“Papa, please give it a chance” cried Harsh. The father
looked severe, deep into Harsh. The fist tightly grasped, the nerves breaking
his skin almost. The anger in the eyes made his face to swell up. Harsh kept
sniffing the tears down his cheek. What could his mother do, she cried herself
hard in the kitchen, trying to supress her shrilling voice by the snapping
utensils on the granite slab. The poor
lady prayed constantly, the lips which moved in inaudible prayers to the
almighty that Harsh should be spared this time again. “Get out of my house” the
voice echoed warning him. “Papa, I love her” laments Harsh while he draws back to
his room.
The night was endless. It was still. No leaves moved on the
tree, utter silence it was. No bird chirped, no owl howled, no pigeon fluttered
on the window till it was dawn. The eyes
were as wet as they were a night before. His white linen shirt was almost pale
as the colour of his body reflected through. Harsh was dying. It was 8:00 am,
it was the time when Richa usually reach her office. Harsh picks the handset to
call her. He was desperate to listen to her amusing voice. After all she was
the muse of his life. As soon as he picked the receiver, many thoughts came and
faded in the depth of this grief. The plight was such, that tormented him now.
“What am I going to tell her?” he fumbles, lacking in strength. “Should I
say….I cannot marry you…” he doused.
She would not react. Probably, she would be lost in her own
world. She would be thrown back to a void, a zone to which only she belongs.
Probably she will never come back, not to him, but to herself. He feared the
very thought of losing her. He was failing. It was now next to impossible to
anyhow convince his father about Richa. She is ambitious and that is her
mistake. She has got a scholarship to pursue her doctorate abroad; that is a
gaffe she probably has committed. “Why should you compromise your goodwill in
your company, leave the job and the country for that girl?”. “Papa, I wish to
go abroad with Richa, it is my wish to see her progress, we want to realise our
dream together! I will find a job and get settled there too” said Harsh
desperately, but missed the mark again.
It had been two days, since he had switched on his mobile
phone. He felt weak. He couldn’t call her. He convinced himself to run away and
fly with her to Michigan. But how can he go away leaving mummy behind to that one
cruel man she was surviving for these 30 years. How could he leave her back in
a state of depression and live happily himself.
Minutes passed, and so did the days and weeks. “Richa should
have understood by now, she would know everything herself” he sighed… “No one
comprehends my silence better than she does” his eyes shone with pride. No
questions haunted his mind anymore. He had decided both of their fates by now.
