"...and the world was silent again" for Lalit.

He had to let her go, far, far away from him, across the seven seas, into a land unknown to him, into a world where he had no entry. She, who was the love of his life, his only hope, his only friend, the only woman who gave meaning to his sustenance. She was indispensable for him, as he was for her. Such was the compatibility that existed between the two. Such a harmony which was soon to come to an end, they never knew...

The rhythm was shattered by the entry of a stout and handsome young man, a supposed soldier, a traveler as well,  into Aparna’s life; he who stole her heart away. She fell madly in love, (for who would not?) with this gentle, loving man of twenty eight. They soon went to a nearby temple and got united in holy matrimony.

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That was the last that Lalit saw of her, staring at him with her enormous, pretty eyes,waving him goodbye, leaving him with a loneliness that was emphatically destructive.

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Years passed by… every new day brought him with a new hope that he would hear from her, that she still would say that she loved him, still cared for him. Oh! Why did he let her go? Why couldn’t he stop that man from taking his sole joy away from him? He could sense that Aparna was sure to try to be in touch. But alas!there was no news, no calls, no letters. Was this the kind of reciprocation that was expected from his unconditional love for her? For how long could he hold on to his patience?  He longed to see her, to hear, at least for once, her soft, sweet voice, to see the satiated smile on her lips, before he could breathe his last.

2^nd of January, 2013, the fiftieth year of his birth, a parcel arrives at Lalit's beggard door. Quite confused, his gaze falls at the address, yes, it was correct, and the name was his; and the sender’s name... some Sophie from Milton, Romania. Sophie? He couldn't recollect that name. Curiously enough, while unraveling the filthy ribbons attached to the tiny box, he discovered a small note that was stuck to a corner. Breathlessly unfolding it, read through the lines…

“Aparna's  wish was that this box must reach you at any cost, for you were the one whom she was desperate to see  before her last breath. She escaped from her devastated village during the communal rife and took refuge here. Her husband was killed in the political combat. She was badly injured when she had arrived. She was physically, as well as mentally tortured in her village and outcast by the society of her husband. She somehow managed to escape with the help of a kind and common friend, who brought her at my doorstep, to be kept and treated under my custody. She was four months pregnant at the time. But her injuries were too deep, which she could endure not more than a week…”

His soul lost, could read no further, grasping for breath, he rummaged through the contents. Much to his dismay, he found all those undelivered letters for him, which were never cared to be posted. With his dry, trembling fingers, he unfolded the freckled, yellow pages, which read the story of her regret and shame of her marriage to a brutal terrorist, her unsuccessful attempts to escape the torture of his inhuman fury and the physical abuses of her in-laws.How incessantly she  thought of Lalit and missed him desperately at each and every moment of her suffering, that she was sorry to have left him alone to fall for a gentle stranger who turned out to be a brute. She begged and begged for forgiveness...

With eyes sore, and heart crumbling to dust, he found the pictures of her childhood, when she was a little kid, holding on to his fingers, learning how to take the first step, the pictures depicting the tale of their togetherness, of their love...he also found, among the contents, compressed into a small ball,  the very first sweater that he had knitted for her on the first winter of her life.

Lalit's wait was over. He was but a waking corpse. Pressing the memories to his breast, uttered a cry of anguish at his immense loss, the cry of his soul with a throat that spilled blood over her name ...

"Aparna, Aparna…"

“My daughter, oh, my daughter…”

Once again, his world turned silent, ever since the silence after the demise of his beloved wife, some five and thirty years ago while giving birth…the silence, now complete.