Monday, December 26

The old age home - Part I

He was a major in the army, all full of discpline and virtues. He had spearheaded one of the regiments' attack on the crucial Mt 5124 which was sucessful in the 1971 war. He lost 4 of his jawans, one of whose child had a hole in the heart. He dedicatedly sent half his salary to the family. His wife managed the household with half the salary. She never gave out an inkling of the hardship she was facing making both the ends meet.

She died after having done all her worldly duties. The kids had grown up, their education done, the eldest son had gotten married and settled down, the only girl was off in the in laws house after having come back for her first child as per the tradition.She finally slept her eternal sleep next to her husband on the Vijayadashmi night, she had pressed his legs, fanned him to sleep and lay down next to him .... the physical aspects of the relation long gone, now they were more of friends than of lovers , at 62 , you cannot be much of a lover too, but this night she had drawn close to him, whispered her love to him,he smiled and patted her hands,she cupped his hands in hers for the last time, when the rigor mortis had set in the next day, they had to pull her claw like hands away from him ... almost as though the corpse was pleading the husband not to let go even if it was only a corpse.
After 6 years of the incident , he was still able to recall the episode with all the tiny detail, of course , one does not let go of memories just like that.
"The memories are all that are there" he said with mist filled eyes, partly due to the cataract and partly due to the clouding,crowding memories he has.
I nodded with tear filled eyes, I had taken up a job in the old age home as an accountant, the pay was not high, but it helped nonetheless.
The job was ideal,I was nursing my wounds of a recent breakup, and hated memories from all my heart.
That was almost a month back, today he lay on his bed, unable to move , the old age home authorites, being low in staff had called his eldest son to take him home until they could provide him with staff who could take care of him.........

5 comments:

Kaala Kavva said...

hmm.....
sad.. but all a part of the game.

Kaala Kavva said...

I wanted to say,
'
arre anpad!
yeh bhi good story thee..
mai to real samajh raha thaa!

aur yeh comment apt tha!'

but i will say
'oh sorry! waitin eagerly for ze 2nd part'

arpana said...

@zeex beta sachchai aur bhram main antar ko samjho, us bhed ko jaano ..... tabhi zindagi main moh maya ko yaag paaoge ! :p ye story hi hain... "I" use karne se sab kuch vasstav nahin banta, sir hilaane se har koi Sanjay Dutt nahin banta :p

arpana said...

@rk .. arre ye story hain, part one hain, abhi tak finish bhi nahin hua hain , pls dont take it personal, this is PURE FICTION yaar !

Kaala Kavva said...

I wrote a PURE fiction post about telephones..
and some1 call arpz asked me "abhi tak land line :O"

pata nahi kaun sar hilaane waali ladki thee!
hahahaha

Now I should say,
beta sachchai aur bhram main antar ko samjho, us bhed ko
jaano ..... tabhi zindagi main moh maya ko
tyaag paaoge ! :p

:p