The miracle

-by KParthasarathi Thursday, May 08, 2008

Suseela was shopping her monthly provisions at Big Bazaar, a super market. She bought the vegetables and fruits too. There were too many heavy bags in her hand and shoulders. Some young man in a hurry dashed against her and she fell down along with the packages. With profuse apologies, he helped her get up giving her an arm. He picked the bundles and brought them all outside despite Suseela’s protests. When she said that she will take a three wheeler, he hailed an auto and placed all the packets in it. He was very helpful and courteous regretting more than once his mistake in not noticing her before the collision. He was around 32, tall and handsome.Suseela was impressed with his polite and well mannered ways and thanked him. When he asked her whether she was alright and whether he should accompany her., she said it was not necessary. He took her mobile number and gave her his in case she needed any help. Suseela was in her late twenties, tall, slim and quite attractive. She could not easily forget the incident and the pleasant feeling it gave when he put his strong arm to lift her, when her mobile rang. It was the same gentleman enquiring whether everything was fine with her. She was happy and learnt his name was Sridhar. It so happened, by design or otherwise, she met him daily in the succeeding three days at the supermarket. One thing led to the other and they became intimate friends and soon were sleeping together. She knew he was unmarried and held a good position in an IT company. She did not reveal much about herself except that she was married and led an unhappy life. She told him that she and her husband were living in her apartment. She did not tell him where he worked. She also denied that he was a suspicious guy. Nevertheless she never invited him to her house and instead met at his apartment almost daily. She told him that she was having a very pleasant time with him and wished this would continue for ever.. He said one day he was madly in love with her and that both could get married and get away to a distant place and raise a family. He said there are offers for him from USA and that he was declining them because of her. He said she owed it to him to explain in detail what her problem was to enable him find a happy solution. She went on harping that the problem defied a solution and that she cannot marry him at all. In a moment of exasperation he asked why she could not take him to her house to find for himself what exactly was bothering her. She agreed and asked him to come the next day. She spent time with him in his arms the rest of the day savouring his tender love as if it was the last day. When Sridhar went to Suseela’s house, she saw in the living room a very good looking young man of his age in pyjama and kurta.He neither got up nor showed any recognition of a stranger before him. There was a foolish grin that looked permanent like that of a two year child. When Sridhar took his hands to shake, the man started smiling more as if he was playing with him. When Sridhar looked at her in askance, he saw her wiping tears from her eyes. He followed her to the bed room, put his arms around her and stroked her to calm herself. It was then she narrated that her husband was an engineer in a steel plant and that a heavy crane had knocked him the head some five years back. The best of neurologists could do nothing except saving his life. He is like a two year old and unable to comprehend anything. She has engaged an ayah to take care of him till she returned home. Doctors say this condition would continue throughout his life unless a miracle happens. Miracles are very rare and not seen by them. She said “It is in these circumstances that I cannot leave him. He was a very affectionate and loving husband. He had none to take care of him. Your friendship and love was like a whiff of fresh air in the otherwise drab life. I know I cannot withhold you for ever and that I may have to part with you. I shudder at the thought but have no answer.” Sridhar kept quiet for long and said there are two options. “Let us leave him in a home that takes care of such patients and get away to far off land. If it is not acceptable, which god forbid, we may have to part ways. You have the choice to make.” It did not take moments for Suseela to decide. “I will not desert him at any cost and will keep praying for the miracle. Thanks for the pleasant days” she replied. He hugged her and kissed her for long before he left. The story does not end here. When Sridhar with his wife and children was moving in Saw Grass mall in Lauderdale six years later, one lady dashed against him in a hurry. When he looked up ,he got the biggest surprise.It was his old ffriend Suseela profusely apologizing. She introduced him to meet her husband Balu who was in an immaculate suit sans his permanent smile. Sridhar had a surprised look. She replied”yes, the one in a million miracle has happened.” kpartha12@hotmail.com