Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Such is Life

Cycling swiftly down under the canopy of Gulmohars on sweaty March afternoons, stopping by at the roadside vendors to gulp glasses-after-glasses of iced Badam-Milk so ostentatiously laced with exactly 3 or 4 strands of keshar, ogling at and fervently commenting about the girls walking the roads, cracking jokes mostly upheld as immoral and improper by the parents and sometimes, very sometimes marveling at the very intriguing football-like structure of Buckminster Fullerenes interspersed with imitations of the very funny and equally grotesque stammer of our Organic Chemistry Ma'm (who allegedly used to dye her hair black every morning before coming to school).

These are the memories that still persist and indefatigably refuse to stop knocking my door, apart from of course her memories.

 

She, whose name was Rimi Khanna; she, who was more than a classmate; she, whose stunning long and dark tresses and pristine fair complexion garnered her attention from one and all; she, who I loved; she, who assured me of her love; and she, who I had seen holding hands with a friend of mine, and thus cruelly murder all my love for her.

 

The urge to run away from the girl who I had so madly loved, far off and for ever, had been so compelling I agreed to leave the country for higher education. The degrees, the hard-earned scrolls-of-honor helped me turn my back on the country where I will never cease to belong, where I will never be not-waited-for, and.... where I will never return nonetheless, I vowed.

 

Today I am grey and almost what people would mockingly call past-his-prime..... My wife Prerna died 11 years back while delivering to this world our only child, my sweet daughter Nisha. People urged me to remarry but I was left too broken and shattered to even consider the rather-offensive suggestion. Also, the rather fast clip at which this whirlwind called life engulfed me left me with no time but lots of time to work and slog, rise higher and higher every waking moment, so high that I ceased to be a man and gradually metamorphosed into a zombie, no feelings, no emotions, no heart and no needs. Nisha is in a residential set-up in Kentucky. She gets to meet me once every month, when I make it a point to flood her with gifts, hoping to redeem myself, relieve myself of the guilt of being such a failure as a father.

 

 

 

 

 

My uncle is on his death-bed, thus at least lending me an irrefutable beckoning from the homeland. My country still looks the same, feels the same and smells the same. The unbeatable invite of the nativeland, ohhhh, I feel so at-home.

 

It almost looks like the unparalleled and unexpected happiness of seeing his nephew with him has brought my uncle back from the jaws of death. He is convalescing against all odds, and into the green of health yet again. What wonders human presence can create. What tragedies human absence can!

My schoolmate, long-lost friend Shirish who chose to stay back in this country, like so many others, took me to the inauguration of a book the last day. The plot, he tells me, deals with a childhood pair in love, but who have to stay away from each other the rest of their lives due to a rather trivial misunderstanding. I enquired the name of the author. He calmly replies "Miss Rimi Khanna."

 

Such is life.

  

26 comments:

Summer said...

one word.beautiful :)
TAT was superb !! :D
keep writing

Chinmaya said...

SUMMER
TAT will always be superb! Feels great that just the 2 of us understand [:P].
Well, thanks so much.
And I will.

Vinayak said...

Hmmm...
Trying to figure out the moral of the story...
Should it be something on the lines of "the books/stories/blogs( :P ) people write might just be the real story of their life"?

ronsin said...

o henry!!! may be its being too lenient in my praise... but with the curt and shocking ending nothing else came to my mind... excellent...

Chinmaya said...

VINAYAK
You are you. Very you.

Chinmaya said...

RONSIN
Well....... what do I say? Thanks so much for the ultimate praise. Needless to say, I feel honored.
Thanks so much.

anurag said...

i guess u r back [:P]. i think i can relate this to ur life[:P]...keep blogging but with this frequency only[:P].

Chinmaya said...

ANURAG
Hehe.Yeah, i am back.
I will ask you more details personally how you relate it!!! [:P] Thank God, you did not choose to mention the details.
And frequency, well.............. :)

Chinmaya said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vinayak said...

hello check 1 2 3... (sorry)

Zus said...

dude.....awesum..simple..beautiful..touching..excellently written...well expressed...
simple and yet very good..thts the best compliment i can give..i liked this one the best of ur writtings...
i l say u learned from all ur mistakes in the previous ones..and perfect6ed this one..way to go buddy...u can still write better.

Zus said...

dude.....awesum..simple..beautiful..touching..excellently written...well expressed...
simple and yet very good..thts the best compliment i can give..i liked this one the best of ur writtings...
i l say u learned from all ur mistakes in the previous ones..and perfect6ed this one..way to go buddy...u can still write better.

Chinmaya said...

marcYASHU
Thanks for the magnificent and lavish praises heaped on me. I feel honored.

Oh! its not how many mistakes I make, its how may lessons I take.

Well, yes, I will try to get better.

Thanks!!!

Garam Samosa said...

YO CHINMAYA....
Gosh!!! was it mind-boggling!!! superb..touching...scintillating in both its pace and ideas...the jump from one para to next was awesome...
To finish off, had never read a better short story and probably never will..
cheers, cheers and more cheers..
keep writing....

Chinmaya said...

GARAM SAMOSA
Well, thanks for such a lavish praise. I do feel honored and this would equally well go without saying, and at ease.
Thanks again. Yes, I wil.

Anonymous said...

No

Chinmaya said...

ANONYMOUS
You Are Right.

Anonymous said...

i'm glad, not coz you think i'm right, but coz you're unsatisfied. glad, glad, glad! go on, live some more, and mebbe, there's a teeny weeny chance you'll finally like something you've written.

Chinmaya said...

ANONYMOUS
You are right again.

Anonymous said...

Nice. Infact very nice............
Expected sad ending...
but u rite well.
Hope ur posts come faster.
:)

Chinmaya said...

CROOKSHANKS
Oh Thanks for liking the piece. I liked that you liked.
And well, I am almost sorry to say my posts would perhaps not come at a fast pace, the life here at kgp hardly lets the spirits be when the time is or the time be when the spirits is. But noetheless, thanks so much for visiting and I do expect you in future too, or in my past too, that is, the previous posts. :)

sifar said...

i could not resist myself to write my comment on this blog.Its touching ,not rare but a very common mistake people do.Don't know what is ur inspiration but i loved it

Chinmaya said...

SIFAR
Yeah, I know and thanks for liking it. It is a common mistake and yet people do it. Damn People.
Thanks again. Keep visiting, and do not resist commenting. :)

Anonymous said...

aayen how did i miss this one fr so long ....its simply awesome ..par ab anu se poochta hun hw did he relate this to ur life ya khud hi bata do ....keep writtin n keep tellin me tht u hv again created a masterpiece!!!

Anonymous said...

"i think i can relate this to ur life"??????????? i want an xplanation....:P
i luv dis story...i dunno but dis reminds me of hum tum (bolly again srry).....na rey dis is mch bttr.....now sumthing to dampen ur favourite "happy endings"!!!!! :D wat if da person goes to da book launch to find da lady is single like him? alone in life?



now if i hav successfully pissed u off with da bollfication i wanna ask u evr thot of publishing sumthing in print? ...da next cheta bhagat???ney...da 1st chinmaya sharma!!!!!!! :)
lotsa luv cheers!

Anonymous said...

"i think i can relate this to ur life"??????????? i want an xplanation....:P
i luv dis story...i dunno but dis reminds me of hum tum (bolly again srry).....na rey dis is mch bttr.....now sumthing to dampen ur favourite "happy endings"!!!!! :D wat if da person goes to da book launch to find da lady is single like him? alone in life?



now if i hav successfully pissed u off with da bollfication i wanna ask u evr thot of publishing sumthing in print? ...da next chetan bhagat???ney...da 1st chinmaya sharma!!!!!!! :)
lotsa luv cheers!