I looked back at her and there she was..... full of tears....... She couldn't bear the fact that she was probably seeing me for the last time. A meeting was never on the cards for atleast four years if not more. She had tears which I was supposed to wipe and the reasons being me, myself! How contradictory was the overall situation in context of the present world. It has been 5 hours since the incident took place and it has pretty much kept my subconscious busy over time.
Relationships in the 21ist century have become so void of their true meaning that we often question our liabilities presented to us by our ancestors. Relations nowadays, are such loose strings attached with the slightest threshold that there is a chance of breaking down when the lightest of efforts are applied to them. People often question the importance of those who fed them for atleast 3 of the 7 stages of life. The concept of nuclear family has completely drowned the presence of the joint culture that our country was once famous for. Blood is no more the criterion for distinguishing two people as brothers. An upheaval of tremendous intensity has ruined this civilization. Papers speak more than blood when it comes to relations and we all are more or less affected by it.
My childhood has given me enough reasons for not considering anybody as my own. Without going into the depth of those times, I would like to sum up with the fact that it took a death to enable me to meet my cousin after 17 years. The middle class society is gifted with more or less similar kind of stories and these continue to be a part and parcel of life where an aunt's biggest happiness would be to see her nephew sick. Blood was the mode of selection of relatives only in the case of my parents and this childhood has haunted me ever since I developed a bit of maturity.
A steady life often proves to be poisonous and it took a relocation to change a life. Kharagpur became Kolkata and locality turned into Swinhoe Street which marked the start of a new era. It was 16th July 2012. A new city, new people, new friends and some new perspectives were the building blocks of a new life but when it rolled down to relations, it dwelled with the past to accept one. Made lots of contacts, came in touch with all sorts of people, became a lot close to some whereas explored the new life with the rest but never created a bond of any kind.
Time hurries away and we often wonder whether it was yesterday that we started a certain thing! It did the same in my case and it was a morning which was no less than 5 hours ago when I felt a different sense of attachment! It was a bond that rose to power over the course of my stay. I bowed down to seek her blessings and was in a hurry to seek another from my landlord but I couldn't move. She was holding my hands tightly. All I could see on her face were tears rolling down her cheek. The lady who had scolded me many a times during the last 3 years looked feeble. I went back and hugged her and tried to console her as much as I could. I came down the stairs and the time for my departure was a few minutes away. I looked back at her and there she was..... She was full of tears....... She couldn't bear the fact that she was probably seeing me for the last time. A meeting was never on the cards for atleast four years if not more. She had tears which I was supposed to wipe, the reasons being me, MYSELF! Blood wasn't the link between us yet how closely were we both related.
I boarded the vehicle and in a while could feel the momentum. The vehicle rattled past the alley and I saw her the last time and probably won't see her for years to come. I was frozen on the back seat with only one thought that somewhere I didn't just make any relation during the last 3 years but found a mother in her altogether at 17C Swinhoe Street.
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