MALANG

16. Shortcomings of life

Cucumberland Island
Georgia, United States

Kabir:

"Remembered your beach fantasy?" Nazneen asked with a teasing smile.

I shifted my gaze from the setting sun to the golden hue that dusk had painted on her cheeks. She looked beautiful in that colour, much like her seventeen years old self- young, bright, and eye catching. It made me wander whether she had at all aged in these eight years or not.

Also it made me visualize flashes of the past decade, of which Nazneen was an integral part. She and I, wrapped in covers, tangled with each other, soaked in love... that was some crazy time past there. In one such moment of passion I had confessed her my fantasy....of how I wanted to make love to her on a lonely beach with the moon watching us from above and the ocean waves kissing the sand and sweat off our body, every now and then.

"Ofcourse." I heaved a sigh. Strange it was that the fantasy I had practically lived all my adulthood was no more a matter of concern now.

"You know, Aftab was never this crazy about me." Nazneen returned her eyes back to the ocean. "I never understood why I wasn't good enough for him."

"Or maybe he was guilty for cheating on you with his health condition?" Why else would a young man like him remain aloof to such a beautiful wife?

"Maybe. I don't know... and the worst part is that I will never come to know about it again."

"Its okay, Naaz." I pulled her into a friendly hug. "Everyone of us has some sort of baggage to carry till the end of our lives."

"And your baggage is leaving your wife for me, isn't it?"

I just shrugged my shoulders.

Nazneen's eyes sparkled up with amusement as she turned towards me and crossed her legs before the chest.
"You met her again, right? Tell me... how was she like?"

"Why do you want to know?" I scrunched my brows.

"Awehi."

I heaved a sigh. How was Nitya like? What do I tell her? Nitya was just.... beyond words.. beyond descriptions.. but would Nazneen ever understand that?

"She was perfect, Naaz."

"Perfect?" She was visibly not satisfied with my answer. "That's it?"

"Yeah, she was perfect with emerald green eyes, long luscious hairs, a heart shaped face and a queen sized heart."

"Green eyes?" Nazneen gasped. "And queen sized heart? What does that mean?"

Yes, green eyes. Just like two fireflies embedded in frozen dew.
"Means that her heart knows how to forgive but not how to forget."

"Isn't that same with all of us?"

"Not really. People usually tend to lock their darkest past in some hidden corner of the heart and never wish them to come out.... but this isn't the case with Nitya. She knows how to live her life with her past alive in her thoughts and wounds, still bleeding afresh."

Nazneen didn't speak anything for a long time and neither did I. The only sound that existed between us now was that of the sea waves rolling at our feet at a sweet, leisurely pace.

I smiled to myself as the tiny bubbles brought by those waves tickled the pads of my feet.

"She is a strong woman." Nazneen broke the silence.

"Indeed." I replied absent mindedly.

"Do you miss her?"

Miss her? Well, at the present moment I just wished I was siting on the beach with Nitya so that I could see the dusk getting reflected in her green eye-balls!
"Maybe."