Dear Daughter | ✔

तेरह

Dear Daughter,
This day, sixteen years back, was when I had reflagged the idea of wooing your mother. Yes, this was when she had come into the physics class in a complete chilled out manner.

I still remember how we had always had that role reversal. She was the bad girl, and I, the goody two shoes. When we started becoming friends, I remember those whispers going all around us. Not boasting or anything, but I was the star student of the school; and your mother was... well, your mother. People were definitely quite shocked by such an odd pair.

Your mother knew about all that they were saying, but did not care about them. At all. She had her fair shares of admirers, I must tell you, but to her they did not exist. Every time someone asked her why she chose to be friends with me, she would just give them a glare and they would back off.

She was extremely arrogant and cocky, yet she too had her insecurities. She never ever believed me when I told her I thought she was beautiful.

When did the meaning of beautiful change? she used to question.

I did not understand why she thought she was not beautiful. Her exterior was brilliant, but her personality was phenomenal. She knew exactly what to say to whom. She knew just what I wanted, when even I sat questioning myself. She knew how to help people and she knew people like no one would.

Her best feature to me were her eyes. They were not the electric blue or the gripping green. They were simply brown. Like chocolate. But the colour was not what attracted me towards them. It was their reaction. They used to grow big at the tiniest of events. Every time I asked your mother to close them she would widen them. Even better, she had this tiny brownish birth mark on her cornea and she absolutely hated it when people asked her what it was. She used to get creeped out by those people. She said it made her feel insecure when people noticed such tiny things about her but to me even the tiniest of her details were fantastic.

Her intelligence would have put Athena to shame and her beauty was past Aphrodite's. To me, she was the most wonderful woman I ever acquainted with. I really wish you would have gotten to meet her as well. The closest I could take you to her is through her stories, and oh well, I hope I am doing a decent job.

I remember once, when my sister was pregnant, her whole family had come over for a function and your mother and I sneaked up to the terrace. She told me that she always wondered if the sky spoke. Back then, I use to laugh it off but now I realise that the sky did speak. The stars were calling your mother to join them and accept them as her own. The way they twinkled made it seem as if they were begging her to meet them. Unfortunately, your mother accepted the invitation and left to meet them a bit too soon.

Always and Forever,
Your Father.
July 7, 1999.