2016 FINAL EDITION
Dear Bride-To-Be... October sure is a busy month. Party people no doubt have Oktoberfest and Halloween marked in red on their calendar, but there’s a lof of other special events going on this month here in Malaysia and Singapore. First and foremost it should be noted that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month . Here are a few of my recent highlights and don’t miss our real wedding story of Dr.Aravind Krishnan and Saranya Mohan...We have also attached a video of their wedding trailer. What’s not to love about escaping the everyday for an intimate wedding in a spectacular location...anywhere in the world? Whether it’s a romantic elopement or a celebration with your nearest and dearest, this holiday style of “I DO’ is fast gaining momentum- with celebraties and mere mortals alike embrace the chance to exchange vows and party in paradise. This edition is all about “I DO’ in Thailand. The entire magazine is online so you can electronically look through the magazine and when you see somethings of interest you can mouse over the url and go straight to the site. Wishing all our Indian readers Happy Diwali! Thanks to all contributors. We hope that you will enjoy this year end issue and will look forward to see you on January 2017. Congratulations on this exciting new chapter in your life! I wish you pure joy, happiness and success in your life of love! Happy reading!
Yours with Love,
Vijayasri
VIJAYASRI Editor & Creative Director editor@sweetchimes.com
COVER PHOTO BY IMAGEO WEDDING REELS
IN THE TEAM Suhania David John Advertising & Sales
Maria Bark Social Media
Zulfadli Nasir Technical Support
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Dr.Aravind Krishnan
WEDS
Saranya Mohan
Love Story
SC: What was your reaction when you heard about your marriage was fixed? Dr.Aravind : First and foremost thing Saranya had been a good friend of mine for around 7 years prior to marriage .Thanks to One of my Friend Indrajith who introduced us . Our parents were looking for a bride/groom for us respectively. That’s when I asked her if she’d like to marry me. She told me to talk to her parents and I did. They were happy and when the kundalis (horoscope) matched, our engagement was fixed for July 12th and the wedding for September 6th. So there wasn’t much of a reaction to say .
SC: What went through your mind? Dr.Aravind : Seriously everything was so fast that there wasn’t much going through my mind. Yes definitely I had to cope up with my mind that yes you gonna be responsible in your life time and you need to be mature or atleast act mature .
SC: When you first saw each other what did you think? Dr.Aravind : It wasn’t the first time I met her .I had met her long before and our first meeting was comical . Being a dentist I commented some thing about her teeth and she gave me a punch in my stomach ,not a painful one though .
SC: How did you settled in your heads as in okay this is the girl? Dr.Aravind : Being a friend it was easy to communicate and we had a long discussion about marriage ,commitments and expectations . Most of our marriage expectations concurred and we decided to move forward with the decision.
SC: What do you feel makes a successful marriage? Dr.Aravind : I think that am too novice to answer that question .Trust ,Love ,Attention are all major factors . But I would say Companionship or comradrie will be a key factor .Be a good partner ,understand like a friend ,Act like a spouse .
SC: If you could give newly weds advice what would it be?
Dr.Aravind : Ha ha . Just be who you are, be loyal,be friendly and be a good listener
SC: What do you both liked in each other and dislike etc? Dr.Aravind : Not much of anything to dislike in Saranya . One thing I think she dislikes is my moody nature and short tempers.
CLICK ANYWHERE ON THE PAGE TO WATCH THE WEDDING TRAILER
SC: What got you started in Emceeing? Emcee Arasan: After high school, I was waiting to join college. Had some months in hand , and too bored to be at home. I decided to look for a job to kill my time, my sister introduced me to her friend who had a sound and light company. I got hired on the first day I met him and off to Maaran for the first ever event where I worked as a crew and which followed for another year. In one of the events, a dj did not show up. And my boss than, asked me to fill in. The client was happy and I thought I should become a Dj because I can get paid better than being a crew member. A similar incident happened some years later where the MC went missing and I was asked to fill in. Again the guests enjoyed, I felt good. And soon after that I started taking it seriously and worked on it. The rest fell in place as I matured over time and experience. And the money was way much better!! Like 100 times more. But it took me 10 years to get here. So hard work always PAYs right! SC:What was your first event about? Emcee Arasan :To be honest I cannot remember the exact event, which made me an MC., but i have been on stage from the age of 6 ,hosting events from school days as a kid. I had great teachers who probably knew my talent even before I realized it. And they have always encouraged me.
SC:Why specifically wedding? Emcee Arasan: Something’s we choose, sometimes we get branded. I still do corporate events as they come. But I guess my forte is Weddings, especially Indian weddings because the word of mouth marketing is the most powerful. People recommend and I get hired. Also the competition between the corporate events industry is much more than the wedding market. Also the fact that i am not Malay literate, which does not fit in most corporate events where they may require some amount of Malay Language. SC: What do you do to prepare yourself before each gig? Emcee Arasan: I will ensure myself to be at the venue as early as possible to check on every single detail of the event. I speak to all vendors, talents, event managers, caterers, and photographers and so the list goes on. I make sure that everyone knows what the agenda is like, and where I need them to be placed/coordinated best as so that we collectively deliver the best to the Bride and Groom. Its their Big Day, and we should be responsible for making sure everything goes well, not necessarily as planned but at least no major goof ups. SC: What’s the most memorable / funniest thing that happened during an event you MCed? Emcee Arasan: I was hired to MC for a 1st year Anniversary of a couple, it was a surprise event organized by the parents. During the event, the host of the event, walked up to me and congratulated me for speaking both the languages well and even quoting the sarcastic jokes positively, and asked me if had my dinner. I said No. Minutes later, He came back with hand picked selection of food and told me to eat first, He is none other Tan Sri A K Nathan, That is one of the most memorable moment. Cos in normal circumstances, No one would even ask if the MC had eaten as a gesture of speech.
SC: What language are you most comfortable to MC in? Emcee Arasan : English and Tamil, both of which I read, write and speak. I did most of education in Singapore; hence I did not learn the Malay Language. I do speak so called broken Malay, as an MC never speak in a language that you are not good at. Some say or you will learn along the way as you speak. I do agree, but the learning should not be done someone’s event.
SC: What 5 tips can you give to those who are interested to take up MCing as a serious profession? 1.For any kind of profession, we need to be passionate about it. And in the entertainment business it very important. 2.Never copy another MCs materials or opening lines, come up with your own - Be creative. Being inspired is ok, copying. Big NO!. 3.Dress well, as an MC every event is your marketing opportunity. First impression with prospect clients is way important that during a date with some random stranger. 4,Don’t repeat the same stuff if you are going bilingual, build your sentence that u can say the message across in both languages and it can be understood well by the guests. It’s tricky, but with some practice it can be done. 5.No such thing as free jobs. We all have bills to pay, and just be assured that you will get paid for every job that you do.
Whom would you like to thank for unstinting support? Yes, First and foremost to my wife, son, family and friends. Because every family has a weekend that they look for to spend time together, but as an entertainer I work on most of my weekends entertaining others. They know it’s my profession, but no money can buy lost time and the love. However I try to make it up on the days i am available. I also take this opportunity to all my clients and friends who one-way another sends the word of my work to their friends and family.
Most know me as Emcee Arasan, only few know my real name - Suthersan Mahathma
GUY’S CORNER
“Dear Future Wife”
by Dr.Ajay Hotchandani
Dear future wife, I write thee this letter as advised by my lawyer (well he isn’t actually a lawyer, just a bum that hangs out around the hospital) to inform you of my land rights as it pertains to closet and bathroom space. 1. Closet space - unless agreed upon prior to marriage, without the coercion of sex, closet space in the bedroom is to be equally divided 50%/50%. Even if either party is not fully occupying their 50% it does not entitle the other party to infringe on such unoccupied space. 2. Bathroom coutertop and shower space - a predetermined ratio of number of items should be established. An acceptable ratio is 3:1, 3 of your products to 1 of mine. This includes all scrubs made of fruits but you can’t eat, hair products and soaps. Your 700 bottles of conditioner will not be counted as one product but rather 700. 3. Living room - no you may not store all your shoes there to free up space in the closet. 4. Kids Closet Space - the kid is 50% yours so if you can convince them to take their space please feel free to, but daddy ain’t housing the toys in his closet space.
Stories by Shoumik De
L
Pink slip-on with a yellow flower
ike the old photograph in an album, feelings fade away. But the photograph always remains, so does the feelings. It was the winters and I was visiting my relatives is when I first saw her. We met in one of our family gatherings. She was the neighbour of my relative. She was wearing a hello kitty t-shirt and a long skirt. She had a round face, long hair till her back, big eyes and quite fair. She was not the prettiest girl I had ever seen but she was certainly beautiful. My aunt introduced us saying “Pinky come meet my nephew…” turned to me and said, “she’s Pinky and she is in the final year of her school.” She looked at me and said hi, I nodded saying hi. I was there for a week. Though I saw her couple of times that week but we didn’t have any interaction, except one evening when she came up to me with her physics textbook. I had just started college and she was in final year of her school. I thought she needed me to teach her something. Boys have this insatiable need to impress a girl. Turned out, I was no different. She handed me the book, it concealed a paper with few questions in it. She said ‘so I hear you are in first year Science. Solve these few questions for me, will you? I have some work and I’ll collect it in the evening… ok!’ I was stupefied at her audacity and before I could react she was out of there. Let me explain why I did it for her. I guess I wanted to prove a point or maybe I didn’t want to look stupid. In fact, I did my best to look good in those answers, hoping she would notice. Did she notice? I would never know because I didn’t see her at all after that day. I left without a goodbye. Next two years I got busy with my studies and college life. During one of those days, I fell sick and the doctor suggested a complete bed rest for a month. Since both my parents were working I was sent to live with my cousin’s family. In the last couple of years, I didn’t think about her much and I was positive that she would have forgotten me as well. As I reached my cousin’s place and went to my room she came running to see me. She stood at the door, looking at me with a big grin on her face. She had grown into a beautiful girl. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, a hint of a lip-gloss and a very light makeup… I was surprised to see how much she had changed in just two years. She said “Hi, how have you been? I didn’t get a chance to thank you for the help last time. Get well soon, I’ll take you out for a treat.” Saying that she turned to leave but stopped. She turned back and said, “I was waiting for you since the time I heard you were coming.” And then she ran out of the house just like she came in. It was like a hurricane, stormed in, shook me up and left so quickly that I didn’t get any time to think what just happened. Since then things changed between us, there was an electric spark around her, between us. She would often come to visit me bringing me food or to check on my medicines. Whenever we were among others I could sense that she was stealing glances. And whenever I look at her she would look down and look elsewhere. My health improved very quickly. Just in two weeks, I was back on my feet. I think this therapy, whatever it is love or flirting should be deployed in every hospital. People would heal very quickly. One day she asked me to get dressed, as she would take me out for a movie. She didn’t believe in requesting, it was always instructions that I was supposed to follow. Very unlike me but I found myself following those instructions without asking any questions. We went to the movie and while watching the movie she asked me if she could keep her head on my shoulder? I was thrilled and yet I looked at her with a fake surprise on my face. So she explained it’s because the movie is boring and she was feeling sleepy. I suggested then let’s get out of here. To that she said not at all since we paid for the ticket we’ll sit through the entire movie. She kept her head on my shoulder and I had a big smile on my face and a numb hand for the rest of the movie. After the movie, she took me to a place little away from the city. It was half an hour’s drive. Near the hills, there was a lake. There were some old people sitting by the lake and fishing. There was a tree by the lake. We sat down below it. It was a beautiful evening, the sun was setting and the sky was velvet. We sat there in silence for some time and then she said, “This is my most favorite place in the world. I always come here alone, you are the first person to come here with me.” I looked at her and smiled she smiled back. Later that night I was on the terrace sitting on the swing think about the day. I really enjoyed going out with her. I enjoyed the closeness more perhaps. I was lost in my thoughts and smiling to myself is when she came up and sat next to me. She wanted to say something, I knew she did and I wanted to hear it. Instead, we just sat there looking at the stars. After some time, she said, “I want to tell you something.” I said, “I know.” She looked at me and I looked back at her. Nobody said anything and then she got up and sat very close to me. I said, “I am going back in few days.” She said, “I know.” After a while, I said “Time to go and sleep. Good Night!” She said, “Have you read Archie’s comics?” I said “yes.” She said, “Say goodnight to me Archie’s way.” After a bit of hesitation, I kissed her on the cheeks and said goodnight. She got up and slapped me saying, “that’s not how they do it” and turned to leave. Damn it! I ruined it. I ruined the perfect moment. Why did I do that like an idiot? Why did I have to kiss her? While all these thoughts were going on in my head she turned around and said, “You are an idiot, you don’t understand anything do you?” Cat caught my tongue, I just managed to say, “I am sorry I thought…” before I could finish that sentence she came close and kissed me on my lips. That kiss, what seemed like an eternity… slowly broke into a hug. I don’t know how long we stood there hugging each other because I remember that the morning came pretty quickly that night with a wink of an eye. That started an unending long distance telephone calls and weekend travels, hiding from family and friends and meeting, stealing away time together. This went on for 11 months until one day she just disappeared. She stopped picking up the phone. I kept calling that number for days and it kept saying, “the number doesn’t exist.” I couldn’t even ask her family as we had an understanding not to let our families know about us. I tried to speak to her family indirectly about her but didn’t get anything. After few weeks I stopped trying, the concern had become frustration and the frustration slowly developed into anger… to hell with her, I thought. I continued with my life. Meanwhile, I graduated from college and got a job. Few months at my job I was already bored. One day it started raining and it was a usual boring day at the office is when I received a call. It was an unknown number… I picked up the call and the voice in the other end said “meet me in front of the city center in an hour… bye.” Before I could say hello or understand what has just happened she had disconnected the line. I just sat there looking at the phone.
What does she think of herself? She can just show up suddenly out of nowhere and order me around and expects me to comply? To hell with her I am not going… definitely not… let her learn a lesson. I was in front of the city center with 10 minutes to spare. She wasn’t there. I waited 25 minutes when she came out of the shopping mall with tons of shopping bags. I looked at her and thought to myself “Oh I forgot how beautiful she looked, how could I be angry with her?” She came close and I opened my arms to hug her. She put the shopping bags in them saying, “Hold these and let’s go” while walking away towards the taxi said, “I just have a couple of days and a lot to do.” In the taxi sitting next to her, I had millions of questions and so much more to tell her but I just kept looking at her. She just kept on talking about how it’s her first time in the city and what all she plans to do, places to go and people to visit. Later that evening after a nice dinner in a restaurant she asked me to walk her down to her hotel which was not very far from there. We just kept walking in silence mostly. I was just thrilled to be with her again. I am glad I don’t have a tail otherwise it would be wagging so hard, giving away my feelings. When we reached the hotel, she took the bags from me and said “I’ll see you tomorrow then?” smile and turned to left. That night I lay in my bed and thought how ridiculous is the predicament! I still had so many questions. Where did she disappear? Why didn’t she tell me anything? Why did she come back? How can someone be so selfish? Is she using me? Does she like me at all? I decided next day I would clear it all and get my answers even if she gets upset. “Oh, damn what if she’s really upset? Shut up you idiot and go to sleep” I thought to myself. Next day she asked me to pick her up from her hotel in the evening. I waited in the lobby, carefully preparing all the questions I had in my mind. I thought about how am I going to begin and how I would not give her a chance to get away with it this time. And then she appeared from the elevator, dressed in an elegant knee-length white dress. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something. She came up to me, smiled brightly and said, “Hi, how do I look?” I no longer remembered what I had in mind… I just kept looking at her. I stammered “You look… err you look… gorgeous.” She said, “ok, let’s go.” We went to a pub and we ate, we drank and we sang with the music. We had a great time there. It was getting late so I started to call for the bill but she stopped me saying “ You know what… let’s leave without paying.” I looked at her, shocked!! I said, “Why would we want to do that?” She said, “Common it’ll be fun, don’t be such a bore. I’ve never done anything like that before.” She always had a way to convince me. We made the plan, she would leave first and then a few minutes later I’ll pretend to talk on the phone and walk out and we’ll run for it. She took off, and after few agonizing minutes I pretended to talk on the phone and since the music was loud I got out of the pub and kept walking. My heart was beating fast and I was quite scared and nervous but I must admit it fun in a strange kind of a way. I kept walking and gradually I started to run. Caught up with her and ran past her screaming RUN!! We both ran though there was no one behind us. We laughed and we ran till we reached far from that place and in the process, she broke the heel of her sandal. It was quite late in the night and the streets were deserted. She couldn’t walk without her sandal so she demanded I give her a piggyback ride. So I did. She told me on the way that she went away to prepare for international law entrance exam, which is apparently quite tough. If she gets through she would be accepted in a university in the UK and she didn’t want any distractions. Before I could ask her anything else she spotted a street-side shoe shop. It was just about to close and there were very few choices. There was a pink bathroom slip-on with a yellow flower on it. It looked so ridiculous that no one in the sane mind would want to buy it. I quickly took out the wallet to pay for it. She protested initially but had to settle for it in the end as the shopkeeper was also not will reopen his shop. It looked very funny and I wanted to see her pull off wearing those ridiculous slip-on with that elegant dress she was wearing. She didn’t think about it much and confidently slipped it on. She looked poised and made that look graceful somehow. Was I being absurd or was it love that I failed to see any imperfection in that woman? When we reached the hotel, she turned to me and said, “it’s already very late and I have an early morning flight. It doesn’t make sense to sleep for 3 hours. Why don’t you stay tonight and we can talk until its time to leave.” I didn’t need a second invitation. In the room, I sat down on the sofa and she started packing. I switched on the radio saying “this time of the night they play lovely romantic songs.” She finished packing and came and sat down next to me. My arms were stretched on the sofa, she laid her head on it. I turned my head and kissed her on her head. She said, “don’t get any ideas, mister.”
I was at a loss for words all of a sudden… I fumbled “No… no… why would you say that?” Why was I scared anyway? She left, not me. I was right here where she left me. Why am I scared of losing her when I don’t even have her? She got up saying “Chill I am kidding. Let’s go inside I am famished. Do you have anything to eat…?” Later that night after she slept I sat there looking at her. She was sleeping so peacefully, not even aware of my predicament. Oblivious to how much I missed her, longed for her and wanted to hold her, kiss her, make love to her. Early morning she tiptoed out of the door. I got up just in time to notice that she went out. I got up in a flash and ran behind her. I couldn’t let her go this time, not so easy. By the time I reached out she already sat in the taxi and left. I ran behind the taxi desperately shouting her name. I tripped on something and fell down. I woke up panting in my bed. It took me while to come back to my senses and recompose myself. I looked around she was in the kitchen. She smiled at me and said, “Wake up sleepy head I made tea.” She came back this time, to do her internship in a law firm. It was supposed to be India’s best law firms and I was supposed to be very proud of her. What I wasn’t supposed to do was to drop her or pick her up from her office because she had no fixed timings and something to do with her work ethics. I found it very unreasonable. I wondered… was there anything reasonable in our entire relationship at all? We found a pg nearby my place for her to stay though she stayed at mine mostly. Since the time she came back I never slept in my bedroom. I had put a couple of mattresses on the floor in the living room and I slept on that. I had left the bedroom for her. Whenever she was late and she would find me sleeping, she would snuggle up next to me and take up most of the cover, held me close and slept. I loved that. Meanwhile, Tanya texted me a couple of times, initially, I made excuses and then I started ignoring her text. After a while, she stopped and I was relieved. One evening I was finishing off work at the office when I got her call saying, “I want to sing.” We went to a karaoke bar that night. We drank and she sang. She was really a terrible singer. But I was enjoying her singing. She looked very happy. Until one guy commented how bad she’s singing and that she should get out of there. She got into an argument with that guy. I tried to stop her but when does she ever listen to me? The argument went out of hand and she slapped the guy. He was about to slap her back when I jumped in between and pushed him. Maybe I pushed him little harder. He fell on the table where he was sitting. That’s when I noticed there were four more guys with him and they all got up. Ready to beat the living daylights out of me. Thank God other people and bouncers intervened. She took my hand and ran out of there. We quickly took off from there in her scooter. We kept looking back if they were following us. After a while, we realized that nobody was following us and how silly the entire thing was… we started laughing. We laughed so much that she crashed the scooter in the middle of the street. Thankfully the roads were empty that time of the night. There were minor scratches and bruises. We sat there in the middle of the road laughing. I said “I can’t believe what just happened… you are unbelievable. It’s so much fun with you.” I kept laughing. She said, “My visa will soon be done. Will you let me go when it’s time?” The laughter disappeared… I said, “Since when did you need my permission?” One day I went to a hospital to visit a friend who had an accident. While coming back, I spotted her coming out of the doctor’s room. With her, it was always like expecting the unexpected but I definitely didn’t see this coming. She was a bit shocked to see me there. When I asked her what was she doing there, she was quite for a little while and then told me that she is visiting one of her aunts. I said, “Then let’s go and see her”. She denied that saying that her aunt has cancer and she’s at her last stage. She isn’t allowed many visitors. She saw my face and probably understood that I am not convinced so she took my hand and dragged me outside one of the rooms. I looked through the glass window on the door. There was a middle-aged woman on the bed and a man about same age sitting next to her. Later while returning from there, I asked her how come I didn’t know about this aunt of her? She replied, “There are many things that you don’t know about me yet.” Typical of her to reply like that, I was expecting it. I asked about that man who was sitting next to her aunt. She said, “He’s a fool.” I said, “You mean he’s the husband.” She replied “No they are not married, he is in love with her since a long time knowing that she won’t live long. He can have a normal life, get married and live happily but he won’t leave her side. That why he’s a fool.” I said, “If I were him I would have done the same.” She smiled, and looked out the car and said, “You know why cancer kills people? Because it keeps growing. It doesn’t stop… unlike other cells in the body.” She had tears in her eye. I thought she was sad about her aunt, so I put my arm around her and pulled her close. She kept her head on my shoulder, and the rest of the journey was in silence. A few months later she didn’t come home for a couple of days, which was not unusual, but I panicked because when I called her phone it was out of reach. After some time, it said the phone is switched off. Has she left again? I wasn’t surprised, but this time, I was really disappointed. I tried not thinking about it much. In the evening, I went to the local shop to buy some things for the house. As I was going out someone said hello. I looked up and it was the girl from her pg. After an exchange of pleasantries, she asked me “How is she now? Can we visit her in the hospital?”
I found out from her that she had collapsed and she was taken to the hospital two days ago. It was the same hospital where I found her talking to that doctor. The world started spinning around me. I dropped the shopping bag in the dustbin and rushed to the hospital. Once I reached the hospital I found that she was in ICU. When I asked the reason the nurses asked me to talk to the doctor. It was the same doctor she was talking to the other day. I had millions of questions for him. However, he apparently knew all about me. He said “when she first came here she told me that one day you might come looking for answers but not to tell anything to you. But I think it’s time.” I was flabbergasted, confused, angry, perplexed… I cannot explain the mixed feelings but mostly it was agony. I told the doctor to tell me everything. The doctor started narrating… he said it was during her first year in college she had an accident and during blood transfusion, something went wrong and she got AIDS. I felt the ground moved beneath me. The doctor made me sit in his chamber and gave me some water. He continued saying since then she’s been in and out of many different medical centers for the treatment. She was also planning to go to the UK for advanced treatment. However, it’s too late to go to the UK or anywhere. Then he said that she is in isolation for a couple of days but I could meet her next day during visiting hours. I didn’t go home that night. I sat there in the hospital connecting all the dots. That’s why she stopped picking up the call when she first disappeared. She came back for a couple of days to check out this hospital and make the arrangements. And since last one year, she’s been getting treatment here. All this time, I didn’t have the slightest of the idea what’s going on with her? How dumb am I? How strong is she to go through all this with a smile? “… will you let me go when it’s time?” In the morning, I was told I could see her. I went to her room it was one big room with a single bed in the middle of the room. She was lying in a white hospital gown with an oxygen mask on her face. In two days she seemed to have aged a lot. She looked tiny. But she was still very beautiful. Her eyes were closed, she was breathing slowly. I stood there in the door and cried. I wiped my tears and composed myself and walked in, I stood there just looking at her. She opened her eyes slowly, looked at me and smiled. I didn’t smile, I went close and held her hand and said “Do you know this hand, the lips, the eyes, this face belongs to me, it’s not your’s… it’s mine. You are just given the privilege to use it. How dare you destroy it just like that?” She smiled. She removed the oxygen mask and said in very feeble voice “I saw you there in my dreams… you remember… there was a lake… where those old people use to sit and fish… and there was a tree next to the lake… I saw that you were sitting there… fishing… the sun was warm… and the wind was cold… you looked happy… whenever I feel very sick… I think of going there… sit next to you… keep my head on your shoulder… it feels nice… I feel relaxed… I wish we can go there again…” she seemed exhausted and in lot of pain saying that. I don’t know what was more painful? Was it physical or was it knowing that she would never make it to that place again? Or was it just even thinking about it. My throat was dry when I replied, “Come anytime, I am always there.” She said “But I can’t go now… my visa has arrived.” I saw tears forming up at the corner of her eye. I fought back mine and said, “I am not letting you go this time so easy. I am waiting for you.You have to come back home.” Few more days went by and I rarely got to see her as she was in isolation ward most of the time. One Saturday evening while watching TV I fell asleep in the living room. I felt she snuggled up next to me, held me from behind and lied down like she always did. I smiled, took her hand and kissed it, it was cold, I curled up and kept sleeping. I felt her warm breath on the back of my neck and then she whispered “Bye”. I got up instantly and sat back on my bed. The door was locked from the inside, it was dark and my phone was vibrating non-stop. I thought she’s in the kitchen but there was no one in the house. I checked the time it was 9:15 pm. The phone started to vibrate again… I picked up the phone it was the hospital. Time of her death was 8:45 pm. This time, she did say goodbye before leaving. After all the formalities the nursed handed me her things she always carried with her, a travel bag, a handbag, and few documents. We are tormented because love goes on and not because it goes away unlike the person. I missed her too much so I decided to vacate that house. I couldn’t possibly live in that house anymore. I was cleaning her room and putting her things in the boxes. I opened her travel bag… it had her clothes. I picked them up and smelled they still smelled like her. That’s when I noticed… under the clothes… there was a pink bathroom slip-on with a yellow flower on it. - Shoumik De