There was a handsome man who was once wandering in his field. It was a nice sunny day, birds were chirping and crops in the field all dancing in sync with the soft wind, and so were the leaves on the trees. The river was flowing nearby. That river was always full of water and it was so blue running between the green lands. Everything was beautiful. While the man was walking through his field, he saw a woman, elegant and graceful and breathtakingly beautiful, sitting under the mango tree at the edge of the farm. She was running her hands playfully through the grasses and the man just fell in love with her at the instant he saw her. So he went to her and they talked and laughed. She came to this village couple of weeks ago. She asked if he wanted tea and he said yes and then they both went to her house.
"your home is lovely. And ahh this smell! what's this sweet smell around here?" Asked the man as he took deep breath. "it comes from you too."
she blushed a bit and then took him to the field at backside. It was filled with red flowers.
" what are these red flowers? I have never seen them before." Said the man as he reached out towards one.
"careful!" Said the woman. They have Thorns on the stem. These are called roses. I am fond of these flowers and I grew them all. I used to grow them ever since I was a kid. My mother used to tell me that the flower represents love and it grows over a stem of thorns. She used to say that's how love really is. Like the flower comes with the thorns, love comes with the hardships and pain and struggle which makes the hand that hold them bleed and the roses get their colour from that blood. The more the hands bleed, more deeper is the red. So, do you dare to hold one?" Said the woman as she came very close to the man running her hands from on the petals and then gently his arm, staring into his eyes with her deep, black eyes. Power can be seen only when we look for it in the eyes and yes she was powerful. Her mystic aura could be felt and she had something that caught the man there in the moment. He looked in her eye for a moment and the her lips and then he kissed her.
Those were the happy days, very happy days. Everything was beautiful and they were married and they started to live in the woman's house where everything smelled nice. But soon as the time passed, the witch's skin started getting darker and more wrinkled.her hairs started to turn white and fall. She was getting thinner and the soft skin was getting older and older. These changes were coming fast and with these changes, the man also changed. He rarely went out of the home. Just sitting on his chair drawing satanic images and cursing everything. He was still young. It was only 6 months after their marriage and everything was changed and was still changing. She was getting uglier as if her beautiful skin was shedding away revealing the true witch that was beneath the skin. And the man, he was never the same. The home was always cold and dark. There was rarely any talk between the couple. No laughs, no smiles, no rosy smell that used to fill the whole house. It smelled like something was rotting in the house. No one saw anyone coming out from that house. Lights were always off. The roses were all dead and the old dried out stems with thorns were the only leftovers of that once beautiful garden.
one night, it was full moon. Light was seen in the house. It was as if someone lit a fire and the smoke was coming out of the chimney. The cold winds were blowing hard and the stars were hidden by the thick clouds. Dogs were crying and the cats were meowing. Cattle's were crying too and the horses were getting furious. It appeared that the storm, a very destructive storm was approaching the village, about to engulf every good land and trees and shelters. The bad omens were everywhere. That was one bad night but it passed and gave way to a beautiful morning. Birds chirping again, river flowing and making those melodious sounds and the winds and the green lands. They should feel normal but still there was something different. Some friends of the man went to the house to check if everything was fine. It has been months anyone actually saw him. And when they went there, he was nowhere to be found. There was only this young lady there, magnificent, sitting in her garden of red sweet smelling flowers. The flowers were so red and the woman was radiating with glow but she was crying as she sang a sad song. Tears rolling down her sweet cheeks. People knew the beautiful woman was the man's wife.
One of the them, who was also the brother of the man, when went near her, saw her sitting on the pool of blood with her husband in her arms and her tears dropping down on his face and she was there playing with his hairs, sorting running her soft hands on his hair.
"She is the witch who killed my brother." Said one
"she kills men for her youth! We have heard rumours about her."
"she killed her husband and drank his blood. She should be killed!"
"yes kill her! Kill her! Kill the bloody witch who killed my dear friend" they all started to yell as one of the men pulled a blade off his pocket. But the women said nothing. She was sitting there, still, with tears rolling down her checks and singing her song smiling in between, playing with her dead husband's hair. And when she finally finished her song and looked up, she saw a man standing right in front Saying, " head of the witch must be shaved" and he shaved her head. After they balled her, then took her to the village elders.
"how to kill a witch who killed her husband?"
All the elders said burry alive the witch who killed her husband and so she was buried. Buried away, far away from everyone under the garden with red roses.
The next morning was again normal, everything was normal and beautiful but then as the time went on, everything gradually turned ugly, like the witch turned. River dried up, crops failed, everything smelled as if something was rotting or maybe everyone were rotting but no one cared. They were all unaware of their misery. They were not happy, they never slept, barely talked or ate and the worst thing was that they never realised. The once the most beautiful city turned into the rotting lands. It was cold and dark every time, even during the day. The sun was shining in the sky brightly, the way it used to but it looked as if the light never came to the ground.
But then came a day, sun was shining again, the roses were deep red and the birds chirping on the green mango tree. The river was full and flowing singing melody. Lands were green as ever. It was beautiful again, even more than it used to be. But there was something different. There was no sign of human. kids playing on the street, old men sitting under the tree, women singing and gossiping, nothing can be seen. Nothing.
Everyone vanished. The witch feed on all of them who buried her. She killed all those who shaved her hair and killed their children and women too. She took their blood and coloured the roses in the garden. The colour of the flower was filled with hatred. It was never love. Love was just deception laid by the witch.
"No one has lived there since then. Some says that the land has treasure from the riches of the people who lived there. Some said that the land has all sorts of unique and valuable stones and Gems. And so, out of greed many people went in the search of the land but they got nothing."
"You heard the whole story they once told" Grandma turned to the Kabir.
"Now tell me dear, what do you think? Is it just a myth or the story of a forgotten land?"