Ramayya woke up with a big thundering in the sky. It took him a while to realize who and where he was. He was 72 years old. He couldn’t speak or hear properly. He often had memory issues. He was one among the many old people who were left uncared for. He had no children and his wife Lakshmi passed away few days back. It took him more than a couple of days to get back to normal and accept the fact that she was no more. He had a happy childhood. He could still remember his father teaching him to read and his mother making delicious Laddus.
But everything changed the day his parents were dead in a house fire. Some people say that he was lucky to have escaped from such suffering. Some say that he was unlucky to have escaped since there was no one to care or even think about him and the suffering to be alive is even worse. He lived on his own for many years working and earning good enough to survive. He was kindhearted and helped everyone when asked for. He had a secret friend Lakshmi who was an orphan and who used to play with him all day long.
This relationship went on for many years. And very soon they got married and had a happy life in the outskirts of the village. Lakshmi often had ill health. So Ramayya even took care of all the house hold work and even cooking. He had a tough time farming and working at home but all that strain was no match to his love for his wife. The thundering and rain was increasing every minute. He stepped out of his poorly built hut with fear. Fear of losing everything he was working on for the past 6 months and everything that is left of him.
It was an untimely shower but an aggressive one as if the rain god had lost his cool. He was having hard time that year with poor crop and his wife death added more to his already depressed condition. It was not always like this. He made quite good money. Bought his wife a new sari every year. When he was a child, he was often spotted talking to himself but the people in the village accepted his state of mind and never cared to question his abnormality. His parent’s death caused him extreme trauma and he soon developed schizophrenia. And sadly Lakshmi was no real.
The cotton crop which he thought could get rid of his misery was being washed away as the rain water flushed through the field like a broken river. It was a total disaster. He started crying like a small child and started running in the fields helplessly hoping to save at least a single plant. But the water stream hit him with such a force that he lost his grip and swept away with flow and hit a brick wall. Blood oozed out of his head but he started smiling looking at the ground where he believed that he had cremated his wife. And then his heart stopped. And he was no more.
