Sahasrasagun

Part 4 (Final)

UNEDITED version. I never read this for second time also.

“Sagun, it is dark and raining heavily outside. Come inside and sit with me. Please sit at our seats. It’s already too late and I am only one awake” said Pavithra in a high voice.
“Sorry I am lost. I am coming in” replied Sagun removing his player from the ears. Both went to their berths and Pavithra asked him “What are you thinking so deeply sitting there? What made you go and sit there again? I never saw you like this past 3 years after we got married.”
He thought he should tell his past to her which was the only thing that he did not tell his wife as he never tried to remember it nor forget it totally. He told her what he reminded till now.
“What happened then?” she asked curiously.
“We went for lunch that day and went to our respective houses for luggage pack up. Our train was at 4 in the evening and we decided to tell the matter to our parents. You know my father; he is an editor in TV channel and is fond of breaking news. He got so much accustomed to telling breaking news, he used to break something or make something fall on floor deliberately and tell the news to everyone. He got out of this habit these days but it was too severe those days. When 09/11 happened in Newyork and he got the news from reporters, he was at home and he almost broke the TV watching it. Sometimes his actions used to be funny but sometimes resulted in loss of property. He is a nice man though and I loved him a lot. I thought of telling him about this in his way. So after I reached home from college, I took 3 months time to get myself prepared and was waiting for time to tell my wish to marry Sahasra, to my parents. I seldom spoke to Sahasra these days as well. After all, without proper communication, it’s not possible to get things done.”

…………

It was the day when Sagun wanted to speak about his love to his parents as the next day; he was going to travel to Chennai to join his job. Its evening time, he was having a cup of Tea and his father was also sitting beside him. He thought this was the time and intentionally dropped the cup. It broke into pieces and he started saying “Why did I love her and why I had to tell this as breaking news to you?” 
His father was amazed about the action and dialogue in a cinematic fashion.
“What? !!!!! Why? ..What happened?” asked his father with a question mark on his face as well.
“Truth Daddy. This is the truth. I fell in love with Sahasra, who studied in Pace engineering college at Rameswaram. Well she accepted my proposal of course. But she had bet with me that I would not be able to tell this with you. I told this to you and I won the bet”, said Sagun very intelligently. He was waiting for a reaction from his father.
His dad was in a shock, surprised and could not react so easily. But he immediately stood up and went to Sagun’s mother who was in kitchen. He dropped the cup on floor; that broke into pieces, and said “You must listen to this breaking news.” She got angry that the cup got broken and in rather a harsh tone said “49 is the count. One more cup to reach 50.” She was a typical Indian house wife who always calculated things and fond of  TV serials. “Tell me what it is?” asked Sagun’s mother.
“Your so called son won the bet with his girl friend named Sahasra. The bet was to tell about his wish to marry her, to us. See how dare he is.”
They both came to Sagun and his mother sat beside him and started crying “Sagun, just like in the TV serial ‘Love story’, all the love stories might become tragic. Why did you love? What made you go in that way? We have put such a good name to you and you are doing all such activities. I cannot see you crying for your beloved. Oh Sagun! Why did you do all this?” She started crying a bit louder.
Sagun said “Dad and Mom, I know you have been showing so much love towards from my child hood and gave me whatever I wanted. If you do not want me to marry Sahasra, I would not, but I cannot marry any other girl also. We both understood each other well. But it’s not my wish that we should get married immediately but I just wanted to convey this thing to you. Well, she does not belong to our community but she is a very good girl. I strongly believe you like her. I cannot tell anything more than this but it is up to you to decide.”
They were silent for some time and said “We will think of it”. Later, he joined his job and there was no call or communication from Sahasra from some time. She was expected to join in a company located at the other side of Chennai city just like how it was in Rameswaram. He tried calling her house but no one picked it up for some days and later got message that the phone was disconnected. He tried a lot to reach her and went to the place where she stayed but there was no clue. He started getting disappointed. His concentration on the work got decreased and he started to smoke and drink frequently. Very soon, he got accustomed to boozing and smoking. He was not happy and he stopped visiting his parents in Nellore. If he went to Nellore, he would just go to Sahasra’s address, enquire about her and returned to Chennai disappointed.

……………

“I didn’t expect that you had such a long love story. You are as normal as a human and showered so much love and affection towards me” said Pavithra in a sad tone.
“Yes, it was all because of my parents who got themselves transferred to Chennai. They stayed with me and changed me with their love towards me. I am back to normal, taking everything as past and left all my bad habits. That is why I love them very much. It took me sometime to self realize and understand the importance of life, as love itself is not life.”
“And I would have told this to you before our marriage but I couldn’t because of my parents. But later I felt I should create trust in our relationship and show how much I love you. I just wanted to prove, whatever that happened in the past does not affect our relationship at any cost. And I think I am fairly successful if you declare that. I just got reminded about all the things that happened in the past only because of the TT and the environment outside. I sat there at the entrance when I and Sahasra travelled for the last time; we sat like that at the door listening to songs with similar atmosphere outside. If I had not seen the TT, I would never have remembered this. I am not sure if I remind all this in future again. In the past I might be sad but right now I am happy, satisfied with what I have and I assure you that this will be the same in future.”
“You need not explain me all this. Such things happen in life and I understand. And I trust and love you a lot. I would not have bothered about this if someone else told all this about you. Feel free to share with me in case you get distressed on reminding this in future. I am also a good friend to you apart from being a life partner. All life partners cannot become good friends and vice versa.” told Pavithra.
Sagun was feeling happy on listening to these words.
After a couple of minute silence, Pavithra asked Sagun “Finally, did you find out what happened to Sahasra?”
“No, I could not. Neither did I see her nor listened anything about her. I understood the importance of communication” replied Sagun with a smile.
“She would be fine. Let us sleep now. It is already 1 AM and the arrival time at Chennai is 7 AM. The busy week starts tomorrow. We had a great trip this year. Let us go to trips like this every year” said Pavithra.
“Sure we will” replied Sagun.
Both slept on their respective upper berths.
The train was late by half an hour and they got off the train. Platform was full of passengers and they were heading towards foot over bridge. When they were taking the steps up, Sagun saw a lady who was coming down, holding an approximately 6 year old boy. He could not believe his eyes and she appeared to be Sahasra. She was followed by a male who was 3 or 4 years older than her. Sagun thought he was her husband. She looked at him and Pavithra as well. She was surprised and they stopped on the same foot step and looked at each other for couple of moments.
“Sahasra?” Sagun asked.
“Yes” she said.
Pavithra was also surprised. He introduced Pavithra to Sahasra and Sahasra introduced Sathvik, her husband, to Sagun and Pavithra. They stood on foot over bridge for some time. While Sagun was speaking to Sathvik about their life, Pavithra spoke to Sahasra.
“Although we got introduced few minutes ago, I wanted to talk to you personally. Sagun told me about you and all the things that happened during your engineering days. He told me all this last night and this morning we saw you. One thing we both did not know is where did you go after returning from engineering? He tried to contact you and searched for you everywhere. It has been more than 9 years since this happened but please let me know what happened to you after. Please don’t take it to heart and if you do not want to tell me, you can leave it right way” told Pavithra.
“I will tell you but please let Sagun know about what happened. He should not feel that I betrayed him. When I came back home, I told my wish to marry Sagun to my parents. They were shocked and they did not want me to marry him. They did not tell me any reason while community difference is one cause. They locked me in a room all the time and we got transferred from Nellore to Visakhapatnam in few days. They never let me go out and got me married to Sathvik. I told everything to Sathvik and he was very kind towards me. He loved me a lot and felt pity about me initially. We went to US later and used to come to Chennai every year. But this time we came back permanently and as time progressed, I was into my routine and seldom reminded about Sagun. First love is something you would never forget in your life. It will have its impression on his subconscious mind. I am happy to see Sagun like this. Hope you both are happy” replied Sahasra.
“Yeah we are happy and he reminded you last night only after 2 years we got married. He told me how he behaved when you were out of reach and how he self realized about the importance of other things in life. Whatever might happen, you should go on with your life” replied Pavithra.
“Shall we leave?” asked Sagun from other end.
“Yes” said Pavithra.
He did not speak anything to Sahasra nor she spoke to Sagun except a ‘Hi’ and a ‘bye’.
They went on with their life. Pavithra told the things that happened to Sahasra and Sagun felt bad about what happened. But he felt good that atleast she was happy and told Pavithra that he did not take any contact details of Sathvik and Sahasra and did not want to meet them again accidentally or intentionally.
Thanks to the positive attitude all over which ruled the minds of the four important characters. Although it was tough, they led a beautiful life thereafter. If anyone thought negatively about the other, the train should have derailed.

---The End----