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The Love Letters - Rahul Agarwal

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As the days of his tenure got nearer, Sukhbir’s excitement grew which was reflected in the tone and frequency of his letters. He had told Parmeet about the exact day that he would be arriving in the village. In fact he had written to her his entire plan after that including the date he wanted them to get married on. When the day came on which he was to be discharged, such was the knowledge about his love that his entire battalion wished him a happy married life ahead and even gave him a letter on their behalf to be given to Parmeet asking her to take care of this fool who was simply madly in love with her.

As he walked to his village from the railway station, he felt like running, he couldn’t wait to meet Parmeet. He was dying to see the expression on her face. He was wondering what dress she would be wearing. Most probably the green salwar kammez for she knew that he liked her best in that. He was a little disappointed not to find her at the village gates. He had hoped she would be there waiting for him. As he approached their house, he started to feel a little uneasy for no particular reason. Maybe the calmness of his surroundings seemed to unnerve him. Quite literally the whole village seemed to be sleeping. As if no one was interested in him or in his return. His first shock came when instead of Parmeet he found a huge lock at the door of their house. For a moment his thoughts were in a turmoil. Was Parmeet all right? What about her father? What could be the emergency that they weren’t at the house to greet him? Maybe he was unnecessarily worrying. They could have gone somewhere nearby for some work and would be back shortly. But he had to find out. He looked around to find the village milkman walking towards him waving to him. He waved back and went to greet him. The milkman seemed surprised to see him and he had reason to be. He told Sukhbir that the both Parmeet and her father had waited desperately for some news of him. But they got none. They tried contacting him by writings letters to officers at his training camp in Jallandhar but got no reply. Meanwhile Parmeet’s father was getting worried about Parmeet’s marriage for he wasn’t keeping good health himself and feared for the young girl’s future if anything happened to him. After consulting the elders of the village he decided to fix her marriage with a boy of the neighbouring village. In fact the marriage was scheduled for today and most of the village had gone for it to the other village. Sukhbir was stunned beyond words. Parmeet, `his’ Parmeet, getting married to someone else??!! All his dreams, all his desires, all his hope, all was gone in a moment. After all that he had said and promised to her in his letters, how could she do this to him??!! She knew all about him yet she kept everyone in the dark. WHY??!! He has no answers, only questions, a thousand ones, for Parmeet, for life, for God.

He walked in a stupor to the other village, not knowing why he was going there but maybe just because his instinct told him so. He had no idea how long he walked, his senses had frozen. As he entered the other village, he walked straight to the village Gurudwara. He could hear the chattering and clabbering of human voices from inside the Gurudwara as signifies some public event. He stood at the gate of the Gurudwara looking at the large crowd ahead. He could hear the holy mantras being recited for sanctifying the wedding up ahead but couldn’t see anything because the crowd blocked his view. He heard his name being called out from somewhere with a tinge of shock in the voice. Suddenly all the noise turned to hushed whispers as people turned to see him. He saw the crowd in front of him parting till he could see right up to the dais where the ceremony was taking place. All around him there were hushed comments and remarks as people refused to believe he was really there. But Sukhbir heard none of that. For him all these were some faint whispers in the background. All his senses were concentrated to the scene in front of him. Parmeet was there in a red wedding costume. The intensity with which he stared at her was enough to turn a stone to dust. She seemed to have changed a bit. Her eyes seemed a little heavier, there was a scar under her left eye probably from some burn injury, her nose too had widened a little from the bottom. Her mouth had fallen open by now. He was surprised to see the extent her mouth had opened, he could almost see into her esophagus even from the distance he was at. But then he was not surprised, she had reason to be shocked, she had been caught in the act, the true and devilish side of that all virtuous Parmeet had been exposed.

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