The Unventured Passions

Little Secrets

'Dear Diary,

Tonight my Princess is to be married, to someone else.
I can now, without any inhibitions, call her 'Mine', for, I have given myself completely to her. It's not just love that's guiding me, it's more than that... The respect, the admiration, the awe that I share for her, has been all encompassing for me.
Love is not about achievements, it's not about gaining the person, but about sacrificing oneself for the beloved, and tonight, I'm ready for the sacrifice!
I love her, and this truth is the only verity of my existence, even if she can never be mine in the eye of the world... But, I'll always be hers, and she'd be My Princess.

The past two weeks had been a dream, and, dear diary, although my engagements with her on various pursuits have compelled me to make an exception of not writing regularly, tonight I intend to write my heart out.

The memories of riding horses together, seeing her releasing those long menacing arrows from that curved bow, so effortlessly, and reading to her the stories of the world, are still fresh. This has been my life these two weeks.
We have laughed at jokes together, we have sighed at our misfortunes, and everytime, I have felt my heart beating a little more for her, a little too intensely.

Last evening, probably our last together, I had read excerpts from Macbeth to her, and she cried.

...all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player...'

***

It's been six years, and Trilochan Roy Chowdhury was skimming through the pages of his old diary. He does it often, reminiscing the lost memories of the good times that life has blessed him with.
It was his misfortune that he couldn't keep it!

"Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player..." he murmured the recitation once, before closing the dairy, with a sigh of faded agony.

"Is that a code, Kaka?"

Trilochan's trance was suddenly broken, and as a part of his immediate reality, he saw his nine year old nephew standing infront of him, a toy gun in hand, as his large eyelashes fluttered innocently at him. His small round face had a solemn look which wasn't a characteristic of his age, his chubby cheeks had the red tinge of health and his thin rosy lips were parted in a suppressed excitement, eager to know the answer to the question he had asked his uncle.

"Which one?"
Trilochan had picked him up lovingly, making him sit on his lap.

"That one, out out candle... Is that a code?"

Trilochan smiled. It's been only a month that the child had lost his mother, and had refused to see his new born baby brother since. Lost in books, the only person he preferred to speak to was his uncle.

"It can be a code, but why would we need one?" His arms were now around the child, sheathing him within the protective cocoon of his fatherly love.

"We need a code, Kaka... What if someone comes to take you away from me? Someone evil!" The boy swallowed. "How would I protect you if I don't know you're in danger?"

"I can just tell you."
Trilochan tightened his grip around the child and rested his chin lightly on his tiny shoulder.

"No Kaka... What if there isn't time? Or, what if the evils that took my mother is standing right infront... You can't just ask for help directly infront of them, can you?"
The words were forceful, filled with childish innocence.
The boy had slid down his lap, and now was standing close to him, his tiny arms around Trilochan's strong neck.
"Kaka, can I ask you something?"