"I still remember the days of my childhood when I used to sit beside my grandfather. Every day he would sit with me and open his treasure chest of experiences. Every time, he would share some of the valuables with me.
'Everybody experience the same amount of tragedies, the only variable is their intensity and time period.'
Those words too were some of the many pearls I was given to, by him.
My eight-year-old self never understood its meaning but after two decades I finally did. Unfortunately, though, it was the life that made me understand its meaning in its own cruel fashion."
"How?" Rishabh asked, staring at the frail woman whose face was adorned with the marks of the tribulations she had faced in her life.
Meera looked at her impatient young guest and smiled.
" It had been three months since Rahul's supposed return. I still waited for him each day, a candle of hope lit inside me, its flame dimming with each passing day.
The money that I had brought from home was slowly dwindling away like sand caged in a first. I had now started looking for a job to keep the food stocked up and the kitchen fire burning. Being a woman in a patriarchal Indian society, it was hard, but I did not give up. Finally, I found a job at Mr.Alok's, our neighbor, who had gifted Rahul the quarter.
He was a kind octogenarian whose taxes I now used to do. He thought that I was the renter of Rahul's quarter in his absence having had no knowledge of our marriage. I intended to keep it that way because of the unfairness and cruelty of the society towards a woman who was left by her husband. I knew that Rahul hasn't left me but the society wouldn't understand that.
Two weeks or so after getting the job, I was visited by our family friend, Uncle Satish. When I saw him at the doorstep, my happiness knew no bounds and I immediately bent down to touch his feet. He mumbled some blessing and placed his hand on my head. When I stood up I noticed a splash of tears in his eyes and I immediately knew something was wrong.
"What happened uncle?" I asked a bit worried as the purpose of the visit dawned upon me.
" What should I say beta? There's nothing left to say. Everything has finished." He sobbed.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, my panic increasing with each second.
" Amit Bhai." He sobbed again.
"What happened to father?" I almost shouted.
"Father? Your whole family child. Your whole family. They all died! Perished!" He said as he wiped his tears.
Suddenly, everything went black. It was like somebody had switched off the light of my whole world. My feet wobbled and darkness spread over me as I fell down unconscious."
YOU ARE READING
1960 London Love
Romance"True Love is a myth, but True Friendship isn't." Meera Bhandarkar, a town legend is asked to narrate her six decades-old epic sagas of love, friendship, and heartbreak in which...
