I love to cry for you

“As the raindrops slowly slide past my body,

As the breeze from the bedside window play with my hair,

As the milkman rings the doorbell in the morning,

As I burn my hand while cooking,

I remember you.

As the nightmare leaves me wet with perspiration,

As my body aches to hug you,

As I keep my specs on the head and search for it,

As I make only one cup of coffee in the morning,

I remember you.”

Arushi and Aniket were childhood buddies. Their parents never bothered about their togetherness, as they thought they were too casual to be into any romantic bonding. Even Arushi and Aniket thought so, they thought they were awkwardly different, to fall for each other, in any way other than friendship. But they always remained the best of friends, from school to college. Their relationship seemed to be the only constant thing, in the whole bad world.

As the understanding of love and romance dawned upon them, they understood that their closeness hardly left room for any third person to come near them. Hence they decided to give each other space. And that’s the time when they realized “Holy shit!! We are in love”!

The realization was just the beginning of a lifelong fight for love, fight with family, fight with the society and fight with luck. But who cared, after all they were in love. The magic and bliss of being together was so endearing that it out weighed the blemishes of societal norms of caste and status. And eventually after completion of graduation they decided to elope. They thought living together with guilt was much simpler than enduring the excruciating agony of separation. “If only our parents could see through the meagre norms of the bourgeois society, if only someone would explain to them that their ideologies are cliché and need immediate amendments. But reality was different and unbearably harsh.”

Aniket had made all preparations and they were shifting to Burnpur, an industrial belt in west Bengal, he even managed a job through his friend. Life had started to look good. They got company accommodation and Aniket’s will power and hard work bought him recognition. They were happy despite of the constant guilt that was bugging them. There was nothing in surplus except their love, for the rest they settled for just enough. But still all was well, rosy and fairy tale like. Aniket cared for Arushi and pampered her like anything. Arushi loved to play the kid to him.

 

Arushi was getting increasingly anxious, Aniket never went out late with his friends without informing her. It was half past twelve and still no signs of him. He was supposed to go to that highway medical shop to get her Asthma inhaler. Arushi always felt stressed when Aniket drove his bike on the highway. It was probably quarter to one when her mobile screen went ablaze with an unknown number.

The emergency ward, had a strange stink but Arushi could not smell anything. She just looked around to see a familiar face, very familiar. And when she finally saw that, her heart sank. The bed was stained with blood, Aniket’s blood. Arushi used to freak out if Aniket had a small bruise and today he was bleeding to death. He had bandages on almost every part of his body but still managed a smile when he finally spotted Arushi. As if his long wait had finally come to an end and now he could sleep peacefully. Arushi slowly walked up to him and looked down at him with a smile. “You will be OK”. His face had gone pale but his eye were still sparking with life. Arushi wanted to give her last drop of blood to bring him back to life, she wanted to shout and burst her lungs. But she just silently stared at him, on and on.

She had no idea from where their parents had come know, of the tragedy, which had dawned on Arushi. But the next day both the families came to Burnpur. While Aniket’s parents cursed her for being unlucky for their son, her parents suddenly started understanding her feelings. She hated all of them, she just wanted them to go away, so that she and Aniket could start afresh.

She got Aniket’s job and moved on with her life. Aniket is still her best friend and pays her frequent visits, she actually loves living with his memory and her favorite stress reliever is to cry for him.

“I love to cry for you”!!!!!

 

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta