The Last Fragrance

A short-story on Love, Life and Liberty!!

“Beta.. I’m leaving. Close the door, it’s going to rain!!”

Raju was busy hammering nails into the wood, when Kamalnath left the shop. He had been working on a wooden sculpture of Lord Shiva for a month. Just a couple of final touchups, then the piece of art would have been ready to be polished and dried. But the gloomy weather, had been making things difficult for him. The board outside the shop mentioned, Raju Ki Karigari(Raju’s Craftsmanship)in Hindi.

Kamalnath had travelled all the way from Rajasthan after a decade of India’s Independence, to showcase his wood carving skills to the city of dreams, Bombay. It had been 30 years since then, but the unfortunate artist could barely succeed. An old workshop attached to a small living room and kitchen, with broken windows and squeaky doors, was all that he had. His wife’s untimely death had left him childless. But Raju filled that void in his life. Almost a decade ago, a young lad with curly hair and shiny eyes tried to steal some wooden dolls from the shop, but failed to escape. Upon questioning, he could barely speak his name, Rajesh Pachkawade correctly. He stole toys, showpieces, artefacts etc. and sold them to make a living. The streets were his home. Kamalnath adopted him right then and there. He taught him, all that he knew in the name of craftsmanship and aspired to see him continue his shop and keep the craft alive.

It took a loud thunder of clouds to bring Raju back to reality. He often got immersed in his work so much, that he couldn’t notice what’s happing around him. But this time, it was different. He looked around, Kamal Kaka was already gone. The door was half opened and the gush of wind carried rain water into the shop. He ran towards the door and looked outside. With a smirk on the face, he thought, “Even the sky is weeping along with me.” He closed the door and went back to work. But, he could hardly focus that day. The hammer barely touched the nails, and he kept missing several times. For a skilled craftsman like him, that was very rare. With every strike of hammer, a new question popped up in his preoccupied mind.
“She must have been halfway across the State by now.. is she fine on that ship? She could have bid me a final farewell.. why didn’t she show up? I should have tried to do something.. why didn’t I go and visit her myself?? Why didn’t I?? I’m such a dumb!!”

“AAAAEEEEHHHHH”

With a painful shriek, he threw the nail aside and clutched his index finger tightly. His distracted hammering had struck his finger. With immense pain, he kept staring at the bulged fingertip. While being seated on the ground, he leaned back against the wall and rested his head on the knees. He tried to wipe his watery eyes with the sleeves. His swollen finger had teared him up, or may be it was the agony of his beloved going away. The thunderstorm within his heart was way more violent than the outside. There was so much to tell, so much to listen, and yet she left without saying a goodbye.

“Dhudd.. Dhudd.. Dhudd!!”

A series of heavy thuds on the door woke up Raju from his sleep. Rubbing his eyes groggily, he stood up and walked towards the door. The incessant chatter of the rain was enough to wake him up completely. As soon as he opened the door, before he could even look at the person, he got hugged tightly. He was shocked and stood still for a while. Pushing the person gently away from his arm, he looked properly this time.

“Ambii..!! What are you doing here?? I thought you are already gone..!!”

Drenched from tip to toe, a young lady in a black gown, stood beside a pile of clothes in a plastic bag, placed on the ground. The shawl covering her head, did little to save her head from getting wet. She panted heavily and her teary eyes could clearly show the agony within her heart.

“ I ran away.. and I’m not going back!!”, she said in a breathless tone.

“First of all, you come inside. What were you even thinking.. You’ll fall sick.”

Raju took her inside along with the bag, while speaking. He shut the door and took her near the lamp. He had her sit on a wooden chair and kneeled before her. Holding her hands firmly, he asked “So.. Miss Ambika Patel!! Will you please explain what happened? Were you not supposed to be on a ship right now..?” Ambi slowly looked into his eyes and started speaking.

“Bapu(Father) told me last week that the ship got delayed by a couple of days. I don’t remember where it was coming from. Now it has reached and will start sailing towards Porbandar tomorrow morning. But that’s not the point. I’ve got a bigger problem now.”

“And what is that..??”, asked Raju, with frowned eyes.

“He said that once we are settled, he’s going to start my marriage preparations with the son of some Mahesh Bhai. He never mentioned about this before. How can he do this to me? Did he even consider, what do I want in life? Baa(Mother) would have never let this happen, if she was here. I won’t marry anybody else. I’m not going back!!” She could barely speak anymore and burst into tears. Raju hugged her tightly and rubbed her back softly. “Shhhh.. Shhhh..!! It’s okk. Calm down. I’ll make things right.” He slowly pushed her head up and wiped her tears. In a flirty voice, he said, “Has anybody told you, even in tears you look so pretty!!” She smiled a bit as she caught her breath. In a commanding voice, he said, “That’s it.. Now go in and change, before you catch cold. There’s a towel in the room. Dry yourself and till then, I’ll arrange something to eat.”

Raju took out some mangoes, he bought the day before. Some of them were still raw. He cut them into pieces and put some salt, pepper and chillies on the top. The lamp had started to flicker. He refilled that and emptied the entire oil container into it. Setting aside all the tools and wooden pieces, he put a huge mat on the floor, arranged the mangoes, the lamp and a jar of water. The rain had stopped. He opened the windows to let the cool breeze flow in. It felt like yet another date to him, but that might be the last.

“Do you need any help..?”, he asked loudly.

“No.. No.. I’m fine,” she replied.

After a while, Ambi slowly walked in with the towel wrapped on her head. She wore one of Raju’s full sleeve shirts hanging in the room. And that’s all she wore. Upon looking at her, Raju smiled and said playfully, “Did you miss me so much, that you prefer wearing my clothes now!!” She said, “It’s all because of that rain. Even the plastic bag was of no use.
Everything is wet!!”

Raju laughed for a while. “Let it be.. come sit here. Look what I’ve got..”Ambi sat beside him and they both started eating the spicy raw mangoes.

“You still put that Attar(Perfume) from Faizal Chacha..?”, she asked while sniffing the shirt she wore.

“Yaa.. sometimes. Whenever he goes to Masjid, he gets me some of his favourite ones.”

“Do you remember our first mango stealing adventure..?”, she asked.

“Ohh Yaa.. How can I forget!! The day when you ran away with all the mangoes while I got caught by the gardener. Huhh!!”

Ambi burst into laughter, upon hearing this.
“Well.. You.. running after me. Isn’t that the usual scenario.. right from the first day we met,” she said playfully.

“That run had a purpose. I had just learnt cutting a wood into a doll and I wanted to gift that to the most beautiful girl of the dance class in front of my shop. If it was not because of your Baa, I would have succeeded too.”

“Nevertheless, you gave me that doll later.. or whatever you call it. That day, she was just saving me from a Buddhu Karigar(Silly Craftsman). That’s how Baa used to be. She would leave no stone unturned to make sure I was safe from the world. I wish she was here today. She would have saved me from this entire chaos. Bapu has barely seen me growing. He was always away from home, engrossed in his business.”

“But has that made your love for your Bapu fade away, by any means? Should I remind you the day, he had his first heart attack. You could barely control yourself. Do you really think, you can live, running away from him..? After all, you are his only daughter. You mean the world to him...”

“… and so do you to me. If you want me to go back.. then come along. I’ll talk to him.. he would consider our relationship. I’ll make it clear that there’s no other man, I want to spend my life with.”

“How many times do we need to have this discussion..?? You belong to a totally different world. All that I can give you is this silly workshop and a little room to stay. I don’t even know my real name, or who my parents are. When Kamal Kaka asked.. I just blabbered a random name which I heard that morning. Please do understand.. I have nothing. Our lives are not destined to be together.”

Ambi was already in tears by the time the conversation came to an end.
Raju held her hands, took out the towel from her hair and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead by saying, “I’m sorry my love.. but that’s the harsh reality we need to live with.”

She looked him in the eye and said, “If that’s it.. then so be it. But before that.. Can we make love.. like there’s no tomorrow.” She pulled him closer and kissed passionately. Raju replied after a while, “How can I say no to that.. But I want to see the real you, one last time.”

Ambi stood in front of him and took off the shirt. Putting the hands on her hair she showed off her bare body and said, “That’s the real me.” The faint light from the lamp highlighted her curves and long shiny hair. Raju could not help but simply gaze affectionately at that epitome of beauty. He stood up and walked behind her. Gently slid his one hand around her waist and the other in between the bosoms. Then pulled her closer while whispering, “Let me love you as if.. there’s no tomorrow!!”

They turned towards each other and kissed passionately. Raju fondled her bare back while she wrapped her hands around his neck. He gently planted small kisses in short intervals while going down, one bit a time. All the way from lips to the bosoms and heading towards the navel and then her thighs. She uttered sizzling moans at times. Finally, he picked her legs up in his arms and lifted her up while she looked at his eyes from above. With each thrust of love, their souls embraced each other even further and they got united in the end. The flickering of the lamp, matched their rhythm gracefully. The lamp ran out of oil and its flickering fire extinguished. Ambi had the loudest moan in the end and so did Raju. He put her back on the ground and they laid bare cuddling to sleep the rest of the night.

The next morning Raju woke up to find Ambi gone from his shop. He looked around and smiled to himself. This time he knew exactly what needed to be done. He opened his closet and pulled out a hidden shelf. A number of similar looking dolls were present in the shelf. He took the most beautiful one and cut it into 2 halves. Then he ran to the port where she was about to board the ship. He waited there for an hour and finally saw Ambi with her Bapu. He quickly ran towards them without getting himself exposed. While her father was busy talking to someone, he tip toed and swiftly grabbed Ambi’s mouth from behind and pulled her to the back of a nearby shop. He handed over the doll and said, “This will keep reminding you of me.” She pushed him back and said, “I don’t know you anymore.” Then she quickly ran away.

Just before boarding the ship, Ambi looked back and saw Raju on his knees waving at her to say his final good bye. He looked hopeless, devastated, lost and devoid of life. She was in tears looking at him. The ship left the harbour. While standing on the top deck, she looked closely at the doll. It looked similar to the one, which he had given her years ago. But this was far more refined and beautiful. Suddenly it dropped form her hands and the 2 halves separated. A small paper popped out from the middle of the halves. She opened it hastily and started reading.

“I told you right.. I’ll make things right. This doll is the finest form of the one which I gave you the first time. I knew it had flaws. Through these years, I tried my best to make it as perfect as possible.. just like my love for you. And yet, when I made the best piece ever, life forced me to cut it into 2 halves. I gave this doll, not to be kept with you. Forget me.. my love. The more you keep looking at it, the more it will pierce your innocent heart and life will get difficult. Throw it away.. drop it into the sea and let it go.
Go ahead.. a new journey awaits you!!

Forever yours..
Buddhu Karigar”

Ambi could not stop herself anymore and burst into tears. She dropped on her knees on the deck. She cried her heart out holding that letter onto her face. It had the fragrance of the same Attar from the last night. With a high tide, the ship moved vigorously and the pieces of the doll rolled away dropping into the sea. She tried to grab the pieces, but it was too late. She ran towards the edge to have a final glimpse of her beloved, but he was barely visible from that distance. She waved towards him, holding that letter, with a hope that he might see the paper at-least. Finally, she closed her eyes and let the letter fly away from her hands.

And just like that, their last fragrance of love flew away with the wind forever…