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I felt bored. Woke up at 5pm. Slept for twelve hours straight. Exams are the day after. I felt unprepared. So solving question papers instead.
Question: Write a story with the title 'A Promise'.
Timed: 50 minutes
Amor fati is a Latin phrase that may be loosely translated as "love of fate" or "love of one's fate". It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary.
She had been fifteen when she laid her eyes on her brother-in-law.
Theirs had be an unexpected and unusual courtship - minus the passion but with the love and security.
She had known that she'd love this man for the years to come.
That her days would begin with thoughts of him and end on the same.
She hadn't kissed him yet.
She hadn't touched him in ways that aroused her.
And despite vowing not to look at the woman who she her future from she found her heart crying for the very woman who would suffer the same fate as her.
'Just because you're a part time medical student doesn't mean that you know everything, Adi bhaiya. Ishima's a doctor. A certified doctor who run's dad's medical empire and hospitality department.'
She hadn't kissed him yet.
She hadn't touched him in ways that aroused her.
Yet, he made her feel like a woman.
He made her smile.
Her smile shone through the darkness that was her life.
He had held her hands through the challenging patch of her life.
He hadn't touched her.
Yet, he had smiled.
His infection, magical smile.
He smiled at her in ways that broke her heart.
He had smiled at her.
His infection, magical smile.
He smiled at her in ways that broke her heart.
He had smiled at her.
She had pictures to prove that her memories weren't wrong.
And she had been the happiest with him.
Happy. In Love.
And without compromise.
They had built sandcastles in air.
They hadn't learnt to live for each other through simple gestures.
She remembered him smiling and she grinning in return.
She remembered holding his hands as they scoured for their new home.
Their home - filled with love, hope, their kids and everything else they dreamed of.
A home where she taught their kids to dream.
To live in dreams.
She remembered sneaking out of her home in an attempt to meet him for the last time before she became his in all sense.
She remembered cuddling to him under a blanket as they counted stars - placing a dream on each star, watching it twinkle.
She remembered naming their to be kids.
She remembered the light pecks on her forehead before reality hit in.
And with the arguement that echoed in the background, she felt herself live the moment her dream crash.
There he stood - his wife in his arms.
They had lost their child.
She had been the one to break the news.
She had felt him shatter.
He hadn't looked up to her.
He hadn't recognised her voice.
Their previous arguement remained invalid.
She looked at her as she crashed on to the floor, slipping by the walls and landing onto the tiles in to a mess.
A part of her wanted to help her up.
As a woman.
As a woman who suffered the same news as her.
To the wife who was against her husband going under the knife to protect her from another life threatening pregnancy.
To the woman who had to have her uterus removed. Baring her for her lifetime.
To the wife who was against her husband going under the knife to protect her from another life threatening pregnancy.
To the woman who had to have her uterus removed. Baring her for her lifetime.
At least you are better off, the evil voice in her mind chanted.
Atleast you can have a child.
Atleast you are infertile and not sterile.
Not barren.
Not a baanj.
And through the mess stood the woman who was responsible for the mess that changed the path of three lives.
That bound two and saved one.
That saved her.
From a perspective relationship that would offer her nothing but pain.
She watched the cold, inhuman witch show humanity for the first time that she'd known her.
She watched as her once to be mother-in-law begged for mercy.
As she her held her hands, begging her to do something.
To save them.
'You're a doctor. You should be able to save her. You're at such a high post. You direct this hospital. You should know how to save her.'
And she stared at the woman's hands on hers in disgust.
Karma.
The woman moved her hands away.
And she watched the tables turn once again.
Only this time she wasn't the victim.
Only this time she wasn't the victim.
She wasn't the one the woman demanded her son to abandon.
She wasn't the one at the receiving end of the taunts.
She wasn't the one crying.
She wasn't the one breaking.
She wasn't the one alone.
And she was a woman before the victim.
But she was human before she was a woman.
Human nature is the antagonist that rules our lives.
We live by it.
We let it rule our lives.
And it gets the better of us each.
She placed a comforting pat on the young mother on the verge of losing motherhood.
The wife who would lose her home.
The lover who would be abandoned.
And the screaming got louder.
The wails increased in frequency.
As he stood silent once again.
She walked away from the moment that would have been hers if it had not to occur prematurely.
Not everyone was as lucky as her.
That night as she looked at the stars through the glass walls of her office she realised that she was thankful.
Thankful.
Thankful for her past.
Thankful to those tears she shed.
Thankful to the boy who broke her heart.
Thankful to the man who healed her.
To her family who stood by her.
And most of all she was thankful to her daughter who taught her to live all over again. Followed by her son who stood as her pillar of strength - guiding her, protecting her, shielding her.
And despite vowing not to look at the woman who she her future from she found her heart crying for the very woman who would suffer the same fate as her.
The woman who needed love.
The woman who would get hate, taunts and abandonment in return.
She was a mother.
A mother who knew what it felt like to lose it all.
A mother who once faced the very fate.
She was the woman.
A mother who once faced the very fate.
She was the woman.
She was the woman who was stripped bare and forced to believe that she had lost all the aspects of being a woman just because she couldn't conceive naturally.
And for once her face seemed easier than what this woman had to go through.
For she had hope.
For she had the world's best parents - who shielded her, protected her and to whom a simple medical report would mean nothing.
For she knew that the woman out there was an orphan who would have no one but herself.
She would help her.
Find herself.
Just her husband did to her.
He taught her to live for herself.
That the world wouldn't matter to them.
They couldn't change what they were - a family.
'How many times do I have to tell you, the stars shine for you. You need to smile. Tears, they don't give them a reason to shine for,' he said pointing towards the stars.
'Hmm,'
He placed a peck on her cheek and she smiled.
Everything was worth this.
She realised that she would happily relive it - her gruesome past - if it would lead her to this.
'Chalo, I'm famished,' he grumbled, all thoughts of romance flung out of the window.
And she chuckled, breathing in the feeling of being embraced by him.
Everything was worth this.
She realised that she would happily relive it - her gruesome past - if it would lead her to this.
'Chalo, I'm famished,' he grumbled, all thoughts of romance flung out of the window.
And she chuckled, breathing in the feeling of being embraced by him.
His arms.
To her, they were home.
'And I'm telling you. This is bad.'
'And I'm telling you. This is bad.'
'Just because you're a part time medical student doesn't mean that you know everything, Adi bhaiya. Ishima's a doctor. A certified doctor who run's dad's medical empire and hospitality department.'
'And she's a bird brain. She should take leave. She's doing it. Whether she and dad like it or not. And Ishima, what are you? Five?'
'Don't call my mother a bird brain. You arrogant twerp. Mom can work if she wants to. And she likes it when I call her, Ishima. She's my Ishima.'
'I never said she can't work. She won't work, not when she has my future siblings with her. We don't another kid who was dropped on the head. Unlike you, I want a sane sibling for once. I've tolerated enough of you.'
'Like hell you will. They're mine. My mother. My siblings.'
'Correction: Our mother. Our siblings.'
And with that the younger Bhalla male walked over to the woman in his father's arms and engulfed her in a hug then checking her from head to toe, scanning for any invisible injuries.
And when he found none, he fell onto his knees whispering a promise to her womb as he rubbed her tummy. Grinning, clearly excited over the swell.
And with that the younger Bhalla male walked over to the woman in his father's arms and engulfed her in a hug then checking her from head to toe, scanning for any invisible injuries.
And when he found none, he fell onto his knees whispering a promise to her womb as he rubbed her tummy. Grinning, clearly excited over the swell.
'And there he does it again. Take my place. It was my turn today.
And you evil spawn of Lucifer himself, stay away.'
And you evil spawn of Lucifer himself, stay away.'
'Dad, look. She just called you Lucifer,' the younger male shrugged, mirroring a dimple similar to his father's.
'Why, you..' his younger sibling barged forward to attack him. An attack he withheld with no effort at all. With a smile, and adoration.
'Aditya,' the older woman chastised,
'Jaan,'
'It's about time you called her mom, don't you think son,' his father stage whispered.
'Mom,' the younger one corrected himself with a smile as he playfully placed an arm around her shoulder.
His younger sibling had taken it to herself to burst into her usual chattering.
His father, his father paid rapt attention to the younger one as he gave Aditya and Ishita a knowing smile.
His father, his father paid rapt attention to the younger one as he gave Aditya and Ishita a knowing smile.
'I fear the ones to come. We have a classic example of what Ishita's kids are like. Now we're adding two more to the bundle,' his father chuckled as he served them the takeout they had acquired earlier that evening.
'And you have me, a classic example of what she can do. We'll do fine. We'll be be better than fine. We'll be splendid. And magical. And hers.' he said as he looked over to the woman who had nurtured them all.
The selfless, broken woman who had healed them and herself.
The woman they had fallen irrevocably in love with.
The woman that was more than a wife to his father.
The woman who his life guide.
The woman who mothered Aditya and Ruhi.
The woman who was sheer guide, mother, bestfriend and everything else all rolled in one.
The woman who was theirs.
Theirs to keep.
The woman they had promised themselves to.
The woman who had taught them not to dream, but to live their dreams instead.
The woman that was her.
Ishita.
Their Ishita.
This took me eighty minutes.
Not proofreading it.
I do realise it deviated away from the topic.
I don't care.
The Adi-Ishita bit because I have an incomplete one pending in my 'Junk Drawer' and I feel too guilty to complete it.
Okay, it's vague and confusing.
I do guess that it is.
Now off to prepare for exams which begin on Monday.
Wish me luck.
And leave behind your response.
I do realise it deviated away from the topic.
I don't care.
The Adi-Ishita bit because I have an incomplete one pending in my 'Junk Drawer' and I feel too guilty to complete it.
Okay, it's vague and confusing.
I do guess that it is.
Now off to prepare for exams which begin on Monday.
Wish me luck.
And leave behind your response.
I'm pretty sure everyone has heard me whine over how I'm flunking. It's scary. And wierd. And it feels horrible.
Spreading love and motivation.
And if you feel like it, there's
Meherbaan - for a fluffy version of Raman and Ishita.
Be Intehaan - for a darker take on what their life could be like.
As usual, through my cell and thus no PM's have been sent. It would mean alot if you comment and keep this post from being buried. Hah. đ
Formatting glitch. No time to fix it.
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