This is not a story, neither is it a myth. This is something that really happened, although you might feel that it's a fantasy. As you know, I am sure, that certain fantasies can be realities and certain realities can be fantasies. It happened years ago, I still remember the day and the date of its occurrence in the present system, as we never had any system to count days and years then. It is now the day for workers, and the communists call it the International Day for Workers. To me this fact carries no significance, as I am neither a communist nor an anti-communist. I was living in that city of the world, which many of you may have only heard of. It was full of flowering plants, where clear streams used to sing in their courses, where the soft touch of the cool winds cleansed the mind and above all it was the Garden created by God, you now call it Eden. The garden was not simply a garden. But was also an orchard, an orchard where trees gave fruits that were more than enough for my survival and life was complete and pleasant for me then, as I was second to God, my creator, and I was the only one that God created in his own looks. I was named Adam.

I know that you have doubts while reading this, but friends, patience pays, and I still vouch that this is genuine. The fact is that I don't know anything before the date I mentioned earlier. I was not aware of the beauty of the garden in which I lived, the might of my Lord, about the universe, its movements and politics and I was living without knowing anything of that sort and I never had anything called hunger, sleep and the like. You may have read all this in your scripture but I am sure you may have read the other version. My Lord, the creator, was really happy about me as a creation and he decided to give me a partner as a token for my good deeds. I didn't know what loneliness was then and hence cannot state my mental state. One evening he came to the garden, as he usually did, and asked about my well-being and said, "I'll give you a partner with whom you could live happily and could rule this world." I was happy and felt that something special would happen soon.

Next day he came down again with all preparations and asked me to sit before him, close my eyes, and meditate. He rubbed gently on my back and took a rib from the left side of my body and created another human, and asked me to open my eyes. It made no difference to me. He said, "Lo, this is for you. Both of you can live in this garden happily and rule the world. But remember that there is a tree here called the tree of life near the Tigris and you should never eat the fruit of that tree." I agreed and she too did as there was no need for us to disagree, and he asked me to give a name to my partner. I thought hard and hard, and called her 'Charu'- the meaning of which I still don't know. Both of us laughed with each other and started to live our lives and it was as it had been earlier.

Days must have passed and one day Charu came to me and said, "Adam, do you want to live like our God?"

"How?" I asked.

"There is a tree of life here in this garden over the stream of Tigris, which carries a fruit of knowledge that gives the strength and capacity of godliness."

Astonished, I asked, "Isn't it the same tree that God has said not to entertain?"

"Yes," she replied.

"And from where did you get this information?"

"There is a friend of ours in this garden who is an enemy of God. He said this to me."

Both of us went near the stream of Tigris and she asked me to climb the tree of life and get the fruits, which I did and we ate them and they tasted sweet (it was my first experience of sweetness).

While we were eating the fruit, Nature changed and it started to pour heavily with thunder and lightning. For the first time after my creation I was frightened and was concerned about Charu, my partner who from then has gained supremacy over my Lord.

God came to the garden just then and spoke to us with anger, "You have ruined yourself by consuming the fruit. From now onwards you shall suffer and wander on earth with all pain and chores." I pleaded not guilty but it generated no result in him.

The date of this event was May 1st and this is the day I could not forget in my life. Life after the same although was painful as God predicted, is as sweet - something I cannot explain. Now thanks to the fruit, to Satan, my life has a meaning, has an aim, has aspirations and there is a cause for my life, compared to the life I had before the consumption of the forbidden fruit, where I was living without any emotions, any ambitions. This life after May 1st is that which I like and love to live.

Now years have passed and I am still living with great enterprise and spirit, and the world and its pain and troubles are nothing to me, as I now live for Charu, who has given me the strength and seed of life, the sweetness and sourness of life; in short she is to me Life.

You might be wondering what happened to me on May 1st. It's the day my Charu and I accepted our love for each other. The path of true love is exactly like the path to that forbidden fruit - full of suffering, pain, hardships and what not. But still there is also something else to it - a sweetness that makes all that endurable and fills the heart with a deep desire to live, or should I say struggle to live.