She decided to go and sit there for a while, she was tired but more than that she had to prepare and gather herself before she could climb up the staircase and ring the doorbell. She sat there with mixed emotions, she loved this place, the city and the people. She looked up at the window and recollected how they had spent countless nights sitting at the window sill. The curtains were of a different color now.. wait a minute, she smiled, she was looking at the wrong window. 10 years was indeed a long time. Suddenly, she heard a voice call her name “vani didi”, nimisha it was. She turned around but could not believe her eyes. Nimisha was now in her teens. “You’ve grown beautiful” were Vani’s first words. Nimisha smiled and they talked for a while. “Sumitra aunty has been waiting for you”, she said while leaving.
Indeed aunty was waiting for her. She did not have to knock the door, it was open. As usual, uncle never liked to close their entrance door. “Everyone is welcome in”, he used to say whit a smile while aunty was always irked by this habit. She walked in and straight flung to her aunt. She had grown old. Sumitra aunty and Hassan Uncle were her neighbors. Vani had stayed in the flat just next to their’s for three whole years. She was studying then. When Vani first moved in with two of her other friends, they did not like the company of two oldies(that’s what she termed them) on their floor. But it did not take more than a month for Uncle to change this fact. Vani jelled so well with uncle. Uncle and aunty did not have any children. They were a happy couple, blessed with all the fortune but no children. It was a symbiotic relation, vani being away from her family got all the love and support she wanted and the caring couple got a lovely child in her. Vani liked to spend time with him, playing chess. Often they would sit for hours but the game would not end. As time passed they grew fonder of each other. Once when Vani got her leg fractured in an accident, aunty took perfect care of her until her mother turned up. Uncle was the one to rush her to the hospital. Even in the events when none of Vani’s friends could understand her, Uncle did, in his own philosophical ways. He called her, his daughter. Although he interacted with almost all the children in their building, Vani was special to him, she was the only one who would ask how they were, only one to sit and talk. Usually kids found reasons to run away when Hassan started his long stories about the 70’s but curious that Vani was, she enjoyed them. Aunty used to cook the most delicious delicacies for them. Whenever Sumitra aunty would get emotional of the fact that she wont have anyone to take care of them in their old age, Vani would smile and say, ”main hoon na aunty”.
Past indeed got buried in the sands of time, as did her words. They hugged each other and cried their heart out. They did not speak. As their sobs gave way to silence, Vani asked how did it happen. ‘Heart Attack’, ‘ we got too late to reach the hospital, the driver had left it was night and by the time the ambulance came he was gone’.
‘I am sorry aunty’, yet another outburst. Aunty had grown weak, she used a stick to walk. She got her some water to drink and they talked for hours after that. Later in the night, Sumitra gave her a box that uncle had left for her. ‘Uncle talked about you even on the day he left all of us’, ‘he wanted to call you up finally, he often mentioned of how you would be busy in your life and how you would have had kids by now.’, She smirked ‘He said you would come and take care of us.’ Vani opened the box, chess board and a collection of his watches. She treasured it. There were also two letters, she dared to read. The envelopes were sealed as if he wanted to post them but never did.
After completing her graduation, Vani had shifted to a different location in the same city. Initially her visits to aunty and uncle were frequent. Even they used to come and visit her, but eventually it became once in a month and then one fine day she told them that she was transferred to a new city and how she wanted to be near her parents as they were growing old. With a sigh and heavy heart they bade farewell. They stayed in touch for a while but did not hear from her in the past 4 years.
She was full of remorse, how badly she wanted to meet uncle once and tell him that she was there with them now. What happened could not be changed. She cursed herself for making false promises and giving hopes that she could not fulfill. Well, morning gave way to calmness. She told aunty that she would stay with her for a while. And then they could arrange for something. Vani could not leave her family and neither did she want uproot aunty from the city she had been for all her life.
Sumitra aunty agreed to stay with her for a while. She paid frequent visits. Aunty passed away exactly an year after that. The last time they met she told her,’ Uncle was right, you did come back’.
