Dear Diary,
Life has taken ‘U-turn’ after her death, my Shakuntala. My mental state is not keeping up with me. I’m starting to forget things. Yesterday, I could not find my house keys for 3 hours. So, I skipped evening walk and drank coffee at the balcony instead. While sipping the hot coffee, I felt her presence in my life.
I can clearly remember the night when I woke up to the painful cry of her. She was pressing her chest tightly as she was feeling severe pain. It took me few minutes to understand that she was having a heart attack. While I was trying to pick her up to get to the hospital, her hand fell from mine, cold, numb. I was trying hard not to break down but my mind continued to imagine the worst. The apologetic doctor tried her best to not hurt my feelings and do her duty. She was gone. The moment her hand fell from mine, she was no more. The doctor saw tears bubbling up in my eyes but I was brave. I didn’t break down.
When I was seeing off Nisha, my daughter at the airport, she hugged me tight and cried. Maybe she was missing her lovely mother’s presence. Maybe she was feeling empathetic towards me as I’ll be left alone. Sudhansu tried to console her for a while then handed her their 2-year-old child, Priyansh, as he started crying as well. He touched my feet and asked me to come visit them often. I nodded as they left for checkout. As I saw them vanishing in the crowd, I wished if she had been there. By my side, holding my hand.
The coffee has become cold. I drank the whole cup at one go. It was her favorite, cold coffee. Not the fancy ones with chocolate chips, but those she always forget to drink while arguing with me. Nothing has been same since the day she left. When I try hard to recall everything after that night, it feels like I’m missing out on something. It’s like life is fading away after her. My memory is becoming weak day by day. I don’t know how I managed a month without her.
Who knows!!! Maybe someday people will find me in the park wandering around like a mentally retarded old man. So, I thought of writing my daily life to remember something by.
While I was preparing bread-toast for breakfast today, I heard some noise at the door. I thought someone is calling me. But when I looked through the peep-hole, there were three people shifting a large sofa into the front apartment. One of them was wearing a simple check shirt & denim jeans while the other two were in uniforms of a local shifting/moving company. As they came out of the house, a young lady also followed them from inside the house. She was wearing a yellow-red colored shalwar kameez. Her new red bangles and slightly worn-out mehendi cleared it that she was a newly married woman. The man in denim jeans must be the husband. I smelled something burning and remembered that I had placed the bread on the Tawa for toast. I rushed back, but it was too late. I had to manage my breakfast with the burnt bread-toast with orange marmalade.
The temperature was quite comfortable today. The afternoon breeze was giving a monsoon-vibe. I was in a mood for some chai with besan ke pakode. As I was going to the kitchen, someone knocked at the door. I looked through the peep-hole and saw the couple from the next door.
“How can I help you?” I asked as I opened the door.
“Hello, uncle. I am Anuj & this is my wife Archana. We just moved next door today. So, we thought we should introduce ourselves”, said the husband.
Archana was standing by his side with a packet of sweet in her hands and a beautiful smile in her face.
“Arey, welcome to our building. Myself Radhakant. Come on inside and have a cup of chai” I replied.
“That’s so nice of you, uncle. But we don’t want to be much of a trouble,” said Archana.
“Don’t you worry about that, my dear. I was going to make myself a cup of chai anyway. At least, we’ll get to know each other,” I said.
Archana helped me a little in the kitchen and the snacks were ready to be served. The conversation started along with pakode and chai. Soon, I got to know that Anuj is an art director in an advertising firm and Archana is a copywriter. They used to work together in their previous company and fell in love there only. After their marriage, they both changed their companies and moved here.
After a long chat, we became good friends. They both were from respected families & very polite. Archana’s behaviors also gave me the feeling of my daughter. While Archana & I started gossiping and laughing, Anuj became the silent participant. As soon as we realize that, we dragged him into the conversation and gave him a good laugh as well.
It was 7 in the evening. Our discussion was so entertaining that we lost the track of time. They both left for their apartment and I left mine for the evening walk in the society park. After a quiet, lonely one month, I finally had a real talk and a good laugh. Maybe my last days won’t be so much hard for me as now I have my Next-door Neighbor.
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