Running after the shadows of the past is painful. He had understood it by now. But for some reasons, he would still go on rubbing on to his old wounds. He was perhaps so used to pain now that he felt some strange and eternal calm in it. That’s why he had preferred thorny track over the beds of roses. Standing on the balcony of his bedroom, he was staring into the sea for long now. Looking at the waves playing hide-n-seek with night skies, he was eagerly waiting for the dawn. He was waiting for the sun to rise across the horizon, for it held a promise of bright days ahead. She was coming to see him at 10:00 in the morning. They were to marry in court; and from there they would drive to airport and leave for Kashmir on 2 O’clock flight for their honeymoon. He knew she was overly punctual and would come well in time, but for some reasons he couldn’t calm his impatience and was eagerly waiting for the new light of the new day. Today he was a known face, very famous photographer in the city . Some five years back when he had landed here, he had nothing to fall back on. With no work to do and no roof to live under, he would go empty stomach together for days. And nobody was bothered about him. This is what life in the cities like this is all about – people busy in a maddening rush, running around like they are in some great hurry and hardly every bothering to think or care about anyone else but themselves. But here it was his passion that paid. He made a beginning, though a humble one, and then opportunities followed, one after the other, and soon he was able to set himself up as a very successful person, with name, fame and wealth everything at his back.
Worldly riches may no doubt seem to bring about a lot of satisfaction and contentment to people, but then it is also true that these material possessions are rarely able to satisfy their inner emotional urges. In terms of emotional satisfaction, he was no better than a beggar, far from being content. Obviously he needed her for she was like him; both had been through almost similar turbulences.
Actually he was not in photography by choice, he had been pushed into the field by his situation. His parents wanted him to be a doctor, but somehow he himself contracted a disease that wouldn’t leave him for life. Those were the days when he was a student at a Medical College in Srinagar.
Since childhood he was a very bubbly person, so full of life cheer. He loved nature – and would cherish every bit of it. Sometimes he would paint his thoughts on canvas and at other times express them through other creative means. Sunita would always admire him for everything that he did. He had drawn so many of her portraits against the backdrop of Pari Mehal and Cheshma Shahi and all these paintings now adored Sunita’s bedroom. She would stare at them, and think of her relationship with him, and feel that he was always around, with her all the time in much the same way as clouds are around the snow-capped mountain tops. During night shifts at hospital whenever they would be together, they would sit over talking for hours.
During those days, not many people in the college were actually interested in Sunita. She was perhaps too ordinary for anyone to pay her any heed. Her simplicity was her real beauty and he was the only person who was able to read and appreciate the open book that Sunita was to him. There was some strange attraction in her personality and he had always felt drawn towards it.
Then it so happened that Sunita had to go to the US with one of her relatives for few weeks. It was for the first time that she was going away. So he went to see her off at the airport and was praying for her safety. After a few weeks, when Sunita returned, she had changed completely. She was no longer the same simple girl. Having given herself a complete make-over, with a changed hairstyle and way of dressing, she now seemed way too beautiful than she had ever looked. Now everyone in the college was infatuated, but she was not at all interested, for she knew that she belonged to someone else.
One evening they were sitting together at Pari Mehal and watching sun set over the Hari Parbat hillock. The waters of Dal Lake were as if sucking on the crimson gold hue of the setting sun. After a while the entire lake seemed as if draped in the robes of golden fog. It was a beautiful, somewhat unworldly sight. The gentle breeze was -kissing Sunita’s hair to bring her locks to caress and tease her cheeks. He came near and touched Sunita’s lips with his fingers and felt as if thousands of violinists had started playing in orchestra. The loving invite in Sunita’s eyes was just too resistible. They embraced and hugged so as to drown into each-other for eternity. The time had just stopped ticking. They were both as if praying and seeking each-other for eternity. But then wishes are not always granted. Sometimes they just go up, return and crash on to the lifeless ruins and rocks, to echo for a while before dying forever. The sun had set…
Sunita knew about his passion. So she had brought him a very good camera from the US. He used his creativity to capture some very beautiful pictures of Sunita and soon her picture album became a big hit with her friends and relatives. And it were these pictures that brought about a huge upheaval in Sunita’s life. Actually it was only after seeing these pictures that her cousin asked his parents that he friend’s wanted to marry Sunita. Sunita’s parents had always liked him, and now that he wanted to marry their daughter, they couldn’t have asked for more.
Sunita got married…
All the promise and pledges she had made with him were as if frozen in time. On that night when the Sunita’s mansion on the banks of river Jhelum was glittering with bright lights of festivity, he was mourning his loss in the darkness of the other bank. Sunita was gone, and he was left there, marooned for life, destroyed forever, not able to think why she had dumped him like this. Immediately after her marriage, Sunita left for US.
She had proved just a mirage and running after it had had done no good to him. It had only left him bruised and battered. He left his medical education half way and left Kashmir to return to his native place in Hyderabad. But here again his memories kept haunting him and finally on one night he again left his home and came to Bombay.
The first rays of sun had announced beginning of one more day. It was dawn and there were still three more hours to go before Rimpi would come. Today he was getting married to Rimpi, and they were going to Kashmir for honeymoon. He was drawing up beautiful plans in his drawing room and was obviously very happy. Rimpi’s ‘blow-ups’ (pictures) adoring the room everywhere were as if greeting him, and adding to his happiness.
He had met Rimpi some two years back. He was very famous in Bombay and everyday so many ‘beautiful girls aspiring a career in modeling would come to his office. He was working with and making advertisements for big business houses. Actually it was because camera use of the that he was able to start a career in photography. All the pictures for the audition test which finally set him on the path of success were taken with the same camera.
Rimpi was as if another version of Sunita; at least in the sense that she dusted off his past to make way for the dawn of new light and hope. He too was as if waiting for her only. And she was able to replace Sunita’s memories in his heart with her own love, while he brought cool shade of affection into her parched lovelorn life.
Rimpi has missed on her dad’s love and affection. She came from a family where she had seen her mother suffering silently at the hands of her husband – Rimpi’s dad, who would beat her on frivolous pretexts and slightest provocations. She was only three years old when the country was partitioned, which actually destroyed their family badly. His father lost his business and everything. The family that had once had all luxuries was now left penniless. It was in this that he came to Bombay along with his wife and daughter Rimpi. Here he took a cashier-cum-clerk’s job in a bank, and in a bid to rebuild his life yet again, he turned virtually himself into a machine, Rimpi’s mother’s health started deteriorating and thus poor girl lost what was due to her as a child -parental love and care.
Rimpi was nine-years-old and was studying in 5th standard at a local public school, One day she was thrown out of school for not coming in school uniform. She came home, crying. Her mother who had saved on some money, took her to the market, bought cloth for the uniform and pleaded with a local tailor to sew it up on the same day. The tailor agreed and told her that the uniform would be ready by evening.
As they reached home, Rimpi’s dad was already on top of the anger mountain. He thrashed his wife badly, dragged Rimpi to the terrace, stripped her naked and tied her up with a cot and left the place. Poor Rimpi, with no clothes on her body, the bright hot sun ripped through her skin and charred it badly. She cried and cried but there was no one who could have untied her and brought her in as her mother had fainted because of the beating she had got.
When Rimpi’s mother regained her senses, she remembered the uniform, It was already very late. She went to the terrace, untied Rimpi who had felt asleep by now o the tailor asked her to rush tilor to get the uniform. Rubbing her eyes, Rimpi started running towards the tailor. As she neared near the shop, she saw the tailor was already downing the shutter to close his shop. She went to him and pleaded that she needed the uniform. Looking at the beautiful chubby little nine-year old the tailor took her inside the shop and closed the shutter. Inside the shop, he took her in his arms and trief to rape her. Rimpi cried, but there was no one around to help here, Somehow she managed to bite very hard on the tailor’s cheek, which slackened his grip on her. Rimpi grabbed the uniform, picked up the shutter and rushed out running towards her home.
Now Rimpi had every reason to hate men. She had already seen an oppressive and tyrant man in her father, and now she had faced the bestiality of another man!
They were shooting for new advertisements in Khandala when he got a chance to be with Rimpi. They were chatting and he wanted to tell her everything about himself and Sunita. But somehow Rimpi too was emotionally charged up and she told him everything about her life. He was shocked to listen what all that poor girl had been though. They fell in love and this was the beginning of a very intimate relationship between them.
Rimpi was not fully into modeling; she did it only once in a while as she liked it. By now she was also enrolled in a local college. Her dad had graduated to become the manager of the bank. Although he wouldn’t poke his noise into his daughter’s life, but there was no let-up in his cruelties towards there wife, The poor woman continued suffer as ever and now he was sick as well But thanks to Rimpi’s care, she was doing well after doctors operated on her. While she was still admitted in the hospital, Rimpi once had a big verbal duel with her dad. On that night her dad beat her up badly and for long in the night she was crying.
He had sent a portrait of Rimpi ‘s for an international photography contest to Geneva. Interestingly it bagged first position there. So Rimpi became a celebrity overnight. To celebrate her success, Rimpi’s uncle arranged a party at his bungalow, City’s entire glitterati attended the party. Rimpi had by now become everybody’s heart-throb as he was the only one who ruled her heart. They were quietly standing near each other. Perhaps there was no need for them to talk as their souls were already talking in silence. And both were feeling it. On next day, Rimpi didn’t turn up in his office. He was disturbed. He asked his secretary to ring up her home but there was no answer. He couldn’t sleep that night. Next morning as he came out of his bedroom, he was amazed to see Rimpi sitting in his drawing room. He couldn’t believe his eyes. But then she got up and started walking towards him. She looked very sad . he took her face in his hands and Rimpi started crying as she hugged him. It was like a river of fire flowing into a sea of ice.
Actually during the party other night, Rimpi’s aunt liked her and she had proposed that she wanted her to marry his son Vicky. Rimpi’s mother accepted the proposal. One of her friends who overheard the conversation between her mother and aunt informed Rimpi about it. Shocked, Rimpi went into a corner in the lawns trying to console herself when Vicky’s father, her uncle came to her. He took Rimpi’s face in his hands, looking passionately at her, said: “Anyone wanting to see thunderous lightening must see you! For long I had wanted to have you close to me, and this is what has become the sole aim of my life now.”
Rimpi was shell-shocked. She was not able to come in terms with what her uncle, who was now going to be his father-in-law, had just said to her. She started losing faith in the sanctity of relationships. She was not able to see, hear or think anything. lt was as if someone had poured melting mettle into her ears.
Holding him tight, Rimpi was crying and he was trying to console her. He wiped her tears,. kissed her forehead and said something in her ears. A gentle smile appeared on her lips. She hugged him again…
The wall clock struck ten. He was startled and started looking towards the door, but there was nobody there.
Then clock struck 6 in the evening. Again he was startled and anxiously looking at the door. The door opened suddenly, he got up. But now it was his secretary…
Having been calling Rimpi’s home since morning, his secretary too had by now lost hope. A source somehow told him that Rimpi and her parents had gone to uncles place where the un-fortunate incident took place last night. In the morning they came to know that Rimpi had committed suicide by consuming sleeping pills in large quantity.
Hearing all this, he fell down like a dead body. Secretary rushed to the phone, and dialed doctor’s number : “ Doctor, please come quickly, something has happened to Iqbal sir !.
Latter in the evening right across the sea, sun was about to set. Sky was crimson red, and its reflection on the sea had lent it a blooded hue. Across the horizon, as if emitting red smoke sun was breathing its last.
Syed Zeeshan Fazil is a renowned writer and author of several books. The story is an excerpt from his book “STRANGER ON BLACK HIGHWAY” ( A collection of short stories)
