The Soulmate by Mansi Tyagi

The clear blue sky was suddenly full of tumultuous, dark, ragged clouds. He came near the balcony of his room and sat on his arm chair. The chilly wind was blustery. He felt a sudden shiver in his body as the wind touched his face and then his whole body. He picked up his novel from the side table and started reading it. A smile came on his face.

It was the first day of college when Namit saw Riya. She was walking with a group of few other girls wearing a white chudidar with a blue dupatta. At the first instance only, he found her a beautiful pure soul. Riya looked at him too and went inside the classroom. For Namit it was like “Love at first sight”.

During the whole class he was standing outside the window peeping inside her class. Few students noticed this as it went on for few days. It was like wherever Riya went, Namit would follow her. Then one fine day when he was peeping inside her class and searching for her, suddenly someone tapped on his shoulder. He got scared, thinking that it would be some professor. Namit turned back with his eyes down and making a face like a small kid who got caught and was now trying to find the escape route. Riya started laughing seeing Namit’s facial expressions and for a while, both burst out laughing loudly together.

“The feeling of being caught up by the one you love gives butterflies in the stomach and they both were having that feeling at that moment”.

After that day they both became very close friends and after 6 years, they were accepting the good wishes from everyone for their happy married life.

Life was still same for both Namit and Riya. Both of them had decided to live their life the same way they were living, before getting in to a beautiful bond of marriage. Both of them would finish their morning chores together and would have their breakfast together daily, and no doubt every Friday night they would go out and chill so that on Saturday and Sunday they can spend time with their families. But few things have changed like now sometimes Riya would try to come home early and cook “Namit’s favourite food and arrange for a candle light dinner in their beautiful home”. On the other hand, Namit would never forget to bring “Jasmine Gajra” for Riya as he loved it when Riya would put that in her open long hair. The strong scent of jasmine always fascinated Namit.

Two years after their wedding Riya got the opportunity to travel to UK for work. Riya was totally confused whether she should go or not as it was a very good opportunity to go for a month’s training and it would help her in her career. It was their wedding anniversary coming up after a month and they had promised each other to celebrate this special day with each other for the rest of their life. As time passes, we become mature enough to understand the situation of our partner and manage things accordingly. Same happened with Namit and Riya. Namit behaved in a matured way and encouraged Riya to go for the training program and they would celebrate their anniversary once Riya would be back from training.

It was very foggy in the morning at 4:00 A.M. Namit was driving his car slowly trying to beat the fog so that he can drop Riya to the airport in time. Finally, they were able to reach on time. Riya hugged Namit in that cold weather and he felt a spark going within himself. He held Riya’s face in his warm palms followed by a kiss on her forehead. Riya could feel the light breeze of his breathing on her forehead and they both hugged each other tightly. Riya said “I am afraid Namit, how will I live for a month without you?”. Namit was feeling the same thing but he chose to be quiet as it was the time to send her happily and not show his sadness. Whereas somewhere deep down inside, Namit was having the same feeling and finally the time came and Riya waved goodbye to Namit with “I LOVE YOU” and entered the Airport.

Namit started back for his home in the midway listening to their favourite song “ Pal pal dil ke paas tum rehti ho”

It was 3:00 P.M. in the afternoon when Namit received a call from one of his friends who asked him to switch on the News channel. Namit stood still after seeing the news coming on the channel. It was the news of a plane crash. He felt he will faint after seeing the flight number and name on the screen. He rushed towards the airport praying all would be fine and the news that he saw kn TV would be untrue.

“Within the fraction of a second, our life may change drastically. We plan so many things about our future without even considering what will happen the next moment”.

Suddenly Namit felt someone’s warm hand on his forehead and he woke up. He saw the balcony was closed and then he realised, he felt asleep while reading the book. He got confused whether he had closed the balcony himself. As far as he could remember, he had opened it for the chilled breeze. He turned towards the wall where Riya’s picture frame was hanging with a beautiful and peaceful smile on her face. Namit went close to the wall, touched the picture and said “I was the luckiest person to have had you as my soulmate”

“We are unaware of what will happen next in our lives”. It’s always better to enjoy each and every moment of life and try to live and love that moment completely with our close ones and create good memories to remember and cherish them forever, no matter what happens next”.