Love Story: Amazing story of strange love

Love Story: Rewa could not believe her eyes when she saw it for the first time. So she looked in the mirror again and focused all her attention on the corner of her eye where she doubted whether this shrinkage of the skin was showing her increasing age, is it a wrinkle? Yes, it is a wrinkle.

'Be happy, stress causes such wrinkles on the face,' Rewa had heard this but she does not take stress.

'Many stresses cannot be taken but they are so deeply seated in our inner mind that they leave their mark on the face unknowingly,' Rewa's friend Simran had once said.

'It does not matter, now we will be called even more experienced with this slight wrinkle,' 48-year-old Rewa said to herself smiling.

Rewa may have grown old but there was a storehouse of positive energy inside her. Between a glass half empty and full, she always chose the full glass. Defining the defeat of life in good words and giving it a good dimension was an important part of Rewa's personality.

Rewa had not yet moved away from the mirror when her mobile rang. Rewa came to know that it was Subahu's call because of a certain ringtone on the mobile. Before Rewa could pick up the mobile, the phone got disconnected but before Rewa could dial, the call came again, from the other side was Subahu's anxious voice-

"Aunty, why are you so late in coming, we all have been waiting for you for so long. How much longer will you take?"

Subahu would have complained for longer but Rewa interrupted him and said that he will take 15 more minutes. Rewa heard Subahu's frustrated voice "Oh no", on hearing which she could not stop smiling, keeping the mobile aside she quickly started getting ready.

Rewa had to reach Gomti Ride, a resort in the outskirts of Lucknow where Subahu's 25th birthday was to be celebrated. Subahu had reached there with his mother Revati and father Abhiraj.

As soon as Rewa reached there, Subahu's face lit up and he welcomed Rewa with great enthusiasm. After meeting Revati and Abhiraj, Subahu introduced Rewa to his friends and after cutting the cake, when it was time to give gifts, Rewa took Subahu to the lawn of Gomti Ride where a shiny sports bike was covered with a beautiful cover. Subahu screamed with joy on seeing the bike. He had not even become happy properly when Abhiraj expressed his displeasure with Rewa for giving such an expensive gift.

“Nothing is expensive, the price of this bike is of no consequence to Subahu’s hobby,” Rewa said and Abhiraj was seen in a loving state but could not say anything. Wife Revati and Rewa were standing together and smiling. Subahu had started the bike. All his friends were secretly jealous of Subahu.

Ever since Subahu has gained consciousness, he has known Rewa Aunty as the family friend of the Mehta family, who used to participate in every happiness and sorrow of that family.

Rewa, who works as a manager in CBD Bank, would be involved in the planning of the new car of the Mehta family and would also accompany them in picnics. Many people could not understand why Rewa did not get married despite being a beautiful and successful woman in her life. Subahu was also one of them and he tried to satisfy his curiosity many times but every time Rewa avoided his question.

Subahu also used to take Rewa's help in every small and big work of his life, whether it was speech on college's annual day or any project. Rewa also used to help Subahu with great dedication despite being busy.

That day Subahu reached Rewa's flat late in the evening at 8 pm. He looked very upset. When Rewa wanted to know his problem, he told that he has fallen in love with a very beautiful girl who was studying with him in his class.

"Congratulations brother, you have fallen in love. What is there to be surprised and worried about in this?" Rewa said jokingly, then Subahu told his problem, "That girl is very beautiful and she is proud of this too. Every boy in the college is trying to woo her. She is my good friend. I share my problems with her but from her words it seems that she does not consider my age of 25 and her age of 23 to be suitable for marriage and wants to build her career first.”

Rewa listened to everything Subahu said very carefully. She asked Subahu a few questions, such as how long he has known that girl, why he likes her etc. The answer Subahu gave her on the basis of the decision Rewa gave, which Subahu did not like very much.

Rewa said that love that happens after knowing each other for a few days and seeing physical beauty is often virtual love. There is restlessness in it but there is no permanence. There is passion and madness but there is no depth.

Subahu was not able to understand what Rewa was saying. He made a face and said that love is love, what is real and what is fake?

“Often fake things look more real than real things,” Reeva said smilingly. Subahu got irritated and said, “You haven’t married yet but you must have loved someone, right? So was it fake love or was it someone who cheated you and left? So, were you able to differentiate between real and fake love?”

On hearing these sharp questions from Subahu, Reeva felt like answering all these things but seeing the delicate topic and Subahu’s emotions, she had to remain silent for the time being. Subahu was still in the frenzy of love but even he felt that he had spoken a little too much.

After a few moments of silence, Reeva said to him calmly that he should go home now, they would talk about this matter in the morning.

Subahu had returned but he had stirred up Reeva’s buried wounds due to which the pangs of pain had started rising and she wanted to tell her pain to someone else by screaming.

Rewa somehow spent the night and in the morning she went to Subahu's house to meet him. Revati and Abhiraj were a little surprised to see her.

Rewa went straight to Subahu's room and gave him a pendrive and said, "Actually inside this pendrive are some secrets of my diary which I used to write in my diary, I thought I will give them the form of a book when I get time but I could not. The pages of the diary stored in this pendrive will help you understand the true definition of love."

Seeing Rewa in this form, many questions arose in the eyes of both Abhiraj and Revati and all the questions together were saying that no, Rewa, it is not right to tell him all this. But Rewa was not going to listen, she went out like a gust of wind. Abhiraj was standing quietly, he asked Revati to keep quiet and do her work with a gesture.

Subahu was getting very anxious to read the things stored in that pendrive. He put the pendrive in his laptop and lay down on the bed and kept the laptop beside him and started reading whatever came on the laptop screen very carefully. As he read line by line, the colours on his face changed and he started reaching the peak of curiosity. Subahu could not lie down. Awareness and anxiety were flowing rapidly in his spine, he got up and sat.

'But how could all this happen? And I could not even imagine this?' This was Subahu's question to his mother the next morning at the breakfast table.

"Mother, I have come to know from Rewa Aunty's pendrive that you three have hidden a lot from me. You three have a wonderful relationship. Rewa Aunty and Papa loved each other since college days and wanted to get married but Papa's family objected to Rewa Aunty being from a different caste i.e. carpenter caste, due to which they both could not get married but the friendship between Papa and Rewa Aunty is still intact," Subahu was describing everything like a storyteller and Revati was listening to him peacefully.

“Rewa aunty so much involvement in our house? I mean, how did you tolerate another woman interfering in our house and our lives despite being Papa's wife?” Subahu had become silent but a question mark was floating on his face.

Revati now thought it fit to speak and told Subahu that when she got married to Abhiraj, like any other girl, her desires were also sky high but these desires were shattered when one night Abhiraj himself told her about his relationship with Rewa. She was shocked that her husband was already in love with another girl, in such a situation her love will remain faded and she started arguing with Abhiraj demanding her share of love and rights. She did not talk to Abhiraj for several weeks. If there is a rift between the wife immediately after marriage, then it affects the entire house, Abhiraj also started living under stress. They tried to convince her but she did not listen.

Revati was sharing old memories but at this time the bitterness of the past was not visible on her face, rather there was an immense peace. Revati started speaking further, “I would have broken the relationship with Abhiraj if that day Reva had not come home and explained to me what is the true meaning of love.

“In the words of Reva- ‘When two people love each other, their love touches each other's heart but it does not mean that they have touched each other's bodies too.’

“I was a little softened by this statement of Reva. After this Reva often started coming home to meet me. She would often repeat the lines of Harvanshrai Bachanji's poem 'Jo Beet Gayi So Baat Gayi' and say in a very enthusiastic way, 'Let's move on, yaar.'

"Sometimes her words sounded artificial but once when I had to go to my maternal home for my cousin's wedding, Abhiraj was busy making his name and career at that time and wanted me to stay with him and take care of him in the midst of his busy work, Rewa supported me and told Abhiraj that a girl should not be stopped from visiting her maternal home in the first few days of marriage because during these days the love for her maternal home keeps surging in the girl's heart.

"This thing of Rewa created a little space for her in my heart and she made the rest of the space with the passage of time, like when I was sick, she would sit by my bedside and take care of me like a nurse. When you were conceived, she stayed with me and near me like a shadow. Sometimes she would fight with Abhiraj while defending me and support womanhood.

“This inclination of hers towards me was also making me uncomfortable. I felt that her coming to my house like this and treating me like a friend, is there some personal motive or motive behind it,” Subahu was listening and understanding Revati’s words very carefully.

“‘Why do you do this? Do you want to become great in Abhiraj’s eyes?’ I almost screamed to Reva but she replied to this very calmly, ‘Don’t misunderstand me, Revati. If you say so, I will not even look at Abhiraj and I will stop coming here but still I would like to tell you why I come here?’ And then she recited to me the lines she had once written for Abhiraj-