Short Story Family – LAWS OF LIFE
Photo credit: duane_j from morguefile.com
It was a hot and humid afternoon in the month of May. May in Kolkata is really tiresome unless the nature gift us with sudden shower. I was reading the daily Bengali journal. I have a strange hobby. I go through every details printed in the pages of the newspaper;be it gossips about celebrities or political news.A sudden knock on the door startled me.I kept the newspaper on the tea table and opened the door.
It was Smriti,my granddaughter.She had three clothes piled upon on her hand.I have seen her sometime ago in front of the mirror trying with various dresses and admiring her looks.I thought not to disturb her.
She entered my room,excitedly and threw the dresses on my bed.”Choose any one”,she almost demanded,”Tomorrow is The Freshers Party in our college.We have to organize it.I am really confused .What will I wear?”.
”May be ,this”,she casually picked up a short black dress and held it in different postures in front of the mirror.I could make out from her face that she was not satisfied.I smiled.
Certainly time flows like a blink of an eye. Smriti has grown into a beautiful young woman so fast than I really wished to. I know as a grandmother I should feel proud of her. But at times I feel if time would just stop by. I miss the little Smriti so much in my arms.
I still remember the day when I carried little Smriti home when she was barely six months. I had become very lonely after my husband’s uncertain death who was till then my only companion. Unfortunately we had no child. One day during a Morning Walk,I found a little baby,wrapped in white cloth which was covered with mud,crying,left in a corner of the pavement.I believe she was left there since midnight and had a mild fever. I carried the baby to the local Hospital. I tried hard to locate her parents without success.Thus I carried her home.
She lit my monotonous life.I became her grandmother from then on and she became my only granddaughter.She became my only friend,my companion,my hope,my love. My whole world revolved around her.What’s her favourite food,what is not,what she liked,what she didn’t,what she wanted were all known by me like the back of my hand..I believe, she too,loved me and looked upon me as her best friend,guide,teacher and her guardian.
Time passed by. She grew up. She is now twenty one..Two days ago, she told me about Snehal,a boy she had met in her college. He is her classmate.She thinks that they are in love and want to get married and settled in future.I know the love she had for me has been divided as a new person stepped into her life.I feel bad sometimes.The thought of Smriti getting married often haunts me.She will set up a family on her own.She will leave this home as one day I had left my parents’ for my married life.I will become lonely again.But I also need to accept the truth,the laws of life.
“Wear this”.I held out the bright Royal Blue saree.”Snehal loves blue.You told me once,”
“Didu, I love you so much”,she hugged me and ran out of the room to try the saree and show it to me.Silently I watched Smriti walking away from my life.
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