& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

An achingly moving story

Tulip Chowdhury relishes a new tale of love
IT was 1958 and Landon, a seventeen-year old boy was growing up with the usual ups and downs that growing years hold. In his home town, in Beaufort, North California Landon had already dated a girl or two. The last person he had expected to enter his life was Jamie Sullivan, daughter of the town's Baptist YnihiSteY, Hegbert. Jamie was seventeen and went round with a Bible in her hand. _She seemed to be perfectly content to live her life set away from others. When others were having parties she was going round -orphanages. When others were enjoying baseball games she was rout rescuing hurt animals. Yet by a streak of chance Landon finds himself very much involved with this girl, a girl whom all other 'friends labeled as "strange".
Left without a partner, Landon found himself asking Jamie as his date for the school dance. Jamie was too polite to refuse even though he had asked her at the last Tiour. At the dance Landon was about to get into a fight with a school bully Eric, boyfriend of his ex-girl friend. It was Jamie who came into the scene and settled the dispute in such a way that Eric left the scene smiling. This inci-gdent was the beginning of Landon's discovering how special rjamie was behind that facade of plainness.
Jamie was always wearing her hair in a tight bun and she had on 'her old brown sweater. She seemed to be ignorant where 'appearance was concerned. She was more concerned about how she could help a blind man cross the street or to help an old woman Tun her home. This was also the
girl who had lost her mother when she was an infant. This also was the girl who took care of her widowed father. Her father had written a play for Christmas and she wanted to put it up for the church. She asked Landon to play the lead role with her. She was to be an angel and he was to be the main character in the play. She tells Landon that it was a very special Christmas for her and she wanted to please her father also. Landon finds it difficult to refuse although he was aware that his friends might tease him for being in the play with Jamie. But he could not, not after seeing how nice she was and how kind.
On the day the play was staged, Jamie looked very beautiful in the long flowing dress and her long hair flowing down to her waist. Landon was surprised that she kept herself so simple when she could look so gorgeous. As Landon looked at her he realized this was a girl who was just special in her own ways. Jamie was a girl who saved her allowances to buy a basketball for the orphans or she would drop the money in the church basket on Sunday. She installed empty jars in many shops for donations. And she took three or four days to collect them before Chirstmas. She did not have a car and she took all these troubles walking or moving around by bus. Her good deeds were not limited to people. If she ever came across a wounded animal, she would try to help that too. Opossums, squirrels, dogs, cats, frogs....it didn't matter to her. And without even realizing it, Landon was falling in love with the girl who did not seem to fit in into the usual crowd of their age, a girl
who was different from the others.
Landon came from an affluent family and was aloof from the small details of life. Good things of life came to him easily and he did not have time to think of the other less fortunate people. But after knowing Jamie he found a profound change coming over him. Jamie seemed to set him on the march to a caring, God fearing
man. Landon started to see Jamie everyday. She agreed to go out laughing and saying that she will go out providing he does not fall in love with her. He felt as if the sun did not set properly if he did not see her though out the day. He started to take her out to special places, places Jamie did not dream of going to. He cared very
little about what the others would say. As he began to know her, he found how caring she was, how deeply she loved God and how she counted her blessings all the time. Most of all she loved people and was always trying to help those who were in need. It seemed to Landon that God had sent a living angel in Jamie. And whenever he commented on her activities she would say,
" God has plans for everybody and 1 am just trying out carry out his plans..."
Landon was extremely happy and was thinking what a bliss life was. His mother supported him for Jamie and loved her from the moment they met. Then one day when Landon finally had the words out to Jamie that he was in love with her she reminded him that she had told him at the very beginning not to fall in love with me. She added,
“ Landon I am dying...."
She disclosed that her life was a short notice to her, that she had a rare form of leukemia. Landon thought that what he was hearing was a bad dream. He could not accept that life could be so cruel to two people who had just found love. However the truth struck home as Jamie's health began to give away and she could no longer go out of her home. Landon now began to stay by her side and thus begins a beautiful love story, a story that ends with tears and yet the beauty of loving and giving breaks the heart the reader. Landon reaches his manhood through the pains of his love. He does not leave a stone unturned where Jamie's last wishes and dreams are. Landon's father, a busy politician who previously
had little time for his son now moves closer and hospitalizes Jamie so that she can get the best care as excruciating pain ravaged her body. Landon is constantly by her side to share her tears. He cries when she smiles her sweetest smile and thanks the Lord for giving her some one to love and be . loved back The last walk with Jamie comes when she walks down the aisle of the church in which they get married. A marriage is supposed to last in happiness or sorrows till the last breath is out. Yet, how many days do Landon and Jamie have till they have to say goodbye to the wonderful life, a life so wrapped up in their love?
A more beautiful love story could not have been written. The story, written in first person narration makes the reader feel as if the words of the heart are being narrated with the unfolding of the love story. Sparks throws himself into the voices and hearts of his characters. Reveries and doubts, hopes and dreams are detailed with patience and concentration revealing the ways humans beings can be formed and nurtured. Just when you think what is coming the story moves on and you are astonished at how unpredictable storms can disrupt life. It is not often that you feel you are transformed by a story. However, this story does make you feel as if new axioms are born to you, as if you have found new strings to life. This is a story that is achingly moving and will have one weeping for the joy and tragedy of it all.
Tulip Chowdhury wntes fiction and is a regular reviewer of books.