I Will Be Your Son : The Loss

Part II of the Story is Out Already.... See it here

The Final Chapter... See it here

Life is unpredictable.

You don’t know what path it will decide for you, how long it will take to make you realize that path and further more… when in time it will lead you there. But one thing is certain, fighting for life will place you in its good books and fighting with it will lead you to unknown pits of shock.

Ayushi was merrily strolling home from school. Everything seemed nice today, the mild sunlight, the cloud cover and the cool breeze of monsoon made her smile broader as she walked. Her poem on her father had got selected for the school magazine and she was overjoyed. The day had gone perfect.

Eldest of the three daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Jivesh Shrivastava, Ayushi was the favorite everywhere, at home, at school, at the family get-togethers but the favoritism she loved was that of her father’s. Yes! She was a daddy’s girl.

The servants of the house often discussed of the day she was born. A thunderous rainy night and there she was smiling in the strong but tender arms of her father.

Mr. Jivesh had declared that day in the proudest of tones, “Look at her, even the demons fear such a night but my Ayushi smiles. My prized daughter, your smile won’t waver in the darkest of nights and the strongest of storms. You shall live to set an example for many. The daughter from the divine womb of my beloved wife, you will be my son… my eldest son”.

And there she was, an elegant twelve year girl just about to enter her teens, walking with handsome pride and humming the words of her poem…

“He may not be a hero for the world

But he is the world to me

He holds me and I go sky high

He is the hero for me”

The words were interrupted by loud cries which she realized were coming from the hall of her house. The wailings increased in ferocity as she opened the iron gates. A sudden chill ran down her spine. In an automatic reflex her schoolbag fell on the concrete ground and she rushed inside. A sporadic array of doubts attacked her young mind as she ran past people staring at her, people she didn’t know.

“Where is maa, where is Papa, is someone hurt, why are people wearing white, why are people crying inside?” She thought. “Shilpa, Sapna! Where are you guys, where is papa!” she yelled for her sisters. “What’s happening?”

She pushed past her way into the hall and suddenly stopped. Her mother and grandmothers were crying incessantly in front of her eyes and all she could make out what someone lying beyond them. Slowly she moved ahead. Each step took an infinite amount of time to complete. She could see her sisters now. Sapna, the middle one… crying sitting in her uncle’s lap while Shilpa, still a toddler watched unknowingly.

There he was, lying in serenity, the same peace and pride on his face he always bore. There was a red scar on his head. As she approached, blankness filled her mind, that moment when you know you have lost somebody but your senses tell you ,”No it can’t be, I must be dreaming”, that darkness of undefined vastness filled her soul at that moment. She collapsed at the draped chest of her father and yelled, “PAPA!” The elegant, intelligent and loved daughter… passed out.

Mr. Jivesh Shrivastava was no more.

to be continued....