"Hello," says the lady, "I am your class teacher. You are all school teachers and you have come here to learn about the new ways to teach. It is the school summer holidays now, and you will be here for one week. There are 18 of you, and you have all come from different towns in England."
The students look at each other, thinking, 'We know this, that is why we have come here.'
"It is very quiet here in this old house in the country, and we teach here so that you can spend all your time learning. However, at the end of the week, on Friday, we will have a party, before you all leave on Saturday morning. First I want everyone to introduce themselves," the class teacher continues, looking at an older man nearest the window.
At first the man thinks someone else will get up and say something, but when nobody does, and the teacher continues to look at him, he knows she wants him to start. He stands up and tells everyone his name, and then says, "I teach science at a big school in Manchester."
"Please tell us something about yourself," asks the class teacher. "Are you married ?"
"Oh, yes," says the man. "I have three children, but they do not go to the school where I teach."
The class teacher looks pleased, so the man sits down, and the lady next to him stands up. "I am Tarana. I teach in a large primary school in Bristol. My parents come from India, but I was born in England. I am not married, but," she says as she waves her hand so that everyone can see the engagement ring on her finger, "I will be married in three weeks."
Everyone laughs, and the other people take turns to introduce themselves. The last man says, "I am Gregory. I teach mathematics at a school in a small country town, and, like Tarana, I will get married soon, just two weeks after her."
Tarana thinks, 'I have never been to an English wedding, and there are many things I want to know. Perhaps I can ask Gregory to tell me.'
They must all study hard every day. Sometimes two students must study together. One day Gregory and Tarana study together, but there is so much to do that they do not have time to talk about themselves. Tarana wants Gregory to tell her about his wedding, so they decide to meet together for meals.
Gregory tells Tarana what will happen at his wedding. When they have finished eating Tarana says, "Tell me about your fiancée . What is her name ? Does she have a job ?"
"Oh, yes," says Gregory. "Her name is Aurelia and she owns her own shop in the town where I teach - Aurelia Fashions."
"Did you meet each other in the town ?" asks Tarana.
"No," says Gregory, "we both live in the same village. We have known each other since we were small children. Both our families always go to our village church, and they have always wanted to have a big wedding there. Aurelia telephoned me today, and she says she has changed the music for our wedding - again !"
"I think she is a woman who knows what she wants !" laughs Tarana."
"Oh yes, she is," agrees Gregory. "She likes to plan everything. I am very lucky really, I can leave her to arrange everything, but she was not happy when I told her that we had to study on Sunday, and so I could not go to church. What about you ? Will you have a big wedding ? I think Indian people usually do."
"Yes of course," says Tarana, "Indian people always have a very big wedding, because our parents save the money for it for many years."
"Did you meet your fiancé when you were at university ?" asks Gregory.
"No," says Tarana. "All the men at university changed their girl friends very quickly, and I did not like that."
"So did your parents arrange your marriage ?" asks Gregory.
"No, of course not !" says Tarana. "Why do English people always think that Indian ideas are the same today as they were fifty years ago ? We Indian people have free choice now, just like English people."
"So how did you meet your fiancé ?" asks Gregory.
"He is a friend of my friend's parents. After I finished at university an old girl friend invited me to her wedding. This made me worry that I was getting too old to get married myself, but then I met my fiancé at my friend's wedding," says Tarana, laughing. "Now tell me what Aurelia is like, what she likes to do, and also what you like."
"Well," says Gregory, "Aurelia likes classical music because she plays the violin, but I like modern music, and I am looking forward to the dance on Friday night."
"So am I. I hope there will be a disco," says Tarana. "Do you and Aurelia like swimming ?"
"I like swimming, but Aurelia cannot swim," says Gregory.
"I like swimming too, but there is no pool near here," says Tarana.
"Look," says Gregory, "we will both finish our studying on Friday morning, so we will have the afternoon free. Let's go to the town and go swimming there. We can go in my car."
The weather is nice on Friday, so Gregory and Tarana decide to have a picnic lunch first, and then go swimming. They take their picnic into the big garden of the old house. The house is on the side of a hill and they can see for a long way across the countryside. Tarana asks, "Gregory, can you see that nice field there ? Maybe we can go there for our picnic."
Gregory agrees, so they drive to the field they saw, and they find a nice place to sit.
"This reminds me of India," says Tarana, "because the sun is hot and it is so quiet here."
"You said you were born in England," says Gregory, remembering how Tarana introduced herself on the first day of the study course. "So did you go to India for a holiday ?"
"Yes," says Tarana, lying down on the grass. "I went there twice when I was a little girl. My parents come from a small village, and it is so peaceful there. There is no rush like here in England. I sometimes wonder why I have to live in England."
"Well," says Gregory. "I suppose anyone can go and live in another country if they we want to, but England is where you were born, like me, and there is nothing we can do to change that."
"That is true," says Tarana slowly, "but have you ever wondered why you were born in England."
"No," says Gregory. "Why should I ?"
"That is because English people never think about the life they had before they were born," says Tarana. She feels happy that she has told this to Gregory, and she closes her eyes so that she can feel the warm sun on her face.
"Oh, now I understand," says Gregory. "Indian people believe that they have one life, and then they die and have another life, and then another one after that."
"So do English people," says Tarana. She feels excited but pretends to be sleepy. Gregory is surprised, but he says nothing, so Tarana continues, "You believe that you will live again after you die, don't you ?"
"Yes," says Gregory slowly, "but that is different. We believe that we can either go to Heaven or to Hell after we die, but we must be judged first. If we have lived our life well we will go to Heaven, but if we have been bad, we will go to Hell."
"Well, Indian people believe that they are judged also. Maybe in my life before I was a good person, and so for this life I can live in a rich country like England, or," says Tarana opening her eyes and laughing, "maybe I was a bad person before, and so I cannot live this life in peaceful India !"
Gregory laughs too, and then he asks, "But how do you know that we all had a life before we were born ?"
"Because we are all different," says Tarana. "In our life before, and in the life before that, we all did different things. Everything we do changes our character, and our character is the thing that continues from one life to the next. This is why everyone has such different characters when they are born into this life. If there was no life before, we would all be the same in this life, and how boring that would be !"
Tarana closes her eyes again and Gregory thinks about this for some time. Then he says to Tarana, "A long time ago two American men told me something about a life before, and I have always remembered that, I don't know why."
"So you see," says Tarana, laughing, "it must be true !"
Then it is too late to go swimming, so they go back to the big house and get ready for the party.
The party starts with a disco. Gregory and Tarana dance and smile at each other, but the music is so loud that they cannot talk. Later they can dance together and then the music is not so loud. Gregory is a bit embarrassed that Tarana always wants to dance with him. He thinks, 'I don't think Aurelia will be pleased about this.'
Tarana does not seem to worry, and Gregory is thinking that Tarana will want to dance with him all evening, so he tries to think of something they can talk about. At last he asks, "Are Indian people happy because they believe in the life before ?"
Tarana laughs and says, "Oh no, I don't think we are happy just because of that, but because of many other things also. I think the most important thing is that we look for harmony in our life."
Gregory is pleased that they have something to talk about now. He does not really understand what Tarana is talking about, but he wants her to keep talking, so he asks, "What do you mean about harmony ?"
"We must try to be at peace with everything around us," says Tarana. "We can only be happy inside if there is no trouble outside us. We must try to be at peace with our friends, our family, people we work with, in our home and all the places we go to."
"And animals ?" asks Gregory, beginning to understand what Tarana means about harmony.
"And animals too, of course," says Tarana, laughing. "That is why we never eat them."
The music changes to loud disco music, so Gregory says, "It is a warm evening, let's go into the garden where we can talk."
They sit on a seat and Gregory says, "Your ideas are quite different to ours. In the West we do not try to escape from things around us. We think that we must change the things around us, to make things better for everyone, including ourselves. If we see that someone needs our help, we feel we must help them. We never think that we must change ourselves to agree with what we see around us."
"That is very different to our Indian ideas," says Tarana. "Thank you for explaining that, Gregory."
They can hear that the music is slower now, so they dance together on the grass. Later Tarana says, "I must go now, Gregory. My train goes early tomorrow, and my taxi will come at 7.30."
"Okay," says Gregory, and they go inside. Then they shake hands and say, "Goodbye, and good luck."
Tarana gets up early, packs her things and goes to the station. She is always careful when she sits near strangers on a train, and she finds a seat near an older lady. Tarana's seat is near the window. It is sunny and she is feeling tired after dancing, so she soon falls asleep. She does not sleep for long and when she wakes up the older lady smiles and says, "You must have been tired, and you talked a bit in your sleep. I see you are engaged, my dear. I hope you and Gregory will be very happy."
Tarana blushes and thinks, 'Gregory ? Did I really say Gregory in my sleep ? How awful. Gregory is just a teacher I met, and he will get married soon too.' Tarana turns away from the woman and looks out of the window.
Tarana sees all the fields rushing past, and she thinks, 'This is like seeing all my life rushing past so quickly. Why can't I forget Gregory ? What is special about Gregory ? He is just an English man, but I remember that I had a very unusual feeling when I told him about the life before. Was he someone I knew in my life before ?'
Tarana looks at the floor and thinks, 'Maybe he was my brother in the life before, and perhaps I must find him in this life.'
Tarana looks out of the window again and thinks, 'The fields are rushing by, my life is rushing by, and we are both getting married very soon. If he really is someone special from the life before I must not miss this opportunity, and I must do something soon, but I need to be sure. How can I find out ?'
Gregory gets up and goes home. As he drives home he thinks about what Tarana said. He thinks, 'She is right. It is good to have peace with everything around you. That is what is missing with people in the West. We spend our whole lives trying to change everything, to make us richer or famous or something, but this just makes us greedy and selfish, and so we can never find peace inside ourselves.'
Then Gregory thinks about what Tarana said about the life before, and he remembers the American men he met, 'They never said anything about having many lives before this one, just one life before, and it was not a real life like this one, it was different in some way. I wish I could remember everything they said. I remember they said we forget all about that life before, but sometimes, very rarely, something reminds us, like seeing some light under a curtain. Perhaps this happens only once in someone's life, and maybe Tarana has reminded me about something. Perhaps I was very happy in the life before, and she is like a window for me to see how happy I was.' Then Gregory thinks, 'Tarana and I must have known each other in that life before.'
There is a roundabout ahead, and the sign says Gregory must go straight on, but he drives round the roundabout so that he is returning to the big house ! He thinks, 'What am I doing ? I should be going home, not back to Tarana.'
The sun makes it hot inside his car, and he thinks, 'I wish I still had my motor bike, this is a lovely day for a ride, and much better than being stuck in this hot car.'
Gregory soon gets back to the big house, and he looks for Tarana. Then he remembers, 'Oh, she had to leave early. Now I am too late to see her, and I don't even know where she lives.' He asks at the office for her address, but the staff are so busy with the new teachers who have come to study, that no one can help him. He decides to drive back home.
Tarana's train arrives at Bristol and Tarana's parents are waiting for her. When she gets home, Tarana's parents say they have some bad news for her. "We have been to see the priest, and he says that you have chosen a very unlucky day for your wedding, and so we must change it to the next month."
Tarana is angry and asks, "Really ? Does the priest know everything ?" Then she thinks, 'Ah, maybe he does know things,' and she says, "I will visit him."
The priest is worried when Tarana goes to see him, but Tarana asks him, "Can you tell me why I must have harmony in my life ?"
The priest is pleased that Tarana is not angry about the date of the wedding, and he says, "We try to live our lives in harmony so that we will have peace inside us."
"But that means we are escaping from the world around us," says Tarana.
"We must try to leave the bad things of the world behind, so that we will become more pure," says the priest. "In this way we improve ourselves for the next life. You do believe in the next life, I hope."
Tarana thinks, 'This is rubbish about leaving the world behind. This is why there are so many poor people in India. Everyone is so busy keeping themselves pure that no one helps the poor people or gets anything done. Also this is why the West is so advanced, because people want to discover and invent new things, not stay with the traditions of the past. But I must not let him think that this is how I feel, or he may not help me.' She tells the priest, "Yes, I do believe in my next life, but I don't know anything about it, or my life before. How can I find out ?"
The priest smiles and says, "What we get in the next life depends on what we do in this life, and what we have in this life depends on what we did in the life before."
"Yes, I know that," says Tarana impatiently, "but how can I find out about my life before ?"
"What do you want to know ?" asks the priest, wondering what she will ask.
"Well," asks Tarana, "what was my name, where did I live, who were my friends, was I good or bad, and what sort of a life did I have ?"
"We know very little about our life before," says the priest seriously, "and I don't know how we can find the answers to your questions. Sometimes something will happen in our life and we will get a feeling that it is something, or someone, from our life before, but we never know for sure."
"What about destiny, the idea that there is a plan for our life ?" asks Tarana.
"Many people believe in destiny, and many people blame destiny when their life goes wrong," says the priest, "but real destiny is finding what we must do with our life. Everyone is different, so everyone has something different that they must use their life for, and no one can tell them what it is. It is something we must always keep a look out for, and hope that we will find it, and be able to do it, before it is too late."
Tarana feels better now and thanks the priest as she leaves.
When Gregory gets home, Aurelia is waiting for him. "You are late," she says, "you said you would be back three hours ago, to drive me to town. Now the shops are closed and I will have to wait until Monday. I have been very busy while you were away."
"I'm sorry, Aurelia," says Gregory, "but I hope you are pleased to see me."
"Yes," says Aurelia, "but I have been very busy, as there is still a lot to do before our wedding. I hope you had a nice time."
"Yes," says Gregory, and then he decides he should tell Aurelia about Tarana, "and I met an interesting Indian lady called Tarana." Aurelia looks worried, so Gregory explains, "But don't worry, Aurelia, Tarana is getting married in two weeks time."
Aurelia notices that Gregory always seems to be thinking about something, and she guesses it must be Tarana. Aurelia thinks, 'I must keep Gregory busy so that he never has time to think about that Indian woman, especially on her wedding day. After that, I will not have to worry so much.' Aurelia decides to make Gregory do more of the preparations for the wedding, and she arranges for them both to meet the priest at the church. At the meeting Aurelia and the priest talk about the music, the bells that will ring, when they can open the church to bring the flowers, and many other things like that.
Gregory thinks, 'Why are we getting married in a church ? This is more like a flower festival than a wedding, and nothing to do with religion. There must be more important things in life than singing in church. I want to ask the priest about helping poor people, like in India. How do I find peace inside myself ? Why are people so different, even if they are born into the same family ? Was there a life before ? What was it like ?'
Gregory listens to Aurelia and the priest talking. Now they are talking about where everyone will sit in the church. Gregory thinks, 'Even if I ask the priest these things, I know what he will say. He will just say these questions are too difficult for people to understand.'
Aurelia plans a picnic on the day of Tarana's wedding, so that Gregory will not think about Tarana. As Gregory drives to Aurelia's house he thinks, 'Damn, damn, damn. Tarana is getting married today,' and he suddenly decides not to see Aurelia. He drives a different way, and stops the car by some woods. He walks into the woods and sits down, and thinks about all the things Tarana told him. Then he thinks, 'I must try to forget her. Our lives touched each other for just a few days, that was all. She is married now, so I am sure she has forgotten all about me. I must try to be happy with Aurelia, at least she is a good woman. Oh, dear, now Aurelia will be angry with me because I did not take her on the picnic she planned.'
Gregory is surprised when he meets Aurelia because she is smiling, and she says nothing about the picnic. She tells him, "Next Saturday we have a practice of our wedding in the church, ready for our big day on the Saturday after that."
Tarana is always thinking about Gregory, and the things they talked about. She thinks, 'Our Indian ideas are wrong. There are so many bad things in the world. Gregory is right, we must change the world around us, to make it better, for us and for other people.' Then she thinks, 'but I do not know his address or his telephone number, so what can I do ? All I know is the name of the village where he lives.'
After a few weeks Tarana thinks, 'Gregory is getting married next weekend,' and she decides she must try to see him. On the Saturday morning she gets the train to the town where Gregory teaches. As she is travelling on the train she thinks, 'I must be crazy. How will I find him ? He may not be at home. And even if I can find him, what do I do ? He may have forgotten who I am. He may not want to see me. He may tell me to go away. Perhaps I should get off at the next station and go back to Bristol and forget all about him.' Then she thinks, 'But how can I forget ? I am sure that we knew each other in the life before, and that my destiny is to find him, although I still don't know why, or what it is all about.'
Tarana gets the bus to Gregory's village. When she gets off the bus she thinks, 'Now what do I do ? This is his village, but how do I find him ?' She listens and hears the church bells. She thinks, 'I suppose those are the bells of the church where he will get married next week.' Then she decides that she may as well go to the church.
The church door is unlocked, so she opens it quietly and goes inside. There she sees several people in the middle of the church, including Gregory and a woman standing next to him, but no one notices Tarana. Tarana thinks, 'There is Gregory, and that must be Aurelia with him, and I suppose they are practising for their wedding.'
Tarana feels a tear falling down her cheek and she thinks, 'It is finished. Gregory is going to marry Aurelia, and there is no chance for me. I must go. Gregory has probably forgotten me by now, and I do not want to spoil his happiness by reminding him of me. I must try to find my own happiness. He is English, I am Indian. There can be no future for us. I was stupid to think there could be. I will just have to be an Indian man's wife, or maybe never get married at all. I thought that maybe my destiny was with Gregory, but now it cannot be. Perhaps I was a bad person in my life before and this is my punishment.'
Tarana slowly opens the church door, but it makes a noise, and everyone in the church turns round and looks at her.
Gregory shouts, "Tarana," and runs towards her.
Aurelia sees Tarana and thinks, 'She must be that Indian woman,' and she runs after Gregory and pulls him back. Tarana quickly leaves the church. When Gregory gets outside, he cannot see Tarana anywhere.
Gregory thinks, 'Why did she come ? She is married now. She must have come all this way from Bristol. At least she still remembers me, but now she can see that I will marry Aurelia. That must be why she went away without saying anything.'
Later Gregory thinks, 'Now I know that was the last time I will ever see her, and the last part of her I saw was her hand on the church door.' Then Gregory thinks, 'Her hand on the church door ! But she was not wearing a ring, neither a wedding ring nor even the engagement ring she had when I knew her! So, she has not got married yet ! She must have changed her mind. I must find her.'
Gregory cannot sleep, and next day he thinks, 'Oh, I wish, I wish I had asked her where she lives. All I know is that she is a teacher at a primary school in Bristol. But Bristol is such a large city. I will have to telephone all the schools to find her address, and I expect there are hundreds of schools there.'
Gregory telephones all the schools in Bristol, asking each one for Tarana. All the schools are closed for the school holidays, and there is no reply from many of them. He spends all day telephoning. Next day he tries the schools again, hoping that there is a part-time secretary working, and at last he is lucky, and he finds the school where Tarana teaches. He is so pleased ! But when Gregory asks the secretary for Tarana's address, the secretary says she is not allowed to give addresses to strangers, because there has been trouble before. Gregory says, 'Please tell me, it is very important.'
The secretary says, 'I can telephone Tarana for you, and see if she wants to speak to you,' but there is no reply.
Gregory says, 'Tarana and I were both on the teacher training course together a few weeks ago.' At last the secretary believes him, and tells Gregory the address and telephone number.
Gregory tries telephoning many times, but there is no answer, so in the end he decides, 'I must go to Bristol and hope I can find her.'
Next day Gregory drives to Bristol. It is the day before the holiday weekend, and he gets stuck in a big traffic jam. He thinks, 'I could get through all this traffic very quickly if I still had my motor bike.' Then he remembers, 'I sold my motor bike to buy the expensive engagement ring that Aurelia wanted. I wonder if Aurelia wanted me to sell the motor bike because she worried about me riding it ? I don't think so. I think she just wanted to have an expensive ring.'
When he gets to Bristol he drives to Tarana's house, and he sees Tarana sitting in the garden. Tarana says, "Gregory, how wonderful ! But why are you here ? Tomorrow is your wedding day, isn't it ?"
"No, Tarana," says Gregory slowly, seeing that there is still no ring on Tarana's finger, "I'm not going to marry Aurelia." They both look at each other and laugh, and then dance together on the grass.
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