গল্পের রাজত্বে বসবাস করছি আপাতত Translated by Nush Islam CLOUD The moment I got out of the house, wind whispered to me, follow me. I told her to get lost. I don’t care for anyone. I do what please me. When I said that, feisty wind gave me a big slap. Wind kept pushing me forward. While passing I met the bokul tree. Tree spoke, you are sweating. Come sit next to me for a moment. I answered, No, don’t have time to sit down. I have to go a long way. Hearing me say that few pretty bokuls jumped into my lap. Told me, we want to go with you too. I said, NO. Don’t come with me otherwise you will wane. Still the pretty little flower kept following me. Putting them in my closed Palm I kept walking. Shortly after met a bouncy river. Pushing her URNA (scarf) away she screamed, come to my bosom, I will give you some fishes.” I replied. No dear, I don’t need anything. You keep following your stream and I will follow my path. Wild river didn’t care for what I just told her and pulled me in to her stream. After a while, drifting in the river at last I have reached the sky. Sky Lord woke up all his stars and asked, WHO IS IT? WHO ARE YOU AND WHT IS IT YOU WANT? I answered politely, My Lord, I got here while drifting away. I don’t wish for anything. Listening to my answer sky lord just smirked and said, Yes, I see, you came here all prepared! Wait I am going to turn you in to a cloud.” Since than I am a cloud. Straight line Mamoon always drew pictures since he was just a little boy. Once while sitting on my table he drew picture of a staple. Everyone affirmed it looked like a husking pedal to mock him but in reality it really did resemble a stapler. Another time he drew a portrait of Laboni. Even five of Labonis lovers couldn’t recognize her, although they all agreed upon that the portrait looked far prettier than her real self. One day THAT Mamoon announced that he has became an artist now. Something like this incident was first ever to happen among my friend circle. So we all went together to Mamoons abode. When we got there we found his mom was in tears. She has comprehended that her son has gone bonkers. We stared at him. He hasn’t shaved, has been taken to wearing glasses, there are dark circles under his eyes, halitosis from un brushed mouth. Just like a real artist, paints, brushes, canvas, bottles of oil everything is scattered everywhere. We all exclaimed, “what happened to you?” He just beamed and said, “I am evolving into an artist and this is my studio.” His mom told us, he has locked himself up in that room for last 3 days, not even eating or cleaning himself since. I asked him – so what did you draw? Nothing Why? It’s just not happening! Are you drawing something rather difficult? Yes, A straight line. One of us squealed, that’s not something special to draw! Another affirmed, look at all this, You drew so many of these straight lines. But he answered, No, none of these are straight lines and than took the brush in his hands again. He was oblivious to our existence in that room and kept drawing straight lines one after another. ….. Fairy and the Shepherd Fairy was flying through the sky. While flying she thought of something and looked down. Noticed, far down there alluring green earth. Fairy came down. The shepherd was playing his flute on this quite corner of the forest. Rhythm of the flute enticed the fairy and brought her there. They met each other. Shepherd knew what has happened to him; he heard apparently when something like this feels in the heart that’s called love. But what happened to the fairy? Fairy didn’t know, no one taught her about love. Whole night she lay on shepherds’ chest while he played his flute, fairy listened. Than once, only for once shepherd placed a gentle kiss on fairies forehead. They didn’t notice when it became morning, when they realised, fairy cried. I have to go! Sheppard replied me too! But in reality he didn’t quite want to leave. Even when the fairy tried to fly, she noticed whole nights dew and earth’s affection has swamped her wings. Fairy wept, “What am I going to do now” With a tender smile shepherd said to her, “stay with me.” So Fairy stayed. After that, many years have passed, fairy became unrecognizable, and so did the shepherd. Fairy lost her sky by falling for shepherd. And by being in love with the fairy, shepherd lost his earth. Did you know, since than fairies don’t fly in the sky no more? Even when they do they never never never look down at the earth. Since than shepherds stopped playing their flutes, even if any of them do play, tries not to go to that corner of the forest at night. Civilization In the morning to make breakfast we need bread maker, electric juicer, griller to grill sausages, coffee maker, than during the day we need computerised electric cars for transport. At night when we go home to sleep, we still need air conditioner, sound controller and so many other things. The whole earth is full of gadgets. Without machine mankind forgot how to take a step or to walk, parents forgot to teach kids to take their first steps, to speak. From childhood mankind started to rely on machines. Human race of that century claimed them selves to be the most refined of being to ever exist. And just than nature took their biggest revenge. It’s been a while since tree, animals, flowers, birds all disappeared from earth to save their pride. One day even water dissolved. All those super high-tech gadgets were sent thousands of feet down inside the earth but still couldn’t catch a drop of water. Natural minerals like gas, oil also disappeared. And than deprived from light, water, heat human kinds started to perish. All the manmade machines were left behind scattered everywhere. All those high-rise buildings were left alone, all empty. All the machines left scattered got rusty, buildings started to collapse on their own. In that way few centuries passed. Than one day next to the broken nuclear furnace a little green leaf peeked out. She brought her beautiful green friends along with her. Another few centuries passed and than earth started to become inhabitable again, full with life. New lives on earth explored past and present. They realised in the old days there were most foolish creatures on earth called human who brought their own destruction.