Mathematics of life!

The woman, she had breathed her last at 2:40 AM, the previous night. The mourners were many. Her husband, son, her siblings, and her mother too. Some were sobbing silently, some crying loudly, some cursing the ways of the world, some cursing God. She had suffered from cancer, and fought for a while, but had finally surrendered. Surrendered in a battle, she realized she was losing. The fighting had caused agony, to her, and the people around her. This way had seemed better. And now, it was all finally over. Amidst all the silence and the sobs, there were a few who questioned God and his ways.

The woman's sister said, 'Oh! Why did you have to take her away from us now! Her son is getting married this month. She had chosen the bride for him too. This is not fair. You could have taken me instead, and given the rest of my life to her. What do I have to live for! My husband is no more and my kids are all settled and have moved away from me. Instead of her, you should have taken me, God.'

The woman's mother said, 'This is so unfair, dear God. She was so young. Look at me. I am ninety. What do I have to live for. You could have given the rest of my life span to her. I have seen whatever I have wanted to see in life. All children settled. I have even seen grandchildren. Oh! My poor child! So unlucky! This wasn't fair, God. I always prayed to you. You didn't do justice to my prayers.'

The woman's husband said, 'Why her, God? Why not me? When I was always busy at work, she was the one who took care of the boy. From sending him to school, to searching a bride for her son, she has done everything. She would have loved to see this wedding. She had dreamt of it so often. Instead, you could have reduced my life span, given her some more time. She had so much devotion in you. She was a believer. You didn't play a fair game this time.'

God was sitting in his heaven, with a friend, listening to all this. God said 'Do they think this is some kind of mathematics?Subtracting from one and adding it to another? Everyone has a time to go. Her time had come. Why blame me?'. He looked at his friend. The Friend said 'But still, it was in your hands. You could have given her a month, 2 months, may be. As they said, she would have liked to see her son getting married. She did not deserve to die so soon.' God did not know what to say. He thought for a while, and said, 'So be it. Those people who were ready to give a part of their life span to see her live, I will go speak to them. If they agree, I will give her that much amount of time to live, how much ever they are ready to spare. If they think it is just mathematics, for once, so be it.'

So, he came down, to meet the deceased woman's sister first. He appeared in front of her. He said, 'I am the Lord Almighty. You offered to give yourself to God, instead of your sister. If you say yes, I want to make your wish come true.' So, the sister, flustered, not knowing what to say, muttered in a low voice 'Oh! Lord almighty, I said them indeed. But that was said because I was very upset. I am expecting a grandchild soon. I want to see the child, play with it, and feel it's hand curl around my finger. God, don't take me. I need this chance. I am a widow. I have just had this one thing to look forward to. Don't take it away now. Please.' Hearing this, the God disappeared.

And then, the God went to the mother. He asked her the same question. Would she be willing to give the rest of her life span, for the sake of her daughter? So, the mother said, 'God, I have prayed to you for this long. So many times. And today, you appear, only to ask me to give the few months, I have left, on this earth. Why are you depriving an old woman of what li'l time she has?' So, the God disappeared.

As a last resort, he went to the husband. God posed the same question in front of him. The husband said, 'You took her away. It's all over. Now it's my responsibilty to take care of my son's future, his wedding. My wife will see everything through my eyes. She will be happy, from where she is. I want to see my grandchildren and I want to play with them. I want them to call me, 'grandpa! grandpa!'. My wife will be happy for this, from where she is, in heaven.' God just smiled and disappeared.

God, then returned back to his heavenly abode. His friend was sitting there, waiting for him. God narrated the whole incident to his friend. And then said 'That's why, my friend, Life is not just mathematics.'

Forgotten!

She walked down the stairs, slowly, one at a time. Her rheumatism seemed to be bothering her yet again. Nevertheless, she managed to climb down, trying not to think how difficult it would be to get back up the stairs. But yes, it was always there at the back of her mind. It would be an ordeal, she knew. As always, she counted the stairs, noticed all the stains on the stairs here and there. The stains were the same, always there, since she had moved into that small hole of an apartment. She saw some new stains here and there, wondering about their origins. It was the rheumatic old woman's pastime while slowly climbing down the stairs. Us, we wouldn't understand it.

It had been quite a while since she had gone through this exercise of venturing out of her house. She never preferred calling that place a home. She knew she had deserved better. Well, life wasn't always fair. She knew it. Oh! How well she knew it. A sigh of despair escaped her lips. The past flashed in front of her eyes. Her eyes welled up. She looked around. She had reached the verandah of the building, a dreary, dull place with very little lighting. She moved towards the door, hoping to catch a few warm rays of the sun.

The door was slightly ajar and she pushed it wide open with her shivering hands. There was a blast of dust due to a passing vehicle, and the Sun's rays seemed to hit her harshly, hurting her eyes, skin all of a sudden. She reacted, withdrawing back one step. But then, she did move on. This was important. The work had to be done. The shop was right across the street. Some little kid helped her cross it, and she thanked him and walked into the shop.

The shopkeeper looked at her, and took out an envelope. On the envelope, he had written '35/-'. She counted the money slowly and handed it over to him and then gave the young man a smile. She turned to leave, but the shopkeeper placed a hand on her shoulders to stop her.
He said, 'Grandma, can I ask you something personal? it's about those photos'. She smiled at his curiosity and said 'Do ask, young man. I was expecting the questions'. In reply, he asked 'These photos, they are wonderful. They are her very personal photos. Aren't they? Each one more beautiful than the previous. Her fans would give anything to have them in their personal collection'. Her face seemed to register some surprise, and she said 'Is that true? Would people buy these photos?'. The shopkeeper said, 'Yes, of course. They would get you a lot of money. Would you like to sell them? I could help you do it'.

She thought for a few moments and put the envelope back on his table. 'Sell them' she said. 'I need the money'. The shopkeeper happily put the photos back in his desk drawer and said 'I myself would like to buy one. My father was a big fan. It would be a great gift. I will get it framed....' and he got lost in thought, probably thinking of his father's reaction to that gift. He immediately pulled out 200/- and handed it over to her, saying 'I just bought two of those photos'. She smiled and took the money, fumbling with her purse's zip, trying to put the money inside.

And then, he finally asked, 'Grandma, I am curious. How did you get hold of these beautiful pictures? Were you a friend of hers?'. In reply, she said 'Yes. Her best friend. Probably the only one she ever had' and smiled at him. He just wouldn't stop his barrage of questions and went on. 'Do you know where she is, these days?'. The old woman just smiled and said, 'These days, people just don't see well enough, they do not really observe. You wouldn't know if she were standing right here in front of you'. It wasn't a taunt, it wasn't said in anger, just a statement, made with a smile. As she turned to walk away, she said, 'Please send me the money to that first floor apartment you see over there. Walking till here, is such an ordeal for me...'. Her voice trailed off as she walked away, muttering something. The young man stared at her, as realization dawned. His eyes welled up. But he had no time for tears then. His next customer had arrived. He had work to do.

Chained!

It was the perfect setting. Like in some movie. We were sitting, holding hands, talking, laughing, teasing each other. He told me I looked beautiful. He teased me when I blushed. It was bliss. It was how we wanted it to be. It was a dream, dream-like, or not. There were birds around us, mostly pigeons. Somebody seemed to have scattered bread crumbs around making the place attractive to pigeons, to make the place beautifully perfect for us. The garden was beautiful. Flowers, trees, bushes. All green with different colours scattered here and there. The perfect setting. Yes, it was.

We spoke of all the promises made, all the new promises we were making to each other. I laughed at his cute attempts to make me laugh. When all words were exhausted, I put my head on his shoulder and lay there. It felt as if I was meant to belong there. We watched the setting sun in silence, talking very little. Our fingers were entwined together. The perfect feeling. Yes, it was.

After a while, he lifted my chin up with his finger, looking at my face. Tears were clinging to my eyelashes, ready to drop. He slowly wiped them away. He knew I was silently crying. He knew why I was crying. He always did. That was him. He looked at my face for a long time. It was as if he was trying to drink up every detail. I felt an inexplicable pain. Then, I didn't know why. I would know soon. Not all things were perfect. No, they weren't.

Breaking the silence, my phone rang twice. Then it became silent. It was not meant for me to pick it up. It was reminding me that it was time for me to leave. I told him 'It's time. I go now'. He looked at my legs, at the iron shackles that bound them. The heavy, thick ones. The chain was tied to something else, the ends of which seemed to be just out of sight. The chains seemed to disappear among the trees. He held my hand tighter, not saying word. I said 'It won't help. You know that'. I freed my hand from his grasp, and then held his face with both my hands. Tears were streaming down his face now. I realized even I was crying. I rested my forehead against his, for a moment. It was time for yet another goodbye. It had all seemed perfect a while ago. Now, again, it wasn't.

Somewhere , suddenly bells started clanging loudly, shattering the peace. The sound was everywhere, inside my head. It was loud, harsh, cruel, evil and I hated every clang. It was my signal. I got up and ran. We hadn't exchanged proper goodbyes. It wasn't fair. It never was. He sat there, on the bench, crying. He saw me running, unable to stop me. Tears straming down the face. I ran to where the bells tolled, to where the bells called. I had to go. I had to.

Book review: 'I too had a love story'

I picked up this book recently from a book store. The cover looked plain with a picture of some flowers on it. I actually picked it up, for the sake of picking up a book. The author's name was unheard of. Nevertheless, I was curious. The book lay unopened for a day.

The next day I was alone at home, getting bored when my eyes fell on this book. I decided to give it a try. I soon realized that the book couldn't be classified as a literary masterpiece in any way. The story was unravelling itself in a very ordinary way. At one point, it seemed so full of cliches that I almost decided to put it down. For lack of a better thing to do, I continued with it.

The book is about a guy 'Ravin' who meets a girl called 'Khushi' through shaadi.com and falls in love through phone calls and SMSs (Something which most of us can relate to :) ). ' The book was supposed to be tragedy, which I had known from the summary on the back cover. Slowly, I started getting involved in the book. There was no side-by-side story line, no extra characters. The concentration was totally on those two, Ravin and Khushi, which kept me reading.

As I continued with my reading, slowly I realized that I was getting the feel of the book. The simplicity of the narration, the honesty of it all, was beautiful. The author doesn't go into too many details anywhere. He just tells the reader what he has to know, in order to enjoy the book, just the required amount of details. I rejoiced when the couple kissed for the first time. When the heavy rains played havoc and she had difficulty reaching home in time, I glowed at the way Ravin played the role of a hero. Before I knew ,all the happiness had turned to sorrow, when the tragedy struck. She was fighting for life and I could feel the pain that he was going through. I cried with him, later on, cried my heart out after finishing the book.

It was just one of those love stories, nothing new, nothing special in the story. But the honesty of it all, won my heart. It was obvious that the author wrote the book for the feelings and emotions in the book. He didn't write it to win awards. It was so touching, one can't help but melt. People who value emotions, relationships would love this book. Forget that you read are a fan of Hardy, Dickens, Austen ( which I am) . Forget the endless descriptions of a situation going on for pages and pages. Forget that you read those classics too. Have no preconceived notions. Don't have any expectations. Then, read this book. If you too have a love story, you will appreciate the simplicity of the whole thing.

One line of the author, which I loved-'She died. I survived. Because I survived, I die everyday.' Hard to believe this is just fiction. The way it has been narrated, he makes you believe it all actually happened. I honestly hope it didn't. You wouldn't want anyone to go through such pain and agony.