They lived on....

On the 7th year of her wedded life, Gargi declared her love for him. Not for her husband, but for him. He was always there, before and after. He was there as a shadow, as a presence and as a pang of guilt.

There are moments in life when all of us wish life had a rewind button, when you think and relive a particular scene one million times in your heart, wishing you just had a chance, a chance to change one nod of the head, one smile on the lips, one comment which was out of context. And then you realize that God hadn't created the gadget called life with that particular facility and that time machine is still a myth. You live on....Gargi lived on, for seven years.

She would not brand herself as a submissive wife, she was always rebellious. She demanded things she never got. She had given up a prospering career, for a few years initially, to care for her first child. She could never go back, the responsibilities at home increased exponentially as the second child came. A husband who branded the feminine gender as a kitchen keeper and child carer didn't help things.

Gargi would not want to recall her 7 years with her husband. There wasn't much worth recalling. It all came with the pain. The pain of being violated, with one person panting with pleasure and the other writhing in pain. A sigh of satisfaction from one and a whimper of relief from the other. Gargi often wondered how she had managed to labor two healthy children through the process that would not be branded as rape only because the man who raped her was entitled to do that.And off went the days and the nights, until he came along.

They met in the mall 3 months ago. The years had not affected his charm. She knew about his rise from an ad organizer to an established movie director by then
. The media acclaimed him to be the most eligible bachelor of the movie field. Surprising enough for a coveted cine person, he had an untainted image, was liked by everyone and still managed to make good movies. Gargi wouldn't have smiled at him had she the time to move away. It was all over in a second. She saw the smile of recognition materialize on his face and in a moment, his leviathan figure was near her, looming over her protectively.

"Gargi, is that you? Oh my God, is that really you?", he could not hide his excitement. Gargi wondered for a minute what he was happy about. That after all these years, when they meet, the person who she had once chased away from her life for the lack of dreams and ambitions was there infront of her as something, and the fiery her was nothing more than just a house keeper. Was he ridiculing her? But how does he know?

They were starting to attract attention. A popular figure with a middle aged house wife was hardly a pretty sight, Gargi started searching for the rewind button again. He stuffed his visiting card to her hand and rushed out of the mall. In a minute it was all over, her life had turned around, all the feelings pursed in her started churning up as bile in her throat.

Back at her home, Gargi toyed with the visiting card for about 72 hrs before she finally decided to call him. He didn't sound surprised or irritated, on the contrary, he sounded excited. They shared the stories of their last 7 years with each other. No, he didn't have a woman in his life, and neither did he plan to have one. Her heart skipped several beats over the one hour they talked. That was just the beginning, over the next 3 months, they talked almost every day. It was never the kind of romantic interlude that can be assumed from two sex starved souls. It was the souls themselves. Over this course, Gargi learned that he had never run out of love for her. He hinted more than once that he was still crazy about her. All this attention had a tumultuous impact on her. She smiled again.

That was 3 months ago. On the day of her 7th year of presumed marital bliss, Gargi woke up with the same anticipatory commotion in her heart. Just as in the last 7 years, her husband forgot, her children forgot. Only she remembered. The most beautiful day of her life when she looked pretty in everyone else's eyes. And then he called, he wished her, he mourned for her, her losses and for losing her. She declared her love for him. This time he was surprised. So was she. She was baffled by the irony of it. A man who she could have married, with whom she could invariably have lived a better life, there he was, even after 7 years, wishing she was his. To choose this particular day to let him know of her feelings for him, that was the test of destiny. The world is neither flat, nor round, it is a double helix, with the creatures on it dancing in pairs, sometimes you just fail to see the person on the other side!

2 days later, he called her up again. They were truly lovers now. The feelings they hadn't experienced 7 years ago were coming back to them, one after the other. She giggled in kitchen, he worried about the white hairs on his head, life was beautiful. The fact that they could never be together inspite of all this love was not a concern anymore. Perhaps people could love each other that way, under the realization that all that they can is just love, and love blindly, for if you open the eyes once, the truth might just incarnate itself infront of you and might break your resolve, your heart. That you can be lovers without a hug, a kiss or promise of one or several nights together.

He wanted to meet her, he had something to give her. In the coffee shop, 2 hours later, he gave her a Garcia. 'Love in the time of cholera'. They chatted for a while, and he asked her.
"Gargi, the only woman I have ever loved and would ever love, if I am your Florentino Ariza, would you be my Fermina Daza?"
She didn't have to think twice before answering yes, for she had read that book a long time ago.

And then lived on..for that day together, in some boat on some river that would not take them anywhere other than the loves end....