IshVeer Chronicles

Chapter 9 : Ballad of an Unsaid Love

Some things never changed.

Change was the demand of the Universe. Indeed, it was, and yet few things ruptured the precious Law and remained eternally the same. The sun in the morn with the darkest hue of orange sheared itself apart from the horizon to shine brilliantly over the planes of the Earth every day. Or the rain that tumbled down recklessly in its asperity as the monsoon gained its momentum every July. Or a child's face bursting into the biggest fits of giggles at the familiar face of its mother peering at it. Or the melancholy of a poem that made the reader's heart melt everytime his eyes fell upon the scintillating heap of the words.

And just like that, some habits never changed either. Like a lover keeping the faded photograph of his beloved in the pocket of his shirt after years have passed past their painful parting. Or a smile that passed his lips ever so lightly at her sight everytime, making him wonder if things would ever change at all. Or an ache that stung the very core of his soul everytime the realization of the truth dawned upon him: that everything had changed, and yet it didn't. Or his sole desire for her to know what he had longed to say forever and yet he couldn't.

Some things indeed never changed, no matter how many years had passed.

The cool morning of September rolled over, inciting the prying shafts of the sun within the room that lay disheveled, papers and files littered across the floor as if left in depravity of the carnival for the night. The clock chimed 6 in the morning, as he sighed in contentment for having finished the work before he boarded the flight tonight. All that he had come back to Mumbai for was done. Finished. And it was the time to go home. The thought today seemed bizarre; for there was a time he assumed this distant city to be his home, his ultimate destination after  he had travelled through the world after witnessing its eternal wonders. But today, it was as strange as everything in the world around him. He didn't belong to it.

Stretching himself and getting to his feet, he stalked to the corner of the balcony that overlooked the sea from this distance as the sun glistened on the burnished surface of the solitary water gleaming with a welcome air. His weary eyes devoured the sight with great avidity which would become a part of his memories in a few hours. He had spent his whole life in this city, but now it was all a memory. As the light prickled his eyes in baleful denotation, he turned himself back, rubbing his temple that began to throb suddenly at the sensation of the tingling light on his eyes.

2 hours later, he descended the stairs and headed towards the car as the driver opened the door for him, flustered at his sudden appearance. But what caught his attention now was a little child trotting beside his mother, whose face remained concealed from his sight because of her hair falling on the side of her shoulder, covering her face. She trudged away, holding her child's left hand in hers while he seemed to be arguing over something she would not approve, and the stiffness of her steps only proved her own stubbornness on the matter. He couldn't see her face, but he didn't need that to know her name, and nor to know the address where the mother-son duo lived, for every night the jovial voice of the young child would reach his own room as he addressed his parents, sometimes disemboweling the life out of himself. He felt his eyes riveted on her fading form, his lips trembling while his fingers clutched the metal door of the car tightly. His lips involuntarily turned into a curve of smile as the child pouted at his mother as he unwillingly sat in the car, while receiving a glare from her in return.

It was the routine from a month that she appeared every day when he left for the office before his associates joined him from two blocks ahead, distracting him from the miserable sensations that passed through him after he left the gates of the mansion, but today there would be none of them, for all had left one hour earlier to prepare for the final meeting that would be held in the afternoon today. And the moment she disappeared from his view, he turned back and gave a smile to the driver in an attempt to conceal the agitation that had suddenly sprouted itself up, taking himself apart piece by piece.