Sands Of Time (Part 5)

She was so lost in her thoughts that she did not realize the time. Knock knock came the sound and she jumped back to her senses. It was Rachit.

‘Can I come in???”. He asked.          

“Yeah sure, look I ought to tell you but I just could not….” She was trying to explain.

“Yeah I totally understand” he said before she could even say anything that would have made any sense.

“So you are fine with me getting married???”

“Honestly, no. but the thing is it does not really matter. I am the third person here.  I mean I should never have told you about what I felt. It is all just a mess just because of me. I am sorry, I will go tell dad to pack up and leave and make this a little easier on you.”

“ummmm…..” she was speechless again. How does this man do this?? Every time he says something I am always left speechless.

“You do that a lot you know that??”. Making his manish face look like a little child.

“Do what??”

“This ummmmmm n then nothing.” He said smiling at her.
AAARRGGGHHHH. God can you please take my life now and end this?? She thought.

“I just need a favor, now that I might be leaving very soon, How about you show me around sometime??”

“Yeah sure why not, I will love to.”

So as planned they went off the very next day to see some of the most beautiful sites of the world. They saw hills, mountains and valleys. Both of them had a very good time. Rachit was trying to get over her and Pratima was trying not to think about him for some time at least. But it was kind of tough for a beautiful woman and a handsome man to keep eyes of each other for long. They were peeking to each other once a while and even though both of tried their best, it just was not working. It was almost lunch time so Pratima took her to her favorite restaurant. The place she and Aryan used to go all the time she remembered and suddenly she started feeling guilty about whole of this sightseeing, especially with the man she was trying her level best not to have feelings for.

They entered the place with her lost in thoughts and suddenly she froze seeing Aryan sitting there having his lunch. She had no idea about his plan, she was afraid of what he might think about her going out with someone else, knowing the possessive nature of Aryan. She somehow took the courage to walk up to his table.

‘Hey sweetie’ she said nervously.

“Hey beautiful, what a wonderful surprise. I didn’t know you were coming here today; otherwise we would have come together. Anyways come on sweetheart take a seat’

“Actually I want you to meet a friend of mine, here is Captain Rachit Singh, he was my commanding officer during the search and rescue mission I told you about??”
“Oh hello Captain, I am Aryan Sharma, this beautiful girl’s fiancée.”

“Hello Aryan, pleasure to meet you”
“Pleasure is all mine sir, and please let me thank you for saving my life.”
“I didn’t quite understand???”
“You saved her life didn’t you??? So you saved mine too. I have no idea how will I ever live without her.”
“Well I guess you love her a lot.”

“More than anything in my life sir, more than anything in my life”

Pratima was just watching both of them talking n thinking to her on how she is going to choose between them. The one she has known all her life or the one she feels like she had. She knew she had a tough decision to make and she knew she had to make it soon enough because the wedding was in a couple of days.

So soon it was time for them to go home. Rachit thanked both of them for a lovely time; Aryan thought it was good to meet a friend of hers from the army. Pratima thought it was ironical to see both of them getting along. Well as they say time and tide wait for none. Time passed at its own speed. Wedding date was getting close. And before you know it, the wedding was within a week. During this time Aryan and Rachit had become very good friends. Pratima was getting restless on what to do and what to decide on how to do. Aryan was super exited for the wedding. Pratima was equally impatient.

One day. About two days before the wedding she walked up to Rachit.

“Hey” she said.

“Hey hello, how are you doing? Must be nervous about the wedding right. I know it would be if I was at your place.” he remarked.

“Yeah about that, I need to talk to you about that.”

“Yes your honor tell me???”

“No not here. I need Aryan there too. Will you be able to come to the coffee house by 5 today?? It is really important.”

“Sure why not?? Everything all right??”

“No, that is why I want both of you there by 5.”

“I’ll be there.”.” And hey by the way, you look beautiful in this red kurta”

AWWWWWWWW…HELL

“Thank you very much”

Now Rachit was coming, only thing was Aryan to be there at that time. She went up to Aryan to ask him to come too.

“Hey” she said.

“Helloooo gorgeous.” He said hugging her.

“I…um…I need to ask you something.”
“Sure darling what’s up?”

“I need to meet you today at the coffee house by 5 today. It is really important.”

“Anything for you my love, and by the way, you look amazing in this red kurta.”

AWWWW…. Why god why????

“Thank you so much.”

“I love you”

“I love you too”

It was about 3 in the afternoon. The weather was pleasant. But due to anxiety Pratima was feeling all sweaty n nervous. Her every heartbeat was faster than the last one. With every tic in the clock her nervousness grew. She missed a heartbeat every time she even thought about the fact that she will have to choose between them, let alone live with it. And the worst part was, she had not even made a firm decision about what she was going to do. Her mind raced back and forth. One moment she was with Aryan at their favorite place in the hills. His face shone like an angel with the light of the beautiful sunset. As the light grew darker, she was with Rachit during the time he was saving her life. She remembered his face, shining in the moonlight. She felt started breathing heavily remembering all that stuff about the both of them. She took the courage to look at the clock with the hope that at least an hour or so had passed but it was just quarter past 3. She realized she had a lot of time to cover and think about what she had to do when she gets there. She somehow controlled the breathing, the heartbeat, the nervousness and tried to think with a rational mind. But she forgot that in love nothing is rational. It was, is and always will be the matter of the heart.

At the coffee house both of them reached right on spot with the timing, and naturally started looking out for Pratima because she was the one who had invited them there. But she was not here yet, maybe she needed some extra time to think about the decision. Aryan spotted Rachit and called him to his table.

Sands Of Time (Part 4)

When they reached the base camp, there was a letter waiting for Pratima. The letter was from Aryan. She almost instantaneously tore it open and started to read it. It read-

Hey baby,

I know I wasn’t supposed to miss you so much, but it is all I am able to do. The last time I felt alive was the last time I saw you, since then I have only been a dummy walking and talking but not living. Only if I knew I was going to see you after such a long time, I would have freeze the time there and then and watched you just standing there smiling at me. You know every night when I go out and see the starts shining, all I can think about is you, I thank god for every mistake I did because that brought me to a path that lead to you. Wish I could describe the way I felt about you in words but no language in this world is rich enough that can help me describe the way I feel about you. I just want to see you, want to hug you, want to be there for you, and want to watch you grow old. If there is one place I wish I ll die, that place is your arms. I would have no grudge against god only if the fate decides to take my life away when I am in your arms. All I can say is that I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. And I miss you so so much. Please come back soon.

Yours forever,

Aryan.

She read that letter a thousand times with her eyes filled with tears. Aryan loved her so much and even then she fell in love with someone else. She knew she had to choose one of them. And she knew it was going to be the most difficult decision of her life. There was this big dilemma on who to choose and who not too. She loved both of them, only problem was to decide whom she loved more. She knew one thing that whatever the decision was, someone was going to get hurt. She hated herself for this but she could not let this to go on forever. The war was soon going to be over and she had to be back with Aryan. Just then the thought of Rachit came into her mind and she felt a sudden chill in herself. Hope the one I don’t choose understands me better.

A few days later the news of the enemies surrendering came and the war came to an end. Pratima knew she had to go back, that night she laid in her bed thinking about the whole situation. Just then she heard a voice which sounded terribly like hers. Frightened she stood up and saw two other Pratima’s in the mirror. There was Aryan’s Pratima and Rachit’s Pratima fighting with each other.

She loves Aryan

No she loves Rachit.

She had been with him since she was a child; they are meant to be together. She is his fiancée. He loves her, she will always be happy with him.

Is that so???? Then why she fell in love with some else if she had loved him truly???

Aryan’s Pratima was speechless

You can fool yourself all you want, but the truth always will remain that she had never actually loved Aryan. He was just her best friend and you took that love to be the love with which you want to spend the rest of your love with someone.

She looked as two of her images fought with each other. She realized it was not her images that were fighting; it was her own self who was not ready to make a decision. But the decision had to be made. And it had to be done soon. She was leaving in the morning.

Back home Aryan was ecstatic on hearing the news that his Pratima was coming back. He was so excited that he went to the station hours early then the time of the train’s arrival. Finally when the train came and he saw Pratima coming out he thought of nothing and ran towards her. He thought about this moment in his head a thousand times but today, his mind was blank. He was not able to think of anything. He tried to think. He tried to say something. Anything. But he just could not. He was looking at the most beautiful side he had ever seen in his life, not that he had not seen her before. But this was the longest he had to spend without her, her sparkling eyes, her silky straight hair, the dimples on her cheeks, and the small mole on her face. Everything just seemed to fall in a perfect place. Like nothing was ever wring in this world. Like nothing could ever be wrong in this world. It was just perfect.

‘Hi’ she said.’ I was actually hoping for a warmer welcome, not that I don’t like you standing there and drooling like an idiot, but a hug would have been nice.’ She said smiling.

He came back to his sense. Shit. He thought. Then went forward and hugged her. It had been ages since he had felt her. But somehow it did not feel right. Something was off. This just was not what he was expecting.

‘Mr. Aryan now will you please let me go. I am unable to breathe.’

‘Do I have to???’

‘I guess. We can’t be glued together like this. As much as we like,we ll have to leave it.’

‘Ahan Ahan……not fair.’

‘God I missed you……’ she said. And hugged him.

So they went back home. Everything was settled again and the arrangements of a great ceremony of marriage started with the arrival of the bride.

It is often said that  the time of marriage is the most difficult time for a young women, mixed emotions, anxiety, excitement etc. but in this case it was much much more than that, it was closer to surprisingly confusing. It was not that Pratima did not loved Aryan, it was just that fact that she loved someone else too. And that too equally dearly. Whenever she was alone, thoughts raced back to that rescue mission, than going towards how her feeling grew for Rachit, ending with how wrong she was doing with Aryan. She always ended up feeling guilty n disgusted every time she gave it even a little thought. She knew she had to make a decision. She knew it had to be soon. Otherwise it was going to be too late. But she was scared, not because what others will think if she chose anyone of them, but what the one who is left out will think about her. She knew it was impossible to make them realize that she loved both of them equally, but she had to do something, something very quick. She thought about it more than a thousand times but never could find any single reason on what to say to each one of them. Every time she thought about it her mind raced back to the time her inner voices were fighting with each other over this matter. She knew she had to think about it and make a rational decision, but she did not realized that it would have to be much sooner because she had no idea what was coming next.

It was a few days later, Pratima had just returned from a little shopping trip, and just when she got home she saw Col. Shah n his son Rachit sitting there in her house along with her father. Just when she came in Col. Shah stood up and went up to her and hugged her and said in her ear.” You did not tell me that you were going to get married???”

“Ummm…Col…..I…..was……”was what she could say mainly because she was in such a shock seeing Rachit over at her house.

“We are not on a mission kid, you can call me uncle”

“Uncle….ummmm….I…..was……”again was her reply.

“Would you stop doing that dad, she just came home; n clearly she is shocked to see us here. Give her some time to relax.”

Relax, yes that what I want to do. That’s what I need to do. Just calm down. No big deal. They are here. So what? Everything is going to be alright. They are just here for today. I am sure they will be long gone by tomorrow.

‘Now that you are here, I was thinking you might stay for the wedding, we will catch up, what say???’She heard her dad say.

“Sure sure, I won’t miss it for the world”. Said Col. Shah.

AWWWWWWWWW crap. Now I think we might have a problem

This was the moment that she realized it was the time to come from the fantasy world to the real world. She will now have to start making decisions rather than thinking and planning to make some. And by the way, she had to do something quick, because as much as she thought about it, the time it wasted, and time was not going to stop or slow down for her, even if she wanted it badly.

Split Screen Sadness

You know the feeling you get when you are neither asleep nor awake, just somewhere in between. A place in which you try your best to open your eyes and wake up but you can’t? A place where everything thing is exactly as you want it to be, no reality to come and screw your dreams up? A place where your mind works up for the perfect place and your body is too tired to deny it?

It should be around 10 in the morning in the middle of the month of June, and for some of those who don’t know, June is the month hottest in the place I live. So at 10, the place was over 40° C, which is well, quite hot. I was in no mind to wake up, but the direct sunlight in my eyes was telling me it wasn’t just my day. I hate the invisible mesh that forms around the eyes when you wake up from deep sleep, and deep sleep it was, considering I almost slept 17 hours at a stretch. I know it is kind of weird, but chug down 2 bottles of alcohol and try to wake you up before that, you will get to know what I mean. I was never a drinker, so it happens every time I do. Somehow I open my eyes, to start yet another day of my pathetic life, trying to survive yet another time. I somehow get up to get myself a glass of water, but I don’t think simple water works with severe headache, and last time I checked, I didn’t have any limes. So well, I was practically screwed.

I take one look at the calendar and realize it has been almost a month, 29 days and 23 hours to be exact, since it happened, since she left me. I know it doesn’t take a Sherlock to tell you that it is one of those heart break problem. She was cute, not the most beautiful girl I ever saw. Even then I thought there was something special in her, her eyes may be. I really am no romantic, but I always thought her eyes spoke to me, even when her words don’t. Smile too, yes; she had one of those cute little dimples on one of her cheeks, made me ponder over whenever I looked at it.

Putting on my boxers and walking up to the sofa, I try to imagine what it was like when was with her, unfortunately, it doesn’t help my headache. I should start finding a medicine for it rather than roaming around the house. But what the heck right. So where was I? Yes, her dimples. But I finished that I guess. Sorry, moving on. Getting from that you have read it this long, I think I should rather tell you about our so called love story. We were in the school together, and no it wasn’t a teenage romance. We were just good friends. I kind of liked her, she kind of liked me, and so it was nice. So the school got over pretty soon and we were left out of touch for about 4 or 5 years I guess. Till the time we met her at a coffee shop some blocks down. Coffee, reminds me, I should make myself a cup of coffee, should help with the headache. Returning back, we met at this coffee shop, she saw me and I saw her but none of us had the courage to go and talk to the other. I mean what could we have talked about all these years, I was sitting there with my girl friend, and she was there with a guy, presumably her boy friend. He was at least 3 inches taller and was at least 20 kilograms heavier than me, so I preferred not to walk up to her. When we finished our coffee, we means me and my girl friend, at that time, I got up to pay the bill. The cashier told me the women who was just here, her, left her number for me, and said that the guy with her was her cousin. I was assumingly delighted. I didn’t tell my girl friend about it, I always liked this ambience of mystery.

I got home and I called her, not having the slightest idea of what to talk, but thank god she carried the conversation forward. We met, a few times may be and the old flame sparked again, if you may. I thought it was the best for me to break up with my girl friend. And it did, it was a mutual parting, no drama at all. I told her, her not my girl friend who was now my ex, that I liked her at high school and she said she liked me too. Think about the rivers of happiness flowing inside my body. So with in time, the liking grew to become love and soon enough, we were madly in love with each other. Me a little bit more than her, I think. We used to meet many times during the week, daily most of the times. I know I said I am not a romantic but I am now going to say the cheesiest line ever said by anyone in the history of the world, the best time of my day was when I met her, and worst was when I had to drop her off.

But they say, time is very powerful, and powerful it was. Even though we were in love, I think, it was hard for us to be together in the same room without spontaneously combusting, fighting in the normal non dramatic sense. The more we got to know each other, the more we found out how much we were different. There was a point when I thought we were exactly opposite of each other and no, contrary to popular belief, opposites don’t attract, and they cut each other out. One day our fight got out of hand and she stomped out. I tried calling her but she didn’t reply. I tried texting her but she didn’t reply. After a few days, her friend called and said she, her not her friend, wanted to break up. I won’t lie saying I wasn’t expecting that, so I had prepared myself for it.  I agreed and we parted.

It has now been exactly a month since that happened. Now, thinking back, I kind of miss her. I did after all love her. Now every now then I walk up to random girls I meet, some I get lucky with, some I don’t, but it’s just that I haven’t yet found out someone who makes me feel the way she did. Maybe I will meet someone, maybe I won’t, but I do want to keep trying. I don’t know whether we did well by breaking up or not, but all I know is, amidst of this heat, my alcohol infused breath and my headache; she is now a part of my split screen sadness. 

Sands Of Time (Part 3)

But she could not move a muscle. This had been the first time she had had a close experience of being attacked. Rachit came over and got holdover of her arms and they both ran as fast as they could. Just within 100 meters there was a small lake and Rachit thought they will be safe on the other side so he jumped into the lake not realizing he was still holding Pratima. Somehow they swam across the other side with Pratima still in shock. And Rachit was right. There was no one on this side of the lake. At least it doesn’t look like it. They both lay on the grass grasping for breath.Pratima was almost unconsious.Her face shone in the full moon light. Rachit gazed at her for some time without realizing .My god she is breathtakingly beautiful. But he realized she was not breathing properly and more over they did not have any medical aid with them. Last chance was CPR, the mouth to mouth procedure. Rachit tried to remember on what he had been taught about it during his training days. The symptoms looked critical but he could not remember the procedure correctly. I guess I will have to take a chance. And he did it with perfection .Pratima was breathing properly and with in no time she resumed consiousness. But Rachit was so nervous about the procedure that he had forgotten to check on her and did not realized when she came back to consciousness.

While Pratima was back in Wanknaghat with Aryan, she felt Aryan kissing her. But just then she came back to consiousness and saw Rachit leaned over her and his lips locked with hers. She hurriedly sat up and shocked Rachit.

‘I am sorry, I did not realised you were conscious again’

Then she realised what happened, the fire, the lake, And Aryan who was kissing her in her dream. Then she realized Rachit was trying to save her life.

‘No no, please. Thank you for saving my life’. She said.”Twice’ with a pause.

Rachit could not say anything. He just smiled.

O so the cold hearted saved my life and now it turns out he smiles too, now that is a surprise. She thought and could not help smiling to herself.

It was like they it was meant to happen. These two were meant to be together. Because the army does not send a rescue mission till at least 24 hrs. After the person is reported missing and they were here on a 4 day trip, so technically it could take almost a week for the other forces to reach to them.

“We might have to stay here for a while, food and clean water should not be a problem, we have a lake around so there will be clean water and some edible plants around” said Rachit .Pratima just realized that he was thinking the same thing. But it only looks easy, how am I going to keep quiet for such a long time. This man hardly speaks.

“It is really late and I think we should get some rest” he said “Will you be OK??” he asked.

“Yeah yeah, do not worry about me please, I will b fine. Good Night”

“Good night”                                         

And so it was, Pratima was alone again thinking about Aryan of what he must be doing, what he might be thinking, how will he react when he gets to know about I ll have to spend a week with a stranger in this forest. With those thoughts she dozed off.

It was day now when Pratima woke up. But weird thing was that Rachit was nowhere to be seen. She almost panicked when she heard distant running. Her first thought was Rachit was either running towards something or he was running away from something. She hoped it should be the first case. But as the footsteps came closer, she realized they were fast, really fast. “I do not know how fit he is, but no man can run that fast” she said to herself. Soon the footsteps came really close and Pratima was really scared standing there alone. But then she heard a horse, she got confused on what a horse was doing in this jungle. When the sight was clear, she saw Rachit riding a white horse and was running towards her. He looked like a Greek god riding that beautiful horse. With him flexing his muscles and his hair flying in the air, Pratima was surely taken aback. She thought it was a live fairy tale running in front of her eyes. Just when Rachit was about to reach to her she heard a voice, a voice that sounded almost familiar to Rachit. But wait, he was not speaking. Just then it started raining. “What the hell is happening” she thought to herself.

Just then she woke up and realized it was just a dream. Rachit had been trying to wake her up and when nothing worked he sprinkled some water in her face. Pratima woke up embarrassed on what she was dreaming. And more importantly, about whom she was dreaming about such a thing. She was an engaged girl and to dream about some fairy tale fantasy about a guy she just met was off the charts. She apologized to Aryan in her mind a thousand times during that day.

They were directionless, foodless, waterless people lost in the middle of nowhere. Pratima once even thought about moving somewhere else but Rachit made her realize some important thing like they do not know exactly where they are, they do not have a compass, they might unknowingly walk much deeper inside the forest making it difficult for the other troops to find them and moreover he was not sure about the water and food resources inside the forest. So it was much better for both of them to stay at the same place.

It was night again and Pratima was still thinking about that dream. The white horse and Rachit riding it. She could not figure out why she had that kind of a dream for Rachit. She did not realized when she dozed off thinking about that dream. Moreover what she did not realized that this was the first time in weeks that she had slept without thinking about Aryan.

Next few days were really difficult for Pratima. She was confused about everything that was happening. Rachit was being so sweet and so gentle. A perfect gentleman. Someone Pratima had always dreamt off. But Aryan is the perfect guy for me.

If he was perfect then why are you thinking about someone else? She heard some voice coming from herself.

I don’t know. I love Aryan.

But then why are you falling in love with someone else?

She had no answer. The voice was right. Her inner self felt guilty about cheating on Aryan. But she won’t. From now onwards she won’t think about Rachit anymore. She had decided. Aryan is the guy for me.

She was just thinking about it when Rachit came to her.

“Ummmmmm…..Pratima I want to tell you about something”

“Yes?”

“It might sound weird. But these few days had been one of the best times of my life, and the main reason for that is you.”

“I could not get you”

“I mean this mission would have been like any other mission for me if it was not for you. I do not think I could have survived here without you.

When during that fire I saw you shocked, I totally forgot about everything that was going around and I just jumped there to save you, after that when we crossed that lake, when you were unconscious, I got scared because I could not let anything happen to you. The next morning, when I tried waking you up, and you were not responding, I again got scared of something might have happened to you that was the reason I used water to wake you up. In all these days, the only thing that kept me going was the fact that I was with you. I did everything for you.”

She was unable to say anything. She herself had been trying so hard to get him out of her mind and there for he, confessing his love to her. She just wished that he won’t say those three words.

“I love you Pratima”. He said.

“But……. I ……It is……ummmmm……………” was all she could get out of her. She wanted to reply, she wanted to say that she loved Aryan, she wanted to say that you can’t love me. But she couldn’t.

And before she could calm herself, they heard distant sirens. There search and rescue team was here. They were rescued. She wanted to talk to Rachit but she was unable to get anything out of her mouth.

Sands Of Time (Part 2)

ABOUT 18 YEARS LATER

Aryan and Pratima both were almost inseprable.They just could not live without each other. The childhood friendships transformed into love and were just meant to be with each other. Both were each other’s best friends and an emotional support. Their family knew about them and with their permission they both got engaged. It was like a total love story that was about to be woven into the eternal bond of marriage. They both could not be happier. They both loved each other. They just wanted to be together.

The college had ended and everyone was in a free mood and thinking about the plans for the future. Pratima’s birthday was about to come and Aryan had arranged a special party to her in which their parents were going to announce the engagement.

So the moment had arrived. Both of them were equally exited. Finally the love they had for each other since childhood was going to be having the blessings of god.

During the party everyone was so happy, the reasons being obvious. So it was the right moment when Mr. Sharma got up and was about to make the announcement.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please. Today as a father I cannot be happier to see my only son getting engaged to be married to the daughter of my best friend and business partner Col. Singh. Now I would request my son Aryan and my lovely to-be-daughter-in-law Pratima to come on stage and exchange the rings.”

They both got up on stage and with the blessings of the whole of Waknaghat, they were engaged. Both of them looked each other with the happiness they had never experienced before. It was their moment. It was the moment that they had been waiting for years.

The rest of the party went well. Everyone in attendance showered the new couple with blessings. After the party Aryan n Pratima were going home. Just like that the topic of what was next came up. Aryan was sure about his future. He always wanted to work in his dad’s steel mill. He asked Pratima the same question.

“I am not really sure what to do next. But partially I was thinking about joining the Indian army the same way as my dad did. “She said. Thought I hate the idea of being apart from you for such a long time.

‘Really???He said. But then we will have to be apart. I can’t stand a single moment apart from you.

“Just a thought “She said and smiled. I know you can never be apart from me. Neither can I.

“Hmmmm”He murmured. I wish you knew how difficult is for me to stay apart from you for a single second n you want to go for such a long time.

But the decision taken by Pratima was more than just a thought. Finally she decided to join the army. She had to go to training for a few months. Aryan was devastated by not being with Pratima for such a long time. This was the most time he had spent alone in the last 18 years without her. Same was her case. She wanted to get back to his Aryan. She wanted to hug him like she had never hugged him before. She had to see him.

A FEW MONTHS LATER

Pratima had finally come back. Aryan could not have been happier. It was to him that his soul had come back to him. He never wanted to leave Pratima alone. Ever. But there was a stipulation according to Pratima’s training .She was not actually the part of the army. She was in the Special Forces which were only required during the state of war .So she had not expected to go anywhere.

But God had some other plans for them.

An unexpected war broke out almost as soon as Pratima reached home.

Aryan and Pratima were sitting in a restaurant when the news of war flashed on T.V.Both was wordless for a moment. None of them had anticipated a war and that too so soon. Both were so very saddened by the fact that they had to leave each other.

Soon, the day when Pratima was about to leave came; they were at the railway station at Shimla waiting for the train. Both of them were trying not to think about anything cause they figured out whatever they think will make things worse, much worse than they actually are right now. The train arrived soon and it was the time to say goodbye.

‘So, I guess that’s it, train has arrived and I got to go now’. She said breathing hard. I just wish I had the chance to stay. Just hope I don’t start to cry, he looks so calm, I should not make him weak.

‘Yeah, I guess so’. He somehow said. I just don’t know how I will even live without you. I just hope I do not cry, you are so calm and I should not make you weak.

Then they hugged, their hug lasted more than usual because none of them wanted her to leave. Both of them wanted to live like this forever. Both of them wanted time to just stop so that they may never have to leave each other. But duty was duty and Aryan was the first to realize that so he loosened the hug.

And she was gone .Aryan was left alone without his soul. So was Pratima.

A FEW WEEKS LATER

It had been a few weeks since she had gone, Aryan was devastated. He could not work properly, never ate properly. Cell phones were not allowed during the war, so he decided to write a letter and posted it with the hope that his Pratima was fine.

At the war, it was a different scenario. Pratima was so busy in doing stuff that she did not have the chance to think about Aryan during the day. She worked under Col. Shah, who used to work with her father. He was really very much impressed with her work, he considered her as his daughter and tried not to burden her with much work, but she was always eager to do more. Even if declined any new work, she used to help others in completing their work. She is really like her father, stubborn but still sincere. Col .Shah thought.

But during the nights .it was a totally different world. Between the echoes of attacks n bombs, all she could think about was the time she spent with Aryan. Those were the best times of her life. Even while sleeping, all she could think about was him. God I love him so much. She thought and went to sleep. This was her routine. But her routine was about to be shaken up badly in the next couple of days.

Next day, a backup battalion was called because of much causality, much more then they had anticipated. That battalion was headed by Capt. Rachit Shah, son of Col. Shah. He was a tall, well built and proud soldier. He had this ruggedly handsome charm .But he was a man of action not of words, so except of when there was any need, he rarely spoke. And it turns out that Pratima and Rachit were to work together as a team in a search and rescue mission.

So, next day they headed out, with 2 other soldiers in hope of finding some officers that were trapped at some kilometers from their base .It was a simple operation, go find the men, take them out of there and come back to base. At least it sounded simple. They had been walking the whole day and were not able to find any other soldier. They almost lost hope and decided to rest during that night and go back to base tomorrow morning with the bad news. Tents had been set up and there canned food was cooking in a bonfire they made. While Pratima was busy in chatting up with soldiers, she saw Rachit sitting on the other side lost in some thoughts. Just then she thought about Aryan, that he would have been thinking about her the same way and then she felt bad about it so he decided to go and talk to Rachit.

She went up to there.’ Hi’ .she said

‘Good evening Cadet’ came the reply.

Oh so now there is formality.’ Captain I was wondering if you would come and sit over there with us???’

‘Thank you but I am fine’. He said with a straight face.

‘But, it would be nice….’

‘I think I said I am fine?’He said almost rudely.

He might be handsome but he does not have the way to talk to a girl.’ Never mind’ .She said and went off.

After eating they all went into their tents to get some sleep. Rachit was alone in his tent. Pratima was alone in hers. The other two soldiers were sharing the tent. She thought about what Aryan might have been doing and did not realized when she dozed off. But after some hours she woke up with a loud bang, and it was close. Very close. Hurriedly she came out of that tent and saw the tent of soldiers burning in flames. She was shocked and could not think what to do next. They had been attacked. Just then Rachit came running towards here’ Run Pratima run. RUN’

Sands Of Time (Part 1)

Love is anterior to life,

Posteror to death,

Initial of creation, and

The exponent of breath.

Emily Dickinson

LOVE…It’s possibly the most under rated as well as ironically the most over rated word in the history of this earth. Whenever we hear this word a vague picture of roses, moonlight n romance comes into our mind. If you are a fan of love stories, then I guess Romeo n Juliet, Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal comes flashing in your mind. But what actually most of us do not understand is Love has actually a much larger, if I m not being modest, a huge picture. Now I think love it not only the feeling what you feel when you see any handsome guy or a really pretty girl, it is just infatuation. Love has a much wider perspective. Love is the feeling what a mother feels for her child even before he/she is born. Love is what a sibling feels for the other when the other does something really unexpected. Love is what you feel for a friend when he/she does something special or exclusive for you. All in all love is probably the best feeling on this face of the earth.

 Now an important part of love is when one losses selfishness. Love is only love when you give it away. Love only exist when your happiness is not all important for you compared to the happiness of the one you love .During the course of this story you will come face to face with many forms of love. Some of the ways might not be the usual forms of love but it is really important that you understand the wider perspective of love, which is the happiness of your love one. Now with you permission I may start the story.

Now if you are a mountain lover, I am sure you will fall in love with the breath taking beauty of this little place called Waknaghat which is near Shimla, also known as the queen of hills. This was just the starting of the New Year and god had bestowed this wonderland with fresh snow.

The first fall of snow is not only an event, but it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up to find yourself in another quite diriment, and if this is not enchantment, then where it is to be found?

                                                           J.B. Priestly

Hills covered with snow. Pure white color all around, it sometimes makes an ordinary man to become a poet and fall in love with the beauty of nature in its pure form. This was a really small village in which everyone used to live happily mingling with the people around. This was a kind of a place where everyone knew everyone. Even thought the atmosphere was freezing cold, certain warmth filled the hearts of people living in this place.

It starts of the family of the Sharma’s. They lived here for quite a while. A simple family, husband wife and their son Aryan. Mr. Sharma owned a steel mill. He was not the kind of a person you will call a business man but owning a mill was no less of a feat in itself. Practically speaking half of the population of this village was dependent on his mill. So he was a well known person in the community. But he was one of the most down to earth people you will come across in your life.

Aryan was just a small 5 year old child. He had friends all over the village n spent most of his time playing outdoors. He was just a small child with his usual innocent smile n childish charm. With the dreams of his parents and a will to explore the world, he was going to be one fine gentleman when he grew up.

It was just about the end of January when another family, the Singh’s shifted in there heaven. Col. Singh was an army man, so they traveled a lot. Now finally they decided to settle down in this small place they thought as perfect to their 5 year old daughter Pratima. She was a totally extrovert child. Tom boy you may say. But her parents were not alarmed ‘because they knew that their daughter will turn out to be a wonderful young child. And then a beautiful women.

It was 13^th Feb. It was the occasion of Pratima’s birthday party when both of these families met each other. They both introduced their children to each other.

‘Hi’. Aryan said.

“Hi’. She replied.’ Do you want to come and play with my new toys??’

“Sure’. And they ran outside to play. They just instantly bonded. It was almost that there was some divine force who wanted these two children to be together.

Sharma’s n Singh’s were the new neighbors, and they instantly clicked. So much so that with in no time they came so close that Mr. Sharma was thinking about making Col. Singh his partner. And with in no time he did make him his partner. This was just a starting of a great relation that was about to form in the coming years.

Wrongfully Right

*beep** beep* my cell phone buzzed. While almost more than a half asleep I tried my best to open one of my eyes a little so that I might be able to see who the hell was texting me at this time of the night. I rolled over to me side cabinet and picked up me phone. It was from the hospital. I cursed a little because firstly it was 3 in the morning and secondly I had only been back from there for 2 hours. I unlocked my cell to see what the message was; it read “please reach the hospital ASAP, Emergency”. Our hospital had a weird policy of first texting a doctor and if he doesn’t reply within 5 minutes then they call. Jerks, I know right. Going on, I read the text and replied “K” as in OK, not trying to be hip or anything, I was just not ready to type two alphabets. I took hold of all my strength and got up from the bed, being a doctor has its advantages because you earn outrageous amounts of money if you work properly. I had an apartment at 25^th floor and had an awesome view and for the first time since I moved here, I saw the road empty, which was sad actually. I walked up to the bathroom, got changed and went straight to the parking. The way to hospital was about 15 minutes but as there was traffic, I hoped to reach there in 7-8 minutes. I had just been back and the car was still a little warm, I forgot to mention what I did when I was at the hospital earlier. I had a surgery, the kid feel from the third floor and had a part of his skull cracked, 3 ribs fractured and the most worrying, had a part of the fence inside his stomach. After an operation of more than 10 hours we were able to revive him, but it was sad to see a kid of age no more than 8 years in this condition. He will survive thought; even the scars will be operated, but not sure about the mental scars.

As I entered the hospital building I saw as much rush as it is in the day time, Weird thing about the hospitals that they are never empty. One of the saddest parts of modern life, no matter how much the government says about its health policy, their hospitals are never empty. As I entered the building nurse Jackie came running towards me, she was about the average height but was extremely cheerful for someone who worked at a hospital. She was the kind of a person you want as a co-worker, hot yet good at work. She looked kind of worried today. She came to me and said, “Doctor, Bhanu got shot today. He is your case”. Bhanu was well, as you may describe the godfather of the local mafia. He was accused of killing more than 1000 men, women and children. He never got arrested though. The things money can do in a modern age. Well he was my patient and because of the oath I took when I became a doctor, it is almost a big page of promises but it all comes down to this “I am a doctor, and I shall treat all” rest you can always search on the web.

As we went into the lift, thousand pictures of the people he killed, the women he raped, the children he made orphans came jumping into my head. A part of me wanted to let him die, but I took the oath and I meant every word I said; then, now I don’t even remember what I said. Still if there was someone who doesn’t deserve to live, it was him. While getting off the lift and walking towards the room, Jackie was telling me about the case and the problems attached to it. His room was easily recognizable; it had a hoard of people waiting outside of it. I guess more than 99 % people don’t even care about the patient; they are here just because the social protocol calls for it. As I entered the room I saw Bhanu laying on the bed unconscious, his heart was still beating, maybe with some irregularities but still the machine was going beep beep beep. I hated that sound. I checked his pulse and looked at his wound. It was still bleeding and he would die if not operated soon enough. I looked at Nurse Jackie and ordered her to get him ready to take him to the operation theatre, yet another term I don’t really understand, why does it has a word theatre attached to it. I was almost feeling dizzy when I excused myself and I went into the next room which was thankfully empty. I sat down and thought about the circumstances I was into. Just less than a half an hour before I was sleeping like a baby, and now I had to operate on the biggest gangster the city has ever seen? I think I had my blood pressure rising or may be falling, I don’t know. You must think what kind of a jerk doctor I was if I didn’t knew if my BP was rising or falling, but frankly, I didn’t care which way it went. I never wanted to be in this scenario.

Seeing I wasn’t back, Jackie came in the room and asked me what was wrong. Sweating like crazy I was not sure whether to tell her about it or not, I decided to go in the former way. I said, “Do you know the feeling when you are going into the operation theatre for the first time for your first surgery?”

“Yes” she replied skeptically.

“Do you know the feeling when after all your efforts the patient survives??”

“Yes” she said.

“Well, I am kind of confused” I said not trying to riddle it anymore.

“Confused in what??” she said, starting to get worried.

“How can you save a patient when letting him live for another second makes you sick in the gut??”

“Are you talking about Bhanu??”

“Yes, I mean yes I am a doctor, and yes this is a simple case and yes I have to treat him, but how can I when I know if he lives he is going to kill thousands more as he had killed before?”

“But doctor you will have to treat him. You took an oath?”

“Yes, but what is the use of that oath if it saves a monster??” I was confused, more confused as I could ever be.

She looked at my eyes. It was as if she had faith in me that I would choose the right option. A bead of sweat slowly rolled from the side of my forehead onto the frame of my spectacles, at the same time she looked at me, stared for a while and walked outside. I could never understand what she saw that made her leave. But she was right, I took an oath and I should be maintaining its honor. Just when I was about to rise from the chair that I was sitting on for the past few minutes when I no longer could stand, images of thousands of people who had been affected by him, and not at all in a good way came rushing into my mind.

I finally got up, opened the window for a breather. Then out of nowhere, it struck me. The decision had been made. I closed the window and went straight into the Operation Theatre.

He didn’t survived, was all I said coming out of the OT after 5 hours. But they never knew what happened in there. He was resuscitating after the operation. I “accidently” cut one of his veins. He died of heavy internal bleeding. Jackie was with me when I did it, and instead of her looking at me as I was some kind of a criminal, she looked at me with her blank look, which made me even more doubtful for what I had done. But what was done was done. Nothing I could say or do can make it anything else then it really is.

It had been 30 days since that happened. I haven’t been to the hospital since then. I haven’t been taking any calls or messages from anyone at the hospital, not even Jackie. Now standing at the rooftop smoking a cigarette, which I should clarify, was may be my second ever, I am not a smoker, and I just felt like the right occasion. Smoking and still wondering if what I did was right, I look into the vast emptiness of the night sky, I do truly believe what is did that day was right. I could never be a celebrity, never a president, this might be the only worth thing I might have done in my small and unimportant life. Yet I still look up to the sky and pray to god, for I have done, the wrongfully right. 

Lucky Me

Sweaty, restless and tired, these are just a few words that describe how I have been feeling for almost a month now. If I believed in god, I would have sworn on him to tell you that I have not slept a single second for the past 30 nights. Now lying inside my bathtub, I try to replicate the feeling you get when you fall, but no wonder you don’t get it, no inside a closed space, not inside a bathtub. People say that you will fall in love with life, if you live it long enough. I have lived enough for the past 30 years, my age being 29, and still haven’t fallen in love with my life. The only one year of my life that I don’t regret happening is the first year, and that too because I don’t remember it. I have a pretty good memory, but still I don’t remember my first year, because if I had, I would have disliked it too. It has been over a month now since I have again started feeling pathetic about myself, yes, I wasn’t always my charming self. I don’t really rely on you to believe me, mainly because we have just met, but I don’t want to live anymore. I don’t want this life, not a single second more with the feeling that your brain is going to burst anytime now. Well, I apologize for being rude, but I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Lucky, the most ironical name of all times, I am 30 years of age, but I guess I already told you about it. I like reading books, and well, yeah, I kill people.

You know the feeling you get when you are not feeling your all time best, you are feeling that your world will never be happy again, I have had that feeling all my life. But I guess the life I had, has that effect on people, I am not blaming anybody, not my drunk father, or my runaway mother or anyone for that matter, but if I did, yeah, I would blame each and every person I have ever met.

For as early as I remember, I don’t have a memory of my father in a sober state, not that I don’t remember it, but he was never sober after all. Every time I saw my father, he was either drinking, or drunk, or for a change getting really drunk and beating my mother or just for the sake of it, me. The only thing I can’t remember about me it who the hell named me Lucky, or what were they thinking naming me like that, I think they should give the baby sometime to decide what he want his name to be, I would choose a name exactly opposite of Lucky, but not the exact “Unlucky”, I mean how lame would that be.

Till about the age of 10, I did nothing, and by nothing I mean nothing. My father left to work in the factory early in the morning and came in late at night, most of the time, my mother would make me go to sleep before he came home, just so I won’t see him in that state. But I always had one eye open when my father came home. My father would erupt in anger for the tiniest of things, and whoever came in front would face his wrath. Sometimes my mother, or sometimes when I unfortunately woke up, according to them, the victim would be me. He would often lift me up and throw me in the corner on my bed. It would hurt, sometimes I couldn’t even get up the next morning, my mother would apply medicine on my body and the soreness would fade away, eventually. But the scars on my mother’s body never faded, even if she tried rubbing medicine on it. I wished I could have helped my mother, but whenever I did, my father would stop hitting her and hit me. I did actually try to stop him sometimes, just so that he won’t kill my mother and instead kill me. But he never actually did. One evening, I think it was summer; I came home after playing when I saw nothing but darkness in our house. We didn’t have electricity but mother would always light up candles, but that day she didn’t. I went inside to see if everything was fine, but my mother was nowhere to be seen. I searched the whole house, not that it took time, and it was after all one single room along with kitchen, but couldn’t find her anywhere. I tried finding her in the neighbor’s houses but she wasn’t there either. I sat on the porch waiting for my father to come home and find my mother. But when he did, he went inside and went to sleep. I tried waking him up but he slapped me and told me to go to sleep. I couldn’t sleep that night, I was hungry. After a few days, I was told that my mother ran off somewhere because she was fed up from my father. I wanted her to come back, father never cooked well. About a month later, we got to know that my mother hanged herself, not because she was missing my father, but she was afraid what my father would have done to me. I think I was the cause of her death, just because she was attached to me.

After a few years of bad cooking by my father, I finally learnt to cook. I wasn’t as good as my mother, but I was way better then my father. He never tried sending me to school, because he was afraid I would find to time for the house then. I didn’t want to go to school; they had the big people with sticks in their hands.

One day, I was out of cooking oil, fortunately father was at home so I told him to go fetch some oil for the dinner, he would have normally slapped me and ordered me to go do it myself, but I was now taller than my father, so I think he was a little scared that I would slap him back. I wouldn’t, but I liked to think he thought that way. He got up and went to the market, which was about 10 minutes away from our house. About 10 minutes later, I heard a loud bang, I stopped what I was doing and ran outside to see what it was, all I could see were the flames in the market, and everyone was running to save themselves. I started running too, without knowing where I would go, but I ran, I ran with all I had. Next day people told me the fuse in the oil shop short circuited, whatever it meant, which caused the fire, everyone including my father was killed in it. I like to think it’s my fault because it would have been me in his place if he hadn’t gone to the market himself.

I don’t know if this happens to everyone or it happened just to me, but instead of feeling sad that I was left alone in this world, I kind of liked it. You don’t have to get beaten, you cook whatever you like, you sleep whenever and however you can. That was the first night I remember in my life, which I slept peacefully, that and many more to come. It was a huge burden to be lifted off my shoulders that anyone no longer is going to wake me up in the middle of the night and beat the hell out of me, and go to sleep, just like that. It was fun, kind of at least. It was fun till one of my uncles landed in my house, he wanted to take control of the house, and he gave me work in a small mill located nearby as a composition. I took the deal because I thought it would be easier to live by myself then to live with someone who is carrying the same genes as my father, not that I am not, but it is my life after all. I can assume anything I want; I assumed I had no hereditary connection to my father. It made me feel a little good about myself.

A few years down the line, they said it was time for me to get married. I had by now a small house, which wasn’t a slice of heaven though, but still covered my head. I don’t understand people’s obsession with their houses, it is just a set of bricks after all. Coming back to the topic, they were forcing me to get married, I opposed, and they forced more. I finally gave in. a girl was found for me and I was married. My wife wasn’t the most beautiful women you will ever see, but she wasn’t bad. She was kind of what they will call cute. She had to eyes, a set of limbs and knew how to cook, which was enough for me. The silly thing about marriage is even if you are not excited about it, the people around you always are. People, who worked with me, men, kept on telling me what to expect on my first night. I didn’t give much thought about it. It was a night like any other night after all, the difference being that I won’t be able to sleep in my bed as comfortably as I did. After my marriage, I was really exhausted with all the meaningless ceremonies that when I entered my bedroom, I went to my bed, got undressed and went to sleep, never even looked at my wife, who was getting ready to please me, I sometimes feel bad about what I did that night, but I don’t think I could have done anything else, given the amount of energy the wedding ceremonies take.

It had been a couple of months since I got married, and we didn’t, what other people call sleeping together , even though ironically, no matter how uncomfortable it was, we always slept together, well, literally. My wife took care of me, made me food, washed my clothes, and gave me medicine when I was sick. She did all that without expecting much, or anything actually. I wished I had feelings, because if I did, I would have all of them for my wife. She was what can be called as a perfect example of housewife. One night, it was raining and we had no electricity at the house at that time, and well to be short one thing led to another and that night we did what people thought we did the first night of our marriage. It was good, kind of like eating ice cream, no matter how big a spoonful you take, you always want more. So that ‘thing’ continued every night for a week or so, at least I think it was at least a week, till the time my wife pronounced she was pregnant. She meant she was carrying my child, my offspring. Someone who was carrying my genes, my mother’s, and no matter how much I denied it, my father’s too. It was kind of a funny moment for me because normally people would be happy if their wife got pregnant, I was worried, not the normal worries about the money and all, but was worried about someone else like me walking the earth. My wife looked at me and held my hand and told me it was going to be alright. I faked a smile, something I was very good at since childhood, faking emotions and thought in my mind the possibility of my child being like me. Just thinking about it made me toes curl, still do actually.

It was about 9 months since my wife had announced she was pregnant, and we were approaching the due date. My wife had grown from a petite woman to a huge thing which looked like a mountain from behind. I liked the old version of my wife better, and was anxious to get it over with. I was certain I wanted a girl, because that would increase the chances of her turning out to be like her mother then me.

It was one fine evening, when I returned from my office, and was making dinner, since my wife wasn’t allowed to do anything, maybe because lately she ate so much doctors were worried she would all the food in the house. When I told her that she laughed and said that she was eating for two, I told her there must be more inside of her because there was no chance that two people, one of which is not even born yet, can eat so much. Coming back again, while I was cooking I heard my wife scream. I went inside the room to see her water had broken, which meant that the judgment day was finally here.

Hospital was about an hour away from our house, and I tried driving as fast as I could to reach there soon. Maybe it was night, maybe I was tired, but somehow I couldn’t keep my eyes open while I was driving. As a result accident happened. We were hit by a truck moving right towards us. One I regained consciousness in the same hospital I was taking my wife; I was told she was no more. She and my unborn boy died at the spot. I swear I didn’t expect it, but a small tear rolled down my eye. I realized I was crying.

It has been exactly 30 days ever since that happened. I don’t really like to visit the past, but since it is my last night on earth, I figured why not. Still lying in the bath tub, while recounting all the memories I had inside my little head, I realized one thing, life is as long as you want it to be. You can live just a single day and adjust your whole life into it, or you can breathe 30 years and still live none. So, for the 30^th time, and hopefully last, I take all the air I can fix inside my lungs and drop my head into the water.

 

Failure

Failure, it is a really tricky word isn’t it? I mean it has different meanings for different people. It basically comes down to not getting something you wanted, or you thought you deserved, and feeling sad in the end. As I stated earlier, I will mean different things to different people, but even for one individual, it may mean different things at different stages of life. In this article, or whatever you call it, I will try my best to explain the various stages of when you feel that you have failed. Why you ask? Well because I have been seeing a lot of people feel like losers in their lives because of petty reasons, in fact they can use this time to be better than they were.

1)      First ever sense of failure starts from back when we are in school, sometimes getting not enough marks in a certain test, or weirdly enough, someone else getting more marks, that you think don’t deserve will make you feel like you are a failure for the rest of your life. It is amusing actually to see kids, even 17 and 18 years old crying over failing to get the marks they expected. Education, even though a great weapon for us to fight for the rest of our lives isn’t the only thing you will need. You might not get the desired marks, and still it doesn’t mean that you won’t be successful in life. The most famous example being Bill Gates, a college drop-out who was just until recently the wealthiest man in the world. Mark Zukerberg, another college drop-out and a founder of Facebook. I can actually quote many more examples, but the point is, education alone, and that too from the top notch institute, is not the only thing you need in life. Keeping this in mind, I would like to clarify that I am not saying it is not important, but it isn’t the only important thing.

2)      Another stage of failure is when someone you love or you thought you did, ditches you or leaves you from some reason. And believe me you; everyone goes from this particular stage. It even include the one sided lovers too. Love, even though important, but you can live without it too. You always have people, like your friends and family to fall back on. Every relationship has its course, and when it ends, people normally think of it as a mistake. When in a relationship, they can’t stop blabbering about each other, on how good and special they are, and how unique is their love, and after the breakup they can’t stop talking about what kind of a jerk the guy was, or how bitchy the girl was and stuff like that. I mean yes, you were in a relationship and you were happy, but if it ends somehow, or for some reason, you should respect the good times you had with each other, not try to cut each other’s throats. Not trying to act Dr. Phil here, but I think you should have respect for someone who you were very much fond of once, and even loved, may be.

3)      Now you have passed school, and you are now over your heartbreak, the next point where you feel like a failure is when you lose a job, sometimes after working for a lesser period of time, and sometimes, and more painful option, working for a longer period of time. Sometimes the company thinks you are not really much good for it and they fire you, basically after giving you one of the most pathetic excuses you will ever hear in your life. It is easier to find a job when you are young, but not when you are, not so young. Even if you have to leave your job during your middle age, there are still no worries, because this might be the time you think about following your passion. Do something for yourself, with yourself. Live all the times that you missed sitting on a chair in your office. If you are honest and hard working, there will be no problem getting a job. There is a saying that there are only two types of people in the world, first who are willing to work, and others who are willing to let them. Don’t feel like a loser if you are not where you wanted to be at a particular stage of your life, be thankful to god that you are still alive and kickin’.

4)       This is probably the last stage of failure and the last stage of life. This is a stage where your children are settled with their own families and you and your spouse are left alone in a house that was once a centre of noise and laughter. This can make even the happiest person on the face of this earth feel sad because many thoughts cross your mind during this time. Was I not a good parent to my children that I have to go through this? The answer is you were the best parent you could be. You got to understand that you have made your child/children able to face the world. They have their own life. You are still a important part of their lives but sometimes, correction, most of the times the circumstances don’t allow for them to come and live with you. You don’t need to feel like a looser now, take this opportunity and fill in all the blanks that you left throughout your life. As they say, enjoy till it lasts, you got to live the last times of your lives by being the best person you can be, the best father, mother, mentor, grandparent and above all, the best human being. Go out and have fun, don’t let age deny you any opportunity; you have lived enough for others, now it is your turn to live it up for yourself.