It was a sunny Sunday morning of October; Mayur was lying on his bed thinking about the good old time he spent with his fiancée Snigdha, and her consent to marry him. A cool breeze from the window with soothing aroma of Jasmine makes the atmosphere cosy for him; he thought of his future wondering whether it would be like the sunny weather or would be gloomy like night. At that moment he got a call from his sister which he responded quickly, his mother was also in the line, they inquired when he would come home. He told them that if everything would go right then he might visit his native place during Durga Puja. Hearing this news his sister asked him “Dada what will you bring for me?”He replied “What do you want?”She said “I don’t have a good watch for college if possible please buy me a watch” which he readily agreed. Mayur was the only son in his family, he lost his father when he was in high school since then he was the earning member of the family. He was compelled to leave his college incomplete and looked for livelihood in his own place, but it was not an easy task for him finally he migrated to Guwahati for this purpose. First he worked in an electronic shop and simultaneously started his unaccomplished study in a night college; finally he was graduated with flying colours! He had also done one professional computer course and managed to get a job in a telecom company as an accountant.
Mayur’s boss Suresh was a non Assamese person and was very strict in nature, he always tried to find fault in everyone’s work. The other day when Mayur got a chance to tell his boss about his plan for leave during Puja, at first boss was reluctant to approve but relentless persuasion from Mayur made his mind to approve it. After getting his leave approved Mayur left his office a little bit early and planned for shopping for his sister and Snigdha. He went to a watch shop and bought a watch for sister then he bought a Smartphone for Snigdha as she was still using a normal mobile which didn’t have the modern facility. He thought “Now I can make video call to her and can see her face every day!” he then bought a chador for his mother and returned to his room happily.
Finally the most anticipated day for Mayur had come, it was Saptami and Mayur got into the bus, travelling towards his home after six long months. Luckily he got a seat in the overcrowded bus as almost half of the city’s population was leaving towards their home during this festival. Before dusk he reached his destination and moved towards his home, saw him after so long time his mother started crying “Don’t you eat properly? Your health has been deteriorated” He replied “No Ma not like that, you have seen me after so long that am why, it is nothing but an illusion.” Next his sister asked “Where is my watch dada?” he took it out from his bag and handed over to his sister and also the chador to his mother.”Oh it is really nice! Thank you dada” said his sister.
Next morning he went to meet Snigdha beside their high school, the place where they used to meet earlier. In front of the school there was a very big pond and rows of eucalyptus as if they were standing only to give shade to these lovebirds! Snigdha got very emotional seeing Mayur after six months,” How are you? Have you made up your mind so that we can get married?”Asked Snigdha. “Hold on we are meeting after so long, you have started the same old topic” replied Mayur annoyingly. “No I am serious, my parents are unaware of our marriage planning and searching bridegroom for me, please don’t blame me if they forced me to marry, I can’t hurt them” said Snigdha.” No I have so much responsibilities towards my family, I am not ready, please give me some time” replied Mayur and he offered his gift to her. Though she accepted it but was not so happy, finally Snigdha got angry with his intentions and their conversation became bitter argument then and they parted away.
After five days of stay at home Mayur decided to leave for Guwahati and told his mother about his decision, she asked “You told us that you have taken leave for ten days and now you are leaving in between, is everything alright son? “No Ma nothing like that, I have made my mind to join duty “replied Mayur and headed for Guwahati that evening. His boss was also astonished to find him in office “Hey man what happened? Why did you join office? Asked Suresh, “No Sir nothing, just thought of joining” he replied.”Good I liked it, carry on” Suresh replied .Mayur joined office after a long journey from his home and got tired so he decided to ask his boss for an early half day leave.
It had been almost three weeks since Mayur and Snigdha had met, from then Mayur was not responding properly to her phone calls and tried to avoid her repetitive request for their marriage. The aftermath of that day made Mayur very upset and he couldn’t concentrate on anything and resulted constant absent in office for someday. When he rejoined office his boss scolded for his negligence in duty which made him thought of step down but when he thought of his responsibility towards family he put on hold this decision.
Days were passing by as usual for Mayur, his office and his room, preparing food, listening to music etc were his daily routine but no phone call came from Snighda for a while! October passed; last week of November had arrived. The night was dark and ghastly, thick blanket of fog besieged the whole city, mercury was also falling, hounds of winter howling from the far seems like a demon was moving all around. Mayur scented some bad omen, add to his worry drops of water started falling from the sky like the demon’s spear, he wondered rain in November? His mobile got a message tone,”Oh a whatsapp message from Snigdha” he murmured. Delightfully he opened the message from Snighda after so long time and was downloading an image. Mayur was impatience to see the image; it was a bolt from the blue for him, which was an invitation card where written “’Snigdha weds Sameer”! Another message came from Snigdha “ I am sorry, I can’t oppose my parents will anymore, please forgive me if you can. I know you are a nice person, you will get a better match than me, please invite us when you get married, good bye” Mayur’s heart sank as he thought of Snigdha’s decision and blamed himself for all what had happened, he consoled himself “It was my fault, I couldn’t persuade her, after all every girl would want a secured life which I might not give her” The sky was still weeping with the rain as if it was sharing Mayur’s sorrow, but it might not continue till the stars out from the sky. As nothing lasts forever, even our hearts can change.
