“Aniruddh, I don’t feel like leaving. I want to stay with you.”

“Don’t be silly, you have been working so hard to present your paper. You yourself said that this research will change Indian agricultural practices and will benefit farmers.”

“Yes, I know… but I have this strange feeling, I can’t explain. Okay, I will go, but before I leave, I want to hear those three words from you.”

“Don’t behave like a child, we have been married for 22 years, and you still want to hear them.”

 Anirrudh turned in his bed violently, soaked in sweat, and mumbled something vigorously and loudly, until his own voice startled him.  

It was a dream! The same dream!

Arohi, Aniruddh’s wife, was a lecturer at an Agricultural college and was on her way to Delhi to attend a seminar, but lost her life in the plane crash along with 260 unfortunate souls.

They say time heals, but he wondered if it does. Six months since she was gone, and he still struggles to find a reason to get out of bed every morning.

Aniruddh looked at the framed image of his wife and said, “I love you”. The guilt was playing its part well and killing him bit by bit every day. Even if he said these three words a thousand times, it would not reach Arohi; she was gone forever, without hearing them.

Opening Arohi’s wardrobe and touching and caressing her Sarees, handbags, and shawls for hours was now part of his daily routine. There lay a red journal; he had seen Arohi writing in it many times. She was very particular about its privacy, and he respected it.

Today, though, he decided to learn more about his wife. Sitting near the window holding the journal in his hand for almost an hour, he finally gathered the courage to open it.

There were drawings all over; doodles with captions. The first page had a drawing of him and Arohi. In it, he was handing her a rose while she blushed; the caption said, when Aniruddh would say I love you to me with a rose in his hand, I will blush like this.

Tears started soaking the page. He turned the next page and then next, all were filled with Arohi’s unfulfilled desires and dreams. His heart was sinking, and then suddenly he stopped at one page and stared at it for a long time. He finally wiped his tears and closed the journal.

He was now dreaming one of her dreams!

 Two years later:

The laughter of the children filled the air as a group of students walked into their orphanage dormitories to get ready for the field to receive today’s lesson on Permaculture. The curriculum was based on Arohi’s research and the orphanage cum school was named ‘Arohi’s Home’.

Aniruddh never forgot to tell these children every day after class, “Love you all, see you tomorrow!”

He knew that Arohi was listening to these words too, wherever she was!