“My son left me Alki.”
That was the message. And it ended. I chose to simply put it at the back of my mind and continued with the mundane activities of my day. Same office. Same life. Same people. But till when could I ignore that calling? That I was not even able to reply back to my friend. At night, while thinking about another tussle of my mental frame, another routine task, suddenly that thought of my friend’s son crept into my mind. How? Why? Why did it have to happen to her?
Just a month back, her husband had given me the news of their first born. My first close friend had a baby. Oh I was so elated. Even though I had not met her for last 3 years, I was in constant touch with her and her husband. I knew how their love had blossomed. I was there with her then and I saw it grow. How they finally decided to tie the knots with each other? And I noticed through her pictures over the year, the sparkle in her face through his camera lens. Her pictures with the kids in an NGO that they both used to go together, oh she definitely looked like one among them. It was all surreal. I had talked to her while she was in hospital, her baby in incubation, only to be with her for an hour each day for feeding. And that’s it. I was so dying to see the kid’s photo that how much he resembled both of them? Both mother and father always looked so happy, made for each other. And I messaged both her and her husband yesterday night, “hey, did you come back from hospital? Where is the kid’s picture?”
I can still feel the tremors inside me now even though the bubble inside me bursted just few minutes back. What is my friend going through? The kid’s namaankaran sanskaar was going to happen just a week back only. How has all this advancement in medicine helped? Those 7 months the kid spent in her, breathing every moment of those 7months together. She had seen him so soft, and felt him so vulnerable. How can she let this fact go away? Everyone around them "unaware" of the actual state like foolish me will keep on asking them for the next few months about the health of the baby. How will she cope up with the mental torture? How will I let this go? How will I talk to her ever again? And my head is still heavy. I think I will sign off.
