Love Beyond Words..
INFINITY~
Sarah wakes up on a pleasant September morning hearing a soothing azaan being
recited at the mosque, the melodious hymns being played at the temple and the bells ringing at the church along with the tune of her alarm clock. She freshens up,
removes her dried up mehendi (henna) with a slight smile thinking that the maroon
colour of it is because someone somewhere is waiting to shower unconditional love
on her, the dark colour being a sign of it. Innocent girl unaware that it is actually the
good quality henna that’s doing its job right that’s all. She performs her salah (prayer), sips her favourite type of green tea with cinnamon,
lemon, honey and adds some hibiscus and rose petals from her garden, wears her
mask and leaves for a brisk morning walk in her colony.
Not many people are out for a walk now. A couple of months back when the situation
was normal, she would find many with shoes and earphones around. But now, as the
a cruel pandemic was ruining lives, the scenario was a bit disturbed. But Sarah never
missed her walk nor did she miss observing something. That was, an old man with
clean, ironed white jhubba- pyjama and a skull cap, on his dilapidated luna with a
big basket of marigold flowers would keep humming- “mallihuva mallihuva”,
and on the other side a brahmin old man with saffron dhoti and bright vermillion on
his forehead would wait for this man on luna to arrive, as his puja would begin daily
with these fresh flowers. Both would smile at each other and Sarah would witness it.
Same is the case today. The only difference is that the smiles are covered behind the masks yet reflect the same warmth of love. And being the cherry on the cake,
today was Eid plus Ganesh chathurthi. So not only smiles but the greetings were also
exchanged today!
Sarah arrives home and is all set to get dressed up in her lucknowi chikankari black
suit with mirrored black metal earrings going exactly with the border of her suit and
those matching jutis as well. She dabs a little tint on cheeks and lips a little mascara
and dark kajal and is all ready.
She leaves to get some fresh asli gulaab from the street side. Streets are
decked up with lights and colourful decors. Because two awesome festivals and
Sunday has given a reason for glee amidst sadness. She reaches to Mr. Thomas’s
the pretty petals store from where people of her colony purchase flowers for all
festivities famous especially to have the best asli gulab of light pink tinge. Sarah’s
Mom prefers them to add beauty to her sevaiyyan and kheer. Mr.Thomas is in a hurry
today because it is Sunday and he has to gush for the mass at church. But still he
waits for sarah to select the best beauties sees her off patiently, wishes her, asks her
to keep little kheer for him as well and then leaves.
Sarah gets back home and mumy garnishes the sheer korma with the petals and
asks her to give it to Mr. and Mrs. Prashanth, their good old neighbours.
Those neighbours who are getting ready for two celebrations at home. One being
chathurthi and the other one their son’s birthday. Son.. named Samiir, though not
their biological son, he meant more than one for them. Samiir was the son of
Mr.Prashant’s best friend who wasn’t less than family for him. Thay take care of
samiir as their own son being not blessed with offsprings. They also never interfere
with his religious practises. Samiir had lost his parents who succumbed to covid a
a couple of months back. Right after he graduated with an MBA from IIMB. Being away
from his parents for academic engagements most of the time, shattered samiir even
more who thought after he returns back would have sufficient time with his loved
ones, but who knew destiny had this kind of time waiting. He had no siblings and
Thus he would feel as if his only hope to survive was all over within a blink of an eye.
The most disheartening thing being that he couldn’t perform at least the last rites of
them properly. He had heard that they strived hard, grasped for breath and
succumbed. They could not find beds easily. Only those who had some influence
could.. oxygen cylinders were out of reach, doctors out of reach, ramdev sivir out of
reach! And this still aches his heart, but still he is trying to face life with great
courage. And on the other side just a few blocks away from sarah is samiir getting
ready coincidently with his black lucknowi kurta.
Sarah and Rob arrive at Mr.Prashant’s home at once. Sarah with a hot box of sheer
korma and mr. rob with a blackforest cake for samiir. Samiir opens the door and his
eyes meet that of Sarah’s. And he finds it extremely difficult to take them off from
those. They seem cent percent mesmerising. Mr. Rob is received by Mrs prashanth.
Sarah greets her. She hugs Sarah and invites her in. she gets hot chaklis and besan
wale laddu. Mr. Rob grabs them and enjoys munching over those delicacies. Sarah
hesitatingly picks a laddu and takes a small bite. Mrs.Prashanth tells her that she
can have them without any guilt because they were made of desi ghee and jaggery
as she prefers every year. Yummy aunty you are the best and your ladus are the
bestest of all. I wait every year to give my taste buds a treat. and meanwhile
Samiir is awestruck by the way she smiles and speaks. Her smile seemed to be so
captivating. In her eyes he could see a new hope for his life. He wondered how
someone can be so kind and sweet in nature . she asks sarah to take some ladus
back home and hands her over the same hot box with ladus filled in it. Sarah puts
her mask on and is ready to leave. Sarah asks Mrs Prashanth about the gorgeously
packed cake. And she replies that it was for samiir. Oh sorry dear I must have
introduced you to samiir earlier. Well, he is your uncle’s best friend’s son. An mba
graduate. Hell will stay with us now..forever..like our son. And yeah today is his birthday!
Oh I see.. nice to meet you samiir. Happy birthday.. she says. Thh thh thhhankyou..
loudly. And in a low voice, thanks sweetie!
“Hey wait dearie” Prashanth uncle exclaims . Here’s your eidi. “Ohh uncle its ok
I’m a big girl now”. “Ha ha nothing as such we have been giving it to you from
past decade. And no matter how old you grow you will always be our little one. By
the way I gave it to samiir as well he is older than you na. samiir realises that she is
younger than him*
“. “Thank you uncle” she says and leaves finally.
Samiir watches her till she remains within the sight limit.
Samiir indirectly now and then keeps asking about sarah to aunty. She doubts his
changed behaviour but he never confesses. He learns that sarah was a part of an
ngo which worked for disabled and elderly. She loved doing social service. And this
made him visit that ngo the next day. He observed sarah again beautifully dressed
this time with a floral blazer and long frock. She was seen distributing masks and
hand sanitizers to old plus chocolates to kids. The way she sang, danced and had
fun with them melted his heart. He tries to speak to her but she observes and
ignores. Sarah realises that there was something fishy so she keeps escaping from
his reach. After a week they coincidentally meet at a grocery store of their colony. And
he says. “Hi”
“What hi! Why are you following me she asks. Hey please don’t take me wrong. I just
I want to speak to you once. Can I please?”
Can I have your number? She keeps mum. At the billing counter when the
counter boy asks her number she tells it louder and samiir saves it with a huge smile
on.
Samiir calls her at 3: 30 am in the morning. Stunned poor girls doest receive . he
texts-
Hi princess this is samiir
Princess?
Yeah didn’t you know that sarah literally means princes!
And so you are the one.
The one?
Ok.. dear Sarah I just want to confess that I’m unable to take my mind from you.
It’s not any cheap way of flirting with you but it’s kind of a relief that i’m feeling since
I’ve met you. Trust me, I had no hope for my survival. I battled depression. I feel feel
empty deep inside. And the day I saw you I smiled after so long. I see my hope for
survival in you now. If you don’t like me then no worries i’ll keep waiting for you
forever. And if at all you ;like me then trust me i’ll never leave your hand even for a
Second ! Sarah’s eyes turn watery. She never felt this anytime before. Her heart was
screaming yesss!!! But she doesn’t reply to letters. Since then both have had sleepless nights.
It’s a month. The condition of pandemic is deteriorating and there a curfew for a
a couple of weeks. So both leave for the market and meet again. This time samiir
notices sarah and rushes to a jewellery shop he purchased a ring of infinity spending
all his hard saved money of graduation and post graduation days on it. As sarah was
about to take her scooty from the stand he places the box in the front bag of scooty.
Tired sarah reaches home and as she grabs the bags she notices the box and takes
it is.
She reads a note. This is not any proposal or something like that. It is eidi
from my side a small gift which you can still accept as a friend. Dear princess. She
understand that it was from none other than samiir. She weeps for a couple of
minutes and then wears it. He tries to text sarah back but he remains still to see his
number being blocked.He tries to calm himself down and gathers courage again to
move on. On the other side sarah also gathers more courage to move on by keeping
the ring wearing and looking at it every second. She doesn’t confess because she
doesn’t want to hurt samiir if at all her father doesn’t accept him. She being very
thoughtful of her parents’ feelings hides her own. The curfew seems to be strict and they
don’t see each other for two weeks. During which samiir still believes that maybe
Sometimes she would agree. And so he continues waking up at 3 30 and praying
hard so that the almighty might make it easy for him.
The curfew ends but not the pandemic. And Sarah also ends her life…
Mrs.Prashanth comes to samiir and tells him that sarah was no more. He doesn’t weep nor
utters a word for sometime. He finds the id false. She explains that from last 3 to 4 days
they were trying badly to find a bed for sarah who had contacted the deadly virus at
her ngo. As there was no influence they were given no consideration. She was on
the ventilator at a govt hospital and suddenly even that one stopped functioning
yesterday. Doctors were hard from their reach and all this ignorance took away our
dear from us samiir. He heard quietly and rushed to the gov hospital. He finds no
family member there because they also being little symptomatic were kept under
strict quarantine. The nurse in white gets a ring and hands it over to samiir
assuming that he knew sarah. He asks the nurse about her last rites and visits the
place. No family members. No relatives. No friend. No well wisher. No ngo people. No
neighbours. But a person madly caring for her witnesses her last
moments. His hope for life being cold and wrapped in white plastics being dropped and
covered aches his heart. He gets fresh red roses and asli gulab and talks to her for
whole day. As he reaches home at night tensed aunt also consoles him and he
confesses his love for her. They weep.. they weep badly.. he then notices the ring
kept in his pocket which the nurse had handed over and it was the same one given by him.