Moonflower (Part 6)

Moonflower (Part 6)
Sandipan Goswami, 1983 Civil Engineering

Recaps
Part 1: The band members of Galaxy including Sam, the lead singer, and guitarist, used to visit various locations to perform in spectacular stage shows where the audience gathered in large masses to experience the events. Sam is the main character of the story ‘Moonflower’. Sam had lost every one of his family since his childhood but was compensated by a few wonderful friends who used to be more than his own personal relatives. Some of them are Zina the gorgeous and beautiful lady, Joy the closest companion, Krishna the most trusted person to look after the business of the estate at Dehradun, his native place, and all others in his musical business in Mumbai. Sam and Zina used to be close friends who disclosed everything in their lives to each other. Unfortunately, Sam had lost his past love Sarah and Zina was separated from her husband in the past. Zina loved Sam more than anything in the world, but Sam could sense that Zina still had some repentance for losing her husband Ajoy. Sam wanted to meet and explore the mind of Ajoy for Zina before settling himself with Zina but he didn’t disclose that to Zina. Zina couldn’t understand why Sam is so hesitant to settle his life with Zina.

Part 2: A few of the other members of the musical band ‘Galaxy’ also had stories of losing of their loves in different incidents but they found the reasons for their lives through their dedicated involvement with the band ‘Galaxy’. Mathew, Prem, and Joy were the names.

Part 3: Sam unexpectedly met his lost love Sarah and her five-year-old son Vicky in a rehab clinic in Mumbai and came to know about the tragedy in Sarah’s life, that destroyed her life to the maximum extent. Sam informed Sarah about his present life with his band ‘Galaxy’. By this time Sam also met Ajoy, who was Zina’s ex-husband and as expected he discovered that Ajoy was still utterly upset about the separation from his wife Zina. This helped Sam to decide on reinstating their lives once again. Having significant financial strength, Sam extended his cooperation to establish Ajoy with a very modest business. Next, Sam organized a grand gala birthday party for Zina, where he suggested that Ajoy have a distant view of Zina without exposing himself to Zina. This was unexpected for Ajoy and he immediately agreed for obvious reasons. Although Ajoy was unaware that Zina was in deep love with Sam.

Part 4: Sarah fully recovered at Mumbai clinic and was released. She went back to her grandparent’s place in Dehradun, but she was to come to Mumbai regularly for periodic checks once a month. On the evening of Zina’s birthday celebration, it was not only Ajoy who could see his lost love and ex-wife Zina, but incidentally, Sarah also watched Sam with Zina at that party. Sam came to know about Sarah’s presence at the party later on and managed to visit Dehradun immediately. Sam extended his cooperation to Sarah by admitting her son Vicky to the school at Dehradun, by mentioning his name as the father of Vicky. Sarah initially refused such cooperation because she felt she had no right to get such help from Sam and additionally she had seen Sam and Zina together at her birthday party of Zina. However, later on, she accepted Sam’s cooperation realizing her helpless situation. Sam came back to Mumbai and next, he started to plan for the reunion of Zina with her ex-husband Ajoy.

Part 5: The reunion of Zina with her ex-husband Ajoy was made by Sam because that was destined. Sarah was also introduced to Zina and Ajoy by Sam and this removed all the clouds from Sarah’s mind. But still, destiny was different for Sam and Sarah. On the verge of settling her life with Sam, Sarah met with an accident and was lost from everyone for many years. Sam was destined to lose everything of his own and Sarah was never forgiven by God for the mistake that she made once. People in their lives in this large world are so helpless that they face their fates and are forced to surrender to their fates. Still, it is the ‘Hope’ that keeps the people living their lives, that in the end, some unexpected gifts may come. The story of ‘Moonflower’ has several twists which are caused by destinies.

Is it believable…

Zina had lived the life of a happy housewife for the last twenty years with her husband, two sons and one daughter. The two sons were nineteen and eighteen years old, the daughter seventeen years old. All were studying and staying in hostels. Ajoy went to his office at 10.00a.m. and returned at 8.00p.m. Zina used to stay in the house for the whole day with two maids, while the watchman, gardener and driver used to stay and gossip outside the house.
It was about 4.00 p.m. in the afternoon when Zina heard the doorbell ringing. She was reading some magazine and so she was wearing spectacles. She got up and went to the door. Upon opening the door, she found some lady about her age standing at the door. She asked the woman her purpose for coming. The lady stared at Zina for a few moments and then said, ‘I’m Sarah, Sarah of Sam, do you remember?’
Zina became just blank for a while, then tried to recognize her; although a long time had passed, still Zina was able to recognize her. She could only ask, ‘How can it be possible…? Where are you from?’ Zina next realized that they were standing at the door, so she called her inside and asked her to sit.
Sarah sat down and said, ‘Yes, it is not believable. Most of the news that you heard was true. I came to Sam, and that day I stayed the whole time with him. I left in the night, and, after reaching Delhi, I found my friend there. She came from Dehradun to Delhi to see off her relatives at the airport. She persuaded me to travel with her to Dehradun. I agreed, and she was driving the car. In the night there used to be intense fog in the months of December and January. She probably lost the route and drove some wrong way. By asking people, we were trying to find the way back, but once again she lost the route and we came to some hill road. There was not a single person to ask about the route to our destination. Because of the fog, the visibility was very low. I don’t know what exactly happened next, but we met with an accident and the car dropped from the road to a certain height. I was thrown from the open door of the car and next rolled down to a road. The car rolled further down to a place which was much lower than where I dropped. My friend was inside the car, which caught fire, and she must have lost consciousness and was burnt alive.
‘The people found my friend inside the car along with my bag outside, far below the spot where I was found. Her body and face were heavily burnt and unrecognizable. The people and police found my identity from my bag and assumed that the body was mine.
‘At the other place, the local villagers found me lying on the road and they were not aware of the car accident. As the car had rolled down to a different place, much deeper than where I was found, they couldn’t relate me with the car accident. They took me to a local hospital. After some time, I got back my consciousness. After giving me some medical aid to my injuries, the doctor found me in a highly traumatic state and allotted a bed for me in the hospital. After a few days, when the injuries were healed, the hospital doctors found that I was unable to recall my memories. They thought I was from a very distant place and they decided to send me to a home. For the next five years I was in that home. My job was to make sweaters by hand-weaving. I was recovering my memory there by taking some herbal medicines. After staying there for five years, I could recover my memory and I went to my house at Dehradun. I found my son Vicky about ten years old, but I didn’t find Sam. I heard everything about Sam, but he was not there; he had been taken to Europe for his treatment. The five years I was in the home, Sam was in Dehradun and you all used to visit there. But, when I returned there, Sam had been moved. After the death of my grandparents, I moved to Delhi. I took a job there and got Vicky admitted to a school there. Now Vicky is twenty-five years old. After finishing his studies, he was doing a job in Delhi, but recently he is transferred to Mumbai. Yesterday, I reached Mumbai to stay with him. I somehow managed to find your address to see you.’ Sarah finished her story and asked for a glass of water.
Sarah asked about Zina’s husband and children, and Zina told her that Ajoy was in his office and the three children were studying and they were staying in hostels. Zina told her about all that had happened to Sam while she was abroad. She heard everything from Joy and the others. She and her husband visited Sam’s house in Dehradun many times in the first five years; after that, Sam was taken to Europe for treatment. Zina and the others lost all contact with Sam then.
Sarah said that those five years she had spent at the home after the accident. The next five years she stayed at Dehradun, but Sam was not there. After staying at Dehradun for five years, Sarah went to Delhi and stayed there for the next ten years and was doing a job there. Her son Vicky was studying there. After finishing his studies, he was doing a job there in Delhi and recently Vicky was moved to Mumbai. Sarah had left her Delhi job and went to stay with Vicky. Sarah had asked Vicky to find Zina’s address and, after a search, Vicky had given her Zina’s address just the previous night. Sarah didn’t wait for a single day and went straight there to meet Zina with some hope of getting any possible information about Sam.

Is there anything still left…?

A group of youngsters were visiting Musoorie as tourists, and the place was close to Dehradun. Some of them were friends, brothers and sisters, some of them came with their parents. In that afternoon, they all came to the point to watch the setting sun, but their parents were not there with them. They suddenly heard the sound of some soothing melody being played on an acoustic guitar with a very high professional touch. It had perfect chords and the lead, and next to that some very attractive and mature voice started singing a very good song. All of the youngsters were staring at each other and decided to find the source of the music.
They finally discovered a person with a grey beard who was playing an acoustic guitar and was singing along… “Constantly” of Cliff Richard. They recorded the song on their phones with video and then went to him. They introduced themselves by saying their names.
One of them asked the person, ‘You sing and play so well, then why don’t you play before the public?’
The person looked at them, smiled, but didn’t say a single word. After remaining quiet for some time, he asked, ‘Can you see the sun anymore?’
They all said, ‘No.’
‘Yes, you can’t see it now, but it is there, it is still there. Tomorrow morning you will all see it once again…It is not lost…it is very much there… it has travelled a lot, so it is tired, and now it has gone home for some rest… It will be back once again tomorrow morning, and it will come to see us all…’ the old person said. Then he got up, took up his guitar and slowly walked down through the serpentine track of the hills.
It was the vacation time, and, after returning to their home in Mumbai, two of the youngsters were telling their parents, Zina and Ajoy, during dinner, about the man. They told their parents what the man had told them about the sun, and they also showed the video along with the song.
Zina looked at Ajoy and found he was equally stunned, listening to the song and seeing the video. Zina and Ajoy had a very strong feeling about who the person could be. Zina decided to visit the place to meet the person. She was almost sure that it couldn’t be anyone else other than Sam, and on the next day she rushed to Musoorie, and went to the same place, but could not see the person. She also enquired of various people about the man and heard that he was not a regular visitor to the place and no one knew about his whereabouts. Zina was not prepared to stay longer and she had to come back. She tried to call the estate at Dehradun, but found that the old telephone numbers were no longer valid.
Zina was getting more and more impatient to meet Sam. One day, Joy came to Zina, as they were both account holders of Galaxy. The condition of Galaxy was not good at that time, because inferior quality music had slowly captured the entire market, and it was made in very short time, and none of it was impressive for real music lovers. As a result, some radio and TV channels still played the old-time hit numbers, which included several hits created by Sam and the others in their golden days of Galaxy. In a recent survey, it was published that a major sector of listeners was still mad for the compositions of Galaxy. The members of Galaxy, who failed to respond to the present market demand, had decided to perform in an important live show in the near future, inviting other famous bands. They also decided to organize a group of Juries who would judge the best performer of the night. The best performing team would be rewarded after the programme and they could get some good sponsors, too. This was identified as an opportunity for the survival of Galaxy in entering the current market, where the present young generation could get the test of quality music and members of Galaxy once again could grab a foothold in the industry for some more time.
On discussing things, Joy and Zina decided that the various facets of the programme, like booking of venue, decoration, lights, sound, invitations, ticket sales, etc, were to be outsourced to the event management teams and the fund requirements would be estimated by Joy. The fund was to be generated from advertisers and sponsors. Zina decided to put in a last effort to find Sam, although she didn’t say anything to Joy. If Sam was all right physically and mentally, then he must be brought before the crowd at this historical event.
The show date was finalized and scheduled to start at 6.00 p.m. on 31st December. Zina discussed her plan with Ajoy and, gaining his consent, she left to search for Sam on the morning of the 24th. She booked a hotel room in Musoorie and, everyday, at various times, she started visiting that particular place and its surroundings, but she couldn’t find him. Everyday she was updating Ajoy about her efforts. One day, she visited Dehradun and went to Sam’s house, where she met Krishna, and she learnt that, on that very day, Sam had left for Musoorie with two people who would be there to look after him. Immediately, Zina rushed back to Musoorie on 30th December. After reaching Musoorie, Zina engaged two people and posted them in that very place where Sam used to come, and made them understand about the person with or without a guitar. Zina received a call from Joy in the afternoon. Joy had not been informed about Zina’s plan, and so he was anxious about her absence.
Zina explained that she had to come to Musoorie on some urgent and important matter. She advised Joy that the show must not wait for her and must start at the scheduled time. She also told him to contact her husband Ajoy, in case of any requirements.
At about 4.00p.m., she received the news that the person had arrived with a guitar: he was alone and was seated there quietly. Zina didn’t even prepare herself to go out; she just rushed out by somehow locking the door of her hotel room. Upon reaching the place, she slowly came in front of him. The person looked at her, only after a few moments of silence, then he smiled and asked, ‘How are you, how is Ajoy, do you all still remember me?’
Zina could not control herself; she sat beside him, put her hand on Sam’s and could not speak for some time. She was unable to control her tears. Sam was still smiling and was looking at Zina through his black-framed spectacles. The setting sun was a bit pale compared to its usual brightness found at the same time on the other days, and it might have been repenting for all that had happened to Sam, but came as no help to him, ever.
Zina told Sam that their concerns about him had never faded, even a bit, but because of various factors like geographical distance, age, etc. they all failed to keep in touch. So Zina, Ajoy, Joy and all the others wanted to see Sam amongst them and didn’t want to lose him again. Zina had come here to take Sam to Mumbai with her and she would make any arrangements desired by Sam. However, he rejected the proposal as he had already established his life with his present set-up. Sam observed the pain on Zina’s face, which he could never tolerate, and after some moments of silence, he asked Zina to allow him a day to think it over.
Zina went up to the house where Sam stayed, and spent time with him till midnight. She decided not to tell Sam about Sarah, which might have influenced his decision to go to Mumbai. She thought it would be a surprise for Sam to see Sarah over there. It would be a surprise similar to her meeting Ajoy at his office, as planned by Sam.
But Sam suddenly asked, ‘Do you know anything about Sarah?’
Zina failed to hide the facts and said, ‘Sarah is alive! She is in Mumbai, staying with her son Vicky, and Vicky is doing some job in Mumbai. Sarah came to see me at my house… she is still waiting to see you once again.’
Sam was surprised and told Zina, ‘I came to know about her after I returned from Europe. I was told about everything that had happened with her, but by that time she already moved from there, and no one knew about her whereabouts. It will be wonderful indeed to see her there.’
Later on, Zina went back to her hotel. She once again went to Sam’s house the next morning. The man who was looking after Sam was brought there by Sam from his estate. Other than him, there was one maid and one young boy, who were appointed locally. The old man, named Babu, informed Zina that Sam slept at about 5.00 am in the morning, after having at least ten cups of tea till that time.
‘What was he doing?’ Zina asked Babu.
‘He just remained seated in the garden. He was looking at the sky and sometimes he was playing the guitar,’ Babu replied.
Zina understood the tune Sam must have been playing and also the reason for it. Zina went back to her hotel and again came back at 11.00a.m., where she found Sam sitting on his bed with a very tired and exhaustive look; but still he smiled at Zina very cordially. ‘You came before also. I know that you are impatient to know about my decision, and my decision is to go and stay with you for some time, just to see how that suits me there,’ Sam told her, without making any suspense or drama.
Zina was so happy she gave a very sweet kiss on Sam’s face and said, ‘You have gifted my life once again. Now we shall all have a reason to live our lives once again.’
Zina also informed him about the programme by Galaxy that evening and her intention to present Sam before the audience. Zina proposed to start without any more delay to reach Mumbai in time.
Sam said, ‘I was not supposed to be all right and to be fit for playing with the band once again, but a miracle has taken place, which might be for that purpose only, and I should not refuse it. I am not quite sure how much I will be able to perform, but, in any case, I will join my people.’ Sam decided to visit Mumbai once again with Zina and Babu, and was thinking of the cycles of his life, and he promised himself that from then onwards he would not take any decision, but let the decisions be taken by Zina and Ajoy, and he would simply stay within himself and would concentrate only on his inner soul.
At that time there was a huge rush of tourists in Musoorie and travelling was a real problem. Zina made all the arrangements and started by road with Sam, Babu and her two helpers. It was extremely difficult for them to go from Musoorie to Delhi in the fastest possible way and to get a flight for Mumbai.
The final show…

Finally, the show started at 6.00 p.m. sharp. The auditorium was jam-packed, and TV channels from the media and Press were also there for covering a live telecast of the great show. As Ajoy and Joy hadn’t received any more news from Zina, Ajoy became hopeless and Joy became highly upset.
Some famous bands of the present time were performing very nicely before the audience; as they were playing all their recent hits, they received huge applause from the audience. It was almost established that these bands were the future of music of the country and would surely satisfy their audience with their productions in the present time and future.
Joy was aware that Galaxy had miserably failed to satisfy their audience in recent years; they had only produced a few hits during the recent past. Although they were all good musicians, still there was no one on their side to compose high-quality music. Joy, therefore, decided the strategy to mix up their recent hit numbers along with their past hit numbers. At the same time, he was also losing the confidence of influencing the audience with their present lead singer and the lead guitarist.
Galaxy was scheduled to perform at the end of the programme, and before their turn, the band Blue Fusion was to perform. It was the most popular band of the present time. The name of the lead singer and lead guitarist was Vicky. Joy met him a couple of times and he knew that Vicky had the quality in his performance. Before entering the stage, Vicky met Joy and they hugged each other. Joy wished him all the best, and then Vicky introduced him to some aged lady sitting in the space back stage.
Vicky said, ‘Please, meet my Mum; and he is Joy, the legendary drummer in the country.’
Joy couldn’t recognize her, but Sarah recognized him, because she had already heard that Galaxy was also to perform that night. Sarah said, ‘How are you. Joy? You failed to recognize me. I’m Sarah, and Vicky is the son of Sam. It is a very long story and I will tell you about everything later on. Now, please bless Vicky so that he can perform nicely.’
Joy was surprised, and asked, ‘If you are still alive, then where is Sam?’
‘We have lost all contact. I don’t know where he is and how he is. But I met Zina a few days ago. I went to her house to see her and I told her everything,’ Sarah replied.
‘But Zina never informed me about that,’ Joy told her.
‘Did you know Joy?’ Vicky asked Sarah.
‘Yes, Joy used to be your father Sam’s all-time companion and best friend,’ Sarah replied.
‘And that was not known to me,’ Vicky replied.
‘Today’s show was originally organized by Zina and me, but we wanted to remain at the background of the sponsor’s name,’ Joy informed them. ‘Zina was very much supposed to be here today, but for some urgent work she had to go away and she is not here today,’ he continued.
Next, Joy pointed out a girl standing nearby. He called her and introduced her to Sarah and Vicky by saying, ‘Meet Megha. She is the daughter of Zina, and has come with her father; but she wanted to be with our band, in the absence of her mother.’
Sarah hugged her, and Megha said that she had already attended a couple of Vicky’s stage shows. Megha and Joy admired Vicky’s singing and guitar playing and Joy said, ‘Now I understand why his songs and music attract me so much; it must be Sam from being inside Vicky and, being your son, he is also extremely handsome and beautiful.’
Vicky smiled at Joy and Megha, but couldn’t stay there any more as their band was about to start. As expected, Vicky started their show in a very impressive way. The sound of the music and Vicky’s singing influenced the audience from the beginning and it continued till the end of their gig. Watching the performance of Vicky, Joy was remembering the performance of Sam, along with Joy and the others of Galaxy in the old days.
As Vicky and his band performed, Joy could understand that they would probably be selected as the best performing band of the night. Any other time he could have been depressed for losing the show to another band, but, after knowing Vicky’s identity, Joy became extremely happy. Joy also informed the others of Galaxy, and all the old members of Galaxy were so surprised, they all started admiring Vicky during his performance. The contesting attitude vanished from their minds as they all found that Sam was singing and playing in the form of Vicky. The members of Galaxy were the happiest people over the blasting performance of Vicky’s band.
After their performance, Joy introduced Vicky to every old member of Galaxy by describing their collaboration with Sam. The members of Galaxy told Sarah and Vicky, ‘We came here today to perform and win the contest, but now, without performing, we have won the contest. This is because we got back our lost Sam in Vicky.’
‘Still, you all have to perform, because I want to have the experience of watching the legendary Galaxy performing before me; it will be my lifetime experience,’ Vicky said.
‘Surely, we shall be performing, but we shall be missing our Sam throughout our performance. He was the spirit of Galaxy,’ Joy said.
‘It is all our fate. Still, you must all keep the spirit up, for my father’s sake,’ Vicky said. ‘Never think that Sam is not amongst you and not playing with you all. Sam must be remembered by you all, by presenting an extraordinary performance tonight and always in the future,’ Vicky continued.
As their turn came, Joy started the show. They began with a great number from the golden days of Galaxy and it was being played by the band using every individual musician’s very high professional quality. The entire crowd was experiencing the punch of their music. But after some time, the crowd, which was mostly composed of youngsters, started demanding some music which should be better and hotter than the music performed by Vicky’s band.
In the middle of the performance of Galaxy, there was shouting and chaos by the audience and Joy decided to start a great number of Sam’s by calling their young singer to play as the lead singer and lead guitarist, which might generate the desired interest in the crowd. The song started, but, although it was played nicely, still it failed to impress the crowd, and slowly the taunting whistle sound started coming from the crowd and was gradually increasing.
Zina’s husband Ajoy was at the front row in the audience, sitting with the Judges and VIPs. Joy was feeling absolutely helpless and they were all performing, but losing the initial interest. Ajoy was impatient with the terrible behavior of the crowd. Suddenly, Joy saw that, through the central passage, Zina and two other people were approaching the stage, escorted by a number of security guards. Ajoy followed the sight of Joy and also saw Zina and the bearded guy in jeans and a full-sleeved shirt enter and disappear into the space at the back of the stage. Ajoy could understand who the guy was. Joy requested the audience to allow them some time to resume their performance and declared a break.
Joy went to the backstage and asked Zina, ‘Where have you been? We are at a very terrible state of the show, but we have no worry of losing tonight because we are losing the show to Vicky and his band. Just come and meet Vicky; he is the son of Sam and Sarah. Vicky’s band performed very nicely today, but, without seeing it, you can’t believe their performance. We all found Sam in Vicky, so with Vicky’s success we took it as our success also.’
‘But who told you that Vicky is the son of Sam and Sarah?’ Zina asked.
‘We were told by Sarah herself, and here she is!’ Joy pointed towards Sarah. Zina looked at Sarah, who smiled back at her.
The bearded gentleman was listening to everything, and then he stepped forward to Vicky and Sarah and put both his hands on their faces. Vicky and Sarah were unable to understand who this guy could be. Zina stepped forward and asked Sarah, ‘Can you recognize him…?’
Sarah gave a deep look to the guy and in a little while she understood who he was and could only say, ‘Oh… No! …You…! Sam….!’ Sarah hugged Sam and he took her and Vicky in his arms.
Joy was watching everything and felt some shivering excitement all of a sudden, and became speechless. Zina was enjoying the great reunion, and she smiled at Joy. Then Zina told Sam that Joy was also waiting to be in his arms. Sam went to Joy and also hugged him. Joy couldn’t refrain himself and started crying before everyone by keeping his head on Sam’s shoulder. Vicky came forward and he put his hand on Joy’s shoulder. In a little while, Mathew, Jack, Karim, all came to Sam and hugged him, with lots of emotion and tears in their eyes.
Next, Joy introduced Megha to Sam, by saying, ‘Sam, meet our Megha, daughter of Zina.’
Sam could not believe his eyes. He came forward to Megha and said, ‘Oh, my God, she is so beautiful. I am unable to believe what I am getting today.’
Megha said, ‘Don’t you remember me? I met you at Musoorie; you were singing and playing your guitar. I recorded the video on my mobile and, after coming back here, I showed it to Mum and Dad. They immediately recognized you and Mum went to Musoorie to see you.’
Sam said, ‘Then all the credit for our reunion goes to you only, as you made it possible for all of us. You must have been sent by God to get this wonderful moment for all of us.’
Joy reminded everyone that a grand celebration for the reunion must be organized after the day’s function, but now he had to go back to perform.
Smiling at Joy, Zina said, ‘Joy, you will not go alone today; you will go to the stage along with Sam, who has agreed to perform today.’
Next, everyone became cheerful and then Vicky jumped onto the stairs and entered the stage, going to the centre and taking the microphone.
The audience became utterly confused seeing Vicky on the stage, wearing the same jeans and leather jacket. He said through the microphone, ‘My dear, wonderful audience, myself and my band received lots of love and blessings from you all, and where I am today is due only to your acceptance and blessings. But today I have received something very special in my life: God Almighty has also blessed me today by returning my father, whom I had lost in my childhood. Such a happy moment of my life I want to share with all of you, and all of you know him very well. Do you know who he is? He is yesteryear’s legendary singer and veteran musician, Sam! He created the band Galaxy. Now, I would like to make two announcements before you all. The first is that the band Blue Fusion is withdrawing its name from the competition; and the second is the band Blue Fusion will be merged with the band Galaxy from today onwards and the name of the band will remain as Galaxy only. At this moment of great joy and pleasure, we would like to give you something very special. Right now, before you, the whole band of Blue Fusion will play along with the band of Galaxy, and in the history of rock music you shall all once again be watching my father Sam leading the band; so be ready to experience the storm of Sam’s music, which has rocked worldwide music lovers for many years. Please welcome Sam…’ Vicky finished and clapped.
There was cracking sound and nonstop claps from the audience, who all stood up from their seats. Ajoy was unable to control his feelings. The young musicians of Vicky’s band took a little time to re-organize their positions with instruments beside the senior musicians of Galaxy.

Next, Sam appeared before the audience. He was entering the stage and came up to the centre, along with Joy at the front and Zina and Sarah on either side of Sam. Sam became so emotional that he could only wave his hand to the crowd, but couldn’t say anything. Joy asked Jack to adjust the sound processors to get their favourite sound tone set-up for Sam’s guitar. Joy had always maintained Sam’s guitar at the corner of the stage, which was still the inspiration for the whole band. Joy brought out Sam’s guitar and handed it to him. Sam took up the guitar and fitted himself inside the strap. He next adjusted the height of the microphone. Zina came to the microphone from the side and introduced herself as one of the organizers of the show, and next she introduced Sarah as mother of Vicky and wife of Sam, and requested Sam to rock the night once more with a cyclonic storm of guitar sound and singing voice of no match. Vicky took his position just beside Sam with his guitar to play along with him.
The show was in a pause for some time, but then the crowd started shouting very loudly. Zina stood beside Sam. Sam touched the guitar with his fingers and looked at Joy; that was to indicate Joy to give the start. Joy started with ‘1, 2, 3, 4….’, and the history started happening once again by Galaxy. The sound of Sam’s guitar and the rolling of drums with the special beats played by Joy had never been heard before by the crowd of this generation, and the sound started flowing over the audience with heavenly melody and lively rhythm. The sound was taken to the highest possible level of decibel. Music was confirming its supreme power in the world and started influencing the entire crowd in such a way that it became a never-before experience in the lifetime of the audience. Zina and Megha were standing nearby and they started swinging their bodies with the rhythm of the music, and that tempted the entire crowd, and the scene of just a few minutes before was completely reversed. The minds and souls of the entire audience were absorbed in the musical storm that was created by Sam and the others. Vicky knew about the general response of a crowd to any good musical performance, but he had never experienced such a magical influence of any show on the entire audience: it was a never-before experience for him, too.
The city police commissioner and the urban development minister happened to be friends, and they were classmates. They were both personally known to Ajoy and had been invited by him to the show. They were both sitting next to Ajoy, who informed them that Sam used to be his best friend and was the founder of the band Galaxy. He had fallen sick, been taken to Europe for treatment and had been out of sight for a long time, but was found recently by his wife and was brought back for that night’s event. The gentlemen were surprised and told Ajoy that only once in their childhood had they seen Sam and the others playing their music on the side of the road, near to their school, and it was only because the tyre of their bus got a puncture and they had all rushed to the band along with other students of the school on that day. After that, in so many years they never got the opportunity to watch another live performance by Sam.
The crowd became almost mad as Sam strummed the strings of his guitar in his very special style and started performing the number “Sultans of Swing”. The crowd was satisfied up to the maximum extent and was able to understand what a real punch there could be in the music, for which they had been waiting for many years.
The presentation by Sam and the musicians of Galaxy and Blue Fusion together became ten times more blasting as Jack, who once used to be the favourite sound crew member of Galaxy, tuned the system to Sam’s favourite sound mixer set-ups. The adjustment of echo, reverb, sustainer, delay, chorus, flanger, phasor, distortion and the decibel level were all tuned to the highest possible perfection, coupled with the strobe lighting and back screen video display. In the video, the enlarged view of Sam and the others was seen by the audience from the most remote of locations.
When the crowd was completely absorbed by Galaxy’s music, Sam started raising his hand and waving to the crowd several times to convey the message of reaching the end, in the same way he used to do it in the past, whilst playing the last number. Next, he unstrapped the guitar.
In the next moment, he grabbed his chest with his hand and dropped the guitar. With lots of sound, the guitar fell down and Sam sat on the stage. Zina was beside him. She also immediately sat down beside Sam, and could see he was collapsing with intense chest pain. Everybody on the stage rushed to him, and Sarah took his head in her lap.
Sam looked at Zina and Sarah and somehow smiled. Sarah saw that Sam was saying something, and she tried to listen and came closer. Sam was saying, ‘Sarah…thank you for loving me so much…You finally met me to see me off… Please stay happy…never be sad…I will always be there with you…Thank you, Zina, so much for bringing me to my Sarah and Vicky…Bye.’ Sam couldn’t say anything more and became silent.
Ajoy somehow found a doctor in the audience and brought him to Sam. He checked Sam over and, after checking him, he putdown Sam’s hand and informed everyone that it was all over: Sam was no more.
Zina screamed, ‘No, he can’t leave us like this; he promised that he would stay with us…!’
Sarah was silently wiping Sam’s forehead and face as teardrops were falling from her eyes onto him. She was whispering to Sam, ‘I will come to you in every birth to listen to you playing the “Moonflower”, and I promise I will never let you down, I will never hurt you…’
Joy, Vicky, Ajoy and the others were so shocked with the sudden incident that they all just remained speechless and were looking at Sam. He couldn’t see or hear anything: he was far away from everything which he created and everyone whom he knew. Leaving his unconditional love for everyone and numerous unforgettable musical creations, he was flying away in the limitless sky to search for a place where he could rest in peace for unlimited time.

*** THE END ***

Moonflower, Copyright © Sandipan Goswami in association with Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie Publishers Ltd., First Published in 2019, by Vanguard Press, Sheraton House Castle Park, Cambridge England.

Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear. – Beethoven
Music is the shorthand of emotion. – Leo Tolstoy
The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything. – Plato