Clock ticked 11 PM in the night and I was cozily sitting in my nice warm blanket. I had a bed but for some reason but I kept it aside and kept my mattress on the floor. My blanket was half on the floor but I am not concerned because I have a deadline for tomorrow. I am preparing for my weekend test. I am not ready for this test because I just practiced a mock and I failed miserably. 

There is some soft soothing music in the background playing on my laptop because the utter silence is very haunting and keeping my situation into consideration, I am not prepared for this kind of silence and the negative thoughts surrounding it. It is human nature that your mind starts wandering whenever it is trying to avoid a particular situation. Suddenly, I hear my mother talking to my father in the adjacent room and they are discussing about celebrations. I started listening carefully and it was Grandmother’s birthday we were celebrating and as any middle-class family, this whole discussion was taking place right In front of my grandmother because we do not believe in surprises. We believe in planning and gifting the other person something they need in their daily life not something they want to enjoy. After the list of guests was shortlisted, it was now the turn of the elephant in the room. Whether the cake should be mixed fruit or red velvet is the prime question of the hour.

Anybody among us could have answered that question but there comes a squeaky voice from behind saying “red velvet.” It was none other than the grandmother herself and at that very moment, I completely forgot everything I was going through. All my worries, my assignment, my wrong answers it all vanished within seconds and I started laughing hard. But I think I am the one who is responsible for making her eat such stuff and I am the guy responsible for introducing her to all this. Going back in history, I am the one who made her taste Kurkure for the first time, I am the one who introduced her to Coca-Cola and many more things. 

Resultantly, all she liked drinking was Coca-Cola in the name of Cold drinks and even other relatives have miserably failed in making her drink any other cold beverage but that is a whole different story to be shared some other day. To this day, I cannot forget when my grandmother asked for a red velvet cake by herself on her birthday and today when she is no more with us, all I am thinking about is her at such hour of the day as if it is happening right in front of me. I so wished I should have recorded this moment and shared it on some social media website but again, that is a selfish thought and not to be appreciated. I experienced such a haunting and terrifying silence around me that even the songs running in the background could not fulfil that silence I just experienced. The silence was eating me inside out and I could do nothing about it. 

I completely forgot to tell you the reason this story came in my mind out of such a situation. I was going through some pictures and I have one where she is eating the same red velvet cake on her last birthday and another where we are eating Kurkure sitting on a bed on a nice Sunday Afternoon. I still will not publish any of the pictures on social media because these are my moments and I will cherish them.

Take Care and Good Bye, Dadi!

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