The 12th letter (7) to (10)

“Hi there,

How are you friend? Have you waited for my letter the last week?

I had written the sixth letter the previous week and was about to send it too but on that very day, Maurya met with an accident while returning from the school. So, everything got messed up. Nothing serious has happened. Few scars and scratches only. He is fine now.

See, I was trying to say the same about us in my sixth letter. As we could not predict about Maurya’s accident, Gautam could not sense the damage being done to our business by a person very close to us. Gautam had made a friend partner in our business to make it work more efficiently. This friend slowly turned the things in his favor giving Gautam a huge loss that was almost impossible to recover in time. Everything started vanishing slowly to pay debts and loans which we had for expansion. This had broken us but Gautam was a man of strong will so, giving up was not his way. He took one more start. This time he started with pickles. We began with small quantities of homemade pickles. I also gave him a hand in his new venture as I was quite confident about him that he could never let us down. As it is said that a cure for bad times is patience. It took three years’ patient hard work to get ourselves rooted in this new business and he had done it one more time and I was proud of my man!

Medhansh had been mature enough to understand the situation in these years. He had been a college boy and small helping hand for Gautam by now.

Okay, it has been late night. I need to rest.

I will see you the next week of course through the letter.

Your friend,

Shubhra”

Amogh after reading both the letters feels good. He is feeling connected to this couple’s struggle and family life. He actually enjoys these letters now. He thinks to reply but words are not his very good friends. So, he called the attendant with a pen and paper. He makes the attendant write few words to Shubhra.

Swadha has a letter in her hand for her grandmother. She hands it over to Shubhra with a naughty smile. Meanwhile, Maurya enters the room to meet her grandmother as he is going out of town for a football tournament.

“What is going on here ladies?” asks Maurya

“Grandma has got a reply from her pen friend.” Swadha with a giggle tells Maurya

“Really, has he written back?” Maurya is happily surprised.

“See, young lady this is Maurya’s magic. I told you learning computer will be worthy for you.” He continues.

“Now, show me what has he written?” Swadha asks eagerly.

Shubhra opens the letter with a feeling totally new for her. The letter is rather a note.

“Hello Shubhra,

It is wonderful to read you. Keep writing.

Best wishes,

Amogh”

“What is this? Is it a reminder?”…

“…Grandma, I am bit disappointed with this.” says Swadha.

“Come here my sweet little girl. What had you expected, a love note? Dear girl, he is my pen friend and considering his age and condition, I was not even expecting this coming from him. Right Maurya?” explains Shubhra

Maurya nods affirmatively. He leaves for his trip giving Shubhra a warm hug. Shubhra murmurs in his ears,

‘Thanks for everything!”

Maurya waves a goodbye with a smile.

In next three weeks, Shubhra writes in her three letters about how they worked to make their small business, a prominent name in the food industry. Medhansh completing his M.B.A. and taking up major responsibilities in the company, His getting married to Rajvi, Their buying a big, beautiful bungalow which Gautam had always wanted for his family. Rajvi getting Maurya and Swadha in next few years.

In short, she mentioned in her letters how their life had been a part of any fairy tale. Fortune had showered them with both its hands. But no picture is perfect without having few dark colors; equally, here Shubhra’s heart started giving her some hard times too.

In these three weeks she has got two more letters (though small) from Amogh appreciating her courage to write so transparently and feeling sorry for her ailment. He has written that he reads all the letters together whenever gets time and by now he feels that he had been through the journey of Shubhra’s life.

Shubhra is happy about the communication getting started slowly from the other end. She reads Amogh’s letters twice or thrice and starts for her eleventh letter this week…