Seven months following her husband’s untimely death Heshi one
night remains fully awake lying on her bed; she couldn’t sleep a wink and many
thoughts of her Lienpu, her husband and the first and the only person she fell
in love with came flashing across her empty but sorrow-laden mind. She thought
she had already overcome her lonesome ordeal with nights of sleeplessness but
she was wrong.
She remembered him; his smile, his voice, his warmth
embrace… She recalled him calling out her name in hush-hush tone during History
class in High School at the initial days of their dating. She would blushed and
she used to give him her most irritated and ferocious look to behaved, the
persistent pest, lest he will get caught and would be made to stand with one
leg holding his ears through the remaining hours of the class.
Without her knowing streams of tears were rolling down
her cheek; she remembered him and misses him like she’d never miss him before.
Her parents were pleading her to bring her 5 months old son and stay with them
but she chose to stay at this house, the 2 BHK wooden floor tin roof her Lienpu
had built for her with his own caring and loving hands; the last remnant of her
doting hubby. Lienpu was not only her husband; he was also her best friend and
soul-mate. Nothing in this world could make her change her mind. She was a
stubborn girl since childhood and it’s her stubbornness that made Heshi and
Lienpu walked into each other lives.
It was in the year 1997 while they were in VIII
standard that their story had its unusual beginning. Story has it that while on
their way back to school a guy of her class riding a bicycle pour the remaining
water in his bottle on Heshi’s head, she chased him all the way up the climbing
road and caught hold of the bicycle from the rear end and doesn’t let go until
he apologized. Walking behind was Lienpu
who picked up her school bag which she
had thrown away when she started chasing that naughty class bully. He walked
briskly all the while shouting “You forgot your bag, miss!!!” but she doesn’t
look back.
Lienpu couldn’t believe his eyes, at the back of his
head he exclaimed with awe “What a girl!”. He knew her as they sat in the same
class but he was not like those guys who are suave and had the skill to talk to
girls. When he finally catch up with her he saw that her face were all red, he
was a little intimidated and gave her the bag. She snatched the bag without
saying anything. It was that moment Lienpu’s innate sense of humour took its
long overdue birth and accidentally he blurted “a li’l thanks will do”. And for
the first time they spoke to each other and became friends, then best friends,
then lovers and soul-mate and finally they got hitched.
But life can be unfair and cruel to some people who
are deeply in love. After 7 months into a blissful married life ‘selfish king
of tragedy’ gnawed its sharp and pointed teeth into Heshi’s tender heart and
shaken her small world topsy turvy. Lienpu met with a road mishap and died, with
a packet of ‘sohlu’ (Indian gooseberry) in his hands for his young and pregnant wife. After 2
months she gave birth to a healthy baby boy and named him ‘Haolunglen’after
Lienpu’s father ‘Lunkhohao’; the name
Lienpu had written in his diary, in fact he had written two names the other one
a girl’s name on top of ‘Haolunglen’. Lienpu wanted their first born to be a
girl.
Thinking that her son will grow up to be fatherless
she started sobbing, her tears soaking her pillow. She decided to go out to cry
to her heart’s content at the back of their house but as she tries to get up
her li’l son won’t let her go as he held his mom’s ring finger tight. She
moaned “O! Lunglien, my son! Mommy is not going to leave you. I’ll never do
that.”
She wiped her tears and lit the candle on the table
beside the bed and lie down. She takes a good and affectionate look at her son.
She always argued with Lunglien’s aunt, her sister, that he had his father’s
face; oval shaped with flat fore-head, tiny nose and big ears but she believed
what her sister told her: he had her eyes. She rubs her hand across Lunglien’s
face and run her fingers through his curly hairs.
