The Last Ride Together

"Our skies are different, Shalini..," Karthik says as we gaze at the stars.

"I wish they were the same, Karthik," I say, as he puts his arm around me.

"The stars we gaze, the colours we perceive, the sounds, the horizon, everything... Our skies are different in totality...," his voice bores deep into my being.

"I know we are moving forward in life, but.. We are moving apart too, Shalini.."

I choose to stay silent. Moving forward in life, moving up the steep career ladder, still moving apart. I feel the sand underneath giving way into earth's core. Closing my eyes and opening them to pure oblivion, I feel that the whole world has come to a standstill.

It is time for the final farewell. And I don't want to go. As the waves lash onto the golden shore, I try to suppress my tears, but in vain.

"I'm happy for all that has passed between us - each passing second with you seemed a dream. A beautiful dream. That I wish I could pause at some places and replay-"

"Don't verbalize your pain, I can feel it from your eyes, let's stay silent for sometime and then go for one last ride. One last ride together."

"The blood replenish'd me again;

My last thought was at least not vain:

I and my mistress, side by side

Shall be together, breathe and ride,

So, one day more am I deified.

Who knows but the world may end to-night?"

(The Last Ride Together, Robert Browning)

We board a bus to the heart of the city. The sky is pitch dark, except some embers shining here and there. Karthik is silent all the time, my eyes are streaming hot tears.

"Ticket?"

"Banashankari," I say.

"Murugesh Palya," says Karthik.

I stare at him in disbelief. He is going home. And I? Still out in the city, hoping to spend the last hours of our life together.

The wind parches my tears as it flows across my face in a serene continuity. Karthik doesn't utter a word, I try to distract myself. Just two more stops and you are done, I tell my mind.

I alight two stops later, Banashankari is flooded with lights. I pause to look back at Karthik. He waves at me from his seat. I wave back and turn around.

"What if we still ride on, we two

With life for ever old yet new,

Changed not in kind but in degree,

The instant made eternity,—

And heaven just prove that I and she

Ride, ride together, for ever ride?"

(The Last Ride Together, Robert Browning)

Years have passed since that evening. It certainly wasn't easy to forget. Yet, it has taught me a few good lessons. Moulded me, made me a better human, empathetic and purified. That's the beauty, the beauty of lost love.