It was some Sunday when while working in the kitchen Yamini lost her control over the pressure cooker and it became a bad Sunday for her. Her face was burnt and the Daddy's princess lost her 'conventional' beauty. This was traumatizing as she had been poured with compliments all through her teens. Someone liked her fair color, so another one liked her smooth hair. Her eyes were also a center of attraction for those who were close to her. Her Daddy used to say that he would shoot anybody if he dared to harm his beautiful princess. He used to flaunt the gun that his father had left behind.
But now half her face was burnt and the doctors declared that in no case were the marks going to leave her. Arun, whom Yamini claimed to be a soul-mate used to visit her every week. The parents who were stubborn against their relationship were now growing to be liberal. One evening when the reality struckYamini that the scars were going to accompany her till her grave, she fell down crying aloud. Seeing the girl sobbing restlessly, the mother could do nothing but hug her tight. Yamini gathered her courage and said to her mother,
"Mummy, i don't want to live anymore. Please help me."
Both their eyes glistened wet and there was a starve in her tears. The mother was a strong lady and didn't want to fall weak in such a weak situation. She said, "Shhhshhh.....We should not say such things in the evening. We people care for you. I am here, your father....Arun.." Then she placed her head into her lap and said, "Sleep...you will feel good."
"Nanhi Pari Sone Chali....." the mother sang. Yamini buried her face into her lap, held her hand tight and kept on saying, "I wanna die...help me..." Her voice kept going low when she fell into the protective world of dreams.
Two days after this, Yamini gathered her courage, wrapped a green dupatta over her face and went to college. There she saw awkward eyes panning over her, some showing sympathy, some being irritating. Yamini saw Arun coming towards her. She was amazed that finally there was someone who would hug her and protect her from those awkward eyes. But he looked through her and passed from her side, ignoring her completely. The world started appearing blur and waving. Obviously, she was shedding tears which rolled down her now not so smooth cheeks. Her brains and nerves were banging aloud and she felt that her brain would burst if she stood there any longer. She rushed back to her home.
Reaching home,she went to her father's cupboard. Standing there she reminded her mother warning her father that the keys were lost and the gun was there. She took it out, went into her room and left the door open. The mother returned from the market a few minutes later. She had a bag in her hand and a phone on her ear. She said, "I have just returned....Yeah... Yamini has gone to college the first time after the accident....I have brought her favorite ice-cream...Maybe, this cheers her up a little."
She ended the call and went to her room to discover the cupboard left open. She searched it in haste and realised that the gun was missing. She started falling back and crashed on the bed. She sat there numb when her brain wandered two days back when her daughter had demanded death from her. That evening, she went to the cupboard, unlocked it and threw the keys out of the window. That night when Yamini and her father were watching TV, she went to the kitchen and said aloud from there, "Suniye Ji, your cupboard is unlocked and the keys are nowhere to be found. Do the needful, we cannot afford to be careless with your father's only left entity." As soon as she said this her voice started trembling and eyes started leaking. She didn't want anybody to listen her sob, so she opened the tap and washed her face over and over.
She was brought back to the present by a sound that engulfed the silence. Summoning all her strength, she raised and went to her daughter's room. Yamini lied there dead, blood streaming out of her head. Mother collapsed on her knees near daughter. There was a note in her daughter's hand. She took it and read
'Maa, Kaash ki poori duniya hi tumhari god hoti, jismein main sir rakhkar so jati. Tumhari god mein naa dard hota hai na darr lagta hai. Kash,main iss waqt bhi tumhari god mein sir rakhkar so rahi hoti.'
She raised her daughter's head and kept it into her lap. Then she cried aloud as no one was there to see her getting weak.
