Can't you stay?

There are so many times in life when you want someone to be with you, especially when they have moved on. After a grueling day out with family for the tit-bits and Nick-knacks for the auspicious 'coming of age' of the li'l man, we were just reminiscing about the happenings of the day when suddenly the topic drifted to my aunt's sister, who she lost six months ago.

'I wish my sister was here with me. Even though we were not in constant touch, the feeling of her being there was more than comforting..' True, that. The mere recognition of the fact that someone close to you is around makes our daily lives more livable sans grief. We have become so engrossed in our 24 hour day that we hardly have any time to catch up with the ones we love. The random groups like 'Yes.. haan.. sure.. good.. fine.. okay Ma, bye' have become such a reality that you cannot not feel a personal connect when you read them.

'Why did it happen to me? Why us?.. ' The appropriate question that I thought of was 'Why anyone?', but I did not have the heart to look into those lost, glazed eyes and tell her that. I do not have siblings, and I've always considered the grass to be greener on the other side. But yesterday, I could feel the gamut of emotions brewing in her. English, contrary to popular belief, is a rational language. Why else would the lexicon have two different words for the same act- sympathy and empathy? The subtle change of alphabets makes all the difference.

As I was walking back around midnight, I looked around to see any signs of grief anywhere around me. The road was perfectly quiet, except for the usual growl of a street mongrel. A light breeze was swaying me deeper into my thoughts when I realised that as much as we want someone to be with us, they have to move on - In this world, as well as some place else. But what can be done, and should be done, is the we take them along. In our thought, in our speech and in our doings. That's how you remember someone. That is how, you are never alone even when you have no one around you.