Bracelet

Karma was heading towards his office after a long vacation. The treetops had started to catch the fall colour. He had never seen the beauty of the fall in this way. They seemed to him like the newly wed bride getting the first blush on her face with the first touch of her husband. Then he had the second thought of the bride, getting the cachet of marital bliss on her parting line with the dispersed vermilions. A very contented smile spread all over his face. He was married now.

He had taken only a two weeks break, but it seemed to him a long vacation as he got married in these two weeks. Now he could proudly say,' I am married ' and would stop envying his married couple friends. Though the life of celibacy has its own essence, marriage has a totally different charm if one is married to a beautiful lovable lady. He always wanted to get married to the earliest and to love his wife from the core of his heart giving all the happiness of the world as much as he could provide. A romantic by heart he always kept on nurturing the life with a partner in his imagination. When he first saw her picture in a matrimonial site he fell in love instantly with the endearing smile stretched in Jinia's face. And he found himself then the luckiest man when the proposal proceeded and everything got fixed. Everything happened like a fairytale. They got married within 3months and returned back to Denver a couple of days back. Now it's a new journey of life with his beloved wife and to make the home a dream land where only the language of love will décor their nest.

His office was just in 2.5miles distance form his home. He had not yet reached his office, he started to eagerly wait for the lunch time, when he would go home and have lunch with his wife. He tried to think what she might be doing right now. Might be she was sipping the morning tea, sitting in front of the patio and admiring the beauty of the new land. Or  might be she was arranging the kitchen in her own way and preparing herself what to cook for the lunch, or she was adorning herself in front of the mirror and gently combing her black silky hair or she….His office came. He parked his car and headed towards the office. He was feeling little bit of nervous to face the gang and the rummy tattles by them. And thinking of the devil there he was.

Joy spanked his back from behind and spreading a puckish smile all over his face, said:" Hey dude, got the magic?? Enjoying??? How is Bhabi(sister-in-law)?? ". Karma now started to blush and his nervous soul just gave a smile instead of saying anything. Silence is always the great saviour from anything. He slicked in to his cubicle as soon as possible to avoid the group. But the gang jumped on him with a big congratulation and had made him embarrassed more with the songs of connubial bliss. It didn't last long as the work pressure buried every body in a cracking silence with a rhythm of the tick tuck sounds on key boards which kept on echoing from this corner to that corner.

Karma called his wife to say that he reached office and wanted to talk for few more time. But the conversation just finished in 'ok' ;'bye'. Karma's impatient soul kept on tracking the time and when it's 12 noon , Karma rushed to his car and headed to home. He thought today at night he will give the card and the bracelet to his wife.

When he reached home he expected a warm welcome or he would give a hug to his wife. But instead he confronted a pale face and a gloomy atmosphere at home. The lunch was served very heedlessly. His wife was just in a different world not willing to talk to him at all. He thought, might be she was not well due to the long journey and that's why she was not in a mood in talking or might be she was missing her home too. Karma was not in a hurry but set off to office early to avoid the glumness of his wife and to give her more space by her own. Before leaving he told his wife that they would have the dinner out side today. He drove back to office. He consoled himself that everything would change when Jinia would get the bracelet and the card and he would tell her when and how he bought this gift of love and saved it all these years only for his love.

It was 2 years back when one of his female colleagues, wore a bracelet and showed proudly to every body at the lunch time that this was given by her husband. The bracelet was embedded with some colourful bids and stones. It's very simple but unique too. Karma noted down the gift of love and that day in the evening he went to the shopping mall and bought the bracelet in a hope that when he would get married he would give this gift of love to his wife. Romantic by heart he bought a card with a poem of love printed on it along with bracelet. He secretly treasured this in his closet all these years and finally it’s the time to gift them to his beloved wife.

The afternoon how became evening he was not able to follow as all the pending workload didn't give him a single moment to lift his head from it.

He was now feeling excited from the bottom of his heart and planning how to make the evening one of the most memorable evenings of their life. He tried to imagine when he would give his wife the first gift of love how she would react.

Karma waved goodbye to the office gang, promised to throw a grand party in the next week, hurriedly slipped in his car and rushed back to his home. He unlocked the door with the extra key and saw his wife sitting on the sofa facing towards the patio. The dinning table was in a mess with the dry unwashed dishes and bowls. He put his hand on his wife's shoulder, she jerked his hand and disappeared in to the bedroom with out saying a single word. Karma was not able to understand what had happened to her. First he thought she was sad for missing her family, then the second thought rose, she was angry with him. But he was not able to trigger out the reason. Karma followed Jinia to the bed room and saw she was crying covering her face with her hands. Karma rushed to her and held her in his arms and just about to ask the reason why she was crying, she pushed Karma away from her and said:"You liar, why didn't you tell me that you had an affair before??"

Karma seemed to fall from the sky and didn't understand how to react. He told:"I didn't get you what you are saying?"

"Yea I know now you will just deny the whole thing. But I get the prove of that you had an affair before."

"I am telling the truth. There must be some misunderstanding."

"What misunderstanding??" She showed him the card and the bracelet.

Karma started to laugh and said with a relaxed tone:"This one is a gift that I bought for you."

Jinia yelled at him:"You liar, liar, liar!!! Don't involve me in this awful game. You bought it two years back, I got the cash memo to prove that. You hardly know me less than three months. How come you could tell that you bought it for me. If I would know that I am going to marry a filthy fibber, I would choose rather to die.. "

Karma tried to convince her that he was telling the truth. But everything went in vain and she threw the card and bracelet at him and told him to get out from the room. Karma with a sinking soul picked up his treasure and dragged himself out from the room. He heard a bang of the door shut behind him. He just felt that all his energy was drained out. He never thought in his dream that the token of love could show him the bitter side of it. He felt that somebody had shovelled his heart in to pieces and put a big stone on it. Now the stone came up and sat on his throat. He was not able to see clearly as his eyesight had become blur and everything around him was getting hazy. Jinia came in and announced the final judgment:

"I want a divorce. I don't want to stay with a deceiver."

Today was the 12th day after they got married, they had just started their journey and now it had come to an end. Karma was not able to say a single word. The bracelet in his hand had fallen down on the floor in parts and the bids and the stones scattered around the room.

(Behind the scene: I have taken the snaps of the bracelet few days back and wanted to post it. So I thought of writing a story and use the snaps to make it more fascinating. So this is how the story of Bracelet took birth. All the characters here mentioned are fictitious and entirely plotted in the imagination of the author)