Archna, the name I love the most....

A moon silver Swift which was being driven at 80Kmph on the KBR park
road along the jubilee hills pulled over to the left extreme and came to
a standstill after the tyres were locked by the disc brakes.

A few minutes back....

Gowtham I want an ice-cream' Archna said. I looked at my watch and it
was 0100 hrs past midnight. 'Now?' I asked. 'Yes, now... 'She said. I
grabbed the keys on the table and ........

'I want mango bar.... No... choco bar... no... I think I will go for
cornetto.... Hmm.. I don't know.. I am not able to choose....' Archna said.

'Why don't you have all the three...' I said looking at Archna's face.
They were still sitting in the car and Archna moved her gaze from the
left window and looked at him, 'So that my teeth get spoiled ....' And
Gowtham continued, '.... And they will be extracted and you will look like
an old woman and you will be stammering and at some point of time, you
will stop this blabbering and peace will return to my life...' I said.

'Blabbering aaa... peace aaa.... 'She said even as she hit on my chest
before I caught her hands and laughed out loud.

I have been married to Archna for the past four years. To me, she's the
most beautiful girl I have ever seen or I will ever see. After my mom,
perhaps my life mostly revolved around Archna. Her beauty, her
prudence, her loving and caring nature and above all her beautiful smile
which seemed to have lighted up my life, all made the world around me
look beautiful. And the way I treat her like a two year old kid, makes
her feel so secure in my hands.

Every night, I have to feed her food with the spoon running behind her
or else she starts crying like a baby. Every night I have to wish her
good night by planting a kiss on her forehead else she wouldn't go to
sleep. Every morning she wakes up kissing me, else she feels that her
day's gone for a toss. And every moment she wants me to say 'I Love You'
to her else she feels miserably alone.

'Gowtham, you know why I need you to love me so much...?' she asked and
there was a pause for a while, 'Maximum we may live for another 50
years, with god's grace, and obviously, not more than that. After those
50 years, we will leave our bodies and our souls will merge with the
almighty. As a soul, I won't have any mind and so I don't think we can
love each other so much then. So I need you to default love me so much
now.'

'Every moment I spend with you is precious, every breath I take I am
reminded of you, every heart beat makes me love you more and more'

'A day will come Gowtham, when you and I will die. And that day, if we
look back at the time we spent together, it's nothing. Believe me, you
will know that we have never spent so much time. You will think that it
was yesterday or day before yesterday that you married me. And that you
want to spend more time with me because you will feel that we haven't
spent any time together'

'Life is ephemeral. All these moments of love will melt down. All these
feelings of the heart will die from within body. And if you turn back
and look at our life, you will see lot of fights, quarrels, loathe....'

'And that day when I am 60 or 70 years old, I don't want to feel that I
have wasted some precious moments which would then mean a lot to me. I
want to enjoy each and every moment with you Gowtham, I won't ask you for
anything more...'

'You know why I wake you up at midnight and ask me to take you for an
ice-cream? It's not that if I don't eat my ice-cream, heavens will fall
down or earth will break apart. I want to see the love in your eyes,
whenever I say, we'll go to have an ice-cream. I want to play with you
even at this extra hour of the midnight. I want to feel your love at all
points of the time as long as I am alive..'

'What have I done to you Archna... why do you love me so much...' there
were tears in my eyes even as I asked her.

'Gowtham, to a child, its parents are everything. Why do the parents love
their kid? Why can't they rear him and later leave him like most animals
do? This is where the human race has diversified itself from other
species on earth. That extra ability to think, that extra ability to
love is the answer for the question. Some one who's given me birth and
bring me up, I have loved them so much, you are some one with whom I
have shared my everything, my life, my body and my soul, and some one
with whom I am supposed to spend the rest of my life, isn't it evident
that I should love you equally well or even more'

That moment my heart beat stopped. My eyelid slowly dropped blocking my
vision. There was nothing around me. The whole world seemed blank. And
then Archna held my hand. And my heart started to beat again. And I
opened my eyes and saw the world around me. It looked beautiful. Never
before have I seen such a wonderful place to live. The milieu was
teeming with love.

I just pulled her close to my heart. And gave her the best hug in all
these years since I was married to her. I kissed on her forehead, her
cheeks her lips and again on her forehead... I knew I wouldn't get this
time again. Never again.

They say that everyone is born for a specific purpose. I don't know why
I was born till this moment. But then I realized that making my wife
happy and loving her so much is one of my purposes.

I prayed to god that time should stop at this point. I just fast
forwarded time and I could see her and me walking along the same road
hand in hand. The road to that point is very much in my hands. I am
going to enjoy each and every precious moment with her.

Finally, the day has dawned and she left me. My Archna left me after
loving me so much for 50 long years. 50 long years, no way, it was more
than a fleeting transience, just as Archna told me. I have enjoyed all
these years with her, but the human mind asks for more. It's never
satisfied. I wish I had hundred such lives to spend with her. Perhaps,
that would also be insufficient.

And yes, the purpose of my life... because of Archna's love, I
understood what humanity means, I understood why we need to help others,
why human being is some special species...

More than three-fourths of the money I had earned was donated in charity
not only for the upliftment of my fellow beings but also for my fellow
creatures.

My message to everybody would be, 'Love your wife, love your parents,
and love your fellow beings. Strive for their upliftment and also care
for your fellow creatures... Man is something special. He's changed the
face of earth. Leave behind hate, detest and loathe, and see the world
through your eyes and you will know how beautifully God has created this
heaven for us...'

A metallic black X-4 concept car which was being driven at 80Kmph on the
KBR park road along the jubilee hills pulled over to the left extreme
and came to a standstill after the tyres were locked by the disc brakes.

A few minutes back....

'Gowtham, I want an ice-cream' Archna said. I looked at my watch and it
was 0100 hrs past midnight. 'Now?' I asked. 'Yes, now... 'She said. I
grabbed the keys on the table and ........

'I want mango bar.... No... choco bar... no... I think I will go for
cornetto.... Hmm.. I don't know.. I am not able to choose....' Archna,
my granddaughter said. My daughter named her daughter in the fond memory
of my wife. Archna, the name I love the most....

'Grandpa, your ice-cream is melting down...' Archna said even when I
was reminded of those melted moments with Archna, my wife.