As every morning Suraj was waken with the entire house coming alive. His younger siblings Chhavi and Mohit arguing or Bhabasa demanding tea from Chaturi. He rubbed his eyes and got up slowly, Sandhya had already got up and gone.
Carefully folding the blankets Suraj placed them in the cupboard and got out his clean towel and clothes for a shower.
Sandhya walked in and gently smiled before looking away and sitting at her dressing table
'She looks so beautiful so early in the morning, just as she did last night' Suraj mumbled.
'Did you say something Suraj ji?'
'No, nothing' he lied.
He walked out, leaving Sandhya alone.
-------------------------------------
Sometime later, Suraj returned to his room to get his handkercief so he could leave for work, when he dropped a letter from the drawer.
'I totally forgot, this belonged to Sandhya and I haven't had chance to give it to. Everything with Bhabho and Sandhya being so complicated that it slipped my mind. I must remember to give it to her.'
As Suraj went to put it in the drawer, it fell on the ground and Suraj picked it up. He looked at it and realised that the reverse side of the English reading letter was written in Hindi. He opened it out to see what it was about and couldn't believe his eyes.
'Talaak Nama? A Divorce?'
It took Suraj a few moments to gather himself. Why was Sandhya looking at such things? Did she really want to break from this unwanted relationship?
He looked at the wall, a photograph of him and Sandhya stared back at him. He couldn't still believe his worst nightmare right before him was happening. His wife wanted to divorce him.
'Why Sandhya? Why?'
But he already knew the answer to these questions, he already knew that Sandhya was tired of fighting, proving herself, sacrificing her self respect. She was tired and she wanted to be free from this pain, this torture and this heartache.
The only problem was would Suraj let her go?