16th January, 2019 0600 Hrs
My alarm clock goes beserk! Couldn’t god gimme a break? If only that plea could help be realistic. Whom am I kidding? I need to have that meeting with the “prestigious” client in order for him to stick with us for his new project venture. Making a successful career isn’t always about carving a niche and then sitting back and enjoying. You gotta slog all through your abject and disdainful life!
I sign in my office at about 1100 hrs. So you must be wondering why the hell my alarm clock croaks and groans at six in the morning. Well, it’s because of my two year old daughter Samaira! She is the bundle of joy around whom my life revolves. It’s a sad day for me when someone makes her life miserable for her at school, or when she is sick and doesn’t have her meals, or to put it simply, when she is not smiling!
I pick myself up, literally, from the comfy cozy bed and make way for Samaira’s room! Of all the days of the past six months, when she started to go to school, this was an odd one. I saw her standing by the windowsill looking towards the great sea by which we had a small but beautiful apartment. She was all dressed up and ready.
Samaira was looking as pretty as she had looked on a daily basis. She had big eyes and straight flowing hair. She had a smile as comforting as that of an angel. She could just look at me and all the tensions and sorrows of my personal as well as professional life would vanish into thin air.
I went to my little girl and asked her, ”What is the matter beta...? How come you’re up so early? Had a bad dream?” She turned to me with her moist eyes and hugged me tightly, breaking down.
I could not take it!
Why was the sole reason for my existence, my daughter, upset? Why wouldn’t she tell me anything if she was troubled? Had I not been a good father? This reaction sprouted a skew of questions in my mind. I had to get answers.
I carried her in my arms to her bed. I laid her down and sat next to her, smiling all the time, so that she would be at peace. I asked her again, “Tell me what is bothering you, Samaira.”
“I miss mom.”
I comforted her by giving her a bear-hug, partly because I had no solution to the problem she came up with and partly because I had to hide my own tears from her.
16th January, 2017 0115 Hrs
Rhea and I had known each other for a very long time. There was a fair amount of courting each other, fights, break-ups and make-ups which made our bond all the more strong. It was after five years of getting to know each other that we finally decided to tie the knot. Now after two years of our sacred nuptial we were blessed with a baby girl. We named her- Samaira!
16th January, 2018 2045 hrs
Rhea was very busy these days. She always said that she felt very guilty of not being with Samaira in her formative years and contemplated quitting her job after this final project was over and done with. I used to tell her that she should not be rash in her decision and should work as long as she is willing to. Samaira was our responsibility and I knew she loved her as much as I did.
It was a chilly winter morning and an equally cold evening. Rhea had gone to work and I had taken a half day leave from my work to be with Samaira. On that very day, I was reading Samaira her bedtime story when the phone rang! The little girl had just fallen asleep, so I rushed to the phone and answered it in a flash. The call was from some hospital in Bandra. They said that they had a case at hand of a woman who was in a fatal car accident and the driver’s licence showed the name-“Rhea Singhania”. I felt as if I had been bludgeoned with a golf club and knocked unconscious. Without wasting any time I rushed to the hospital just to know that my wife had succumbed to her injuries.
Rhea was a sweetheart. She loved both Samaira and me. I knew it all along.
16th January, 2043 1130 Hrs
It had been a rough but pleasant ride through all these years with Samaira. We had our occasional father-daughter spats about her giving in to fashion and wearing skirts that couldn’t have been shorter. On the contrary, I can proudly proclaim that my daughter got a best friend in me. She told me everything about anything or anyone she had in her life. I knew when her grades were taking a plunge or sky-rocketing. In a nutshell, I knew everything, good or bad, about my daughter. Now at the age of twenty-six my daughter had entered marital bliss with a guy who, in my opinion, was the best man she could have asked for.
Samaira was now Samaira Khanna.
Seeing Raj and Samaira hand in hand and completely smitten with each other, I couldn’t wish for more for my lovely little daughter. Five years of chronic ailment was not big enough to take me away from my daughter. But seeing her with Raj, happy and cheerful as ever, I thought it was time for me to bid adieu.
I knew those would be my last moments. The only person I wanted to look at while letting go of all pain and remorse was my little girl who was sitting by my side, as I sat by hers some years ago. A tear rolling down her cheek made me just flinch with pain that my daughter was going through the ordeal of letting me go.
Just then, I saw Rhea! She was smiling and looking even more beautiful than our daughter. I realized that now it’s our turn to be together.
With that thought in my mind I closed my eyes, smiling.
