… Our journey to Dwarika continues. We have stopped at a place to get freshen up. Our conversation starts with my tea and her buttermilk (-in tetra pack, a real surprise for her!).

Radha: “What has led you to the question you asked me?”

Me: “Yes, I need to tell you the reason why we are aboard for Dwarika.”

Taking a sip of my black tea, I continue,

…… “I have been through many good and bad experiences in relationships. In these many years, I have seen almost all the colors of love and also agreeably taken the pain of separation. And having been through these experiences, I could see that not a single relation in this world is permanent or that could stay with you lifelong but Friendship! A friend is a person to whom you can open up dauntlessly with your achievements or your mishaps. I have come to know one thing clearly that the world is a miserable place without friends…….

Radha watching directly into my eyes listens to me carefully.

Me continuing, “I strongly believe that everyone needs a best friend with whom you can share not only your sorrows or happiness but also your fears. A person with whom you can share your love unconditionally. A support that you can seek in any pink or blue of your life. A person who can sense your soul delighted or distressed without anyone telling him/her. And most importantly, whose being him or her never matters. And while I think of you and Krishna, I can imagine how badly both of you would have needed each other in different phases of life!

…I surely know that in these many years, you must have thought about how difficult it would be for him to long for that serenity, that soothing feel he had while hugging you. Your yearning to hold his hand and to tell him whatever he does or decides you are with him must be affecting him as well. You must have felt his pining to rest in your lap after taking tough decisions. All this together has pushed me to ask you the question.”

Radha turns her wet eyes away from my sight.

Radha (calmly): “You think too much.”

Me: “Perhaps, I feel too much!”

We can now see the golden domes of Dwarika and I can see Radha’s restlessness in her eyes. Her eyes dazzle in a moment and fade in another. I can feel her heart pounding.

We are at Dwarika, the city of gold. At a temple, we inquire about where can we possibly meet Krishna? I am trying to find someone to help us; a woman approaches. She is coming out of the temple. She has worn a light ivory colored silk saree with broad golden border along with very few pieces of jewelry. She looks simple still ravishing. The glow on her face and prudence in her personality suggests that she must be royalty.

I politely ask her the way to meet Krishna. She takes a look and instead of replying, asks me if the lady with me is Radha. As soon as I reply affirmatively, she grabs Radha’s hand literally pulling her as if she wants us to hurry up for something. I follow them headlong. We enter a huge bedroom of a palace like house where there are many beautiful ladies gathered around a man resting on a royal bed. The man has his right foot volar wounded.

On seeing the man injured and laid, Radha simply blurts out, “Kanha”!! She sits abruptly by the bed. The other women leave us alone as the woman who has brought us here has told them to do so. Now, the woman who led us here introduces herself. She is Rukmini, the queen herself and she was just waiting for Radha’s arrival in Dwarika.

During my conversation with Rukmini, I now know that everything will be brought to an end soon. All of them will be returning to their destined places for their roles have been over as pre decided but only Krishna has no predefined journey. His route to get back depends on Radha’s alacrity therefore everyone in Dwarika was eagerly waiting for her. She thanks me for bringing Radha to Dwarika.

Here, Radha is gently rubbing Krishna’s hand who has been struck with an arrow on his right foot. A hunter misread the sign present on his foot as a deer’s eye. Radha’s touch awakens Krishna. He greets her with a heavenly smile though with a trace of pain in it.

He (before Radha says something): “Finally you have decided to unbind me!”

Radha wants him to take rest but still her heart wishes him to divulge the unspoken.

He continues in a low voice: “Dear, you are the only one on this planet to whom I can’t make do or decide something. So, I was waiting for you to come willingly. I also want to complain you for taking so long to decide this. During this, I have turned into something that I never wanted to be. Your absence has deprived me of selflessness, tolerance, tenderness and my innate endurance. You should have come a little earlier to stop me doing that I never wished to do. Kurukshetra, Yadavasthali and whatnot! Your love, care and guidance might have helped me before I turned into this monster.”

A deluge of tears flowed from each pair of eyes.

Radha: “Nothing has changed much about you except you have grown a little older. I am not God. How could I know about what you wanted? You could have called me if you really wanted to. It was you who forbade me to see you again and I am very good at keeping promises. Don’t you know? ”

Both laugh faintly. Radha now asks him about what he wants her to do.

Krishna: “I need to finish the undone. Can you help me?”

Radha: “How much time do you have?”

Krishna: “Never had sufficient to be with you but still enough to get few complaints resolved.”

Radha with a smile: “That would be ample.”

Radha’s tears wash all his wounds and he looks healed, from within too! Suddenly Krishna notices me standing there.

He (giving me a very familiar smile): “You haven’t told me your name yet. May I?”

Me: “Oh! Let me… I am Sakhi.”

Krishna with a grin: “Certainly! Who else could you be?”

I feel that I have fallen for that smile several times. I find my journey getting over here. After that I have found it recorded in Brahma vaivarta Purana that they lived together for 14 more years and returned to their final destinations.