The Untitled Story

22:03 Death , english , India , Story , Tobacco , Writeup 0 Comments

                “It’s been three years!”, Reena exclaimed looking at the photograph that had been hung on the wall of their dining room. It was their anniversary. She had set the table. Rahul could arrive at any moment. For the past three years, she had been receiving surprises on this day. Sometimes, memories can cause wonders. She was smiling at these reminiscences.

              It was the phone call from her husband that brought her back to her sense.

               

              “Am I talking to Reena?”

              “Stop joking! When would you arrive?”

           “Look, I’m not joking. Your husband has been coughing blood. He’s admitted at the Central hospital. Do come as soon as possible. I am Ajay by the way, his colleague at work.”

             

        “What? When? How?..”, she could not even complete the sentence that tears started rolling down her eyes.

             She hurried her way to the hospital and rushed directly to the room in which Rahul was admitted. She was hysteric on seeing her spouse. She was smiling and crying at the same time. She sat beside his bed and began talking. He could not speak. His throat ached. She was running her fingers through his hair.

                It was then that Ajay called her outside in the pretext of some left-out documentation. He updated her that her husband had been diagnosed with cancer and could die at any moment and that they hadn’t informed him yet. She became restless again. She wanted to meet the attending doctor. But he had left for home. Ajay assured her that he would stay that night at the hospital and forced her back home. Before leaving, she looked at her husband one more time. Those eyes had something – as if she was trying to capture every bit of her husband before leaving.

                In a few days, Rahul passed away. Ram, their son, was out in a summer camp. He was unaware of all the happenings back home. Even if he knew, do you expect a two-year old to understand the gravity of a situation as such?

                He arrived the next evening. And the first thing that he asked after re-uniting with his mother was “Where’s Papa?” Reena controlled her tears and informed that he was out on a tour.

                                                                        ______________

                 “What happened Mama? Why are you crying?” asked Ram. All this while, he had been playing with the toy car that his father had bought for him.

                His mother didn’t speak a word. She simply looked at her son, but her weeping did not stop. Now, it was a bit unusual for the kid to look at her mother as such – draped in a white saree; without bangles or even the regular Sindoor! He could not understand that his father was on a one-way tour. There was no way back home.

                His father was engrossed with tobacco, so much that, in spite of knowing it’s ill effects, he couldn’t stop consuming it. Result? Loss of a life. Breakdown of the backbone of the family! Ram was just a kid. He yet had to see the world.

                Tobacco kills – not just the one who consumes it, but the entire family!