Relations Rebound - Published by eFiction India ( Vol 4, Issue 5)

The deafening roar of the tides was accompanied by the blinding wind of the sand. Subhadra was walking towards the sea as if in a trance completely lost in admiration for the endless beauty of the sea. She could feel the sea personify her life. In a couple of days she would be married off to walk all alone into the sea of responsibilities. She knew that she wasn’t the first woman to be urged into the all enticing yet entrapping waves of married life but deep in her heart she knew that unlike the rest, she would have her brother walk hand-in-hand with her till she reaches the other end. Such was their bonding. Until that day he never left her side even when the outcome was a harsh punishment. He was not a brother who would guide her like a father instead he was her friend always tapping his foot to her beat.

Thus engrossed in her thoughts she kept walking further deep into the waters when finally she felt the pull. The waves which made way for her to hug the bosom of the sea were all of a sudden tightening their hold on her. She wanted to move away but could not. She screamed for help but there was no one to hear her pleas.  She turned around to find her brother all immersed in his laptop. Raghav! Came the heartrending scream, from her choking throat but his headphones would not allow the sound to reach his ears.

She felt like running to him but the waves wouldn’t leave her. Thus helplessly staring at him she gave in to the tides. She closed her eyes in deep prayer but grief at her brother’s ill-attention outgrew her will to pray. Expectantly she once again opened her unwilling eyes towards the shore and there he was screaming for help. He was looking as helpless as she was a few minutes ago. The sight consoled her agonising heart and she gave a weak smile. But Raghav on the other end could never forgive himself for letting his sister drown. He was screaming and yelling at everyone in sight. His whole body was quivering in grief yet he was sweating profusely. He fell on his knees and gave a final desolate cry which erased the shores off his sight and woke him on his creaking wooden bed in the outhouse.

Everything looked shaken for a minute. Raghav was panting for breath. “A nightmare”, he finally managed to mutter to his trumpeting heartbeat. Light slowly seeped into the pitch dark room to soothe his straining eyes. He found himself shivering from hair to toe. The tong in his pendulum clock startled him with a sudden onslaught on its counterpart. It relaxed after five loud hits and peace once again restored. The clock was gifted to him by his sister on his first day to boarding school at the age of twelve. He knew he would be mocked for bringing such a huge clock to the hostel but he couldn’t say no to her. She was everything to him and he couldn’t dare hurt her even in trivial matters. Thought’s about Subhadra brought the dream back into his easing mind. Startled he got out of the bed and washed his face.

Subhadra was married to his best friend who lives a couple of streets away from theirs. It was two years since she left to her in-laws’ place. In the beginning he visited her every once in a while on his way back home but since four months he couldn’t find time to visit her. He even had to skip her birthday a few days ago in order to cope with the increasing work pressure in the office. That morning he decided to keep away all his appointments and meet her at any cost. He quickly combed his hair and walked out of the house. His body felt stiffened and cold. The rays of the sun cajoled him like a mother to her new born. The gate creaked in chorus to his creaking muscles. He couldn’t understand why it all felt so new. For years he had been walking through the same road but something was amiss. He felt as a stranger in his own world. His mango yard seemed to have outgrown overnight.  

Re-acquainting himself to his own world, he traced his steps towards the end of the street. He turned to his right to greet tea-stall Narsingh the shop was nowhere in sight. Dazzled he looked farther onto the road. He had to pinch himself to ensure that he was still not struck in his weary dreams. There were sky scrapers wherever he saw. It couldn’t be true that the entire city was rebuilt in a day. Something was going wrong. Even the sun, which a few minutes ago raised to a bright dawn, slowly began to sink. His mind was racing like a horse to find out the gist behind all these illusions. Dreamily he made long strides towards his destination. The road was widened in jet black tar and a new footpath came up. He couldn’t finalise if it was a dream that he was walking in or the life that he lived until then was a dream which he just woke up from.

Lost in his thoughts he was walking on the newly laid footpath when he heard a man screaming from behind. A laptop bag was hanging on his side and he was panting as he ran towards Raghav. Raghav however could not remember where he met this man. The person halted in front of him and began, “How are you uncle? Where are you going all alone and that too in your nightwear? Do you want me to drop you home?” Raghav fumed in anger at this question. In his hurry to meet his sister he forgot to change to a regular outfit. That doesn’t enable the stranger to ridicule him by calling him as uncle on the middle of the road. He gave a sneer at the intruder to that effect and continued his journey.

Trying to locate the right turning in the suddenly reformed city he bumped into a family friend called Vinod. The encounter with Vinod relieved him of his previous anger. He casually patted him and asked him to accompany him to his sister’s place. Vinod however was looking wide-eyed, his organs competing with each other to open wider than the rest. He finally regained his pose and began, “Uncle…” at which Raghav knocked him with his chest and furiously walked away.

After walking a few feet into the lane Raghav stood still astonished at the way Vinod tried to make fun of him. He couldn’t make out why everyone was behaving so differently that day. He relaxed himself a bit and tried to concentrate on the work ahead. He restored his pace as his mind started working on the way to apologise his sister. Since her birth, he never missed any event in her life. She must have felt really bad to not find her brother on her side on her birthday. However, he convinced himself that now that she had a family of her own she would not be left all alone to herself. Thus convincing himself that his friend had replaced his role in his sister’s life he opened their gate.

He pushed the door ajar and it creaked just like the one at his home. In anticipation of finding his mother-in-law in the living room, he erected his posture to that of obeisance. Contrary to his imagination, there was a young lad of ten lounging in the sofa peering through his glasses into a smartphone. The boy so immersed in his work didn’t even realize that there was a man standing in front of him. Raghav stared at him for a second but the lad betrayed no traces of paying attention to the new comer. So he walked into the next room. There he found a young girl studying at the dining table. His attire seemed to startle the girl. She ran into the kitchen and called her mother.

A typical working class housewife appeared in a while. As soon as she entered she began to pose various questions to Raghav. Astonished by this sudden burst of questions, Raghav began murmuring Subhadra’s name. The woman unable to understand what he was saying asked him to get out. At this he lost his sense and began searching the house for his sister. His shouts for Subhadra could be heard in every corner of the house. The woman was trying to stop the man but he wouldn’t. He had just one aim and that was to see Subhadra. He was thus running hither and tither, opening every door when finally he halted at one door. He was staring into the room bewildered when a huge hand knocked him to the floor.

For a moment everything went blank and when he woke up a young man was staring into his eyes. He seemed to be the head of the family as the children clung to his feet as they stared at the stranger in astonishment. Raghav once again murmured, “Subhadra”, and signalled to the room in which he saw his sister. The man seemed taken aback and helped Raghav to his feet. He guided him to the room and followed suit. Raghav, still baffled at what he saw, slowly but deliberately, walked towards the room. As he entered the room, he once again had the sight of his sister. His sister, a few days ago all hale and healthy, looked frail and weak. Her beautiful hair was all gone and all that remained was as fair as her skin.

She was struggling with the bed to straighten herself against the adjacent wall. The wrinkles on her hands could equal the ones on her face whenever she had a face pack. No, something that felt so real could not be a dream yet something that felt so unreal could not be anything but a dream. He walked to her side and held her thin hand in his. He noticed that his wrist was similar to hers and his posture as bent as hers.

Raghav’s memory was sound in terms of tracing the route to his sister’s house but in recalling the number of days that had passed by since he walked the route, he was absolutely at loss. It wasn’t four months but fifty years since he saw his sister. He had been planning to meet her for the last forty years but in vain. The second birthday that Subhadra celebrated with her husband wasn’t the only celebration that he missed. Rather that was the only occasion that he remembered to have missed in his sister’s life. The rest, he never even had time to regret.

That day as he woke up in a sub conscious state all he could remember was the twenty five years that he spent with his sister including the last appointment that he had with her. The rest was all gone. His love, his life, his work, his family, it was all an abstract entity in his inner mind. To his heart his sister was the only real person who ever stayed with him. All the time as she was moving away from him he kept concerning himself with his work convincing himself that she was right beside him and he still had time for her. It was only when their lives neared a full stop that he cared to look for her. 

He looked at Subhadra with the same helpless stare that he had in his dream. He could find the contentment that Subhadra felt in his dream reflected in her nod. Her eyes were moist with grief but still her lips broadened in a smile. Raghav carefully chose his words and spoke, “Guess I am not too late. Happy Birthday Sister”.Subhadra gave a reassuring smile and said, “Just in time to wish my granddaughter the same”.