“The sugar pot is empty” cried Mahi, the anger echoed
as she threw away the spoon. With the hair unmade, she hobbled exhausted as she
moved across the bedroom. She blabbers and nags while dropping a tear or two,
while Daksh remains occupied fiddling through his old files. His fluttering
fingers over the pale yellow papers of that mustard file hinted at the tautness
of the situation. The afternoon was as dull as the monotony of a gothic arc and
the sunset was no longer a romantic scape of the evening. No more did Mahi and
Daksh sat opposite each other in the courtyard to share a warm drink together,
there were mere two opposite human beings living together with a little hope.
That night there was no whistle of the cooker, no rattling
of the cutlery in the kitchen. Mahi had gone to sleep. Daksh peeped through the
worn-out net of the kitchen window, he was sure no dinner was there tonight.
Entering the kitchen he could get hold of a stale piece of bread that smelt and
a quarter of undercooked beans, it was all that he relished and hunted for
more. He failed and walked towards the bedroom. His hand had swiftly pulled the
handle and he could hear the sniffing sound from the sheets. So, he knew Mahi
had not been sleeping. He knew “How could she have slept, she was broken,
tensed and was going hopeless”. He had no courage to go and face Mahi, he did
not know what to say and how to answer her queries. He had no words of condolences
which he anymore could render her. He deserts the idea of entering the bedroom
and settles himself in the sofa and broods over a thousand thoughts.
Mahi had quit her job, after her miscarriage she had
never been keeping well. The loss was irrevocable and she wasn’t able to
overcome the fear of failing once again. The time had taken over them, and the
times were bad. He finds solace in reminiscing the gone by days. He surely smiles
back to the times when both of them used to hang-around, watch a movie, shop
and laugh. He remembers how he met Mahi seven years back at a friend’s house.
He cherishes how they ended up becoming best friends to man and wife. After these
seven years life had been changed. It wasn’t at all about hanging-around but
attending to the daily chores, it wasn’t about watching a movie but was about
capturing the mix of good and not-so-good moments, it was not shopping that was
frequent but saving was all that mattered. It was not a laugh that filled the ether
of the house anymore but a silence conquered the four walls, a stillness that
had come between the two souls who once were one.
It was love that was once binding them together and
now it was money that had fragmented them apart. Where Daksh was busy finding the ways to put
love crystals together; Mahi got ever anxious about the sugar-pot that could
never be filled for numberless nights. She had her set of longings and wishes.
She dreamt of a house full of luxury and love, but the present was only bitter
and harsh on her. Again with a thousand thoughts he slept that night against
the peach sofa cover which Mahi had tailored as a naïve. The next morning he
wakes up by the same cover which she had left behind along with the whole apartment.
This morning was drab without her. He could do nothing but cry and sit in a corner
of the apartment and meditated on the note she left.
