Through My Eyes

Last Remains

While watering my plants, I saw him talking to a bulky man who was wearing a black jacket, standing near that ruined and burnt building that once was his house. The last I had seen him was a month back before I went to Delhi for my sister's wedding.

The fire had ruined most parts of the house. Black soot still stuck to the walls. The building was completely in shackles and ruins. Not a single thing inside the house was left untouched by fire, not even she. Luckily, he was at his office when the fire broke out and hence was alive. But she, his wife, was no more in this world. I wonder was he really alive? His wife, the lady whom he loved the most, and who was his only family in this world after his parents' death was snatched from him due to that fire break out. Was he really alive without her or just a living corpse? I decided to get the answer to that question which has been troubling me since the time I returned from Delhi.

By the time I went near him, the man with the black jacket had already gone. He told me that he was planning to sell his house, and that bulky man was a property dealer.

"But, where would you live then?", was my response.

"I will soon buy an apartment, near the outskirts of the city. The rates are cheap there, you know.",came the reply from him.

"You won't miss this house! The place associated with her? Her memories are here, and infact, there must a lot of things related to her in this house that would remind you of her, her last and only remains, where her memories are etched. Why don't you renovate this house and continue living here?"

A sad smile came on his lips and looking towards the ruined house he said,"Yes, I will. I will miss this house, I will miss her memories, I will miss those things related to her, and I will miss every single bit of her like I do now. But, renovating this house and staying here won't make it any good. As I would stand at the balcony and recall her laughter, her shrieks full of agony, as she cried on that fateful day will fill my ears, her helpless condition would come to my eyes and I would feel her pain, all over again. Everything here would pull me back into that moment which I am trying to move away from. Sure, her memories are etched on these walls, on the balcony from where she used to see the sunset with me, on that kitchen where she used to cook her special butter chicken, and on every single brick of this house, but more importantly her name and her memories, are etched on my heart and there they shall remain forever, even when this house will perish. Even when I will die, I will carry her memories with me, to the vast eternity. Always remember one thing, objects are never the last remains of a person, as they are prone to destruction, memories are. As long as you remember someone, they are alive for you, within you."

Finally, I got my answer.