The love of my life

2. Exits and Entrances

January'2023

Daman picked up her almost two and half year old son from the daycare as he squealed on seeing her.

"Tejas..." She said and picked him up.

"Mum.." He said excited and hugged her tight.

"How was your day?" She asked.

"Fiiine" he said tilting his head adorably to the left, bringing a smile to Daman's exhausted face as he fetched for something in his denim shorts while in Daman's arms.

"Oohhh and Poffeee..." He said and grinned showing his teeth as she smiled.

"You got a toffee? Was it someone's birthday?" She asked and he nods pointing his finger towards a small girl in pigtails being picked up by another woman.

"Sia." He said as she nodded.

"Did you wish Sia, a happy birthday?" She asked and starting walking towards her car chatting with her son.

She put him in the baby seat and drove home, picking up groceries for dinner.

She made him soup for evening snacks and after feeding, started his two hour screen time, alternating between iPad and TV as she made dinner.

She fed him and then ate dinner looking at the empty chair beside her.

It would have been their 4 years wedding anniversary in three days, if not for the car accident.

She missed Sangram and then looked at Tejas sitting on his baby feeding chair playing on his iPad. He had his father's eyes, nose and jawline but her lips. He had those really long eyelashes that Sangram had, and she was always jealous of.

Sangram had a full head of hair and tied a turban according to the Sikh religious beliefs and she had never let a scissor touch her son's hair as he sat in his little patka. 

(Patka is a piece of cloth tied over the little bun made on the top of the head for young sikh boys.)

She thought of Ekansh for one split second and then immediately shook her head regretting the thought of ever replacing her husband.

It was an arranged marriage and from the very first day Sangram had been nothing but supportive of her career and dreams. He let her finish her PhD, before letting his mother even complete a sentence about wanting grandkids.

He was a Captain in Navy and when his posting changed to south India he never once asked Daman to migrate her phd research and move with him because he knew she loved it here. He was nothing short of perfect.

The kind that help you cook and clean the house, when you are tired. The kind that don't let you lift a finger when you're in your third trimester and bring you chocolates and junk food on your periods and flowers without a special occasion.

She was happy. She had stopped thinking of Ekansh and their jamming sessions everytime she saw a guy with a guitar. She had moved on with her life and then one day she got a call informing that Sangram's car had gotten hit by a truck and her world just stopped. Again.

Her mom moved in with her in their apartment and lived their for three months, and then she had to fly back to her brother in Surrey, Canada, because her dad had slipped in the bathroom and broke his tailbone.

And gradually, this became the new normal. She and her son.

Her thoughts were distracted as her phone rang. She looked at the screen. It was her mother-in-law's video call.

She was a nice woman, who had began insisting Daman to marry again. "Life as a young widow is hard." She had said, knowing the pain of loosing Sangram's father who was in Army, in the line of duty. She lived with her younger son in Melbourne.