Nandan stood in front of a shop that had belonged to him now, unexpectedly. He was here to hand the keys to the one who had rented the shop.
Nandan’s uncle, Mr Anant Lahiri ran a very successful business in the shop as a lady’s tailor. Everyone wondered if Mr Lahiri knew his end was approaching because of the well-arranged will which he had left upon the abrupt end with a heart attack.
The bigger surprise was Mr Lahiri handing over his most precious possession to not his daughter Ekta but his nephew Anant.
It was not that Anant was not happy about it, but he did not understand what his uncle meant by ‘keep the good work going’.
“I cannot be a lady’s tailor, I don’t know the first thing about it and neither am I interested. If you want to, you can run the shop and keep most of the profits,” Anant had offered Ekta, before giving it out to someone else for renting
“You don’t have to do it,” said Ekta
“Don’t do what?” asked Anant
“Don’t try to feel sorry for me. It will only make it worse apart from pretentious silent but intentionally audible conversations of the relatives about me about the will,” replied Ekta
Anant walked to the bus stop on his way back from the shop. How many times had he come to this stop, initially with his parents, then later he watched the stop while travelling as a passenger in his father’s car before once again using the bus to travel here during high school and college days.
Everything had happened so fast that Anant hadn’t actually been able to think about his feelings regarding the situation.
Anant came to the shop quite often when Mr Lahiri was there, mainly because his aunt used to teach him math. Later on, the visits became more occasional.
The life was simple and beautiful except for Mr Lahiri’s elder son Vasu, who had come to the conclusion that he wouldn’t have to do anything in life and everything was sorted because of the business. Mr Lahiri let his son enjoy life, thinking he was giving him something better than what he himself got.
Initially surrounded by those he thought were his friends, Vasu found himself alone when everyone got on with their life, serious with what they wanted to do. A person in denial which leads to depression can become a problem for his/her very own self and that is what happened when a car driven in a drunken state went off the road and off the bridge.
In the course of time, the unwanted silence ate away at Mr Lahiri claiming his voice as well.
Anant got on the bus which arrived and glanced back as the bus moved away, from something which would slowly become a distant past.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 
One response to “Understanding Absence”
Nice post 🎸🙏
LikeLiked by 2 people