AtulyaGarima

He held her by hand. Kissed her fore-head and promised he would come back very soon. Even with tear in her eyes, she could not hide the pain; the pain of separation. Not that they were to ever break their relation, it was rock strong, but the feel that they won't see each other for two long years was killing both of them. Atulya didn't show, he knew he had to be strong to keep his girl from falling in the depth of depression and sorrow. He was going for an official training and tour on the ship, which would keep him away from his beloved, Garima. They got engaged before his journey, and the marriage was planned soon after his arriving back.




Hands left the touch of the other, and he left. His ship blew the horn. With many waving hands she stood in the middle of the crowd with tears whelming her eyes. The person who meant everything to her was with her, but she wouldn't be able to feel him or even talk to him that often. Her head already hurt with over-loaded thoughts of how difficult life was going to be for her from now.





Next morning she opened her eyes and she could feel the emptiness. She had nothing to do. No one to talk to. And all the coming mornings after that were the same, slept late and cried as woke up. Apart from the Saturday's when Atulya used to call from the board. Soon it came in her routine, the tears were endless. Her family felt helpless getting her out of the trauma she had been under going through.





The routine continued for 6 to 7 months, and her family could no longer see her like this. She no longer dressed well, ate well, lived well. Her face looked all tattered with huge dark circles and cheeks which flaunted the boned with lack of mass in them. She looked pathetic, the glow had left and it seemed she hadn't smiled for ages. She made no efforts to get better, lied to her future husband that she was trying her best to live well. At the end of the 8th month she realized that waiting for him to come back happily would be easier, and so to keep herself pre-occupied she started working in the family retailer shop. Garima's life took a steady pace now. On the other side Atulya had kept his emotions stern, he used to miss her the same as she did but never displayed feelings.





It was March and his tour was almost complete now. Both families had already started making plans for the wedding and the arrival was most waited. Garima had made efforts and now the anxiety of his return was out of her control. It was the second Saturday of the month, and she like every Saturday morning sat near the home land-line, waiting for the call. No call came. The hopes of receiving a call faded every passing hour. In the evening the phone rang, she ran to get it and stood dumbstruck. It gave the news of Atulya's death. His ship was in the coast of Tohoku when the Tsunami had struck. He had been one of the 20,000 victims.





With Atulya's, her life came to an end. Now even that hope of meeting ever had gone. She wanted to die, she wasn't alive anyways. Everything she wanted had perished. The dreams, thoughts of a happy life together had shattered and she saw no reason to live anymore. But she couldn't kill herself. She had seen what Atulya's parents had undergone after his death and feared her father wouldn't be able to sustain the shock. Her soul felt incomplete, yet she decided to live for her parents. She did, with all the love in her heart, live with that self made thought that they were in a fight and not talking. Lived waiting for him to come one day and erase all the pain his departure had done to her.