Sandeep was in the middle of his nature talk at Shimla College when he received a call from Chandigarh police station. He was told to come over to Chandigarh in connection with an accident that happened a month ago at Chandigarh-Shimla Road. He asserted that he had just helped those girls because they were badly injured and were lying unattended on the road. However, the officer insisted that he comes over as his senior wanted to speak to him.

While he was on the way to Chandigarh, he picked up a magazine just to divert his mind from the thoughts about this sudden call from the police station. He kept turning the pages, but his eyes got stuck on one of the articles that was about “Aurora Borealis”. Aurora Borealis was his dream that he was striving for many years. He still remembered the day when Dinesh Sir had asked that question.

***

Sandeep was sitting confused in his class because of the question that Dinesh sir asked about “the goal in life” to all his students. Deepak said “helping the needy”, Ashish said “making things easier”, Sarika said “bringing technology to the masses”. Sandeep wished the class to get over before his turn comes to answer that question; he had been lucky with such discussions at other instances however, that was not his day. He got perplexed with the kind thoughts his friends had come up with, they had so refined thoughts whereas he couldn’t even think of anything like that.

He reluctantly said, “Aurora Borealis”, to which almost everyone responded with a “What?” Perhaps it was his low voice or maybe they had never heard about it or possibly they were too astonished to hear this kind of a goal. He said, “Sir I want to travel to Norway and see Aurora Borealis.” He kept thinking whether this was his real goal or he said just because he had to say something.

After reaching home, he lied down in his room, and came out only for dinner and again went back to his room and slept. His mother got worried as she observed him completely absorbed in his own thoughts. She even discussed Sandeep’s behavior with his father, but he told her not to worry as he assumed Sandeep must be tired.

His mother couldn’t control herself when she observed that he has not been to the garden, which he never would miss; she asked him if he wanted to discuss anything with her. After denying initially, Sandeep eventually opened up and narrated the entire incident to her. He told her that he had no interest in geography as a subject, though one thing that he always remembered from his 8^th standard geography book was “Aurora Borealis”.

His mother said, “If this is really your goal, then you must work towards fulfilling it. Rather than thinking, I can’t achieve this, you should ask yourself, how can I achieve this?”

While his mother’s words were relieving, he was still confused because how somebody like him from an unknown village called Sanjauli with limited resources could achieve that dream.

After a lot of self-reflection, he gathered that the only talent that he had was gardening. He kept working on it and with his hard work over the next 5 years he developed good knowledge around it. He would get invitations from nearby colleges and institutions to share his thoughts.

When he felt that he has gathered enough resources to fulfil his dream, he fixed up a meeting with his travel agent in Chandigarh. While he was on the way to meet him, he noticed a car lying on one of the hairpin bends that lead to Shimla. He stopped over and saw that there were two girls in the car, badly injured. He immediately took them to a hospital in Chandigarh.

One of the girls had to undergo immediate surgery and since there was no guardian, Sandeep had to take a call whether the doctors should go ahead with the surgery. Without a thought, he said “Yes” to the surgery; but that was not all, the bigger question was “Who would bear the expenses?” Again, without second thoughts he agreed to pay for the treatment also. He spent close to 70% of the money that he had saved, which meant a few more years of wait to realize his dream.

***

Sandeep was still engrossed in his thoughts when he realized that he has reached Chandigarh. He went over to the police station and surprisingly from there he was escorted to one of the best luxury hotels in the city, where he met Mr. Kirsten Grieg. He was one of the biggest oil barons of Norway and it was his daughter that Sandeep had saved. Sandeep couldn’t believe, when he invited Sandeep and his family to Norway for a month-long stay, as he wanted to thank Sandeep for his selfless service that saved his daughter’s life.

Finally, after lots of ups and downs, he got to travel to Norway and that too with his family where he experienced the best hospitality possible.

Hope you enjoyed reading the story; if you are curious to know more about this phenomenon called Northern Lights/Aurora, below is the link that will take you to a webpage with more details about it. Aurora Borealis