Family Short Story – THE MESSAGE
Photo credit: mvictor from morguefile.com
Just last night I was on my way from Jalandhar to Delhi when i received a text from an unknown number. It was around 1 am in the morning when i took out my cell from my pocket, checked the time, and pressed “view message”. The message had just four words . Four simple english words forming one simple english sentence . May be it was the time of the night or something else, i felt like i was reading the saddest words ever written. Those four words throbbed me of my sleep and made me think about our own existence.
After about a minute or two , i opened the text editor and wrote a reply to the text .-
” really?:( ..its really sad..i dont know what to say..*big hugs*..really sorry for your loss.."
and pressed “send”.
I lost my grandmother when i was young enough, and to me grandmother always meant a 70-80 years old lady with wrinkles on her entire face , wearing big cylindrical lense glasses and a hearing aid. Her hair all white in colour, sitting on a chair knitting a light coloured sweater for her grandchildren and sipping tea from a pale white cup ,time to time. I had always imagined my granny like this , the reason may be the bed time stories my dad used to tell me at nights. Stories of his own childhood and how naughty he used to be, and how his mother ( my granny) used to punish him.Thanks to those stories i had painted a picture of granny, my granny, in my mind .
And when in those old bollywood movies they showed grandmothers in the negative roles, I used to hate that. I would compare those “filmy” grandmas with my “imagination” one and feel happy for mine was nice as compared to them. Silly childhood things.
about 15 minutes after I had replied to the message , i received another one from the same number -“who is this?”.
To which i quickly replied-“ i dont know you, and you probably took me for some one else , but trust me i can understand what you are going through . Just take care ..life goes on..good nite friend”
I dozzed off to sleep after sending the text. It was around 4 am and i was somewhere near delhi when i checked my cell again. A text from the same number. It read-
“ thanks for your condolences..just what i wanted..thank you again..tc..good nite:( ”
I read it again and again. Though the words were simple but they had sone hidden message in them. Those words really made me nostlagic.
Strange, how two different individuals who didnt even know each other could clearly understand each other. We may be from different backgrounds, but at that very instance nothing else mattered. It was like a unique bond between us which could only be felt but not explained. Its strange how i could relate to a total stranger.
Just last night i was on my way from Jalandhar to Delhi when I recieved a text from an unknown number. It was around 1 am in the morning when i took our my cell from my pocket, checked the time, and pressed “view message”. The message had just four words . Four simple english words forming one simple english sentence . May be it was the time of the night or something else, i felt like i was reading the saddest words ever written. – ” I LOST MY GRANDMA”
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