The Beginning Hidden Inside the End...

 There’s a small temple near Akshit’s home that most people visit for peace. For him, it was a place of quiet terror. He believed the temple took love away. Not metaphorically. Literally.

He carried evidence in his heart like scars. A five-year relationship ended within weeks of his last visit there. A three-year one collapsed within three days. To him, the pattern wasn’t coincidence it was a warning. The goddess inside that mandir was not someone he could casually greet. She was a force that demanded sacrifice.

So he stayed away. Until one evening, fate placed him right at the temple gate. He was on a call with Vanshika the woman who currently held his world together. He laughed nervously and confessed his fear. He told her everything: the history, the endings, the dread that clung to the temple steps.

Vanshika listened, then said lightly,

“Let’s see if our love passes the test.”

He froze.

“This isn’t a test,” he replied. “You won’t believe until you experience things. And I don’t want to experiment with us.”

But she insisted. Not mockingly confidently. As if love, real love, shouldn’t fear walls, gods, or superstition. After a pause heavy enough to change a life, he said he’d go in.

Ten minutes later, he called her back.

“I visited.”

His voice carried relief and terror at the same time. Then the days passed. Small disagreements appeared like cracks in glass. Misunderstandings multiplied. Words that once healed started hurting. Distance crept in silently, rearranging the furniture of their hearts. And eventually, as if fulfilling a prophecy he already believed in, Vanshika ended the relationship.

Akshit didn’t cry at home. He walked straight to the temple. Anger burned through his grief. He stood before the goddess and whispered harshly, 

“Why do you take away my happiness every time I meet you? Why her? Why my peace? Why my heart?”

The temple didn’t answer. But a child did. A little boy ran toward him, holding a lotus freshly pulled from the pond. His shirt was stained with mud, his knees splashed with water. He extended the flower like an offering.

“She protected you,” the boy said simply. “Maybe it wasn’t for you. If you don’t get what you want, be patient. Something greater is coming. I don’t say this my mom tells me whenever I insist on something.”

Akshit stared at the lotus, then at the boy.

“Thank you,” he said softly. “But did you notice how dirty your shirt got while getting this beautiful flower?”

The boy grinned.

“I had to go through the mud to reach it. The flower isn’t the best part the journey is. This flower might die in a day or two. But if you care for it, you can bring more into your life. Plant it at home. A new one will grow.”

He held the lotus closer to Akshit.

“You can’t keep the same flower forever. But you can grow what it becomes. You’ll love it the way it wants to be loved not the way you want.”

Before Akshit could respond, a woman’s voice cut through the air.

“Vansh! O chotu Kanha! Come back, we have to go!”

Akshit blinked.

“Your name is Vansh?”

The boy turned while running back and shouted,

“Yes, bhaiya! And remember, Devi maa doesn’t snatch things away. She blesses you with something that’s not ordinary. Bye!”

Then he was gone. The temple returned to silence. Akshit sat down on the cold stone floor, the lotus resting in his hands. For the first time, he didn’t feel robbed. He felt… still. The anger drained out of him, leaving behind a strange understanding: 

Maybe the temple didn’t take love.

The Temple taught him meaning of Love. Maybe it removed what couldn’t grow. It's not taken it is redirectede. He stared at the flower for a long time. Not mourning what did but wondering what might bloom next. She was answering his prayers alone, blessings disguised as Loss. And in that quiet moment, surrounded by incense and echoes of prayer, he felt peace sit beside him like an old friend.

The temple hadn’t cursed him. It had been preparing him for a love that wouldn’t fear mud, distance, or endings a love that knew how to grow.

07/02/2026