Krish - Ra

Sitting under a large tree on a summer afternoon, her eyes were closed, and her hair was placed on her left shoulder, there was no sign of wind, it was a dry day in Rajasthan, India. The only pleasant thing on that hot day was her beautiful voice, that soothing voice. She was singing songs in the memories of her husband. A husband whom she hadn’t met in 10 years but loved him unconditionally. She came there every day to stole moments from her day, to remember him. She sat under that tree every day reciting songs for her love, people passing by the road used to enjoy her voice, they just sat with her under the tree, the whole town thought she was a devotee. Because nothing could disturb her, not the voice of vehicles or the gossips, she did the austerity every day for one person. And the whole town knew who he was, the lucky boy or maybe not so lucky because he didn’t know he had a wife with a beautiful voice.

‘Meera’ Kasturi shouted because she knew Meera would not hear her. So, she started tickling her and of course, that worked. Meera opened her eyes while laughing, ‘Stop Kasu’. ‘Why did you disturb my practice?’ Meera complained but she knew why Kasturi was there. ‘You know very well that your mother is going crazy about you.’

Meera stood and she started running with Kasturi, ‘how can you run like this after sitting for 3 hours straight, you are a science miracle’ Kasturi was surprised.

‘Where were you?’ Veer asked

‘You know very well where I was Ma’ Meera answered while working on her science assignment, more of like copying.

‘Fine. Don’t go anywhere tomorrow’

‘Why? Tomorrow is Sunday and I always practice on Sunday.’

‘Your father’s friend is coming here to meet us all, his family is also accompanying him. You will help me in the kitchen I can’t handle all the work alone’

‘Fine. But I will not accept their marriage proposal. Because I am already married’

‘You are stupid, and we are not having this conversation.’

**Monday Morning**

Kasturi and Meera were sitting on the university bus, not like students they were lecturers there. Meera was in the Computer Science department and Kasturi was in Management. And every day they met each other during lunch.

‘So, how was the guy?’ Kasturi asked in excitement

‘oh, he was sweet, really nice person and very intelligent.’

‘What does your husband do?’ Kasturi giggled

‘Krishna? You know he is an Art teacher in our university, he teaches flute and other instruments, you knew this s……’

‘I am not talking about Krishna, I meant yesterday’s guy, what’s his name?’

‘Bhoj, his name is Bhoj and he is a Scientist.’

‘Ohhhh nice, you should talk to Krishna now.’

‘Yes, I will’

**After 8 hours**

‘Hi Meera’ Meera turned to see Krishna, he was looking even more handsome than the last time she saw him. His dusky skin, long black hair and beautiful smile, she fell in love again.

‘Hi, Krishna. How are you doing?’

‘I am going great. How are you?’ his voice was music to Meera’s ears.

‘I am doing fine too. I called you here to discuss with you something, but I have no idea where to start.’ Krishna nodded and sat across her, she continued; ‘You know we are together since school, we graduated from the same university and we are now working in the same university too, I think we are destined to be together and we are married and we… you… I mean we are….’ She was out of words and Krishna jumped to help her.

‘I know everything Meera, we live in a small town, there are fewer schools and have only one university. And that marriage of ours was just a school play, it’s not even legal, we were kids then.’ Krishna was so calm.

‘But I always considered you as my husband and nobody stopped me.’

‘At first, they thought you were a kid and it was no harm, and slowly they thought you were kidding about it. Nobody knew it was anything serious.’

‘Seriously? I sing for you every day’ Meera was desperate.

‘Meera, I know, and you are a beautiful singer I must say. Radha and I visited you once, we sat under the tree for about half an hour and it was beautiful to listen and you were, as usual, busy in your singing, your eyes were closed. But this love of yours, this isn’t for me, it’s a love for a figure, for somebody who should be your husband, your man. You never take my name and certainly, you don’t even picture me while singing, because you never met me after school.’ Meera nodded and he continued: ‘I appreciate your thoughts, your emotions, but I am not the right receiver for your worship. You must marry a man and devote your songs to him.’

‘It’s hard for me to accept someone else, my songs had no figure, but I always thought it would be you.’ Meera was disappointed with his response, but she knew he had a point.

Meera left the university alone and stayed quiet for the day, that was the first day in nine years that she didn’t go for her practice. She went straight home and stayed in bed, she thought whole night about his words, “No figure”, “Radha and Krishna”, “Move on”, “Marry Someone”.

Next morning, she woke up with red eyes and a headache, she went straight to her parent’s room and said: ‘I will marry Bhoj.’ Her parents hugged her, and she smiled.

** Five Months Later**

Bhoj dropped Meera at her university and she said: ‘Pick me up after my practice’.

Every day after college she went to her town and practiced under the same tree, she didn’t sit there for hours but continued her devotion.

She couldn’t marry Krishna, but she could worship him.