~•Ganga's POV•~

You know what’s the toughest thing in the world?

इंतेज़ार...

(Waiting)

Not the kind of waiting where you're unsure if someone is coming back,

but the kind where they promised they would.

Where they looked into your eyes and swore they'd return. But then... never did...

And yet, you wait.

It’s been twenty years. Twenty long years since he left..

Left with the promise to return and take me back into his world.

I remember the little girl who once clung Amma's feet, barely three years old, crying, begging not to spare me from her.

The woman who loved me when no one willed to.

The woman who took me her home when every one abundant me.

The woman who cared for me when everyone wanted to kill me.

But these peoples,this society pulled me away from her.

They said, She belongs from a high class,her house is for elite people not for me..

The girl who carries the heavy burden of a word the world has forced upon her—

Widow..

A widow since I didn't even know the meaning of it.

A widow of man,I don't remember..

But still,

This word stick to me like the white fabric around my flesh.

I would be called shameless if I tore it apart...

Isn't it funny, A bride before she could even understand what marriage meant..I was!!

In the age of playing with toys,I was made a toy to someone..way to young for this burden..

But I don't care..

I don't care about anyone,but him..

The boy who promised me,that he will save me..

The boy whom I hugged like he is my only shield in this world of thrones..

And what I know about him.

His address?

Even if I know, I'm not allowed to go there.

His face,

The one I dream about every night, try to draw on sand..

But he must be grown up now..

His name...

Dhananjay.

Yes,I remember his name..

And even if I call his name loud, is there any possibility he'll come back..

No...

I tried everyday..

Calling him loud even if my tounge slips calling this name.

His name alone feels my stomach tickling..

Why?

What's so deep connection with him?

Why did he promise me, that he'll come for me?

And why didn't he?

His words..still echo in my ears,

"Main waapas aaoonga… tumhe le jaane, Ganga.."

(I’ll come back… to take you with me, Ganga..)

But he never did.

Still... I wait. Every single day.

I walk down to the Ganga ghat, the sacred river where he once sat with his feet dipped in the cool water, lost deep in his thoughts.

I look at the same Peepal tree from a far,where he used to sit bowing his head into something and writing.. hoping,that one day.

One day I'll see someone there, exactly lost in his thoughts like he used to, writing something like he loved to.

And again, I'll face him,to irritate, to argue, to look in his eyes..or just fall in his arms,that felt like world..

And again.

Why I wait for him.

When I don't even remember anything about him, except his name.. Why?

May be because my wait has outlived even the fourteen years of Vanvaas. Because hope, even in silence, has a heartbeat.

And maybe...

Just maybe…

One day, he’ll come back.

For me...

For his Ganga...

Vo Ganga jo ghat kinare aaj bhi uski raah dekh rahi ha

i...

(The girl who is still waiting for him near the bank of the river Ganga..)