Minu and Meenu

Minu and Meenu sat across from each other in the train, unaware of each other’s similar sounding names.

Each one was upset, had cried just before they boarded at their respective stops.

Minu was on her way to her tuitions. She was late but she didn’t care. There wasn’t much that she cared about lately. Except her boyfriend, Appu. He was probably the only one she cared about these days. Her friends told her it was unhealthy but she didn’t care.

These days she was upset with the man who, until recently, used to be the most important man in her life — her father. He didn’t want her to marry Appu. He listed numerous reasons, all ridiculous, in her opinion. They were too young, she was only 19, and he was 20, not even legal marriageable age. He didn’t have a real job; he worked as an electrician at a local repair shop. None of her friends liked him. He didn’t like him! She didn’t think it mattered as long as she loved Appu. Besides, she felt her father was trying to sabotage her relationship. Just then, her father called on her cellphone. She disconnected his call.

“I hate him!” she thought, before taking one look at Meenu, snorting in disgust at the tattoo on her hand, and walking off as her stop approached.

“Probably doesn’t realise how meddlesome her father is.” Minu thought as she stared back at Meenu’s hand tattoo — a pair of scissors with ‘Papa’ written on it.

Meenu was staring sadly at her tattoo. She had been crying all morning. She always stared sadly at her tattoo and wondered why he had to leave her mother. She herself, along with her siblings had gotten over it, but her mother never could.

She never even had a chance to see him one last time. Sometimes, she thought, even though she was happy with her husband, she felt she should have waited for things to settle rather than walking away from her home, her Daddy.

She only ever got to see his dead body and in her grief, she took from his room, the only possession of his she associated with him, his scissors, the ones he used at his barber’s shop.

She watched as the girl opposite her disconnected her father’s call and left.

“Probably will never realize what her father means to her while he’s alive,” she thought sadly.