The Laurel: Shadow of a Tree

By Siddhartha Tripathi

is a story of Emma, who loses her father in a Motor Race Championship, and soon, her mother too. She moves to Cape Town, in order to start a new life, until she finds something strange in the case. The Laurel is the first part of the Duology. It deals with the little hapiness a girl gets from her family. Its the support of the dear ones that makes a weak girl, turn into a strong wall.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Apr 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482847390

Siddhartha Tripathi

Siddhartha Tripathi is a graphic designer and a short film director. He is spending his life away from the family since he was twelve, which according to him makes him believe in family as strength.

Book preview

To my Family

And, my heartfelt thanks to my guide and my support who taught me how to use my weakness as my strength. The credit of course, goes to my mentors, Mr. Haril Shukla and Mr. Mahesh V. Patil. Thank You for being you.

Special Thanks to Khushbu Samtani and the people without whose support, my motivational area was a bit low, which includes Mr. V.C. Shukla, Mrs. Deepti Tripathi, Geetika Dubey, Rachit Sharma and Ashwani Kumar. Also to the teachers who taught me how to use the Pen, Pencil and Mind as a weapon, which includes, Mrs. Indira Raina, Mr. Ravi Mishra, Mr. Shubham Kapoor, Mr. Pramod Verma, Mr. V.P. Singh, Mr. M Malik, Kamla Mam, Gaurav Chaudhary Sir, Mr. Atul Chaturvedi and Ms. Keerti.

Most of the names belong to the place where I actually learnt how to observe the true perspective of life, Chandanvan Public School, Mathura. And for this, for shaping the base of my life, I am truly thankful to Mrs. Anita Yadav, Mrs. Sunita Yadav and Mrs. Kshama Sharma for taking the pressure of motivating hundreds and thousands of students and still remain awesome. Also, the friends, who were always a support in my school-life, including, Sayantani Sarkar, Manorama Kuntal, Darpan Sharma, Ketan, Mohit, Rajat, Namrata Varun, Tara Rajput, Harshita Verma, Pooja Ponia, Kuldeep Chaudhary, Abhay Mishra, Pankaj Chaudhary, Sumit, Sushant, Hitendra, Deepak, Abhinav, K.K. and Narendra. The list is extremely long if I carry on.

At last, I would like to thank Ann Minoza, Adrian Kane and the entire team of Penguin Random House India and Partridge Publishing House for giving me the opportunity to bring out the duology titled as ‘The Laurel’ and ‘The Discovery’.

The Beginning

1

F antastic! Professor Jay said.

Professor Jay always praised me even for the simplest tasks I did. There is always a satiating feeling mixed with a noticeable natural smile on your face whenever someone praises your work, specially, a teacher because they are hard nuts to crack, or more decently hard to please, worldwide.

Thank You Sir. I said, showing him the poetries How far do you think I can go with all these?

Much far than you think you will. he added I’ve heard you sing your poetries since a long time, and trust me when I say this, all you need is a motivation to reach where you deserve.

After my parents passed away, he was the only person whom I could sing my poetries in front of.

Professor Jay Malik was my childhood teacher. By childhood teacher, what I mean is he taught me music since 8th Standard. After I completed my Senior Secondary in India and left the school, even he transferred to another University.

Music, being my favorite subject, it was hard to find a University in Cape Town, but call it my luck, Professor Jay was selected to teach Music in Nightingale University in Cape Town and another reason why it was dear to me was it being my mother’s graduation college.

You mean?

You’ll come to know soon. Now pack your belongings, it’s late. He said, picking up his files and mobile phone.

Okay. Thank You Professor. What time tomorrow? I asked as if I didn’t know.

Are you kidding me? 8 Sharp. I gotta leave now before my wife starts ringing me like a lunatic. See ya.

Yes. I was probably the most punctual student of his class. He trusted me enough to leave the classroom before me. Not an issue in regular colleges but trust me, it’s a big deal in this university.

Cape Town, however, was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. Legislative Capital of the Country was famous for various beaches and Ancient wonders such as Castle of Good Hope. The city was once used as the supply stations for ships travelling to Africa, India and Far East by Dutch East India Company, but now it’s counted amongst world’s most multicultural cities. There are many Indians in the country, mostly Gujaratis.

Its funny how we Indians interact with Africans, I mean we certainly conflate with Africans, but it’s exactly the opposite with British People, or any white fellow with a British accent. Not only because of what East India Company did to us, but what they did to almost entire continents.

I feel we people easily gel up with any kind of community across the world. Overall, we still feel that British people are sweet, maybe they changed with the course of time. Not everyone is the same right? Indian women still find English guys Cute. Indian guys can still feel something for English Women. I mean, I can kill anyone for Daniel Radcliffe!

Anyways, I was talking about Cape Town. I get distracted easily when it comes to Daniel Radcliffe! Apologies. So, Cape Town certainly is a beautiful and natural spot anyone would love to visit once in a lifetime. People here, are very open minded, unlike Indians. No one hesitates to kiss a girl in public, or talk frankly to a complete stranger, ’cause since we were kids, we were told not to interact with strangers. However, Cape Town is way more fun than India. I, mean India is fun in its own ways, it’s unique for sure, but Cape Town is different.

As the sun sets, the darkest blue color of the sky and the bright twinkling stars when merge with the beauty of this city drenched completely into various glittery lights, the aura becomes different. If you’re standing on a pavement near any shopping mall, you would probably feel like dancing, like they showed in Step up 4. That was Miami though.

2

N ightingale University, I assume was located in one of the opulent areas in Cape Town. Opposite High Court Library and right next to McDonalds – Kloof Street, the attractively large campus of the university was a perfect blend of education and leisure. Since I spent 17 years of my life in Lucknow (India), I could say that the entire street including Upper Loop and