Life is 'Short' & 'Time' is Swift

I checked the time in my mobile. It was four in the evening. I was just waked up on yet another Saturday evening. My weekend start on Saturday evenings as I work in night shifts.

I got up and made calls to my roommates to check the plans for evening. As it happens most of the times all of them had prior commitments. It helps to have a girlfriend. It makes sure that weekend is not wasted.

‘Another weekend wasted.’ I thought.

I got down from the bed, brushed my teeth’s, took a quick bath and craved in front of god to get me a girlfriend.

‘How long I’m going to be single?’ I questioned him and closed my eyes.

As I was reading the Gayatri Mantra I heard a voice.

‘Do you understand the meaning of love?’ it asked.

‘Of course I do I had been in a relationship once.’ I replied immediately.

‘How long did it go?’ I opened my eyes to see who is asking the questions. I didn’t find any and I closed them again.

‘Five years’ I replied proudly.

‘Why did you break up? Five years is a long period.’ Who the hell are you? Why are you asking so many questions?

‘Well in short, it started with a small misunderstanding. Soon distrust followed. Subsequently we lost interest in each other and ultimately we broke up’

‘And you said, you understand love’

 I heard laughter. I opened my eyes and looked around for the source of voice. I couldn’t find any.

Soon I was back on the bed. I opened my laptop and logged into Facebook, my best companion. As I was browsing through it I came across a video shared by a friend. It looked interesting. I clicked on the link.

Video was narrated in 1^st person. Narrator used to travel in Mumbai local train. One day he saw a newly married couple. The woman was beautiful and knitting a sweater. Husband looked agitated. They were Mr. And Mrs. Sharma.  After that day he saw them daily. They used to fight, they used to love. They were the cutest couple in world. Every day was same for them. Mrs. Sharma would make fun of her husband by teasing and irritating him and Mr. Sharma always looked irritated.

All of sudden they stopped travelling. Narrator missed them. One fine day he saw Mr. Sharma but Mrs. Sharma was not with him. Narrator wanted to ask the reason for her absence. As soon as station came he rushed to Mr. Sharma. He put his hand on his shoulder from behind.

‘Where is Mrs. Sharma?’ Narrator asked.

‘Who are you? Why should I tell you?’ Mr. Sharma got irked.

Narrator asked him again which irked him further. However, narrator was in no mood to leave him without hearing the answer. His continuous insistence paid off as Mr. Sharma agreed to tell him the reason of his wife absence.

‘She died. She had cancer. I told her many times to stay back, take rest but she never listened. She wanted to spend as much time as possible with me. She knew she was dying. Leaving the job was not an option. I needed the money to get her the treatment’ he said with wet eyes and left.

I don’t remember if narrator said anything after that. It didn’t matter, I lost the interest in his narration. I felt an electric current moving swiftly through my spine when Mr. Sharma revealed the reason and my eyes were brought to tears when I saw the last scene. Mr. Sharma was wearing the same red sweater his wife was knitting all those days. The sweater had only one sleeve. She died before she could finish it off.

I immediately shut down my laptop after watching the video. I reclined on the bed and closed my eyes. Image of Mr. Sharma wearing half knitted sweater kept flashing in front of my eyes.

‘There love was so pure. It was eternal. Love is divine.’ I said to myself.

‘Now you understand the meaning of love.’ I heard the same voice again. I opened my eyes and again no one was there.

It was nine in the evening. I was standing outside the Central mall waiting for the bus to come. It was raining heavily.

‘Buses are not coming.’ A girl standing beside me said on the phone. She was tall. Her legs were long and slender. She was wearing a yellow top and brown coloured knee length skirt. She talked on the phone for few more minutes and then hung it frustratingly. I looked into her eyes. They were the most beautiful pair of eyes I had ever seen. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Our eyes met and I smiled. She responded with the sweetest smile. She got dimples too.

Soon an auto came. Both of us went quickly near it.

‘Indiranagar.’ I said.

‘Domlur.’ She said.

 ‘Both are on the same way. Both of you can come.’ the autowala said.

She went inside it first; I followed her and sat in the corner. I looked at her and smiled again. Love is pure.

‘I’m Tanya’ she said tucking her wet hairs behind her ears.