Respected PresidentMe,Aman Goel and my wife, Neha Saxena Goel are the senior citizens of India. My wife has been suffering from paralysis and is living with it for fifteen years now. Not just living as you and me, but living with death. She doesn't know the difference between day and night, neither can she smile, nor can she cry. All she is living with is relentless pain that she has been fighting with all these years. Sir, I have made every attempt to give her life, to give her a hope for the last fifteen years. I have tried all kinds of medical treatments, to get her a normal life. Few years back, I quit my job, mortgaged our house and now we have exhausted almost all our savings. My wife is totally dependent upon me and has no one after I am gone. Being witnessed to her state, i really wish that she needs death to get relieved from all the miseries and pain. she has to die, and die with dignity. No law should stop her from doing so. With this letter sir, I plead for her right to die.
Yours faithfully
Aman Goel
Inserting the letter through the little dark space of the big public letter box, Aman made his way towards his house, which once had all hues and emotions, but now was as pale as her face. He entered her room, to feed her.
" Hello Madam! How have you been? You know I just fell on my face while returning from the market and see, I broke my spectacles. Do you remember how you broke mine intentionally when we had a quarrel some thirty years ago? You wanted me to get a nice frame but i wasn't as modern as you. Good old days. But you have to choose me a frame again, just the way you did back then. You know I can't do shopping myself except the grocery." As he fed her, her motionless face, lifeless open eyes pierced through his heart, killing him alive.
He tried to resist the tears, but in vain. He managed to somehow speak, " Remember how I proposed you? You have to agree that it was the most unique idea, eh? All the boys were jealous of me, why won't they be, you were the most beautiful damsel after all. I won't let you rot to death Neha, I simply won't"
Days passed, and each day he would ask the postman if any letter was for the Goels, but all the postman would do was nod a no.
Today was their special day, the day when they were married 52 years back. He entered her room with a watermelon and bouquet in hand.
" See I still remember how much you adored Orchids and watermelon. Why wont I? It was the first thing we got to eat after our wedding." He took the knife, and cut the pieces but instead of taking them to her, he approached to her with the knife in his hand. He held her head and tilted it in the opposite direction, "I don't want to see what I am going to do."
He placed the knife on her veins, still scared of pressing it as he knew just a little pressure and she will be gone, gone forever.
All those memories of their married life, unmarried love and the vows he had taken rang in his ears.
I, Aman Goel, take you, Neha Saxena, to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
" No I can't do it" he shrieked, tears streaming down his already moist cheeks. He dropped the knife, the orchids still lying by her on the white sheet and pillows, just the way it was in their first night. " I can't lose you Sanyu, I just can't. We already have lost our daughter Ahana, I can't afford to see you die. I can't. This is crime" He fell on the floor with a thud, sweat beats and thumping of heart marking his last minutes of life, and his soul escaped his body silently.
There was a knock on the main door and came the voice, "Aman Uncle, the letter has come. Uncle, are you inside? It is the letter from the president. An official letter uncle. Are you in?" Hearing so, Neha managed to somehow move her eyes and glance at her Aman who now lay on the floor, motionless. She tried to call her, and in order to do so, she moved her fingers and hand a bit, and fell the orchids with her tender touch, all the loose white petals falling free on the concrete floor.