Remembrance

A couple of years back, I had completed a tag- one that had a list of 200 statements and I was supposed to tick the ones I had experienced till date.

It was long back, but suddenly searching for it and ticking a new one became very important yesterday.

The statement that needed to be ticked:

Have you buried a loved one ever.

We lost Smriti on Friday.

Remembrance-thats what her name means. A name that defined her completely.

She became a wish, a memory for everyone who knew her.

The Smriti I've known loved simple things - she loved a good book, cooking, a walk, a nice dress, a laugh shared with a friend, a phone call...life.

I have never come across anyone who hasn't been affected by her liveliness and infectious laugh.

She was one who would saunter into a room , chat for hours and forget the reason for her entry, and go back laughing at herself.

She would repeat day-to-day yet memorable incidents to every second person, again and again. No one would want to interrupt her, the twinkle in her eyes and the excitement in her voice were welcome all the time.

She taught a lot of people to be happy, to accept difficulties in life and focus on happier moments.

A beautiful young lady, she was madly in love, and grateful to be so. I remember the days in college when she would flaunt her brother's photo in front of every classmate and plead them to get married to him.

" The only way big bro will agree to my inter caste marriage is if he has one. And once you marry him, you will campaign for me", she would gaily scheme.

A talented writer, she loved to write poems- or "couplets" and 'bursts of emotions" as she labeled them.I have one with me, one that she shared just before she was diagnosed with Cancer.

Cancer- Ovarian cancer. Thats what it took to break the spirits of the girl who fought against all odds.But then maybe not. For she never did break down. Not till the end when she decided to stop fighting. And as she lay, silent... for the first time , her body weak and destroyed by chemo, her strength still showed, or probably I felt it.

For I know that wherever she is now, she's at it again, smiling and laughing at life's small treasures .
Adieu , dear one. Will miss you. And will smile every time I think of you.

(The poem she wrote before being diagnosed with Cancer)

With every passing moment it dawns upon

There’s a lonely soul around, waiting to be hugged

A malapropos with a wish to be born

There’s a loud cry silenced by the time

Some intervened task to be carried on

Inept souls demanding a right to live

Starving efforts struggling to survive

Smiling vagabond with nothing to give

Spreading the uncanny richness n’

Filling hearts with the courage to forgive

Amongst it all rises this tide

The desire to express and no more to hide

The pain of servility to be put aside

To wield the flow..shed the subjection

Let the shrieking silence speak and guide

Towards a step , a beginning , an effort

An effort to gather , to mend ..amend

All that is torn ..all tht’s scattered

An effort to light a torch in each hand

To rekindle hope..the lost desire

Lest the last breath died

A Solemn Promise to Myself
-Smriti