Love Lasts Forever (22 page)

I kissed
the top of her head softly and rested it under my chin. We retracted slowly and gazed at each other for what seemed like an hour.

After the scrumptious breakfast, we hugged
one last time before I left for work.

While climbing down the stairs
I wiped the little tear that had found its way out from my eyes. I smiled at a thought that occurred to me a while ago.

More than a decade and we
were still to have a fight.

30.  Captain’s story - 7

198
1, Nagpur

A month had passed in my job and today was the moment of utter joy. I was handed over my first cheque for the passing month. I already knew what my first spend would be.

             
A bouquet of flowers!

             
There is an unimaginable affinity between women and flowers. I learnt it on the very first day when I gifted Shikha a rose at the age of thirteen, and I realize it every single time thereafter. After I returned from the first day of my work, sensing her gloomy mood back home, I greeted her with a bunch of flowers. The disappointment instantly vanished from her face giving way to a full and unfettered smile and she leaped in joy and hugged me. Nothing in this world would have made her happier.

Since then to bask in that wonderful smile
, I found myself regularly reaching home with flowers. Even hours later or on the bed at night, she’d remember about it, giggling to herself, and would thank me for that gesture as if I’d done a huge thing. It’s not too hard to keep a woman happy, I realized. All they want is our love, care, support, and apparently a good ear.

Life is simple indeed, if we don’t complicate it. Often it’s the smallest of things that fill our heart with joy.
For her it was the flowers, for me it was her smile.

Today o
n my way back home I bought a big bouquet of flowers with red and white roses around the border, assorted bunch of fuchsia, red and pink lilies, tulips and violets at the centre with carnations sprinkled liberally over them. In my other hand was a small pack of chocolates.

As I
clambered up the stairs for my flat, I heard familiar voices whooping out toward the corridor. I knocked the door to our flat. At the sight of flowers, Shikha’s hand flew to her mouth, and her eyes widened. She embraced me and we kissed softly.

‘
Look who’s here!’ she squealed in joy, stepping aside.

I
entered and was ecstatic at the sight of Rajiv and Swati – our best friends from the orphanage – staring excitedly at me from across the room. I frisked toward them and we hugged.

‘
Wow, guys!’ I shrieked. ‘What a nice surprise, how
are
you guys?’

We
retracted slowly. Rajiv and I held each other’s arms, and then hugged one more time. Rajiv was looking good as ever in his suede jacket and jeans, and I always found Swati a very pleasing personality. She was wearing an auburn coloured suit that highlighted her supple figure.

‘
All good, buddy!’ he exclaimed. ‘All good!’

‘
Yeah,’ Swati said. She turned toward Shikha and winked. ‘Actually better than good, we came over to share some good news with you both.’

‘
Tell me then.’ I waved out my hands at them. ‘I’m all ears.’

We settled in our seats and I saw their eyes lit up. There was a hushed silence in the room a
nd they shared furtive glances, throwing
guess what
looks at me.

‘
What?’ I said impatiently. ‘What are you people hiding?’

‘
They’re getting married!’ Shikha announced, hopping on her seat.

‘
What?’ I bought my hands together. ‘Wow!’ I cried. ‘When and how did this all happen?’

‘
OK, OK,’ Rajiv said. ‘Let me answer your questions, one by one.’

He leaned back;
crossed his legs over, and spoke with a twinkle in his eyes.

‘
As for your
what
– yes, you heard it right - Swati and I are getting married. As for your
when
– well, I guess - the day you guys’ - he threw his finger at me and Shikha – ‘got married and now the more important
how
of your question.’ He slipped his arm over Swati’s shoulder. ‘The reason is pretty much
you
guys, my friend.’

‘
We?’ I scrunched up my face, glancing blankly at him and Swati, and then turned my gaze toward Shikha. ‘How’s that?’

‘
Yeah Shekhar, you guys,’ Swati said as she rose up and walked toward Shikha. She patted her arms and smiled. ‘You guys have inspired us all at the orphanage – to live, to love, and to embrace life. You have set the example for us that all one needs to be happy and content in life is true love and companionship. In fact, it’s not just us who plan to tie the knot; you have showed the way to many others at the orphanage. Thank you from all of us.’

I cocked my head gleefully
toward Shikha. She appeared completely enamoured by Swati’s words.

‘
Thanks,’ I acknowledged. ‘That was really sweet, good to know that
we
inspired you, and well, others.’ I turned my gaze at Rajiv. ‘Wow!’ I said, shaking my head, still absorbing the
inspiration
part. ‘So when is the date?’

‘
Pretty soon, brother,’ he replied with a wink. ‘Pretty soon.’

We chatted late into the evening about our childhood days, our time at the orphanage, and how blessed we’d been to be a part of it. Rajiv teased me and Shikha reminding us how he harassed her over her ponytail and the day he broke my teeth. How much we used to hate him then. Funny, how time changes everything.

             
Before bidding goodbye, we hugged each other profusely, and promised to attend their wedding. When they left, Shikha banged the door shut and leaped over me like a monkey.

             
‘Wow!’ she screamed; her hands over her cheeks. ‘You got me such lovely flowers!’

31.  Captain’s story - 8

1981, Nagpur

Why do people not love fre
ely? And why do they not value the special moments as life passes by?

             
I pondered over these questions while I watched Shikha gorge on the chocolate ice cream. We sat in her favourite restaurant not too far from our place. We watched a movie before lunch, and now, after she’d be done digging on her ice cream, I had the tickets ready for our second movie of the day. For the rest of the evening, we planned to stroll by the banks of Futula Lake and witness the waning light of the sun on completion of its shift in this part of the world.

             
And then a little gift would await Shikha’s arrival in the evening at our home.

Today was our first quarterly wedding anniversary.

              Both of us found the idea of celebrating wedding anniversaries every year a very boring concept. Special moments like these should be celebrated more often. By definition, of course, it’s the annual observation of a past event, we knew that. However, we never wanted to wait one full year to cherish the most important day of our life. So we’d decided on celebrating it quarterly. I wanted it monthly, though I knew that would be taking things too far.

             
Coming back to my questions, I guess, I had been fortunate to be blessed with Shikha’s love. Loving her is so easy, so natural; I presume she would have made the perfect life partner to almost anyone in this world. And for the second question, well, each and every moment spent with her is so many lifetimes of happiness put together. Who would not value those moments after all?

             
I leaned back in my chair and observed her. Her eyes were fixated below, on her ice cream, and absolutely nothing would budge her. I fondly remembered the past three months of our marriage. Each and every day had been memorable, with each passing day better than the previous one.

After she was done with
the ice cream, her lips were smeared with its brownish remnants. She whisked her tongue over it playfully and finally tilted her head toward me. Her eyes had the look of a desire half-cherished, so I ordered another one.

‘
No,’ she said only half-heartedly, ‘I’m done.’

‘
Sure you are,’ I teased. I clicked in the air in the waiter’s direction, ‘One more!’

I checked the time in the watch on my left arm. We still had over an hour for the movie.

And then, I watched her again as her next round of ice cream arrived.

Several hours later, as we walked with our hands together over the last stretch of road that led to our home, my stomach gurgled. A tingling sensation ran through my body in the anticipation if she’d love the little present that awaited her.

             
I had summoned Rajiv’s help and handed him the duplicate key to our apartment to help me with the little surprise. It was nothing fancy though, just a gentle reminder how much I loved her and what she meant to me. There was nothing better in this world than the feeling of having her surprised.

             
‘WOW!’ she squealed in delight when the door to our apartment creaked open. ‘This is so beautiful.’ Her hands were over her face.

             
She was staring at our front wall that was adorned with red roses. They were carved to form the following words: ‘Happy first quarterly anniversary Shikha, Love you forever’. The word ‘love’ was in shape of a heart - actually three concentric hearts – with red roses at the centre followed by white and pink roses outward.

             
She leaned into me for a tight hug, almost squeezing me. I led her toward our room where few gifts neatly wrapped in decoration paper and ribbons peeked at her. Her eye balls popped out and hands flew back again to her face.

             
‘Thanks,’ she said and neatly undid the cello tape from the gifts.

‘
Wow, this is a beautiful sari…and, oh my God’ - she thrust her hand over her heart – ‘nice sandals.’

             
‘This is a great perfume,’ she added in gaiety after opening the third one, sprinkling a little over her.

             
‘Wow! This is so good,’ she said for the fourth.

             
A little further up, on the chest of the drawers, sat a letter which I wrote in the last few nights. I’d slip out of bed when she’d be deep in her sleep, carefully freeing my arms from her own.

             
Her eyes fell on it and eyed me skeptically. ‘What’s that?’

She rose from the bed and
with a faint smile and raised eyebrows headed for the letter. My heart thumped when she ran her fingers through the words on the envelope – ‘For my beautiful wife!’ it said.

             
Very slowly she slid the letter out as if to enjoy every moment of it.

             
And then, she began reading it.

My dear Shikha,

From where do I even begin?
More than a decade has passed, and yet, it feels as if I fell in love with you only today. The spark and passion hasn’t receded, if anything, it’s only grown by leaps and bounds, with each passing day.

What would I ever do without you? I often wonder and fail miserably to answer my question that rings occasionally in my mind.
I would rather be dead, comes the only sane answer. But then, that’s not the way our love is supposed to end, my love. We’re gonna live, and grow old with each other, and die in each other’s arms, perhaps half a century later…

A very
, very happy quarterly anniversary, my dear, and here’s hoping many, many, and many more to come.

With all my love, and then a little more,

Your loving husband, Shekhar.

‘Aw Shekhar,’ she pressed the letter to her heart. ‘This is so beautiful, I love you so much.’

She opened
her arms toward me, and happily, I found myself reaching for them.

‘
Actually…um,’ she muttered under her breath. ‘There’s a little present I’d like to give you as well.’

We retracted slowly, and then
, when she told me she was pregnant, I knew her gift was far, far better than my own.