An Imperial Affliction

Chapter 31 - True family

Another chuckle was heard, "You are living in South India for 5 decades, and still so possessive about Bengal."

"That is the place I grew in. My motherland." She said with a sense of pride and possessiveness, "You are changing the course of conversation, are not you?"

"Busted." The smile was still there, which was followed by a sigh, "I want to run."

"Where?"

"Somewhere." She said, "I want to drive and never stop. Never look back."

"When you will stop running?" Mrs. Ranawat asked gently. There was silence on the other side.

"Maybe when someone runs after me."

The elder lady pinched her eyes shut, her long and thin fingers curling the chain between them as she asked after a while, "Do you remember that beach house when we were in Panaji?"

"The house that smelt like Sun."

" . . . Sun." Both of their voices merged, and she carried on, "So much light and air, sometimes it felt like there was no walls in that place." She paused, now opening her eyes, "The keys are with the caretaker. I will give him a call."

"I will remember that." The voice was grateful. There was no double meaning or pretense with the old lady, only honesty and rare moment of expressing real emotion.

The lady sighed sadly, "You are going to hang up, are not you?"

There was no answer, only a deep inhale.

"I hope I will hear your voice soon." She said, resting head against the chair's back.

"Hope is the thing with feathers," The granddaughter rhymed, which the lady picked up.

"that perches in the soul,/ and sings the tune without words," She paused, letting the former to take over.

"and never stops at all." She finished. After a few beat, the call was cut abruptly.

Keeping the phone on her lap, Mrs. Ranawat started playing with her chain absent mindedly, eyes clouded with unsaid worry and questions. In front of her, the wall was full pictures of her family, yet her eyes were on the particular picture which held her three grandchildren, Sravan, Riyali, and Dia, from her only son's side, caught in a moment of happiness years ago when the Eldest Son graduated from Cambridge in Business.

Sravan was always a people pleasure-er. Everything he did, was for his family and to make his family proud, be it the decision to study Business or join their ever growing Hotel Empire. Dia was a diva, who had brains but decided to use it only for setting up her party planning business. Loving these two were easy, too easy, Sravan would do anything his family asked from him and Dia was the perfect person to have girl-time, share gossips and gather more. But Mrs. Ariyana Ranawat never had it easy, who married a person from another caste five decades ago when prejudice was too strong in this country, and moved far away from her motherland which she still dearly loves, never looking back. Loving her middle granddaughter proved to be the biggest difficulty she had ever encountered, because the former never made it easy for anyone. She had spine made of steel, unflinching eyes which demanded from the world to accept her the way she was. When her world, her family, didn't, she walked away and never looked back. Mrs. Ranawat sees herself in her, the backbone and stubbornness, also the ability to leave behind everything and start over. She likes to think the sarcasm was all her as well, something which remained dormant in her gene.

Her life turned out alright. Wealth, family, a bliss which was incomplete without the other woman, but it was there. She just hoped it turns out exceptional for her granddaughter whom she loves more than anything, because she deserves that. The young lady always thought it's better to stay alone, and whenever she reached out to people she termed it as selfishness. She was yet to learn that letting people in doesn't make her selfish, it makes her Human.