The Lake that remembers
Anurag Bardhan
March 7, 2026
It was the city of Varanasi, a young man named Sahil, had just shifted there for work, he was a horseback rider by profession, he used to give people horse rides in exchange of money. The first day in Varanasi, he made a friend named Yash, Yash used to work in a sweet shop, he met Sahil when he had come to eat lal peda, Varanasi’s famous sweet dish. There they exchanged their numbers and decided to meet after the closing hours of the sweetshop. Then they met after the closing hours, at around 10:15 pm they met near the Sifar lake, it was month of November, the cold breeze could tickle their ears. Still, they met wearing several layers of clothing. There Yash said to Sahil “tomorrow we will explore Varanasi, and I’ll introduce you to the enchanting streets of Varanasi, but first thing’s first, let me introduce you to the Sifar lake now”, then Sahil replied, “what is there to know much about a lake?” then Yash exclaimed “shut up! It is not just a lake, it is an emotion, guide and judge for the people of Varanasi”. After all this, Sahil still could not understand anything, then Yash tried to explain that this lake is also known as the “Karm Lake”, it either rewards or punish people based on their deeds. The rewards can vary from a valueless feather to billions of moneys or even more and the punishment can vary from pulling out a single hair from your head to death. Then, Sahil realized that Yash was quite religious towards these kinds of things and Sahil did not even use to believe in gods. Sahil straight away said that these all are superstations and these have no meaning, Yash then looked at him, smiled and said, “see you tomorrow, good night”
The next day in the morning Sahil met Yash and had gone for exploring the city of Varanasi, they had explored the city till evening, then they decided to return to their respective places as, Yash had to go to the sweetshop for his work and Sahil had to feed his horse and later go out to find customers for his horse’s ride. But while returning to home their auto-rikshaw had collapsed near the Sifar Lake, there they stood out of it as soon as the driver fixed it but during that time, Yash had just noticed that the Sifar Lake is just behind them and his religious inner instincts were very strong, he could sense that anything bad was about to happen as, the last night Sahil had called the Sifar Lake a superstation but it won’t be that big of a punishment as, many people had done that mistake earlier but got very less punishment. Then soon, a truck carrying 18-20 horses to a farmhouse had gotten unlocked and all the horses escaped the truck and ran over the road and were just targeting Sahil to hit, but Yash had seen it all happening and had quickly pushed Sahil to another side. Yash was completely strange to see this as horses stepping over Sahil could possibly cause his death, and his mistake was not that big to be punished. Then, Yash asked Sahil “tell me honestly, have you done anything morally wrong in your life? Horses help you make money, so why did these horses try to kill you?”, Sahil replied, “this was just a coincidence, leave it”. After this incident their auto-rikshaw had immediately started automatically then they returned to their homes. After returning home, Sahil had slept as he was feeling very tired. After sleeping, he saw a dream where he had saw the same scene where the horses were trying to kill him and in the dream, the horses had successfully pushed him into the lake and he had started drowning, he was loosing breathes and he had started feeling that he was about to die, but then he woke up, he was lying on a bench just next to the Sifar Lake and after seeing the lake, he immediately woke up and sat on the bench, his clothes were completely wet as if he was actually drowning, he had clearly remembered that he had went to his home and then slept on the bed. Then he opened his mobile and saw a text from Yash saying, come to the sweetshop and accept everything you do, to me. Sahil then, quickly went to the sweetshop and accepted to Yash that he did many wrong things in life, beating his own horse, not giving it food, stealing money from people who rid his horse and many more wrong things. Now he just wanted to ask Yash that how could he be saved from the Sifar lake. Yash replied that Sahil will have to stop doing every wrong thing, he would have to take care of his horse well and lastly and finally, go to the Sifar Lake and apologise for everything. Yash also added, if you fail to any one of these, the Sifar lake will execute you, because this lake remembers everything.
Class- IX. Bhavan’s Tripura Vidyamandir
(Tripurainfo)
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