the last call

“Come home! Have dinner with us! You have not even come once since you got married! “
These words still echo in my ears………My aunt kept calling me since the time I moved to Delhi after my marriage. I called her bua.We had always seen her as a simple lady always clad in a cotton sari with loads of sindur and red bindi on her forehead. Though Hindu by religion she daily visited gurudwara.The children of the mohulla called her dadi. Full of enthusiasm and liveliness she never looked like being 60.
As a custom in the Hindu families, the newly wedded couple has to pay visit to relative’s home, my bua kept calling me. However the times have changed that is what I thought .And especially when you are living in a metro city like Delhi where both husband and wives are the bread earners, only the weekend was what you can call is yours and in those two days ; commuting from one place to another is considered as deadly as nightmare.
Two years passed and we kept assuring her about our visit. And finally one day in August I got to hear from some of my relative that bua is not well. Later when inquired I was told that she was suffering from cancer. Cancer! My God.! The same disease had taken my dad few years back. I could visualise the future. On the same evening I insisted my hubby to go and see her. “You sometime sound like a pessimist; we will soon go and see her” told my hubby.
Thanks to Graham Bell who invented the telephone. The life line of the modern era kept me connected with her, though my promises continued. It was the 6th day of Feb. 2008 ,I was going to my school as I was a teacher then and in the bus itself I felt something(don’t know what).I immediately took out the cell phone from my hand bag and called up bua son ."How is bua?" was my first question.
“She is hospitalized” he told me. “Bhaiya, I will soon reach there” I told him.
“No need. Come in the evening when every one will come.
Today is her last day.” The quietness prevailed for some time. “No I am coming now”.
I called up my husband and told him to come and pick me up from the school.
He was there in an hour and we started for the hospital.However we got confused with the way to reach the hospital.My heart was throbbing. I called up bhaiya to ask the way and he gave me the final news she was no more. Things settled within me .her face, her voice, her love everything danced before my eyes after 15 mins I was there in the hospital .I wanted to see her face the last time. I rushed but God had decided a harsh punishment for me. She was wrapped in a sheet .I could not see her even then.
It’s been 5 months but I consider myself guilty and have realized that relations are more than anything in life. The love, the attachment which we share with our family and friends should be always prior to money. Money lost can come again but a person lost will never ever come again.