‘I love luv storys’

Silver tears

Some days back, my friend was relating a story. It was about one of her uncles. She was very fond of him, though they were not closely related. He loved children but had none of his own. He had never married since he could not forget his first love.

We will call him ‘M’ and she will be ‘K’. M loved K though she was not so well off or educated as he. She changed his lifestyle and turned his world upside down. He used to lead a carefree life.

His favourite past times were hanging out with his friends, playing the guitar and sports. Then there came a time when he began to admire the opposite sex but he never played with their emotions or gave them unfulfilled hopes.

M may not have been the best looker in town but there was a boyish charm around him. Girls fell for him in dozens but he took care to let them down slowly. You see he was a very sensitive person and felt other’s pain.

His friends used to bug him. They didn’t understand why he kept to himself. Days rolled on. Then he met K and it was like a collusion between two worlds. He fell unconditionally and uncontrollably in love. Gone were the happy-go-lucky days. He was more serious - a man with a mission and a future. He built castles in the air, piling each stone with sweat, blood and dreams. But he did not guess that that the castle was made out of sand and all it took was one tidal wave to shatter its walls and bring it crumbling to the floor.

While he was away labouring for their future she was being married off to another back at home. He returned to beg for her hand only to be handed a dagger to pierce his heart.

M never married. His days were spent in solitude, with only a bottle to keep him company. His friends tried to comfort him. His family tried to dig him out of his grave. They said time would heal. Yes, it did in a way.

His fits of depression mellowed and the visible tears dried out. But nobody could comfort his shattered soul. No one was able to mend his broken heart. The only solace he found was in his cousin’s children. They sought advice from him in their adolescence because he understood.

He passed away this year. K heard the news. We do not know what kind of emotions went through her mind. All we know is that she is part of a broken home – a single mother with a couple of mouths to feed. Isn’t it funny that something so beautiful could give and take life? It makes you think that legendary love stories were not just fiction. They really exist. Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde, Orpheus and Eurydice, Salim and Anarkali, Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, Heer Ranjha.... the list goes on. Mine is one yet to be written. It has a beginning, drama, comedy and climax... but it has yet to find an end.

Shehara

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