A Walk with Memory

As the city bus turned around the corner Advay gripped the hand strap tighter to not sway away in the direction of the bus’s pull.



He had been scrolling through phone for a while, but his eyes were requesting rest after an entire day in the office in front of a computer screen.



Advay looked out the window and noticed the bus had taken a different route that day, sometimes although rarely, it did to avoid traffic. The route was a familiar one, familiar to the point that Advay got down the bus this time.



There was a restaurant nearby. Advay had not been there for several years now. There was a time when he and his brother were in school and later in college, they used to go to the restaurant along with their parents to have dinner.



Advay remembered the time they spent as his father drove the car, the journey to the restaurant, having food together, the conversation and then coming back home after a brief stop in between to get ice cream.



They stopped visiting the restaurant after Advay’s father passed away. A year later Advay’s younger brother Mihir left for a job in another state. Abhay and his mother lived in the apartment now. Despite various attempts at persuasion, Abhay was reluctant to marry.



Abhay walked quietly towards the restaurant, trying to think of what he would have there, his favourite egg fried rice or perhaps something else.



As Abhay reached the restaurant, he took his time to stand outside and look at it. It still felt the same apart from some decorative differences. As he looked in through the tinted glass to find a familiar face, he found one, too familiar.



It was Mihir, his brother. From what Abhay observed, Mihir seemed to be in a management position, he was regularly entering the kitchen and coming back for a stroll around the restaurant, making sure everything was fine.



“Are you happy with the job?” Abhay had asked Mihir on phone call a few months back



“Yes, things could not be better,” Mihir had said with a positive tune to the voice



Mihir was the most affected after their father’s death. Abhay and his mother tried their best and they succeeded in not letting his life fall apart. They were worried when Mihir talked about this job in another state where he would have to move and live alone, but they eventually agreed to it thinking of Mihir’s betterment.



Mihir had lied about the job being in another state and even the nature of the job. He was here, but one thing he had not lied about was being happy. Abhay could see it on Mihir’s face as he worked.



Abhay smiled and quietly walked away, letting the happiness prevail for the moment, postponing the dinner and the conversation to another day of unknown date.

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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