It’s time to move forward with Shubhra’s story. Read past episodes here.

This is the fourth week when Shubhra is one more time ready to write. It is as she is enjoying this letter writing more than anything. Everyone has felt that keenness in Shubhra’s behavior regarding the letters.

It seems that she awaits the week to end as soon as possible just like a child who longs for an ice cream kept in the refrigerator! She starts writing,

Hi there,

Another week has passed and still you haven’t written me back. Hope everything is fine with you. I guess you might have been busy. It is not that fallacious as I thought it would be. Believe me, writing is really a fun. But again, I don’t want to force you. Write me whenever you want to.

I know that we are in different environments and having dissimilar lives also. Mine is a walking in the garden kind of life while I am not that certain about yours. Though we have multiple different colors of life, I do feel that we share something in common. You may question what it is. Then I will say; both of us need a person who can give his ears (eyes also can do here!) to us. At our age, I think majority needs is to be listened. We want someone who can listen what we have amassed in years of living. Our experiences, our emotions, our views and above all the memories we have to cherish. Some of us have no memories that can be cherished but still they have something to tell.

So, I am very much glad to have you on the other end. To whom I can say few things that even my family has forgotten in past years. I have nothing much to share about my family as everything has fallen in its place for a very long time but, the feelings I have enshrined in my heart for my husband need to be poured down somewhere and I think no one else can be a greater option than you are. It is because you won’t be judgmental that I know.
Goodbye for now. I have so much to write. Wait until the next week.

Your friend,

Shubhra”

She puts the letter into the envelope and becomes nostalgic about her husband. By the moment, kids interrupt her by telling that Swadha has won the first prize in dance competition in school. And Maurya has been selected in School football team. Rajvi’s call for lunch drags the trio to the dining table where happiness, laughter, loud talks and mere joy supplement the food. Here is one chair that always remains empty on this dining table for the head of the family. Shubhra glances at the chair with a faded smile on her face.

Shubhra has never told anyone about her being quarantined from inside day by day. But her family has seen her breaking down slowly, giving her an Angioplasty! Life always needs a motive. She also has motive in the name of her children thus now she is waiting for her eventide to set into a dark night but until that she wants to be alive in real sense for her people though broken!

Little bite from a short story “love letter” by Angel Plant.