Part Nine
Days that followed were the most stressful. I returned to my ancestral village for the funeral ceremony of my wife. The final goodbye can’t even be described. Only the people who lost someone loved ones can understand my state of mind then. It's heart-wrenching. Di and Jiju came to support me.
My parents moved back to the US to be with me and my daughter. I was thankful as it was quite difficult for them to adjust in a completely different environment. I was thankful to the maid as well. She knew how to cook Indian food which was a big relief to my mother. And most importantly I didn’t want to burden my mom with cooking at her age. She threw a big fit when I wanted to hire a babysitter, so I let it go.
My daughter was an angel from heaven. She took over all my lonely nights. The emotional attachment was still missing but it was gut-wrenching to see her cry.
As she grew up, I could see my wife’s replica in her.
There was a time when the monotony of life made me run away from everything so I took up work which involved traveling. I knew it wasn’t fair to travel with the responsibility of my daughter but my parents understood the need and were always supportive.
I had a chance to go to India and I grabbed it with both of my hands. I took leave for extra few days to go to my sister’s place. I informed Jiju of my arrival and my stay at a nearby hotel. He told me to cancel the hotel booking if he wanted me to live. I threw my head back in laughter. I made those arrangements and gave my flight details.
My arrival was a surprise to my sister. She cried happy tears when she saw me first thing in the morning one day. I was given my nephew’s room to relax for the day and I woke up in the late afternoon and had light brunch.
I didn’t notice the house when I came so I was given a tour of it by my niece. It was an independent duplex home in a completely residential area. Front of the home had a small grass patch with some vertically growing conifers trees. Staircase to the terrace was hidden from those tall trees. There were mattress, pillows and few books lying on the grass. Apparently, the kids study there sometime. The backyard had a kitchen garden and a few flowering plants with high boundary walls. Lastly, we went to the terrace, it was also mostly filled with potted plants.
My niece went off to study due to her forthcoming exams. I came at a very bad time, I felt. The in-laws were very warm people. They knew everything about me, insisted to show them the recent pictures of my daughter. Well, my phone was returned after a few hours.
We all had an early dinner. That night it turned out to be cloudy and it started raining, the kids persisted to play in the rains as they had all boring previous days. None gave them permission except their grandmother, that too for 5min, but it went on for 45min. Kids pulled everyone in the rain and we all were completely soaked as it rained cat and dogs. Never I remembered doing such a thing.
After the rain stopped we all went inside and changed, warm soup was waiting at the dining table a few moments later. I noticed that my sister didn’t change. She wanted to serve it as soon as possible so that no one gets sick. I took the serving duty and told her to change.
Di, Jiju and I had a chat until late night.
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Authors note:
Thank you for stopping by :)
So, like it so far!! please do tell me in your reviews. I apologize for my grammatical mistakes in advance.
I would like to sincerely thank
ajuswa19
Jasmine Rahul
Prabhleen Arora
Debolina Chaulay
navdeep kaur
crabysorus
kashianaju
for commenting on this story. Your comments made my day, thank you:) Sorry for mentioning about you all, this late, I hope to not repeat this in future.
Special mention to kalpana devi for taking the time and giving lengthy comments, I really hope you continue to give your support and enjoy this story. Thank you so much :)
I hope you have a great day ahead :)
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