Epiphany : A short story

Akhila is a young 10 year old girl. She lives with her parents in Mumbai. She is the first grand child in the family. While growing up, she got to enjoy the doting love of her grand parents near Nashik. She spend all her early toddler years with grand parents before school. During her schooling years, Akhila’s best and joyful memories were spending time at grand parents house during summer holidays. Games like land and rock, hopping, 7 stones with all cousins kept her busy in the mornings. A glass sweet lime washed down the heat in her body after playing under the sun. Then followed a scrumptious meal and a game of Ludo with all the ladies in the family. Evenings were spent in awe when she curiously observed how sheep, buffaloes, cowe etc were made ready for the rest. She took turns in sleeping beside grand parents so that the stories will not be repeated. One summer, her mom had visited for a couple of days to make a trip to Nashik. She spent a day with Akhila before leaving for Nashik. Akhila dreamed that night. There were people departing in a train. She is at the station but could not clearly see any faces. She wants to get on the train and but is unable to even move. She woke up in the morning with sore eyes. Her grandma mentioned to Akhila kept changing beds with grandma and grandpa, blabbering in her sleep ‘ma! ma!’ and that Akhila eventually slept in her mom’s bed who returned late in the night from her trip after Nashik.

Bhaskar is a marketing manager based out of Delhi. He is an extremely smart and intelligent fellow who always excelled in academics. Bhaskar was living alone in a large city. His family is based out of Dhanualti, Uttarakhand. Bhaskar was a helpful colleague in the office. He liked helping others and felt happy when he received accolades for his team work. Bhaskar usually attended office parties but always felt he used to get lost in a big crowd. He has 3 friends whom he particularly liked. He used to frequent to their apartment and used to sit down with them for a chilled out time. Due to his reserved nature, henever got him close to anyone emotionally. He always could depend on his friends for emotional support but he never sought it voluntarily. He got introduced to one Bhavya, a friend of his colleague’s girlfriend. They met multiple times at house parties.He was surprised that Bhavya had a delightful outlook all throughout the day and just seem to never run of optimism. They all planned a get together party one night. Bhaskar and Bhavya were assigned shopping duties. Bhaskar felt uneasy to go out with her at first but seemed to have a positive disposition towards the end of grocery shopping. That night Bhaskar seem to be catching on a fever and after sometime he was put down to bed. Bhaskar went to deep sleep. Bhaskar dreamed about a young toddler who was sleeping with mother. He felt his warm body throughout the dream. Bhaskar woke up refreshed. He profusely thanked his friends in helping him out and getting him to bed. His friends were shocked to hear this. Then one of his friends mentioned “Is that why Bhavya was not seen for sometime during the party?”

Chakraborty, aged 82, is lying down on his bed at home in Kolkata. It is Saturday morning and he was expecting his grand kids to visit him for weekend. He pulled the lever on the bed to lift upper body so that the can a better view of the sun from the window. He heard the bell ring at main door. He got up from the bed and got hold of his walker to move towards the entrance. A young guy was at the door and Chakraborty welcomed him in. He found that Chakraborty has a delightful disposition on his face today. He started in Chakraborty’s bedroom with changing the sheets and adjusting the bed lever. He was appointed couple of years ago as a nurse to take care of Chakraborty. Chakraborty started eating his breakfast and nurse could not help noticing a wide grin on the face. He was then taken for his a bath and placed in the tub. No sooner he was in the tub, Chakraborty felt a sharp pain in his left hand and felt his rate increase. Within an hour, Chakraborty was admitted to the nearest hospital. His family arrived and found him on ICU. His speaks to him and Chakraborty feels sorry he ruined the happy weekend with grand kids. His son understands that Chakraborty’s dementia is getting worse and is remembering things poorly. He is put to sleep. Next day, Chakraborty starts feeling nostalgic in his sleep.The first time he longed for his mother when away from home as kid..first time his wife held him against her when he had high fever…he is having the same momentous feeling as his body is touching the earth and laid down for his final sleep