A Story Untold

            Friends it was a day which came across like a whiff of cold breeze in the scorching heat of life, sweet taste of pure water to the parched lips, balm to the bruised lives, a day which brought back life to our lives. Like a smile in a tense atmosphere, like the full moon on a dark night, like a cloud in the summer sky. We all lived our lives just for that day as if there was no tomorrow. Memories of that one day can carry me through this life in search of another day of life in my life. It brought back so many sweet memories, sweet experiences, sweet acquaintances and sweet pain……

            Pain, are you sure? Well what do I call it pain, a sense of regret or just emptiness or call it vacuum. You decide what to call it. Sitting among such an infectious atmosphere it was difficult not to get carried away in that euphoria. But amongst all that laughter, all that joy, merriment, festivity there was always a part which was shedding silent tears. A sense of, helplessness, despair and anger on oneself.  When one has to live his life for that one day, then why this strange feeling of dissolution.

            When the gathering rushes back to you memories of that someone, those memories you have buried deep inside and was bluffing yourself that you had forgotten, or was just fool enough to think you grew beyond those and  realize how much you miss that someone.

            It’s the story of a coward who could not find words for his feelings.

They came across in the school the usual leg pulling, the fights, those pranks and the mischief. Among all this he never realized when they grew up from boy and girl to young man and woman. Her sight was the sun rise, her presence was the only being, her words were breath of fresh air and her smile was life. Staring into her eyes he got lost oblivious to this she chattered away, those fights in which she always got to snatch a book or a pen from him, all the coincident encounters in the corridors or en route to the school or even in a shopping complex. That inadvertent touch on the staircase would send shivers up his spine, when she slipped in the corridor what a fool he made by rushing to her, which left her friends in fits of laughter. 

            It all sounds like right out of a movie, waiting round the corner to catch up with her en route to the school, lurking around her house to catch a glimpse or make some small talk, on her birth day waking up early in the morning and secretly leaving some flowers at her door steps, with the telephone came some blank calls too. When she fell ill that visit to say get well soon, volunteering to help her with her studies, the combined studies which became regular after that, and even for the exams. Then that competition, not to score less than her.

            Never realized when it was time to say bye to the school, that hand shake to wish each other best of luck, was like the end of the world, that shake seems to have drained his entire life and light, it was like darkness all over. He leaves for a far away land for training; thankfully they caught up in the vacations. Those long letters were like life line during his tough and trying training times. In the middle on the night sitting under a thick blanket impervious to light, with a table lamp light (if caught with lights on beyond a time would mean punishment) he read her letters and wrote back, she had to ask once why he spills water while writing, if only she knew it was the sweat from the heat of being trapped in a blanket with the 60 watt bulb.

The outings during the vacations, attending her college for fun, those bus journeys to the city, ever managing to find a seat next to her. Then they attend a marriage of their friends, it was like staring at another reality. Walking back home in the middle of that night how close he came to expressing the feeling and failing in the last moment, that long chat standing outside her house, well all seems like a dream.

            Work takes him farther away, the letters stop, only the news of she doing well in the college, going for higher studies, he never loses touch and then the news of her marriage…………

            Life drags on with pleads 

            Sapno me hamko sathaya na karo     

            neend se hamko jagaya na karo    

           Dil   me cubhi is khante ko chedaya na karo  

           Manme basi is gam ko jagaya na karo

 Author:
Mr. PVR Subramanian
You can find his contribution to technology here:
http://seopep.blogspot.in/2012/01/touching-your-lives-making-difference.html