The Splintered Life

Samya is half asleep, when she is woken by Palak’s mumbling… Palak is talking in sleep again… something she does almost every night. It is beyond Samya’s understanding. Though scared, Samya sits up and starts patting Palak’s cheeks lovingly with her small plump hands, “Mumma! Talk to me if you want. See, I am here.” She is too young to understand the intricacies of human relationships and the complexities of human mind. Samya is just six, and interpreting this vile expression on her mother’s face as a mental sickness, is out of question. Palak opens her eyes and finds her lovely daughter peering at her with surprised doe eyes. Palak’s expression softens, as she pulls Samya into her arms and straightens her silky smooth pigtail with her fingers. Palak is not sure about her unconscious behavior, but from little Smaya’s description of Palak’s condition, she definitely knows that her disturbed inner-self is getting manifested in some way or the other. She shall never share with Samya the weird secret behind her somniloquy –the story of her broken heart being possessed by the evil poisonous knot that has refused to untie even after a decade; the story of her crazy yet failed love for Vimal before marrying Rajiv; Vimal having spurned her love, and his falling for Parii. Most important, she can never tell her little girl that the story she most sumptuously relished was that of Vimal and Parii falling apart. Ah! The memory of their breakup! A wicked smile touches the corners of Palak’s lips. Her eyes radiate a roguish twinkle as she murmurs, “That ‘breakup’... they owe to me.” She quickly checks herself, “No! I am my daughter’s ideal… a loving mother and a perfect human being. Samya shall never fathom the mystery of my unconscious world. This shall go on like this –forever, because I love being in this state… celebrating ‘their failure’ and mourning ‘my loss’ night after night! I’m happy with ‘this’.” To Samya, life is perfect… a comfortable house in an upscale society, good schooling, good food, enough money for the three of them coming from Palak’s job at a convent school and Rajiv’s at a leading BPO. Palak and Rajiv are a happy couple -like all others –this is Samya’s reality; but Palak’s reality is different from Samya’s. It is a surreal account of her splintered heart –morbid and gross! She is okay with her splintered self and her splintered life.

-parastish