The Last Love Letter

Chapter 5

It was a glorious sunny afternoon, the temperature around 15°C, when Subah finished her lunch, changed into a polo-neck sweater and jeans, and went out in sneakers, making her way to a nearby park. With high cheekbones and shoulder-length hair ending in wild curls that bounced as she moved, Subah was 5-foot-4, neither petite nor too tall. But  because she was slim, she seemed taller than most women her height.

To counteract the intensity of the mood she was trying to create in her painting, she needed fresh air and all the brightness that a winter day in Delhi could offer. She had completed one round of the park when her phone rang.

‘Hello, is this Miss Subah?’

‘Yes?’

‘I’m calling from the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. You applied to hold an exhibition from 1–31 March. I’m calling to let you know that the dates have been finalized and you should make your payment within a week.’

'Thank you.’

It was Subah’s tenth exhibition, and the second at the Habitat Centre. She had gotten the dates she had wanted, but her work was far from ready. She decided to return home immediately, gathering her thoughts about the work to be done. She had less than a month before the exhibition began.

As she passed a garbage bin on her way back, she thought she heard the sound of a baby crying. She looked around but couldn’t see anyone. She heard the crying again and stood on tiptoe to peer into the bin. And there it was—an infant resting on a pile of rubbish, everything but its head covered in a white towel.

She picked up the baby, which felt terrifyingly small and fragile in her hands. Was it a boy or a girl? How old was it? A day old? A week old? A month old, perhaps? She had no way of knowing. She looked around to see if she could spot the mother, but saw no one. Who would leave an infant in a garbage bin?
The baby had stopped crying. When she looked down, it had opened its eyes. Was that a smile? Their eyes met, and the baby blinked.

'Poor thing, where’s your mother?’ she whispered.
Subah decided to wait. Soon, there would be a lot of people around her. She held the infant closer when she sensed movement in her hands. Her maternal instincts had taken over. Was the baby cold? Hungry? Uncomfortable?
She felt the tiny face move against her skin and stop after a few seconds. The baby was quiet now. She pulled it closer and felt for a moment that they had become one. The new and the not-so-new creations of God.
For the briefest of moments, she felt the baby’s pain. If nothing was done, she knew this baby would starve to death in a few hours.

After waiting for an hour, her worst fears were realized. The baby’s mother had indeed abandoned it. But why? No mother would do such a thing. It was against the laws of nature. Perhaps the mother feared for the child’s life. Perhaps the child was safer here than with her.
The mother was trapped, without a doubt, with someone she considered a threat to the child’s safety. Perhaps she feared nothing more than that person. Subah realized that she wasn’t angry with the mother. As always, she knew, it was a man who was responsible for this baby’s condition. The woman, always the victim, and the man, always the tormenter. Nothing had changed since the Stone Age as far as the man-woman equation was concerned.

Subah’s decision was swift. She would save the child’s life. She hailed an autorickshaw and took it to the police station. The staff there was known to her because of her NGO. They swung into action, and someone from an orphanage was there in an hour to take the baby.

‘Would you like to suggest a name, Miss Subah?’ the woman from the orphanage asked her.

'I’m not sure…’

‘We urge people who find abandoned infants to name them. It establishes a bond and encourages them to come anytime to see the child if they wish to. But it’s optional. So if you don’t want—’

'Khushi. That should be her name. Someone who brings joy to everyone, even though her own parents chose to abandon her.’ By now, she knew the infant was a girl.

‘Khushi it will be then.’

A feeling of contentment settled upon her as she heard the name.
Subah signed a few documents, and when she was done, watched Khushi and the woman from the orphanage leave.

#romance #Indianromance #singleparent