Awake

Rakesh had just reached home after a tiring day at work like always. He was heading operations for a leading broking organisation in the industry. It would mean he spent long hours at work closing transactions and strategizing the course of action for the future to come.

Rakesh's wife, his companion for the last 14 years, Varsha waited for him everyday. Both of them had known each other for the past 16 years, had been into a relationship for 14 years and married for 10 years. They had decided to take their own sweet time to increase the family and it was not an immediate need.

Ever since they stepped out of college post their MBA both of them were placed in high rank corporate jobs in different organisations. The only difference - Varsha used to be a part of the HR team. She laid a lot of importance to work life balance and ensured that she paid equal importance to both work as well as family life unlike Rakesh who was a total workaholic and his top priority was to rise high in the ranks in the organisation and get to the TOP BOSS role.

After they got married, they had some great times together travelling to different locations in India and abroad. They were best friends and great companions. As years went by, the priorities changed. While Varsha gave equal importance to work, it was not so much a case with Rakesh.

Varsha used to reach home early to cook for Rakesh and ensure that she could spend quality time with him. Unfortunately, Rakesh would reach very late in order to ensure that he hit the right chords with the higher management.

Their relationship was taking a hit. Varsha used to look forward to spend time with Rakesh every evening and weekends but Rakesh was busy with his own work. Varsha did try to talk to him about the situation and he not being available for dialogue with her. The only answer he always had was - "I am doing all of this for us!"

Varsha was getting increasingly disturbed by this behaviour. There was not a single day for the last 2 months that she was able to talk to Rakesh at length.

That night, after they were done with dinner and a couple of drinks, Rakesh hit bed. Varsha followed him. She hugged him and tried to kiss him but he moved away stating - "I am tired. Not today!"

This wasn't the first time it had happened. Varsha kept hugging and cajoling Rakesh the whole night to get only a complete cold shoulder from him. He was in deep sleep and she kept awake. Full night. Thinking of all the good times together. She let that night go!

The same thing repeated over the next couple of days till Varsha lost it and confronted Rakesh. Only to receive the same old response from Rakesh. "I am tired. I am doing all of this for us. I slog to ensure that we get a good life in future."
To which Varsha responded - "I do not care about the future, all I understand is that we don't have a 'now'." Rakesh got upset and slept while as usual, Varsha kept awake.

After staying awake for some hours she decided to go out for a drive to clear her mind. It was almost 2.30 a.m. She didn't inform Rakesh and stepped out, went to the parking lot and drove out her small Santro for a spin.

Roads were empty, no crowd, no pollution, no signals. She kept driving. She hit the Bandra Worli Sea Link. That reminded her the numerous drives she had with Rakesh in their courtship days. She choked, Vision blurred, she wept, wept a lot. She just looked down for a tissue paper to wipe her never ending tears and she didn't notice that she had lost little control over the steering.

The car drifted towards right. And before even she could understand what happened, she hit the partition and at 100kmph. The car toppled. Made 2 somersaults and came to a screeching halt.

Rakesh woke up with a start when his phone rang incessantly at 4 a.m. just to realise that Varsha was not besides him.

What he heard after that left him dumbstruck. Varsha had met with an accident and had been admitted to Jaslok hospital. She was critical.

He rushed to the hospital. When he reached and enquired about Varsha, he was guided to the emergency ward. As he rushed there the doctors were waiting for him at the door of the Operation Theatre.

As he reached the OT, the doctors declared, Varsha was admitted to the hospital - dead. She had met with a major brain injury and succumbed to it even before she could reach the hospital.

Rakesh couldn't control himself. He broke down completely. He remembered how Varsha used to stay awake pleading for his time and he used to sleep off. He was being selfish. He had lost the love of his life forever.

After that, for all the years of his life, he used to stay awake every night! Thinking of the number of nights that Varsha stayed awake for his time.