holding hands

Mehul was in her early forties, she was gentle, well mannered, pretty, single by choice, because she did not believed in compromising with her dignity, hence, the sincere attempts by her lower middle class family did not worked. Either she rejected the suitors because they were not of her brainwave or they rejected her because she did not had enough dowry packet to offer to them.

She was working as an administrative executive in a small private firm, it paid her enough to take care of herself and her parents modestly.

It has been raining cats and dogs since the morning, so, when Mehul left for home in the evening the road was a river and the water reached her knee. There was no bus in sight so she started to walk towards the direction of her home. After a walking for a considerable stretch she reached dry area but no bus was in sight, she was standing in the bus stand, feeling bewildered, all of a sudden a taxi stopped there and a few guys came out of it, they looked drunk, she looked around but could not see any one in sight, she did not thought it wise to stand there, hence she started to walk in the direction of her home, a chill ran down her spine when the taxi blocked her way within five minutes, she was thinking about sprinting to a run when another car stopped, a guy rolled down his window and asked if she was having any problem.

One of the guys roughly told him to mind his own business and move away if he wants to move at all. The guy gently brought out a revolver out of the window and dared them to touch Mehul, the guys scurried away like a bunch of rats.

The guy opened the door of the car and asked Mehul to get in, she looked inside the car, the guy was the only person in the car, seeing her hesitation, he said that those people may resurface again if he leaves. So he came out of the car and stood beside her, she saw that he was visibly limping. He waited with her till a bus arrived, he told her his name, Arman, he was an airforce officer, had to leave the force after being wounded, at present he is running his own business.

As she already had more than one reason to like him Mehul did not minded exchanging phone numbers, next morning her phone rang, it was Arman, he asked her if she reached home safely, and she invited him for tea.

They met next Sunday, they became fast friends very soon, because every thing matched, starting from the nature to choice. They were of the same age also, Arman was one month older than Mehul.

A few months later Mehul asked Arman why he was not married, Arman replied after a little hesitation that he was engaged when the accident occurred. But, the accident made him incapable of being a father, so, he persuaded his fiancé to marry some one else. He did not wanted to ruin some one’s life.

Mehul asked him after a brief pause, that why did he thought that a woman’s life can be wasted after having a life partner like him? Arman replied that most of the people marry to have family, Mehul replied may be, but not every one.

A little more time passed, with every passing day they both realized that they may not have any problem in life without each other, but, some how they were feeling each other’s absence too much, Mehul was shy to propose and Arman cared for her happiness more than his own.

Mehul’s mother understood her daughter’s pain and consulted with her father, they both slowly brought Arman out of his complex, that marrying does not means having a father for one’s children or a protector for oneself to every woman. To some women it means having a companion, a person who they can respect, and look up to for the entire life, a partner in every sense.