A WORLD OF ROOTLESS EXISTENCE

SHORT STORY
He came late in the night. She was sleeping. Their two children were sleeping. On hearing the calling bell ringing, she woke up from her sleep and jumped to her feet.

She switched on the lights. The clock on the wall informed- it is 12.35 AM. She was a bit embarrassed. Might be him?

She rushed to the door. Who is there?- she was inquiring in a frightening voice.

‘Me’-
She heaved a sigh of relief. With eagerness and enthusiasm she unlocked the door from inside. Her joy knew no bounds.

“My better-half is always modest with his words! A miser!”

She smiled to herself. He was standing there with his brief-case. He looked pensive. The agony of loss writ large on his face.

“Within a brief span, Ramu has gone frail!” – she could very well notice the change in him.

He didn’t smile. Just entered the drawing room and placed his brief-case on the table. She went inside and brought him a lungi. Chappals pushed under the sofa.

She rushed to switch on the fan. Beads of sweat shining on his forehead. It is summer season. The city is reeling under intense heat.

The city never sleeps. Like a 24X7 TV channel. It is always vibrant and throbbing with life. She could hear the local trains chugging along to and fro. The vehicles- speeding down the streets blowing horns under the sodium vapour lamps. The airplanes roaring through just above the flat.

Nowadays the noise pollution doesn’t disturb her. She is even oblivious of the noises all around. Got accustomed to the city life or has learnt to live with such hustle and bustle of the city. Sometimes she felt, she was falling in love with the city.

During her leisure times, she used to recall her early days in the city. That was just after marriage. She was a total stranger to the city. “A new face”…. Severe home-sickness lasted for months. She used to weep sitting alone in her room. Ramu was a reserved type. Always a miser with words. Miser with smiles. He looked indifferent to everything always.

“You are quite new to the city. In due course, the home-sickness and strangeness towards the city will vanish”- Those were his words of consolation.

Nothing more. Nothing less. He was talking to her as if he had read her mind already.

Sometimes calls came from her house- mother, father or sisters and her brother, close relatives and her intimate friends in the neighbourhood rang her up occasionally. Those were in the early days. Later the number of calls dwindled gradually. Now only one or two calls, once or twice in a month. That too from home. The faces of relatives and friends once in a while came to her mind and played vanishing tricks like magicians. Those were the good old days. College campus, cracking jokes with friends, picnics, enjoying the beautiful landscapes and a lot to read and write.

She liked reading and gradually felt like penning a few lines. Sometimes verses, sometimes stories. Parents and friends encouraged her always. She wrote in college magazines and a few periodicals. Yeah, those were the good old days…Spring times with lush greenery, blooming colourful flowers, verdant hills, sparkling streams and lakes, cool breeze, vast areas of paddy fields like green carpets, full of joy and vibrant spirit everywhere…yeah those were the glorious days of the yester years still etched in her mind.

With the passage of time, reading, writing and all kinds of hobbies came to a halt. Even now she feels like penning something. Scribbling a few lines for her own satisfaction and inner peace.

About the city, the life in the city, the hustle and bustle, people from various walks of life, sky-high buildings, Arabs and westerners roaming through the streets and the painful feeling of an outsider, and of late a feeling of insecurity after terror struck the city frequently resulting in the loss of large number of innocent lives. The city- a cross section of the World.

“Come what may, I have to live with it. All of us have to live with it. A life without any guarantee”. –She sometimes consoles herself.

After taking a bath he came out. Ramu looks refreshed now- she jokingly told to herself.

“Switch off the light”- while lying on the bed he told her calmly. He was looking in the direction of their two children, who were in deep sleep.

“Had your supper?”- she inquired .

“No appetite. Doesn’t feel like taking anything”- he replied in a tired voice.

The agony of loss still tormenting him. Abhirami was his only sister. His beloved sister. That too in the prime of life. Now her two children’s care and protection- the sole responsibility of her husband. With a shudder running down her spine she was visualizing a painful situation: suppose Abhirami’s husband decides to marry a new girl and deserts the kids even if in the distant future, the two kids for no fault of theirs may have to lead an orphaned life…such a possibility was always unbearable to her…she was thinking about her own children.

Certainly quite unbearable to the children. The care, the affection, the warm hugs of a mother- all lost to the kids. Never can they wipe out the fond memories of precious moments with their mother, will persist like a gnawing pain through out their life. She felt like weeping.

Ramu was lying there with his eyes shut. She looked at him with pain and sorrow. Father gone. Mother gone and now the one and only sister gone… A kind of rootless existence. She was imagining a weeping mind, a boiling mind, a restless mind like a rough sea…in the inner recess of his heart….

“I am with you. I am always with you. I will be with you throughout. Don’t worry kid…” For a split second, a kind of motherly affection engulfed her.

“As long as I am with Ramu, nobody needs to worry” – She heaved a deep sigh.

She switched off the lights.

Seconds and minutes ticked past…

She was lying beside him. She put her one hand around him…

Local trains roaring past….The vehicles speeding along blaring their horns….Pedestrains walking down the road mumbling something –She couldn’t make out anything. Some vague and rough sounds.

He couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t sleep. Both of them immersed in
deep thoughts.

He was quite tense. His mind was like a bow-string. Heart beats like drum-beats. Mind a restless rough sea. He wanted to escape from all gnawing .pain and thoughts.
As if in a wild fury, with all his might he embraced her. Their lips got locked. She was feeling the pain. The usual caressing and mild sucking of her lips were absent. He was getting wild. He bit her ears, nose, cheeks and in a hurry he forced her to undress. He eagerly pounced on her like a cat on a mice and passionately sucked her breasts like a hungry baby…..His warm hands were moving all through her body as if frantically searching for a hidden treasure. Top to the bottom he was planting kisses on her.
“Ramu ,going mad ?”Are you in your senses? paining , Ramu. Slowly, please”
In a whispering tone she was imploring him, beseeching him for his kindness.
He was quite oblivious of what he was doing.
As if in a frantic search for an escape route he entered her.She placed her arms around him and pressed him close to her writhing body. She was also going wild. Both of them like wild beasts tearing each other apart…
After a violent transaction of lovemaking both of them lay side by side ,gasping for breath and profusely sweating.
Gradually she was about to slip into a deep sleep.
She woke up with a sudden jolt on hearing him weeping pressing his face on the pillow…..
She was recalling the day they came back after attending his mother’s funeral and performing all the rituals related with it after one month leave.
That night in the city was exactly like this.
“Weep my kid,weep, till the last drop dries out”
She gently caressed Ramu. In the mean time she fell into a deep slumber ,unawares…….