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As I had told you before,
I crossed eighty some years ago.
And what about you?
Dozing off like this is very common at this age.
I think I dozed off while having tea.
Ofcourse, the tea was wonderful.
You know...
I was very proud that...
...my age hadn't dimmed my vision to any pitiful state.
This I think is because, being the last child of my parents,
I was breastfed by my mother till the age of five.
However since last few days,
I have started doubting my eyes.
If the cup is still full of tea...
...then how come I finished the tea?
Do you remember what I told few moments before?
...that the tea was wonderful.
This is really amazing.
The taste of tea in my dreams is not a bit less...
...than the taste of real tea.
Ashok Bhai...
Ashok Bhai...
Ashok Bhai...Namaste!
Come Sudhir...
Please come.
- Should we go out for a stroll? - Where on earth to go?
The bridge was the only place...
...free of noise and disturbances.
Yes, yes, the bridge. Let us go there.
Huh! Ashok bhai, You have forgotten it once again.
You must shake off this forgetfulness of yours, what they call amnesia.
Why do you think we haven't enjoyed any stroll for a month?
They have pulled down the old bridge to its last brick.
They plan to erect a new and stylish bridge there.
...for the high society people to enjoy their evenings...
...cracking nuts and sucking at ice cream sticks.
In no time, it will turn into a fish market.
- I can bet on this. - So that's it!
That explains why I couldn't see the bridge.
Actually I am not able to remember certain things.
Your case is different.
- You are young. - 'Young'?...
...Ashok Bhai, I will be seventy in a year or two.
Well, at your age I could...
Do you think you are really very old?
It's so common to read about centenarians nowadays!
Ashok Bhai, are you falling asleep again?
Huh?
Oh no...
Why should I sleep?
However dozing off from time to time keeps me fresh.
Now, should we make a move towards the bridge?
Oh, Ashok Bhai, how fast you forget things?
The bridge had disappeared...
Didn't I tell you for the umpteenth time?
Did I forget?
Yes... there was a time when...
...it was necessary to forget a whole lot of things...
...But then the memory didn't let a single item slip.
There is no bigger enemy than memory.
And now, when I am supposed to remember various things...
I cann't remember anything.
You know...
When you are old... no one cares to remember for you.
But you lack no care, Ashok Bhai...
Hasn't God placed you amid a host of kind souls...
who will remember for you.
Yes, a host of kind but colourful souls.
Their tastes and preferences are different.
Despite all their goodwill for you...
...they must dab your affairs with their own ... so much so that...
...you'll fail to recognize what was yours.
No, Sudhir...
others can't remember for you...
- just as others can't forget for you. - Ashok Bhai...
...after a long time, you are talking with as much sparkle...
...as you used to when you were our professor.
- How dramatic it was! - Dramatic?
Really?
I don't remember anymore.
But Sudhir, there is so much peace in forgetting things.
I am in peace.
My instant snoozes are nothing but...
symptoms of my peace.
Would death prove gracious enough to close in on me...
...while I was in one of those snoozes!
Ashok Bhai, for a long time...
I have been trying to...
make a confession to you.
I want to tell you a long-kept secret.
No longer can I keep the anguish.
If you allow, I would reveal it tonight.
Is it? Please go on.
Ashok Bhai...
You remember Charu Apa... don't you?
I mean... my Charu Apa...
Wasn't she very beautiful?
Do you remember?
When you joined our college as a young lecturer...
who could have outshined you in gait and glamour...
.. and in that ***-and-span look you had about you!
We had put her up in our house...
Now, do you remember? My distant cousin... Charu...
probably two or three years elder to me...
...Weren't you in love with her?
Hey... Ashok Bhai... did you sleep again?
Oh no... why should I sleep?
But will you please tell me whether you remember Charu or not?
Yes... how can I forget?
Did you not say that...
- I was in love with her? - It was not only love... it was madness.
- I suspect, you grew slim yearning for her. - Yes... never to grow fat again.
But you fattened me by feeding me like a pig...
because I was your messenger.. delivering your love letters to her...
and since then, I have remained fat all my life.
Ashok Bhai... how wonderful those writings were?
I have rarely come across such moving sentiments...
...either in fiction or in poetry.
Sudhir, what are you saying?
Don't tell me you were unkind enough...
...to read my private letters?
Pardon this sinner, Ashok Bhai...
But yes... I did read those letters.
I read not only those letters...
but also the solidarity reply- she had written to you in response.
Ofcourse, that was how I learned that...
...she too had come to set her heart upon you.
No Sudhir, she never loved me...
And she never wrote to me.
She did write to you, Ashok Bhai.
Ah.. I am so lucky.
I don't need any proof, Sudhir...
But, why didn't you tell me earlier?
I could have considered myself lucky over a longer period.
I have commited a big mistake... Ashok Bhai...
Please forgive me.
You know... how shy Charu was?
BUt still she had written a small but sweet reply...
to your epic love letters.
In fact, she had agreed to meet you at the bridge.
And indeed, she did come to the bridge on time.
but had to go back feeling humiliated, for you didn't turn up.
But... I never received any letter from her.
How could you have received it?
While I was crossing the bridge...
...the letter flew away in a suddent gust of wind
Flew away?
- Let us go and look for it. - After sixty years?
Please forgive me Ashok Bhai...
The letter flew away...
but... the truth is...
only after I had read it... torn it to shreds...
...and offered the shreds to the rolling flood under the bridge.
I can still see them flying away like butterflies.
Ashok Bhai, I don't know why I did so.
You will certainly agree that...
I am not villainous as such.
I was deeply attached to Charu Apa.
I always wished for her good.
My affection for you was no less...
but I don't know why... I feared you.
I feared your relationship with Charu.
I was perhaps afraid that...
if she married you...
Charu Apa would be entirely lost to me...
...and to herself too.
My apprehension was sheer stupidity.
In any case, I was to lose her...
Because of her father's illness...
she went and never came back...
But... Ashok Bhai.. as long as I was engrossed in my profession,
This matter never bothered me.
But after retirement...
in last ten years, whenever we visited the bridge...
the memory of my betrayal has plagued me.
Why did I do so?
I betrayed you and Charu. This betrayal always terrorises me.
It haunts me like a ghost.
I want to confess.
Ashok Bhai, I have made a mistake.
...I wonder if you will ever forgive me.
Even if I was villainous sometime back,
over the years,
I have become good by pretending to be good.
Please believe me.. Ashok Bhai
Ashok Babu...
You know Ashok Babu... if I am still capable of walking so fast...
and can even climb steps without much difficulty...
its because you are my inspiration.
Now, please tell me...
how on earth could you reach home so soon?
I saw you from the othe side of the dismantled bridge...
I even called you out...
But you were engrossed in finding something on the dry river bed...
You didn't respond to me...
I don't prefer trudging through the debris...
So I just took a turn and came over to your side.
Alas!
You were gone.
You know, Ashok Babu...
I guess you'll even beat the storm.
Who would believe that you are twelve years elder to me?
But Ashok Bhai hasn't been out all this evening.
- You must have seen someone else. - Ahh!... Someone else?
It's impossible.
Is this Ashok babu?
Ashok babu...
Ashok babu...
Ashok babu...
Ashok babu...
Ashok babu...
Ashok babu...
Ashok babu...
Just now, he was here... where did he go?
Perhaps, he went home.
I must see.
Please tell Ashok Babu...
Can I ever mistake you for someone else?
And that too...in bright moonlit night?
You must have returned only a few seconds before me, right?
What do you say, Ashok Babu?
He is not saying anything.
- Perhaps, he had fallen asleep. - Fallen asleep?
But he never sleeps so deep.
Ashok Bhai...
Ashok Bhai...
- Hey...Ashok Bhai... - Ashok Babu...
Who is there? Call the doctor... quick...
Haria...Raamu.. where are you all? Please come fast.
THE END