down on the ground like the rest of the audience ... the appeal for these people from this abomination recycled for years will never fail to amaze Aman... He takes his mother's hand in his and brings it to his lips to kiss it . For the next applause, he has already fallen asleep, his head on her lap with an angelic smile on his face.