Yearn

By KUNAL BHARALI

It was 2 o'clock at night and I was about to go to sleep after a long tiring day. PhD is certainly not a piece of cake walk as it seems. My body was aching and my eyes were tiring. I certainly needed rest. As I was about to go to sleep, my phone rang due to which I became a bit irritated.

"Who could call me, at this moment in time!" I wonder.

"God please not be my guide, please not be my guide."

"Hello, Kunal speaking. Who's this?" I said, receiving the call.

"Hello Kunal, I'm Dimpi, how are you?"

The name was enough to shake me to the core. Suddenly, all my sleep and tiredness vaporized and I came to all my senses. It has been a decade since we last spoke, she left me without any words without any warning. For all these years all I wanted was to talk with her, what went wrong, I yearned for her. I tried to contact with her in all the social media platforms, but alas, she had blocked me from all social media. It was disheartening, it was painful. But today, out of the blue with no reason she called me. Am I dreaming? No, no. It cannot be a dream cause not in my hundred years I had even though she would call me. Things were happening so fast that I was unable to utter a single word without stuttering. A familiar situation which I had experienced before, the same old nervousness, the numbness of the body along with heartbeat accelerating at a break neck speed.

"Finally, after so many years," I said. "How are you?"

"I am fine, how's life going?" She asked.

I wanted to say not good, not because of my work, but after our breakup I was never able to fully recover from it. How could I be able to express my feelings for her about how I missed her every single day. How much I dearly wanted to speak with her, how her abruptly leaving me broke me to the core. How I never allowed any other girl to come near me I had so much to say but I somehow controlled my emotions and said,

"Everything is fine with me, you say, what is going on with your life."

For a moment or two, there was silence in the air. Neither she spoke, nor did I.

"Actually I wanted to say something to you." She said, breaking the silence.

Her voice was cracking, it felt like something terrible have happened to her.

"You carry on, I'm listening." I said.

"I'm sorry," She said."I shouldn't have left you."

And in that moment in time, I felt like a mountain was lifted off my shoulders. I felt a few pound lighter. I wanted to hug her and cry my heart out. For all these years of tortures, nightmares have eventually came to an end. As soon as I was about to say something, I woke up from my dream.

"So it was just a dream." I murmured.

Then I realized that the dream was the only place where we can be together.

By KUNAL BHARALI