The Spring Swallows...

While in the elevator she was ardently questioning about local chicken. Where to purchase it and was prior order necessary for it. I just bade goodbye for the night to one of my common friends who was, just two days back, diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia. And the girl I’m talking about is his girlfriend, a 23 year old vivacious girl-next-door, with two swallows tattooed on her wrist, whose life has just begun... and was also about to fall to pieces. She never asked me how many years her boyfriend had. If she’d have asked, maybe I’d have answered, at the very best 10 years. We were in one of India’s best cancer hospitals. Yet, I knew, doctors are, but, just instruments... She was all smiles and cheerful in front of her boyfriend but as we came out to the hallway, her face changed. I could sense the grief that it buried in it. Even in the metro, while I sat opposite her, I could see her restlessness. I saw her deliberations of prayers every other moment. I saw her livid questions to God. I saw her helplessness. I saw her love for her boyfriend. But I never saw any surrender!!! I knew this girl would fight... She took out a bar of chocolate and the way she ate it, made me know that she hadn’t eaten anything the whole day. As the metro decelerated to a halt, I readied to get down. She had to travel another one hour to reach her small room on the other part of Delhi. And I knew she’d undertake this two hour journey to the hospital, twice a day, every day, till her boyfriend was there, which I knew would be quite long.

Today, I saw the blood report findings of a rare form of leukaemia. But I also witnessed a much more rare form of love... Salute!!!